The Missionary Review of the World — 1939 Index
INDEX-1939 VOLUME SIXTY-TWO
THE MISSIONARY EVIEW'
Founded in 1878 DELAVAN L. PIERSON Editor 1888 to 1911 By ROYAL G. WILDER Editor, 1911 to 1939 ARTHUR T. PIERSON Editorial Associates MISS GRACE W. MCGAVRAN, "Effective Ways of Working" MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, "Home M'ission Bulletin"
MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, "Our World-Wide Outlook" MISS MADELINE M. BECKMANN, Editorial Secretary REV. ENOCH F. BELL, D.D. Editorial Council REV. A. C. SNEAD REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D.D. REV. JAY S. STOWELL FRANKLIN D. COGSWELL REV. S. G. INMAN, D.D. REV. MILLS J. TAYLOR, D.D. REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ, D.D. MISS EDITH E. LOWRY MISS FLORENCE G. TYLER REV. CHAS. K. FEGLEY REV. WILLIAM P. SCHELL, D.D. JOHN W. WOOD, D.C.L. REV. CHARLES H. SEARS, D.D. REV. MARK DAWBER, D.D. MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD WM. B. LIPPHARD ROBERT E. SPEER, President Board of Directors ERIC M. NORTH A. L. WARNSHUIS, Vice-President SAMUEL M. ZWEMER WALTER McDOUGALL, Treasurer PAUL J. BRAISTED DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT DAVID J. FANT Copyrighted, 1939 Published by the Missionary Review Publishing Co., Inc.
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Index–1939
Page Index to Authors Page Abel, Russell W…………… 439 Page Parsons, Maurice E. ……….. 40 Anderson, L. K. …………… 233 Pennell, Rosalie F …………. 140 Andrews, C. F …………….. 552 Hertz, Rudolf …………….. 504 Petzoldt, W. A. …………… 505 Azariah, Anbu M. …………. 88 Hu Shih…………………. 86 Pierson, Arthur T…………. 181 Azariah, V. S…………….. 124 Huizenga, Mrs. Lee S. . . . . . . . . .. 36 Pierson, Delavan L. ………… 290 Bailey, E. W……………… 550 Irving, George ……………. 15 Beatty, Henry Townsend ……. 554 Jaffray, R. A……………… 402 (see also Topics of the Times Bergren, Ellen H…………. 302 Janowsky, Lena Blowers ……. 77 Monthly) Brady, J. Harper ………….. 393 Judge, Gwen M…………… 491 Posnett, Charles W. ……….. 551 Brown, Dame Edith … . . . . . . . .. 405 Kagawa, Toyohiko ……… 125, 199 Price, Frank W. ………….. 310 Browning, Webster E ……….. 365 Keller, Adolf ……. 173, 410, 500, 535 Rainey, Wm. H …………. 29, 409 Bucher, Henry H…………… 246 Kemp, Alexander H ……….. 347 Randolph, H. S. ………….. 353 Burton, J. W ……………… 351 Kennedy, Phineas B………… 359 Rizzo, Samuel S. ………….. 252 Camargo, G. Baez …………. 201 Kohlstedt, Edward D……… 18, 295 Ross, W. A. ……………… 293 Capron, Mildred S. ………… 142 Kraemer, Hendrich ………… 190 Scott, A. ………………… 41 Chamberlain, Lewis Birge …… 239 Laird, Harold S. ………….. 18 Seymour, Flora Warren …….. 448 Chang, Samuel S. …………. 558 Landes, Philip S. …………. 243 "Shaheeda" ………………. 400 Chappel, Merlyn A. ………… 16 Lane-Frimpole, V. . ……….. 175 Simpson, Ven. Thomas A……. 253 Clayton, A. C. ……………. 537 Latourette, Kenneth Scott …… 115 Smith, Oswald J. ………….. 17 Cozzens, Edwin …………… 26 Laubach, Frank C. ………… 31 Smith, Archie C. ………….. 286 Crawford, Dr. and Mrs. Wallace. 172 Lautenschlager, Stanton . . . . . . .. 80 Speer, Robert E. ………….. 7 Cushman, Ralph…………… 15 Leber, Charles T. ………….. 17 Springer, John McKendree. . . . .. 40 Das, Rejendra Chandra …….. 196 Lindquist, G. E. E. '" .299, 501, 553 Staley, Arista ….. '. . . . . . . . . .. 25 Dawber, Mark A……….. 279, 394 Long, Eula Kennedy ………. 298 Stewart, Frank ………….. 18 Demaree, Mrs. T. W. B……… 198 Lowry, Edith E. (iee Home Mis- Sword, Gustaf A. ………….. 202 Donaldson, Dwight M. ……… 350 Taylor, H. Kerr ………….. 187 Eckert, Bertha M. ………… 503 sion Bulletin Monthly) Taylor, Mrs. Howard ………. 11 Edwards, J. F. …………… 508 Martin, Motte …………….. 312 Thomas, Howard ……….. 454, 555 Emerson, Frank O. ………… 20 McCleary, Myrtie Kirby ….. ". .. 21 Thomas, Winburn T ………… 561 Ferguson, Mrs. Henrietta H. (see McCune, Shannon …………. 343 Vaagenes, M. G. C. ………… 69 McGaughey, Janie W ……….. 497 Van Dusen, Henry P ……. 131, 446 Our World-Wide Lookout McGavran, Grace W. (see Effec- Wang, Leland ……………. 459 Monthly) Watermulder, G. A…………. 506 tive Ways of Working Wentz, Abdel Ross ………… 182 Forbes, Harry A. ………… 487 Monthly) Wilson, J. Christy ………… 197 Fulton, C. Darby ………….. 179 McLeish, Alexander ……… 91, 451 Wilson, Sir Arnold ………… 398 Ghose, P …………………. 458 McNeill, Lois Johnson ………. 126 Wobus, Paul A. …………… 282 Gih, Andrew ……………… 37 Miles, F. J. . …………….. 360 Wood, Myfanwy …………… 540 Gillet, Ira E. . ……………. 200 Modak, Marguerite ………… 87 Wood, Violet 98,146,206,258,319,367 Greist, Henry W …………… 167 Mott, John R. ……………. 123 Zimmer, Mrs. Gerald R. …….. 85 Harrison, Paul W………. 119, 231 Neely, Elizabeth Miller …….. 27 Zwemer, Samuel M….. 192, 397, 435 Heiberg, Kund ……………. 133 Nida, Eugene A…………… 547 Ogden, Mrs. Glenn B. ………. 130 Owl, W. David ……………. 501 Page Contributed Articles Page Africa, How Missionaries Work Page China, Missionary Epistle, Dr. in, Symposium ……….. 20 and Mrs. Wallace Crawford 172 Arabia, Diplomat on Missions in, – Problems of Rural Life in, Ira Arnold Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . .. 398 – Preaching Christ to Students E. Gillet ……………… 200 in, Stanton Lautenschlager 80 Arabian Mission, By-Products of – White Fields in Rhodesia, John the, Samuel M. Zwemer …. 397 – Present Crisis in, ………. 493 McKendree Springer …… 40 – Travel Difficulties in West, Arctic Circle, Mission in the, African Views of African Life, Henry W. Greist ………. 167 Howard Thomas-I …….. 454 West African Christians. . .. 541 – Travel Difficulties in West, Berea's Work for Mountaineers, Africans, Twenty-six Thousand Delavan L. Pierson …….. 290 Howard Thomas-II ……. 555 Converted, L. K. Anderson 233 – Youth Movement in, Samuel S. Blind-"Using Fingers for Eyes," Albania, Politics and Religion in, Lewis Birge Chamberlain . .. 239 Chang ……………….. 558 Phineas B. Kennedy …… 359 China's Progress, Hu Shih. . . . .. 86 Brazil, Evangelical Progress in, Chinese Christian's Testimony, American Indians-Outlook for, Philip S. Landes ………. 243 Symposium …………… 501 Myfanwy Wood ……….. 540 Bulletin, Council of Women for Chinese Dragon No Longer – Indians – Desert Domain Home Missions, Edited by Among, Flora Warren Sey- Edith E. Lowry, Monthly Sleeps, Mrs. Gerald M. Zim- mour ………………… 448 mer…………………. 85 "But from the Beginning It Was Chosen, How One Mission Works 74 – – Evangelize Their Own Peo- Not So," Arthur T. Pierson 181 Christian Philosophy for Rural ple, G. E. E. Lindquist …. 299 Work, Frank W. Price …. 310 Celebes, Primitive Animists in Christianity, Unique Supremacy 453 Angola, West Africa, Revival in, the, Henry P. Van Dusen .. 131 Church, New Testament Idea of Maurice E. Parsons ……. 40 the, Abdel Ross Wentz …. 182 Children, Story for the, Violet – World Needs the ………… 285 Appalachia, Pioneering Days in, Wood, 98, 146, 206, 258, 319, 367 City Needs, Gospel the, A. Scott 41 Ellen H. Bergren ……… 302 China, Christian Bands in War- Arabia-Church of, Salutes You, Torn, Andrew Gih ……… 37 Paul W. Harrison ……… 231 – God's Voice from, Mrs. Howard Taylor……………….. 11 [590 ] Page Page Page Congo, New Urgency in the, India, Through India's Women, Murad and the Lost Feast Day, Motte Martin …………. 312 Save, Anbu M. Azariah …. 88 V. Lane-Frimpole ………. 175 Cooperation in Mission Work, – When Hindus Buy Gospels, Need for a Living Faith, J. W. Alexander McLeish …….. 91 Marguerite Modak …….. 87 Burton ………………. 351 Crisis, Encouragement in Time of 242 – When I Was a Leper in, P. – – W 0 l' I d-Wide Evangelism, Dust Bowl, Churches in the, Mark Ghose ……………….. 458 Alexander McLeish …….. 451 A. Dawber ……………. 394 Indian Poet-Narayan Vaman Ozark Mountaineers, Experiences Dutch New Guinea-"Until We Tilak, Kund Heiberg ……. 133 Among, Paul A. Wobus …. 282 Find Them" in, R. A. Jaf- -Women Doc tor s, Training, Pagan American, Conversion of a, fray …………………. 402 Dame Edith Brown ……. 405 Lena Blowers J anowsky …. 77 "Each in His Own Tongue," Eugene A. Nida ……….. 547 Indians of North Dakota, Ven. Papuan Missionary's Journal, Effective Ways of Working, Thomas A. Simpson …… 253 Russell W. Abel ………. 439 Edited by Grace W. McGav- ran Monthly Japan, Impressions of Buddhism, Peru, Projecting Beams from Egypt, Teaching Adults to Read, Winburn T. Thomas ……. 561 Lima, Samuel S. Rizzo …. 252 in, E. W. Bailey ………. 550 Enlisted for Christ, Every Wom- – Missionary Vacation in Rural, Pitcairn Island, Strange Story of, an, Janie W. McGaughey .. 497 Mrs. T. W. B. Demaree …. 198 Harry A. Forbes ………. 487 Europe-War and the Churches in, Adolf Keller ………. 500 – Need of Farmers in, Toyohiko – – Today, Gwen M. Judge …. 491 – Outlook for Christianity, Adolf Kagawa ……………… 199 Poem-My Missionary Day, Lois Keller ……………….. 173 – Opportunities Today in, J. Johnson McNeill ………. 126 – Preaching Christ Today in, Harper Brady ………… 393 Portugal, Present Situation in, Adolf Keller ………….. 410 – What I Found in, Henry P. Wm. H. Rainey ………… 409 Fasl-Begh – Address Unknown, Van Dusen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 446 Power of God in Missions, C. F. By "Shaheeda" ……….. 400 Japanese Control of Religion, By Andrews ………….. . . .. 552 Foreign- Missions, Perpetual Val- a Former Resident …….. 391 Pueblo Indian Religion, G. E. E. ue of, Dwight M. Donaldson 350 Latin America, Forty Years' Lindquist …………….. 553 Foreign Missions, Ten Good Rea- Progress in, Webster E. Religions, Eclectic, J. Christy sons for, Henry Townsend Browning …………….. 365 Beatty ………………. 554 Wilson ………………. 197 Lucas, Saint, of Allahabad, Var- Retrenchment, Extravagant …. 194 Foreign Missions Tomorrow, Var- ious Authors ………….. 235 Roman Catholic Challenges Rome, ious Authors ………….. 123 Madras Conference, Impression Eula Kennedy Long ……. 298 Giving, Examples of Sacrificial. 193 of, Hendrich Kraemer . . . . .. 190 Rules for Christian Living ….. 408 Rural Youth of the Church To- – "Now Concerning the Collec- – – Recommendations from … 127 tion," Samuel M. Zwemer .. 192 – – Vision and Power at, Paul day, H. S. Randolph ……. 353 Russia, Christians Are Suffering Hainan, Experiences in, Henry H. W. Harrison ………….. 119 Bucher ………………. 246 Manitoba-Messengers of Faith in, ………………….. 564 – Liberty and Religion in Red, Hindu Pilgrims, Work Among, in, Rosalie F. Pennell …… 140 Rajendra Chandra Das …. 196 Mexico, Challenge for Advance in, F. J. Miles …………… 360 Shinto Shrine Worship, By a Hinduism, Christian Attitude Ross, W. A. ………….. 293 Toward, J. F. Edwards …. 508 – Today, Rural Changes in, G. Japanese Christian …….. 71 Home Missions, New Frontiers in, Baez Camargo ………… 201 South's Number One Problem, Edward D. Kohlstedt …… 295 Archie C. Smith ………. 286 Mission Becomes a Church, When – – What Is New in, Mark A. a, Alexander H. Kemp ….. 347 Spain Today and Tomorrow, By Dawber ……………… 279 a Wayfarer ………….. 357 Missionary Progress, Milestones Home Missionaries Need Tools, in, H. Kerr Taylor …….. 187 Subadar Mahka La's Story, Gus- Mildred S. Capron ……. " 142 taf A. Sword …………. 202 Missions, Adversaries and Open India, Changes in the Last Fifty Doors in, C. Darby Fulton . 179 Sumatra-A Miracle of Missions, Years, A. C. Clayton …… 537 Mrs. Lee S. Huizenga. . . . .. 36 – How to Interest Men in, Sym- – Continued Harvests, Charles posium ………………. 15 Tonga, Queen Salote of, ……. 366 W. Posnett …………… 551 "Moksa" Goes to the Country, Venezuela, Challenge of, Wm. H. Shannon McCune ………. 343 Rainey ………………. 29 Moros, Christian Approach to thll, What God Has Done for My Soul, Frank C. Laubach ……… 31 Leland Wang …………. 459 Moslem's Story, A Kashgar, Mrs. Years Past and to Come, Robert Glenn B. Ogden . . . . . . . . . . .. 130 E. Speer …………….. 7 Topics of the Times Page Page Page American Church Statistics 165 Forward in Foreign Missions … 67 Mexico-God Working in 164 Home Missions, Social Problems American Methodist Missions " 276 Mission Work, Essentials in …. 340 in …………………… 118 Anti-Semitism and Missions …. 485 India, Witnessing to Pilgrims in 278 Money and Missions Today …. 484 Iran, Christian Opportunity in . 226 Are Forcible Conversions Pos- Japan and China, Christian New Year, Hope for the…….. 3 sible? ………………… 339 Trends in …………….. 227 Persecuted, When Christians are 117 Chile-Effects of the Earthquake 163 China, Missionary Situation …. 437 Jews-a "Peculiar People" ….. 6 Prayer-Every Night, All Night 531 China's Victories of Peace …… 277 Chosen, Theological Schools in .. 535 Korean Christian Speaks …… 166 Problems for Mission Workers . 388 Christian Youth Conference …. 438 Koreans, Pray for Troubled …. 70 Religion in the World Tomorrow 275 Looking Backward ………… 531 Russia, Christianity not Dead in 342 Church, Signs of Life and Death Madagascar, Missionary Unity in 68 Shall We Send More Mission- in a …………………. 228 Madras Missionary Conference aries? ……………….. 486 Crisis in the Church, Meeting the 387 …………………. 115, 412 Dark Clouds Over the World … 435 Siam-New Life in the Church in 341 Editor's Review of THE REVIEW, Medical Missions, Interdenomina- tional Cooperation ……… 226 – Unique Field, A ………… 68 The ………… ': ……… 532 European Churches, Plight of, Men and Missions …………. 4 Students, Evangelizing College .. 5 Volunteer Service for Missions .. 229 War and Missions …….. .436, 483 Adolf Keller . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 535 World Congress of Baptists …. 389 Page Book Reviews Page Abraham to Allenby, by G. Fred- Page Remarkable Jew, The, by L. erick Owen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 271 Sale-Harrison …………. 585 Evangelism for the World Today, African Heroes and Heroines, edited by John R. Mott …. 334 Sammy Writes a Book, by Me .. 587 by Carter G. Woodson ….. 586 Soudan's Second Sunup, by Des- Faith We Declare, The, by Edwin Africans, Today and Tomorrow, Lewis ……………….. 431 mond W. Bittinger…….. 61 by Diedrich Westerman …. 527 Story of Chung Mei, by Charles Far Around the Worid, by Grace American Tomorrows, by Wayne W. McGavran …………. 384 R. Shepherd ………….. 432 C. Williams …………… 527 Studies in Popular Islam, by Gateway to Tibet, by Robert B. Arrows of the Lord, by Leland Ekvall ………….. . . . . .. 61 Samuel M. Zwemer ……. 271 Wang ……..•……•.•.. 587 Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines, Grace Triumphant, by A. W. Blue Skies. (The Jews), by Lou- Baker ……………….. 586 by John A. Subhan …….. 159 Tales of a Waste-Basket Surgeon ise Harrison McGraw …… 64 Greatest Words in the Bible, The, By Life and By Death (John and Clarence E. Macartney ….. 585 (Burma), by Dr. Gordon S. Seagrave …………….. 271 Betty Stamm), by E. Schuy- Heathen, The, by Henry W. Frost 159 They Dared to Live (Biogra- ler English '" ………… , 272 Heaven Knows. (China), by Mar- phies), Robert M. Bartlett .. 384 Canadian Journey, by H. P. They of Italy, by Lodovico and Thompson ……………. 272 garet H. Brown ……….. 159 Enrico Paschetto ………. 587 Central Africa Revisited, by D. Hinduism or Christianity, by Through Tragedy to Triumph, (General Missions), by Basil M. Miller ……………. 61 Sydney Cave ………….. 582 Mathews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 527 Christianity in America, by Homeland Harvest, by Arthur H. Turgut Lives in Turkey, by Neza- bet Nurettin Ege ………. 528 F'rank Grenville Beardsley .. 334 Limouze ……………… 334 Church Faces the World, edited Lectures on Japan, by Inazo Ni- Turkey of Attaturk, by Donald Everett Webster ………. 221 by Samuel McCrea Cavert .. 336 tobe …………………. 62 Church Takes Root in India, by Madras Series of the Interna- Twenty-five Years Among the Lepers of India, by William Basil Mathews ………… 63 tional Missionary Council .. 581 C. Irvine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 480 Comrades Round the World, by Mediterranean Mis s ion s, by War Conduct of the Japanese, by S. Franklin Mack . . . . . . . . .. 583 George H. Scherer …….. 586 Shuhsi Hsu …………… 272 Course of Christian Missions, by Men of Power, by Fred Eastman Wealth, Walk and Warfare of the Wm. O. Carver ………… 585 .. , ………………. , 63, 222 Christian, by Ruth Paxson . 384 Cry Dance (American Indians), Missionary Arrives in Brazil, by Women and the Way: A Sym- by Coe Hayne …………. 383 T. Bentley Duncan …….. 62 posium ………………. 221 Directory of Christian Missions Missionary Significance of the Wood of Nagpur, Alex, by Eyre and Churches in India, Bur- Lord's Prayer, by Lee S. Hui- Chatterton ………….•.. 585 ma and Ceylon ………… 221 zenga ………………… 431 Doctor Without a Country, by T. World Treasure Trails. Vol. II. A. Lambie ……………. 584 Papuan Journeys, by H. L. Hurst 586 By Ethel E. Ward……… 64 Dynamic Christianity and the World Today, Samuel M. Prophecy Fulfilled in Palestine, Yesterdays in Persia and Kurdis- Zwemer ……………… 383 by Goo. T. B. Davis ……. 64 tan, Frederick G. Coan .. , .336 John J. Eagan – A Memoir, by Robert E. Speer ……….. 583 Quran, The, by Richard Bell … 479 Ra-Ha-La-Ho, by Andrew Bur- gess …………………. 160 Reed, Mary, of Chandag, by Lee S. Huizenga ………….. 384 THE MOSLEM WORLD PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION Editors: SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, EDWIN E. CALVERLEY Some Articles in the December Number Veni, Sancte Spiritu! Samuel M. Zwemer Early Christianity in Arabia Ida Paterson Storm Women and Culture in Islam Vera Elizabeth 'Flory The East Java Mission E. G. van Kekem Islam in the Philippines (with map) Claude L.. Pickens The Drum as Used for Mosque Services R. A. Blasdell "The Glory That Excelleth" . "Shaheeda"
Yusuf Ali's Translation of the Qur'an Arthur Jeffery Shubbiha Lahum: A Suggestion from the New Testament . Eric F. F. Bishop The Future of Islam in China The Late Isaac Mason Book Reviews Current Topics Survey of Periodicals Sue Molleson Foster . – -.».. SUBSCRIBE NOW +0(-__ 50 Cents a Copy. $2.00 a Year (postpaid) THE MOSLEM WORLD ' 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City British Agents: MARSHALL, MORGAN & SCOTI', 12 Paternoster Buildings, Lond<n'l, E. C. Price in Great Britain, Eight Shillings a Year, net
The Missionary Review of the World — December 1939
1939
•p India……Changes in Fifty Years A. c. Clayton African Views of African Life Samuel Wrestling..Beetles Zach. Body..Hardened Daughter of Elephant Esther One..of..Something Daughter of Parting..Cloth Daughter of the Rubbish Pile Rev. Gustave Esombe Otto Who ..Wilz..Climb "Each in His Own Tongue"
Eugene Nida Continued Harvests in India Charles W. Posnett The Pueblo Indian Religion Review by G. E. E. Lindquist The Youth Movement in China Samuel S. Chang Impressions of Buddhism in Japan Winburn T. Thomas 25. Cents a Copy $2.50 a Yea,.
to Remember in China, Mr. Hening was engaged in task of opening a,' new work in Ko-
the publication and distribution of the chow. Later he served in various exec- December 100Universai Bible Sun- Bible and at the close of the World utive capacities, including that of, day. War, directed Bib I e distribution Vice-president of the China Council, ,among Russian priests and other and Secretary of the China Famine January 12-16-Annual Meeting- exiles. Fund. Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Mis- *** *** sions. In,<iianapolis, Ind. Miss Dorothy A. Stevens is the Mrs. Katherine S. Westfall, recent- ly executive secretary of the Woman's December 27 to January I-Student new Secretary of Missionary Educa- American Baptist Home Mission So- Volunteer Convention, Toronto, tion of the Northern Baptist Conven- ciety, died at her home jn Hollywood, Canada. tion, succeeding Dr. William A. Hill California, on October 9. Her first who retired in August. interest in missionary activities began *** in Sunday school with support of a Personal Items Burmese girl. Mrs. Westfall was an Rev. C. S. Chung has been elected active leader in various denomination- The Rev. Frederick W. Cropp, Bishop of the Korean Methodist al and interdenominational boards and D.D., has been elected a general sec- Church, succeeding the late Bishop committees until she retired in 1937. retary of the American Bible Society, C. O. Kim. His basic training was reto share with Dr. Eric M. North the ceived in close association with pio- * * *' oversight of the Society's world-wide neer missionaries. Rev. M. L. Vaughters, D.D., Ameri- can Bible Society agent among Colwork. He will have special responsi- ored people, with headquarters in bility for Scripture distribution in the Houston, Texas, died on September United States. Dr. Cropp was gradu- Obituary Notes 2. He was responsible for supplyated from the College of Wooster, Ohio, and Princeton Theological Sem- ing the Scriptures to Colored people inary. In 1929 he became pastor of The Rev. Ernest A. Yarrow, for in Texas,' Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklathe historic Fir s t Presbyterian the past eleven years field representa- homa and Kansas, until he retired ten Church of Wheeling, West Virginia. tive of the Hazen Foundation and for- years ago. He has been a successful leader of merly general manager of the Cauca- sus Branch of the Near East Relief, *** youth conferences for the Board of died in Middletown, Connecticut, on Rev. Wilson Stitt, Ph.D., Presby- Christian Education of the, Presbyte- October 26 at sixty-three years of terian home missionary, died at the rian Church, and for his services under age. Mr. Yarrow was graduated from age of 76 on September 8 at his the Red Cross during the Ohio River Mt. Hermon School for Young Men, home in French Creek, West Virginia. floods he was given the Distinguished from Wesleyan University in 1902, His twenty-five years of ministry were Service award in the field of religion. and later from the Hartford Theolog- devoted to the home missionary cause, ical Seminary. For about ten years for which he was given a medal of *** he was a missionary in Turkey under honor by'the Presbyterian Church. the American Board of Commissioners Mr. Kenneth G. Grubb, recently one for Foreign Missions. For five years *** of the associates of the World Domin- after the World War he gave his ion Movement of London, has been ap- services to the American Red Cross, The Rev. R. F.' Lenington, D.D., pointed by the British Government one with headquarters at THiis, Russian Professor of Church History in the of the supervisors of the Ministry of Caucasus. For his relief work in Theological Seminary of the Presby- Information set up in connection with Northern Persia that government dec- terian Church of Brazil at Campinas, the war. Mr. Grubb's knowledge of orated him with the Star of the Order Sao Paulo, and executive secretary of various languages and his acquaint- of the Sun and Lion. the Central Brazil Mission, died in ance with conditions in many lands Sao Paulo on October 19. Dr. Lenwill enable him to render valuable ington, the son of missionaries in Braservice in this position. The Rev. Sa*mue*l A.*Moffett, D.D., ,zil, was born there in 1871 and after *** his graduation from Illinois College for forty-eight years a missionary to and McCormick Seminary, Chicago, Dr. and Mrs. T. A. Lambie, recently Korea under the Presbyterian Board he returned as a missionary in 1896. of Ethiopia, have returned to :qJ.ission- of Foreign Missions, died in Monrovia, For many years he was engaged in ary service in the Sudan, under the California, on October 24 at the age evangelistic work but in 1931 became Sudan Interior Mission of which he of seventy-five. Dr. Moffett was a re- a member of the faculty of the Theohas been a Field Director. Dr. Lambie markable man and a very effective logical Seminary in Campinas. Dr. who became an Ethiopian citizen in missionary. More than anyone else, Lenington's brother, Rev. George C. 1934 has had his American citizenship he was responsible for the adoption Lenington, is working with the Forrestored. of the so-called "Nevious Method" eign Mission Board of the Reformed which made the Presbyterian Church Church in America. *** Dr. Paul C. Payne, pastor of First in Korea an intensely Biblical, evan- Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, N. Y., gelistic, self-supporting and selfhas been elected general secretary of governing Church. He was for some the Presbyterian Board of Christian years the president of the Union Chris- Florida Chain of Missionary , Education, to succeed the late Dr. tian College in Pyengyang but retired Assemblies Harold McAfee Robinson. Dr. Payne from active service about ten years ago City Date, 1940 has had national recognition as' a and later moved to California. His leader in Christian education, as brother the Rev. Thomas C. Moffett, Jacksonville ……•……Jan. 23-25 chairman of the Standing Committee. D.D., formerly one of the secretaries Daytona Beach ……….Jan. 24-26 Fifty per cent of the officers of his of the Presbyterian Board of Home Miami ……………•.•. Jan. 27-31 church in Ithaca are faculty members Missions, is now secretary of the Com- Ft. Lauderdale …•..•…. Jan. 28-30 of Cornell University, and more than mission on the Indians of Latin Amer- Palm Beaches ..•….Jan. In-Feb. 2 fifty per cent are students and faculty ica. Orlando-Winter Park •…. Feb. 3-7 members. ' Deland •…………….• Feb. 4-7 *** Ft. Myers …………… Feb. 7-9 *** Winter Haven . . . . . . • • . . . Feb. 10-13 Rev. Charles E. Patton, D.D., re~ Lakeland ……………. Feb. 10-13 Mr. S. E. Hening, author of "The tired Presbyterian missionary of more Tampa ……………… Feb. 13-16' Life of Christ in Simple Language," than 37 years' experience in China, Sarasota ……………. Feb. 15-16 has been elected treasurer of the died on October 7, in Pasadena, Cali- St. Petersburg •…•..•••• Feb. 17-21 ' American Baptist Home Mission So- fornia. After eight years in general Clearwater ………….. Feb. 18-21 ciety. While representing the Inter- evangelistic and educational work in Tallahassee ………..•. Feb. 25-26 national Committee of the Y. M. C. A. Canton, Dr. Patton was assigned the Quincy …..•.•………. Feb. 26~26
MISSIONARY Keep Us Building for the children's stories that have al'-
REVIEW OF THE WORLD peared in THE REVIEW. My own chil- We would be building; temples still dren have enjoyed them thoroughly. DELAVAN L. PIERSON. Editor undone; They have been well written and have presented a nice variety of themes. VOL. LXII DEC.,1939 No. 12 O'er crumbling walls their crosses scarcely lift; "The whole REVIEW is choice read- Publication and Business 01llce- ing and a real inspiration." Third and Reily Sts.• Harrisburg, Pa. Waiting till love can raise the broken stone, MRS. M. W. DOUGHERTY. Editorial and Executive 01llce- Morning Sun, Iowa. 156 Fifth Avenue. New York City. And hearts creative bridge the hu- Entered as second-class matter at man rift; Book Reviews Post 01llce. Harrisburg, Pa.. under We would be building, Master; let Christian Living in Our Community. Act of March 3. 1879. Thy plan Graded Studies. By Mary C. White and Mildred F. James. 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. Reveal the life that God would give Foreign Postage. 50 cents a year. to man. Old Testament Studies and You. By published monthly, except Augnst. Mary C. White. Cloister Press. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1939. Teach us to build; upon the solid Louisville, Kentucky. 1939. British agents – Marshall. Morgan rock; and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, These are suggested practical London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, We set the dream that hardens into Bible studies for Fifth and Sev- 10 shillings a year. deed, enth Grades in church schools- for pupils and teachers. They MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Ribbed with the steel that time and are prepared for Protestant LISHING CO., INC. change doth mock; Episcopal churches, with stories BOARD OF DIRE'CTORS for the pupils. The authors ac- The unfailing purpose of our cept without question the posi- ROBERT E. SPEER, President noblest creed; tions taken by modern critics so A. L. WARNSHUIS, Vice-President that the weak points must be WALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer Teach us to build: 0 Master, lend guarded against. DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary us sight PAUL J. BRAISTED Believers and Builders in Europe. SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT To see the towers gleaming in the By Emma Parker Maddry. Illus. D. J. FANT light. Paper. Broadman Press. Nash- MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD ville. 1939. WM. B. LIPPH.ARD o keep us building, Master; may our ERIC M. NORTH hands Mrs. Maddry is the wife of the SAMUEL M. ZWBMER Executive Secretary of the For- Ne'er falter when the dream is in eign Mission Board of the South- ern Baptist Convention and has our hearts, traveled with her husband in Africa and Europe. Here she 'Vhen to our ears there come divine tells of her observations, espe- commands cially for youth, and gives a pic- ture of what Baptists are doing And all the pride of sinful will de- in Italy, Spain, Jugoslavia, Hun- parts; gary and Roumania. The story, Editorial Chat which Baptists especially should We build with Thee, 0 grant endur- know, is not in an easy, popular stylle for youth, but contains im- FAREWELL ing worth portant facts and interesting in- cidents. .. In some cases the unbelievable not Until the Heav'nly Kingdom comes Frontiers of American Life. By only seems possible but inevitable. on earth. Amen. Mark A. Dawber. Pamphlet. 25 cents. Home Missions Council. THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE New York. 1939.
WORLD, after sixty-two years of con- (1) supplying The Evangelical Chris- These radio addresses deal tian and Missionary Witness (pub- with America's new frontierstinuous service, in spite of many lished in Toronto, R. V. Bingham, the American Indian, Southern Editor); or (2) if preferred, The In- Highlands, Puerto Rico, City obstacles and influences that at times ternational Review of Missions (pub- Life, Mining Towns, Negroes, seemed to threaten its existence, is to lishedin London, Wm. Paton, Editor); Immigrants, Alaska, Church and or (3) making a cash refund to those State, Relief and Sharecroppers be discontinued with this present De- requesting it at 20 cents per month and What Price Christian Amer- for each issue of THE REVIEW still ica. They are brief, popular and cember issue. We have stated the due on prepaid subscriptions. In order full of interesting and useful case as clearly as we could in our to make it unnecessary for every sub- facts, especially for pastors and Editorial Topics (page 531). We can scriber to write us, we have planned, other church workers. unless notified otherwise, to send The only say that this course seemed to Evangelical Christian to subscribers other than libraries, and The Interbe the one in the line of God's leading. national Review of Missions to li- braries. Acceptance of the above pro- We did not believe it would be hon- posal will be appreciated, as it will continue the ministry of a missionary oring to Him and His great cause of magazine to subscribers, and obviate world evangelism that THE REVIEW the costly necessity of making small cash adjustments. The options (exshould either go into debt or cease to cept for foreign subscriptions) expire on December 31, 1939, as it will be serve effectively. Therefore THE RE- necessary to close the business of THE REVIEW at that time. American sub- VIEW, as an evangelical world-wide scribers will receive sample copies of missionary advocate and organ of the The Evangelical Christian before De- whole Christian movement, closes its cember 31. … … …
career. … … … Our deep gratitude goes out to our subscribers for their friendly coopera- There are, some fine opportunities tion and interest during the past offered that we cannot now accept– years. Many have expressed their such as publishing articles to review hearty appreciation of THE REVIEW the present missionary situation-and and their sorrow that they can no there may be obligations to authors longer continue to receive inspiration and publishers that we cannot now from it. The following are among the fulfil. If all of our readers, and others letters recently received: who value THE REVIEW, had been regular subscribers this step (of discon- "I wish to express my appreciation tinuing publication) might have been avoided; but many have received its [529 ] help through libraries and friends who have not helped to finance the publication. In many cases this has been inevitable. Weare thankful for all the ways and channels that have enabled us to serve Christ and His workers at home and abroad.
… … …
Our obligations to subscribers for unfilled subscriptions will be met by
AND CHILDREN AT LOLODORF, WEST
A TYPICAL SCENE IN A WEST AFRICAN VILLAGE (See articles on "African Views of African Village Life," pages 541 to 546) REVIB ORLD VOLUME LXII AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 12 DECEMBER, 1939 Topics of the Times PRAYER-EVERY NIGHT, ALL NIGHT The benefit of this is both local and world-wide. The meetings, on successive nights, follow ac- Few people, even Christians, seem to realize cording to an alphabetical list of the towns and the immense importance of earnest, unselfish cities. Notices of these dates are printed in the united prayer to Almighty God in the Name and Alliance Weekly a month in advance and letters Spirit of Jesus Christ. Some of God's servants, are sent to pastors prior to the meeting dates. like George Muller of Bristol and others, known only to God, have proved the efficacy of prayer in The Foreign Department of the Alliance also the results reaching round the world, achieving sends out a Monthly Prayer Letter to more than the apparently impossible. Some Christians oc- 800 individuals and prayer groups, several huncasionally spend whole nights -in prayer when dred of which meet at least once a month or some burden lies heavily on their hearts. There oftener to pray for foreign missions. The Prayer are churches and missions, like the Kwato Mission Letter and Foreign Field Flashes, which accomof Papua, where a room is set aside as a "Power pany the letter, give prayer requests and inter- House" where prayer is offered to God continu- esting reports from the fields. Other requests are ally by successive intercessors or groups of prayer published each month in the Alliance Weekly. partners. Many Christians know the results that have followed the regular hours of prayer, be- God is making these methods fruitful in inhind a closed door, in the humble homes of .John creasing interest in missionary work and in spir- G. Paton, Hudson Taylor and others in all walks itual blessing to individuals, churches and mis- sion enterprises all over the world.
of life. LOOKING BACKWARD Today in America there is at least one com- THE MISSIONARY REVIEW was founded by the munion where whole nights of intercession to Rev. Royal G. Wilder in January, 1878. Mr. God are scheduled for every night in the year, Wilder had been a missionary in India first of except Sundays, when the whole day is largely filled with prayer and Bible stUdy. This plan has the American Board and then of the Presbyterian been inaugurated with the conviction that prayer Board for twenty-nine years (1846-1875). After is fundamental to the Christian life and to the retiring from the work in India he settled with missionary enterprise. It is therefore supremely his family in Princeton, N. J. Here he founded important that the ministry of prayer should be THE REVIEW in 1878 and it was edited by him and developed and increased among Christians both printed in Princeton until the close of 1887. In in private and in church groups. publishing and posting THE REVIEW Mr. Wilder was assisted by his daughter, Grace, and his son The Christian and Missionary Alliance is sys- Robert. After her father's death, Grace and her tematically promoting prayer by nights of prayer every night in the year. The home office in New mother returned to India and are buried there York arranges for each congregation of the AI- in Mr. Wilder's old station of Kolhapur. Robert liance in the United States and Canada to hold Wilder was the real founder, with John N. Forone whole night of prayer. These follow a def- man, of the Student Volunteer Movement for Forinite schedule on successive nights, so that every eign Missions and after a long life of rich service night throughout the year, except Sunday, is a among the students of India, Europe and America night of prayer in one or more of these churches. died in Norway in 1937. THE REVIEW was born [531 ]
of the surest Evangelical convictions and the seems practical, the magazine will end publication deepest spiritual consecration. with this issue.
On Mr. Wilder's death in October, 1887, the THE REVIEW has had a great history, for sixty- REVIEW was taken over by Dr. Arthur T. Pierson two years it has rendered a great service. We and Dr. James M. Sherwood as editors and the pray that some other magazine may take up the Funk & Wagnalls Co. as publishers. It was issued torch and continue the service in years to come. in enlarged form with a variety of departments If ever there was need of a missionary review and at once became recognized as the leading which would rest securely on the Biblical congeneral and interdenominational missionary mag- ception of the Christian faith and would call the azine of the world. It bore the new name of whole Church to a new devotion and sacrifice that THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD and it need is urgent now. It has been the resolute was worthy of its name and wider scope. From effort and purpose of the editor and his associates the outset the flaming zeal and wide knowledge to be absolutely and unflinchingly true to the New of Dr. Pierson gave the magazine a unique and Testament view of the Gospel and of the need of inspiring character. It had one great purpose and the world which the Christ of the Gospel came to it served that purpose with all its power, namely to promote the speedy evangelization of the whole save. In bringing their trust to a conclusion the world. In 1891 Dr. Sherwood retired from relationship to THE REVIEW and in the same year Mr. Directors of the Company desire to cite the unani- Delavan L. Pierson, who had been graduated from mous action of the stockholders at their final meet- Princeton University in 1890, became associated ing as follows: with his father and took over more and more of the editorial labor until his father's death in June In bringing to a close the publication of THE MISSION- 1911 when he became sole editor. ARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD under its present auspices, the stockholders and the Board of Directors of The Mis- The Funk & Wagnalls Co. continued to be the sionary Review Publishing Company herewith express to owners and publishers of THE REVIEW until Oc- Mr. Delavan L. Pierson, who has been the Secretary of tober, 1916 when The Missionary Review Publish- the Company and the Editor of THE REVIEW for the ing Company was organized, with an interdenom- entire period of the Company's history, their appreciation inational Board of Directors, and bought THE of his efficient and untiring work as Editor, their grati- REVIEW. Mr. Pierson continued as editor and tude for his devotion and self-sacrifice and their deep has served as such and as secretary of the Com- appreciation and regard. No one could have rendered pany from that day until now. A number of gen- more capable and loyal service or put himself and all his erous friends, by purchasing stock in the new time and powers into his work with more self-forgetfulcompany, provided the working capital for THE ness and consecration. In accepting his resignation as REVIEW, doing so with the understanding that no Editor, and joining with him in the dissolution of the Company which has worked with him, the stockholders dividends would ever be paid to stockholders and and Directors assure him of their lasting friendship and wish him God's richest blessing for the future years. that both the income of invested capital and the capital itself would all be used as might be found ROBERT E. SPEER. necessary in conducting and maintaining the magazine for as long a term of years as might THE EDITOR'S REVIEW OF THE REVIEW be possible. We present here the final number of THE RE- The end of this term has now arrived. The VIEW. It is. with real sorrow that we close this capital of THE REVIEW, augmented from time to world-wide service, but such a course seems intime by further generous gifts from friends, is evitable. now exhausted, and as it is no longer possible to continue THE REVIEW on the old basis, the Com- Nil desperandum, Christi sub Duce ("Despair pany has voted to dissolve. This is, therefore, the of nothing, under Christ, the Leader"). Such was last issue of THE REVIEW under the present Com- the motto printed on the title page of the first pany's auspices. issue of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, edited and pub- lished by Royal G. Wilder from January, 1878, to For the last seven years the magazine has been December, 1887. It was then a bi-monthly and printed by the Evangelical Press of Harrisburg, the first year contained only 392 pages-devoted Pa. and which has also contributed to the editorial wholly to foreign missions. Ten years later the expense. There has been a hope that the Press magazine was enlarged to 976 pages. The definite might be able to take over THE REVIEW, both its aim of the magazine, as stated by Mr. Wilder, was editorship and its publication, and to a~sume "to help develop an interest in foreign missions every responsibility for its maintenance but under which will speedily double the present amount of present conditions that does not seem possible, giving, praying and working for this cause." This and as no other means of continuing publication aim was achieved-though not s.peedily. The total annual income of the Presbyterian Board of For- eign Missions was then $463,351; in 1929 it had increased to over $4,000,000. The Methodist
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
Episcopal Board then reported an income of Dr. Robert E. Speer, Mrs. Henry W. Peabody, $260,000; in 1929 this increased to $5,657,451. Walter McDougall, Fleming H. Revell, and others.
When THE REVIEW was founded the American The magazine grew in circulation and influence Presbyterian Church had 314 missionaries on the and had the confidence and cooperation of misfield; later the number increased to nearly five- sionaries of all lands and Mission Boards of all fold. Practically all of the denominational boards denominations, but it was not self-supporting and have increased their budgets fourfold in the past its reserve capital was rapidly diminishing. Spefifty years, but the memberships have also in- cial prayer was offered for God's guidance and, in creased proportionately. The number of mission- answer, friends were led to provide a "Maintearies and the fields occupied have also grown, nance Fund" to care for the annual deficit. Thus though not to the extent set by the hope and faith it continued for about ten years and then a falling of Mr. Wilder. The increase in missionary inter- off in these special contributions again threatened est, income, information and activity has been the physical life of the magazine. In 1932 there very large in the past sixty years. This has been seemed no way out but to discontinue pUblication. due to many causes, but THE REVIEW was one of Again we resorted to prayer and again God anthe very influential factors. swered by leading the Evangelical Press, of Har- In the early days the sixty-four page bi-monthly risburg, Pa., to accept financial responsibility for consisted of one or two editorials, four or five printing and circulation, with a generous contri- articles-largely statistical-Field· Notes, Letters bution toward editorial office expense. Drastic from Missionaries, Death Notices, List of Sail- cuts in the budget have enabled us to continue for ings of Missionaries, Questions and Answers, and another seven years-and, we believe, with con- Book Notices. There were no maps or pictures; tinued efficiency until the present time.
the magazine was ·outspoken in its criticism of Now the end of THE REVIEW, as a world-wide mission policies, but was kindly and constructive interdenominational missionary organ, seems to and grew in popularity and influence. be at hand. The present Editor has been with the THE REVIEW has since enlarged its scope to in- magazine for forty-eight years and the time seems clude both home and foreign missions, but its main to have come for him to retire from this major ideals, aims and principles have not changed. Each responsibility. It has been his hope that a younger successive editor has taken a world-wide view of man might be found who would be well able to the need of men of all races for Christ and the carryon the work effectively, but while several life He offers; the Gospel proclaimed has been have been approached, our search has been with- that of the New Testament; the Bible has been out success. The reserve funds are exhausted and accepted as the final authority on revealed truth; our efforts to build them up again sufficiently the power and leadership on which success de- have been unavailing. There is no feeling of dis- pends has been the Holy Spirit. The ideal has couragement or failure but it seems that God's been cooperation with all those who accept and time has come for the Editor and THE REVIEW to proclaim Christ as the Son of God and Saviour retire together from this field of missionary pro- of men through His sacrificial life and death. motion.
The history of THE REVIEW has been marked by Many signs seem to indicate this. The mis- several crises, which seemed to threaten its exist- sionary situation has changed so that pioneer mis- ance, but each time the way has been opened for sion work is not stressed by most of the Home a new advance. In 1888 Mr. Wilder, the Founder Church Boards. The executive personnel has and Editor for ten years, died. His work was changed and the secretaries belong to a new gentaken up by Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, who was al- eration that naturally seeks new contacts and ready recognized as a powerful advocate of mis- uses new methods of promotion. The union and insions. Under him THE REVIEW became a home terdenominational activities, which were almost and foreign missionary periodical. After three unknown sixty-two years ago, have now spread years Dr. Pierson went to London to occupy the over the Church and the world with national mispulpit of Charles H. Spurgeon, but continued the sionary councils, the International Missionary general oversight of the magazine until his death Council, the Federal Council of Churches and in 1911. Then the present Editor, who had already many union, educational and medical missionary been associated with the magazine for twenty committees to care for cooperative work. The years, became Editor-in-Chief. During the World Church Boards are also taking care of many ac- War, the Funk & Wagnalls Company decided to tivities which were formerly promoted by intergive up publishing the magazine, since it was not church organizations. As a result several of financially profitable. After much prayer and with these, such as the Laymen's Missionary Move- ment, have closed their work and have transearnest effort, a new interdenominational but in- ferred the responsibilities to the denominational dependent company was formed, with the help of
Boards or to the Foreign Missions Conference loved President of the Board, and Walter Mc- and Home Missions Councils. Others may follow Dougall, the faithful and beloved Treasurer.
suit. These two servants of Christ have seldom missed It is our conviction that there never was greater a meeting of the Board and have encouraged and need than there is today for consecrated and sacri- strengthened the Editor in every possible way- ficial missionary activity. There was never greater often at real sacrifice.
need to proclaim the "Gospel of Christ as the The subscribers to THE REVIEW, many of whom power of God unto salvation to everyone that be- have been readers and friends for a quarter of a lieveth." There was never greater need to stir century or more, are not forgotten. To them the up the Church at home to more earnest prayer, discontinuance of THE REVIEW will come as a real more sacrificial giving and more active coopera- loss-like the loss of a valued friend and helper. tion in the missionary enterprise. The Christians Missionaries in lonely outstations will miss it; also at home need to be reawakened as much as the pastors who have sought here material for serunevangelized need to have the Gospel proclaimed mons and addresses; leaders in missionary sociein the power of the Holy Spirit. ties who have depended on it; editors who shared The end of THE REVIEW may have come as a its contents with their readers; and friends of all missionary periodical, but the end of the Cause lands and walks in life who are interested in their for which it has stood has not come. And we con- fellow men and in promoting the work of Christ fidently believe that the influence of THE REVIEW throughout the world. will go on. Only God can tell the extent of its influence in the past sixty-two years-in interest Notwithstanding the strong desire of the Editor, awakened, in prayer stimulated and directed, in and other friends, to have THE REVIEW continue volunteers enlisted, in money contributed, in mis- its service at whatever cost to themselves, God has sionaries encouraged, in mission policies improved. not shown how this can be done to His glory and THE REVIEW has also set a high standard for the for the advancement of His Kingdom. We would literature of missions and has helped to improve not carryon in any other way. We do not believe methods of missionary promotion. He would be glorified or His cause promoted by go- ing into debt or by publishing a weak and sickly These influences will go on in the days to come. organ which might end its honorable career by The living seed that has been planted in human slow starvation and retreat. We would not have minds and lives will continue to increase and bear THE REVIEW transferred to any agency that might fruit. The career of THE REVIEW may be ended even appear to I'Itand for any other Gospel than but the work of Christ, the ideals and Power for that proclaimed in the New Testament, who would which it has stood will never end; they will be accept any other authority than the Bible as the filled full at the coming of Christ to subdue all Word of God or look to any other Power for rethings and to establish His control over all the generation, guidance and service than the Holy earth. Spirit.
* ** It has seemed clear to the Board of Directors The deep gratitude of the Editor goes out to and to the stockholders of THE REVIEW, that the God and to all who have cooperated with him, time has come to wind up the activities of the especially in the past twenty-eight years, to make corporation. On October 9th, therefore, the stock- holders voted unanimously to dissolve the corpo- THE REVIEW what it has been. We think especially ration and to cease publication with this December of the members of the Board of Directors, the issue. We are thankful that this can be done with Editorial Council, the Mission Boards, the For- a clean slate and without any financial obligations eign Missions Conference and Home Missions which cannot be fully met by the funds in hand. Councils, the Associate Editors and the authors, Subscribers will be given the alternative of rethe stockholders and contributors to the Mainte- ceiving some other evangelical missionary periodinance Fund, and the publishers.. All of these have cal in place of THE REVIEW, or, if they so elect, given of time and thought, and many of them have the Evangelical Press has agreed to refund the given money, without stint and without thought cost of their unfilled SUbscriptions. of personal gain. They have been sacrificial in their cooperation for they have worked to promote The time has come for the Editor's valedictory the cause of Christ. but this does not carry with it any sense of defeat We especially pay our tribute of love and ad- or any lack of blessing on the part of God. We miration to two friends who helped to establish pray that other lines of effective service may open the Missionary Review Publishing Company and that other agencies will carry forward vic- twenty-three years ago and who have continued toriously the work of THE REVIEW. Nil desparan- to support and promote it through all the days dum, Christi sub Duce-We will despair of noth- of trial and triumph-Robert E. Speer, the be- ing, under Christ our Leader.
CONTINUED PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH "Just as Jesus was persecuted by Herod soon after His birth, so His Christian Church and His faithful servants, teachers, and ministers will be perseeuted until the end of time. But what do the persecutors accomplish? Even though it should rain and snow down on the Christian Church nothing but stones and bullets; nay, if it rain nothing but devils and tyrants, and enthusiasts, and stocks, and gallows and though hundreds of thousands of martyrs were executed, yet the Christian Church cannot be wiped out. That must be our comfort in these last dangerous times in which Christendom lives and moves in manifold dangers and faithful preachers are persecuted, we should thereby not be enticed away from the Church, to false religion, or to a godless life. Whatever the privations and dangers, perseeutions must be endured. It is a fortunate misfortune when, as members of His Church, we suffer adversity with Christ. Have we not the comfort that Jesus Christ is with His believers every day even unto the end of the world? He is in our midst and will not allow us to slide. On the other hand, it is an unfortunate fortune if anyone seeks fortune or easy days with the Father of lies, with the world, or with false churches; for finally there will be an evil end when all such must depart from the Lord as hypocrites and evildoers; their lot will be in the abyss of fire and brimstone."-Martin Luther.
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN CHOSEN Women's Bible Institute and the Bible Clubs. As the missionaries could not conscientiously meet The demand that Korean Christians do obei- these dem'ands, it has been neeessary to close all sance at Shinto Shrines is being made by Japanese of these important institutions. The same is true officials on an increasingly large scale. At first of the Pierson Memorial Bible School in Seoul. only pupils in government schools were compelled to go to the shrines, then students in all schools, In September the 1939 General Assembly of the even Christians, were included. As a result Presbyterian Church of Korea met and after much the Northern Presbyterian, Southern Presbyte- discussion appointed a committee of twenty Korian and Australian Presbyterian Missions with- rean pastors to organize a Theological Seminary drew from secular education. Government officials in Pyengyang, and three other members were apstated, both publicly and privately, that this obei- pointed to represent the General Assembly on a sance at the shrines was only required 'of those in committee organized to start a similar seminary the schools. However, early in 1938 the same de- in Seoul. These new institutions must be ready to mand was made upon the Korean presbyteries, meet the Government's demands for attendance at the shrines. The latest reports indicate that it me General Assembly, some Bible Conferences will not be easy to secure the permission of the Government to organize these institutions. The and Bible Institutes throughout the land. After Presbyterian Council, which controls the original being threatened, even with bodily torture, many Presbyterian Seminary, now temporarily closed, church leaders yielded to what they believed to be is holding the property and using the faculty memout of harmony with unswerving loyalty to God; bers for translation and other important literary others stood firm in their refusal and either left work with the hope that the time will come when their churches and homes or were put under the institution can go on with her great work of arrest, with suffering of body and mind. training men for the Christian ministry. Medical work, visiting country churches, street and market Some of the Bible Institutes in different parts preaching, literary work and dealing with indiof Chosen had been ordered to attend the shrine; viduals goes on. Here is a situation that calls for but until the summer of 1939 the Bible Institutes, true faith, courage and prayer. the Bible Clubs, and the Women's Biblical Seminary in Pyengyang were allowed to carry on their THE PLIGHT OF EUROPEAN CHURCHES work. Then on the 21st of August, 1939, after the Presbyterian Seminary, a union. institution, The Provisional Committee of the World Counhad sent out notices announcing that the fall term cil of Churches in Geneva is considering what would begin on August 31, an official communica- can be done for the spiritual welfare of prisoners tion was sent to the Seminary ordering them to of war, and how the relief work for Christian secure a Government permit, involving approval refugees can be maintained. The European Cenof the faculty and curriculum, and obeisance at tral Office for Inter-Church Aid faces the emerthe Shinto Shrines. They were told that the same gency tasks such as aid for the Russian Orthodox requirement was to be made of the Woman's Biblical Seminary, the Men's Bible Institute, the
PUPILS GOING HOME FROM SCHOOL IN EGYPT (See article by E. W. Bailey. page 550) Academy in Paris, and for the Czech-Slovakian mense difficulties of all kind, and appeal to other congregation in Paris, which is cut off from its Protestants to make a special effort to aid orphan mother church in central Europe. congregations."
The European Central Office is greatly con- The Church of Christ in every land must help cerned for the maintenance of thirty Ukranian to keep fellowship in faith alive and to express evangelical pastors and their parishes in southern it by practical cooperation. ADOLF KELLER.
Poland and Wolhynia. These Ukranians must INDIA meet the hostility of the new Polish Government and are cut off from aid which hitherto has been A land of lights and shadows intervolved, granted by the European Central Office. Those A land of blazing sun and blackest night, in occupied territory are placed pnder the pro- A fortress armed, and guarded jealously, tection of the German army, and an evangelical With every portal barred against the Light. professor in Germany, who knows the language, has heen asked to care for these orphan parishes. A land in thrall to ancient mystic faiths, It is hoped that the German evangelical min- A land of iron creeds and gruesome deeds, isters and congregations in Poznan and the rest A land of superstitions vast and grim, of Poland may find the necessary protection by And all the noisome growths that darkness breeds. the German army in the occupied territory. Gen- eral Superintendent Blau says that two pastors Like sunny waves upon an iron-bound coast, in Bromberg have been murdered and that seven- The Light beats up against the close-barred doors, te.en others are missing. And seeks vain entrance, yet beats on and on, One of the most difficult tasks is to find some In hopeful faith which all defeat ignores.
way to continue relief which can no longer be given by the European churches. The French But-time shall come,when, like a swelling tide, churches can not now give much for the evan- The Word shall leap the barriers, and the Light gelical refugees in southern France and for the Shall sweep the land; and Faith and Love and thirty Spanish evangelical pastors who are not Hope able to go back t.o Spain. The French Church Fed- Shall win for Christ this stronghold of the night.
eration says: "Our churches have to face im- -John Oxenham, in The Open Door.
India-Changes in the Last Fifty
By A. C. CLAYTON, O. B. E., Recently of Saidapet, Madras For Thirty Years Tamil Literature Missionary in South India, Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Two or three years ago a famous Balinese Outside more than one village, which I know, dancer from the Dutch East Indies performed are stones set up in memory of some pious widow before the Queen of Holland. The music who burned herself to death on the funeral pyre to which the girl danced came to Holland from a of her husband. The practice of "suttee," as we bell, gong, drum and xylophone band playing in call this, is now forbidden by law, but every year Java, seven or eight thousand miles away. or two cases come into court showing that widows have practiced suttee with the connivance of their In Tokyo there are skyscraper department relatives. stores with automobile garages half a dozen stories high. Such cases are reversions to an obsolete type of thought. They are very few. But the changes The modern pilgrim to Mecca crosses the desert that are taking place, especially in Indian village in a high-powered automobile. life, are not less than revolutionary, and they are very many. The three most significant of these An Indian doctor in Madras will fly in his own changes may be mentioned here. One has imprivate aeroplane two hundred miles to perform proved the health of the country. The second has an operation in the morning and return to his raised the status of a group of races totalling patients in Madras in the evening, as a matter of fifty or sixty millions. The third indicates a new routine. standard in ethical values.
The East is changing. When my slow steamer reached Madras harbor when I first went out to India almost 48 years ago, The Fight Against Fear I was taken ashore in a boat made of planks sewn together with coconut fibre, in the same way that Not far from where I lived when I first reached passengers were taken ashore centuries before India was the famous shrine of a demon Goddess. any Westerners reached India. There was not an A popular festival was held in the river-bed before electric light in the city, nor a motor vehicle; there her temple each Sunday during two of the hottest were very few "push-bikes." No one expected months in the year. As many as two thousand that the "changeless East," as we used to call it, sheep would be slaughtered in her honor on each ever could change. of these days. Because of the heat, the crowding and the lack of sanitation, there was nearly always Many things remain unchanged today. In this an outbreak of cholera in the surrounding villages. very year an old tiger in Assam is known to have The people believed that the Cholera Goddess mauled nineteen and killed eight Indians. Tigers caused the outbreak because she was angry with are tigers today just as they were fifty years ago. them. They did not know how to escape her wrath and they died in terror of it. Many villagers still fear that if the village Gods are angry they will cause the rains to fail and the crops to wither. Like their fathers before Today when there is fear of cholera, the Govthem, they believe that the way to placate the Gods ernment sends out supplies of anti-cholera vaccine.
is to sacrifice buffaloes to them; if that does not People by the thousands come to be "pricked by bring rain, then a man or a woman ought to be the needle" and the epidemic does not occur. offered. Some two years ago, in Bombay, a village Again, in those first days of my stay in India, headman and a village priest were convicted of as I went daily to the school where I taught, I kidnaping a young man of twenty-three from a passed a lepers' village, and saw one or more of neighboring village and cutting off his head as an these sufferers sitting by the road-side begging.
offering to an offended demon deity in order to Everybody in the place was a leper or expected to bribe it to send rain on parched fields. be a leper. There was then no known cure for This is not evidence of a widespread practice, leprosy.
but it is evidence that a very ancient superstition Today, the great leper settlement near Madras, is not extinct. supported by the Government but staffed by mis- [537 ]
sionaries, is a Home of Hope. It contains 800 Christianity was among the first of these. Howlepers. Outside the gates various groups camp by ever much some of the early missionaries might the roadside waiting to be admitted. They know hesitate to ignore the social stigma put on the that the disease can be checked and in many cases "outcaste" communities they did not fail to evancan be cured. gelize them. About fifty years ago there began the mass movements toward Christianity, better Disease has not been driven out of the villages called community movements, of groups of famof India. The villager still believes in the god- ilies and sometimes of whole villages.. Christ can desses of disease, but he is no longer paralyzed by speak to the Untouchable and many of them were his fear. Today a sick man or woman-sometimes and are His devoted disciples. Others have had very sick indeed-will journey on foot, or get lower motives. All looked on their new religion friends to carry him many miles to one of the as a way of escape from the degradation of untoo few mission hospitaLs. Thirty, twenty or even touchability. It awakened self-respect and hope, ten years ago this man or woman would have and, in the next generation, produced an impaaccepted death in hopeless apathy. tience with their hereditary serfdom.
When I first went to India that land was still (2) Schools-For centuries the pariah classes the India of the stories of Rudyard Kipling. No were looked on as hopelessly stupid, stupid as one imagined that in half a century the chief buffaloes; fifty years ago most of them, shrewd provinces of British India would be governing as they were in many ways, accepted the situation themselves. Some of the supporters. of the new and saw no use in schools for their children. But Congress governments in the provinces promised in our Christian mission schools we soon were that taxes would be cut down and that free loans able to prove, even to school inspectors who were would be given to help villagers to pay their debts Hindus, that Untouchable children could learn as and finance marriage ceremonies. But speaking well as other children. The Untouchable awoke generally the first two years of these new govern- to the fact that his children could be educated. ments has shown that there is good reason to In the second and third generations. of Christians believe that they will work well. from these classes large numbers have completely escaped from the ignorance that was the lot of New Hope for the "Untouchables" their fathers.
But the most striking social advance which (3) The vote-The reforms in the constitution has been made is in regard to the classes called of the Government of India, which began in 1920 "Outcastes," "Pariahs," "Untouchables," or "Har- and gave self-government to the Provinces of ijans." These folk, fifty or sixty million of them British India in 1937, gave also an unexpected throughout all India, are scavengers and leather impetus to the emancipation of the Untouchables. workers, village menials and the humblest of As a matter of course the British Parliament gave laborers. They live in squalid groups of huts the vote to all who were qualified for it, whether away from the houses of respectable Hindus. They high-caste or low-caste, men or women. Fifty were, when I began to be a missionary, forbidden years ago no one ever thought that the pariah to draw water from any wells used by Hindus of would ever have a voice in ruling India. It was higher class. Their children could not go to unthinkable that a man from the depressed classschool with their "betters." However clean they es should be a member of the Legislature, along might be, their touch defiled their "betters." In with landowners and lawyers and priestly Brahmy part of India, these pariahs were so despised, mans. But today the Untouchable rightfully takes that if I had gone into one of their hamlets I was his place in the Council chamber. And the world looked on as so defiled thereby that I might not has not come to an end, though the old pandit who visit the houses of their Hindu masters. taught me a little Sanskrit thought that it would.
Among the sixty-three saints venerated by (4) Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar- Tamils only one is a pariah who purified himself Among the Untouchables most of the leaders are by throwing himself into a pit of fire. Fifty years men of local repute only. Among those of wider ago Hindu opinion banned all these Untouch- influence, M. C. Rajah, who was educated at two ables from the temples where the great gods were mission colleges in Madras, has an outstanding worshiped. Only seven years ago the authorities position in the South. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, an at the largest Temple of Shiva in the City of Untouchable who by magnificent effort won his Kumbakonam put up a notice at all the main Ph.D. at Columbia and his D.Sc. from the Unientrances prohibiting Mohammedans, Christians versity of London, and is now the Principal of and Untouchables from entering into that temple. the Government Law College in Bombay, is how- ever recognized throughout India as the chief Factors Making for Progress leader of the Untouchables. About four years ago he was so hopeless of ever changing the atti- (1) Christianity-There were, however, forces at work to compel a change in Hindu opinion.
INDIA-CHANGES IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS
tude of Hindus of the higher castes towards the Untouchables ill many parts of India and are Untouchable that he renounced Hinduism and bringing whole communities into the Christian called on the Untouchables throughout India to Church. In the diocese of my friend the Bishop do the same. of Dornakal in South India there are two hundred It is only possible to summarize here what has thousand Christians where there were only a few occurred since. For many years Mahatma Gan- hundred thirty years ago. And that is only one dhi had done all he could to secure better treat- instance of the way in which these pariah multi- ment for the Untouchables whom he calls Hari- tudes are breaking the fetters of demon worship jans (Children of God). I remember one occasion and are seeking Jesus Christ.
when he had come to a place to make a great The Christian community in India is still very speech. He noticed that some Harijans had come small, only some six millions among nearly 350 to hear him but had been crowded away into a millions of Hindus, Moslems and peoples of other far corner. Promptly he went and sat down religions. India of 1939 is not Christian, nor dare among them and then made his speech standing I say that it will become Christian in my time. among them. That is typical of him, and has But the greatest change of all is more significant wonderfully impressed many of them. Gandhi than the community movements. Today when used Ambedkar's revolt as a final argument and Indians would describe a supremely truthful, selfcompelled even the most unprogressive Hindus to forgetful, brave and utterly sincere man-a leader see that, unless their treatment of their serfs like Mahatma Gandhi—,they do not say that he improved, these Harijans would cut themselves is like Rama or Krishna or any other of the old entirely adrift from Hinduism. This touched the gods of the land. With reverent voices they say, politicians, for the votes of the Untouchables "He is like Jesus Christ." would probably be lost if they did nothing for them. Gandhi's personality, perhaps more than his arguments, won the day. The orthodox but THE CROW AND THE PEACOCK enlightened Maharaja of Travancore, guided by his Brahmin chief minister-one of the ablest There is an Indian fable of a crow that lived men in India-permitted Untouchables to worship near some peacocks, and thought that the pea- in all the temples under his control. Other Prin- cock's caste was more excellent than his own. The ces have followed his lead. The authorities in crow therefore picked up a few of the peacock's many temples under private control have done cast-off feathers and stuck them among his own.
the same, and the Brahmin Prime Minister of He left his own family and in his new guise lived the Government of Madras has supported the trus- among the peacDcks for a few days. One day his tees of the famous Shiva Temple in Madura in voice was heard, and the peacocks said, "This is admitting Harijans to the Holy of Holies. One not a peacock. He has been deceiving us while temple in Kumbakonam has closed its doors to living among us." Then they all set upon him Harijans and "imprisoned the God," but in many with their beaks and spurs till, sore wounded and places the Untouchable can worship in the same ashamed, he sought to return to his own family.
temple with the Brahmin, just as he can sit beside The crows understood why he left them and why him in the Council. Though the old grievances he .wished to return. They said. "You despised of the Harijans survive in out of the way or ortho- us, thinking you would honor yourself by trying dox centres, the days of universal degradation are to join others. Go to them. There is no place fDr past. This is the finest victory that Mahatma you here. Be off! We will not have you among Gandhi has ever won. Only ten years ago no one us."
believed that he would ever so triumph. Over fifty years ago a Brahmin friend wrote to The Greatest Change of All Benjamin Robinson, a missionary who sought to adapt Indian customs and dress in order that he But apart from Dr. Ambedkar large numbers might be more effective as a messenger of Christ: of Untouchables have already sought a new faith. "Whatever you do, you cannot alter YDur birth.
In my first days in India we missionaries were However you dress and eat you will be known as often called "white pariahs" because we entered an Englishman. Your motives in change of dress villages of the Untouchables, made friends with will be misunderstood and misconstrued." This them, even took our meals in their huts. The judgment was confirmed from another source, religion of Jesus Christ was contemptuously for when he returned to a village which he had called "the pariah's way" because in the India of visited on his previous tour, a Sudra headman, 1892, dominated still by Hindu custom and preju- who had renounced idolatry said, "Don't you per- dice, many Untouchables were accepting it. But ceive, Sir, that if you dress as these idolaters, they the most hopeful of us had no idea of the wide will say, 'You ought to adopt our worship also.'''
mass movements which today are awakening the -National Christian Council Review.
A Chinese Christian's Testimony *
-.11.:1-===B=Y=MY=F=ANWY===w=o=o=D=,=p..e.l_,p_in_g,_Ch=in_a==;;lII,·- T HREE years ago Mr. Y. C. Ts'ai left Yen- Mr. Ts'ai writes of his Bible study while in ching School of Religion in Peiping to become prison, "I read the last part of all the Gospels, lecturer in New Testament in the South especially John 13-21, and my experiences in Fukien Union Theological College. Recently he prison helped me to understand and appreciate was asked to address a conference of Christian the suffering Christ and His Resurrection much students in Changchow on "The Attitude of Chris- more than before. Many of His teachings to tians to the National Crisis." He spoke on- which I had not previously paid much attention I. God's relation to men; Freedom. were brought home to me with new light and mighty power. All the while the great words- II. Man's relation to God; Faith. Love, Peace and Joy-rang like heavenly music (a) Fearless when calamity comes. in my ears. . . . The fruit of the Holy Spirit is (b) We are all to love our enemies'. the heritage of the children of our God and Fa- (c) God's love ultimately will certainly prevail. ther who is Love and Victory. May His name be glorified for ever and ever. Amen." III. Relations between man and man: Love. Christians are the messengers of Love.
IV. The Christian's outlook on the world; Hope.
V. The Relation of the Christian to himself; Nurture Mr. Ts'ai was kept in prison for twenty-two of his Spiritual Life. days. Writing a little later, he slays: "There Mr. Ts'ai's notes reveal a carefully thought- must be those who deal with the present, but there through statement which challenges Chris,tians to must also be people who point men to the future. practical expressions of the love of God, even in . . . We pray for the nation, but we must also the time of war. pray for the reign of God wherein lies the true welfare of the nation. Permanent world peace Nearly three weeks after the address, the local . . . cannot be possible without the religion of daily paper came out with an article giving a Christ. For He alone can redeem the world from garbled account and accusing Mr. Ts'ai of being selfishness and sin, which is the root of war. . . . a traitor to his country. Five days later, soldiers We must work for peace in the midst of war. It went to his home to arrest him, and he was tried sounds out of harmony with the thoughts of the before the local military tribunal. The officials time, but it is absolutely needed." asked him to write an outline of the offending address and they then proceeded to question him on When Mr. Ts'ai was released, his presence at the basis of the newspaper report. To all ques- court (at any time he might be recalled) was tions he gave quiet, orderly replies, which reveal guaranteed by the principals of the Christian Colclearly how consistent he is to his Christian prin- lege and schools in Changchow. In the original ciples. draft of this document of release, his guarantors were required to promise that he would not again He was imprisoned in a room ten feet by fif- say anything "unseemly." Mr. Ts'ai protested teen, with other prisoners numbering at various strongly against any such promise, "For," he says, times from two to fourteen. These included army "I would much rather stay in prison than have officers, bandits and suspected spies. He writes: that clause in the guarantee for release. I admit "I thanked God for granting me the opportunity that what I said was not in line with the trend of to live and work among them; to show them how, thought of this time, but I can never confess to even under the most trying circumstances, there anYibody that what I said was wrong. It was my is still the possibility of living according to the duty to preach as I was led, and I was ready to rules of a sanitary life; above all I am thankful take any consequences." for the opportunity to bring them the Gospel of Christ. And I was glad to see them cheered up, "In the time of national calamity all the more working gladly together to make the room clean should we preach Jesus." and tidy, getting rid of lice and insects, and living like men rather than sinking down to the level May the words of our Lord echo round the of mere animals,." world,and may Christians in every land bear an ever stronger witness in life today to the power of the Love of God; it is in that power alone that • From T1&6 London Missionary Society ChronicJe. we can pass through truth to freedom for service.
[540 ]
A VILLAGE STREET IN WEST AFRICA THE INTERIOR OF AN AFRICAN
African Views of African Life* The West African Home, Parents, Children and Schools -~~I-=-=-=B_Y_W_E_S_T_A_FR=-I_CA_N-=C=mu-=S_T_IA_N=S-=-=-=~II~ Behind Pagan Walls poisoning and death. Not until an animal was OUR ol~ s.tyle, one r?Om, mud walled Basa sacrificed to the sacred object, and the patient huts III West AfrIca were smaller than those of today. Some did not exceed ten sprinkled with its blood would the malady disapfeet in length or eight feet in width. The palm thatch roofs were so low that we could stand pear. We therefore believed and feared the cult upright only under the ridge pole. Within the one door hut of a pagan Basa was a clay mound bed. priests more than we do the white men who gov- Spears and a bow gun leaned against the wall. Fastened to the rafters was a bundle of carefully ern us today. tied sticks which was the owner's magic wand to keep away misfortunes. On the clay floor, in Not only did we believe that the priests commuwhich a fetish had been concealed, was a bark container for arrows and another for various po- nicated with departed spirits but we thought that tent charms. All were devices to keep evil spirits at bay and to bring to naught the machinations of they themselves were spirits. The officiating priest witches, the fear of which was ever present. of the men's Urn cult was a spfiermita. leThussp·itriht~· Spirits of our ancestors also were believed to the priest of the Nge was a male be all about and certain persons were thought to have the power to communicate with them and to men deceived the women and children greatly in transmit their blessings or their curses. These were the priests of the Nge and Urn cults. Men, order to put fear into their hearts. A woman who women and children all feared those who were associated with these cults and their rites. No un- refused her husband was threatened with, "The initiated was allowed to look upon the cult objects as the offender would sicken with the particular Nge will eat you." A child unwilling to carry cult sickness. In the case of Urn this took the form of the eating away of the nose or other parts messages was threatened in the same manner. If of the body by ulcers; in the case of the Nge, a wife continued in disobedience the Nge priests waited in ambush to carry her off secretly to kill her. When she failed to appear, the announce- ment was made to her people that the Nge had eaten her. .
Women were not allowed to be present at the grave during burial as the rites for the dead were in the hands of ,the Nge. Before laying the corpse in the grave a priest entered it and talked, trying to imitate the voice of the departed man to put fear into the hearts of his widows. Whenever the cult men danced all women and children were shut up in their houses. If a :woman bore a monstros- ity it was considered positive proof that she had MIS•S<IO?on,ndCenasmederofroonm. The Drum Cal!, Published by the Presbyterian surreptitI•ously witnessed cult ceremonies or trans- [541] ..
gressed other laws. Women were forbidden to eat tried to run away. Her father heard of it and the wild hog because its voice sounded like that of before she could go far he caught and brought the Nge. Fish were taboo for them because the most sacred of the Um cult objects was found in her back. the river. Those who obeyed all the tenets of the When my mother was about fifteen years old cults were told that blessings would follow them, such as: Birth of many children, health, riches, she was married to my father. She had two nickgood luck in the chase; but if they broke the laws names. One was Kinganngoi-the name of the and taboos, misfortunes as illness and death would wild red river hog, given to her because she was be their lot. celebrated for her beauty. In the village of her husband she received the other name, meaning The walls of our pagan homes shut in fear and "Weaver-birds-make-a-great-noise." She cooked superstition, keeping out the love and happiness much food for the many guests of her husband. that God offers. We thank our Father God that She prepared great feasts. Many women came He has caused to shine upon our homes His great to her to beg for food and she gave to all who light, the Good News of Jesus which is dispelling asked. For this reason there were always many fear in our hearts and homes and is sweeping people and the hum of many voices in the village away our superstition.-Samuel Wrestling-beetles. so that she became famous as a great worker and very generous. My Heathen Father My mother wore a black bustle made of string My father's children did not love him but they that she prepared from the new leaves of the raffia feared him very much. My sisters feared him palm. It took from fif,ty to seventy of these strings even more than we boys. If we offended him, such to form a bustle eight to ten inches long which she as drinking the dregs of his palm wine or stand- wore fastened to her belt of monkey skin or ing near any ·of his wives, he thrashed us un- braided fibres. Her leaf apron was made from the mercifully. We dared not lift our eyes when he leaves of the lagal tree. It was about two fingers was near. wide and was fastened to her belt; it was fringed at the end the length of one's middle finger. Her When he was a young man he first became a leaf apron, the one she wore to dances, she colored hunter. After he excelled in shooting a gun he red with powdered or ground chips from the redswore an oath that he would not marry until he wood tree. had killed a man of the Bakembe clan; so he went to the diviner whose advice he followed. After he Mother bore nine children and raised two genhad prepared the war feast, the invited warriors erations of orphans. She lived to see her own ate and danced in their ceremonial dress. This grandchildren and those of the other wives of her ritual performed, my father took his gun and husband. I loved my mother very much because crossed the river to the Bakembe clan and stealth- she taught me the things of women. She taught ily walked to a certain hut. He removed the bark us to be chaste and did not allow us to go about and there saw a man and his wife, fast asleep. visiting in other people's houses. When we chil- He prayed to his gun, "Oh gun, pick off this man dren were married she gave us many presents of and this woman." Then he killed the sleepers. household goods such as clay pots, water gourds, Immediately the hut caught fire and the whole baskets, wooden spoons, wooden dishes. We have family perished-not one was left to plant a lily a proverb: The wild vine comes to the yo yam; it bulb (commonly used to exorcise evil spirits). passes and reaches the sweet potato. This is to When he returned to his village my father danced say that the luxuriant and fast growing vine, and sang the songs of warriors for which he was representing the industrious person, comes to the given much goods. With this gift he obtained celebrated yo yam, meaning my mother, and then his first wife and became a warrior. goes on to the sweet potatoes (eaten by children only), meaning her children. Later, my father became a great medicine man and a priest of both the Nge and Um cults. He There was a shallow pit near my mother's even sacrificed his mother to become a priest of house in which were planted two lilies. Near the Nge. these were a snail shell and a stick on which was tied a bundle of leaves and sticks. A clay pot Father married twenty-four wives, but he al- near by contained water and some bark of trees. lowed only one of them to cook his food, for fear This was mother's place of healing. Many women of poisoning. One day he killed his brother be- and children came to her to be healed; she took cause he took from him one of his wives.-Zach- them to this shrine and sprinkled with water from ues Body-hardened. the pot. As, she did this she said, "Misfortune or bad luck you hear it from behind, good fortune My Black Mother reach out toward it." She prayed to the spirits to take away the sickness and to bring blessings to My mother grew up in her father's town. He the women (that is many children). Mother's did not wish her to be married but one day mother
AFRICAN VIEWS OF AFRICAN LIFE
search for life made her establish this sacred in his eyes because he had stolen something from place, but she afterwards found a better life than one of his uncles.
she was looking for when I was a child. She be- It was a Basa man's ambition to have a son came a Christian and gave up her superstitious who surpassed others in fighting. When boys practices. Her real name was Oh-skies. People grew to be old enough they were given machetes said that only in the skies was it possible to find to use in mock fighting. A stick was placed on anything lovelier and wiser than my mother.- the ground. One boy stood on one side of this Daughter of Elephant. stick and one on the other, each with a cutlass in My Baby Boy hand. Each in turn struck the other with the flat of the cutlass on his shoulder. The boys who "Molar tooth-of-elephant has been born." This fought against my brother always ran away from was what we sang in our hearts when a baby boy his blows. He became a great warrior and cap- was born. Mothers all desire a son to build us a tured many women when he went to fight the house when he grows up, to cut the bush and clear other clans.
the ground so we may plant a garden. We God has now put other thoughts in our hearts.
thought of the wives he would marry and the We coveted the nickname of "Snorting Leopard"
many grandchildren we would see in our village. for our sons because we wished them to be as Our husbands also said that it was "a molar- fierce as a leopard as well as strong as a "molar tooth-of-elephant" that must be born first. To tooth-of-an-elephant." Now, we rejoice if they are make sure that their desires would be granted known as "Kelle-quiet-waters," for as the waters they asked the diviner what they should do. of the Kelle River flow evenly and calmly on, so "Go to the grave of your grandfather," the di- shall our sons be peace-loving, their villages un- viner told my father, "make a sacrifice of a goat disturbed by brawls and wars.-Esther One-of- to his spirit; then make a fire on his grave with something.
ceclain leaves and sticks. Take fresh water from A Girl in the Home the stream in a new gourd and wash your hands over the fire so that all evil influences may be My parents were very much pleased when I banished." was born. They had two sons and they needed a My father did exactly as the diviner said. daughter who might be exchanged for a wife for His first child was a boy but people were told one of them or for goods to marry one. They "It is a girl." Father built a house with a tall called me Kop-i-sem, a "fowl to sell." As a girl fence around it in a secret place in the bush. must leave her home and go to live in the village There mother took her baby as father did not of the man she marries, where she helps to in- want the witches to know that he had a son. If crease the number of her husband's clan, she was they saw a baby they would fasten an evil eye on not considered then of as much importance as a the child, and he would sicken and die. Many boy who increases the number in his own clan.
children died, and people said, "Witches, there When a girl was born the midwife always said, are many of them. We must always keep fetishes "Deny; but if caught in the act, confess." Women about to chase them away so they will not kill were blamed for so many evils that mothers felt our children or ourselves." it necessary to teach their girls to be cautious Parents wished sons to grow up to be bold, when they were still very young. They said that brave men. My mother teased my brother when there were more women witches than men so girls he was still a baby so that he would know how had to be taught to be very modest and not give to get angry, kick and fight. Then when he grew offense.
up, if anyone tried to take anything from him, My oldest sister was married soon after she he would not let him. When brother was old had learned to walk. Her husband took her to his enough he stayed with father most of the time. village and there she grew up, living with one of Father showed him how to trap animals, fish with his older wives. She was taught to work hard in a net, make thatch for the roofs of our houses the garden every day, to draw water from the and weave hampers from the fronds of the oil spring and to cook, beginning from the time she palm. These are the things of men that all boys was four years old. My younger sister never mar- must learn. After they are ten years old boys do ried for my father said that she must stay in his not sit in their mothers' house or eat with them town and bear children there for him.
or they are thought weaklings. They eat with When I was a very small child I helped my their fathers in the community house. mother every day in the garden; I drew water One day mother and I heard my brother from the spring in a gourd she gave me. As soon screeching as if in pain. We ran to him and saw as I could use a knife I helped her peel potatoes.
that he was suffering torture and staggering Girls are taught to work very hard because a man about in the street. Father had put red pepper will give a bigger dowry for a girl who works
hard than fQr Qne whO' is lazy. It is the ambition taken frQm us, and we were given dry banana Qf every girl to' be desired as a wife. leaves to' wear. When it was necessary to leave the hut we were O'bliged to' walk bent Qver with My heart was filled with fear at night. When- faces to the grQund. I was fO'rced to' stay in the ever the sun went down mQther would awaken me widow's pen for fifty-four days. During all Qf if I were asleep as she was afraid the sun WQuld this time I was nO't allO'wed to' wash and my face carry my heart away. If children were awake became dirty with SO'Qt from the fire and my body when the sun went down they said that there white frO'm the ashes and clay where I lay. My was nO' danger. One night, after we had all been tears wore paths in the dirt O'n my cheeks. asleep fQr a long time, we awakened with a start. MQther stirred the lQgs that were burning between A widow, her mQurning O'ver, may choQse a new her bed and mine SO' that it was quite light in the husband. Her mO'uth is stoppered with leaves to hQuse. We heard SQmething fly frQm the rQQf Qf prevent her talking until she reaches his village. Qur hQuse. It was an owl but we were told that NO'W I have chosen a new Master, Jesus. He has witches CQuld turn intO' owls and they flew off washed away my sins and taken the stQPper from with the hearts of sleepers. my lips that I may praise Him. I am nO' longer a mere "thing left behind" but a real child Qf We children were very happy when the moon shQne fQr then we gathered in Qne Qf the hQmes GQd.-Daughter of Great-rubbish-pile. and listened to Qur mQthers telling fQlk tales. We told riddles toO' but did nQt dare tell these during Christian vs. Heathen Customs the daytime lest our mO'thers sicken or die. But the best time of day was the late afternQQn when The man whO' believes in God and the man whO' we children played games in the court before our does nO't are not the same kind Qf a persO'n. The hQuses. real Christian knO'ws that he ought to' keep his body' and his spirit clean, but the unbeliever dQes HO'W I cried when they dragged me from my nO't knO'w that. The things that O'ur fathers were mother's arms to take me to my marriage. I was happy to' dO' we Christians are ashamed to' dO'. Let not more than ten years old but I still remember Qne whO' dQes nO't knQw these things ask SQme O'f it as though it were yesterday. I realized that I the O'ld men to' relate them to' him. In Qlden times was a mere "fowl to be SQld." When I reached a persO'n did nQt bathe Qften, saying that if a man my husband's town I did not see that my husband bathed early in the mO'rning he WO'uld nO't be was an Qld man for my eyes were fastened O'n the strQng. If he bathed O'nce O'r twice a mQnth he ground when he came near. I was glad that she was dO'ing well. He WQuld bathe then O'nly because had taught me to' be generO'us, fQr it made my he was going on a jO'urney O'r to a feast. Now, mO'ther-in-law kinder to' me. Always in the eve- if we do nQt bathe and appear dirty befO're others, ning when I brought her some food from my gar- that is the height of shame. den she WQuld take me Qn her lap, blQW spittle Qn my fQrehead and bless me. That is Qur custO'm to What a man himself knO'ws, that he can teach this day.-Daughter of Parting-cloth. another; but if he does nO't knO'w, hQW will he be able to' teach? The Christian parent differs frO'm A Widow's Experience others in that he really tries to teach his children to speak the truth and punishes them when they Yik, "the thing left," is the word for widow in do nQt; he tells them, "Be truthful even thO'ugh our language. My husband, a rich man, had many yO'U are killed." A man Qf the world wants his wives and gO'ats. BefQre he died the diviner told child to win in a cO'ntrQversy even by falsehO'od. him that if he would kill Qne O'f his wives he When, by sO' dO'ing, his child gets the better O'f would nQt die. He lifted his machete to kill his adversary in a palaver the father says with "Weaver-birds-chatter" as she was bending Qver pride, "My child is a man, he will nQt get intO' to' serve him, but befO're the knife reached her trO'uble befO're the authorities fO'r he knQws hO'W he fell dead. to' twist things to' his advantage. The sO'n whO' knO'ws only to' speak the truth is a woman and nO't When a person dies the burden Qf the expres- a real man." sion of grief faHs UPQn the wO'men and immediately O'ur wailing burst forth. SQme O'f us wept Even as the Christian persO'n is nO't like the because O'ur husband had gone but mO're O'f us heathen, so also his family is nO't the same. wept because we feared his spirit wO'uld CQme to' Usually each pastO'r, teacher and catechist's hO'me persecute us O'r take us to' the spirit wQrld. I had is like a light set on a hill-a real example Qf sPO'ken disrespectfully to' "Great-elephant" (his what a Christian hQme O'ught to be. This hO'me hO'nQr name; wives are forbidden to' address their is happy. FQr the most part the Christian keeps husband by his real name). After Qur husband his house and yard clean; he tries to keep the was buried we widows were all herded intO' O'ne children clean and is the first to take them to a hut and left there to' sleep and sit on the clay doctQr when sick. He alsO' sends bQth girls and flO'O'r. Our raffia bustles and leaf aprO'ns were bO'ys to schQol, as a great many believers dO', to'
learn to read and write and to learn the things of education, the church is raising up a new genof God. He makes a real effort to arrange Chris- eration of girls who are demanding in marriage tian marriages for his children. The first ques- the privileges of Christian homes and husbands tion a father asks a man who comes to seek his whom they may call their own instead of sharing daughter in marriage is, "Are you a Christian? them with others. Show me your church letter." When a father, who is wealthy, having many There are many families in which only one wives and much goods, dies, all this property, inmember, the woman, is a Christian. The mother cluding his wives, goes to the oldest son. Freis pressed by the church to forbid any alliance quently a man has shown real Christian courage with unbelievers; the father, being interested and love for God at such times refusing even to go only in getting all the money he can, gives the home to settle the estate. Sometimes, however, daughter to the one promising the" greatest dowry, our hearts are heavy with sorrow when we see even though the prospective husband already has one who has had Christian training unable to many wives. Frequently a father forbids his girls withstand the temptation. He goes home for the to go to school. He argues thus: "What is the burial feast, listens to the advice of the old men use of teaching a girl? All she needs to know and falls a prey to the customs of his fathers, beis how to plant a garden, cook food for her hus- coming involved and thus severs his connections band and bear children. What else is there for with the church.
SOME PARENTS AND CHILDREN AT THE LOLODORF It is only thirty-five years since the first mis- HOSPITAL sionary took his life in his hands to bring to the Rasa tribe the Good News of what Christ has her? Whoever heard of a woman teacher? If she done to release them from all the fears which knows how to read and write she will know more held them and their children as slaves. Yet, in than her husband, and no man will give a dowry this short time, God has done great things for for a woman who knows more than he does; that the people. Instead of seeking ways to kill the is the limit of shame for a man." Sometimes the bringers of Good News, there are now thousands woman of faith either overcomes the objections of in all parts of the land who eagerly await and her husband or against his will and wrath sends welcome the coming of missionaries and teachers. her daughter to school and insists that she have a Christian marriage. When the unbelieving father Christianity is still in its infancy among us. sends his daughter into an unchristian marriage We pray that the things of God will grow and that against the will of the mother that he may get a the new foundation which Christ has laid for larger dowry, then much trouble has come to that our homes will remain unshaken, always increashouse. ing in strength. We know that the words of Jesus will spread throughout our tribe and that the hin- Sometimes a very young girl goes to the pastor drances to its diffusion in our hearts will end saying that she has run away from her home be- when the believers pray without ceasing.-Rev. cause her father has taken a dowry from a man Gustave Esombe. who is not a Christian. Since it is against the French law to give money for an immature girl The School and the Home the Mission often takes such a one and puts her into the girls' school at the station nearest her The school is like the shadow of a person. We home. Since neither party dares take the case to formerly believed the shadow to be a projection court the palaver is usually settled amicably and of the soul of the living. When a man died, we the dowry returned. Slowly, through the process said that his shadow had gone. So the school is important in the life of an individual. Its influ- ence lives on after a pupil has finished his course and begins the life ofa real person in his village.
A glimpse of the Rasa people and their homes of other days and those of today will convince anyone of the value of the school. In the days when my father was· a child all the village pa- lavers, quarrels and fears of witches were public property. When a boy came to be six or seven years old he spent much time in the community house where the men of the village lay sprawled on their beds or sat on them with a forked tree root at their backs to lean against. There he lis- tened to matters pertaining to marriage. Some- times the palaver concerned a girl who had run
away from her husband. She would stand cower- to take their rightful places as companions to ing in one corner while the discussion went on as their husbands, instead of being their slaves. to what punishment to mete out to her to prevent her from running away again. We did not know much about cleanliness in the old days. Our bodies we rubbed with redwood If a man was very angry he might wish to kill powder and oil but we did not bathe often. Sick his wife and considered her his chattel to do with persons never bathed until they recovered. The as he wished. At times there were heated discus- center post of our houses was used as a towel sions concerning the bride price of a mere baby. or handkerchief. We did not know that disease At any time a boy might see his little sister whom comes from filth and dirt. We thought that dehe had carried on his hip, while nis mother was parted spirits sent us misfortunes, sometimes to busy in her garden, taken away from his home to punish us for not sacrificing a fowl or goat to become the wife of a man who had numerous them. From many houses could be heard the other wives. There were many arguments con- death wail-a mother mourning for another little cerning debts and often a man's wife or daughter one or wives for a husband. was pawned to prevent the creditor from adjuring his fetish to kill the debtor. In the school pupils are taught hygiene. They learn that dirt carries disease germs and are I could write much concerning the things heard taught to keep their bodies clean. They learn that and learned by the small boy of school age in his a dog has eggs of worms on its tongue and that if contacts with life in his village when my father dishes are left for it to lick, instead of being was a boy. He learned to have impure thoughts, washed, as is the custom of some of our people, to value deceit and lying and to disrespect wom- the eggs will pass into the next person who eats anhood. He soon ceased obeying his mother. He food from such dishes. There are many other never shared with his sister but always expected things hygiene teaches us. and was given the best and biggest portions of food after his father had received his. When a family goes on a journey the head of the family takes his place last in the line. There The school has kept boys away from the com- he can see what dangers threaten ahead and promunity house at a tender age when they are most tect and care for the very last one in the line. susceptible and has gathered them together to I have kept the most important influence the learIli to think other thoughts and have other school has on our homes until the last. Jesus is ideals. This has been an invaluable help. But the Head of our schools. He is not the shadow there are other ways in which it has influenced but the very heart, itself, as we Basa say. Our our home. Girls sit in classes with boys and often pupils read God's Word in school and they see excel them in their studies. Their hours in school that their teachers try to follow Christ's teachprevent them fixing their attention on matters ings. They turn their hearts to God. It is the which made the past generation disdain woman- Christian school pupils who put into practice what hood, and they find that girls are their equals, so they learn of cleanliness and Christian virtues bethey have gained a respect for womanhood. Wom- cause their thoughts are turned toward helping en in a Christian community are now beginning their people to rise.-Otto Who-will-climb.
WHEN ESTELLE PRAYED We were holding a service at a soldier's camp in the heart of Africa. While we were in the midst of the meeting a Basonge woman, from 1000 miles away, stood up and prayed. She had one baby in a sling on her back and another one tugging at her skirts. I could under- stand only two words, "Jesus" and "Amen" but I knew that she was talking to God. The con- gregation was quiet and reverent. The woman who prayed was Fulu Estelle from the Swedish Mission station of Kingoyi.
That afternoon we had a baptismal and communion service. One couple, Movungu and Nianga Estelle, brought their son for baptism. There were 110 baptized Christians present for this service. After the baptism of her son, Nianga Estelle prayed. She comes from the same mission station as Fulu Estelle.
The service was conducted in four different languages, and eleven natives accepted Christ. Four babies were baptized; 15 little black children sang four songs for us, and one bachelor soldier sang a solo. Pray for our evangelist Kabunda and his wife Disank (Hap- piness) as they minister unto these soldiers. PLUMER SMITH, Mutoto, Congo Belge.
"Each in His Own Tongue"
How to Complete the Unfinished Task of the Bible Translator By EUGENE A. NIDA, M.A., Philadelphia, Pa. }a- Field Worker, Institute of Linguistics, Pioneer Mission Agency TODAY, after publishing the Bible or portions great damage to the message; others, though of it in 1,000 languages, the task of Bible conscientious, have failed to be accurate when translation is only half done, for there are accuracy was of utmost importance. For example, 1,000 other groups that should have the Word of one missionary discovered, after some length of God in their own tongues. The French Academy time, that his interpreter, who knew English inad- conservatively estimates 2,796 living languages equately, was rendering the expression, "only be- in the world. Several hundred of these languages gotten Son," by words in his own language which are spoken by very small groups of people, but would be a translation for "only forgotten Son."
there are still at least one thDusand languages He was nDt acquainted with the obsolescent word, which should be reduced to writing and intO' which "begotten," and substituted one which had a cer- the Bible should be translated. The American Bi- tain similarity and which he knew; but this ble Society states that there are "from five hun- involved a considerable confusion in the fadred to a thousand more forms of speech in the world in which new translations are needed." The task of the Bible translator is far from finished- in fact, at least half still remains-for the greater percenta'ge of these one thousand groups speak languages which have never been reduced to writ- ing, and the people themselves are uneducated and not capable of being translators.
Accurate fi~ures as to the exact number of tribes and languages in the various countries of the world are difficult to secure. Ethnological sur- veys of many regions are very inadequate but, at a very conservative estimate, we may say that some 100 language groups in Western China shDuld have, but have not yet received, the Word of GDd in their language. There are 90 similar TRANSLATOR WITH MEXICAN BOY groups in Indo-China and Burma, 150 in Malay and the South Sea Islands, 200 in India, 250 in vorite text of the missionary. If the interpreter Africa, at least 40 in Mexico and Central America, is already a believer in Christ, he can, with some 100 in South America, and 80 in the Soviet Union. training, preach and not need to act as an inter- And this number does not include groups in Tibet, preter. But this does not solve the problem, for Afghanistan, portions of the Near East and Aus- it is found that he must have some source of spir- tralasia, all Df which regions have a number of itual inspiration and must be able to feed his own language groups without the Gospel. soul upon the truth of God, in order to present this An answer which is often given to the problem truth with consistency and clarity, which a good of taking the Gospel to indigenous groups is that translation alone can enable him to do. If the of the extensive use of interpreters. Though at people of the language group to which a mis- times this is necessary, it is far from satisfactory sionary is ministering are to be expected to grow and should only be preliminary to the real work in their spiritual life, they need the Word of God of evangelization. How is it possible for an inter- in their own language so that they may read it preter, who may not himself be a believer, to for themselves. The gateway tDa person's soul explain the Gospel to his fellow countrymen, even is through his own language. An African chief- though prDmpted by someone else? Some inter- tain, when he first read the Bible in his own lan- preters have been known to falsify intentionally guage, exclaimed, "That God is black!" He thus the statements of the missionary and have done voiced his feeling of the profound meaning which [547 ]
the Word of God in his own language conveyed to fessor Kenneth Pike of the Summer Institute of his soul. A Zapoteco Indian of Mexico, who had Linguistics has been working, four words may be been educated in Spanish and read the Bible in transliterated into English with the letters huku, Spanish, was asked in which language he would but which different tones on the two syllables prefer to have the Bible, and he answered, "Of make the word mean mountain, ox-yoke, brush, course, in my own language, the Zapoteco." All and mountainous. This word changes from a the tribes around the world likewise are entitled noun, which is the first meaning given, to an to receive this priceless heritage of the Word of adjective merely by raising the pitch of the two God, a heritage which the missionary may leave syllables. In many languages the pitch is a comwith his people after he has gone, and by leaving plicated feature of the grammatical structure. it, will have helped to establish a foundation for a strong indigenous church. But complications of sound are slight as com- pared with the highly elaborate grammatical Many stupendous problems are involved in lan- structure of many languages. The Cakchiquel guage reduction and Bible translation. One must language of Guatemala, which Mr. Cameron have the courage and pioneer spirit of such men Townsend, director of the Summer Institute of as William Carey of India, Robert Morrison of Linguistics, reduced to writing and into which he China, John Eliot, who translated for the Amer- translated the New Testament, has as high as ican Indians,and John G. Paton of the New 100,000 different forms for the verb. These are Hebrides. One must be able to withstand the arranged with regularity and great preciseness hardships and difficulties encountered in living in of meaning. One word in the Tarahumara lanthe isolated regions of the world, and must have guage of Mexico, macugupabenima, actually the persistency necessary to learn new and diffi- means "already for the second time about to comcult sounds, to search out words, to master gram- mence the activity of bringing in wood." Each matical construction. He must be able to develop syllable has a definite meaning when used in the or borrow words for spiritual concepts, such as word, but these elements are meaningless if sepalove, faith, forgiveness-terms. which in many rated or uttered in any other than their particular languages do not exist with the correct spiritual fixed order. This language, with somewhat over values. one hundred suffixes and prefixes which may be attached to a stem, may have verbs of 50,000 Some Complicated Problems different possihle forms. Aboriginal languages are not primitive, if we mean by this word "sim- One who reduces an aboriginal language to ple," for, though many are less complicated than writing will encounter many intricate problems of these which we have mentioned, they all indicate sound and grammer. For example, in the Maza- a highly developed method of conveying meanteca language of Mexico, there are three words ing. Not all are complete in abstract words or concepts, but most of them have means by which which the untrained investigator would write ti, these concepts may be developed.
but which have three distinct meanings-boy, A Summer Institute of Linguistics rubbish, and round. These words are not identical in· sound, as one might first think, for one To meet this need of the missionary for tech- nical training in the science of language, the Sumhas a slight puff of air after the t sound, just as mer Institute of Linguistics was founded six years ago by Mr. L. L. Legters and Mr. Cameron Townwe pronounce the letter t in English; in the word send, under the sponsorship of the Pioneer Mis- sion Agency of Philadelphia. This Institute, which which means boy the t is pronounced as in Span- is also called Camp Wycliffe in honor of the trans- lator of the Bible into English, is now located near ish, a slight distinction which would usually be Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and each summer, missed by an untrained person. The word which from July till October, provides training for mismeans round has a slight puff of air just preceding sionaries going to various countries of the world. This Institute does not teach anyone specific lanthe t. If one does not make these distinctions in guage, but teaches the scientific basis for the analysis of all types of languages. Two and a writing, which may be indicated by some sign such half hours a day are given to a thorough training as a single apostrophe or a superimposed h, al- in the science of phonetics, which has to do with most unlimited confusion would occur for one the analyzing and making of sounds. It is necesattempting to read the language. Even greater sary both to hear accurately and to be able to rethan the difficulty of peculiar consonants and vow- produce accurately the very large number of els is that of the tone or pitch of the syllables in sounds and combinations of sounds which occur many languages. Chinese is noted for its ,complicated singsong pattern, and many languages of Africa and North and South America are even more complicated. The Geabo language of North Africa has as many as four pitches and twelve oombinations. One syllable, mu, occurs with eight tonal differences and eight different meanings. In the Mixteco language of Mexico, with which Pro-
EACH IN HIS OWN TONGUE
throughout the world. The problem of writing a turn and take advanced work in linguistic prob- correct alphabet, which is termed phonemics, is lems. Since the material which he has gathered also studied under the guidance of Professor Pike. will be in scientific form, due to his first summer's Time is also devoted to the study of the science training, he may then be helped to solve the par- of grammar. Analyses are made of the various ticularly difficult problems which occur in his own ways in which words are formed in the languages language.
of the world, and how a person goes. about analyz- No sacrifice or effort is too great to attain the ing the structure of a complicated language. How goal of presenting the priceless, life-changing and these words are put together into sentences is also light-giving Word of God. An Aztec Indian, after taught. Another course is given in the interpre- having read the Bible over a period of some weeks, tation of the Greek New Testament. A course in came to the missionary and inquired as to what a typical Indian language, Cakchiquel, is given had happened to him. He could not beat his wife, by Director Townsend. Lectures on general mis- get drunk, lie and cheat, as he had been accus- sionary problems and the spiritual aspects of the tomed to do before reading the Word of God, work are given by Mr. Legters, of the Pioneer which kept prompting him not to do these things.
Mission Agency.
Over thirty individuals who have taken the training course during the six summer sessions of the Institute are now working in various coun- tries – Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Philippines. Missionaries from other countries have availed themselves of the spe- cial training for their specific language problems.
This Summer Institute makes these opportunities available to any Mission Board and any prospec- tive missiO'nary at an expense amounting to $2.00 a week for room and board. All the other TRANSLATORS AT WORK ON A NEW TONGUE expenses are met by the friends of the Pioneer Mission Agency, who have undertaken this faith The missionary had the privilege of explaining work in order that the Word of God may be more that this Book was nO't like any other book, and speedily carried to' the thousand tribes that have that the Spirit of God spoke thrO'ugh it, so that not yet received it. God was speaking to his soul. This Indian ac- One special feature of the training includes cepted Christ and is now proclaiming the Gospel work with native informants, either Indians who with sincere zeal and effectiveness.
have been brought from Latin America or come A unique experience occurred to one of the mis- from tribes in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The sionaries and his wife when their native helper, student has the opportunity of working on the who watched them closely, asked what they were language problem just as he would in some mis- doing when they knelt down each night. Theyex- sion field, for he first writes various words in plained that they were praying. The native order to obtain a knowledge of the sounds; then thought that this meant reciting something, for he he takes down short sentences and phrases and could not dissociate praying from meaningless gradually, under the supervision of the instruc- ritual. When they finally explained that in their tors, works out a practical method for undertak- prayers they were actually talking to God, the ing the reduction of some new language to writing. Indian immediately answered, "Oh, sir, won't you Of course, it is impossible to teach sufficient in talk to God in my language so I may listen in!"
three months' time to enable the student to become This is the challenge of a thousand tribes an accomplished linguist, but the method is thor- around the world. If someone will speak to God oughly emphasized so that after the missionary in their language, they will thank God for the has been on the field for a short time, he may re- good news which comes through Jesus Christ.
THE NEED FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Probably never since the Copernican revolution has the need for Christian education been so dire as it is today. . . . Obviously, if the church-related colleges are only replicas of the State and secular cO'lleges, their contributiO'n to Christian character will remain negligible. If the doctrines of Christianity are dealt with only on the level of intellectual exercises, like original problems in geometry, what hope is there?-Dr. Henry C. Link, the author of "The Rediscovery of Man."
Adults to Read •
111 -t&f I By the REV. E. W. BAILEY, Minia, Egypt 11'- I NCREASING interest is being shown in the life ways by which village children may be educated of the Egyptian peasant. Though he consti- and kept in touch with their village life while still tutes two thirds of the population and for cen- in school. A schgol garden, sewing classes for turies, yes for millenniums, has been the wealth producer for his overlords, be they Turk, Mame- luke, or large land owner, he has been looked upon by his masters as existing mostly for their bene- fit, rather than as having any place of his own.
Today a new spirit is moving through the land and there is a new concept of the need for a fuller life in the villages. One meets it everywhere, in the daily press, in the lecture hall, in Parliament, and in private conversation with leaders in vari- ous walks of life. Nor is it all talk. Thegovern- ment, some land owners, and many private socie- ties have taken steps to better the lot of the peasant villager.
In the past few years members of the American Mission (United Presbyterian of N. A.) have taken steps to make the Gospel of Christ meet the EGYPTIAN EVANGELIST AND HIS CLASS whole need of man. One of these steps is along the line of adult education; the other is a village girls, and furniture making from the palm branch school developed along truly rural lines. ribs, are activities which have already proved to In a village near the city of Minia, a young evan- be worth developing, in addition to the three R's.
gelist, under the supervision of Miss Jean Mc- Crory, has hit upon one important feature of the THE UNCHANGING WORD OF GOD successful plans to teach adults to read, namely that the teacher must be confident of the ability of The Bible is one of the solid facts of Christi- his pupils to learn and must inspire his class with anity. It is not aff·ected by what men think of it.
that assurance. Within a few months this evan- Changing opinions about the Bible do not change gelist had taught a class of ordinary peasant wom- the Bible. Whatever the Bible was, the Bible is.
en to read from their Bible with sufficient intelli- And what it is it has always been. It is not men's gence, so that they were able to conduct family thoughts about the Bible that judge it. It is the prayers. As they read they learned that many Bible which judges men and their thoughts. It customs handed down from their fathers were not has nothing to fear but ignorance and neglect.
right-particularly the funeral and mourning cus- And the Church need have no other fear on its toms-and they have had the courage to break account. The Bible will take care of itself if the away from them. Soon the example of the women Church will distribute it and get it read. Every inspired the men to ask for a class and now a pastor should present the duty of Bible distribu- group of husbands has been formed and is making tion and Bible study afresh to the Church and all excellent progress. its members.
In another village, in the same district, the wife It is the Bible from which the ideal of the home of the pastor undertook a similar task, though is derived and from which the forces for its real- working more largely with individuals than with a ization flow. And what the Bible is for the home, class. Her success was even more marked. it is for men and women one by one-namely, the The other activity that looks toward a new em- source of true ideals of character and the foun- phasis in missionary education in Egypt is in a tain of those energies in Christ by which charac- village school in Edmu, also near Minia, the pro- ter is won.-Robert E. Speer, American Bible 80- vincial capital. This school is attempting to find ciety.
~ 550 1
Harvests in
I I~.- -•…et By the REV. CHARLES W. POSNETT, Medak, India O NLY those who have lived and worked in "Many 'devil priests' and priestesses were res- India for many years can realize the almost cued, and it is an unutterable joy to visit one who unbelievable changes that have taken place became an evangelist's wife, and is now a great in the past fifty years. We note the improvement leader amongst the women in the countryside in economic conditions, with the extension of irri- where as a child she was dedicated to the service gation and the lessening of famine; the increase of Satan. But for the wonderful Gospel of Christ, in education and unification of the country by she would today be a drunken prostitute, instead peace and communication; the improvements in of this beloved minister's wife.
health, including medical care and sanitation, with "From the first, I was determined to train evan- the great diminution in plague and cholera; the gelists, and, almost the first year, started with relaxing of caste restrictions and injustices, so three students. We started the Medak Bible that many of the depressed classes are now School, which has grown until now we have 200 treated as human beings; the increase in political students; it is the most valuable and important freedom, with the right of suffrage and self-gov- part of all our work. We have given to our most ernment; the generally improved social conditions promising young men and women a thorough and the raising of the marriage age for girls; but training in the Bible; the Gospel in all its sim- most of all we note the changed attitude of all plicity has become the anchor of their lives. These classes toward Christ and His Gospel and Way of young men and women go back to the villages Life. where they were born, where they were consid- Many testimonials are given to the revolution- ered of less value than the animals; these un- ary character and effect of these changes, which touchable outcastes, who had been trodden down fifty years ago seemed almost unbelievable and for generations, have gone back to preach to their impossible in so short a time. The Rev. Charles own people the saving power of Christ. By their W. Posnett, who has labored in Medak, in the lives and their Christian homes they set such an Province of Hyderabad, for over forty-four years, example that they have compelled the village writes as follows: chiefs and the caste people to respect· them.
"Forty years ago, when I first went to Medak, "For twenty-five years the village leaders and there was hardly a score of professed Christians. the caste people thought that Christianity was be- Today there are about 115,000. In that first year, neath them. While they confessed that the new a few outcastes asked to be baptized at night in religion had made a great change in this "miry the forest, where no one would see them. Today, clay," it was still to them the religion of the they are being baptized in hundreds every week, Untouchables. with flags flying and drums beating. They walk "These poor down-trodden, friendless Untouch- into the river, and the service is watched by hun- ables, found that Christ brought them missionar- dreds from surrounding villages, who have come ies who came into their dark little hovels, and to see what is done, for they are usually hesitating talked to them of One who could lift them up and before making the great decision. Many of those be their Friend. Slowly the outcaste Church bewho so confess Christ in baptism now are caste gan to grow, first in scores, and then in hundreds, people. They still face much bitter persecution, and at last in thousands. The fear of public bapif they decide to become His witnesses. tism became a thing of the past, and they began "In my first years, we were faced with a ter- to be proud to be Christians, though it cost them rible famine. Starving children who would have bitter persecution from their masters and the vil- been sold and brought up as household slaves, lage chiefs. They were beaten, their land conwere taken by us, and one English lady volun- fiscated by fraud, their cattle were refused graz- teered to come and supervise their education. ing, and in scores of ways they were tempted to Miracles have been worked in what appeared then return to the village gods, receiving promises of to be the very poorest material. Some of those. peace and land and help.
famine waifs are now ordained pastors, respected "For twenty-five years, this harvest was entire- and loved. ly among the Untouchables, but as these gradually [551 ]
rose in the esteem of all, the caste people began the compelling power of a true Christian life has to think that this religion must be something won- brought others from all over the district, and now derful. this harvest is spreading everywhere and is ac- companied by bitter persecution. The village "Fifteen years ago, caste Hindus were invited chiefs, especially, hate the thought of their own to our headquarters at Medak. To our unspeakable caste people becoming Christians, and they have joy, about one hundred thirty men and a few used the vilest abuse towards those who have brave women came from places as far as 150 miles made their confession. Yet this year, four of away. Each came in the company of a conse- these very village chiefs who were among our crated evangelist, who, though an outcaste, had bitterest enemies have publicly confessed the evil won their affection. For three days they were they have wrought and the suffering they have with us in our compound and ate the food which caused, and have asked their people for pardon. had been cooked for them by two of their own people, so as not to spoil their caste. They lis- . . Every year the harvest is growing greater." tened to the wonderful story of Christ with pictures and the magic lantern. Fourteen of them *** came to ask for baptism after they had been up all night fighting their doubts and fears. I told We also note the New Life Movement in Trathem that they must go back to their villages vancore, inaugurated at the recent Mar Thoma and give their witness in their own homes, and Syrian Christian Convention in South India. A learn more of Christ, for we did not want any group of 2,000 in Dr. Stanley Jones' Bible class hasty conversions which might afterwards be was told about the New Life Movement in China, denied. They had to be tested in the furnace of and resolved to launch a similar campaign to suffering before we would dare accept them into change certain things in the corporate life of the Church. India. The following points were selected: "One of these people was a government re- 1. Wipe out illiteracy in every village. corder, a Brahmin of very high caste. He publicly 2. Cleanse all filth from the house and compound. broke his caste and after six months was pub- 3. Every Christian's clothes clean. licly baptized. Ever since he has been faithful to 4. No debts contracted through marriage. his vows, and has been of infinite help to us in 5. All disputes to be settled out of court. scores of ways. He is now an old man and one 6. Adoption of a salutation, folding of hands and saywhom I dearly love. At his baptism there was a great crowd of caste people. He turned and ing, "Namaskaram." said to them, 'I have studied all the Hindu scrip- 7. Teach punctuality. tures, but there is nothing in them to compare 8. Give up all tobacco from personal and social customs. with the Gospel of Jesus. I have read it over 9. Give up use of liquor entirely. and over again, and I cannot hold back any 10. Indulge in no expensive feasts. longer whatever it may cost me.' 11. Charge no excessive interest. 12. At least one-tenth of income given to church and "Since then this harvest has spread all over our mission field. At first it was entirely confined charity. to the caste communities in one part, but again 13. A cooperative established in every village. 14. Family devotions observed in every home. 15. Cottage industries carried on in every home. 16. No recreation that cannot be taken in the Name of the Lord Jesus. 17. Wipe out all remnants of caste from thought and customs.
THE POWER OF GOD IN MISSIONS By REV. C. F. ANDREWS, OF INDIA When you read Romans, 7th chapter, you see a Paul who is all weakness. But when you read Romans, 8th chapter, Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." The power comes through a personal experience of Christ.
A few years ago, the people of the Fiji Islands were all savages. When I went there I found them all Christians, sending out missionaries to an island one thousand miles distant. They were g<;>ing to preach to savages and expected to lose their lives in the attempt. The farewell serVIce was the Lord's Supper and they sang their reason for going. "Come and help us. We are dying. Christ is calling. Come and help us."
In Uganda I went to a place where a stone had been erected to the memory of three Afri- can boys who were told by the African chief that unless they gave up Christ, they would be burned. They refused to recant and were burned. The chief watched them burning and commanded silence so that he might hear the boys crying for mercy. Instead he heard them singing, "Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly."
Pueblo Indian Religion*
A Review by G. E. E. LINDQUIST, Lawrence, Kansas -t£f Missionary·at·Large, Society for Propagating the Gospel Among }Se– the Indians I N PUEBLO Indian culture "art, morality and the Hopi Wuwuchim and Singer societies, who philosophy are one," according to Dr. Elsie "have the clowning traits of jesting with women Clews Parsons, noted ethnologist. Her recent society members or singing at them in obscene compendium on the "Town Indians" of the South- terms" (p. 974); and the sexual display of the west,* in all probability, is the most comprehen- Koshare (p. 438). "This type of behavior might sive analysis of these town dwellers of New Mex- be interpreted as phallic-but the copulatory bur- ico and Arizona thus far published. After the lesques of First Mesa (Hopi) or Koyemshi refer- Introduction which contains no less than 111 ences to bestiality must be described as obscene in pages, the author deals with the following sub- quite the same sense as we conceive of such sexual jects: expressions when designed for amusement" (p.
Ceremonial Organization for, according to the Zunis, 439) .
"poor people are people without ceremonial connection" In the files of the Indian Bureau at Washington (p. 112). there is a series of affidavits concerning some of the so-called "secret dances" of the Pueblos which The Spirits, whose number is legion, must be impersonated, "When the dancers put on their masks, they not only impersonate the kachina but Pueblo Indians believe are unprintable. Furthermore, Dr. Edward S. that they are kachina" (p. 170). Curtis, in his monumental work on "The North American Indian," Vol. XVI, p. 162, speaks in Cosmic Notions, include the emergence myth, "the story no unmistakable language of the effects (e. g., of creation as that of emerging from the underworld" child seduction) of these ceremonial practices, (p. 210).
Ritual, in which we are told that "Pueblo ritual is kaleidoscopic," embodies both the fixed and the mobile the authenticity of which, though challenged, (p. 268). has never been disproved. Teachers of long expe- rience in the Indian School Service have likewise Ceremonies which are numerous, and of which fourteen testified as to their observations relative to child are meticulously described. seduction. Perhaps Dr. Parsons has such obser- vations in mind when she speaks of "school taught Other sections are devoted to the Pueblo calen- attitudes" tending to break down Pueblo ceremodar, and historical and geographical "reviews" of nial life. (p. 1128.) "The self-consciousness 13 "towns." It is significant that 226 pages are shown by the younger generation toward their given to factors involving "processes of change" cults, more particularly in matters that school in Pueblo culture. Is this, perchance, a portent of teachers would consider superstitious or obscene, what is happening to break down the "social are largely acquired at school." (p. 1140.) cohesion and integrity" which some people seem to prize so highly?
In the closing chapters of her work, the author takes pains to point out that Protestant Christi- Aside from "the new found sense of shame"
anity has been a disintegrating factor in Pueblo (p. 1140), acquired by the young people and the life. She says: "Protestant sects contribute noth- alleged perils inherent in "the American schools ing to Pueblo religion but dissension and apostasy. and teachings" (p. 1155), other factors promoting They present so sharp a choice between the old the disintegration of Pueblo ceremonial life in- religion and the new that they are called 'crazy.' elude such economic changes as adoption of the Hopi converts move off the mesa and break en- wage system and the introduction of government tirely with the ceremonial life" (pp. 1112-3). flour mills (p. 1130). Perhaps the inconsistency That there may be obvious reasons why Protes- which would lead one to dance in propitiation of tant Christians must break with the old ceremo- the rain gods and at the same time rely on the nial life, does not seem to occur to the author, advice of the Department of Agriculture is a bit although she refers to certain immoral practices of mental coordination which the young Pueblo which are disgusting to say the least, e. g., the experiences difficulty in hurdling. Then, too, the rabbit hunt ceremony at Sa~to Domingo (p. 826), violence of witch-baiting has abated, due in part, — at least, to the influence of the American doctor • P1,eblo Indian Religion. By Elsie Clews Parsons. 2 Vols. $7.00. and Visl·tl·ng nurse (p. 1139). 1275 pp. University of Chical'lo Press. 1939.
[553 ]
Furthermore, the passing of certain societies tribalism and nationalism, its adequacies to meet like the War Society at Zuni, the Al-vo-na the needs of all men and of all races, that the mes- (Horned Ones) at Oraibi, also of jugglery, the sengers of Christ seek to preach the Gospel and commercializing of ceremonies, e. g., at Gallup, seek to propagate the Christian faith among the N. Mex., the growth of new towns outside the old Indians, including the Pueblos. villages, e. g., at Laguna,-all have a part in the eventual break-up of the old culture. And here it Every act of the old life of these people is bound may be well to remind ourselves that the Pueblos, up with their religious ceremonies so that the who more than any other Indian people, sought Christian Hopis (as noted by Dr. Parsons), who to build up walls of segregation and isolation, are a little handful at each Mesa, cannot live in confirming the same by religious sanctions, and their old homes any longer, but come down and build new homes near the mission. The followwho sought by means of their autocratic hier- ing words are especially penned by one of the archy to resist the normal influences of cultUre field workers: transfusion, now may soon see the framework of their carefully erected corporate structure totter. As I think of the needs of the Indian people, young and old alike, I am more concerned each day that we should Tribalism, inherent in the Pueblo religion, has bring to them larger knowledge of the Bible; that we been weighed in the balances and found wanting. should store their memories with more that will help them It cannot meet the tests of the trarisition period through the long silences and the days that are hard. in which the Indian now finds himself. It is be- They need to know the stories of the early Christians who cause of our conviction of the divine resources dared be true to Jesus in the midst of pagan surroundings, of the Christian faith, a faith which rises above for it takes sheer courage and a great conviction to remain a follower of Christ when all your people are against you.
Ten Good Reasons for Foreign Missions* By the REV. HENRY TOWNSEND BEATTY Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Hoboken, N. J.
W HY do I believe in foreign missions? 6. Because-I am a product of foreign mis- 1. Because-I believe in Christ. His sions. Were it not for the early disciples and belief in foreign missions is evidenced in other foreign missionaries, I would today be with- His incarnation, in His death on the cross, in the out the Gospel and the blessings of a Christian glory of His resurrection, in His final message on civilization. For "all that is best in modern civili- Olivet; as exalted Head of the Church, His belief zation is the fruit of the transforming power of has not changed. the Gospel."
2. Because-as a Christian I have caught some- 7. Because-as a debt of honor I must pay the thing of the spirit of Christ and, therefore, of His "debt of strength" to weakness; intelligence, to passion to seek and to save lost souls. Consequent- ignorance; wealth, to poverty; health, to sickly, it is my joy to imitate Him, to realize His ness; comfort, to sorrow; hope, to despair; and ideals and to extend His kingdom. the Gospel to a lost world.
3. Because-He bade His disciples proclaim His 8. Because-the only way I can pay this "debt Gospel to all the world. As I am one of His dis- of honor" to· those missionaries who suffered ciples, I believe this command involves me. His greatly in their stewardship of the faith that I wish is my pleasure, His will is my law. If He might know the Christ and be saved, is to pass says, "Do this!" I take him at His word and strive the Gospel on to others.
to do it. 9. Because-to evangelize humanity is to save 4. Because-I am a member of His church and the world from the tragedy of evil. To bring un- Christian nations into fellowship with the Son of am under vows to promote its growth and effi- Man is to create a new brotherhood of mutual ciency. His church is His method of proclaiming understanding, honor, protection, and righteous- His Gospel and saving the world. It is a united ness, thereby outlawing war and greed and a and organized effort to accomplish what no in- multitude of evils.
dividual could do. 10. Because—all Christian missions are one. If 5. Because-Christianity is a religion of expan- I believe in home missions, I must also believe in foreign missions. I must not neglect my homesion and must grow-or die. Therefore, as I land, but I must go beyond it. Beginning at Jeruwant it to live and to emancipate humanity, I must salem, I must go, or send, into all the world, proclaim and help others proclaim the Gospel until simply because He said so. the Kingdom of Christ shall encompass the world.
• From Women and Missions.
Difficulties in West China-II
By HOWARD THOMAS, Kiulungkiang, Yunnan Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
KIULUNGKIANG, YUN.NAN, CHINA, tIe, I had to carryon. I went to our headman VIA HAIPHONG AND SZEMAO and gave him the story. There wasn't any encour- March 27,.1939 agement. Finally, I said: THE traveling time from Rangoon, Burma to "Byaw Khum Bu, would it be unwise for me Kiulungkiang, China, is sixteen days. We to go to the Chow-fa with this problem? You can go from Taunggyi to Kentung by auto; know he has declared himself my friend. Chow the nine days' trip from Kentung here, we make Moung Hah (the provincial head) has also told me by pony. that he was willing to help me in any possible way. You know I can always go to the Chinese There is a custom of the people which offers officials. What shall I do?" a most remarkable evangelistic opportunity. When on tour, one is welcomed into every village He laughed and replied, "Bawou, (father, with open arms. Custom demands that a trav- teacher) if I write to the head of that village, the eler be entertained in the home of the headman. people can come." He wrote and the people came. One can even insist that food be brought, but we Half the village moved to our Christian village up always insist on paying for everything we re- river. ceive. It is quite proper to request that the village "Hurry Fast, Come Quick!"
elders be called to hear what the foreigner has to Just before Christmas a big fuss burst into say, and the sight of the village heads moving flames in one of our down-river villages and I re- towards the headman's house is a signal for the . ceived a call to "hurry fast, come quick." I has- entire village to assemble there. By taking the. tened to the river and boarded a raft. To make attitude of a learner, one finds that the people are this raft two small native boats are tied together ready to talk and hearts are open wide; when and a platform is thrown over them. On to this they have had "their say" we can preach the raft the boatman loaded people, packs, and ponies.
Gospel without reserve. Pray for us. My horse is a four-year-old stallion and has plenty Our present difficulty is the brother of the Tai of fire. I do not have much trouble with him ruler. He happens to be the head priest of a when he is alone, but when there are other horses corrupt and diluted Buddhism. When a man ac- around, he causes me plenty of trouble. On this cepts Christianity, he cannot continue to make particular crossing he nearly dumped us all into offerings to the "spirits" or support the temple. the fast flowing, deep, and muddy Mekong River.
If he ceases to do this, he is deprived of all land The twenty men yelled-fortunately a lot of rights. There is a custom here that relegates the words I didn't understand-and the hops (bas- ownership of all land to the Chow-fa, or head of kets) they carryon their shoulders, slid precar- the Tai people and one cannot hold land without iously about. I groaned and then we all laughed his approval. Religious liberty is supposedly as- -the danger was past.
sured in China, but it is not being practiced today After crossing the river there was a long trip here. There will be a great reception for the across the rice flats. As we were walking along, Gospel when these folk can accept it without los- one of the horses fell into a large hole that had ing everything they have. been made by ants. It is well nigh impossible to Two months ago a group of men came to call detect the presence of these holes until the unfor- upon me. They were visibly disturbed about tunate happens to step on one. The poor beast something. They addressed me in the usual could not get a purchase with his front feet and friendly manner and th~n launched into the heart he was having great difficulty in breathing. We of the problem. They wanted to move into a tried to get him out, but without success. The Christian village, but their headman would not saddle we broke, native ropes we broke, finally in allow them to take any of their goods with them. desperation we grabbed an oilcloth from one of It is my policy to keep out of politics, but since the loads and, putting it under his head, we this was another step along the front of my bat- tugged. Finally he got a foothold and out he [ 555]
Photo by Dr. Douglas Collier A VILLAGE STRmET SCENE IN WEST CHINA came. I thought for a while we would have to er to sleep in a dirtier, darker, or smellier place if I live to be a thousand. cut his throat and let him die. Shortly after this experience we began to The headman had been out fishing; and when he returned, he offered us a lot of snails. They climb such trails and such hills as I never saw be- wash the snails in cold water, cut off the top, and fore anywhere. It seemed that we went straight put them in warm water. They are then cooked, up, and I do believe that every third tree had taken from the stove and cooled. When dinner fallen across the trail. We must have gone fifteen is ready a large pot of rice is brought out and miles to advance eight. After about four hours set beside the table. Everybody dives in at once. we reached the top of the mountain and soon after With one hand grabbing rice and with the other we came into a mountain village. The children hand fishing for snails. The snails are sucked from screamed and ran, the women flew into their the shells with a long, loud, snore-like sound. houses, but the men approached us with some The louder noise one makes the more he is thought hesitancy. These mountain people are filthy, mor- to be enjoying his dinner. The dish neither ally and physically, and are demon worshipers. smelled nor looked inviting. My men relished the We went to the headmen's house and I hope nev-
TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES IN WEST CHINA-II
food and cast pitying glances in my direction About four that afternoon we began to ford when they saw that I passed up the snails. I streams. We had crossed three and were about drank a whole pot of his tea, which wasn't any across the fourth when an accident overtook me. too clean, but at · least the water had been well One of my pack ponies started up a bank that was boiled. soft and slippery. Somehow he got mixed up with soft ground and down he went. He landed The following morning we started about five at the foot of the embankment on top of my pack o'clock and reached our destination at about six and burst the packsaddle all to pieces. I thought that evening. The Christians, knowing that I was the horse had broken a leg, but he came out of coming, had a really big feast ready and I hon- the wreckage in fine shape. I had to load the stuff ored their cooking. on my riding pony and make a two man load to get to our next stop. The next day we called on some of the Tai officials and we were received warmly. One of our I remained in the leper village two days. Dr. evangelists showed some charts and spoke to a Nelson came along, as he was making a survey large group of people in the yard. When the officials heard what was going on they took leave of me and went out and stood in the sun listening as attentively as the others. Pray for these men. If God can break through to some of them the Gospel will have free course in the Tai country. Officials are afraid of the people; the people are afraid of the officials. A break must come soon.
Lepers and the Great Dragon A VILLAGE "SPIRIT-GATE" IN YUNNAN There were lepers present and I urged them to of the leper situation in that region. Doctor came come to our colony and receive treatment. They upon one village that was entirely leprous and flatly refused because they were afraid that we soon he is planning to establish treatment there. would take them and feed them to a great dragon. Please pray for him and his work. Then I helped the doctor with an operation. Out here one needs The Christians were having a harvest festival to be all things to all men. the next day, so I hurried back to the village. Just before the service began a mother brought a little We had devotional services with the men every girl up and laid her behind me among all the gifts evening, but the women wouldn't come. We sang that had been made to the Lord. The teacher told a song, prayed, read a portion of Scripture, then me that the little bundle of whimpers and sighs sang other songs and closed with prayer. This had been a fine healthy girl who ran laughing we did for two evenings. On the third evening I about the village. Now I looked at the helpless, asked if some of the people would tell me just crippled, blind little body and wondered. Some what Jesus Christ meant to them. Things began sickness had come and the mother had neglected slowly. Finally, the men got the idea. One man the little one. Every once in a while she would arose and said: moan and feebly cry out. Finally one of the women arose and wrapped her in a piece of cloth; "I am glad that the Lord took a big stick and another picked a banana from a gift bunch and punished me. When I had leprosy I found Jesus gave it to the poor thing. I felt tha.t the child Christ. If I should lose every one of my fingers might be a means of reaching those people. In my message I pointed out many of the things Christians have and for which thanks ought to be rendered to God. But I doubt that the people got my point. They are so accustomed to suffering that the condition of the child was the usual thing. She died that night. · They wrapped her in an old mat and buried her the next day in a downpour of rain.
Later in the week we set out for a new and small leper colony. They had begged me to come to their harvest festival. En route we came 'across a section where there were hundreds of leeches. They bite and suck a lot of blood out of a fellow. One of the carriers picked about 43 off his body during the day.
and everyone of my toes, I would still be true to feeling that I would confess Jesus Christ at every Him." opportunity.
Our teacher arose and said, "What do these The next day we started for home, so completcrooked and bent fingers and limbs matter '! When ing an eleven-day tour. We were very tired but my Father calls me home, He will give me a new happy to think of the great things that God was body and a home where there will be no more doing in this place. Pray for this work. There suffering or tears." are so many here without Christ, The leper whose disease has been arrested and A few Sundays ago Dr. Nelson came and asked who is head of our Ban Ann colony said: "You if I would go with him to a village where a mother all know me, don't you ? Well, if you know me you had been in labor for five days. We caught, sadknow what all the marks I have on my body mean. dled, and mounted our horses, but when we had You know what a wicked man I was. You know nearly reached the village, we were told that the that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. Now he has woman had died. We could hear depressing wailremade me and I, who was bad have been given a ing. We found that there had been five native place of honor among you. You trust me. Yet doctors attending the woman who was about to it's not that you trust me but Christ who lives have her eighth child. in me. God can strike me dead, give me leprosy, but I will still be true to Him. Why? Because Pray for us and for the great mass of untouched He gave me hope, love, and peace when all the folk here. Several influential Chinese have inworld had turned against me." formed us that if we had a Chinese church here they would attend. The wife of our ex-magistrate The testimonies went on and on, many men went so far as to say that she would become a rising with tears falling down their cheeks, mere- Christian and others have promised to attend all ly saying: "I do love Jesus!" and then took their classes. God is opening doors but they seem to seats again, Others arose, but could say nothing, be opening faster than we can enter them. We sobbed, and sat down. I have never been in such have set ourselves to pray that God will cleanse a meeting before. It is a great thing to be able to and use us to win souls, to deepen our church leadpresent and serve a' Christ who can give men like ers, and that He will send a great revival. He these lepers such joy and hope. I left that place has already begun to answer our prayers.
The Youth Movement in China .By SAMUELS. CHANG "~"< THE modern youth movement in China is the two measures of reform, given lip service by high natural outcome of the conflict ·betw~!l the officials too old to change their attitudes, failed, old, philosophical, rural culture of China and but the last measure, educational reform, had farthe modern, scientific, and industrial culture of the reaching results. Once the system of examinations West. on Confucian Classics as a means for the selection of officials was abolished, and the system of mod- In the last decade of the 19th century, forward- ern education adopted, the tide of learning rose looking leaders in China advocated the adoption rapidly. Within the short span of twenty years, of Western scientific and industrial methods and 1901-1920, the number of students in modern techniques. But at that time the official hierarchy, schools increased from a mere handful to some from top to bottom, was ignorant, inefficient, and six million. corrupt. High officials not only did not believe in human progress, but failed to notice even the most Aside from progress made in the new learning advantageous aspects of Western culture. at home, the number of students studying abroad also increased from a few hundred students in The rise of the Chinese youth movement began foreign countries to approximately six thousand at the end of the last century, when China was de- young Chinese pursuing higher education in Eufeated by the Western powers in her struggle rope, the United States, and Japan. When these known as the Boxer Rebellion. This setback shat- students came into contact with foreign culture, tered the last vestige of the old regime, and made they naturally became more critical than those the officials realize the inadequacy of the tradi- staying at home. tional methods and the neces'sity of adopting Western civilization. Measures were adopted, dealing While the youth were working toward enlightwith political reform, administrative improve- enment and progress, there were reactionary ment, and educational reorganization. The first forces. The elders were still pursuing their daily
THE YOUTH MOVEMENT IN CHINA
life according to time-honored standards. Officials versity, it aimed at substituting the spoken for the still maintained the attitude of seclusion and false classical language. To the masses this classical pride in dealing with the foreign countries, while language was a dead language, and often required in dealing with domestic problems they adopted five to ten years for a talented student to master the method of suppression and oppression. it. In order that the youth movement might suc- As a result Chinese youth devoted their energy ceed, it was recognized that there must be a com- to political revolution as a means for reforming mon vernacular. This language movement was their country. Fortunately, in the late eighties of welcomed by the new leaders, and in two years'
the 19th century a group of Chinese youths had time, most of China's current literature was being already organized a revolutionary party which is written in the vernacular.
now known as the Koumintang or People's Party, When the Chinese youth caught the spirit of headed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. His aim was to es- these forces their emotions ran high and they let tablish a republic based upon the principles of na- their idealistic enthusiasm run its course. Thus, tional independence, political democracy, and the within the short span of ten years from 1916 to economic welfare of the entire people. With the 1925 publications increased by leaps and bounds increase in number of modern students and the and the expressions. of the new era spread like advancement of the new learning, this revolution- wild fire. The whole atmosphere was filled with ary party grew in membership and strength and the expressions of discontent with the old scheme finally succeeded in 1911 in overthrowing the old of life and there was the longing for something regime. new to take its place. During the first part of the The triumph of the revolutionary cause sig- period, there was very little constructive help to nalled the release of new forces which took the be found in the movement. It is in the nature of place of the old and sought to reconstruct China things that when the thousand and one old con- as an independent nation, as a land of freedom ceptions-such as old customs of marriage, and with democratic institutions for the happiness of expensive funeral ceremony – were questioned, all the people. some better social arrangements would eventually But the control of the new Republic fell into result. This movement was the manifestation of the hands of officials and generals who, though a new intellectual consciousness in the young men championing the cause of republicanism, were re- and women of China. Education had revealed the actionary at heart. Yuan Shih-kai, one-time im- necessity of a new social order.
perial adviser, became president of the new Youth Awakens the Nation Republic and the revolution turned out a farce.
The presidency of the Republic became the foot- In the midst ·of such a new outlook, and revolt ball of ambitious warlords; and China came to be against the traditional, there came suddenly the the battlefield of rival armies. There was no one news that the German rights in Shangtung Prov- person or party strong enough to stabilize the ince were given to Japan by a decision at the Ver- country. For fifteen years chaotic conditions pre- sailles Conference. This stunned Chinese youth vailed in China. and soon the students of Peking were organized, While these .struggles were going on, social and 15,000 from thirty-three schools and colleges customs and traditions were daily becoming dis- in Peking paraded the streets as a demonstration organized. At first the Chinese youths were against the Shangtung decision. Students in Pe- restless and confused, for they lacked adequate king organized in a students' union; made leadership. Fortunately, at this time of restless- speeches in the streets; appealed to the people, ness the modernization of education produced a demanding the dismissal of the "traitors." Next few intellectual leaders who were mature enough the student body declared a general strike, and to direct the path of impulsive youth in the re- thousands massed in the streets and fiery speeches habilitation of China. were delivered. Within two weeks the students of These intellectual leaders perceived that China's all the big cities declared sympathetic strikes.
greatest need was to adopt boldly the democratic Furthermore, the merchants declared sympathetic institutions and modern techniques and that this strikes and hundreds of students' unions sprang adoption must be through the people and absorbed up in many places all over the country. "The Na- by them. As a result of their foresight and work, tional Chinese Students' Alliance" was organized a series of social revolutions took place which have in Shanghai in June 1919 and by the declaration come to be known generally as the Chinese Renais- of this national organization the nation-wide stu- sance Movement. dent strikes came to an end.
One of the most important phases of this move- From that time on China was transformed into ment was the literary revolution which changed a new nation-a nation of the people, by the peo- the entire outlook of the nation. Started by Dr. ple and for the people. Young China had turned Hu Shih, when he was a student at Columbia Uni- away from the old ways of living and old modes of
thinking. She was looking forward to a new and tionalist Government in 1927, the Chinese youth richer life. movement underwent a change. As the major obstacles to national unification had been removed, As China was thus awakened by the youth it was felt that the students once more should demovement, the people were on the march. Sub- vote their time to studies. The Government exersequent years were full of troubles, brought about cised its power to restore normalcy and to dis,courby the popular resentment against foreign dom- age any kind of agitation. As a result, it was with ination and against domestic problems. The first difficulty, that the Tenth National Assembly of great strike, assisted by the youth, broke out in student representatives was called in 1928. As 1922 among the Chinese seamen of Hongkong. the subsequent years saw national life returned to Inevitably the strike became a political struggle order, the National Student Assembly did not call against British economic control. Other strikes any more meetings. followed and crystallized resentment against s.pecial foreign privileges in China. This peace was short-lived. Suddenly, on Sep- tember 18, 1931, Japanese armies invaded Man- In 1925 revolt became revolution when in churia, and Chinese youth were on the march Shanghai the International Settlement police fired again. The military overlords of Japan were on students who were demonstrating in protest viewing with alarm the rise of the people of China. against the murder of a Chinese cotton mill The Japanese chose a time to strike when the worker by his Japanese employer. A half million world was paralyzed by depression and when workers in the city went on sympathetic strikes large parts of Chinese territory were flooded, and and Chinese merchants and even banks closed China was in no position to resist. Almost untheir doors. The outbreak spread to other cities. opposed, the Japanese war machine rolled on into A nation-wide boycott, organized by the students three northeastern provinces. The students reagainst British and Japanese goods, was launched sented the government's nonresistance policy and and a bitter struggle developed. again started a general demonstration, demand- ing the declaration of war .against Japan. Later As the Chinese youth had risen to such an in- the situation became so critical that government fluence, they struck the hour for the Kuomintang authorities decided to adopt drastic means. regime in Canton. In July, 1926, under the lead- Troops were called out to escort the students in ership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the the capital to their respective schools. The stunewly trained armies of the People's Party, dents, however, went to the countrysides to make marched north against the warlords. Before them speeches appealing to the farmers and arousing went youth as propagandists, organizing pea.."Iant their patriotism. Because of the work done by the leagues against reactionary landlords, winning the youth movement among the masses, the National support of the workers. The armies pressed on, Salvation Association, which advocated a united sweeping province after province into their con- front against Japan, was able to recruit members trol. When Chiang Kai-shek reached Shanghai from all the classes – peasants, workers, merthe workers, influenced by the students, seized the chants, and professionals. Mass education and city by a general strike and turned it over to the agitation spread. Again the people moved to com- Nationalist armies. mand their destiny.
During this period of upheaval, the Chinese Meanwhile China's youth began to understand youth movement turned its enthusiasm to many the intention of their government, which was. makdirections. First, there was the anti-religious ing rapid strides forward toward building a modmovement. Influenced by the scientific thinking, ern nation. They participated wholeheartedly in Chinese youth had been skeptical of the benefit of the task. The outstanding instance was the New all religions, especially Christianity, which had Life Movement originated by the leaders of the been most aggressively preached. They thought government. This organization aimed at the spirthat religion was opposed to science, that it makes itual reconstruction of the nation by teaching the for divisions and wars and that it had been made people the four fundamental principles–courtesy, the instrument of imperialism. As the result of justice, honesty, and honor. With the cooperation the anti-religious movement, foreign educational of the youth, this movement spread far and wide institutions were brought more in line with the and within the span of five years has had thou- Chinese Government regulations. sands of branches and millions of followers. This spiritual movement has greatly changed the entire Second, there was the anti-military movement. people in their personal cleanliness and mental The youth movement recognized the break-up of outlook. Furthermore, it has also aroused popthe country into great military centers as inimical ular sentiment against unhealthy surroundings, to the unity and progress of the nation. This and promoted education, playgrounds, clean city movement undoubtedly paved the way for the es- streets, sports and healthful activities. tablishment of the Nationalist Government at Nanking and the unification of the country.
After the Kuomintang Party established the Na-
IMPRESSIONS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN
While Chinese youth were working fervently Since the outbreak of hostilities, the majority for the modernization of their country, Japan of Chinese youth have been moving to hinterparts struck again on July 7, 1937, with the intention of the country which were formerly little touched of conquering the five northern provinces. But by modern civilization. They are carrying with this time she found a different China, a China them the germs of modern scientific thought, whose 'people were aroused and ready to resist to spreading them wherever they go. Before long the bitter end. Ever since that date, China has from the comparatively unknown and sparsely been fighting with great strength and confidence. populated areas of the interior of China will Japan is contending against a people of 450,- spring up a new civilization which will undoubt- 000,000 strong, who are determined to have a edly help to rebuild the nation, bringing a fuller and more modern life to all of her people. showdown.
Impressions of Buddhism in Japan* By WINBURN T. THOMAS Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, 1933, Kyoto, Japan AS A CHRISTIAN missionary, it is my pur- ture, philosophy, society, economics, and politics L. pose to preach the Gospel of Christ and to all show the marks of Buddhist influence. Per- haps it is too much to expect anyone foreign stu- spread the Kingdom of God. While this dent of Japanese Buddhism to be able to approach should be the purpose of all Christians, a mission- the whole subject sympathetically and impartially. ary is one who feels the urge to do so beyond the Sir Charles Elliott's study of Japanese Buddhism confines. of his home environment. Western is perhaps the most exhaustive work on the sub- Christianity is so enmeshed in the social, economic ject, yet its treatment is for the most part conand political systems of the Occident that it· is fined to an analysis of the history and teachings almost impossible for a Western missionary to of. the most prominent sects. completely divest himself of the cultural concepts of America or Europe. No such thing as "pure" A foreigner who has lived in Japan some years Christia.nity exists anywhere, for it has become recently remarked, "I don't see why missionaries involved in local culture, wherever it has spread. come to Japan, since Buddhism is essentially the Vital Christianity everywhere exerts an influence same as Christianity." on life and customs, not only spiritually but socially. As it is expressed in the thought and ac- F,ew students of comparative religions would cording to the psychology and needs of individuals make this statement. It illustrates the ignorance and groups, it gradually produces social, economic which prevails in some quarters as to the two and political changes. Lasting results are produced religions. only when it works slowly and persistently. In Japan its proponents and enemies have often tried I to use Christian ideas as dynamite, but the results have not been permanently successful. Chris- It is true that Christ and Buddha have some simtian missionaries, to work successfully for the ilarities.t Both sought to show the way of re- Kingdom of God in Japan, must understand the lease – one from sin and the other from pain. nature of the environment in which they work. Both point out to men the way to attain their end This involves a knowledge of many things, in- by sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus was in his cludingan understanding of the local religions. death. Buddha's sacrifi·ee was in his way of life.
Buddhism has had a profound effect u~on Japan, These two religions which developed about these as has been the case with Christianity in Europe two personalities also have points in common. and America. Japanese art, literature, architec- Neither of the leaders founded a complete reli- gious system, but their followers did. Buddha • English translation of an article which appeared in the Chugai pointed out a way of salvation independent of the Nippo, a Buddhist daily of 13,000 circulation ·and a popular peri- gods and dependent on human effort; Jesus odical among leaders nf all the religions in Japan. The edltnr once pointed the way to God, the Eternal Creator. Both remarked to the writer, "Many of my readers accuse me of being a Christian. " t The writer is indebted for the following line of thQught to Streeter's "The BUddha and the Christ."
Buddha and Jesus are looked upon as gods in the change with it. Most of the students who attend minds of millions of followers. The liturgies the Fellowship House:j: groups claim to be inwhich developed in Buddhism and in the Roman different to religion. Many young people in the Catholic church bear a striking resemblance, so West have also turned away from the religious much so that the first missionaries to Japan re- concepts of their fathers. Young people may not garded Buddhism as the invention of the devil be any more irreligious than other age-groups, but to mislead Christian believers. Hoben (the ac- many of the forms of religious expression do not commodation of a religion to environmental de- appeal to them. The existence of Mu-kyokai mands) has been a working principle of both (extra-church Christianity) among young people Roman Catholicism and Buddhism, both being in Japan reveals that Christ attracts many who willing to make compromises in the interest of do not wish to be identified with the existing popularity. Christianity and Buddhism are mis- churches. Because Buddhism is less flexible and sionary religions, being world-wide in their ob- more ponderous in Japan than Christianity, it jective-a characteristic shared only by Moham- faces a greater crisis in this res.pect than does medanism among all the other ethnic religions. Christianity. Both have been marked by rivalries and dissensions, so that sects are numerous. Contrasts-Buddhism and Christianity Man's natural propensity to find out about God There are also many contrasts between Chrisaccounts for some of the resemblances between tianity and Buddhism. Some are rooted in the backgrounds of Indian or Jewish thought; some PRIESTS ENTERING "HALL OF LIGHTS" AT MT. KOYA in the personalities of the two great religious leaders; some are due to the historical developthese two religions. Man attempts to express the ments of the two religions. There are many sects unexpressible in symbols. The Roman Catholic in both religions so that statements which one bows before the figure of the Virgin Mary; the group would approve would be disclaimed by the Buddhist prays before Amida; the Protestant others. We call attention to some contrasts that addresses God as Father. In each case the be- strike a general observer and do not present the liever is seeking to realize the divine character- conclusions of a scientific student of comparative istic of mercy and love. religions. What we see and hear from Japanese Buddhists and priests makes a deeper impression There is also a tendency for one religion to bor- upon us than volumes in Japanese. row from another. The alleged relationship between Nestorianism and esoteric Buddhism is a Christ's and Buddha's concepts of God are quite case in point. The Buddhist counter-reformation, different. Buddha, in his sermon at Benares, since the reintroduction of Christianity into Ja- made no mention of God or of the soul. Early Budpan, is a better illustration of how Buddhism has dhism did not express any conception of a personal come under the influence of Christianity. God. Buddha did not deny the existence of many gods.; he was agnostic as to their powers, and con- Both Christianity and Buddhism have been ceived of them as higher forms of men, subject greatly influenced by the progress of science and to the law of rebirth. According to Buddha, even by the world-wide situation which faces them. gods must pass away. Christ, on the contrary, Religion is being tested and both in the West and taught monotheism as it had been accepted by the in the East the religion of multitudes is found Jews. "The Lord thy God is one Lord" was the wanting. Where religion is bound to the status underlying teaching of the Old Testament prophquo, to that extent it is doomed, for the world is ets. One of the fundamental commandments was changing and the externalities of religion must that there were to be no images. The Jews were taught to envisage Jehovah as, the sole creator and ruler of the universe, who had a personal interest in each of his creatures.
Historically, some followers of both religions have departed far from their founder's conception of deity. Mahayana's revision of the original ideas of Buddhism permitted the introduction of many images, before which worship is offered and which represent many different gods, or different aspects of the same reality. Roman Catholicism has met the problem of concrete representation by canonizing saints and the Holy Family, using *A stUdent center in Kyoto with which the author Is connected.
images to, make the deity co,ncrete; but in the personal and so,cial manifestatio,n o,f religio,n, are popular mind they also, tend to, divide the co,ncep- but different aspects o,f the same reality. tio,n into, segments. Buddhism is metaphysical, and Christianity is One majo,r difference between Christianity and so, practical that the practical side o,f Buddhism Buddhism is their emphasis o,n meditatio,n and bears a stro,ng resemblance to, the theo,retical side practical wo,rk. A Westerner usually thinks o,f o,f Christianity. It is no,t to, be denied that so,me Buddha and his fo,llo,wers as in a state o,f perpetual Buddhists have had a so,cial visio,n; while so,me meditatio,n. While co,ntemplatio,n is stressed particularly by Zen and Shingo,n Buddhism, it is mo,re A KWANNON HEAD, SAID TO BE THE WORK central in the practice o,f all Buddhism than in OF PRINCE SHOTOKU IN THE CHUGUJI Christianity. While private devo,tio,ns and medi- NUNNERY, HORYUJI, NEAR NARA tatio,n on Go,d are stressed by Christianity, yet gro,up wo,rship is pro,minent in devo,tio,nal prac- Christians are no,t greatly co,ncerned with phi- Io,So,phy and metaphysics, but by and large, Budtice. Jesus went here and there, in Judea and dhism is essentially metaphysical while Chris- Galilee, talking info,rmally with gro,ups, and His tianity is a mo,re co,nsistently practical religio,n. disciples co,ntinued this metho,d after His death, to, spread His teachings. The impo,rtance o,f the ser- One o,f the Indians said: "Christianity satisfies mo,n declined during the Middle Ages, but with and then diss.atisfies, fo,r it gives us new Io,ngings. the Refo,rmatio,n, a sermo,n-centered religio,us To, be a fo,llo,wer o,f Christ is bo,th jo,yo,US and painservice became the main part o,f Pro,testant wo,r- ful." Saul o,f Tarsus, he said, saw glo,ry and ago,ny ship. The autho,ritative basis o,f the Refo,rma- in Stephen as he was sto,ned. The co,nverted Paul tio,n was the Bible as the infallible Wo,rd o,f God. lived a life o,f hardship in which radiant jo,ywas It was the minister's duty to, interpret the Book blended with endless suffering. Paul further saw to, the people, altho,ugh every believer had the the co,smo,s in the thro,es o,f titanic birth-"All privilege to, do, that fo,r himself, under the guid- creatio,n gro,aning . . . waiting fo,r the so,ns of ance o,f the Spirit of God. Protestants believe Go,d." that they learn the will o,f Go,d in their gro,up services, and in private meditatio,n and study.
The Japanese have always lived in clo,se quarters, thus they have developed the art o,f abstractio,n in the midst o,f no,ise and bustle. Industrialism o,f itself has no,t therefo,re played such havoc with co,ntemplative wo,rship in Japan as in Euro,pe and America. Japanese have always had to, discipline themselves to, pray at their shrines even in the midst o,f co,mmo,tio,n.
While Buddhism is stro,ng in its emphasis UPo,n prayer and meditatio,n, it is weak from the practical angle. A pro,fessor at Otani University (a Buddhist institutio,n) recently said: "Buddhism, no, less than Christianity, has its theo,retical and practical sides. Its theo,retical as.pect is its metho,d o,f salvatio,n; practical Buddhism co,nsists o,f teaching these ideas." By practice a Christian means the pro,jectio,n into, the so,cial o,rder o,f the Christian ethical, mo,ral and religious ideals. By "faith" the Christian means the attitude o,f trust, ho,pe and belief in Jesus Christ as the revelatio,n o,f Go,d in His benevo,lent perso,nality, purpo,se and Po,wer. By practice the Christian means that this faith must bear fruit in regulating character, life and co,nduct. Unless the Christian daily engages in acts that reveallo,ve and truth, then the reality o,f his faith is do,ubted. "By their fruits ye shall kno,w them," said Jesus o,f his disciples. Fro,m the Christian Po,int o,f view, personal religio,n (which includes prayer and meditatio,n) and the
Are Suffering in
W HILE the Russian economic and political captured by the G. P. U. and put in prison where policies and methods are undergoing some changes, with the discovery that certain she found another Christian woman who was supcommunistic theories are unworkable, the Soviet rulers' attitude toward religion is. still antagonis- plied with food by Evangelical believers. tic. The crude methods of ridicule and destruction, with .attempts at forcible conversion to Later she was transferred to a large jail with atheism, have given way to more subtle methods of suppression and anti-religious education. The 12,000 captives, among whom were young and masses of the Russian peasants are still religious and believe in God. PersecutJon always tends to old, men and women. People were beaten until strengthen faith and to give new courage to those whose faith is founded on the Word of God and they lost consciousness, with the purpose of puton experience of His love and faithfulness. But Christians in Russia, especially the Evangelicals, ting out of their minds any thought of pleas to the are suffering because of misguided officials.* authorities.
In general, Russians stand upon the words of Here women and girls gave birth to children, Christ and the teachings of the Apostles. The Greed of the Russian Orthodox Church in which, many of whom were illegitimate. Mourning, before the Revolution, every Russian was instructed from early childhood, states: weeping, sobbing, cursing was heard in the crowd.
I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of Some became insane. Words fail to depict the Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible. physical and moral sufferings of the prisoners. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the onlybegotten, begotten of the Father before all worlds. Finally Mrs. – was sentenced to "Three years Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not of exile on the Mongolian border!" There were made: of one essence with the Father, by whom all things two thousand people in the freight train which was jammed with "living goods," so full that it was impossible to lie down. People continued to die on the way and at the railroad stations the bodies of the dead were taken out. The newly born babies were thrown out. I This transportation to the Siberian steppes ast- ed several months but the Mongolian border was finally reached. There were no houses or woods round about; just sand and desert! The people lay on the ground through rain and dew. There weWrehomafodre. us men, and f or oiur t sa v·a lOn, came down f rom was no food. Death was reigning. After three Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost, and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. years in this exile camp only two persons, Mrs. – and a Greek Orthodox nun, survived. And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suf- Religious people of all denominations suffer fered, and was buried. in the same manner-Greek Orthodox Church And rose again the third day according to the Scripture. members, Evangelical Christians, Baptists, Luth- And ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand erans, and other groups are persecuted by the of the Father. anti-Christian Soviet Government. In many pris- And He shall come again with glory to judge the quick ons and in exile Mrs. – was with old Russian priests, monks, nuns-with people of different beand the dead, whose Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who liefs, people of various walks of life who had for- gotten their former differences. Under these cirproceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the Prophets.
The Bible is read in the Russian Orthodox cumstances their sufferings, distress, anguish, hope, prayer, songs, and even death were common Church at every church service and the word of to all of them. God is preached but not fully and clearly as giving personal assurance of salvation. The missionary- When her term of exile expired, Mrs. _ reminded Evangelical churches must still unfold be- turned to central Russia to her children, and found fore the Russian masses the need for a personal that they too had been in exile for several years. acceptance of Christ. But many Russian Christians are suffering great persecution. Finally she escaped to America, where, she says, "I see gay faces on people, which I did not see in Not long ago, Mrs. M. M–, the wife of an Soviet Russia. It is like a miracle to me to look at Evangelical preacher, was able to leave Soviet joyful people. It seems to me unreal that I am Russia and to join her husband who had already now free, and that I have the right to go to any church. It is even strange to me that Sundays are escaped. celebrated, for such celebration is annihilated in After six months of wandering, Mrs. – was Soviet Russia. I earnestly pray my Lord to free • The following information Is taken from The Russian Field and our Russia soon, and I ask other Christians to J·oin with me in prayer for my native country." from The RIreilvn.k,r. thVe. NoregparanshofIs thDeireRcutosrs.ian Missionary Service of which the , [564]
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I Effective Ways of Working 'rested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MISS GRACE W. MCGAVRAN, 5718 OAK AVE., INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA ~'=I==============~====~~ Christmas and Missions doubtless have others. Many of which someone's special interest the newer hymnals have excel- in Christmas music, or in music A liberal minded woman came lent new carols. A good new in general, may be utilized to home from the December meet- children's hymnal is sure to have enrich the missionary heritage ing of the missionary society, at least one there. Your minis- of your church. quite out of patience. "It was a ter may have sample copies of lovely Christmas program," she various new hymnals or the Decorating a Gift Tree -.Said, "but it had not the slight- other churches in your commuest connection with or reference nity might loan you the use of Who does not love to decorate to .missions expressed. We shall a hymnal in which you can a Christmas tree? Here is an be having dozens of Christmas search for carols with the mis- idea that has been carried out programs. I wish this could sionary message. Carol sheets more than once by Sunday school have been different." and books are also a good source. departments ranging in age You cannot always judge by the from youngest to oldest. One wonders. Are there no first line or the first verse. Read m iss ion a r y implications in the carol completely through. Send a gift tree to some fam- Christmas? Are there no world ily or child or old person who f r i en d s hip opportunities? Is Here are a few carols suitable will not be able to have one. The there no need to stress Christian for giving the missionary or tree may simply be decorated, or peace and goodwill? world peace emphasis. it may also bear gifts. In some cases a decorated tree is sent Some groups and churches "Joy to the World" is among the with a basket of provisions. have found ways of emphasizing most often used. But it is often sung these values. We mention some without any thought of its missionary Each member of the giving of them. implications. group should bring a 5c decora- tion. It is surprising how many Christmas Carols and Missions "As With Gladness Men of Old" is different kinds appear, from tin- among those most suited for dedica- sel cord to red glass balls. Chil- The radio, carolers, the habit tion of offerings. dren may make some of the decoof choosing the same "favorite" rations. They should be effective, carols for every church service "From the Eastern Mountains" is if they are for a gift tree. and meeting, our own slothful- very good, and so is "To Usa Child ness in searching out the new, of Hope Is Born." One person should be responare all bringing us almost to the sible for having on hand a tree saturation point of finding any "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," of the desired size. It should not delight in the more familiar car- "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night," be too big for the expected numols. "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," ber of gifts. In some cases sev- and "Christmas Has Come Again," eral tiny trees are decorated. There are many carols of are fine for world peace emphasis. which one would like to speak; Decorating the tree forms a they are of as great beauty and "There's a Song in the Air" (sung part of the program and chilimagery as tho s e ordinarily to the tune by Harrington in the dren especially e n joy taking used. But let us limit ourselves Methodist Hymnal) is among the turns in hanging their decorato those which carry the mis- most ecstatic in tone and is well tions. They are usually free with sionary message and yet are full worth using as special music. suggestions and criticisms. If of Christmas spirit. gifts are to be hung on the tree "In the Lonely Midnight" is one of they should be placed at the They may be used in many the newer carols with a message for same time. Since the tree is to ways. If they are unfamiliar to today. be transported, decorations and some of the group, consider us- gifts. must be securely fastened. ing them as poems, with pic- "Christian, Lo! the Star Appear- Fine wire hairpins, straightened tures ; or as unison readings; eth," and "Come, Thou Long Expected out, form good fasteners. as quartettes or solos; or for Jesus," neither of which is usually group singing. found among the Christmas Carols, The decorated tree (with gifts are full of the Christmas spirit and or without), is taken by an in- Your usual hymnal may have message. dividual or by a committee to some of those noted below, and the selected recipient. the young people's hymnal will This is only a brief list from among those you will be able to One church department deco- find. Why not ask someone in- terested in music to make a search and build up, over the years, a carol book of Christmas music with especial reference to the world's need of Christ to- day? Here is another point at [565 ]
rated half a dozen tiny trees to Then came an accident: The Ask some mother in the go with as many baskets-to candles set fire to the cardboard church, preferably a leader in needy families, to hospitals, shield. It flared up. But the Parent – Teachers Association, to home missions institutions, serene voice n eve r faltered. who is also keenly interested in to city missions. It is wise to Someone went forward and car- world friendship, to form a conconsult those acquainted with ried away the candles and the genial committee of two or three such places before planning a burning cardboard. The room well-informed women to compile gift-tree so as to be sure of the was left in darkness, except for a list of books to circulate among need, and so that the gift pack- the light of a near-by street the parents of the church. ages· may supply the need. In lamp which streamed dimly in. The committee should visit a the case of a family, money for One could see the outline of the good children's library if possifood or clothing may be ad- forms around the tables. ble and look at the children's vanced so that a committee may That was a test few services books, explaining the purpose of do the purchasing before the have. And it rose without a their proposed list to the chil- change of mood above the cir- dren's librarian. The purpose is tree is sent. Some groups are able to make cumstance. The hearers were to give the children a true picsuitable gifts and enjoy this. held by the magic of the mood ture of children of other lands so which had been created. Christ- that they may be led to an inter- The Spirit of Christmas mas was there, in the room. est in and a feeling of friendship When the reading was fin-· with them. Some books of hand- A young women's missionary ished, there was no sudden flash- crafts, etc. which will develop group had their usual December ing on of bright lights, bringing appreciation should be inclu<,led supper meeting. Toward one one too abruptly out of the mood for older children. side of the room there had been of the service. Here and there a A second step may be to visit set up, on a small, high table, a candle was lighted and finally the local book store and talk to tiny creche, complete with stable the lights were turned on. the one in charge of children's and with dainty though inex- That experience could be re- books. Find out what is in stock, pensive figures. The· you n g peated in any group and for any how long it will take to order woman who set it up had raised evening meeting. The creche books, and explain about the list the stable itself on some hym- may be large or small. It may to be circulated. Persuade the nals, and had then placed a card- even be a posed tableau group book store to stock at least a few board shield across the front of if the characters are arranged of the recommended books. . the table, veiling it with bits of in positions which can be held Now prepare the list to send evergreen. Behind the shield without undue strain for the to the parents. The name of each were two short, fat, unlighted time necessary. The reading may book, a little about it, the price, candles. be supplemented with medita- the age child for which it is suit- The members, as they arrived, tion and song. The audience may able, and how to get it should enjoyed looking at the little join in, singing without books be added. If there can somecreche. One wondered, however, or lights, the stanzas of carols where be a display of the hooks why it had not been made "the familiar to them. on the list, give such informa- centerpiece, instead of being so The Christmas story may be tion. far to one side of the room. the theme, beginning with the Mimeographed copies of the Presently that was explained. ancient desire for a Saviour and list should be circulated as early When, following the simple sup- closing with the picture of the as possible in December. Unless per, the time came for the meet- world needing Him and coming the list is clear, clean print, ating, the order was reversed: to His Manger. tractively set up, and good ad- The program came first; then It would be easy for different vertising copy, it will not be efthe devotional service. As the classes and departments to take fective. Ask the help of someone devotional leader was intro- part, the soft voices of children who writes advertising copy to duced, the lights were turned coming in, all unannounced, with help set it up. out and someone lighted the can- the beautiful story of the shep- Local stores may be willing to dles in front of the creche. In herds from Luke, and others run an advertisement if there is the back of the room, another adding their word of story or to be an e mph a sis in the candle was lighted behind an- praise or song. churches on such books for gifts.
other screen, and a clear sweet Local stores may be willing to voice began quietly reading Bi- World Friendship Books set up a display table with copies ble passages, prose of exception- of the most attractive books, and al beauty, and one or two poems. Of all their gifts, many chil- a placard indicating their value The entire group relaxed in dren like books best. Why not as Christmas gifts. the quiet darkness, while before help the cause of world friend- The following is a short list of them the candlelight flickered on ship by calling to the attention good books recommended in one the little scene. Other pictures of parents in the church, the ex- reading list. They can be selike tapestries, were woven, in cellent books now available in cured through almost any book their minds, with the magic of which the characters are chil- store. You r denominational words coming out of the dark. dren of other lands? bookstore can probably get them
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
for you. There are dozens of "It looks as though a new con- consider the carefully prepared other books as attractive and as ception of Christian fellowship outlines and source materials isgood as these. may result from these contacts sued in the field of this year's with young Chinese Christians." study by many mission boards. CARNIVAL TIME AT STROBECK, by Some of this comes monthly in Harris, 1938, $1.50 (German customs In this day of narrow nation- the missionary magazines. Other of that community; stresses ideals of alism, and of the resulting lone- studies are issued in a block at sportsmanship and fair play). Older liness which comes to the for- the beginning of each six-month primaries and juniors. eigner in our land (especially or yearly study period. when his fatherland is carrying CHILDREN OF AMERICA, by Nolen, out a military policy in high dis- Even if you wish to build your 1939, $1.50 (character b u i I din g favor in America), there is a own program outline, secure and stories) . Juniors. Christian d u t y in fellowship look through these source ma- which we should not ignore. terials. They often represent THE FEAST OF LAMPS, by Root, months of research by someone 1938, $2.00 (a child's experiences at To take for granted that, be- wit h international resources the festival for the goddess Meenakshi cause the present Japanese gov- available. They will put inforin Madura, India). Older primary ernment is militaristic, every mation into your hands which and junior. Japanese sanctions every act of in its up-to-dateness and com- that government, is not fair. pleteness and relevance to the FAR ROUND THE WORLD, by Mc- Similarly we cannot afford to year's theme is nowhere else to Gavran, 1939; cloth $1.00, paper 50 brand as Nazi, or Communist, or be found. cents (biographical stories introducing Fascist, or barbarian, or whatthe missionary at work). Junior. ever our chief aversion is, any One such set of program ma- person living in our community terials for July to December, THE FRIENDLY MISSIONARY, by whose forebears came from the which has been received by the Millen, 1939, 25 cents (picture and country at present governed un- editor of these pages is the Year story book for primary). der a form of government we do Book and Program Packet put not like. out by the Missionary Education HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS, by Brock, Department of the United Chris- 1938, $2.00 (Swiss Alps). Older pri- In t his day of increasing tian Missionary Society, Mismary and junior. hatreds, should not every church sions Building, Indianapolis, In- and each organization in it, con- diana. It is available for 5 HUNT FOR A HERO, by Reason, 1938, sciously seek interracial friend- cents for the Year Book and 50 60 cents (India). Juniors. ship and fellowship, not only cents for the Six Months' Pro- with the racial groups with gram Packet. Of course, it has JUNIOR, A COLORED Boy OF CHARLES- whom our sympathies lie at the denominational materials along TON, by Lattimore, 1938, $2.00 (sym- moment, but with those whom with the general consideration pathetic treatment of the Negro we find ourselves inclined to re- of its theme – Christ and the theme) . Juniors. gard with displeasure. World Community.
KEE-KEE AND COMPANY, by Hol- There is a technique for such Be sure to write to your delister, 1938, $2.00 (adventures of a fellowship. Its purpose is not to nominational headquarters and missionary's children in Chi n a). put the guest on the defensive. secure whatever they issue, be it Older primary and junior. There need be no discussion in packet form or in monthly about points on which there is magazines. Use it as source LITTLE KARl, by Loulsson, 1939, controversy. Rather, let us seek material even if you wish to $1.50 (Norwegian). Primary and the common ground where we build your own programs. But younger junior. can become acquainted with the consider also using the programs ideals of the Christian groups of much as they are built for you. MARIKA, by Szekely, 1939, $1.50 both races or nations. Let us Deep thought and much consul- (Hungary). Junior. become engaged in a common tation has gone into that plan- service to humanity. Let us ning. NANCY GOES TO MEXICO, by Lanks, meet with others just for the 1938, 50 cents. Primary. sheer joy of friendly association. Why Wonder? Let us join with them in some NANKA OF OLD BOHEMIA, by Pelzel, celebration, some service, some If radio's slim fingers can 1937, $2.00 (from Old Bohemia to study, some enterprise. pluck a melody America). Christian fellowship seeks the From night and toss it over a LUCIO AND HIS NUONG, by Crockett, common ground of brotherhood. continent or sea; 1939, $2.00 (charming book on the There is deep need of such fel- Philippines). Primary. lowship today. There willl be If the petaled white notes of a deeper need in the days and violin Interracial Fellowship years ahead. Are blown across a mountain A young Chinese woman doc- Build Good Programs or a city's din; tor who was taking her interneship in a California hospital, As you begin to think about If songs like crimson roses, was not too busy to organize a program materials for 1940, are culled from thin blue air; club for a group of teen-age Chinese girls. She found them at- Why should mortals wonder if tending a little mission in the God hears prayer? town where the hospital was located. -Mrs. Ethel R. Fuller.
The girls were sadly in need of more social life. Through one of the home missionaries, whom she knew, word of that need was reported to one of the churches of the town. The women of the church responded promptly and, as a starter, a party was given for the girls.
The occasion was happy and contact is being kept up. The one reporting the incident says,
BULLETIN
Council of Women for Home Missions EDITED BY MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, 297 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
~~~I===========================~ Have You Thanked the directly to Michigan where they stay periment, placing families on for June strawberries, July cherries small plots of land so that they Migrants? and raspberries, August early peaches may supplement their earnings and September peaches and grapes. as "croppers" by cultivating Migrants are as close to you as Then they start back to Florida for your kitchen! For many years, their own gardens. But it is migrant laborers have been gath- the fall crop. significant that a religious orering the fruits and vegetables ganization was the pioneer in atthat eventually reached your kit- Another story shows how one family tempting a constructive prochen, either fresh or canned. follows one crop from state to state. gram. The Council of Women These wandering workers have The woman has worked in tomatoes made a material contribution to since she was fourteen years old. She for Home Missions opened the our lives, a contribution little went from Florida to Mississippi and first "centers" nearly 20 years recognized and still less appre- there, four years ago, met her hus- ago and the work has grown ciated by Mr. and Mrs. Average band while packing tomatoes. They Citizen. Not only are they as have been married three years and from those 8 centers in 4 states as close as our kitchens because have two children. They follow tomawe are consumers, but geograph- toes from Florida to Mississippi to to 56 in 14 states. ically also, they are close to us all Kentucky or Tennessee, later perhaps for every state needs migrant to Maryland, and back to Florida. Starting with work for chillaborers for cultivating and har- dren, the program has expanded vesting, or packing and canning its crops. Is it not strange that to include young people and more so many people have known little recently, the whole family. This or nothing about them? newest service of furnishing a team including a minister, his wife who is a trained children's worker, and a nurse, has been so successful that it ,is hoped to have more teams in the near fu- Recent publicity is making the Picture by pe'rmission oj F.B.A. ture. The team stays in one migeneral public conscious of the grant area for the crop season problem of migratory labor. "HOME" ON THE MUCK-LAND IN FLORIDA developing a well-rounded pro- Much of this publicity leaves the gram including health, recreareader with the impression that In the middlewest also there tion and religious activities. Rethe migrants are a problem in are groups which follow with cent reports from the first team the western states only, chiefly fair regularity a succession of in California are convincing in California. The situation is crops. proof of the value of such a promore acute in the west but the gram carried out with the coproblem is very real in other Current books and articles operation of growers, the farm areas and in the east a "cycle of make quite clear that the prob- bureau, local ministers and othcrops" has developed quite as lem is acute, but little mention ers of the community. The definite as those better-known in is made of attempts to help the Western Supervisor of Council the west. An example can be migrants. The government in work says, "This work makes us given from the story of one fam- recent years has made a begin- more aware of the great need for ily of nine, recent migrants, who ning at meeting housing needs more teams. Let us hasten the had formerly been share-crop- by establishing well-organized day!" The need for haste was pers in Alabama but could not camps in some areas and, in a strikingly expressed recently by make a living though the older few places, has initiated an ex- a foreign misisonary home on children worked hard along with furlough who after discovering the parents. To quote from the the tragic plight of the migrants report sent by a Council worker: stated that we can't work effec- And so they started on the migrant tively in the foreign field until road with a car and baggage trailer. They have planned their itinerary so we solve this problem in our own that they are in Florida about six country. months in beans, tomatoes, celery or potatoes; two weeks to a month in This new plan resulted, dur- Tennessee in strawberries, and then ing August, in the holding of 32 evening meetings in six camps, [568 ]
BULLETIN: COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS
total attendance of 2,304, and 13 discouraged souls? It is the re- brought them. Our youngest is a Sunday school sessions in four sponsibility of Christian people baby of six months. When he was brought to the center he presented a camps, 326 in attendance. The to make possible several "teams." picture of malnutrition, unable to hold up his head, lacking a change of faminister of the team reports: As the Western Supervisor cial expression and with the cry of a two weeks old baby. After a month, The response so far has been far writes, "There can be no great- his lusty howls can be heard all over above my expectations both in the er happiness come to one than the center and he is beginning to ascamps and from the local churches. sume the normal actions of a child One cannot come into the camps suc- that of a migrant family when his age. A member of the committee cessfully from anyone sect. The they move to another crop and saw the child on entry and has seen find their friend and counsellor, him charge. She stated that the nurs- Council of Women for Home Missions ery would be worthwhile just to see has the key that opens the closed the Council worker. Hundreds that one child begin to have a chance door, 18 denominations working to- of families continually tell us in life. gether, not promoting anyone, not knocking any-these are the magic that we are their only real In the report of an eastern words that do the trick. The work of friends who seem to understand center for negroes we find these words, "The work here has been the nurses in these camps has opened their problems." of such a nature that the mia door that no one can shut. I made grants. boast of it and tell others a thorough canvass of six camps dur- The first work for migrants in of the blessings it bestows." ing July. On an average, I have been able to read the Scripture and have Florida was started in March, In the onion-growing territory 1939, the Council furnishing a of Ohio a 10-weeks program was conducted with the cooperation prayer in a slightly larger percentage supervisor but the work being of the Women's Department of of homes than in my regular pastorate the Ohio Council of Churches in California. So far, it is something under the direction of a strong and a local committee. Seventy over one-half of the homes that will local committee in which all civic children, chiefly from Kentucky let me do this. I found eight former clubs all churches, the packing families, were enrolled. They participated eagerly in all the Sunday school teachers and a Sunday and business houses and many activities of the Center. Eveschool superintendent in one camp, individuals of the community ning gatherings for the adults seven teachers in another. I find a offered bright spots of social felthird of the people were formerly ac- cooperated. The work is to be lowship in lives which are ter- headed this year by a local nurse ribly drab. tive in churches back East. I find only a few who still rate themselves who had experience the first year Life isn't a very joyous affair "Christian." In one tent I visited I under Council supervision. The in the onion marshes! One of saw a cot, a bed for two made of the workers writes: quilts lying on the dirt floor, and a Council will still be a part of the project, paying the salary of the Every night we pass a little boy of gasoline stove on a fruit box-nothing eight, with an old straw hat on the else in the tent except a pile of dirty head worker and acting in an back of his head, and his shoulders clothes on a cardboard box at the end. supervisory capacity. The Flor- stooped with weariness. Every morn- On one end of the cot a woman sat ing as we pass his house with a load writing letters, her mind evidently ida project differs from others of children he is out in front, in his in that the center must function old straw hat, waving and waving unback east where the letter was going. til we are long out of sight. Yes, she used to teach Sunday school 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. she said bitterly. "Teach it now, in The packing houses run night His little brother is enrolled in the the camp? Why I am not even a school and comes regularly and he is Christian. How can anyone be a and day so that parents are many enrolled too, but he came only three Christian in,-in this?" and she times unable to care for their days, and then he went back into the fields to weed and thin and top onions. pointed to the dirt and the clothes. children even at night. There "If anyone had told me when I was He's a little boy and an eager boy, active in the church that I would ever were 50 children enrolled at the and one who is so tired most of the come to live like this,-" She did not center with an average attend:. time that he just doesn't feel like playfinish. I asked her if she did not ance of 25. This project dif- ing, even if he had the time and oppor- tunity. think Jesus understood her circum- fers from others also in that the stances, and would make allowances. parents pay more for care given "Yes," she said, "He understands. But me, I am not trying to be a Chris- their children, twenty-five cents tian now. How can I?" We read a day for one child, but a "bar- from the Bible and had prayer. She gain rate" for two or more from had only been out in the camps a few the same family! To quote from days, and the shock of the actual conditions were terrific. What will she a report: be like in a few months? Some parents visit their children Who can measure ihe good ac- two or three times a week, others once complished by this ministry to or not at all. We have six who have not been home since their parents MIGRANTS That innocence should suffer this, That blameless ones should come to this, Should be so much denied, This constant buffeting Brings Calvary beneath our feet, Is treason to humanity, Commons the crucified. A cross for suffering.
That humankind should treasure this, Should be to this resigned, Compels my heart to pray, "Oh God, How is Thy way defined?"
-Samuel E. Boyd, A Council worker, Summer '39.
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~1= = =O= U=£=E=~=TEW=i:=s~=~n=M~=R;=r=~=d=~ =~=~=a=~=~=~=~=~C=SO=~=~=~n=N~=!=O=~=~=?=o=k= = =J MISCELLANEOUS the Lutheran World Convention and development was included and of the United Lutheran in the plan for the Woman's Di- Missions in War Time Council in America. The Na- vision of Christian Service in tional Christian Council has the Board of Missions and The Presbyterian Board of cabled urging consultation and Church Extension. Each na- Foreign Missions is authority suggesting that the service of tional tree, planted in its own for the statement that the war the Lutheran Federation of native soil will bear the fruits of crisis has not diminished interest Churches be enlisted to care for evangelism, education, medical in foreign missions. There is a the churches deprived of Ger- work, literature, youth, childgreat demand for missionary man missionaries. The Luther- hood, world peace, temperance, speakers. In over twenty stra- an Federation in India is coop- rural education, home life, intertegic cities throughout the erating. racial relationships and econom- United States, a Presbyterian ic justice. Foreign Affairs Convocation The Lutheran Council has also gives teams of five or six out- established communication with "Christ Calls" Program standing missionary leaders an mission Boards in regard to opportunity to meet with men, German missions in the British The proposal of the Internawomen, young people, church- colonies of Africa, urging that tional Christian Endeavor for a school teachers, pastors and el- efforts be made to befriend the two-year program topic, "Christ ders to discuss their relationship missionaries. In China and the Calls," has won hearty support to the program of Christian Netherlands Indies it is expected from young people, a fact borne missions in the present critical that the German missionaries out by the extensive sale of the situation. The convocations con- will not be deprived of their Program Guide, now in its secclude with a forum based upon freedom, but support from Ger- ond edition. A few suggestions 65 carefully worked out ques- many will be cut off. on only one of twenty specific tions, covering the whole mis- types of action indicate the scope sionary task. Week-end youth In the Versailles Treaty a and challenge of this program: fellowships in foreign missions distinction was made between bring together representative missionary property and other Encourage young people to young people to discuss the alien property. Trustees for be loyal, thorough, and effective world mission of the Church. In mission property were appointed in church membership, church four Presbyterian Theological and in the course of time such attendance, and church financial Seminaries courses in foreign properties in British territories support. missions are also offered, with were returned to the German sofull academic credits. These cieties. It is hoped that this Emphasize the importance of courses supplement other mis- principle will be recognized now. church membership. Give persionary courses, and active mis- sonal invitations, fro m one sionaries present the challenge -A. L. Warnshuis. friend to another. Make persons of Christianity to the Church. who might consider church World Federation of Methodist membership the subject for What of German Missionaries? p ray e r, individually and in Women groups. Study and promotion of German missionaries working stewardship. in British territory will practi- At the 70th anniversary of the cally be interned, but the gov- Woman's Foreign Missionary NORTH AMERICA ernment is trying to avoid pro- Society in Pasadena, California, cedures that occasioned criticism a charter was signed for the Gideon's at the World's Fair over similar action during the "World Federation of Methodist War of 1914 to 1918. There are Women." A constitution was Since the Gideon Booth was about 124 German missionaries sent to Methodist women's or- opened on the 23d of May in the in India, most of them belonging ganizations in America and more Hall of Communications, at the to the Lutheran Church. The than twenty nations of the World's Fair, 15,000 visitors International Missionary Coun- world. This body, representing have signed the register. They cil has consulted the officers of approximately 4,000,000 women, have come from every state in was recognized at the Uniting the Union, every province in Conference in Kansas City, and Canada, and from sixty foreign provision for its organization [570 ]
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
countries. Four hundred and missioners will extend their ef- ward union of other communfifty thousand Gospel tracts have forts beyond the churches and ions. For example, there is the been given out, and 12,500 cop- include in this "spiritual mobili- discussion going on between the ies of the Gospel of John. Two zation" all community and civic United Brethren and Evangelipersonal workers have been con- organizations, schools, women's cal Churches, both Methodist in stantly in attendance, George W. clubs, service clubs, and busi- doctrine, polity and discipline. Mathieson, Jr., a graduate of the nessmen's, farmers' and labor- When they are united there will Philadelphia School of the Bible, ers' groups. be no insuperable obstacle to and James Bisset, a graduate of their joining The Methodist the Moody Bible Institute in Among the plans announced Church, to which they really be- Chicago. They have taken time for the year of preparation was long. Negro Methodists not into explain God's plan of salva- a "week of prayer" beginning cluded in the unification are now tion to each inquirer, and nearly January 1. Prayer services will showing signs of getting togethtwo thousand men have pro- be held in churches all over the er. These are the African, the fessed conversion to Christ. country each day that week. African Zion, and the Colored Each of these received aNew Meditations will be based on a Methodist Churches, and they Testament, in which he wrote book which will be published represent more than one million the following: this winter, "Acknowledging the families. Larger groupings of Lordship of Jesus Christ in All Lutherans have been effected by "Date ………………. . Areas of Life," by Robert Speer. the combination of several small I, ……. (name) ……. , have bodies in the United Lutheran this day accepted the Lord Jesus Boys' Missionary Society Church and of others in the Christ as my own personal Sav- American Lutheran Church. iour. . . . The boys at St. Paul's School, Four other bodies are now dis- Concord, N. H., have a lively cussing the possibilities of enter- "Realizing that I am a lost missionary society of their own. ing the latter. Of still more imsinner, and that nothing but the Some of their activities might portance is the doctrinal unity Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, suggest ideas to other schools, revealed in negotiations between can cleanse me from ,gin, I now or even churches. For one thing, the three largest Lutheran accept Him as my own personal they have a Lost and Found groups-the United, the Ameri- Saviour." Committee. If this committee can and the Missouri Synod. finds a coat lying around, its Those who have signed these owner may rescue it for ten New Unification Movement cards include Protestants, Cath- cents, to be added to the society's olics, Jews and Protestant funds. The sale of second-hand Six major interdenominationchurch members of all denomi- textbooks is another source of al agencies giving field service to nations. Most of them have income, a special committee American churches have formed been young people of the teen managing the bookstore and the "Intercouncil Field Departage. Next in number come charging 25 cents each for books ment" as a means of unifying young men in their twenties; donated by boys who are through the approach to the churches. very few are over 50 years of with them. The six agencies represented are age. the International Council of Re- The society supports a sum- ligious Education, the Federal The Gideon register has mer camp where boys from city Council of Churches, the Home served as a means of contact. slums may spend two weeks. A Missions Council, the Foreign The fact that nothing is sold in publicity committee provides a Missions Conference, the Nathe booth has aided greatly in bulletin board, with posters, tIonal Committee of Church this personal work. charts and pictures of the work Women (combining three na- of the Church at home and tional women's organizations) -Kenyon A. Palmer. abroad. Included among many and the United Stewardship other activities are monthly Council. New National Preaching meetings with missionary speak- ers, and discussions open to all The plan adopted unifies all Mission the boys. This society, with field service under one staff coun- forty to fifty members, is man- cil, of which Dr. T. Quentin Mill- A year of preparation has aged entirely by the boys them- er of the Federal Council was been inaugurated for the Na- selves, with one faculty adviser. elected chairman, and Rev. John tional Preaching Mission of B. Ketcham of the Internation- 1940. Ten thousand persons en- -The Church in Action. al Council, secretary. listed for "spiritual mobilization." Dr. Jesse M. Bader of Trends Toward Church Union -The Christian Century. New York, who will be in charge of the 1940 'Preaching Mission, The Christian Advocate ob- Mid-Missions presided at this mass meeting. serves that the chief conse- quence of Methodist unification Elyria, Ohio, has been the The purpose of the National will be manifest not so much birthplace of more than one mis- Preaching Mission, according to within the ranks of Methodism sionary enterprise. Here was Dr. Bader, is "to strengthen the as in stimulating the trend to- Church" and "to reach the unreached with the Christian message." To "reach the unreached,"
organized the Men's Missionary For all that, she supports the rate of Negroes above one year League in the United Presby- church. Who is she? A Hol- of age is nearly double that of terian Church. In 1920, an in- stein-Friesian cow whose daily white people, and infant mor- dependent Baptist Missionary production of milk is from 50 to tality was 60 % greater. He also Council, "Mid – Missions," was 80 pounds, i.e., 22' to 35 quarts, found that the overcrowding of organized there. It now has 110 for which purchasers pay about the schools was far beyond that missionaries on the field, about $3.60. Not in all India where a of white schools.
half in French Equatorial Af- cow does not produce enough Prof. Douglass is demanding rica, the rest in Venezuela, Bra- milk to pay for her feed, much of the City Council more schools zil, Peru, India, Liberia, Haiti, less contribute to a church, is for Negroes, more small parks Jamaica, St. Helena, Hawaii and there such a cow as Greenwood and swimming pools, more housin home mission work in Ken- Johanna Clara. This is just an- ing projects, more hospitals and tucky and among St. Louis Jews. other way of saying that the clinics. Its latest bulletin reports: ability of rural Christians to support the church depends upon "The Calvary Baptist Church, Religion in Indian Schools Binghampton, is building a dis- the productivity of their cows pensary at Fort Crampel, Af- Time was when missionaries rica. A friend in Cleveland is and other animals, and this, in and religious education directors furnishing the funds for the were given a free hand to teach school building at the same sta- turn, depends upon the quality Bible to all the Indians in the tion. Another friend sent $1,000 schools. Later came a governto put a missionary on the field of the farmer's character. ment regulation that permitted and help in his support." religious instruction being given At the annual meeting of the to those children only whose The full name of the organiza- parents signed a written request tion is The General Council of Christian Rural Fellowship in in the presence of a government Cooperating Baptist Missions of employee as witness. The Unit- North America, Mishawaka, Ind. the Town Hall, New York City, ed Presbyterian Mission at Warm Springs, Oregon, waited -So S. Times. December, 1937, Secretary of an opportune time to secure the parents' signatures, meanwhile In Earnest About Missions Agriculture Henry A. Wallace talking it over with leading In- dians. The opportune moment The Seventh-Day Adventists set forth certain ideals concern- seemed to come when the governare not playing at missions. ment built a fine neW school in Every Sunday in every Sunday ing rural life. When, during the the Reservation; then the misschool an offering is taken for missions, after a definite mis- question period, he was asked: "What can the Church do to help the Department of Agriculture make those ideals effective?" He replied, "Your question really should be, 'What can the Depart- ment do to help the Church make Christianity effective in rural life?'" -World Call.
sionary note has been sounded in Ohicago's Negroes sionaries put it up to the parents, with the result that parents of the classes. The church's tithe Paul H. Douglass, a Quaker is all for missions, and ~ll for- and a member of the faculty of 30 children signed at once, and by the end of the year half the eign mission Sunday schools and Chicago University, has been children in the school were enchurches are on the same tithing elected a member of the Chicago rolled in Bible classes. The folbasis, furnishing a large pro- City Council. "Anyone who sup- lowing year, 1938, a whole after- portion of the amount put into posed that this Quaker would be noon was allowed for Bible study the foreign work. They have quiet very long," says Advance, and the number enrolled includabout half the membership of "did not know the gentleman." the Sou the r n Presbyterian He got busy at once with a reso- ed all the children in the school Church (whose Christian Ob- except those in two families. lution calling for the creation server publishes these facts) and of a Chicago Race Relations Rules for Ohristians in contribute from four to six times Commission. He contends that Wartime as much to foreign missions. Chicago's Negroes live under There seems to be no hint of Adventists are by no means worse conditions than those of rich people, yet persistent, con- any other large city. In some war hysteria either in or outstant education in missions and the tithe principle have done sections on the South Side there side the churches of Canada. marvels for their mission work. are 69,000 Negroes to the square One small college church of mile, as compared with 37,000 The United Church has sent out about 150 members gave $7,000 whi,tes to the square mile in the to missions in one year. white community adjoining. to all pastors a memorandum in Prof. Douglass found that in which four points are empha- sized: .
The Church must maintain at How Greenwood Johanna Clara most of the quarters which he all cost faith in God the Father Supports a Ohurch examined there could be no real of Jesus Christ and, centered in development of family life, that that faith, provide, amid the She is not a church member the rentals are much higher than fiercest strain, a haven of peace.
and no one expects her name those paid by white people for The Church must more than will ever be on the church roll. similar quarters, that the death ever affirm the reality of that
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ecumenical church, conscious- day School extension work was quest was granted and a group ness of which was revived at ready to start. of twenty people formed the nu- Oxford, and declare the obliga- At that time the Presbyterian cleus of a congregation. Since tion of loyalty to this supreme Church in Porto Rico had less there is no church building as fellowship into which warring than 3,000 pupils on its Sunday yet, services are more or less re- peoples must yet be brought to- School rolls; teachers were stricted by federal law. A young gether. scarce and their training and graduate of the Hooker School The third plea is for under- background poor. So teacher in Mexico City is helping the standing and sympathy between training institutes were organ- pastor, Rev. Alfonso Gomez.
those who feel that Christ im- ized and volunteer workers chal- The following notice was pels them to give themselves in lenged. Today there are more printed in the English section of active service, and those who feel than 9,000 pupils in Porto Rican a paper published by the Mexthat Christ precludes any such Sunday schools and over 500 ican Episcopal Church, La action. teachers and officers. Buena Lid: -Monday Morning. Like the Society of Friends, Gospel by Mail in Mexico It is the impression, we believe, in churches and church members the United States, that there is a must develop ministries of com- strong persecution by the Government fort and healing by which some The Presbyterian Board re- of all churches here in Mexico. This suffering may be assuaged. ports that during the past year is absolutely untrue! All churches in Mexico 15,073 Gospel portions are open and services are being held. and 45,219 tracts have been sent LATIN AMERICA -The Church in Action.
The Gospel Spreads in Haiti to public officials, school teach- South America's Youth ers, postmasters, telegraph op- Twelve thousand southern erators, R. R. Station agents and From the educational stand- Haiti laborers, recently returned a number of merchants through- point, the youth of South Amerfrom working in Cuba where out the country. This type of ica are looking up. Tremendous they have become evangelized, work was undertaken about two modern educational programs illustrate how little the results years ago. It is probably safe are being promoted by practicalof Christian work can be fore- to say that every village and ly all South American governseen. In 1885, a soldier in the town in Mexico has received at ments. This is true from the rebellion against Spain, A. J. least one Gospel portion. grades through the professional Diaz, fled on a log in the open There are encouraging results schools. Rio de Janeiro now sea and was carried off by a of this work. Here is a typical claims with pride that they have strong current, but was picked one. a seat in school for every child.
up, half famished, by an Ameri- The secretary of an Indian In the face of Brazil's eighty-five can vessel and brought to New village in the mountains of per cent illiteracy this is momen- York. In aNew York hospital Guerrero received a roll of lit- tous. In Argentina, Uruguay, he found aNew Testament erature, read it, was touched and and Chile there are likewise exwhich led to his conversion. He wrote for more. Soon he was panding building programs, rereturned to Cuba to preach the converted and began to have a sulting from increased insist- Gospel. His first convert was real burden for the spiritual ence upon general education, and his own sister, and his parents needs of his tribe. He began to increasing numbers have professoon followed. The first Baptist speak to his friends and to read sional aspirations. This trend church in Havana was organized the New Testament to them. has a direct effect upon the work in 1886. Ten years ago Protes- Then on Sunday, August 7, he of the churches. Students of tant churches in Cuba had 9,849 called a meeting of the Indians law, medicine or dentistry, even members. Now Haiti is receiv- and translated portions of the when professed Christians, aring Christian impulses from New Testament to the one hun- gue that there is no point in join- Cuba. -So S. Times. dred who attended. This man is ing a church.
a Tlapaneco, from an area There is also this unique sit- Tent Work in Porto Rico marked "unexplored" on govern- uation. Pastors of churches, ment maps. Because of his in- Since 80 per cent of the Porto terest, two translators have been even of the larger churches, are Ricans live in the country, Rev. sent into this district to study usually practicing physicians, Santiago – Cabrera decided ten the language and translate the years ago that the way to reach New Testament in Tlapanece. lawyers, dentists. This is nec- essary because salaries paid by these scattered groups was to The Church in Mexico inaugurate Gospel tent meetings. the churches are exceedingly People want the Christian small, entirely too small for the The next step was to find a tent. Church in Mexico. From Telo- support of a single man, to say This missionary's two sons bus- loapan, a town 120 miles south nothing of a family. This sitied themselves seIling Porto Ri- of Mexico City, came the request for a minister to start work uation has a discouraging effect can laces, beads and baskets upon the building of ministerial until they earned $90 with which leadership, and therefore upon they bought a second-hand army the development of the churches.
tent, patched it up, and the Sun- there. After two months the re- -The Commission.
Gospel Triumph in Brazil to apply the law, how to allow One day this year two mission- the teaching of different reli- aries came into this town in The establishment of a strong gions and at the same time safe- their old Ford. The sexton was national church in Brazil is one guard against dogmatism and delighted to have some of his of the triumphs of the Gospel. intolerance, has been a real prob- difficulties cleared up; and the In some places it has grown lem. -Christian Century. truth explained. Open air meetfrom nothing in a few years to ings were held, Bibles were sold, active, well-organized groups. Japanese Clergy in Brazil and there is now a flourishing One example of this is the Pres- congregation in that town, with byterian Church in Ribeirao There are four Japanese Epis- the sexton as one of the stal- Preto, with 90 members, organ- copal clergymen in Brazil at warts. ized twelve years ago. Sunday work among the Japanese colschool attendance averages 160; onies of coffee planters in Sao -Neglected Continent. there is a progressive women's Paulo. The thoroughness with auxiliary and a Christian En- which they pursue their work EUROPE deavor Society, equally alive. may be seen in the fact that they Much of this achievement is due have 1,000 baptized church mem- War Time in England to Senor Ferreira and his wife. bers. At their seventh annual He is superintendent of a public convocation, clergy and lay Rev. William G. Peck records school of 1,200 pupils, but finds workers discussed the Creed, the some of his observations about time to devote many hours a Atonement and the Epistle to life in England in war time. He week to the Sunday School; at the Philippians, believing that senses a new friendliness, a new least one night a week he preach- the first essential of all their appreciation for the little coures in some home in the outskirts work is an unshakable belief in tesies, new compensations for of the city. His wife is also a Christ as Son of God, Saviour the anxiety; even the necessity public school teacher,is president and Guide. for living a day at a time has its of the women's auxiliary, a Sun- blessing, because in the hurryday school teacher and preaches Practical means of promoting ing and scheming many precious somewhere almost every week. their work, most needful for and simple things of beauty are themselves, were listed as fol- missed. Mr. Peck notes with One may see Gospel triumphs lows: More frequent prayer; surprise how many strangers in the home life as well in Bra- better preparation of sermons; accost him to talk about religion. zil, where it costs something to more careful planning; more One lady, whom he knew to be be an evangelical Christian. At frequent gatherings of church no church-goer, said to him: the very least, it means social people and more visiting of those "Don't you think this is the end? ostracism. Many instances could who tend to lapse; more atten- Don't you think God is tired of be cited where blessed influences tive Bible reading; critical ex- us? I am sure He must be tired are going out from happy Chris- amination of their past work in of me, and my sort." An edutian homes. order to improve the future. cated man walked with him, say- ing that he was ashamed of his -Presbyterian Survey. -The Church in Action. life, but that he had never really doubted that life was a serious Gospels in Brazil Schools The Power of the Book commission given by God. At a church service on the day war Last spring, the Congress of The sexton of a large Roman was declared, the congregation Ceara, a prominent northern Catholic Church in one of Bra- brought gas masks as well as state of Brazil, voted to author- zil's interior towns had always prayer books. Nobody was restize reading of Gospels in the had an intense desire to read the less, or showed signs of panic. public schools, instead of instruc- Bible. After much difficulty he The sermon was about the peace tion in the Catholic catechism. became the possessor of a Cath- of God, and when it came to an This reveals a new tendency. olic version and as he pored over end the congregation continued Several years ago, one of the it, his eyes began to open. So to kneel, praying. more liberal priests of Brazil, thrilled was he with the truths where private reading of the he discovered that every evening -The Living Church. Scriptures has always been bit- he would sit on the pavement terly opposed, began urging the outside his house and read the Testaments for Soldiers people to read the New Testa- Bible aloud to the townsfolk. ment. About two years ago one Soon he had a large audience of During the war of 1914-1918 of these liberals, Father HUIn- people who, like himself, were the Pocket Testament League berto Rohden, made a modern beginning to grasp the great re- distributed nearly two million translation of the New Testa- alities of the Gospel. The Bible Testaments to men of the British ment which has been published came to be in great demand and Forces. Now that a similar under ecclesiastical imprimatur. reluctantly the sexton would emergency has arisen the League lend his new-found treasure to is enlisting the cooperation of its In 1934, after years of strict various business men of the friends in seeking to place the separation of Church and State, town. Word of God in the hands of religious teaching was allowed hundreds of thousands of young in the public schools. Just how This went on for some time.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
men who face the ordeal of bat- Shortage of Pastors in advocating friendliness toward tle. the Jews, have fled to England Germany or America. The British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Scripture Gift Only four out of eighteen the- -Christian Century. Mission have brought a special ological seminaries in Germany pocket Testament for the use of have reopened for the present Trouble in Albania all who are engaged in the de- year. This presages a lack of fense of Britain. A message evangelical pastors within the A recent letter from Albania from King George VI, inserted next two years. The Nazi argu- tells of increasing difficulties put in every copy, says: ment is that such study is of no in the way of Christian work by value to the State, and should the new Italian authorities. I commend the reading of this book. therefore be ruled out. Includ- Nothing may now be published For centuries the Bible has been a ed among the theological schools without written permission from wholesome and strengthening influence whose doors will remain closed the head of the Federal office, in our national life, and it behooves is the famed University of Bonn, which is Fascist. The Prefect us in these momentous days to turn where Pastor Martin Niemoeller questions whether evangelical with renewed faith to this divine completed his studies for the missionaries can even use tracts source of comfort and inspiration. ministry, and where Karl Barth and booklets already printed. taught. Copies of all books, booklets and During the last war the Army tracts, used by the Albanian Mis- Scripture Readers, and Soldiers' The G e r man Evangelical sion, have been requested for a and Airmen's Christian Associa- Church requires 600 new minis- detailed examination and it tion joined in the work. ters yearly, but this year only seems doubtful whether the Mis- 250 evangelical students have sion can continue to use this lit- Three main needs are empha- entered universities; while the erature, even the Old Testament sized: daily prayer, of trained number of theological students portions and the New Testament Scripture readers, who under- is barely 25 per cent of the num- printed in Albanian. Such a stand the nature of Army service ber engaged in such study in radical decision would seriously and the mind of the soldier; 1932-34. Students for the Ro- cripple the work. and, third, huts as centers of man Catholic priesthood may work. pursue their studies only at Vi- Our correspondent writes: enna and Munich. "These are dark days, and we The Salvation Army also has value your prayers. There are plans for serving naval, military German Moravians Divided causes for thanksgiving. Two and air forces in camps, homes colporteurs returned last week and hospitals. Differing attitudes toward the after three days in a half-Mos- State have made a serious cleav- lem town, where they sold 119 -The Christian. age in many German Moravian Gospels from house to house, be- churches. Young people, for the sides distributing hundreds of After the War in Spain most part, are intensely loyal to leaflets. We must get the seed the Nazi program; older mem- in before a storm breaks." Normal conditions are far bers deplore any political entanfrom restored and no one knows glement of the Church. But be- What Price Consistency? how long this may take. The cause Moravians constitute only Franco regime has once more a small group, their churches in All the world knows that the put the Roman Church in a Germany have escaped serious Soviet Government has for 20 position of great power and trouble, except for their schools. years tried desperately to wipe influence in the country. So that One has been closed, and the out all religion within its bor- Protestant work will be attended same threat hangs over all the ders. It therefore seems an odd with much difficulty. Rome has others. disregard for intelligent opinion the education of children under that led the Moscow Bezbonik, her direction, so that this is a This situation makes normal meaning godless, to print spiritcause of anxiety to Protestant relations between Moravian ed protests against the Polish par e n t s. While Protestant churches in America and those Roman Catholic hierarchy for churches are open in Madrid and in Germany exceedingly difficult. its oppression of members of the in some other towns, in Barcelo- German Moravians avoid all sig- Orthodox churches. It charges na and many other places they nificant statements in their cor- that "forty per cent of the Orare closed. Nearly all evangel- respondence, nor do Americans thodox churches in Poland have iCal schools are similarly closed. ask them any embarrassing been destroyed or converted into questions. Moravian churches in Roman Catholic churches. Pol- The Government stands for what was Czechoslovakia have ish legionnaires are charged religious freedom and some of on their hands the problem of with carrying off icons and the difficulties will no doubt caring for refugees; and several church plate; with preventing eventually disappear. It is en- ministers and influential laymen, the people in Polish territory couraging to know that when under suspicion by the German from "freely fulfilling their re- Nationalist forces entered towns secret police for their connection ligious obligations." To be sure, and villages where evangelical with pacifist groups or groups churches are located, no Christian, aside from those in the defeated army, was imprisoned or injured.
-Evangelical Christian.
this is all true. But it does not hundreds are in attendance at The Church in Uganda is become the atheist Russian to the out-stations round about. A served by a loyal native ministry. throw stones, considering the branch church has been started In 1893 the first ordination took destruction of churches and the at Kafanchan, a point on the place, and seven native Chrisslaughter of priests and pastors railway about six miles from tian workers were ordained as in his own domain. It is, of Kagoro, and already it bids fair deacons. Today, at a meeting of course, a political bid for the to outrival the parent church in the Synod, the few Europeans support of the Soviet seizure of numbers. The Christians bring present look insignificant as Eastern Poland, whose inhabi- the produce of their farms to ad- compared with the large African tants must be wondering how vance the good work into regions majority. The enthusiasm with soon the Soviets will liquidate all beyond. Perhaps best of all is a which every question is disthe churches in Poland. splendid school for the training cussed by young and old, clergy of evangelists, where scores are and laymen, men and women, Russia's Evangelical Christian being taught in the Hausa Bible. makes one feel that they consid- er themselves a part of the world Union The "Isa" People of the Sudan wide missionary enterprise.
Up to the year 1929, when re- The Field Director of the Su- Again, the newcomer is imligious persecution broke out dan Interior Mission, Guy W. pressed by the devotion to the with renewed fury, this organi- Playfair, tells of an interesting Bible. The Church in Uganda is zation had a membership and sect he found at Kano; the a literate Church in which the following of about 5,000,000. "Isa" or "Jesus" people who large majority of grown-ups can The whole of Russia was organ- have abandoned the name of Mo- read the Bible for themselves. ized into seventy districts, each hammed, and worship in the This is no mean achievement for with its own Council of ten mis- name of Jesus. One of them, so 60 years. It is the rule that no sionaries, and yearly conven- the story goes, while worshiping one may be baptized until he can tions were held. Altogether in a mosque had a revelation read his Bible. When service there were more than 700 mis- that he should worship in the begins, Bibles are opened, and sionaries in the district unions name of Jesus. Soon he had a unless the preacher in the course and 200 additional were support- following of more than a thou- of his sermon calls out a numed by the National Council at sand. This alarmed the rulers ber of texts, and gives his hear- Leningrad. Those engaged in who fancied that he might even ers time to find them all, he is the Union of Russian Christians try to claim the kingdom for very unpopular indeed. At comprised workmen, farmers, himself. He and his followers home, too, the Bible is read; the men of education, and even tied from Kano to the country, house boy reads it in his spare members of the Orthodox where they remained for some time and always has a store of Church. Ten national conven- time, after which he was coaxed questions to ask anyone he tions were held at Leningrad, back into Kano, only to be stran- thinks may be able to answer which produced a great impres- gled to death. His son and other them. -C. M. S. Outlook. sion upon all classes of people. followers, were scatt~red. Later, most of them assembled in the American Friends' Mission At present, places of worship Ningi District, where the pagans are closed; the leaders in exile rose against them and many The American Friends' Misor in prison. But the Union con- were killed. The present leader sion has 250 congregations in tinues to carryon among the of the movement is Aaron, Africa, organized into nine 10,000,000 Russians scattered in grandson of the martyred found- Monthly Meetings. There has other countries. er. There are at least 21 teach- been steady growth in unity and ers and 300 adherents of the power. A native evangelist who AFRICA sect in the Kano emirate. helped to start the work at Kitosh, in the Kenya Colony, 24 "New Creatures" in Christ -Evangelical Christian. years ago returned for three weeks and was astonished to see Quite recently the Kagoros of The Church in Uganda the development since those interior Sudan were head hunt- early years. The last annual ers. It is remarked that their The visitor, or new mission- Prayer Conference was held at apology to a victim was: "We ary to Uganda, is impressed to Munzatse, one of the smaller don't want your money; we find almost in the heart of what Monthly Meetings, with 250 delmerely want your head." A was the "Dark Continent," a egates from all parts of the writer in the Moody Monthly Church which has a sense of re- Mission. The greatest need of tells what has happened among sponsibility and vigorous life. both schools and churches is suthese so-called "tailed head hunt- While it lacks the long tradition pervision. All are anxious to do ers of Nigeria." At Kagoro is that lies behind Western church- what they can, but do not know a church capable of holding more es, it possesses real Christian how and have no one to help than a thousand people. Seven- life and experience; new mis- them. At Kaimosi, a Sunday ty-two were baptized in recent sionaries earn as much as- they School has been organized with weeks to swell the crowd already teach. the special aim of teaching boys baptized. Scores of children are in the local mission school, and
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
and girls how to conduct a meet- people examining them, stopping men do not improve under any ing. Africans have not yet to ask questions and to buy. Six conditions, or improve so slowly learned how to make the Bible missionaTY societies have accept- and so slightly that the improvelesson interesting to children. ed responsibilities, set up librar- ment is not observable. The more spiritual leaders ies and reading centers; best of among the Africans report a let- all, whites and blacks have WESTERN ASIA ting down in the standard of joined in forming an advisory Christian living, giving as the board on the production and dis- Conditions in Palestine reason the need of more Bible tribution of good books, on teaching, with a supervisor who which are government officials, Despite their disappointment can go from center to center, missionaries and Africans. and depression over British reholding Bible courses and advis- pudiation of the Balfour Declaing the leaders. Results in South Africa ration last May, the Jews of Pal- estine have not lost courage; -Friends' Missionary Advocate. Dr. J ames Stewart, former they feel that time may make a Principal of Lovedale Institute, difference in their favor, and Riots in the Copper BeIt expressing his views on the re- are definitely on Britain's side in sults of missionary work in the struggle. In 1935, in the rich mining South Africa, says there are area of northern Rhodesia called three distinct classes of natives Disturbances, while much di- "the copper belt," a series of who have been the object of mis- minished, have not ceased, and riots resulted in the sending of a sionary effort. First, those who it is well understood that foreign government commission to find have made good use of the Gos- agents continue to stir up feelthe cause. Their report stated pel light that has come to them, ing and assist in promoting terthat one cause was a subversive and the better men and women. rorism. Arabic broadcasts from movement called "The Watch They are no longer heathen, but Berlin have from 35 to 40 mil- Tower," which taught contempt are Christians. They are no lion potential listeners, from for both civil and spiritual au- longer entirely ignorant, they Morocco to Iran and India. At thority, claiming that all the are more or less educated. They the outbreak of war all adult present ruling governments, es- understand the use of a book, or German gentiles, said to number pecially those of the United a pen, or a spade, or of some 4,000, were arrested and in- States and Great Britain, are trade-tools, and they can turn terned. Some of these are mis- Satan's; and that all churches their knowledge to practical sionaries, and efforts are being including both Protestant and uses. Their characters and mor- made by British Christians to Catholic are Satan's emissaries. al influence make them useful in have them released to continue Some extracts from "Watch the spheres in which they move. their work. It is a favorable Tower" literature were included This is the smallest class. time to help all these suffering in the commission's report: e. g., people to find out what the Bible Second, there are those who has to say about the future. Organized Christianity so called is have improved; who are not as full of filthiness; it is an unclean and they were and would have con- -United Presbyterian. abominable thing in the sight of God, tinued to be had not the missionfull of hypocrisy, abomination, forni- ary come among them, but the Education in Iran cation, and filthiness. influence of Christ on their lives and ability are less marked than Missionaries have realized By His prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah in the first class. that the time might come when and Ezekiel, God has written His de- the government of Iran would cree against Christendom, and she A third class consists of those wish to take over all educational must fall. Christendom is composed who have not improved although work for its youth, but this deof the nations that call themselves they have changed. Their intel- mand has come sooner than was Christians. Chief among these na- lects are sharpened, but as much expected. According to the tions are those of America and Great for evil as for good; they are Presbyterian Board of Foreign Britain. God will destroy all Satan's not changed morally; they are Missions, the Iranian Governorganizations, which includes Chris- neither old heathen nor new ment has recently announced tendom. Christians. They are sometimes that it is now in a position to seen in church, but are not mem- take over this work. Five of the This Commission considers that at- bers, and add nothing to the schools and two of the colleges tention should be drawn to the fact strength of the community. It affected were organized and have that the circulation of "Watch Tower" is upon this class that objectors been supported by the Presbyliterature has been rendered easy by to missions fix their eyes and terian mission. The governthere apparently being no other liter- make wrong generalizations. ment wishes to take over the ature available in a convenient and They are a product of civiliza- properties developed in conneccheap form for Africans who wish to tion without Christ. The mis- tion with all the foreign schools, read English. sionary is not discouraged by the and has offered to compensate existence of this class becallse the Board of Foreign Missions These words stung to good ef- there are such people in all coun- for its properties. It also defect. The challenge was taken tries, among all races. Some sires the continued help of some up by the United Society for of the missionary educational- Christian Literature, and now one may see book stalls run by smiling Christian Mricans, with
ists, that the transfer may be tions in most of the important inant message was that God had effected without disorder and as towns of the province. Proces- used this life surrendered wholsmoothly as possible. sions of teachers, students and ly to Him. There followed a the new literates paraded the call to the coming generation to INDIA, BURMA, SIAM streets singing national songs follow Pandita Ramabai in serv- and shouting slogans against il- ice wherever God would have This Is "Telling Them" literacy. Huge public meetings them work for him. were held and a large number of A group of missionaries, dis- prizes and certificates were giv- -Dnyanodaya. cussing with Dr. Ambedkar the en to the workers and literates. problem of India's millions, In Patna, the capital, 1,000 wom- Lyrical Evangelism asked what he thought Chris- en took part in the procession, a tians, in India or in America, notable thing for a province Something new in evangelism could do to help India most at where the majority of women as was introduced when Pandit the present time. Without hes- yet remain behind the veil. The Chaubey of Bareilly Theologiitation Dr. Ambedkar replied: government report published on cal Seminary came to Benares "In the first place, I wish the the occasion shows that in the with his musical instruments Christians of America would course of a year approximately and student-helpers at the invisend a group of economic, agri- 450,000 adult illiterates have tation of the United City Miscultural and industrial experts been made literate. sion. For eight full days Pandit to study conditions, and advise Chaubey with the help of his what type of industries are Before starting a campaign in men and local workers preached adaptable to India's natural re- a village, a local census of illit- the Gospel through music with sources." (Dr. Ambedkar be- erates was taken. Areas were great zeal and effectiveness. The lieves in a large scale industrial then selected where efforts might naturalness and beauty of Hinprogram, in which he differs be made to teach all illiterates dustani Christian music was apfundamentally from Mahatma between the ages of 15 and 50 preciated in four Christian cen- Gandhi.) who were capable of being ters. taught. The total number of "Secondly, I wish the Chris- literacy centers during the sec- Another innovation, never attians would take some of the ond phase of the campaign was tempted before, took place at best-minded young men of the 14,259 with 319,983 pupils, of four principal ghats, or bathing Depressed Classes and give them whom 147,670 were made liter- places. A group of workers sang, an education in economics, in in- ate in five months. preached, sold Gospels and disdustrial management, in some of tributed tracts. Many of the the sciences that must be em- -Christian Century. listeners had not before seen ployed in making India an indus- Christians in Indian dress, singtrial nation." (Most of the Ramabai Mission Jubilee ing Indian tunes, and felt that young Indians studying in the here was something they could United States are being trained The Ramabai Mukti Mission at not only tolerate, but pay attenfor teaching or the ministry.) Kedgoan, Bombay, has recently tion to.-National Missionary celebrated its Jubilee, having Intelligencer. "Then I wish that the Chris- been founded by Pandita Ramatians in India would be more ag- bai in 1888. Krishnabai Gadre, Baptist Work in Assam gressive in public life, would one of the Christian women enter into the political and other working at Mukti, is now in When it became apparent that life of the nation, and make America and is available for ad- the reduced mission budget themselves felt as a power in dresses on this interesting and would mean the loss to Norththeir communities." effective work. (Requests for ern Baptists of the Manipur field her services may be sent to the in Assam, the Swedii!!h Baptist Dr. Ambedkar still has an American Council of the Rama- Conference of America assumed open mind in regard to religion. bai Mukti Mission, P. O. Box responsibility for that work. It is believed that if and when 415, Philadelphia, Pa.) This Government regulations require he changes his religion he will do council is continuing to promote that the Manipur missionary be so because of the service the interest in this mission which is a physician, and since no other faith he decides upon may give now associated with the Chris- doctor was available, Dr. J. A. his people; his decision will not tian and Missionary Alliance. Ahlquist of the Swedish Mission be an intellectual process but Hospital in Jorhat, consented to one on the basis of facts. It is More than 1,000 people, most- undertake the work in Manipur, here that Christianity has the ly women, recently gathered in becoming not only physician for advantage. the church at Mukti to give this field, but also evangelist and thanks to God for Ramabai. The administrator. His medical as- -Christian Advocate. service lasted over three hours, sistant is a Garo Christian who but there was not a dull moment has given a long period of mis- Literacy Celebration in it. Those present heard of sionary service in Manipur, Ramabai's great faith, her hu- especially in the treatment of The first anniversary of the mility, her life of prayer and leprosy. Dr. Ahlquist says in a inauguration of a literacy cam- God's goodness to her. The dom- recent letter to friends at home: paign in Bihar was celebrated last July, with mass demonstra-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
We have already had baptisms classes that the students might home is not a Christian one. A from the Puram tribe, 48 of them, hear the evangelist, Mr. Lauten- non-Christian mother has a tenwhere no convert had ever been re- schlager. The government col- year-old boy who readil the Biported. There is a crying need for leges responded beyond all ex- ble and prays in the home every Bible translation work. Among the pectations. Three mornings the evening. Other children have Moa tribe we have Christians in six team went out to Hwa Mei Meth- organized groups which meet villages, but no part of the New Testa- odist Girls' School, which has and discuss Christian teaching, ment is in their language as yet. . . . moved out into the country. Mr. asking their teachers to help A short time ago I had word from an Lautenschlager also spent two them. evangelist who started preaching days at the Oberlin-in-Shansi among the Kabuis and now reports Middle School, now a refugee Without any suggestion from over 1,100 baptized believers. school, and at the Canadian anybody, some children asked for Girls' School, also in the coun- baptism. Teachers in the mis- – Watchnwn-Examiner. try. Plans have been made for sion school whereupon decided to follow-up work to conserve re- have these children meet every Evangelism in Siam sults. Everyone is asking for an- day for special instruction, and other campaign next year, with in the meantime observe their In October, 1938, du:r:ing a more time for personal inter- behavior on the playground and week's meetings with Siamese views. Ten times as many books in the classrooms. Some of the Christians in Bangkok, Dr. John could have been sold as were on fifth graders in discussing the Sung, Chinese evangelist, ex- hand. question said they were afraid to pressed a desire to return for become Christians because aftera special campaign over the One Hundred New Members wards they might say bad words whole of Siam. Seven months to somebody and a Christian later Dr. Sung and his inter- How many churches in the could never do that! preter came back, and held United States can point to a recevangelistic meetings in Chieng- ord of 100 additions by baptisms Rainy Season Bible School mai, Lampang, Chiengrai, Prae, in less than a year? There are Nan and Pitsanuloke. In each some, but the number is not China's Millions describes a place volunteer witness bands large. Last July, a group of one successful Bible School in the were formed, and groups of hundred were baptized in the Lisu Church, Yunnan, which for twenty to forty young people or- Disciples Church at Hofei, most- twenty-five years has been exganized to carry the Gospel to ly young people. This trebles panding like a green bay tree. outlying villages. A few ex- the membership of those Who re- June, July and August are the tracts from letters show results mained after the capture of the rainy season, and itineration is obtained: city by the Japanese. In addi- impossible; but the time is well tion to the one hundred, scores suited to concentrated Bible The meetings in Chiengmai were have indicated their desire to he- study, and last year sixteen wonderful with very great success. come Christians, but their bap- young men registered for the There were 1,057 who went to the tism is being postponed until course taught by three young altar to confess their sins and to ask they have had further training. missionaries. A letter written for forgiveness from the Lord. At Other Chinese churches are mov- by one of the Lisu workers to least one thousand people attended ing forward in aggressive evan- American friends of the Mission each session of the meetings. The last gelistic programs despite war shows how the time was spent. day the whole congregation wept and conditions. Churches are packed confessed their sins in the meeting. at every meeting, and people To THOSE BEYOND THE SEA IN THE listen to the Gospel with rapt At Lampang we learned many les- attention. WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY: sons we never knew before. About 300 confessed and were converted. Children Seek Christ Greetings in Jesus' Name! Because Twenty-six witness bands we r e of your constant prayers for us we formed. The first day they went out Margaret Lawrence, of Wuhu, thank you. Also we thank you for they returned with joy to report that writing in World Call, tells how your four precious gifts. Now, by the 63 had offered their lives as evan- some of the children show that grace of God we are dwelling in peace gelists. Christian teaching means some- day by day and are studying His thing to them. One little boy Word. Big Sister is teaching us about Prae Church has had a glorious asked for a "Jesus picture" to the life of Paul, about the letters time. Dr. Sung's messages go straight hang up in his home, and later which Paul wrote to comfort the beto the heart with convicting power. asked a Christian pastor to come lievers at Thessalonica, and very Three hundred and twenty-six came and help him with the little much more. Big Brother has been to the altar confessing their sins; church he had set up in the home. teaching us the First and Second Cotwenty-four gospel bands we r e With pictures and scrolls con- rinthians. Brother Three taught us formed; sixty-seven volunteered as taining Scripture verses he had about Ephesians and also about Galaunpaid preachers. arranged a very effective place tians, the text of which is "the just of worship, and children meet shall live by faith." Such words we -Siam Outlook. there twice a week, although this have never heard before. In them there is much to convict our hearts, but af- CHINA terwards we are made glad. The words we love the most are "and such were Youth and Religion some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified The Chinese Recorder reports in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by from Chengtu that spiritual mo- the Spirit of our God." bilization has taken dramatic form in the "Youth and Religion Movement." Two non-Christian universities, Kwang Hwa and Szechwan University, dismissed
Just one thing more. Although we of society, all sorts of homes, plan for a nation-wide evannever meet in this world, when Jesus and have had various religious gelistic movement. comes again we shall see each other face to face. The writers are those influences from childhood. But Assimilation in Korea who love you and pray for you.-The all alike have been brought up Lisu. from their primary school days In line with Japan's policy This year the Rainy Season with an intense reverence and that religious organizations in Bible School showed greatly in- devotion to His Majesty the Em- Korea should be affiliated with peror. Their questionings show bodies in Japan, the National creased attendance. how vague and negative are their Christian Council of Korea "dis- Lepers' Impressive Service religious convictions, if indeed solved" in September, 1938. One result that followed was that no In a compound behind locked they have any. It is desperately Korean delegates were present doors in the wickedest part of hard for them to form any con- at the Madras meeting of the In- Shanghai's slums, a group of ception of a personal God, or of ternational Missionary Council. forty lepers held a service in one personal God. Yet they con- Other religious organizations which eight men and two women tinue to come as inquirers; they that have similarly ceased to were received into the Christian exist in Korea during the past leper community by baptism. seem glad to have the friendship two years are the Sunday School One was a new convert from Mo- of Christ's followers. Union, the Christian Endeavor hammedanism, who had long Union, the Women's Church held back because of threatened A Christian head of a school, League, the Y. W. C. A. and persecution. The lepers gathered in his student days, attended one Y.M.C.A. in the mud-floored, reed chapel, the blind led by those who saw; of these English Bible studies, ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC the crippled carried on the backs held by a missionary's wife in of those who could walk. Some her home. He was entirely un- Training Papuan Youth lacked fingers, others walked on stumps of feet, but the joy of interested in the Christian as- In Kwato Mission Tidings, new life, new hope was shared pect, but went with the desire to Miss Phyllis Abel writes: "Some byall. improve his English. One day, of our older girls are taking as the servant was bringing up teacher training in the Logea A large stone slab supported Village School. One afternoon on two stone pillars, served as the tea tray, she stumbled and I had prepared to talk to them pulpit as well as a communion upset and broke all that was on about how to deal with different table. Upon it was a baptismal problems in children-when they bowl, some 50 filled Chinese cups it. The hostess with perfect calm told lies, were quarrelsome, in two trays and two plates with merely sympathized with the ac- sulked, etc. Half an hour before broken bread. After the sermon, my class, I learned that one of the ten to be baptized came for- cident, and quietly told the maid my pupil teachers had been ward. Their names were an- to bring more tea. This so im- cheating in school that morning. pressed the young man that he felt Christianity must be a re- ligion of power; and from that day he really put his heart into inquiring about it, till he became a real Christian himself.
nounced by the oldest Christian Christian Brotherhood My first impulse was to send her leper, as the pastor baptized one Organized right away from teaching; then after another. Then communion I realized that if we waited for was administered. In some With a view to building a the perfect teacher before ,we hearts there was deep emotion united Christian front to meet allowed anyone to teach, we as revealed by the expression on the expanding responsibility of wouldn't get far with our educatheir faces.-Lee S. Huizenga. the Japanese Christian Church, tion of Papuans. Obviously, three groups hitherto working something had to be done. When separately for church union have JAPAN-CHOSEN been brought together into an I met the teachers, I told them of my quandary without mention- Students Ask Questions organization known as the "Christian Brotherhood." The ing any names. "How can we A writer in the C. M. S. Out- groups thus united are the So- overcome dishonesty in chillook gives some typical questions ciety for the Promotion of dren," I asked them, "if we do asked her by students who come for English and Bible study in Church Union, the Laymen's not have the answer in our own one of Japan's large cities. Movement for Church Union, lives ?"
Then we had a brief "quiet Why try to worship an invisible and the Commission on Church time" and after this, without the God? Isn't it simpler to honor our Union of the N. C. C. Pastors and c leading laymen of Tokyo, slightest hesitation, the girl in parents whom we can see? Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka are en- question told of what she had Please tell me about God. done in school that morning, and What is the meaning of baptism? Why do Japanese Christians drink rolled in the new organization. said she had asked God's forgiveno wine, while English Christians do? Pastors, and laymen of the ness, and must tell her class as These young men come from Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto area held a soon as possible. We thanked middle and high schools, also "Retreat" a few months ago, God for this new step He had from a government training col- which was attended by more shown us; then we continued lege. They are from all classes than 400, the purpose being to with our lesson.
Missionary
Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information The Madras Series of the Interna- The present series of volumes, Church" and describes the de- tional Missionary Council. Seven like the Tambaram Conference, velopment of the churches in Volumes. 200 to 579 pp. each. Price reveal basic differences of opin- Japan, Korea, China and ten oth- for seven volumes, $7.50; separate ion among missionary leaders er lands. Naturally the develop- volumes, $1.50 each (except Vol. I, but they show a desire to ad- ment in each country has been $1.25). International Missionary vance the cause of Christ and to different, according to the length Council. London and New York. develop a strong, intelligent of time the Church has been 1939. established there, the work of Church in each country by con- the early missionaries, and the Of the seven volumes, pre- secrated cooperation or by or- characteristics of the people. Nasenting the reports and findings ganic union. tionals and missionaries contribof the Tambaram Conference in ute these papers. There is un- India in December 1938, four The first volume is especially fortunately no general consider- helpful at this time when the ation of the lessons learned in volumes have now appeared and whole basis for missionary work each field or a valuation of methare a notable contribution to the is being reexamined by the ris- ods followed in such differing study of the world-wide mission- ing generation. "The Authority fields as Korea and the Punjab ary policy and program. The last of the Church's Faith" (199 or Uganda and Madagascar. three volumes on "The Church's pp.) , contains contributed es- Inner Life," "The Church and says by Dr. H. Kraemer of Hol- This would form a valuable the State" and "Addresses and land, Prof. T. C. Chao of China, study. This volume will be of Records" are expected from the Prof. D. G. Moses of India, Prof. especial value to missionaries, press later this year. H. H. Farmer of Cambridge, but it would be helpful if light England, and Missions Direktor The Madras (or Tambaram) were thrown on the mistakes of Conferencewas held tenyears aft- Hartenstein of Basle, Switzer- missionaries and Mission Boards land. These contributions are of and how they might be avoided. er that at Jerusalem and merely varied value. Dr. Kraemer and Direktor Hartenstein strongly The secret of success has been twenty years after Edinburgh, take the ground that the Bible the planting of the living Word where the foundations were laid is the final authority in all matfor the International Missionary ters pertaining to the Christian of God, the dependence on the Council, and National Councils message and conduct and mis- guidance and the power of the in various areas covering the sionary policies. There is some Holy Spirit, and the faithful, world. A study of the reports difference of opinion as to sacrificial, Christ-like example of these three Conferences shows and loving service of God's mesclearly the great advance in mis- whether and how clearly God has sengers. The development in sionary cooperation and the spoken to man through nonchanges that have taken place in Christian religions. There is apt self-support and self-governmissionary policies. Edinburgh to be confusion on this point but ment is important but must be surveyed the world, the needs of dependent on the reality of the different areas and the plans for there should be no doubt as to spiritual life in the Church. c los e r cooperation between the fact that Christ is the only Christian agencies in each field. clear revelation of God and the Volume Three deals with Jerusalem considered the unique- only Way by whom man can re- "Evangelism" (418 pp.), and a ness of the Christian message in relation to the non-Christian re- ceive eternal life, which is the careful, historical statement as ligions, and the problems that gift of God to those who receive to the evangelism practiced by face missionary workers in edu- Him. A careful reading of this the Church is presented by Prof. volume will clear up many Latourette of Yale. Two chapcation, race relations, industry points. The "Findings" declare ters are followed by papers conand rural areas. Madras studied that "man's great need is for a tributed by the Bishop of Dorthe missionary enterprise in re- true and living faith and that nakal (India), Dr. John R. Mott saving faith comes only through lation to the development of the Jesus Christ. A multiplicity of and others. There is a study of Church of Christ on the mission the mass movements in India, as field. This is considered as a words sometimes tends to ob- well as various evangelistic scure this fact. methods and efforts in China, J aunited Church which must de- pan, Africa and other fields. pend on the leadership of the The second volume (281 pp.) These are interesting but by no Spirit of God, working in the na- deals with "The G row i n g means of equal value. Toyohiko tionals of each area. [581 ]
Kagawa writes on, "Occupation- to expect "any conversion or teachings were supposed to exal Evangelism" for Japan, and transformation from the great plain the inequalities of life, the Oxford Group Movement in cultural religions to Christian- particularly to justify differ- China is briefly but sympatheti- ity." All that can be hoped for ences of caste. They eliminate cally described. The chapters the problem of unmerited misdealing with China, In d i a, is "a measure of agreement and fortune, but they tend to make Uganda and Iran are of especial mutual understanding." men complacent in prosperity interest. Sixty-eight pages are and condemnatory of others in devoted to German Evangelical But Karl Barth bluntly says, their misfortunes. They make Missions, by Dr. Siegfried Knak "there is no contact" in non- sorrow more difficult to bear. -a significant study of a work that differs in many respects Christian religions with God or Karma makes retribution an from that conducted by British Divine Truth. end, not a means to an end, as and American missions. it should be, and weakens the How are we to escape this di- nexus between sin and suffering. Volume Five is a consideration lemma of the "Westernness" of Men have no remembrance of of the "Economic Basis of the C h r is ti ani t y, as stated by previous lives and are. punished Church"-material gathered by for that for which they have no Mr. J. Merle Davis during the Troeltsch, or the lack of all di- responsibility. past two years, especially in In- vine content in non-Christian dia and the Far East. This is a faiths, as stated by Barth? The uplift accomplished by more vital subject than many Christianity among the outcastes realize since extreme and con- The answer to Troeltsch is belies the truth of the karma tinued poverty hinders the intel- doctrine. Unwholesome heredity lectual and social development that the Gospel and Christ are and environment afford a more of individuals, the training of greater than Christianity. We adequate explanation for the workers and the establishment can never know the full Gospel degradation of the outcaste than of self-supporting churches. until all cultures have explored does the law of karma. This law Some of these churches are de- and revealed its inexhaustible also necessitates the view that scribed-such as the Batak riches. The answer to Barth is the Ultimate Reality must be in- Church in Sumatra, and the that having had no first-hand active and without any attri- Presbyterian Church in Korea. contact with the highest life of bute; otherwise God himself would fall under the law of The other volumes of this Hinduism – a life of genuine karma. Therefore the Hindu reseries will be looked for with spirituality-he is not in a posi- gards alI existence as evil and eager anticipation. One reads tion to speak with authority. looks upon extinction, complete here the story of the world-wide and absolute, as the greatest growth of the Christian Church One great value of such a blessing. and can realize more fully the difficult problems still to be study is to reveal again the fun- For the Christian, experience solved. damentals of the Gospel and to of the Eternal Life has already clear the superstructure which begun; because of his knowl- Hinduism or Christianity. By Sydney has been built by Western Chris- edge of God as revealed in Cave. Haskell Lectures in the tianity. Christ, he has experience of Graduate School of Theology, Ober- God's love and of the power and lin, 1939. Harper and Brothers. "Our concern," states Dr. meaning of His reign. New York and London. Cave, "in these lectures is with Hinduism. No great religion is The heart of these lectures is Dr. Cave's book is of real in- in more striking contrast with contained in the one on "The terest to all who are concerned our own, or confronts the Chris- Conception of the Divine in Hinwith the deeper problems of liv- tian thinker with more difficult duism and in Christianity" and ing religions, especially to those problems. We of the West are the companion lecture on "Hinwho know anything of India and often content to live the 'unex- du Bhakti and Christian Faith." Hinduism. This book deals with amined life.' But," says he, It is difficult and dangerous to Neo-or Reformed Hinduism, not "many Hindus, seers and saints, try to condense material already with the H i n d u ism of the seek the spiritual with almost condensed and pac ked with masses. unparalleled intensity and sin- thought. But in essence Dr. cerity." Cave gives a lucid explanation of Dr. Cave first dis c u sse s the inner genius of Hinduism Troeltsch's view of Christianity Fundamental to Hinduism is with its unresolved conflict beas the only religion that the the law of karma (retributive tween thought, deed and feel- West "can endure," "for Chris- justice) and transmigration; ing; that is to say, the ultimate tianity has grown up with us fundamental to Christianity is of all thought is the unknowable, and is part of our being" ; "other the ultimate of all doing is an racial groups, living under dif- the self-revelation of God in endless wheel or complete cesferent conditions, may experi- Christ in order to redeem man. sation of all activity and the ulence their contact with the Di- The thought underlying Hindu- timate of all feeling is indiffervine Life in quite a different ism appeals to many in the West ence-complete un-feeling. No way." We have thus no right who are not ready to accept the stupendous claims that Chris- tianity makes on each individual. So this is a living issue for both East and West.
"It would be hard to exag- gerate the influence of this doc- trine of karma and transmigra- tion on Indian life." The s e
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
wonder the common man has returned from visits to the Far John J. Eagan. A Memoir of an Ad- venturer for the Kingdom of God turned each to his own god or East, India, the Near East and on Earth. By Robert E. Speer. goddess. Against this, Christ Europe, seeking to learn what 8vo. 227 pp. Privately printed. reveals not only God the Creator Christian youth a r 0 u n d the American Cast Iron Pipe Co. Bir- and Ever-living, but the Holy world are thinking and doing. mingham, Ala. 1939.
and Loving Father of our spir- Beginning with a brief por- Here is the life story of a boy its, lifting us up further and further into the glorious light trayal of the world and of the who was left fatherless at the and beauty which are of His es- widely differing areas, Mr. Mack age of three months, his mother sence. It is a powerfully presented contrast, sympathetically shows how difficult it is to put being practically without means. conveyed, and is worth reading ourselves in the place of other and re-reading. young people, to see life as they They went to live with a bache- see it and to feel the impulses In his closing lectures Dr. lor uncle and before he finished Cave deals with Hindu and which drive them on. Team high school the boy went to work Christian ethics. In Hinduism work is needed to enable us to at an early age for a pittance. the In d ian who wishes to make better use of our resources, Later he inherited $6,000 from strengthen and remake his. own to correct our partial views, and his grandmother and, by the country finds no adequate plat- to bring the incentive we need time he was twenty-nine, he had form, so that he unconsciously through the knowledge of what increased this by honest means adopts much of the practical to $72,000. Soon he became a e t hi c s of Christianity. For others are doing. partner in his uncle's business, many such, "our Western civili- The book is specially written in which he started at the botzation, which owes much to tom. In fact John Eagan suc- Christ, has yet obscured Him for high school and college young ceeded in everything he underfrom the East, whilst even in people. Its purpose is to make took; but he did not seek wealth organized Christianity there is for its own sake or to enable much that offends those who are them dissatisfied and ashamed him to indulge himself and his attracted by the character of of their provincialism as Chris- family. He was an unusual man, Christ but are repelled by what tians, of the i r separate ap- not in his inheritance or talents, they judge to be our own denial pro a c h e s as denominational but in his faithfulness as a of the meekness and patience Christian steward; this is clearly that Christ prized and showed." groups to problems that are uni- shown in the use he made of his versal problems c a II i n g for opportunities. At the end we are told that united solutions. Youth is manithe Christianity brought from John Eagan was born in Grifthe West is Western; it needs festly on the march all around fin, Georgia, April 22, 1870 and to be supplemented by the ap- the world. Young people in died in Asheville, North Caropropriation of the East and in Asia and Europe are taking life lina, on March 30, 1924 at the the thought and devotion of Hin- age of fifty-three. At that time duism; there is presented a seriously, taking Christ serious- an editorial in The Atlanta Conchallenge which we cannot meet, ly. Shall our young people in stitution said: "Few lives have except by a fresh appropriation America sit by silently watching stood out more prominently for of the riches of the Gospel. . . . them as they are passing by? public welfare and for moral up- Already the Indian Church has lift than that of Mr. Eagan." All enriched the thought and fervor The author seeks to make his classes in every walk of society, of our common Christianity." reader conscious of his member- white and colored, united to ship in a world-wide fraternity, honor the memory of this man The book is thoughtful and who exerted a wide influence and timely and states clearly the pledged to more Christian stand- who left an example that rerelative claims that Hinduism ards and practices. mains an inspiration to coming and Christianity make for the generations. Chapter VI deals with the allegiance of men. E. D. LUCAS. When John joined his moth- spiritual resources upon which er's church as a boy of twelve Christian you t h groups are he, like Jacob, silently entered drawing in different countries. By devotional techniques of one kind or another, by hard thought and quiet meditation, by keeping the inner fires burning and by taking advantage of the spiritual contagion of a religious fellow- ship, groups everywhere are Comrades Round the W orId. By S. finding it possible to carryon. into a covenant with God that he Franklin Mack. 165 pp. Cloth, The book is a gripping appeal would give Him one-tenth of all $1.00; paper, 60 cents. Friendship to join the world ranks of Chris- he made if God would enable Press. New York. 1939. tian youth who are already do- him to make $1,000,000 by the The author is Director of the ing g rea t things. It shames time he was thirty years old!
Young People's Division of the youth out of religious compla- His first job was in a grocery Board of Foreign Missions of cency and out of selfish inactiv- store in Atlanta at $5.00 a the Presbyterian C h u r chin ity. It contains valuable sugges- month. Later he accepted his U. S. A. and has been active in tions for addresses to youth, and uncle's offer of $15.00 a month the United Christian You t h young people may use it to ad- to work for him. When he was Movement. He has t r a vel e d vantage as the basis of group twenty – one his grandmother through Mexico, Central and discussion for a series of meet- died and left him $6,000 which South America and has recently ings perhaps. MILTON STAUFFER. he invested so well that in eight
years it had increased to $72,- quotes extensively. Among the ters with wild beasts and primi- 000. From the first he kept his things necessary for success in tive men are entertaining and vow by giving to God a tenth of business he noted, at the age of informing. He has a keen sense all he made. When John was thirty – three: "Perseverance; of humor, spiritual insight and twenty-nine his uncle died and h 0 n es t product and faithful consecration. left him the major part of his work; power to control men; estate, together with a success- confidence in others; ability to In 1934 Dr. Lambie decided ful tobacco business. Later John fight for the right; dependence that he could work with Ethio- Eagan founded the American on God and waiting on Him at all pians more effectively if he Cast Iron Pipe Company and times; the chief motive and end should become an Ethiopian citibecame a very prosperous busi- must be to glorify God." zen so he renounced his Amerness man and a highly respect- ican citizenship, like his Master, ed citizen. He a p pI i e d the Excerpts from Mr. Eagan's Jesus Christ, became a subject Golden Rule to his business so diary show the man's aims, of his adopted country. After that his employees and asso- ideals, ambitions and the ways the Italian conquest of that unciates loved and honored him. in which God led him. There are happy land, not wishing to ac- He was an act i v e Christian also illuminating and stimulat- knowledge Mussolini's authority church member and was deeply ing testimonies from his asso- and not being permitted to reinterested in many philanthro- ciates. His was a wisely regu- main in Ethiopia as an Ethiopies and other forms of definite lated life, a thoughtful and con- pian, Dr. Lambie became a Christian work. He too k a secrated life, an honest, diligent, "doctor without a country." prominent part in promoting the sacrificial life. Now he is returning to the Men and Religious Movement, in Sudan to serve as a missionary improving r ace relations be- The achievements of J 0 h n on the Ethiopian border. tween the Negroes and white Eagan were many and notepeople of the South, and in tem- worthy. When he died he left The doctor's story is worth perance work. He said that in bequests of over $1,000,000 and telling and it is graphically told. his youth the forces that most he had more than kept his giv- He describes the country and influenced him were his conse- ing covenant with God. But his people, and relates his pioneercrated Presbyterian mother, who greatest bequest was the influ- ing struggles, his friendship trained him to diligence in his ence of his character and exam- with Emperor Haile Selassi, his Christian work; the self-sacri- ple, together with the service he encounter with lions and crocoficing care of his bachelor uncle, rendered during his lifetime. diles, serpents and pestiferous who trained him in the hard Any man who wishes for success insects; pioneering journeys school of business; the beautiful will be rewarded by reading this over the wild country and up life and thriftiness of his Ro- memoir. and down the rivers; his conman Catholic grandmother; and tacts with men (both friendly the godly example of Dr. Ben- A Doctor Without a Country. By and hostile); he recounts many ham who put honor above world- Thomas A. Lambie, M.D. Illus. answers to prayer. There are ly gain. 8vo. 252 pp. $2.00. Fleming H. evidences of the guidance of God Revell Co. New York. 1939. and His power to accomplish the In 1901 Mr. Eagan sold out seemingly impossible. the tobacco business, not because Dr. Tom Lambie is a virile, he believed it wrong to sell to- stimulating character who has There is much information bacco but because he believed had some unusual experiences. here relating to missionary life, that there were fields of endeav- After studying medicine in the famous Blue and White Nile, or where he could serve God America, he became a medical the war-like Shilluks of the more than in that business. He missionary under the United Sudan, the Ethiopians and their wrote in his diary: "Therefore Presbyterian Board and went to Emperor, in addition to medical it is my duty to go into the field the Egyptian Sudan and later to experiences in a primitive counwhere I can glorify Him most." Ethiopia. There he was stirred try. Much other information is by the great need for more mis- dispensed on the war, sand- John Eagan was a man of sionaries to the unevangelized storms, prairie fires, plagues, prayer, a faithful Bible student people of the interior. Since his etc. We learn, for example, that and for many years was a teach- own church Mission Board could er of a Bible class. He sought to not send him, for financial rea- The Shilluk kings were elected and work in harmony with the spirit sons, Dr. Lambie decided to join were later killed by strangling, never of Christ and the teachings of the independent Sudan Interior dying a natural death. the Bible in his daily life and Mission on a "faith basis." In business; he also strove to learn the next few years this society Mission work is difficult because the all he could from the experience sent eighty missionaries to Shilluks think their own medicine men of successful business men like Ethiopia. Dr. Lambie became superior to foreign doctors. Rockefeller and Carnegie. Other the field director of that mission, men can learn much from the built a hospital in Addis Ababa Millions of Africans believe the principles he set forth in his with the help of his friend the story that two natives, who were lost diary from which Dr. Speer Emperor, and, besides managing when hunting, once came upon a well- the hospital, he traveled up and kept village where the women were down the country. His encoun- human but their husbands were all dogs.
Ants travel in armies by millions; they not only eat crops but kill chickens and drive bees from their hives.
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
The most noteworthy features some statistics, and a few geo- camps, and was entrusted the of this stirring record are the graphical terms; the remainder care of 300 famine orphans, pictures of pioneer life in the of the book seems to have been most of whom were later bap- Egyptian Sudan and Ethiopia, printed from the old plates and tized. Some of his interesting and the evidences of God's faith- some of the chapters still cry for experiences have been told in a fulness to His promises to those revision. For example Chapter small volume, "In and Out of who obey Him and who go out 16 on Malaysia, one of the most Chanda."
in faith to preach the Gospel in important and most fruitful mis- He had a keen sense of humor, the uttermost part of the earth. sion fields, is still covered by was strong and courageous, a It will repay you to read the only two pages which contain man of tact and good judgment book, the latter part of which many misstatements. The same and was never in a hurry. He needs editing. thing is true of the chapter on was fond of hunting tigers, the The Remarkable Jew: His Wonder- the Near East, where we read skins of which he sold for the ful Future. By Dr. L. Sale-Har- (page 227) that "the missions rison. 224 pp. 2/6. Pickering and benefit of the mission. The Inglis Ltd., London. 1939. have extensively published and Gonds, among whom he first la- bored, have strange beliefs and This is the eleventh edition of circulated the Koran, a rather customs, with seven gods in their a book that in previous editions pantheon. One chapter is dehas had a very wide circulation. disconcerting method of mani- The author, as a conference voted to these beliefs and cusspeaker and Bible teacher, has festing their consciousness of toms and two papers on the made a deep impression upon ap- subject are embodied in the appreciative audiences throughout the superiority of the New Tes- pendix to the Memoir. During the English-speaking world. He views the Jews from the stand- tament." We know of no case the World War, Padre Wood had point of Biblical prophecy, and some interesting and thrilling has scanned their whole history where this has been done in the experiences, especially in Palesfrom early times to the present to show the working out of the Near East, although in India tine. divine purpose in their destiny. By demonstrating the literal ful- and East Africa there are exam- In one address, on Abraham's fillment of prophecy in the past offering of Isaac, Bishop Wood ples of it. Nevertheless, this is said: "We are ready, even eager a useful textbook for classroom to give to God our best, once we work. S. M. ZWEMER. see the ram caught in the thicket." Alex Wood, Bishop of Nagpur. A history of the Jews, he unfolds Memoir by Eyre Chatterton. lUus. the development of prophecy in 8vo. 145 pp. 38. 6d. S. P. C. K. London. 1939.
"Missionary, sportsman, phi- losopher" is the author's desig- nation of his predecessor in Nag- The Greatest Words in the Bible pur, a fellow bishop of the and in Human Speech. By Clarence their present experiences. The Church of England. Alex Wood E. Macartney. 193 pp. $1.50. author deals at length in this was born in Scotland in 1871, The Cokesbury Press. Nashville. connection with the significance went to India in 1898, was a war 1938.
of the Jew in World War, the chaplain in France and Palestine This great preacher has decapture of Jerusalem, the educa- from 1916 to 1919, became lighted us with another series of tional and economic development Bishop of Chota Nagpur, India, sermons, the number extended to of Palestine under the Jews, and and Bishop of Nagpur in 1926. fifteen because of the interest their glorious future when the He died in the harness in 1937 shown by the congregation. Dr. Lord returns and when they will at the age of sixty-six. McCartney has chosen words recognize Him to be their Mes- As a young man he was ex- which stirred individual lives in siah. The author is a pronounced ceptionally strong in body and the Bible, words that have premillenialist, and his interpre- mind, with "something of the proved significant in the life of tation of prophecy is from this Viking in him" says his biog- every age; Interest in the serpoint of view. Without fixing rapher. He was adventurous, mon was maintained by not andates for the approaching end loved to go trawling in the nouncing the chosen "great of the age, he sees in the alarm- North Sea, and later to trace word" until well along in the ining world-happenings of 0 u r wild animals of India to their troduction. Among the words time signs that the day of the lairs. Bishop Chatterton pic- selected are the saddest, the Lord is near. J. S. CONNING. tures the scenes of his labors in hardest, the meanest, the bitter- est, the sweetest; they "sweep The Course of Christian Missions. Chanda and Nagpur, briefly de- all the chords of life, the great By William Owen Carver. Revised scribes the people among whom edition. 320 pp. $3.00. Fleming desires, fears and hopes of men's H. Revell Company, New York, he laboted and narrates many of hearts." his contacts and experiences. 1939. Bishop Wood was loved and These sermons are deeply The first edition of this excel- highly respected by both civil- satisfying and spiritually stim- lent brief history of Protestant ians and church people, by the ulating. Here we note the qual- Missions was published in 1932, British and the Indians. He was ities that make Dr. Clarence when it was reviewed in these a war d e d the Kaiser-i-Hind Macartney, pastor of the large columns. The revised edition has Medal. During the great famine First Presbyterian Church of corrected many printers' errors, of 1898, he supervised two labor Pittsburgh, one of the most ef-
fective preachers in America. remains to be done. He con- was a Druze mass movement to- His marvelous choice of words cludes: "There is warfare to be enables him, in a few touches, to waged still against evil. . . . No ward Protestantism in 1830-1845 give beauty or force to every fight is on and the faith is living but the results were not permascene and every thought. An- still which affirms that the vic- nent. other characteristic is the strong tory is with the Christ." way in which he presents the The accomplishments of the Syria truth of salvation in Jesus + Mediterranean Missions, 1808-1870. Christ, crucified and risen. He By George H. Scherer. 81 xv pp. mission during these forty years are always informs and enlarges 48. or 90 cents. The Bible Lands faith, and makes it fervent; but Union for Christian Education. truly remarkable. The history is one he is never trite. Here is an Beirut, Lebanon, Syria. 1939. example of how to give the peo- of sacrifice and glory. The struggle ple of today sweet honey and Missionary history is the founmuch fine gold. It is an excel- dation for the study of mission- was severe – war, plague, massacre, lent gift book for a friend. ary principles and methods. We have here the story of one Mos- without; a small force, overworked FRANK LUKENS. lem land in the Near East and of what was attempted and accom- and worn, crippled by death and dis- Papuan Journeys. By H. L. Hurst. plished in four decades. It is a 168 pp. 38. 6d. Angus and Rob- photostat – typewritten account ease; in America, not always the ertson. London and Sydney. 1938. of the American Mission in Syria from its establishment in most loyal support; pressed by the Here is an intensely interest- 1808 until its transfer to the ing volume. Papua is a land of Boa r d of the Presbyterian needs and opportunities of each readventure, a land where nature Church in the U. S. A. in 1870. and human nature are still seen These chronological limits do not curring day; is it not a wonderful in the raw state. It is an im- exclude an account of the origins mense island, two thousand miles of missionary work in general story of loyal devotion and great long, and one half of the terri- on the borders of Syria and in tory is under the control of Aus- the Mediterranean basin. achievement? Truly the missionaries tralia. It is a great mission field and it is largely unevangelized. A carefully classified bibliog- in Syria today have a heritage of raphy and a detailed chronology Mr. Hurst, the Secretary of are proof that the author is in which they may well be proud, a misthe London Missionary Society command of all his sources. for Australia and New Zealand, sion history which challenges the entraveled in Eastern Papua in F 0 u r British Societies at- 1936 and 1937, visiting all the tempted mission work in this tire consecration of the whole life, ten stations of the Society. He area before the American Board traveled by steamer, whale boat sent out Pliny Fisk and Levi that the present may not tarnish the and dugout along the coast and Parsons. They were instructed on foot in the interior. He had to study "Ancient and Modern past. S. M. ZWEMER. eyes to see and ears to hear and Greek, Italian, Turkish, Arabic a facile pen to describe his ad- and French," for there were Grace Triumphant. A. W. Baker. ventures, the strange districts giants in those days! The nar- 12mo. 316 pp. 38. 6d. Published he visited and the people whom rative of this early pioneer work by the author in care of Pickering he met. All of his descriptions is of fascinating interest and is and Inglis. Glasgow. 1939. are vivid and interesting. These well told. In 1822' a press was include his visit to Kwato where established at Malta, the small Mr. Baker who was born in such remarkable work is being beginning of the stupendous Natal in 1836 and has been sucdone; his contacts with old-time work conducted in later years at cessively a carpenter, lawyer head-hunters, cannibals and sor- Beirut. and missionary in South Africa, cerers; his experience with and is still busy in evangelistic crowds of Christian worshipers, Four chapters tell of these work, here tells his own story. where James Chalmers once earliest efforts and of the perse- It is full of incident and historiwent at great risk to his life; the cutions and struggles for free- cal reminiscences. He tells exthe transformations from super- dom of conscience. The second periences in law courts, mining stition to intelligent worship, part of the book deals in seven camps, kraals, and various activfrom war dances to cricket chapters with the period of es- ities as a Gospel worker. It matches, from dirt and disease tablishment and expansion. Here might be condensed to advantage to cleanliness and health; from are sketches of the political for most readers but gives a idleness to industry; from fear background and the efforts to word picture of life in South and hatred to peace and love. produce a Christian literature Africa as seen by a devoted and Europe might learn much from for the Arabic-speaking world. successful missionary of the Papua. We are also told how the founda- South Africa General Mission. tions were laid for primary and He was often called "God Says Real progress has been made higher education in Christian So Baker"; he traveled extenin Papua in sixty years but much schools for boys and girls. There sively and was very active in the South Africa Compounds Mis- sion. It is worth reading.
African Heroes and Heroines. By Carter Godwin Woodson. 249 pp. $2.00 net. Associated Publishers, Inc., Washington, D. C. 1939.
Here is an African's view of African heroes. It is intended for high school students and nat- urally is not a comprehensive, full and careful history of the continent or of any part of it. It is a biographical record of some Africans and their contri- bution to progress. The presen- tation is interesting but it lacks balance. The author accuses all European and American writers on Africa of a "traditional bias." No doubt this is true of some,
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
but many students of African them for half a century. The They of Italy. By Lodovico and Enhistory will accuse Mr. Woodson index lists some 800 topics and rico Paschetto. Illus. 12 mo. 214 of bias and of magnifying Af- people but omits reference to pp. 75 cents, cloth; 50 cents, paper. rican military exploits while many outstanding heroic Afr~ Broadman Press. Nashville. 1939. paying little heed to spiritual can Christi<ans, such as AfrIvalues that have most contrib- caneer, the Hottentot Terror The Southern Baptists have uted to true human progress. who became a Christian, and had a mission in Italy for sev- The author seems to credit the Samuel Crowther, the slave boy enty years and have done an imunfounded statement that West who became a bishop of the portant work. The field, the Africans "braved the high seas workers and the work are de- Church of England. scribed in this volume by two and established contact with This is an interesting record, Italians who devote five chapters America probably thousands of to the country and people, the years before Europeans had suf- but the 'author lacks broad Roman Catholic Church and ficiently advanced to have any knowledge and balanced judg- Baptist work. One appendix such dreams." gives suggestions to teachers ment. who wish to use this as a text The book deals most largely book; another appendix gives with South Africa, but has chap- The Arrows of the Lord. By Leland an excellent and favorable short ters on West Africa, Abyssinia biography of Benito Mussolini. and mohammedanized districts. Wang. 12mo. 119 pp. 1 sh. Mar- The authors suggest "keys to The author magnifies Chaka, the understanding Italy" in Biblical chief who was the traditional Zshonaldl~rMvaonrgPaunb.a nd Scott. London. references, the catacombs and founder of the Zulus, and he Co. Grand Rapids. Christian martyrs, the Walpays high tribute to Khama, the denses, Roman Catholic teaching Leland Wang is a Chinese and practice, modern political powerful Christian chief of the history and Fascism. The days Bamangwato. Christan evangelist who has a of persecution are not over for vital message for his owncoun- those who leave Rome to accept There is no doubt that Euro- trymen ,and for all men – it is the evangelical faith. The aupean traders, politiciansa~d thors say: "As a result of inmissionaries all made many mIS- the message of Christ as inter- creased Catholic pressure on takes in dealfng with Ithe Afri- preted through Mr. Wang's own governmental authorities, we Bible study and rich experience. (Protestants) must now suffer cans, but Mr. Woodson cans all He is known as the author of the a restricted application of the Europeans and Americans hypo- slogan, "No Bible, no Break- law" (promising religious libcrites, and goes out of his way erty). One government official to impugn also the motives of fast" 'and has been greatly used explained this restriction by saymissionaries and to belittle the in China, Malaysia, America ing: "What can we do? Two and Europe. hundred and fifty bishops have work they have done for Africa their firearms leveled against at great sacrifice and amidst The ten sermons in this vol- us !" Over 600 periodicals also hardships and dangers. He says ume show why Mr. Wang is a consecrate their pages to the nothing of their medical and edu- anti – Protestant cam p a i g n. cational work and little of their popular, practical and effective Nevertheless the evangelical efforts to teach the Africans to speaker. They are picturesque, movement goes forward. know and worship God, as the clear stimulating, scriptural, loving heavenly Father, revealed spiritual, and full of helpful il- The Fine Art of Public Worship. in Jesus Chris,t. The author has, lustrations. Young people and By Andrew W. Blackwood. 247 pp. $2.00. Cokesbury Press. Nashville. however, rendered a real service young believers will find them 1939. in clalling attention to some Afri- especially interesting a~d. incans who have fought and strug- structive; mat u r e ChrIstIans This is a greatly needed book. gled to maintain their traditions will also find here fresh food for With comparatively few excep~ and possessions. He closes with thought. The topics include ad- tions, churches of all denominaa chapter on "evils against which tions have concentrated their Africans fight." The only ones dresses on-What Is Christian- attention upon sermons to the here enumerated are: foreign ity, The Holy Spirit, The ~ec neglect of other parts of the ond Coming and the ProdIgal service. Scripture readings are domination and economic de- Son. Read them and you will oft e n unimpressive, prayers pression (an due, as he thinks, wish to pass, them on. rambling and, like the famous to Europeans). Mr. Woodson one in Boston, "addressed to the says nothing about the evils of Sammy Writes a Book. By Me. 112 audience" instead of to God, ignorance, disease, strife, im- pp. 75 cents. Broadman Press, hymns and anthems chosen caremorality, dishonesty and other Nashville, Tenn. 1939. lessly or for their music rather sins against God. The Bibli- than for their bearing upon the Charlie McCarthy has made theme of the service. Even in ography contains a list of over ventriloquism popular. Rev. W. the churches which have pre- 300 publications – in German, W. Enete, a Southern Baptist French, Dutch and English- missionary to Brazil, shows how but omits many of value, espe- he used the ventriloquist art to cially those by missionaries who interest and instruct children and adults in reverence, faith knew and loved the Africans, and missions. "Sammy," the dummy, tells the story and tells some of whom labored among it very effectively. Mr. Enete also tells how he came to prac- tice the art and how it is done. This is something unique in mis- sionary work. Read it.
scribed liturgies the lessons and vestigation, spiritual illumina- The Friendly Missionary. By Nina prayers are often recited in a tion and encouragement. Mullen. Drawings by Sarah Deperfunctory manner. Dr. Black- Fehn. Paper. Friendship Press. wood does not undervalue the Cady H. Allen, the author, is New York. 1939. sermon, but he urges that "while a Presbyterian missionary in there is a call for strong preach- Iran, and evidently enjoyed this In simple language for priing, there is an even greater need study and profited by it. Those mary children, Miss Mullen tells for uplifting worship." He dis- who read his book will have the experiences of a missionary to cusses the subject constructively same experience. He writes, not China, another to India, one to and helpfully, out of a varied as a systematic theologian or a Malaya, one to Africa and to experience as a pastor and, since deep student of types and proph- other countries. The stories are 1930, professor of Homiletics in ecy, but as one who seeks the well illustrated and calculated to Westminster Choir College. The spiritual message of this re- interest small children. book abounds in practical sug- markable revelation. Little atgestions for making public wor- tention is paid to the figures and Sketches from Penhalonga. By ship more effective. symbols taken from the Old Tes- Reginald Smith. Paper. Illus. tament and there is no exposi- 60 pp. 18.2d. S. P. C. K. London. ARTHUR J. BROWN. tion of the "futurist" interpre- 1939. tation of the prophecy. The Fannie E. S. Heck. A Study of Hid- book is presented as a message The author describes life in a den Springs. Illus. 12mo. 192 pp. to the early church in a time of mISSIOn station in Southern 60 cents. Broadman Press. Nash- severe persecution when many Rhodesia where the society for ville. 1939. Christians were being put to the Propagation of the Gospel is death and some were denying the at work. He tells of beginning Miss Heck was an active faith. work, contacts with Africans, worker and one time president church building, tre~tment of of the W 0 man's Missionary This volume will be especially sick and baptisms. It is not an Union of the Southern Baptist helpful to Christians in China, easy field but has proved fruitful. Convention. She was born in Russia and the Reich in these Virginia in 1862 during the Civil days of conflict with enemies of Directory of Protestant Missions in War and died in May 1938. She Christ and His Church. No China – 1939. Pamphlet. 68 pp. was a winsome woman, a poet, doubt Mr. Allen found many les- $1.50. North China Daily News devoted to Christ and His cause, sons and parallels from his mis- and Herald. Shanghai. 1939. a lover of nature and of her fel- sionary experience in Iran. low men. Here the story of her This directory is especially life, her ideals, her achieve- The study is fresh, original useful to editors, missionaries ments, is told in little scenes and and practical. It is interesting and Mission Boards. First we extracts from letters. The sub- and spiritual, showing that when find the names and addresses of titles hint at the contents-Sun- the Spirit of God moves on the over one hundred Protestant day School Teacher, Wedding reader, passages, that many look missions at work in China with Bells, A Beautiful Volunteer, upon as a "valley of dry bones," their officers and addresses. Lessons from Failure, A Presi- take on flesh and life. Here is Then follows the list of missions dent's Duties, Interesting Open- an excellent introduction to the and staffs by provinces. and ings, Weighing Anchor, Frag- book of Revelation. It would be finally the alphabetical list of ments That Remain. There is more valuable to Bible students names and addresses of approximuch here, in poetry and prose, if it were documented. mately 4,600 missionaries. to interest and inspire,especially women who seek to discover Philippine Kaleidoscope. By Vin- "These Things I Have Seen." By the Hidden Springs of Life. cent H. Gowen. Pamphlet. Illus. Mary Warburton Booth. 12 colored 25 cents. National Council Protes- illustrations. 8vo. 186 pp. 58. Message of the Book of Revelation. tant Episcopal Church, New York. Pickering & Inglis. Glasgow. 1939. By Cady H. Allen. 8vo. 180 pp. $1.50. Cokesbury Press. Nashville, The Philippines have made The "things" described are Tenn. 1939. more progress in the past forty persons and events in India, but years than in the previous four there is nothing to indicate how The "Revelation of Jesus hundred. Here is a well-illus- long ago. The author describes Christ," the closing book of the trated story of the fields and Hindu women transformed by New Testament, is a closed book work of the Protestant Episco- Christ; difficulties overcome by to most Christians because it is pal Church in Luzon. It is in- faith, a great revival in the a neglected book. It was writ- forming and impressive. Khasya Hills (thirty years ago) ; ten as a "revelation," not as an visions in a time of suffering; obscure cryptic mystery. The Everyday Life in South Africa. Two stony opposition, Indian Chrispromise is blessing to "every outline Friezes to be made in six tian helpers and a Hindu Sadhu; man that heareth the words of colors. 18. S. P. C. London. 1939. answers to prayer; devotional the prophecy of this book." It poems, mostly by the author, has been a field of speCUlation Here is work that children precede each chapter. They are and controversy for ages. Mr. will enjoy doing while they learn brief, moving tales that bring Allen shows that it may be a something about children of us close to Indian life and the fascinating field for joyful in- South Africa and what Christ is trials and triumphs of Indian doing for them through His mis- Christians. sionaries. (Concluded on third cover.)
Reviews Salt Stream. By Florence Walton .pmn'
Taylor. 8vo. 280 pp. $2.00. Flem- (Concluded. from pa,ge 688.) ing H. Revell. New York. 1939.
Evangelical Handbook of Latin Oregon and pioneering life in of tbe America – 1939. 48. Pamphlet. the Northwest have formed the World Dominion Press, London; stage for many romantic adven- and Committee on Cooperation in tures and heroic achievements. ((bri~tian Latin America, New York. 1939. This novel, dealing with the lLift struggles that prepared Oregon In addition to the directory of cA for statehood, is a story which BOOK of worship in song, com- 87 missions and churches, we have here the names and stations holds the interest, although it is of most of the Protestant mis- not a work of particular merit. bining a hymn81 for general sionaries in Latin America, listed by countries. Some smaller The salt wells drew Thomas Gal- church use, and a song book for evansocieties doing excellent work breath and his wife and daugh- ~elistic purposes. Oilly songs sound are omitted (such as the Soldiers ter, the heroine, to Half-Moon 10 the faith and inspirationaf in charand Gospel Mission of Chile). Lick. Their adventures with acter included••~e:!hasizing Evattgel- Statistics of areas, populations other settlers and with the In- ism, Missions, the Deeper Life. and evangelical communities and dians in the new territory form Many of the new··.the best of the old. summaries for each country are the background of the story, also given. which is not definitely Christian 504 Songs Responsive Readings . or missionary, but is clean and Windows of the World. Selections wholesome. Topical Index Gold Embossed by F. W. Pitt. 12mo. Pickering & Inglis. Glasgow. 1939. Published in round notes and Roxite cloth edition only at $65.00 per lao-an especially Alfred Burton, M.D., was con- low 1?rice. Single copy, S5c postpaid. verted to Christ at nine years of age. After taking his medical Wings and Sky. Poems. By Martha Write toda, for returnable .ample copy course he gave his life to the service of God as a physician in Snell Nicholson. 8vo. Velour, CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, IDc. England, and ,became a traveling $1.00; cloth, $1.50. 1406 Lagoon evangelist and Bible teacher in Ave., Wilmington, Calif. 1939. 1502 NORTH THIRD STREET many lands. This volume tells briefly the story of his life and With true rhythm and beauty HARRISBURG. PA. includes selections from his writings on archeology, evolution, of thought and expression, Mrs. science, communism, spiritism, the Second Advent and other Nicholson has written these win- New Boola themes. He died in 1937 at the some poems. They are truly age of eighty-four. We find here many interesting facts and ob- Christian and were born of ex- Christian Living in Our Community. servations as to the Bi.ble and its perience in life and meditation, By Mary C. White and Mildred F. relation to modern problems. in joy and suffering. Many of James. Cloister Press. Louisville, them have been printed in pe- Ky. 101 ~e Catching Objects. By Elmer L. Wilder. 12mo. $1.50. Picker- riodicals and volumes of song. A Doctor without a Country. Tom ing and Inglis. Glasgow. 1939. She writes: Lambie. 252 pp. $2.00. Revell. New York. Excellent suggestions are here Sometimes when I am very sick given for over one hundred short My mind cannot recall Evangelical Handbook of Latin object lesson talks for children. America. 1939. 48. Committee All illustrate and apply Bible The precious promises I love, on Cooperation in Latin America. teachings. And I forget them all. New York.
Through Other People's Eyes. A And then a sudden terror comes, Mediterranean Missions–1808-1870. Play in Three Scenes. By Mar- A dark, unbidden thought- George H. Scherer. 90 cents. Bible garet Crowe. 2d. Lands Union for Christian Educa- Suppose I'll need before the Throne tion. Beirut, Syria. The Frozen Quest. A Play in Two Those words that I forgot! Acts. By D. Austen-Leigh. 6d. The Old Roman Empire. L. Sale- S. P. G. London. But 0, I need not be afraid; Harrison. 48 pp. lB. 6d. Picker- The first of these playlets I know my blessed Lord ing & Inglis. London.
deals with South Africa and calls Will not forget His promises, Old Testament Studies and You. for nine children to take the And He will keep His word! Mary C. White. Cloister Press. parts. The other relates to Louisville. Northern Canada and calls for Through Fire. The China Inland six children. They are good mis- Mission Story of 1938. 84 pp. Philippine Kaleidescope. Vincent H. sionary dramas, not difficult to China Inland Mission. London. Gowen. 25 cents. National Counstage. "The Frozen Quest" is 1939. cil Protestant Episcopal Church. more dramatic and appealing. New York; The story of 1938 in China is written in fire and blood, but it Through Other People's Eyes-A is also a record of loving serv- Play in Three Acts. Margaret ice for Christ and of new names Crowe. 2d. S. P. G. London. written in "the Lamb's Book of Life." The China Inland Mis- The Frozen Quest-A Play in Two sion has had a wonderful record Acts. D. Austen-Leigh. 6d. S. and none more wonderful than P. G. London. in the past year when, in spite of destruction of property, dan- "These Things I Have Seen." Mary ger to life and untold suffering, Warburton Booth. 18.6 pp. 58. 8432 have been baptized and Pickering & Inglis. London. many more have professed to ac- cept Christ. Mr. A. B. Lewis Madras Conference Reports. Vol. 1, writes that it has been "the most 2, 3 and 5. $1.50 each, except Vol- fruitful year in the history of ume 1, $1.25. International Mis- Christian missions in China." sionary Council. New York.
I r~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Send All Orders to THE UPPER ROOM Doctors' Building-Nashville, Tenn. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Read THE LIFE OF GEORGE BOWEN OF BOMBAY A MEMOIR-By Robert E. Speer, Lakeville, Connecticut The biography of a remarkable missionary whom the (then) Prince of Wales visited in Bom- bay at the request of his mother. Queen Victoria.
What some readers say of this book: Robert Speer's "Life of George Bowen of Bombay" is one was so far-sighted and so deep·seeing !-the former because of the richest of missionary biographies. the latter. If one wants to sum up the interests of our stu- DR. J. LOVBLL MURRAY, Dire(tor of the dents today-Biblical, social, theological-Bowen is a rep~ Canadian S(hool of Missions, Toronto. resentative ngure. And what a lesson in apparent failure! What a life! He was old enough to know why he went, and bad enough to know the meaning of salvation. One by- . . . I feel strongly that every student and alumnus of our product of his experience was his wonderful humility-noth- ing in the show window and himself in the remote back. Seminary needs this book. What better book to lead them to ground. It is inspiring. feed on the Bible. One hears so much "vestibule religion"- The late DR. GBORGE P. PIBRSON, formerly of Japan. men pointing to the door and taking their people as far as the We must all be grateful for this revealing of the main- springs of Bowen's character, his abiding faith in God, his threshold, but no opening up of the treasures within the earnest purpose to be a true and faithful follower of Jesus Christ; and his deep-seated conviction that the Gospel of Father's House. Read the topics of current sermons, and Christ could meet the religious needs of India's people. Bowen's expositions are precisely what Christians need in WILLIAM HAzEN, order to grow from puerility into spiritual maturity. Here is Missionary in Sholapur, India. no adolescent, but a man in Christ. This is no volume to be read and dismissed, but to be marked and to be turned to A biography of one of the saintliest ngures of the nine- repeatedly. . HENRY SLOANB CoFFlN, teenth century. I could not put the book down. There is a fascination and a depth in this man's soul which held me in President of Union Seminary. devout attention. I found myself marking his moving sayings which would serve as starting points for chapel talks. He The Memoirs of George Bowen will continue to be for years to come a searching manual of devotion. He has set before me an ideal which few could attain; his life is a scath- ing rebuke to our ease, comfort, self-indulgence and ineffi- ciency. J. Ross STBVBNSON, Late President Emeritus, Prin(elon Seminary.
May be ordered ($2.00 per Copy) from the Author ROBERT E. SPEER, Lakeville, Conn.
The Missionary Review of the World — July 1939
1939
The "Moksa" Goes to the Country Shannon McCune When a Mission Became a Church Alexander H. Kemp Rural Youth of the Church Today H. S. Randolph Spain Today and Tomorrow By a Wayfarer Politics and Religion in Albania Phineas B. Kennedy Liberty and Religion in Red Russia F. J. Miles Forty Years' Progress in Latin America Webster E. Browning 25 Cents a CoP1 $2.50 a Yeat'
D.tes to Remember WORLD FRIENDSHIP — FIRST
June 24-July I-Eagles Mere Confer- IIJUST LIKE YOU II ence of Missions. Chairman, Mrs. Earl Breeding, 24 Rugby Lane, By LUCY W. PEABODY Scarsdale, N. Y. 196 pages, a picture on every page. Children love it···Libraries need it. June 28-July l7-Erieside Conference for Girls and Young Women. Wil- PEACE AND GOOD WILL DEPEND UPON IT lowick, Ohio. Special Price, $1.00, Postpaid July 3-10-Northfield Missionary Con- ference for Women and Girls. East Order from MISS M. H. LEAVIS, 186 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, Mass. Northfield, Mass. For information, address Mrs. Warren C. Taylor, 38 Obituary Notes of seventy. For thirty years he had Union Ave., Schenectady, N. Y. held administrative positions in the Mr. Russell Carter, who retired Illinois Synod and the United July 6-11 – International Christian two years ago after serving forty Lutheran Church. He retired from Endeavor Convention, Cleveland, O. years as treasurer and Assistant active service in 1936 after having Treasurer of the Presbyterian Board served as Secretary of English Mis- July ll-August 16 – Winona Lake of Foreign Missions, died in Pitts- sions of the Board of American Mis- School of Theology. Winona Lake, burgh, Pa., April 29, at the age of sions for eighteen years. Ind. Dean, Dr. J. A. Huffman, 302 72. Mr. Carter had also traveled Morton Blvd., Marion, Ind. *** • • extensively in foreign lands. July 22-28-Baptist WorId Congress. The Rev. Albert Oltmans, former Atlanta, Ga. • secretary of the American Mission to Lepers, died June 12th, at Yokohama, July 2l-30-'-Erieside Annual Summer Rev. George F. Jenkins, formerly at the age of eighty-four. Bible Conference. Willowick, near Cleveland, Ohio. a Presbyterian missionary in China, He was born in the Netherlands, and came to the United States when a July 24-August 2-World Conference died April 6, in Kansas City, Mo. In youth: He was graduated from Hope of Christian Youth, Amsterdam, 1903, Mr. Jenkins went to Hunan un- College, Holland, Mich, in 1883, and Holland. der the Cumberland Presbyterian from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1886. That year he went August 30-Sept. 2-National Rural Church; and later transferred to to Japan as a missionary for the Re- Forum. Penn State College, under the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., formed Church in America. He re- the auspices of the American Coun- stationed first at Changteh and then tired from active service as a mis- try Life Assn., Dr. Benson Y. sionary fifteen years ago and took up Landis, Executive Secretary, 297 at Taoyuan, where he established an his work as secretary of the American Fourth Ave., New York. Mission to Lepers in Tokio. Recently, • orphanage. • • the Japanese Government decorated August l-lO-Erieside Conference for Mrs. Caroline Atwater Mason, au- him for his work among lepers. Boys and Young Men. Willowick, thor of more than twenty volumes of Ohio. short stories, travel and religious Aug. SolO-Ninth Quadrennial Con- books, died recently. She was the vention of the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of Af- widow of Dr. John H. Mason, a pro- Personal Items rican Methodist Episcopal Zion fessor in Rochester Theological Sem- Church, Detroit, Mich. inary.
August l3-2O-Geneva Summer School The Rt. Rev*. R*ob*ert Lewis Pad- of Missions, Lake Geneva, Wis. For information write to Mrs. Paul dock, retired Bishop of the Protestant Rev. William C. Kerr, of Seoul, H. Wezeman, 1177 S. Humphrey Episcopal Church, died in Clifton, Korea, has been appointed to the fac- Ave., Oak Park, Ill. N. Y., on May 17 after a long ill- ness. He was born December 24, ulty of the Imperial University in Sept. 2-4-Erieside Business Women's Conference, Willowick, Ohio. 1869, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and was Seoul, to teach Latin and English ordained as Missionary Bishop of Literature. Because of this connec- DO YOUR S.S.PAPERS Eastern Oregon, in 1907. He retired tion he has been able to start an Eng- ~ in 1922. **• lish Bible Class among university stu- BIBLE TRUTH? Rev. William B. Millar, D.D., for- dents. **• ~~ COUNCll. ~ FIDES – For Young· People merly General Secretary of the New Dr. William Webster Hall, Jr., of York Federation of Churches, died on New York and Sofia, Bulgaria, has May 30 in New York City as a re- been called to the presidency of the sult of a stroke, at the age of 73 College of Idaho. His experience in years. Dr. Millar was born in Lake Mills, dealing with educational pioneering Wis., in 1866. After his graduation was gained in the Near East first at from Lawrence College, Appleton, Robert College, and then in the Ameri- Wis., he became a Y. M. C. A. secre- tary at LaCrosse and later was Sec- can College in Sofia. He is the retary of the International Committee author of numerous magazine articles (1896-1910). He was a founder of and books. the Army and Navy Department of *** Mr. P. O. Philip who has been for the Y. M. C. A. in which he did excel- some years Secretary of the National lent pioneer work. He was General Christian Council of India and one of Secretary of the Laymen's Missionary the Editors of the N. C. C. Review has Movement and later of the Inter- resigned as Secretary to take up work church World Movement. Dr. Mil- in connection with the Mar Thoma lar is survived by his widow and three Syrian Church whose interests have daughters and a son. always been very dear to him. His *** home will be in Travancore, South India, and he is expecting to be a reg- Dr. John F. Seibert, for nearly a ular contributor to the N. C. C. Re- half a century an active home mission view. 1502 N. Third St. Harri.bare, Pena. worker in the United Lutheran (Concluded on page 337.) Church, died April 19th at the age
MISSIONARY HOW TO EDUCAT'E
REVJEW OF THE WORLD YOUR CHILD At Home. DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor Calvert's wor1d~famou8 home study plan fives superior VOL. LXII Nos. 7-8 education to thousands of children not near good schools JULy-AUG., 1939 t or unable to attend school. Complete courses for each Publication and Business Office- grade from Kindergarten to High School. All books. Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. materials and teacher gl.!idance included. En- t~lUsias:ical1y endorsed by educators and parents. Editorial and Executive Office– Low cost. Vrite today for free catalog. State 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. child's age, Entered as second-class matter jt CALVERT SCHOOL, 187 E. Tnscany Rd., Bahim.re, Md. Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879. all the missionary societies. It can 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. do for these societies what no one of Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. Published monthly, except August. them can do for itself." All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1939. JOHN R. MOTT, British agents – Marshall, Morgan . and Scott, 12 Paternoster' Buildings, Chairman, International London, E. C. 1 shilling per COpy, Missionary Council. 10 shillings a year. *** MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- LISHING CO., INC. "My congratulations on the splen- BOARD OF DIRECTORS did issue of THE REVIEW on home ROBERT E. SPEER, President A. L. W~RNs;auIS, Vice-President missions." (June, 1939). W ALTIllR,.' McIlouGALL, Treasurer KENNETH S. LATOURETTE, DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary Professor of Missions and Or-iental History, Yale PAUL J ..; B.RAISTED· University.
S~UEL'MCCREACAVERT *** D.J. FA-NT""'" . "I have taken occasion to go through MRS. ORRIN ,R.' JUDD the latest issue of THE REVIEW and it wM.. B. LIPPHAllD has brought back to me what a very ERIC M. NORTH able and worth-while publication it SAMUEL M. ZWIilMER is; indeed it has appealed to me so Only 10 swift days direct to Yokohama when you sail by much that I am starting to subscribe Empress to the Orient. Only 3 more days to visit lovely Editorial (.hat over again. The only reason I dis- Hawaii en route by Empress oj continued my subscription was that I lapan, largest and fastest liner This July-August number includes on the Pacific, or Empress oj two summer months when many read- have so many magazines coming to Canada. From California ers are away from home and when ports connect at Honolulu. most local church activities are less. my desk that it is simply impossible The articles in this issue will be of Frequent sailings from both great interest and many are particu- even to scan them all, and in a Scotch Vancouver and Victoria to larly readable for summer mission Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, circles. spirit one day I decided .that I must Shanghai,HongKong,Manila. economize." ,. Consult YOUR OWN TRAVEL *** AGENT or Canadian Pacific: DR. GEORGE W. ARMS. 41 offices in U. S. and Canada. The Foreign Missions Conference at Swarthmore, Pa., (July 9-16) comes Bedford Presbyterian Church, too late to include a report in this number. It has been unusual in set- BrookLyn, N. Y. up, in interest and importance-fol" lowing the Madras Conference and Personal Item, planning to make the most effective use of the re~ults of that 'con:l;erence. (Concluded from 2d cover.) Dr. Milton T. Stauffer, former Education Secretary of the Student Vol- Dr. Wilbert W. White has resigned unteer Movement, and Dr. Herrick from the presidency of the Biblical B. Young, Personnel Secretary of the Seminary in New York, with the title presbyterian Board, are to report and Founder and Honorary President of evaluate this Foreign Missions Con- the Seminary. His brother, Dr. J. ference in the September number of . Campbell White, will act as president THE REVIEW. Look for this report. until a successor has been secured. *** *** Recent letters have contained the following comments on THE REVIEW Mr. James Stark, Mr. M. Hardman and its value: and Miss R. E. Oaskeshott are retir- ing after fifty years of service in the "After all is said and done, THE REVIEW seems indispensable, although China Inland Mission. I know of no otbers of this mission who subscribe for it. But I want it Mr. E. K. ** * a misand that's the reason for this check. I've been a patron for more than Higdon, formerly thirty years, with some time carelessly skipped." sionary in the Philippines under the REV. JOHN C. FINEFROCK, United Christian Missionary Society, United Lutheran Church Mis- has been elected to a foreign secre- sion, .Guntur, .India. taryship in that Society.
*** The Rev. * *R. * Associ- "THE REVIEW exists primarily to Jesse Wilson, further in every way the program of ate Scretary of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society connected with the Home Department, has been transferred from the Pacific Coast office at Los Angeles and is now in the same department in the main of- fice, New York. Dr. Wilson was for- merly a missionary in Japan and later the general secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement.
[887 ]
"MOKSA" (DR. WM. N. BLAIR) REMOVING HIS SHOE COVERS ON LEAVING THE CHURCH. (THE MEN USE ONE
AND WOMEN THE OTHER) INTERIOR OF THE CHU)'tCH AND AUDIENCE-(TWO JAPANESE DETECTIVES IN THE CENTER FOREGROUND) GDiNG TO CHURCH IN KAICHUN, 'CHOSEN
NARY
REVIB ORLD AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS VOLUME LXII JULY-AUGUST,1939 NUMBERS 7 AND 8 Topies of the Times ARE FORCIBLE CONVERSIONS POSSIBLE? only by a long process of training after a conquest. The Soviet rulers of Russia are attempting to con- At times the objection is raised that Christian vert the people to atheism by force; they are not missions attempt to bring about the conversion of succeeding and can only succeed by a long procmen by bribery or force. It is possible by such ess of atheistic education. In Nazi Germany, means to change a man's vote but not his convic- propaganda, national ambition and false teaching, tions. are being used to overthrow faith in the supreme authority of God as revealed in Christ and the Many means are used to turn men from one Bible. There are multitudes of German Chrisfaith and loyalty to another-military force, tians whom these motives do not sway. money, threats, promises, falsehood and ambition. Mahatma Gandhi has tried, with some temporary How long will it take Japan, by the use of success, to force Indian people by his fasting to bombs, machine guns and terrorism to win the accept his program. His most recent self-im- friendship and cooperation of the Chinese? Only posed fast to convert Thakore Sahib of Rajkot, unworthy men succumb to unworthy motives. apparently gained his point; he now says that it resulted in his defeat. Gandhi's opponents were Intelligent Christians realize that men and not convinced and their purpose was not changed, women cannot be truly won to Christ by bribery, therefore they plan to destroy the effect of the fear or force. One might as well attempt to cause a child to be loving and obedient by continued decision in Gandhi's favor. spankings, by threats or by gifts of candy. Men The transmutation of metals, or the conversion are led to consider the claims and character of of one substance into another of apparently en- Christ by the offer of economic advantages such tirely different elements, was formerly considered as provided by the Grenfell Mission, by medical an idle dream. Today such marvellous changes service like that of Dr. Schweitzer's hospital in are conceded! to be in the realm of science. The Africa, or by such secular education as is offered changes wrought in human nature by the power of in many mission schools and colleges. These God are still more wonderful. This has been methods of work may affect their attitude but proved in countless instances, as in the conversion affect no real change of heart. Jesus Christ, when of Jerry McAuley, the "River Thief" of New York, on earth, won men by the revelation of His heart and of Africaner, the "Hottentot Terror" of of love, by the truth that He taught, and by the South Africa. light of Life that shone out through Him. His The transmutation of metals has not been ac- denunciations of selfishness and sin were for hypocomplished by a wizard's alchemy but by the crits; His invitations to come to Him were for knowledge of natural forces and by scientific proc- the hungry and thirsty; His service and sacrifice esses. The transformation of human beings from were for the needy and dying; His- revelation of the natural and beastly to the spiritual and God- God was for those who we:te ready to receive and like is a fact established to the satisfaction of all follow Him. who have seen such changes. This change cannot There is abundant testimony that today, on the be affected by force or by bribery. The Mohammedans have used force and fear to convert whole mission fields at home and abroad, the most efnations to Islam but their end has been achieved fective work in winning men to Christ is not by means of the denunciation of other religions, or [ 339 ]
by the preaching of "hell-fire"; or by the free The result was that Christianity seemed a "fordistribution of "loaves and fishes." Men and eign cult," not well adapted to the peoples to women of all ages and races are won through lov- whom the missionaries came with the universal ing service, by the proclamation of the Good News message of Christ. of forgiveness and life through Christ, and through the manifestation of sacrificial and under- At the recent Madras Conference, Miss Minnie standing love. Other and unworthy methods may Soga, a Bantu woman from South Africa, declared temporarily add to the number of adherents but that to her people Christianity, with its foreign do not change hearts or make loyal followers. clothes, European churches and ceremonies, for- The transmutation of material substances is eign words and unfamiliar songs, was distinctly wrought by understanding and applying the laws a "white man's" religion. Many thought that if of nature, which are the laws of God. "To as they adopted the white man's clothes and manmany as received him (Christ) gave He the ner of life they would no longer be "heathen." But right to be called (recognized as) the children of Africans did not feel at home in European sur- God-who were born, not of blood, nor of the roundings. When they worshiped in a church with will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of a native thatched roof, an unhewn stone for an God." altar or pulpit, and sitting on the ground; or when they worshipped under the trees with the ESSENTIALS IN MISSION WORK vaulted sky for a roof, then they felt at home.
A young doctor, who had recently been gradu- Christians from other lands pointed out the ated from a modern school of medicine and sur- same need for using native ideas and surroundings gery, was sent as a medical missionary to China to make the peoples of each land and race feel at and became a member of the staff of a large and home in their Christian life and worship. efficient hospital. One of the first things he did was to direct one of the Chinese orderlies to throw Many young missionaries today, going out to out a lot of tin pans and other ancient equipment foreign lands with all the enthusiasm of youth and so that they might be replaced by enamel ware with the equipment of the most modern education, and modern implements. Some of the older mem- are demanding better facilities and more money bers of the staff retrieved the discarded utensils. in order that they may give to the "under privi- leged" of those lands, "the best that America and In contrast to this young doctor's attitude are Europe have to offer"-medically, economically, the reports. of Dr. Gordon S. Seagrave of Burma socially, educationally and religiously. From some in his "Tales of a Waste Basket Surgeon." He quarters there is a constant call for more modern has achieved wonderful results ·by using instru- buildings, better equipment, more automobiles, ments and equipment discarded as out-of-date by fast motor boats, radios, airplanes, together with doctors in America. more highly technically trained teachers and spe- cialists. An article recently appeared in Asia, written by an American college man who went to India to On the other hand missionary history shows that investigate the effectiveness of American and some workers have made the mistake of attempt- British educational methods and ideals as applied ing to adopt native dress, food, and living condito the Hindus. From intelligent Indian graduates tions to which they were not born or adapted. of some of the modern institutions he learned that Some valuable and consecrated men and women many of the best trained Indians consider "West- have died prematurely, or have been invalided ern" ideals and methods to be unadapted to In- home, because of such mistakes. Others have redia's needs. ' Foreign colleges are too highly or- fused to use modern methods, inventions and ganized and regimented. They turn out largely equipment which might have added greatly to "white collar" clerks who find few openings for their efficiency. service in Indian society. The educated Indian critics believe that if the "ashram" method had What are the essentials, as distinguished from been followed, with capable teachers who would non-essentials, for effective Christian life and train students in practical ways for Indian life, service? Jesus Christ came to earth as a "foreign the results would have been far better. missionary." He adopted the Palestinian mode of dress and manner 'of life-so far as these were Other critics of Christian missions in Asia, wholesome; but Jesus was born into that life; He Africa and the Pacific Islands, point out many never refused to use the best that Judea and Galmistakes made by early missionaries who intro- ilee offered to make His ministry more efficient. duced European and American dress to replace native costumes-or the lack of them; setting Is it not clear that non-essentials in Christian foreign styles for church buildings, houses and an life and service include special kinds of clothalien manner of life copied from their home lands. ing, (little or much) ; particular architecture for houses or churches; a special language or music; a type of equipment, peculiar ceremonials in wor-
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
ship; a particular form of organization and spe- on their knees to confess sin and pray for forcial educational methods-these are clearly non- giveness. Dr. Sung's meetings were crowded and essentials. God can use any of these that are many came forward to accept Christ. The "Witimpregnated with His spirit and are wholly sur- ness Bands" with two hundred men, women and rendered to His control. Personnel is vastly more youth, were busy speaking of Christ to outstations important than equipment. An efficient doctor or and neighbors. There is great rejoicing over the surgeon is one who knows his science and can spiritual fruitage of this work and over churches use his equipment efficiently; a successful teacher that have been awakened and strengthened. Biis one who knows his subject and how to present ble reading and prayer have increased as well as it effectively; a successful ambassador of Christ personal witnessing of Christ and His power. is one who knows and loves God as He is revealed lives have been set right; quarrels have been setin Christ and the Bible and who lives a Christ-life tled, debts have been paid, pastors have been set among men. on fire with new zeal for winning people to Christ. In one church some members of the congregation Es-sentials for the missionary, or for any Chris- stood up and said to the pastor : "You are not the tian life and service are therefore: first, life in man you were before the evangelist came-you Christ-a life that comes from God, is God-filled preach better sermons than formerly." The pasand God-directed. The second essential is the tor himself admits the great change. Whereas he purpose and power to lift up Christ as the Saviour, used to consult with the missionary concerning who lived and died for sinful men; who rose again, those cold and indifferent, now he weeps over them and is ever living in and with His people in every and prays for them. Sunday afternoon after he land. The third essential is ability to teach the has taught a Bible class, preached a children's Bible as the revealed Word of God; the Spirit of sermon to the Junior Church and a mess·age to the God can be trusted to interpret and adapt the adult members, he takes any who care to go with ideals and truth of God to meet the needs of each him to hold a street meeting. In the evening he race and clime and condition. It has often been takes his part in the special meeting of the "Witfound that the earnest native Christians of a com- ness Bands." munity are much more reliable guides in applying Christian truth to local problems than are the This new spirit in the Chinese Church was foreign missionaries-even those of holy charac- further strengthened during March, through the ter and long experience. visit of Wilson Wong, of the Christian and Mis- sionary Alliance, when the Christians feasted upon Do we not often make the mistake of clinging the Word of God, and at the evening meetings to old ideas and prejudices when new methods brought unsaved friends to hear the message. might be better or of thinking that modern untried More than forty took their stand for Christ durideas and equipment must necessarily replace the ing those evening sessions. old? The first essential is always life-spiritual life; the second is proper food-soul food found in God used both men and both methods to save God's revealed truth; the third essential for souls and inspire soul-winning service in the strength is exercise-loving spiritual service, using whatever equipment we have that will help hearts of the Chinese Christians.* produce abiding spiritual results. It would be well for every Christian to check up in order to Rev. Sook Pongsanoi, a Siamese pastor in discover how many lessons we have learned Trang, Siam, writes of his interesting experience through a period of years, that have helped to that changed him from a Bible-selling colporteur make us and our children more Christlike and more effective servants of God. into a soul-winning evangelist. He says: t NEW LIFE IN THE CHURCH IN SIAM "As a student in the Bangkok Christian Col- lege and later, when acting pastor of the Second As a result of God's blessing on the work of Church of Bangkok, I sold and distributed many John Sung, the Chinese evangelist, in Siam last Scripture portions and Testaments without makautumn, a new spirit has been manifested in the ing reports to the Bible Society. I went into many Chinese Church in Siam. The work was formerly homes and walked in and out of many lanes with carried on in three dialects and three denomina- the Scriptures, but did not feel any real need of tions; now unity and cooperation have taken the reporting on sales. place of division. There is also a new zeal in evangelism and new signs of Christian faith and life. "When I went to work for the Bible Society as People are saved; lives are quickened; the spirit a regular colporteur I had to report every month and power of Christ are manifest in hearts, homes and wanted to give a wonderful report to the head and churches. Entire congregations have fallen office.
"But I was nQt satisfied with the work I was do- ing, and was not happy in it. I sold more than • Facts quoted from Rev. A. G. Seigle of Slam.
t Reprint from the Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Siam and Laos Agency of the American Bible Society.
any other colporteur in Bangkok, but I felt that ent situation assure us that religion-and particumy work was shallow. I was just selling the larly evangelical Christianity-is not dead in Rus- Book without giving purchasers any message con- sia. The expression of it may have changed and cerning the Saviour of the book. I knew that I been driven to cover, but the hunger of the huought to do something more than simply sell God's man heart for God has not been satisfied and the Book, but I went on day in and day out like a vital spark of men and women who have received machine. life from Christ has not been quenched.
"A year and a half ago I was called to become A Soviet Government census has recently shown pastor of the Trang Church, South Siam, and I (according to The Sentinel) that two-thirds of the accepted the call, but with the agreement that I 80,000,000 Russian people living in villages and should continue part time work as a colporteur. one-third of the 40,000,000 people living in larger My work had very little power, but there was a towns are stilI definitely believers in God, in spite growing desire for a clearer understanding of the of the twenty years of pressure and persecution Holy Word for myself so that I could pass it on to to suppress all' religious faith. others. The Soviet authorities have been disturbed by "When I heard that John Sung, a noted Chinese the revelations of the census and have sought to evangelist, was coming to Bangkok I determined suppress the facts. A German writer states that to go and hear him. Thank God, God opened my there are today 30,000 organized Christian groups eyes to see His wonderful love in a new way. A in the Soviet Republics, in addition to many secret powerful meaning of the Cross has come to me societies. Faith in God and a desire for some and I came to have a new attitude toward Bible relation to Him-even in the form of unenlightstudy. ened religion-will not die.
"I invited Dr. Sung to come to Trang and Many factors that have been supposed to support through him God has poured out a mighty bless- religious institutions-capitalism, private proping upon the people of this city. The Trang erty, wealth, and an independent clergy-have Church is now on fire for God and has been packed lost influence, but the roots of religion still rewith people every Sunday since Dr. Sung went main. The younger generation, declares the away. Every church member brings his Testa- Deutsche Landshau, that does not remember the ment to every service and we read the Scriptures regime of the Czars, is less prej udiced against together. Every Sunday I read a chapter from the religion. Many Russian congregations are said to Old Testament, and then the congregation reads a be made up largely of people under thirty years chapter of the New Testament with me. (I wish of age. Ministers are ordained secretly, have no all the people could have a complete Bible, but it definite parishes, and travel about unrecognized will be a long time before that can come true.) by the enemies of religion, but known to Believers. We are feeding on the Word of God as never be- Many of the clergy are artisans or small trades fore. and last Sunday sixteen women and five men people, and gather groups of Believers in unfrewere baptized and twenty baptized children pro- quented woods and ravines. Piety is nourished fessed their faith in Jesus Christ and all united in the hearts of the people who are encouraged to with the church; two back-sliders also came and memorize Scripture, songs and prayers. It takes confessed their sins. One of the old missionaries courage to join such groups, as was true in the said }i.e had never seen anything like that ingath- early days of Christianity, but persecution enering before. dured helps to strengthen rather than to weaken faith in God. The truth of Christ's promise is "Now I have an entirely new attitude toward proved today, as to the Church founded by Him Scripture distribution. At first I did not think and characterized by living faith in Him: "The it necessary to make any report to the American gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Bible Society; then I came to look on the report as the major part of my work; no'W I am seeking PROVERBS OF THE HILL FOLK OF INDIA to win souls through the careful and prayerful distribution of thi.<; Holy Book. I am not now A small stick hides the mountain from the eye. most interested in the ntlmber of Scriptures sold, One says, "What shall I eat?" Another says, but in the number of men and women and boys "What sauce shall I eat with my food?" and girls brought to accept Christ." Sparrows are the headmen of deserted villages. A potful of rice is judged by one grain. CHRISTIANITY NOT DEAD IN RUSSIA Men say that time passes. Time says that men pass. In spite of the continued atheistic propaganda A good man finds the world good. in Soviet Russia, as promoted by communistic officials, by means of ridicule, education, persecu- -The Indian Witness. tion and materialism, those familiar with the pres-
"MOKSA" PUTTING ON HIS SHOES, PREPARING TO LEAVE THE HOME OF A KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN
The "Moksa" Goes to the Country Adventures on a Week-end Journey in Chosen By SHANNON McCUNE, Clark University, Wor- * cester, Massachusetts He OME out to the country with me for the thankful ever since, for it gave me a chance to see week-end." It was my father-in-law, Dr. the country work of a missionary in Korea at William N. Blair of Pyengyang, who was first hand. It was not any special trip but the ordi- speaking. I had just returned from a two weeks nary, regular week-end trip of a foreign Moksa, reconnaisance trip through northern Korea and or itinerating missionary. confess that the prospect of starting out right away, even for a short trip, was not very inviting. Mother made ready the bedding for us; Edith, But after some hesitancy, I agreed, and have been my wife, finished the batch of fudge so that we could take some along. I loaded my camera, while • Sha nnon McCune, the son of Dr. and Mrs. George S. McCune, Father Blair put gasoline in the car and checked was born in Korea. He Is a graduate of Wooster CoIlege, Ohio the oil. The car needed careful going over for it (1935) , Syracuse University (1937) and did graduate work at Clark has been in constant service since it was bought on University (1937-38) where he is Willia m Libby Fellow in the furlough five years before. School of Geography. His father was formerly president of the Union Christian College, Pyengyang, Cbosen. His father-In-law, Dr. At three o'clock in the afternoon, on a Saturday William N. Blair, of Pyengya ng, has given most of his time to last November, we started off to the north-Ieavevangelistic work, la rgely in the country districts. The photographs used to Illustrate this article were taken by Shannon McCune on the journey described.-EDIToR.
[ 343 ]
ing our wives at home in Pyengyang. The road presidency of the Union Christian College and was very familiar to Father Blair for he had been told stories of his evangelistic campaigns. There traveling it for almost four decades on foot, by was some reference to the Shrine question (which pony, in oxcart, and by almost every conveyance is such a serious problem in the Japanese Empire imaginable. We were going to the center of his today), but there was no discussion of it for the Korean leaders appreciate the position taken by the missionary body.
After a night's sleep we woke to a fine fall day with light cumulus clouds in the sky. The usual Korean breakfast of rice and soup are scarcely to the Occidental's liking, so Father pulled ou't his little alcohol lamp and proceeded to prepare a real American breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee.
During the morning I had an opportunity to look around the elder's home, while Father was at Sunday school. It was typical of the better class Christian home and was heated by the regular Korean system of an ondol, the draft going' under the floor from the kitchen stove to the chimney on the other side of the house. The floors and 'walls were made of mud, well-packed on a corn-stalk frame. The outside walls were white with lime . and the inside walls and the floors were papered.
The roof was of slate, warmer, cleaner and longer- GOING ACROSS THE RIVER ON A FERRY lasting than the usual Korean thatch, though more expensive in initial cost. The elder had utilized beloved Anju district of which he has been the the hills back of his home-not for the usual grave sole missionary M oksa ever since he came to Korea sites-but for an apple orchard and the samples as a young man of twenty-five, fresh from semi- we had for breakfast were delicious. He had pre- nary, thirty-seven years ago.
It was not easy driving, for the roads, built pri- marily for army and other trucks, are continually obstructed by large jagged rocks. With rubber.
like gold in a war economy, our tires were Dr.
Blair's first concern. It was necessary to ferry :,lcross the Tatong River twice on small flat-boats just wide enough for the car. Everyone, from the farmer with the top-knot on his head to the J apa- nese gold prospector, offered advice. But Father has guided the car up over the two narrow planks on to many a ferry and so we crossed without much trouble in the growing dusk. We drove along the river for a number of miles and saw boats going down to Pyengyang piled high with firewood or earthen jars.
After a four-hour drive we came into Kae Chy- on where we were welcomed by the pastor of the local church and were taken to a Christian elder's home to stay. In a few minutes the car was un- loaded and soon we were warming our stocking feet on the warm Korean floor. After a bowl of CROSSING STREAM BY FOOT-BRID GJ<:: . DR. BLAIR (IN u-dong (soup) we talked with the pastor, the FRONT), BEHIND HIM A KOREAN DEACON. elders, and others of the church who dropped in to call. This was a valuable opportunity to renew pared a cellar to store the apples, under a shed old friendships with the Korean leaders. I met a where he kept his firewood and rice. In front of number of people who remembered my own father the house was a little garden for cabbages. These (Dr. George S. McCune) and were sorry to hear had been pulled up and stacked by the well to be of his retirement. They recalled his years in the used in making kimchi, or pickle. Tethered under
THE "MOKSA" GOES TO THE COUNTRY
the apple trees were two goats and across the the Church the platform was arranged to make little garden was the pig pen with a fat sow and room for a large sheet of paper which Father her grunting litter. Chickens were pecking Blair would use for his chalk-talk. The church around in the garden and the yard-doubtless filled rapidly, the women sitting on the floor to the missing their companion which was boiling in the right and the men on the left, so that by the time big kettle in the kitchen. The elder was naturally the service started there was not much room left. quite proud of his establishment, which made him Other similar Presbyterian services were taking remarkably self-sufficient. He told me of the help he had received from his subscription to The THE "MOKSA" AND KOREAN ELDER ENJOY SUNDAY DINNER Farmer's Life, a magazine founded by Father (In former days everyone had his individual table, Men still eat McCune and now edited by Mr. Lutz of Pyengyang. The house and little yard n their cleanliness apart from the women,) and convenient arrangement showed that the elder place all around the world, with only a few difhad received from the missionaries not only spirit- ferences. Here the congregation took a big part ual help but also an incentive to improve his ma- in whole-hearted singing and an elder gave the terial surroundings. Sabbath prayer. Everyone listened attentively to the sermon which the Moksa gave. Two Japa- At about twelve we had dinner, a little better nese detectives sitting in front of me took copious than usual in honor of the M oksa. It was a treat notes. (Korea is far from being a free country, for me to be able to sit on the floor and really make especially for a foreigner.) But the preacher my chopsticks click on the good things that the could have the satisfaction of knowing that his elder's wife had prepared. I had been wary of sermon spread beyond the two hundred people in Korean food in my travels around the country the church auditorium. but the clean kitchen was an evidence that I had no need to be afraid of contracting any disease As soon as the church service was ended Father here. With all my appetite, I couldn't hold a candle, Blair put on his shoes and went to the parked car. or should I say a chopstick, to Father Blair as he The canvas cover was taken off in a hurry and off polished off his bowl of chicken soup and heaping we started for a ten-mile ride to a little town to dish of rice. The side dishes of different kinds of the south-west of Kae-Chyon. Here we left the car, meat, fish, and eggs cut up in small pieces, were again shrouded in its canvas cover, and went on also very good but I reveled in the kimchi, the foot. It was a beautiful hour's walk through the pickle which is an essential part of every Korean Korean countryside on this fine autumn day. We meal. It is full of red pepper which burned the had to cross over streams on little foot bridges inside of my mouth, and had a tang, from having and had fine views of lone pine trees towering been in an earthen jar buried in the yard for over above little villages clustered under the brows of a year. The pepper· brought tears to my eyes, the hills. We fell in with a fellow traveler and not only because of its sharpness but because I soon struck up a conversation. When a nail came thought back on my seven long kimchi-less years through the heel of Father's shoe, they squatted in America. down together to fix it with a rock. This road, too, was very familiar to the Moksa and he enjoyed The bell at the church had been ringing all telling about the days when as a young man he morning at intervals for the different divisions of developed this territory. He pointed out the rocks the Sunday school but it pealed for a longer time for church at one o'clock. The elder, in typical Korean style, commented on the glad note it sounded this day because the Moksa was to preach. Rising from the floor and going out on the veranda where we put on our shoes we went off to church. It was the third successive building erected on this site during the last twenty years. Each one bigger than the last and now the congregation was making plans for a new addition. The building, with its tile roof and red brick walls, trimmed with white shutters and doors, made a pretty picture, especially to the Korean eye.
With my camera I took some shots of the men dressed in their white robes going in one door, women, with babies on their backs, going in the other; some "kids" stayed outside to play. Next door was the manse-a modern Korean home with' a tin roof and very clean in appearance. Inside
on which the pigeons used to roost and the hill- out, (or rather "pried" out), and once again the sides which formerly were thick with pheasant. rooms were packed, this time by the adults of the He sighed for: the days whe.n he had a gun and, village. Outside were others, who were too shy not being bound in by red tape, could bring home to come in, making a group of about eighty. Faa brace of ducks or perhaps a deer. The greatest ther spoke this time on some of the basic beliefs pleasure of the trip for him, however, was to talk of Christianity and what they meant in the way of with our companionaboutthe story of Jesus. Much a changed life. At the end of his talk he asked all of my Korean is forgotten but the simple story who wished to make a definite stand for such a change in their lives to raise their hands. Eight torwas beautiful to hear. It fell on "fertile ground," people raised their hands, some having been pre- the gentleman w~s deeply moved. pared for such a stand by the elder and the dea- "At about four o'clock we came into the little vil- con. They only needed the incentive of the Mokla.ge of Kul Chang Kori, or Rock Village Market- sa's coming to ~ake their stand definitely. Our pla.ce. The church had been started many years fellow traveler of the road came up at the close of ago' but had had its ups and downs. Father Blair the service and said that he wanted to change his had not been able to get into this isolated valley for life also, but wished to study more before he came over four years, so that his arrival was a real event to a decision. for the church and also for the village. The little church, situated on the edge of the village, had Shortly after the service we left the town to been repapered arid looked fresh 'and clean. Fa- walk back to the car. A number of the church ther walked around the village of a hundred people, in accordance with Korean custom, walked homes, talked with 11. group of threshers working to the top of the first pass with us. A full moon on the village threshing fioor, and invited them to had come up and the sight of the village, nestled come to the meeting,At night. He also called on on the 'edge of the hill with wisps of smoke spiralsome of the non-believers and interviewed some ling up from the evening fires, is a treasured young men who were interested. At :(lve we went memory. We said our goodbyes and walked tQ",the local elder's home, a typical two-roomed through the beautiful landscape in the crisp au- &untry house with the newly-threshed rice tumn air. We could not but think back on the stacked in bags under the eaves of the thatched eight who had decided definitely to seek a change roof. The cow was in the adjoining shed. Rude in their lives. We wondered if they would be able and poor as it was there was a spirit of welcome to stand fast amid the every day life of the village arid warmth that must have impressed the neigh- and in the strenuous times through which their bors among whom the elder and his wife lived. country was passing. Father commented on how There was no pastor in this village but the faith- typical was the reaction of our fellow traveler who, though sincerely moved, yet was so bound ful elder with a young deacon had kept the lit- by tradition and custom that he could not bring himself to a complete change of faith and life so tle church alive. quickly. There we had supper of chicken and rice and Soon we were back in the car driving to Kae kimchi, all specially prepared for the visitors. Chyon to spend the night in the elder's home. We Again, it was interesting to be introduced as a were up early in the morning in order to be back son of my father, Dr. McCune. It warmed my for an afternoon meeting in Pyengyang. We took heart to hear the old village headman, a non- a different route home and passed through another Christian, say, "The name of Yun Moksa is on section of Father's field with a church in every large town and groups in many of the villages. the hearts of all Koreans." He pointed out the church he had gone to the Sun- At six o'clock the little bell was rung for the day before and the church that he and Mother were to visit the next week. I was impressed by the children's service. The little church, with one fact that this trip we had taken, though extraor- room' about 12 feet by 2'4 and another room in the dinary to me, probably seemed just the usual rear reserved for the women about 8 by 12 feet, thing for him or for any of the evangelistic mis- Was soon jammed with children of all sizes and sionaries scattered throughout Korea. Even Fa- descriptions. There were about sixty, and all ther was sorry to have to rush back to Pyengyang clamoring to be up in the front. The young deacon so quickly but his city responsibilities called him. 'soon had them splitting their throats, singing He wished for time to visit others of his fifty or "Jesus ,Loves Me," while Father tacked some more country churches that have been passing drawing'paper on the wall. In a few minutes all through such difficult times and need the strength- were shouting the answers to his question in ap- ening and encouragement which a visit by the proved Korean fashion, as he told and illustrated Moksa would bring to them. the story of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. Many of the older people had come and the rooms kept' getting more and more crowded. When the children's service was over, they were ushered
a Mission becomes a
By ALEXANDER H. KEMP, M. D., Angola, Africa Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church W HAT is the supreme purpose of Christian 600 church members; today there are over 5000. missions? Is it not to win people to Christ Then we scarcely dreamed of a self-supporting and to gather these disciples into churches native church; today we have 20 outstations which that will become self-supporting, self-extending, receive no subsidy from the mission. The mediand self-governing through the leadership and cal and educational work at Quessua now receive power of the Holy Spirit? In Angola, West Afri- a large amount of financial support from African ca, after fifty years of mission work many circum- sources. stances show that we should take a big step forward towards achieving the second part of our In the early days there was great rejoicing purpose. It is one thing to found a mission; it is when some of the first converts were deemed quite another thing to establish Christianity in a ready to be sent forth as evangelists and village foreign soil so that the Church will grow and de- pastors, and the missionaries were glad to provide velop and bear fruit. these men with houses and salaries from mission funds. The fact that a chief would allow Chris- The past half century of missionary work in tian work to be started in his village was consid- Angola has cost the Church at home not far from a ered a victory for the Kingdom of God. Realizing half million dollars. During the first twenty years that these first native workers were poorly prenearly thirty of the missionaries laid down their pared for their tasks, the missionaries directed lives on the field. The visible results are seen in their energies. towards the training of more effec- three mission stations, sixty native-manned sta- tive men. This meant mission schools. Every boy tions, five thousand church members and an equal who could qualify educationally, spiritually and number of adherents, and a hundred African morally, was assured of an appointment and a Christian workers-pastors, teachers or evange- salary from American funds. The supply of suitlists under appointment of the church leaders. able young men has never equaled the demand. One of our stations, Quiongua, which has had The desirability, as well as necessity, of instituting missionaries for fifty years has been closed be- a system of self-support for outstation work led cause of a shortage of workers, and there is only to an effort to have the older outstations assume one missionary couple at Luanda, the capital of responsibility for the support of their own pasthe colony. This couple cares for a school with tors. About 20 outstations are now doing this. 250 pupils, a church with an average Sunday afternoon congregation of 1200, and 20 outstations Today the situation in Angola is markedly difin the district. At Malange, 270 miles inland at ferent. Decreasing income from America has the railhead, there is one missionary doing pas- made it impossible to continue the present force toral work and translating. At Quessua, 8 miles of native workers on a salary basis, and an infrom Malange, is situated a central training insti- creasing number will each year be ready to enter tute with a school of 200 boys, a Bible School of the Lord's work. At the same time there are 15 pupils, besides industrial, agricultural and med- several large areas in which, until now, a Chrisical work, directed by a single woman missionary tian worker would not have been accepted, but and one married couple. One male missionary from which requests are now coming. In the superintends the Malange District with its 40 out- Malange District there is a large force of native stations, and four women missionaries conduct workers to whom customary salaries cannot be a school with 250 girls. paid from mission funds; there are opportunities to open new work in unevangelized areas, and When the writer arrived in Luanda in 1923 the there is a constantly increasing number of new re- Methodist Episcopal Board had three times as cruits available from the Mission Institute. many missionaries in Angola as now, and more than double the present annual work budget was A call was issued for a conference and seventy provided from American funds. Then we had a African workers were present. After reviewing score of native workers; today we have a hundred the work of the mission during its first half-cenmuch better trained workers. Then we had some tury, I took the men into complete confidence and laid before them a summary of the receipts, dis- [347 ]
bursements and balances of the district funds for Two vital attainments to be achieved in transeach of the past five years. Summing up the sal- forming a mission into a native church lie in aries of several classes of workers I showed that workers' willingness to receive their remuneration it would take 4,000 angolares ($80.00) per month from the people rather than from the mission. to pay all of them, whereas we had on hand enough The village churches must also be ready to proto pay 25% of this from American funds. The vide their workers with remuneration commensuother 75% would have to come from local church- rate with the service rendered. es, from other remunerative labor, or from their gardens. Each quarter less money would come One fundamental question which must be defrom America for them, so that the time seemed cided concern the form which the ministry is to to have come when the native church must as- take. Is it to be a strictly professional ministry sume a much greater share of the responsibility in which the pastor spends all of his time in Chrisfor the support of its own ministry. tian work and receives his entire support from his people, or is it to be a ministry in which the Is Foreign Money Inexhaustible? pastor, trained at the mission, earns all of his sustenance from his gardens or from a trade, For many years our native workers seem to donating his ministerial labors to the village? have had the impression that there was an inex- Shall the ministry be supported in part by the peohaustible supply of American money in the mis- ple and in part from the pastors' own labors? The sion, and that the share each received depended latter seems to be the only feasible plan for the upon the plea he put up to secure it. To help present, at least, and will probably be the final them realize that every angolare I paid out for solution. An understanding of native customs such general expenses as the conference in which is necessary in determining the question. we were sitting, must be deducted from the amount available for salaries, I deducted the The African Ministry travel expenses of men, the cost of rations during the conference, the cost of sending a boy 150 miles In many instances native pastors spend little into the interior to advise the men of the confer- more time in their routine church work than their ence, and other expenses. Thus many of them for people spend listening to them. The African is a the first time came to the realization that there natural orator, such as no other race claims to be, actually was a limit to mission funds. I endeavored so that he requires less preparation for public to make them see that I was doing my utmost to discourses than one would estimate. Even the best secure for them an adequate subsistence, but I of our African preachers have very few books, or told them that in my judgment there would have other literature; a Bible, hymnal and Sunday to be developed a local rather than foreign source school quarterly being the extent of many a pasfor this subsistence. The word "salary" was re- tor's library. They do little pastoral work, such as placed by the word "assistance." From now on is done in America, but they spend many a day they must consider themselves as supported by listening to disputes, settling differences, and givtheir respective churches rather than by the mis- ing judgment on questions., being in reality an sion, and that if they proved themselves faithful unofficial justice of the peace. A teacher must and loving servants, they would be sufficiently sup- spend about three hours daily in the classroom plied with this world's goods to enable them to and practically every native worker should spend continue to break the Bread of Life to their peo- half of his time in his gardens, as do most of ple. his parishioners. As in all African families, the wife spends from sunrise until one o'clock in her Late in the afternoon, after having been given garden. Even when the man of the home is upon their "assistance," the workers left to return to a salary basis, cash never goes for common foods, their stations, determined to preach the Gospel but is used for taxes, clothes, and trinkets. Even to the utmost of their ability, regardless of the re- a new house costs nothing for floors, walls or roofmuneration they might receive from the mission. ing, all being obtained locally free of cost, the win- dows and doors, table and bed and chairs being We have now agreed that all villages near Mal- the only things requiring a monetary outlay. Land ange that request a worker must provide a house, is free, and if the worker has been taught a trade church, gardens, and some cash salary before the at the mission, he can usually earn some money by worker is sent. For villages among unevangelized simple carpentry, sandals, tailoring, and making peoples, it will be necessary for the mission to forged articles. provide for a small salary for the worker for the first two years, or until the worker's garden be- To get a native worker to accept his remuneragins to produce. This plan must be carefully safe- tion from his church instead of from the mission guarded, however, both the worker and his peo- presents many difficulties-and many opportuniple being made to realize that financial assistance ties. Every boy who passes the government exfrom the mission is very temporary. amination expects a "white-collar job," just as
WHEN A MISSION BECOMES A CHURCH
his wife who had been trained in the girls' school rial returns alone, the finest investment any village here expects to be excused from field work. Un- here could possibly make lies in providing for the til now these expectations have been largely real- Christian message in their midst. Africans are ized, made possible by the salaries paid by the mis- poor in this worlds goods, far too poor in fact to sion. Incidently, one-half of the problem of a continue their present expensive beliefs and reself-supporting church is the wife of the worker. ligious customs. Heathen in their hunger bow It is not reasonable to expect villages to support down to wood and stone-seeking an explanation their Christian leader as liberally as he has been for their experience, a search which every human supported by the mission. A native worker must heart has made in vain, until Christ has been partake liberally of the humility of our Master to found. When He has been found and His freedom make him willing to accept support from his local entered into, then our people will be able to secure church organization, and be responsible to that material as well as s.piritual rewards. church for the faithfulness and lovableness of his ministrations. The present situation makes it imperative that we take a big step forward toward establishing a What Can the People Pay? self-supporting Christian church here. Workers present at our recent conference accepted their On the other side, the village churches, after reduced income from the mission in a spirit that having considered for many years that they were warmed our hearts, especially when we saw how doing the mission a favor in allowing a Christian determined they were to continue preaching the worker in their midst, must be trained to make a Gospel for the salvation of their own people. One fair remuneration for the ministrations they re- worker, who had been unable to attend the con· ceive; and they must be convinced that the min- ference, later wrote that he would continue his ministry even though he never received any reistrations are worth the cost. In old days a man muneration from either the mission or from his own people. Our instructors at Quessua, both would pay an ox to be taught to sign his name, or those in the classrooms and those in the shops, several oxen to have his son taught to read and showed an excellent spirit in accepting lower pay. write. The mission has been giving an incompa- Rather apprehensive of my cobbler's attitude, I rably better education to the boys in our schools, called him into my office to appeal to him to coneven providing the boys with food, clothing, secrate himself as the others had done. When I shelter and school supplies. It has been not too asked his attitude towards the new wage-scale, he difficult to bring our people to the place where drew himself erect and answered, in typical Afrithey pay more liberally for medical treatments, can style: "Have you not given me five boys who and for the educational opportunities provided for passed the government examinations last January, their sons and daughters, than we would have be- for me to train in my art of cobbling? Will not lieved to be possible a few years ago. It is now these boys go out to preach the Gospel in places our task to bring villages to where they will re- where I cannot go, to preach it as I cannot since munerate their Christian workers adequately for I am an uneducated man? Has not God called me the benefits received. About twenty villages. have to help them to the best of my ability to be able been brought to this stage, though the present sit- to earn their sustenance as they preach the Gosuation leaves much to be desired. pel, when the mission cannot pay them? I want to continue teaching these boys, even if I receive An old missionary once told me that we should less pay." With a spirit of consecration and devonever expect our people out of their poverty to tion like this among our workers, we take courage support Christian workers. If this were so, our and press on, feeling confident that God will outlook would be hopeless for progress would be abundantly bless our labors. held down in direct ratio to the amount of American money expended. An Evidence of Success In this way we could never hope to attain the In transforming our mission into a native supreme purpose of mission work. But I have no Christian church, we will be called upon to solve doubt about the ability of the people to support many perplexing problems, to straighten out their Christian ministry, even though the cost be many difficult situations, to exercise many years without material return to them. When converts of patience, tact, foresight, and love. We realize become true disciples of our Lord, and come into that there may be at stake the results of fifty years that freedom which is found alone in Him, they of missionary labor which has cost so much in no longer are bound by their prohibitive taboos lives and money. If we fail, then we shall know and superstitions, and no longer pay so dearly for that the expenditure of a half million dollars and their useless fetishes and amulets; they will no the sacrifice of thirty lives has not yet succeeded longer submit to such death-dealing practices as in establishing here a Christian church that can the sas,s-wood test administered by their witchdoctors. Considered from the standpoint of mate-
be trusted to perpetuate the Christian message tude, so that we may train our converts gladly to through its own efforts in the power of the Holy support the bearers of the Christian message. We Spirit. During the future months we may be can no longer "call" workers from among the called upon to undergo many disappointments in school boys, providing them with work which will seeing our workers and stations and followers enable them to live in relative luxury and ease. diminish in numbers, when they realize that funds We shall have to revive the Master's appeal for from America will no longer be sufficient to main- our boys to take up the cross and follow Him, be tain them as heretofore. But we are confident of the -sacrifices what they may. From many angles, ultimate success in founding a Christian Church it appears to us that the present situation has been which shall endure. How could we be otherwise brought about through the wisdom and love of when we are under a divine leadership, when our God; we feel that the present step we are now native workers, upon whom in final analysis rests compelled to take will be wonderfully blessed by so much of the responsibility for success, are so Him, and will result in great increases in the determined and consecrated and confident that the number of true disciples, and in the appearance work must go on? of a rapidly emerging native Christian Church, which shall be self-supporting, self-propagating Our planning for the future of the work and self-governing. throughout the land must take on a different atti- The Perpetual Value of Foreign Missions By the REV. DWIGHT M. DONALDSON, Meshed, Iran I T IS inspiring to spend a morning roaming third man, Dr. Newton Donaldson, was prevented about Westminster Abbey, London, pausing from going to Persia as he had planned, but he before the tombs of famous men, but there i,s and his wife were always enthusiastic in their something still more intimately uplifting for some missionary interest in the pastorate at home. As of us about going into the prayer-meeting rooms their son I have the privilege of working in Persia. of churches where successive generations have His sister, Elma Donaldson, went to India, where worshipped, and to see the pictures of godly pas- she served at Dehra Dunn with devotion until she tors who have spent their lives proclaiming the was seventy years of age. A daughter, Mary Don- Gospel. aldson, went to China in 192'4.
The late Dr. George Alexander, of New York, Thus a real interest in foreign missions will ingave forty-six years of deeply spiritual service on spire succes,sive generations to take part in the the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian permanent business of promoting the cause of Church. Seven of his classmates at Princeton Christ in all lands. Seminary went to the foreign field, and all died in service. Life is no more static in foreign countries than it is at home. It might be asked facetiously, "Why Over fifty years ago, as a young man returning should the land of the Pilgrim fathers, the land of from India on his first furlough, Dr. J. J. Lucas the Scotch Covenanters, the land of the Quakers, had talks with three students in Western Theo- still require the expenditure of millions of dollars logical Seminary in Pittsburgh. He won their annually in national missions?" Others might inrespect and confidence and was able to help them quire, "Why should the country with the greatest reach a decision in their most important life prob- system of public schools and State universities in lem. At that time all three of these men decided the world need money from a Church Board of to become foreign missionaries. One of them, Education ?" The answer to both of these ques- Dr. A. C. Good, went to West Africa, where he tions lies in the present-day problems in the died after twelve years of vigorous missionary United States. If anyone suggests that economy adventure, and where he has been followed by his in church expenditures could be effected by reson, Dr. Albert I. Good, of Elat. The second man, garding the foreign missionary enterprise as a Dr. John Eaken, went to Siam and carried heavy temporary phase of Christian activity, we should responsibility, with sustained evangelistic zeal, realize that the momentous changes that have for more than forty years. His sons, Paul and taken place in foreign lands make an insistent and John Eaken, and his daughter, Ruth Eaken, are imperative demand upon Christian people. giving life service to the Gospel in Siam. The Where illiteracy and superstition and idolatry
THE. NEED FOR. A LIVING FAITH
have given way before the enlightenment of claimed and the reality of the divine Spirit must Christian education, with its churches, schools and be shown in human lives. hospitals, there are new assets for righteousness in the world. Some of the second and third gen- The spirit of nationalism must yield to the eration Christians fill chairs in colleges or work spirit of Christ. As national churches arise, it is as pastors or editors or evangelists. Missionaries the fact that they are Christian and not merely may no longer be needed to fill these P.ositions national that enables them to be admitted at once abroad but the work of the Gospel must still be to the great international Church of Christ. The carried on by other methods in other places. saying, "Let every nation determine its own re- ligion," is utterly inconsistent with the whole Modern civilization has displaced much ancient tenor of the Gospel. Christians are soOns of n.o error and superstition, but there has c.ome ma- national god, and they have been redeemed by terialism and a more obstinate heathenism of in- no national saviour. The w.orld-wide clash bedifference to spiritual things. Educated Chinese tween capitalism and communism knows no naand Japanese, and Hindus and Moslems, are find- tional boundaries. The auth.ority of Jesus Christ ing that for them the alternative is not between must be recognized as universal. The Christian one religion and another but between Christ and Gospel is of permanent and universal value, and atheism. In Iran Islam is losing its hold on edu- at this time when thoughtful students throughout cated men. Nevertheless the fad remains that the world realize that crass materialism has made Christianity is only beginning to be understood. its sensational denials in vain, the message is espe- Great walls of prejudice and misapprehension cially pertinent. Ambassad.ors of Christ preach have fallen down and there are eyes to see and not a mission of temporary philanthropy, but the ears to hear as there have never been before. universal offer of salvation through Christ and For this very reason the Gospel must still be pro- the everlasting Kingdom of God.
The Need for a Living Faith* By REV. J. W. BURTON, Sydney, Australia Secretary of the Australian Methodist Missionary Society O PTIMISM, we are told, is a great asset for with many luxuries-and many horrors. It has missi.ons. If you want people to contribute given us aeroplanes-and baby-killing bombers; to missions, serve up the bright side .of it has created marvels in chemistry-and pois.on things, tell them .of the "glorious Gospel tri- gas; it has built for us swift motor cars-and umphs," and put the soft pedal on failures and military tanks; it has given us wireless-and nadisappointments. If the income drops, do not tionalistic propaganda; it has lengthened the span advertise that; but if the truth leaks out, then .of human life-and taught us h.oW to cut off the explain the shrinkage as, plausibly as possible. stream of life, so that by birth-control a race may The wand, however, is obviously losing some of be more quickly exterminated than by disease. its magic, and thoughtful people are incon- Let the optimist sound his ram's horn and see if veniently asking for naked facts. these walls will fall down.
Our Lord was not the facile optimist some What chance has spiritual religion in this W.orld would like to paint Him. He s,aw the true condi- of nationalism, materialism, and militarism? tion .of the world in His day. He came .of the line What has the Church, representing Christ, to say of prophets who did not speak comfortable things. The story .of the sower suggests that of the four to economic manslaughter and race suicide? Ruskinds of soil, only one yielded satisfactory results; sia has thrown out the Church, asserting that it the illustration of the tares indicates tpat we must prevents social progress; Germany has banned it not expect a hundred per cent harvest; while the because it demands a loyalty other than to the descripti.on of the net full .of fish shows that there State; Mexico and Spain have challenged it beis wastage. That aspect of our Lord's teaching cause it keeps down the people; many other counhas not had due consideration. tries have done even worse-they have ignored it. According to the totalitarian conception the State We once th.ought that science would lay down a and its interests must be supreme. "Battle pracstraight road for the millennium; but we have tice" is considered more important than the quiet been tragically disillusioned. It has provided us w.orship of God; to learn artistically to thrust a bay.onet in human flesh is of more value to the • Condensed from The Missionary Review, Australia.
State than is· education or slum clearance; the others with the life and death of our Lord. It is profits of a lottery are worth more to the State's by a new spirit of unselfishness. and by a real ap- coffers than the honesty of its citizens; and party plication of the Cross- (not as a theological doc- funds and vested interests come before social re- trine, but as a stern spirit) to aU human life- form and human welfare. whether individual, social, national or interna- No wonder gloomy prophets can find a hearing tional-that we can bring back faith.
when they are so glibly announcing the end of the It is faith we need-faith in the eternal God world; the fear of many is that their prophecies who has revealed the quality of His life and the may not be fulfilled. trend of His will in our Lord Jesus Christ. This Does all this mean that faith – the power to has implications. for the whole Church, and spe- apprehend and appreciate the spiritual-is in de- cial implication for missions.
cline? Spiritual values are simply irrelevant in We must make our appeal more and more spir- this world of brute force and organized hatred. itual. There must be an awakening of the The Christian religion is increasingly suspect be- Church's conscience, far too dormant today, in cause it preaches a Gospel of goodwill. Missions regard to our duty to the wider world. Members in some countries have become a danger to state- of Christ's Church have definitely 'pledged them- craft, for they have proclaimed a world brother- selves in loyalty to Him and they must be aroused hood and have protested against national and ra- to its implications. Let us first face the problem cial discriminations. This narrow conception of of the adult member, who seemingly has little the supremacy of the State-whether in times of interest in winning the world for Ghrist. The peace or war-is entirely incompatible with the missionary meeting has almost vanished as an faith that Jesus is her only Lord. Though we effective method of presenting the "claims of mis- shall suffer, and may be persecuted unto death, sions." Many other interests have sprung up in we must be loyal above all else to Christ and His the last hundred years, and no one in any other eternal love and sacrifice. realm trusts to a public meeting to carry a mes- The new paganism affects our Christian work sage. Our methods of appeal need drastic re- at home and lowers the enthusiasm and passion vision. We place too much emphasis upon results for world evangelization. Depleted voluntary giv- in money. The blunt truth is that most of us are ing is only one incidence of spiritual regression. giving beyond our spiritual interest: it is the What are we to do? Play the ostrich and ignore quickening of spirit that is our deepest need.
danger? Repeat piously "God's in His heaven, That assured, the money will come naturally and all's right with the world?" Quote heartening spontaneously-as. it always should.
texts that have no real application to the situa- We may be obliged to start humbly-in little tion? Attempt to bluff people by weak smiles and groups of three or four-meeting together to talk sugary optimism? Or shall we give up the strug- and pray over the Kingdom of God throughout gle and make ourselves believe that we are in the the world, informing our minds by the study of grip of uncontrollable world forces, and with a material dealing with the concrete needs of the stoic fatalism let the heavens, fall when they will? world, and encouraging one another in this world Or shall we pursue a crackle-of-thorns-under- fellowship. There is no need to wait for some the-pot policy, and attempt to attract people by organization to start such a group. You can call entertainment; devise tempting schemes and a few of your friends together in your own home catchy slogans to lure people to the support of for prayer and missionary study. One of the the missionary cause? dangers O'f our religious enterprises is this super- In our hearts we know that all these things are structure of organization. It takes so much of futile. We must go deep. the coal we carry to stoke the engines. The min- We must realize that the whole trouble is spir- ister is often a busy man with a hundred and one itual. It is the human spirit to which we must thi'llgs to attend to, it is scarcely fair to make him address ourselves, for we are perfectly sure of responsible for forming and carrying on a group, the Spirit of God. His Will is that the world though it would be well to consult him before should be saved, but it is man's self-will that pre- starting one. Groups can start with the infor- vents world salvation. It is a birth from above mation contained in the Missionary Review. There that is needed – a regeneration of the human are also many books dealing with world missions.
spirit. We shall not win by compromising with We have surely enough missionary-minded people the world, by adorning our appeal with confec- in our churches to commence a little group in tionery; we shall win only as we succeed in chal- every church. Live cells live by division, and lenging our own selfishness and the selfishness. of more life comes into being.
Youth of the Church
By H. S. RANDOLPH Secretary of the Unit of Rural Church Work, Board of National Missions, Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
I N THE early history of the American nation assurance to owning and cultivating land as did our rural youth knew no frontier limits. There his forebears. Consequently farm life has lost was land-good land, new land—everywhere, much of its charm for youth. Poor land holds out two billion acres of it ; nearly a billion acres were little challenge, and there is not much greater covered with virgin forest and challenge to a young man to over a half-billion acres with spend his life toiling even on luxurious grass. The nation pos- good land that he cannot afford sessed resources that seemed to to own.
be inexhaustible. This situation Today a rural youth sees that gave birth to 'It youth fired with what his father had been able to profound spiritual qualities of earn in a year is wholly insuffi- confidence, hope, ambition, aspir- cient to pay the taxes and the ation, determination, pride and interest and principal payments self-respect, qualities w h i c h o n the farm mortgage. He has closely paralleled the ideals for seen the farm sold on the block personal attainment in the to a foreigner while his father Christian Church. Therefore ru- has become a tenant, and may ral youth found an opportunity even lose his place as a tenant.
to express its finer qualities Such experiences have forced through the church. In fact the many rural youth to give up church was the only institution their dreams of owning a farm, in which the entire community or of owning anything else; could adequately express the so- dreams of school and college cial, educational, spiritual and have vanished; books and travel other important aspects of its are too expensive to consider; life. the old family car and the house- Today, after more than 300 told furnishings are rapidly years of American history, there wearing out, and cannot be re- is no frontier in the nation placed for there is no money which promi£es inexhaustible available.
wealth. Those old frontiers have This decline in rural resources been exploited, and ours is no and wealth, and the breaking of longer spoken of as "the richest rural morale, have been sorely and most favored continent on felt by the rural church. Lack the face of the earth." In less of clothing suitable for Sunday than 300 years the frontier has has kept many a rural lad and disappeared and rural youth lassie away from Sunday school now races a national problem and church. Perhaps the old presented by a shortage of eco- car won't run, and it is too far nomically productive land. Much A MOU~TAIN BOY LEAVING HOME to walle As a result there is no of the nation's soil is now de- church going. In many instances pleted or suffers from want of the rural economic condition has insufficient moisture. Rural youth faces the prob- made the church pastorless because the community lem of inability to work highly productive land, could not support even a part-time minister. Mis- for such land is too high-priced to be owned sion Boards either did not see the need or did not wholly by the individual farmer. Therefore mo- have available funds to meet it. In the course of dern youth cannot look forward with any great time the rural church closed its doors and be- [ 353 ]
came a ghost in the community-broken windows, either directly or indirectly for youth, the probpaint gone; weeds and briars grown up-all make lems of rural youth are far from being solved. an unsightly landscape. All this brings home to rural youth a sense of the insecurity of the coun- Many look to rural schools for the solution of tryside, leaving in its wake broken confidence, youth problems. Our schools do much to develop torn aspirations, blasted hopes, stunted determi- courage in the life processes of youth. New honation, bleeding pride, and lost self-respect. rizons are seen; new knowledge and skills are acquired. But here we must be disillusioned, for ThElre are twenty-one million youth in America; the rural school training· too often has had only and of these ten million are rural. They live on indirect relation to future work and therefore fails the farms or in country villages; many live in miserably to prepare youth to enter adult vocalittle unsanitary cabins on eroded and depleted tional life. However, we must recognize the trefarms, or on cut-over timber lands. Others live mendous impact which our schools make in the life in stranded villages in improvised houses going of youth. to rack and ruin. In the disadvantaged open country and in rural towns the young people are As a result of present day educational apoften under-nourished so that they fall easy vic- proaches rural youth, as never before, is questiontims to disease. They are unemployed and des- ing things as they have been and are. Old verities perate. lose their moral force in the presence of the logic of today's youth. They are learning how to dis- In many areas there are prosperous farms and cover new truths, how to create new patterns of vigorous, well-eared-for young people who move social and moral behavior. This situation renon in the realm of noble dreams; but these do not ders the approach of adults to youth problems far represent our rural mission problem today. Out more difficult than that of an earlier day. In a in the marginal disadvantaged areas throughout recent state-wide church group of rural youth this all rural America, forces are sensitive and opera- significant resolution was passed: "Our adults tive, endeavoring to bring back to disadvantaged have more problems of their own than they can rural youth the more abundant opportunities in solve. It is therefore highly necessary that we life. Perhaps it is not too late to recapture and go about to solve our own problems." conserve the finer achievements of American rurallife down through the centuries, and to rebuild The church probably has more rural youth in rural youth by making available the resources by its membership than in any other rural institution which the profounder depths of personality are or organization. Are we helping them to discover developed and maintained. themselves, their spiritual abilities and powers in the church and community? Have we been too The Federal Government is making a contribu- much interested in organizations in the church tion through certain emergency measures, such as for youth rather than in youth itself? We have the National Youth Administration, whereby it preached a great deal at youth, and we have creaids many rural youth to attend school. It has ated a great many things for them with the hope provided special courses in agricultural colleges of building up their faith and loyalty to the for farm boys and girls; it conducts work projects church, but too often our church organizations, for thousands of rural youth, as well as educa- our doctrines, our creeds, and our preachments tional guidance and job placement. More than have not been open doors of behavior patterns on 900,000 rural youth from low income relief fam- the level of youth's interests. ilies have been aided through the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Work Progress Administra- Youth in the country would like to see in their tion has reached a considerable number of rural churches and in the religious life of their people, youth through education projects, work projects, beauty and order together with a vital program and by provision for recreational activities. Other of action. They want responsibility for doing governmental agencies have aided rural youth things of great moment. They want a recreamore or less indirectly. tional program that embodies the development of skills and ability, as well as amusement. They Rural youth has also been greatly affected by want to experience a cooperative way of life for certain non-government agencies working in ru- the community. They want a spiritual program ral areas, such as the 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers which ties them to God through the church. They of America, Farm Bureau, Farmers Educational are asking for a voice in the midst of a faulty eduand Cooperative Union, and the National Grange. cation and in the breakdown of economic order These have developed to a very considerable ex- and unemployment. They are asking to be heard tent in rural areas. In addition there are many in a world of prejudices where there is a denial of localized projects throughout the country. It is opportunities-poverty, wars, and rumors of generally admitted that even with all these gov- wars. Youth calls for a prophet to lead them. ernment and non-government agencies, at work They are very eager to know about true religion.
RURAL YOUTH OF THE CHURCH TODAY
They want to see the church tie up vitally with the situation from it religious point of view was well rest of their life, with their school program, their expressed by one of the men of the community in dubs,societies, and their vocational interests. these terse words: "Our young people were going Back in an isolated cove of the Southern Moun- to Hell." On the one hand the fine, well-equipped, tains, where youth is supposed to be retarded and well-organized consolidated school was doing a bashful, the energies of a group of boys and girls, suc'cessful job for its youth; on the other hand who knew only how to "raise HeU" all up and there were four poor churches with divided inter- down the creek, drinking and cursing, were so ests, doing a very poor job for the same group of redirected under the leadership of a wise, pro- youth; this led the people of the community to do phetic laymen, that in the period of two years some serious thinking which ultimately led them they were quite capable of doing to unite their churches to form things that made them and oth- one large positive force. They ers happy. called a strong minister as their They took an old school house resident leader, and now have a and remodeled it to make a beau- church which the youth can look tiful rural church. After the upon with pride and say, "Our building was completed and church is just as fine as our cenpainted they landscaped it with tralized school. Our minister is native plants and trees. Later just as good as the principal of they built a recreational building our school. He is interested in all in the midst of a rhododendron the things we do and his friendly thicket .beside a swiftly flowing counsel helps us to do them betmountain stream. The hoys and ter."
girls worked together on these This new united church is projects during their spare time. crowded with young people.
Now they are singing the folk They are doing things in that songs and playing the folk games church which are just as cre- of the Southern Mountains and ative as those which they do of other countries. Near the through their 4-H Club work.
recreational building is an out- They have their Young People's door rendezvous. Needless to meetings, their club, recreation- say, all the young people of that al groups, and many special pro- community are actively enthusi- grams which they carry through.
astic. They are conscious that A wise lay leader found himthey have played a large creative self a few years ago in the open part in the reconstruction of the country in a beautiful valley of spiritual and social life of their about thirty square miles in area community. There is no diffi- where there were a number of culty here about the young peo- country churches and hundreds ple attending church or Sunday of young people. The ministers school or any other activity for were all bewailing the lack of the good of the community, for religious interest on the part of they have helped to create it, it the youth. They took every opis theirs. They are proud of it. portunity to tell them of their About eighteen years ago a sins, but had little to offer as rural community experienced substitutes except what to the the birth of a new consolidated RURAL YOUTH TODAY AT SCHOOL youth were vague abstract ideas.
public school made possible by The young people of the valley improved roads through the country districts and were called together one Sunday night for an open a growing cooperative spirit among the people. forum. Here they discussed their needs. That All the children of the community were brought very night an organization of the young people of to this fine school, which had a beautiful building, the valley was formed to meet monthly for var- good equipment, and excellent teachers. ious purposes. They met for social and recrea- In that same rural community ' were four tional activities; they met to sing; they spon- churches, all with poor buildings, no resident min- sored the Sunrise Easter Service of the commu- ister, church membership weak and becoming nity; they later created a Young People's Council weaker, Sunday schools gradually dying, no of the churches. Through this Youth Council de- young people's organizations. The young people's nominatioi1al harries were broken down through-
out the valley and a cooperative church spirit was effectively restored and saved to the nation their born that could never have existed had not the confidence, hope, ambition, aspiration, determina- youth been organized in this creative fashion. tion, pride and self-respect must be reconstructed.
Here the young people developed a new spiritual This is the task of the rural church, for there is life for themselves and also for their community, no other institution that can undertake and carry all of which has been reflected in the life of the through such a momentous responsibility. There churches of the area. is no other institution known to rural life that is Give rural young people a chance to use their so well fitted with philosophy, idealism and methcreative genius in the church under wise Chris- od to provide the needed sympathy and prophetic tian leadership and we need not fear them or fear direction to complete rural living by disadvanfor them. They know well the significance of taged youth of the soil as is the Christian Church. creative work. They bring out of a setting of The holy work of the rural church is to build out eggs a flock of chickens; out of a pig they develop of these hopeless, spiritless lives which poverty a hog; they grow a cow out of a calf. Out of has strewn over this fair land of ours, youthful grains of wheat, corn, or cotton they produce a lives strong and true.
worthy harvest. God's creative way of living is Herein is a challenge to our Christian churches an integral part of the life of rural youth. As for unity of purpose and method of work, such as rural church leaders we must translate this vital never has come from the good earth of America, power of youth into the spiritual world and teach to provide a good church without competition in them how to live creatively in the Kingdom of every American rural community, with a well- God. • trained and efficient ministry, and an ongoing Rural youth has a big job in any community, a program attuned to the problems, needs and activ- job that will challenge ities of rural youth, their creative zeal, a job thus creating a new that should build them Christian rural life.
into integral parts of the church life. What MOUNTAIN CHIL- is needed to reach such DREN READ THEIR a goal is a wise leader TESTAMENTS to help youth discover The Bible Institute its spiritual job in the Colportage Association, church and community founded by Dwight L.
and to frankly face that Moody in 1894 for the job and see it through. pUblication and distri- Youth, through the bution 0 f evangelical consolidated schools and Christian literature, other community insti- A RURAL CHURCH IN THE MOUNTAINS-AT CARMEN sent 9,969 shipments of tutions, is learning to books, booklets, Gospels, live and act cooperatively. Too frequently the New Testaments, Gospel tracts and miscellaneous churches are too numerous in rural communities. books to mountain schools in the South last year They are competitive in character and disrupt the -a total of 564,682 copies.
social unity of the community. All of this is a The Episcopal Recorder quotes from a letter mystery to oncoming youth. 'They wonder why written by a mountain girl to her teacher, in which there should be such a division and competition she says: in Christian life and work. Our rural youth offer a new challenge to united religious effort in all "Mother and Dad never had a Bible in their of our rural communities. Christian intelligence house, and never did any reading, until you gave demands a united church, the best of equipment, us the Book of John and the Pocket Treasury; the finest leadership and program, so that when but now they are getting interested in the Lora." youth compares its church with its school it will The teacher adds: "The children are more interfind that the church is an institution of which it ested in the Lord and want to take fifteen minutes each day to read th~ir Testaments. They are askcan justly be proud because of what it does for ing questions about the Bible. I want them to them, then they will give to it their loyalty, their read the Testament through before school is out, support, and their lives. and help them in every way I can."
Many of the ten million youth in rural Amer- Teachers in these mountain schools report a ica are disadvantaged through poverty. The gov- marked improvement in the morals and conduct of ernment and other organizations are making their their pupils since this work of literature distribu- contributions but if these young people are to be tion was undertaken.
Today and
By a WAYFARER The author of this article has first-hand knowledge of the situation in Spain T HE end of the Civil War in Spain, with the ister of the former, the Rev. Atilano Coco was shot surrender of Madrid on the 28th of March in prison; the incumbent of the latter, Rev. Mr. brought to an end one of the great tragedies Borrobia is still in prison. Liberty of propaof modern times. All who know Spain never had ganda, without which a religious minority cannot any doubt as to the ultimate issue, but all were thrive, was carried on normally in Government surprised that an improvised army, without sci- territory but was prohibited in the Nationalist entific training, was able to hold out so long area. The sale of the Christian Scriptures reached against superior forces equipped with modern record figures in republic or Loyalist Spain durlethal weapons. Neither side is without reproach ing the conflict but was prohibited in the country for many excesses· were committed that history dominated by General Franco. Registered parcels will condemn. The Nationalists, in spite of their of Bibles, sent from London to Vigo, were reclaim to a pure patriotism, opened the door to the turned marked "Prohibited by the Military Cenforeign invader and armed the Moors, the heredi- sorship."
tary enemies of Spain, in order that they might Fears for the safety of the Protestant minority kill Christians. The ruthless repression of the and the continuance of the work lead the British Basque autonomists, with its massacre of priests Committee for the Evangelization of Spain to ap- and civilians will not soon be forgotten. Franco point a delegation, under the presidency of Dr.
too seems to have been unable to restrain the Rushbrook, to call on the Duke of Alba, the official Falangists and Requetes in their zeal to extermi- representative of the Nationalist Government in nate "the Red vermin." Spanish Anarchists, al- London, asking for assurances of protection and lied with Communists, by killing priests and burn- liberty. Through his good offices certain questions ing churches, discredited the Loyalist Govern- concerning the maintenance of religious liberty ment cause and alienated sympathy that would and propaganda were submitted to General Franco otherwise have been theirs. It would be as fool- who later replied guaranteeing liberty of worship. ish to hold Senor Azana personally responsible for On being further questioned as to whether this . this as it would be to make Franco wholly respon- included liberty of propaganda the General replied sible for the excesses of his irregular troops. It in the affirmative and this declaration was pub- is a significant fact neither seems to have pos- lished in English newspapers. sessed the authority necessary to dominate the sit- uation. In this age, however, promises do not seem to have the same sacred character as formerly. The As to the religious situation generally speaking dead cannot- be raised but if General Franco would both sides maintained the degree of religious lib- release Evangelical workers who are still in pris- erty that obtained in Spain at the outbreak of the on and allow the reopening of closed Protestant war. At an early stage the Government published churches, such as those of Barcelona that have a decree to prevent excesses and inviting Roman been closed since the Nationalist occupation of Catholic priests to return to their parishes. At the city, that would go far to inspire confidence. no time was Protestant worship suspended in the Government-controlled area; nor were their build- Moreover the news that filters through from ings destroyed. Christian services were carried Spain is increasingly ominous. On the 3d of May on throughout the struggle, frequently in build- a decree ordered the replacing of the Crucifix in ings damaged by enemy aircraft. In Nationalist all schools, whether Government or private. None territory Roman Catholic worship was celebrated will be allowed to function until it has obeyed this in pre-republican splendor. Protestant services injunction. The teaching of the Roman Catholic continued without interference in most towns and religion has been made obligatory in all schools. were well attended. Conspicuous exceptions were The children are obliged to attend Mass. If any Salamanca and Valladolid where Protestant special provision has been made for non-Catholic churches were closed early in the war. The min- children we have not heard of it. All civil serv- ants too are required to give proof of Catholic [357 ]
piety (pruebas de piedad cristia1W) , that is to be brothers united in one conception of the State say, fulfil the obligations of the Roman Catholic and in one religion." But Franco's forces contain religion. Again there is no mention of exemption groups with opposing ideologies. It is easier for non-Catholics. A list of prohibited books has to conceive the lion and the lamb lying down been prepared. Only accepted books may be circulated in Spanish in Spain. Inquiries at the together than Falangists and Requetes living in Spanish Embassy brought forth the statement peace. The Spaniards are a proud people whose that the Bible is not included in the list. Finally, soil has been trodden and their blood shed by foraccording to newspaper and radio reports, the eign invaders. Official friendship may be main- Civil Marriage Law, instituted by the Republic, tained with the invading countries but the people has been repealed and 60 days have been given to who have suffered will not forget. It is even more all married under this law to remarry according difficult to visualize post-civil-war Spain as united to Roman Catholic rites. Failing this their chil- by a common religion. A large part of many of dren will be declared illegitimate. Now as confes- the Spanish people have an inherited hatred and sion is required before marriage in the Roman distrust of the Roman Catholic Church which is Catholic Church, and no so called, "heretic" can considered as the enemy of liberty and a barrier receive absolution, remarriage, under these con- to progress. This feeling has shown itself in ditions, would seem to be equivalent to being re- periods of national tumult by the burning of ceived into the Church. The Spanish Embassy church property. Is it conceivable that the conconfirms the, promulgation of this Law but they duct of the Roman Catholic Church during the have not yet received the text. The conservative civil war was such as to win these people for its French newspaper Le Temps in its issue of April cause? There have been too many priests of the 25th, says that more than 30,000 couples in Madrid type of Zafra who, waving his pistol in the air, alone are affected. They are being remarried at boasted that it has sent more than 100 Marxists to the rate of 650 a day. their account. Even the holy lives and sacrificial death of such men as the Franciscan, Father Re- What will be the position of non-Catholics under ville, who was shot for protesting against the murthis reactionary decree? We do not know as we der of inoffensive citizens, cannot blot out the have not seen the text. We can only hope that memory of others better known whose conduct was there are attenuating clauses in it that are not different. Cardinal Mercier, whose heroism Belmentioned in the first reports. gium will never forget, visited Spain on one occa- I On the 19th of April a deputation from the sion. On his return a friend congratulated him on i'British Committee" again called at the Spanish having seen that most Christian country, to which Embassy in London. In the absence of the Am- the Cardinal replied pensively, "Christian? Do bassador the news of the closing of the Barcelona you think so?" churches-the other information mentioned above had not then been received-was brought to the Spain needs Christ. Not the crucifix hanging notice of the Chief Secretary, the Marquis de los round the necks of bloodstained Requetes and Santos, and the contrast between this event and Moors but the Christ of the Gospels who died the promises given on the occasion of the previ- expressing forgiveness to his enemies. He alone ous visit were emphasized. can lead Spain forward to that new epoch of peace and prosperity desired by all true friends. Pray We hear much of the new Spain that is to rise that there may be an open-door in Spain for men on the ruins of the old. It is, we are told, to be who incarnate the virtues associated with the di- "prosperous and powerful. Its inhabitance will vine character of Jesus, the Christ.
One of India's political leaders said of Stanley Jones: "We always know where he is com- ing out. If he begins at the binomial theorem, he will come out at the place of conversion." And to this Stanley Jones replies: "Right. I make no apologies, for life comes out at that place. Amid all the changes which have taken place in the mind and spirit of this age there is one underlying need that has not changed-men need conversion. But we now see that that conversion is bigger in its scope than we had dreamed-the individual and society must shift the basis from self-centeredness to God. For conversion is that change, sudden or gradual, by which we pass from the kingdom of self to the Kingdom of God through the grace and power of Christ."
and Religion in
By REV. and MRS. PHINEAS B. KENNEDY, recently * of Kortcha; founders of the Albanian Mission A LBANIA, which has recently been front page day dropped leaflets guaranteeing the free exer- .r-. news in the press dispatches on account of cise of religious beliefs." the Italian occupation and the flight of The virile Albanian mountaineers trace their King Zog with his wife and baby, lies north and history (according to Max Muller and others) west of Greece, and across the Adriatic Sea from back to the Pelasgic race. In ancient times they Italy. The country is smaller than the State of were pushed back into their mountain fortresses Maryland and the total population (800,000) is by the Romans, Goths, Bulgars, Serbs, and Turks.
about the size of Baltimore. The people are three- For nearly five hundred years they remained fourths Mohammedan; the remaining fourth be- under the Turks, then they became independent; ing about equally divided between the Roman now they are subject to Italy.
Catholics of the north and the Eastern Orthodox The first Bible colporteur to come to these moun- of the south. Islam was forced on this sturdy tain people was Gerasim Kyrias, an Albanian. He race before the fall of Constantinople in 1453. had been educated under the American Board Their honored patriot, George Castriot Skender- Mission. He was captured and held for ransom, beg who died in 1468, is the hero in James M. but money was raised, through the efforts of the Ludlow's "A Captain of the Janissaries." Evangelical missionaries, and was used for his re':'
The Rev. Arthur W. Konrad of the Evangelical lease. While his health was seriously impaired Mission writes that some Italian bombs proved to by his rigorous experience, he and his sister were be "stuffed with paper and wood, used only to instrumental in establishing in Kortcha an evanscare and not to exterminate." He speaks also of gelical day and boarding school for girls in 1891. the friendliness of the Italian army when it en- This school they carried on for some years. tered the city of Kortcha. A generation ago a young Mohammedan Al- At latest reports the Albanian flag was still banian entered the offic·e of the American Board flying with the flag of Italy. Albania has now a of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston reconstructed government, and, according to and gave a modern Macedonian call: "Come over newspaper accounts, many of the people are jubi- and help us." This touched the heart of the secrelant over having Victor Emanuel III as King and tary of the Board, Dr. James L. Barton, and a Emperor. Albania has lost her brief independ- special fund was raised which enabled the Board ence and she is now related closely with to send out Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy in 1907. While Italy in whatever the future holds. Since the the Turks attempted to prevent the missionaries' Italian occupation of Albania, (April, 1939) there entrance, permission was finally granted on the has been time for some details to filter through basis of American treaty rights. The little school to America. This occupation seems to have been started by Gerasim Kyrias in Kortcha was a veriinevitable due to several years of Italian financial table "cradle of liberty" and was the only girls' aid in the material development of the country. school in the country where the Albanian lan- Moreover dissatisfaction was beginning to be felt guage was taught. Preaching and Sabbath school by many of the Albanians against the Zog regime services in the language of the people were held, in which overtaxed the people. spite of opposition both from the Turkish Govern- ment and from the Moslem and Greek Orthodox The Rev. Edwin Jacques, another Evangelical leaders. From time to time Albanians have conmissionaries, says in his "postscript" to a recent fessed their faith in Christ and have been received circular letter (written before the occupation), into the little Evangelical circle. The occupation "To quiet Moslem forebodings airplanes yester- of southern Albania, during the Balkan War made it necessary for the missionaries to leave, but the * Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, the founders of the Albanian Evangelical way was opened to do relief work among the starving and dying Moslem refugees in the north, MiSSion, are now in America, having passed over to their fellow with headquarters in Durazzo. After four or five miSSionaries, Messrs. Jacques and Konrad, all the property held by them, both mission and private. Their address is 332 West 12th Street, New York. They expect to work among Albanian communities in America and are ready to accept speaking engagements.
-EDITOR.
[359 ]
years' absence, while the World War was still in Two young missionary couples, Rev. and Mrs. progress, the Kennedys were able to re-enter Kortcha, and soon the attendance at the re-opened Edwin Jacques and Rev. and Mrs. Arthur W. school and at the Evangelical services was larger than before. Konrad were added to the staff and are now con- The income of the American Board being in- ducting the mission. adequate they decided to withdraw from Albania in 1922, expecting that another board would take While the great need in Albania today is to over the work, but this was not done. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy therefore decided to conduct the reach tre Moslems, there is also a call to teach work on interdenominational lines and founded the Evangelical Mission as an independent "Faith" the unenlightened Roman Catholic and Greek work in 1923. The so-called Kyrias School, having been moved to Tirana, the capital, a new school Orthodox Christians. Albanians are "very reliwas established in Kortcha and village evangelistic services were carried on regularly. When the gious" but their religion is largely outward and independent State was formed, the Albanian language could be taught without the protection of formal. Those who have had a real experience the American flag so that many, who were not vitally interested in the dospel, lost their interest of Christ are deeply concerned for the salvation in the mission. Nevertheless the school grew so that it was necessary to add more rooms and em- of their fellow Albanians. ploy additional teachers. The Bible was regularly taught in all classes three times a week and new The country has passed through many political . members were added to the Evangelical circle. Later, with the growth of nationalism, the Al- changes under Turkish, Greek, French, Albanian banian Government was influenced to close all private schools, including the mission school. The and now Italian flags. What this new change may prejudice of the people has been dispelled, and more time can be devoted to distinct evangelism. mean for Evangelical work is known only to God.
Certain it is that the Albanian people need the clear Gospel message, proclaimed by the power of the Spirit of God. .
Some day there may be a Christian mass move- ment in Albania, for many are dissatisfied with empty religious forms and superstition. They are "almost persuaded" to become real followers of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. They are a noble race of people, and hold a strategic position in the Bal- kans. Shall we not give them the entire Bible in their language, and evangelize this field while it is yet day? The night cometh in Europe and the Near East, when no man can work.
Liberty and Religion in Red Russia * By COLONEL F. J. MILES, D.S.O., O.B.E., V.D.
International Secretary of the Russian Missionary Society, Inc.
N UMERICALLY, the Russians form the tive Committee viewed with alarm the lack of in- greatest white race in the world, 210 mil- crease due to licensed lasciviousness, reduced it to lion people. Of these approximately 180 latitude, and by law abolished liberty and free millions live within the borders of Soviet Russia, provision of hospitals and surgeons for the pera tract of territory so vast that it stretches from formance of certain operations. The year that Europe to the Pacific; from the White Sea to the the alteration took place making the operation Black, from the Baltic to the Balkans; so huge illegal, the population grew by four and a half that when it is twelve noon in Moscow it is seven million. It is anticipated that the futur·e normal o'clock in the evening at Vladivostock. In this increase will be at the rate of seven million per land, which covers one-sixth of the earth's sur~ annum, until in 1970 there will be three hundred face, one-fourth of Asia and one-third of Europe, million resident in the U. S. S. R. Lenin's widow there dwell 170 races speaking 120 different is leading a journalistic campaign and nation-wide tongues and dialects. There are White Russians movement in fayor of large families. and Little Russians; .Cossacks and Caucasians; Georgians and Ukrainians, and the like. The laws concerning religion govern the whole of the Federated Soviet States. It is, of course, The population was increasing at the rate of true that the farther one gets from the capital three million per annum, until the Central Execu- cities the more likelihood there is that laws will not be so strictly observed. For instance, I vis- • From the E'IIamgeUoal O'hristi<z.n, Jamlary. 1939.
LIBERTY AND RELIGION IN RED RUSSIA
ited a collective farm in the Don Cossack country. mummified bodies lying side by side in the Cathe- The village was still called by its· old Czarist name dral of St. Isaac in Leningrad. The centre one -Alexander the Second! But the collective farm is a "saint," and the outside two are a peasant that included it as its centre, and on which all the man and woman. The stage is set to show that not villagers worked was styled "October 25th"! I sainthood, but chemical processes were responmanaged to "lose myself" from the Field Briga- sible for the preservation. Moreover, into the dier, who made it his business to carefully shep- hand of a corpse lying in the Russian coffin, which herd me around, and I wandered down the village has casket and lid of equal depths, there was street "visiting." placed a Greek Orthodox passport to heaven, printed in Archaic Greek. This had to be pur- One cleanly-clad housewife called me into her chased from the priest and without it there was home where I found in the living-room five ikons, no hope of the departed entering paradise! In the and in the adj oining bedroom another two, each first instance, persecution was directed against with its little red lamp burning beneath it. I this church which was characterized by creed, found that nearly every worker on this intensely ceremonial, crude teaching, and too often not by communistically named farm was still living reli- Christian character. giously as in the old "Holy Russia," and that the bulk of the people, in spite of the five-day week, The Stundists were given a freedom, under were actually worshipping in the little church which they increased with such remarkable rabuilding of the Greek Orthodox Church every sev- pidity that the Central Executive Committee beenth day. came alarmed. They reasoned that the church of these Christians who refused to participate in The American secular press has been misled party politics or to bear arms, was necessarily into stating that the new constitution affords reli- opposed to the Bolshevic plan for world-wide antigious liberty to Soviet citizens. The conditions religious communistic dominion. Their rapid inremain as they were before the draft sent out to crease was, therefore, a menace to the Soviet plan. the Soviets in February, was "adopted" in No- So the forces of persecution were focused upon vember of 1936, and became law on January, 1937. them. No Christian is persecuted as such and Articles 124 and 125 provide for "liberty for anti- no evangelist is banished merely for preaching religious propaganda" and "freedom to perform the Gospel. They are charged as counter revoreligious rites." News editors did not sense the lutionaries. But. facts are stubborn things. Forworld of difference between the two. It simply meant that elderly folk who still clung to their merly we had sixty-six consecrated Russian evanreligious ceremonial could continue to follow it. gelists within the U. S. S. R. Today only five are left and they are in exile. None of the "liquidated" The revolt, while :;tgainst all religion, was in the men ever engaged in any counter-revolutionary first place a revolution against the National Or- propaganda or activity. Before me are the rethodox Church. From the standpoint of the anti- ports for August, 1938. (1) In the Far East God and anti-religious hosts, it was justified. a purge of Baptist churches is taking place There were notable exceptions, as in the case of and the leaders are being charged as "Japanese the Patriarch Tikhon, and the Metropolitan Ben- spies." This is in harmony with the procedure in jamin, the one dying in prison and the other being the West where evangelists and pastors were shot. Before the tribunal the Metropolitan said, exiled· or shot as German spies. (2) Baptist "If I must die, I will die as a Christian." But the groups in Tolka have been "liquidated." Tolka is old Russian Church was largely led by illiterate in the Caucasus. (3) Baptists in the Caucasus and immoral men like that "holy devil of Russia" were accused of (a) hindering the election of -Rasputin. Priests in the provinces actually Stalin candidates at the recent elections; and taught the people that the bodies of believers were (b) conducting religious. propaganda among the immortal, and that when a believer died the body hospital workers of the district. (4) A Baptist remained intact until the judgment day! They pastor of twenty years' standing in one of the exhibited bodies of saints in glass cases in their oldest churches in the autonomous Udmurpk Rechurches. When the revolution came, the anti- public was arrested as a German spy. (5) Evanreligious hosts opened the graves and disclosed gelistic groups in the Crimea were "liquidated." that they only contained decomposing bones. They smashed the glass cases and revealed that the It seems strange that in a land where capital bodies of saints were "fakes." Not all; for the punishment has been abolished hundreds of men ground beneath the monastery of Pechersk at are being shot daily. The military and naval lead- Kieff, the ancient capital of Russia and the pres- ers are shot so that they may be replaced by noment capital of the Ukraine, has the property of inees of Stalin and Company. I ventured to ask preserving bodies interred therein. The monks a City Magistrate in his Chambers in Mosco.w how were quick to take advantage of this and instituted he explained this anomaly. Indignantly he couna mummy factory. • . . 1J'here are three complete tered, "But we do not hang people up and leave
them hanging till they die; we shoot them in- in 1936, twenty-seven in 1937; there are less tostantly and put an end to their misery." And I day. The last German Lutheran Church was found that this university trained man, who had closed in August, 1938, when the pastor died. In taken a juridical course, really believed this. A Omsk, Siberia, with a population of two and a few weeks later I was on the lower Volga, and two quarter million, only three churches remain open. Scotch ladies, traveling first-class, were being con- In a town on the lower Volga, with a population ducted by a Girl Guide interpreter. She told them of eighty thousand, five churches were open when this same story. I had several conversations with I visited it a couple of years back: two Greek her, as we were several days on the boat. During Orthodox, two Roman Catholic, and one German the recent winter she had passed an examination Lutheran. For all practical purposes they might in an additional language, so was receiving an as well be closed. The vital religious work in that extra fifty rubles a month pay, and had been pre- community is being carried on in private circles sented with an English up-to-date edition of a of Brethren, Baptists and Evangelical Christians. work by Frederick Engels in which it was claimed that during the previous year in the Brit- Some reports appear in the press of churches ish Isles, men were banished for life to convict settlements overseas for poaching rabbits, and being full. hanged for stealing sheep. I published excerpts There are enough elderly folk (with whom the from this work in the British Press. Noone has dared to attempt to refute what I wrote. Soviet cannot be bothered-"They'll die off soon, anyway") to fill the buildings that still remain Effect of Censorship open at Easter, and at the three-day Christmas (January 6th) of which Greek Orthodox churches Lamentable ignorance of conditions in Russia make so much. But in the few churches remainand in the other lands is due to the censorship ing open, what can be done? The pastor may which is, applied both in and out of the U. S. S. R. preach on the premises, but nowhere else. He is For instance, no paper, periodical, or magazine taken up for interrogation periodically, and comes Duhlished abroad is permitted to enter Russia. out of the ordeal a nervous wreck. No literature The population gets its ideas concerning "starv- is allowed on the premises except such as is absoing and revolting peoples" of other lands from lutely needful for the conduct of worship. No government controlled papers, in order that by meetings may be held for women or young people. contrast they may be the more content with the It is a criminal offence to gather three young peo- Soviet regime. All who regularly write or are ple under the age of eighteen to teach them reliwritten to come under suspicion. I have before gion. No teacher is permitted to enter any place me a communication from K– asking us not of worship. No social service may be rendered, to write more at present. Believers and others lest by so doing the church should influence those under suspicion are tortured to secure confes- helped to become religious. The church is under sions; nothing to eat or drink; no sleep-terrible! a graduated tax that is increased periodically till, It is such torture that induces wholesale confes- in spite of severest sacrifice, it can no longer be sions of "counter revolutionaries." There have paid; then automatically the Soviet takes over been many positive acts against religion. Church the building because those using Government buildings were taken over by the Government. All property have not paid their dues. It is all quite private property was nationalized, including the lawful and legitimate! !! If the pastor dies, no churches. Like so many other communistic prin- successor may be elected and the church is liquiciples the abolition of private property has broken dated. The German Lutheran Church at Gorki down in practice. For instance, Cooperatives are (Nizni-Novgorod) has been closed for this reason allowed to erect buildings and sell the apartments for years. Apparently the local Soviet has no use to their members. Most of the church buildings for the building. were closed and converted to secular uses such as bureaus, workshops, factories, apartments, clubs, In one city where we bought land and erected a kolkhos (stores for collective farms), public con- building wherein thousands of souls were saved, veniences, etc. "Dom Evangelia" in Leningrad our people were expelled, but permitted to conis a workers' club. for the men who make nails in tinue to meet twice in what we call one week, in a the metal factory opposite. The cathedrals of St. hall attached to a former Greek Orthodox Church Isaac in Leningrad, of St. Basil in the Red Square building which they shared with followers of anof Moscow, and that of St. Andrew in Kieff are other persuasion. Needing this, the local Soviet anti-God and anti-religious, museums. turned them out. They have been driven from pillar to post, hampered, hindered, harassed-yet Of 1636 Greek Orthodox churches in Moscow on the 29th day of January last year, in one meetbefore the revolution, thirty only were left open ing they baptized fifty converts on profession of faith.
Since May, 1929, the Bible has been banned. It is a criminal offence in Soviet Russia to print,
publish, circulate or distribute the Word of God 87 per cent of the Russian population were illitor any portion of it. We printed the largest edi- erate. Now only 14 per cent are, and in the intion of Russian Bibles that ever came off the press dustrial areas, only 8 per cent. But every day 25 -81,000 copies. Before the officials became so million children going to school are taught that alert we sent copies back by the lumbermen who there is no God; never was. a Creator, and are brought the rafts and logs down the rivers to the subject to such caricatures of Christianity, and border states. Our men carried them over the such blasphemous cartoons of Christ that I canborder at dead of night, taking their lives in their not bring myself to describe them. No teacher in hands every time they crossed. In markets far school, college, or university is permitted to enter away from Moscow bidding may proceed for a any place of worship. And yet all over Soviet few mushrooms spread out on a bag-but the real Russia today there are sporadic outbursts of reobject is under the bag, a second-hand Bible or vival among young people (over 50 percent of Testament. When the government said in effect the population, i. e., all the young people, have -"You shall not have the Book in your hands," passed through these schools), and especially the Believers replied, "Then we'll put it into our among young men in the factories, so the local heads and enthrone it on our hearts." So they leaders are sending to Moscow asking that special studied and committed to memory the Sacred speakers be sent to combat the religious revival. Word. Now, when they gather round our evangelists in "bears' caves," they repeat passages of I dare not close this article without giving evi- Scripture and so illumine and inspire, instruct, dence of the truthfulness of the above, from offiexhort, and "comfort one another with these cial Soviet sources, lest I be charged with rowords." mancing.
There is no food shortage in Russia in Europe Lunarcharsky, former Commissar of Education today, though sometimes failure in distribution in the Central Executive Committee, issued a occurs. There is still shortage in Russia in Asia, manifesto in which he stated: and we still need to send food parcels. to Christians and banished evangelists in concentration camps We hate Christians. Even the best of them must be rein the Far East. Nothing but our food parcels garded as our worst enemies. They preach love to one's stands between them and starvation. Until food neighbors and pity, which is contrary to our principles ( !). tickets and ration cards were abolished no priest, Christian love is a hindrance to the development of the rabbi, moulvic, pastor, evangelist, editor of reli- revolution. Down with love for one's neighbors. What we gious pamphlets, or tradesman dealing in any re- want is hatred. We must know how to hate, for only at ligious article, nor his wife or family, was per- this price can we conquer the universe. We have done with mitted to have a ticket or card. Thousands who the kings of the earth, let us deal with the Kings of the wished to be loyal to the Lord "whom not having skies. All religions are poison. They intoxicate and deaden seen (they) love," were living on the bark and the mind, the will, the conscience (!). A fight to the death roots of trees, on nettle grass, and on field mice. must be declared upon religion. Our task is to destroy all kinds of religion, all kinds of morality. In spite of these conditions there has been, and still is, a real religious revival. Let him tell us how they succeeded. Trud, whieh means "labor," is the chief workers' organ; In the U. S. S. R. one evangelist, now in exile, Comsomolska Pravda is "Truth for Youth"; in three months, in three villages far from the Pravda, meaning "Truth," is the chief organ of capital, baptized 450 converts. Next spring he the Communist Party; while Izvestia, "News," is baptized 154 more in two months. Then he went that of the Government. In Southern Russia it is to prison for a technical offence in connection with said that there is no news in the Truth, and no preaching. Not to the Solovetsky Islands, the truth is the News. Writing in Izvestia in 1929 most rigorous imprisonment in the world, but to on the basis of the figures of his own department, a "house of re-education," in which the offenders Lunarcharsky affirmed that in 1917 there were are .given a good time, to induce them to come out only 700,000 members of the Communist Party, good supporters of the Soviet regime. Freedom but in 1927 they had grown to 1,700,000. But in therein enabled our man to preach to those who 1917 there were only 100,000 Stundists, and in would not have listened to him outside, also to hold 1927 over six millions. The Christians had outprayer meetings. Several prisoners were con- lived, outwitnessed, and outnumbered the Comverted. When he was discharged he found that munists by six to one, and this in spite of Governhis wife had carried on so effectively during his ment support of the latter, and satanic and Soviet incarceration that he had to baptize another 12'6 opposition of the former. converts. The Party Commander of the Bezbojniks (the The greatest achievement of the Soviets has Godless), Em. Yaroslavsky, has recently published been in the realm of education. Before the revolt an explanation which is an apology for failure in the Scientific Journal, Antireliginoznik. In it he has to confess that about two-thirds of the rural
pop1l1ation, and one-third of that in the towns, the ministers of the cult must be viewed as fraudstill continue faithful to religion. He admits that ulent members of the Party. All our skill must while the Government can prohibit support of the consist in systematically and unremittingly de- Church, and separate the Church and the school priving the Church of its head; in striking the by decree, "a decree is powerless to efface reli- blow at the Shepherd and alluring the sheep into gious ·conception"; "being deprived of an edifice our own stable" (sic!). has not killed the religious feeling of believers," and even "the Pioneers frequent the Church in There is one reason why the anti-religious hosts great numbers." He claims. that the coercive have failed. Jesus said, "On this Rock (faith in measures have been a mistake: they have failed; Christ as the Son of God) I will build my church and concludes that "The masses must be tamed by and the gates of hades shall not prevail against kindness." But–"We must outroot religion, and it" (Matt. 16: 18). My Master always keeps His word.
Forty Years' Progress in Latin America By REV. WEBSTER E. BROWNING, New York Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; For Forty Years a Missionary in South America I N THESE chaotic moder:::J. times, forty years United States flag was seldom seen on the few constitute as long a period in the life of a na- ships which then made the run to South America. tion as in the life of an individual. Changes, The investment of North American capital, could rapid and cataclysmic, occur, even in the coun- not have exceeded a few hundred millions in all tries that have been fully organized for centuries Latin America. In 1937, the total investment was and whose traditions and form of government ap- reported to be about $6,500,000,000. pear to be crystallized and unshakable. In younger nations, such as those of Latin America such 2. Politically-Few governments of the very changes, though less sudden and dramatic com- young republics were then more than oligarchies. pared with those of Europe during past years, are A small number of families, in each of them, connevertheless well defined and epoch-making. sidered the presidency and other public offices their peculiar right and saw to it that the power The writer of this article journeyed to Latin was kept within their limited circle. As an illus- America, for the first time, more than 40 years ago, tration, one lady, known to the writer, was the and, except for occasional visits to the homeland, daughter, the sister and the wife of a President lived all that time south of the equator. He has of her country. Today, though not to the same dethus been able to note the changes in the commer- gree in all the republics, the democratic form of cial, political and religious life of the peoples of government prevails, and most of them, like Arthose lands which have marked their slow but gentina, Brazil and Chile, merit the high esteem sure progress toward equal standing with the in which they are held by the peoples of Europe older peoples of Europe and North America. A and North America. brief description of some of these changes may be of interest. 3. Culturally-Public instruction has made great advance and the formerly high percentage 1. Economically-Forty years ago, the immense of analphabets has been correspondingly reduced. natural resources of Latin America lay practically The oldest university of Latin America was founduntouched. The great modern industries of min- ed 56 years before the first permanent English ing, cattle-raising, the elaboration of nitrate; settlement w:as made in North America, and 85 banking, railways, manufactures, shipping, the years before John Harvard made possible the importation of machinery and automobiles, and institution that bears his name. Today, the best of other commercial activities-all these were but these universities equal those of the United States in their infancy. The United States, in particular, or Europe as centers of learning, and the intellechad not attempted to discover in those lands a tual spire of Latin America is as high as our own, market for its excess products. There was not a though it is more slender. In the learned profes- North American bank south of Mexico, and the sions, especially in law and medicine, are found
19391 FORTY YEARS' PROGRESS IN LATIN AMERICA
men and women of the highest professional prep- As a result of this exclusionist policy, when aration, fully the equals of their colleagues in evangelical missions began to extend their work with greater earnestness and conviction, forty or other lands. more years ago, they found certain conditions 4. Religiously-The pioneers and founders of which had to be overcome if that work was to be successful. Among these were the following: the colonies of Spain in the New World differed from those who laid the foundations of religious life in what is now the territory of the United (a) There was no liberty of worship. Free States of America. The groups that came to those thought was in itself considered heretical; the shores, Catholic and Protestant alike, were simply press was under the absolute control of the seeking a place where, quietly and unostentatious- Church, and, in some of the most backward coun- ly, they might worship God according to the dic- tries, death was the legal penalty for adherence to tates of their own consciences. Spanish discover- any religion other than that of the dominant ers and conquistadores, in the lands that now con- Church.
stitute what we call Latin America, were of a (b) There was no civil marriage law. The only more militant mold and sought to establish not legal ceremony was that performed by a priest of only the power of the King whom they represented the State Church; children of those otherwise but also that of their particular Chm'ch. They wedded were ipso facto considered illegitimate. flung to the breeze not only the colors of Ferdi- Even Protestant missionaries, wedded on the field, nand and Isabel, King and Queen of Castile and were required to secure the services of a friendly Aragon, but also those of the Supreme Pontiff priest. To satisfy their own consciences, they of Rome. Even the sails of the caravels of Chris- might have another ceremony performed by a topher Columbus and of less worthy conquista- Protestant minister, but this latter ceremony had dores who came after him, had imprinted upon no legal significance whatsoever. them the figure of the cross and the words, "with this sign you will conquer." Columbus is said to (c) There were no civil cemeteries. The bodies have considered his name Christopher, "Christ- of deceased dissenters were thrown into the sea, bearer," a good omen, and historians tell us that or were buried surreptitiously by night in some his hope was to secure funds from the newly unfrequented spot. About the middle of the past acquired lands in order to finance another crusade century, a progressive Mayor in one of the South against the Turks. American capitals when converting a hitherto' undeveloped hill i,nto a park, found at its base a In view of this deeply religious motive that in- collection of human bones, and on the site placed spired and encouraged the Spanish pioneers in Latin America, which was largely in conformity a tablet with the inscription, "To the memory 0/ with the spirit of the times, in both Roman Catholic and Protestant lands, it is not strange that the exiled from heaven and earth who were buried the type of Christianity which became the official in this place." religion of the Colonies of Spain, and, afterward, of the younger republics that grew out of those (d) Possession and reading of the Bible was proscribed by the Church itself and, under the in- fluence of the Church, by officials of the State. A colonies, should have been ultra-fanatical, ex- customs officer in Ecuador, toward the end of the tremely jealous of its own prerogatives, and dis- past century, refused to admit a box of Christian Scriptures; pointing toward one of the towering posed to resist, to the last degree, the entrance peaks of the nearby Andes, he said, "So long as and propagation of the beliefs of any other sect Chimborozo stands, that Book shall not enter this or denomination. The spirit of the Inquisition, country." typical of the religious life of the time, especially in Southern Europe, was deep-rooted. Branches The distressing religious conditions that preof that feared and hated body were set up in vari- vailed in the countries of Latin America a half ous centers, especially in Lima, the capital of the century ago have been narrated in order to show viceroys, and in Cartagena de las Indias, now one the historical background against which we may of the port cities of the modern republic of Colom- throw into clearer light the situation as it is today.
bia. So strong did the Church become, so thor- The former unfortunate conditions have now oughly did it indoctrinate the peoples, that when very largely disappeared-due largely to a closer the colonies, following the lead given by those of contact with Europe and North America, made Great Britain, in North America, and by France, possible, in part at least, by more modern means gave way to republics, at the beginning of the 19th of communication. The changed situation has ·century, the representatives of the Papacy were also been greatly helped by the liberalizing, reflex able to have written into the constitution of the influence of Evangelical missions. Today, in every newly-created states the words, "The religion of one of the 20' republics of Latin America, there is this State is the Holy, Roman, Catholic, Apostolic, complete freedom of worship; the only legal mar- to the exclusion of all others." riage ceremony is that performed by an official of
the State; cemeteries are open to the dead of all friendly eye and are evidently willing to forget faiths or of none; and the Bible is widely and some episodes of the past in which the "big stick" freely circulated. In one South American republic, played too prominent a part. Brazil, there is now an estimated total of 1,500,000 Evangelical Christians; in all there is a steadily Probably no part of the world has made such growing National Evangelical Church which is economic and cultural advance in the past forty willing to cooperate in many respects with the years in a quiet and natural way as have the nainfinitely stronger, dominant, ecclesiastical organ- tions of Latin America. And their history is still ization, for the spiritual instruction and upbuild- in the making. Millions of Europeans, seeking ing of the people. refuge or the opportunity to better their condi- tions of life are wistfully turning their faces 5. Internationally-There is today a much bet- toward the great open spaces of Argentina and ter understanding between the Government, and, Brazil. Many thousands have already entered hence, the people of the United States of Ameri- those and other Latin American countries, where ca, and the governments and peoples of the other they have established homes and have begun a new countries of the Western hemisphere. Instead of life under more liberal conditions. The Christian the former policy of occupying a country with forces of North America, especially the Evangel- United States marines, in order to establish our ical churches, have a great opportunity to aid conception of what we considered law and order, these incoming thousands, making it possible for or exerting economic pressure to encompass our them not only to secure the right to liberty and own ends, a more modern and more Christian the pursuit of happiness, but also to surround "good neighbor" policy has been adopted and has themselves and their descendants with the spirbeen well received by all Latin American govern- itual blessings that flow from a free Church in a ments. Their people now look on us with a more free land.
Queen Salote of Tonga K ING GEORGE VI of Great Britain sent the lieves in the tenets of Christianity, but is most following message to the queen of Tonga, energetic in seeing that her beliefs find practical a Pacific Island, on the occasion of the expression in the daily life. With her, "Faith twentieth anniversary of her accession to the without works is dead." She is a constant attendthrone of Tonga. He said in part: ant at divine service, is a class leader, and is al- ways present at the regular meetings of the Chris- "The period of your reign has been one of tian Endeavor Society. Not only has Queen Salote steady and peaceful progress in the development advanced the interests of her people in the mateof your kingdom. Medical and health services rial sphere, but she has also, by her Christian life have been extended, educa.tional facilities have and character, provided them with a splendid been increased, roads have been built, and com- example of Christian living. munication between the islands has been improved by the provision of wireless stations. And The great event of the celebration took place in these achievements, of which your majesty may the large public square where gathered about four be justly proud, have been effected without in any thousand school children, as well as the Royal way sacrificing the financial stability of your Guards and Band. kingdom." Then came one of the finest sights of the day- Twenty years ago, as a young girl of eighteen, the march of four thousand school children, Queen Salote Tubou succeeded to the throne of carrying Tongan flags in their hands. Tonga. During the years intervening since that time, by her wise and statesmanlike rule, her The queen then departed, and as her car passed keen, unfailing interest in the well-being of her through the lines of children, she was hailed with subjects and her many excellent personal quali- hearty cheering and the waving of flags. Even ties, she has endeared herself to the people of her after she had returned to the palace the public land. How deeply enshrined she is in their hearts enthusiasm could not be restrained. The Tubou might well be gauged by the remarkable demon- boys entered the palace grounds, followed by the stration of loyalty and affection displayed by them other schools and the general public, until a crowd on October 11 of last year, the commemoration of of several thousands had collected. Her Majesty's the twentieth anniversary of her accession. appearance on the balcony and acknowledgment were the signal for more vociferous greeting. Queen Salote is known throughout the king- -By "The Wayfarer" in The Missionary Review dom as a sincere Christian, one who not only be- (Australia) .
Story for
Tony Finds Two Friends and it seemed wonderful to Tony room where Tony lay. His broth- to be able to help. As he snipped ers and sister were standing by By VIOLET WOOD, New York off the beans he thought of the his bed and to each one the nurse "Won't you leave your chil- time when his father had worked gave a glass of milk. dren with me, Mrs. Rossetti?" in the city, while his mother the nurse at the Center invited. stayed home and took care of As Tony's mother took her them. Suddenly there had been glass she spoke excitedly to the Mrs. Rossetti turned to Tony, no more work. A friend had told boy. Tony laughed, "My mothher ten-year-old son, to interpret his father of the need for bean er says you have nets over the for her. When she understood pickers and they had packed all babies' cradles to keep the flies what the nurse had said, Mrs. their belonging$. in a truck and away just as she used to have in Rossetti shook her head and had come to this big farm. Now the city." gathered her three small chil- father was sick for he had dren about her. worked too hard the first few "Ask her to leave you all with days. me tomorrow? You can go back "You could stay, too, Tony," to the fields in a few days, but the nurse said to the boy, "and At noon Mrs. Rossetti took it would be nice if you could stay help me take care of them." out of her blouse a paper bag and here a little while. Your broth- gave them all cold biscuits for ers and sister will love it." "I gotta pick beans," respond- lunch. She and the children ed,Tony. went on picking beans as they When Tony told his mother ate. But Tony could not eat his she nodded happily, as she fin- When Tony told his mother biscuit. Something was wrong. ished her milk and went back to what the nurse had said, the lit- His head felt as if it were float- the field. tle group passed the Center and ing away. But he kept on pickwent out towards the field. Tony ing, hoping that the funny feel- The nurse brought in some noticed several women leave ba- ing would pass. He suddenly picture books for Tony. One of bies and small children at the fainted. them was a beautiful "Life of Center. He shrugged. Who knew Jesus," and, as the nurse exwhat would be done to them in When Mrs. Rossetti called for plained some of the pictures the that place! Tony's family had help two men came over and car- boy looked up suddenly, and been at the migrant camp only a ried the boy to the Center. When said: "Then I have found two few days and he had no idea of new friends today!"
the loving care, the nice lunches, the nurse came she patted Tony's Making Use of This Story the toys and the Bible stories mother on the shoulder and in a few minutes he opened his eyes that were provided for the chil- and tried to smile. "You just The plight of the migrant is not well dren of the migrant workers. lie here for a little while and enough known by many people and yet soon you'll be quite all right. it is a great social problem in Amer- Down the long lanes between I'll bring you a nice glass of milk ica. Because the parents lose their the rows of bean poles the lit- in a few minutes. Tell your legal residence by so much traveling, tle family went, snipping off the mother I would like to show her the children get insufficient food, imbeans as they moved. Every- our little home here." proper shelter, no medical and dental body helped fill the baskets. care and very little schooling. When one was filled Mrs. Rosset- Tony translated this for his ti carried it to the weigher who mother, whose eyes shone with The Council of Women for Home checked the number of pounds gratitude. Missions has Centers in many states against her name. and has done a wonderful piece of The hot sun beat down upon The nurse beckoned to Mrs. work with the children. Excellent the men, women and children Rossetti and took her into an- material on the migrant is found in working on either side of Tony other room where babies lay the pamphlet, "They Starve That We and his mother. Although many sleeping in little cradles. In an- May Eat," compiled by Edith Lowry were thirsty they could not stop other room little boys and girls, and published by the Missionary Edueven for a drink of water. Every just like her own, were playing cation Movement (35 cents.) moment of daylight counted, and together at sand tables and with if they were to make enough blocks. In one corner a teacher money to buy food they must be was reading stories to the older Questions quick. boys and girls. All the children What would you lose if you had no home, no school, no church? Tony's back ached, but he was seemed very happy. bigger than his brothers and sis- In the kitchen Mrs. Rossetti What are some of the crops that ter and he could not stop to rest. watched the nurse fill five glass- migrants gather?
He must go on like his mother. es with milk. Putting them on Are migrant workers necessary in His father lay sick in the tent a tray she carried them to the America?
[367 ]
Ways of W9rking
'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home hDITED BY GRACE W. MCGAVRAN, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Enlisting a Congregation for and throb of enduring purpose as Pete and with a memorable in- they witness Christian romance scription was unveiled. The MissionEsdTuhcarotiuognh*Visual in China (yes, indeed, there is film also gives a glimpse of lep- high Christian romance in China ers' suffering, and of lepers who "Seeing is believing" is an old today, especially today), or a adage. But rich old warp woven great mass meeting of untouch- have been helped. into today's tapestries gives pat- ables in India, or a frightened At the close of the showing of terns of beauty, luster and value. African youth witness his moth- er's slow death at the hands of this film in the city church the If every Christian at home the witch doctor and his deter- pastor arose and said, "I have could visit and see the mission mination to run away and find today had a new vision of this fields, their opportunities, their the secret of the doctor who talks great work. I think everyone needs, their returns for service, and acts with love at his Christhe weaving of the pattern of tian "medicine house" in the for- of· our Sunday school classes Christ into the lives of peoples, est clearing. should have one of these pig not much time or money would banks. I suggest that all of our need to be spent on promotion A few weeks ago the film, Sunday school offering next Sunwork for Christianity. In the "A Million Dollar Pig," taken by day go to the leper work and I entanglement of threads in our nromise to find means of matchpattern here in our own land we the American Mission to Lepers, ing, dollar for dollar, all that are prone to grow discouraged, was shown in a large city church. the Sunday school gives." He feeling it improbable that there It tells the story of how a ten- felt as we had felt after visiting are other spots on the earth year-old boy, Wilbur, sad be- the many leper colonies on our where the Christ pattern is be- cause his mother had been able African way during the past ing distinctly and clearly woven. to furnish support for only nine lepers instead of ten, bought a months. If we cannot see these remote little pig with three dollars Films from mission fields are places, the next best step is to which had been given him. The have them brought to us by the children 0 f the community goingto be increasingly available medium of the motion picture- joined in feeding the pig, all the in the days ahead. The 1938 as nearly life-like a portrayal as time envisioning that pig as Africa Film Project has already can be had outside the actual bringing smiles to the face of released its first 3-Reel, 16 mm. experience. Christianity has not some weary leper. It was finally film, "Ngono and Her People." been in haste to take on this won- sold for twenty-five dollars and It movingly tells the life of a derfully convincing method, feel- the money was sent to help a typical African girl. In it one ing perhaps a worldliness about little leper boy of Siam. Out of really lives in the life of a girl of the very utterance of "movies." this experience came the idea of Africa; feels the heartache of a But at last, after the field of edu- the "pig banks," over 100,000 of ten-year-old child torn from her cation recognized why the "eye which have been distributed in mother and sent to harem life; witness" medium so grasped the America. They have brought in feels the fear of the jungle world public, Christians have over one million dollars to aid where she hides, the ,doubtful come to realize that these same the lepers of the world. Then the eyes may prove to be inlets to film shows the twenty-fifth anni- serenity in the hands of her the hearts and souls of vast num- versary of the event of Wilbur missionary rescuers, the school bers of people. Eyes that make and his pig, "Pete," as it was life, the romance of true love, hearts thrill and throb over which "never smooth did run" scenes of intrigue or love may celebrated in Wilbur's little home in Africa either, the power of also stir those hearts to the thrill town of White Cloud, Kansas. Over one thousand people there, the Christian life and all the • We are indebted to Mrs. Emory Ross including Chief White Cloud and problems it brings, as again she for this fine article. She last year accom- his tribe, honored Wilbur, now a meets the witch doctor and his panied her husband, who is pxecutive secre- successful engineer still giving wiles. As the last scene fades tary of th" American Mission to Lepers, on of himself and his money to help you feel that you have been in a trip to Africa to see many of the institu- lepers. A bronze tablet, erected Africa and you know that Christions aided by that Society. She was former- in his honor, with Wilbur and tian missions pay. You have ly a missionary in the C?n~o and .is now seen with your own eye. an active promoter of mISSIonary Interest [368 ] in America. Another six or eight films are being prepared on various phas- es of Africa, her life, her importance in the world, the impact of and explain some things which more careful showing of one? civilization upon her, the need will otherwise be without mean- Take time to slow down the ac- for Christianity to keep pace. ing. But announce that after tion where it is necessary. You Among the scenarios* are "The the first running there will be a will need to go over the film at World's Stake in Africa," "Chil- second, during which any ques- least once with the operator, be- dren of Africa," "A Day in an tions or comments may be of- fore it is shown in the program African Village," ""Bwamba"- fered. Plan time to do this, so in order to decide where the mo- (the life of a typical African that no one will have a sense of tion should be slowed, and how boy) , and "How an African being rushed. Offer to run it much. As you show it, be very Tribe is Ruled." through a third time for those sure to remark when you do so: Yes, today the home church who would like to see it again, "We will slow down at this may see the foreign field, and after the meeting has been dis- point," having explained before seeing, may she believe the more missed. hand the purpose of slowing and hasten to make the pattern Slow Motion in Using a Movie down. Otherwise you may leave Christian in those lands yet in the impression that the people the loom.-Myrta Pierson Ross. The label on the film case read, filmed are lazy or slow in their "Twenty minutes will be re- movements. quired to show this film." A Informal Use of a Movie group of people, planning to use It is needless to say that some films in their churches, had bor- films will not gain by such treat- The parents of a missionary rowed from the mission board ment. Use good judgment in dereceived, in their very ordinary ciding when to use normal speed mid-west town, a package from an entire set of five on the coun- and when not to do so. their children. It was a one-reel try the churches were studying, film, showing the missionary son and were giving a sort of pre- Remember that some projecand daughter setting up camp view so as to be able to present tors make a lot of noise. Whoin a village, taking part in a them more intelligently from ever reads the accompanying lec- time to time. They started im- ture, or prepares a talk to go church service, giving treatment mediately after lunch to have with the showing, should have a to a baby with sore eyes, walk- them run through. voice easily heard over the noise ing in their garden and romping of the machine. Nine o'clock that evening with the grandchildren who had found them reluctantly re-wind- Newer Stereopticon Pictures been mere babies the last time ing the last film. What had hapthey were home. pened? They found that while Color cameras have brought the speed required to run the into the field of stereopticon With what delight the aging film through in twenty minutes slides something a great deal parents viewed the scenes, as was quite correct for .seeing that more vivid and delightful than their beloved ones moved before which is familiar, it was too fast we have had before. Slides can them. The missionary women of to give them time to see what be made directly from the color the church, naturally, borrowed happened in scenes and actions film. No tinting of pictures with the film. The showing was made quite unfamiliar to them. They the colors running into each othinto a gala occasion. The film therefore slowed the running to er, or failing to join! Furtherwas run through once. Then a considerable extent. more, the picture-taker, instead it was run through again. Com- of having to remember that he ments and questions rose freely When that was done, they cannot count on color to do for during the showing. Whoever those who are to see the pictures had an idea as to the correct an- could actually see what was hap- what its actual presence is doswer to any question ventured pening. For example, the quick- ing for him, knows now that colit. Then they ran the film ly-run film showed a woman or, almost as he sees it, will be through again. Details that had squatting before a mud cooking- present in his film. escaped notice came to the atten- place, doing something with tion of the women now. Those That opens a much wider pospresent felt as if they had had swift capable hands. The slowed sibility for enjoyment in the use a real visit with their missionary film showed her going through of stereopticon slides on subjects and his family. of missionary interest. To be the process of handling the flat sure there are as yet few sets Are you following that proce- unleavened bread in the three which have been made by the dure when you show a film? Or simultaneous processes of mold- newer processes. But most sets are you having it shown as a ing one cake, while a second was have been vastly improved durformal part of your meeting, to searing and a third was being ing the last year or two, and they be run through once, accompa- baked among the live coals of begin to "tell a story" instead of nied by its lecture or by polite si- the fire. giving a disjointed picture of lence, immediately to be re- places and people. wound, set into its case, and sent Some parts of the film became on its travels? tedious with the slowing up, but During summer months, the the operator was soon able to picture method of becoming ac- If there is a lecture, by all speed up sections which did not quainted with the missionary means have it used. It will help show detailed action, and to slow work of the church is well worth to clear up many puzzling bits, down on those which did.
Instead of rushing through • Not yet available. two films, why not arrange a considering.
For Small Children Pictures article), was sponsored by the each and marked its location Are Best Harmon Foundation and the Af- with a red pin. rica Committee of the Foreign The flicker and movement of Missions Conference of North The study might have gone movie pictures are not any too America. "Song After Sorrow" further, but did not. To atgood for the eyes of the small is another new film which por- tempt to locate all Protestant children. Furthermore very lit- trays the magnificent work in churches in a city the size of tle of the motion pictures, de- one of the leper colonies in theirs would have taken more signed to interest and educate Africa. time than the enterprise was adults, is of value for children worth for that one study. But of pre-school age. Films like the two mentioned there, in visual form, lay the may perhaps be secured from information that, scattered all The nursery and beginner your mission board under the over their city, were many child should not, however, be same conditions as other films of churches which were working to neglected in the use of visual missionary work, or they may be make the city a more Christian education. One of the newest rented from the Harmon Foun- place in which to live. In those pieces of material, specifically dation. "Song After Sorrow," buildings, week after week, men planned for use with them, is may be rented direct from the and women and beiys and girls the picture set "Children and American Mission to Lepers, 156 gathered to study, to worship, Their Toys Around the World." Fifth Avenue, New York. and to have fellowship. It has eight pictures in color, and a leaflet with a short story Investigate the possibilities. Such a visualization of facts to go with each. This publica- Write to your mission board for gives children a real sense of tion of the Friendship Press sells information. Remember that being a part of something which for sixty cents and can be se- the number of copies of each film includes and yet is greater than cured through your denomina- is limited so that requests need their own local church group. It tional book store. to be made well in advance of the expands their horizon. It brings date desired. We know that one to their consciousness, in a way The pictures are directly re- group of films is dated up com- that mere spoken information lated to the child's interests. pletely for four months in cannot do, the realization of Each one shows a child of some advance. Others, not on the forces which are operating toother race or nation, with a toy country of the current study, day to rebuild the world in characteristic of his environ- may not require such advance Christian ways. ment. booking. Try the use of this form of visual education in the Maps, graphs and charts are This set should be part of the near future. We venture to say not to be limited to Juniors equipment of every Nursery and that you will plan to include it alone. They are good for any Beginners department. It might very definitely in your subse- age above Juniors. well be used in each child's own quent study. home. Individual pictures can Consider them for use in your then be hung in turn where the Using Maps with Juniors church or parish house lobby. Or child will enjoy them. in your meetings when you have When a Junior department five minutes to present some in- Sources for Religious and was making a study of The City, formation about missions which Missionary Movies as was suggested in the course, can best be imparted through they used their own city as the this form of visualization. The Most -of those reading these object of their study. small graphs and charts often columns are familiar with the sent out from Board headquarsources of missionary films. The The boys took a big map of ters, in materials for the inforimportant source for any church the town and mounted it on bea- mation of leaders, can easily be is its own missionary board. Ar- ver board. Starting with their enlarged to proportions such as rangements differ. Many mis- own community they set out to to make it possible for a large sionary boards loan the films discover and locate on the map group or an entire congregation free of charge, requiring only the position of the Protestant to see them. Color can be used payment of express charges both churches of their city. When to make them vivid in their enways. There is the additional they found the actual streets larged form, where only black cost of a projector which is running past their own church, and white was used in the printusually rented locally by the a red pin marked the spot on the ed form. church. map! They did the same with other churches of their neighbor- Never leave such materials The Harmon Foundation, 140 hood. Then they went further hanging for more than a week Nassau St., New York, N. Y., is afield. They secured the list of or two. You do not glance at another very important source. the churches of their own denom- that store window where the dis- Their charges are reasonable. ination in their town. What a play is the same week after Some of the Harmon Foundation surprise! Who would have week. Let your people become films have been prepared in co- guessed that in their own city accustomed to finding something operation with certain of the there were so many churches of new, fresh and worthwhile on mission boards. The Africa film, their own group? They located your display wall every week or "Ngono and Her People" (re- so. ferred to by Mrs. Ross in her
BULLETIN
Council of Women for Home Missions EDITED BY MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, 297 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
~======~~~==================== WITH THE MIGRANTS IN crops." It was while in "melons" family as they were growing up CALIFORNIA in Imperial that Maria had her and it took more and more and accident. According to her fa- it seemed that he made less and The bountiful state of Cali- ther: less. So at last they joined the fornia with its varying seasons, caravan of folks off to "the land luxuriant farms, and many in- "If I stay few more days to work of promise," California, to seek dustries is faced with the tre- in floods last winter and not go down their fortune. Theirs was a mendous problems. of migrant to Valley, maybe I not have the bad wreck of a car, a truck, with a people-people who trek from luck, but I go. It's cold. That day canvas over the top so that the crop to crop, starving in between our children left alone. This one, mother and children could sleep "prunes" and "cotton" because Maria, she think she make herself there and the father drove as there is never enough to go warm burning paper. She light it. many hours as he could to make around. When it is too hard to It catch her dress. This other one the trip as short as possible-it find food for three scanty meals she want to throw on water, but the took them fourteen days-a four a day, new clothes are out of the burning one, Maria, she scared, she to seven day trip in a decent car. question; and these people are so run out the door all flames till she The trip was made in the pourvery poor! fall; she fainting then. Her sweater, ing rain. They still shudder as it stops the flame from her face. She they remember the terrible ex- To help lighten their burden bur ned so bad, all over front. She in perience of losing a wheel on a and bring some necessary relief, hospital six months. Eighty-seven steep grade, and the "panthers" the Council of Women for Home skin grafts her mother give, but not that they could hear howling in Missions supports missionary much healing. I got no money, but the night, not to mention the nurses who serve these camps. hospital very good. The vallev too fiat tires that had to be fixed on Nursing and visiting the sick, hot for Maria, doctors say I must take the darkest roads. They felt that telling the story of the Gospel to Maria to where is cool; no more let- their crossing the mountains was the children, finding help here, tuce, no more melons, I go north to quite as trying as that of the eargiving help there, from dawn to 'prunes'; I take my family, and for lier "pioneers" of the covered dark they go and always leaving Maria it is cool. The doctor there wagon days. a little hope, a little comfort and say, 'you no live here,' you take Maria a great feeling of friendship. where you live. What I do? Maria They arrived during the mush- cannot live where is the heat; no room season, and, as they had Would you like to meet a few doctor where it is cool. .I feed my never had such a tasty dish they of these families who make their family? I must work. Doctor put living in crops? on one bandage, I keep Maria with me. I do all the best I know. I keep Take the family of John Wil- burn clean with feather. It no get liams-the children: Susanna, better. She seem sick; she no play born in the "grapes"; Maria, in like other children. Her dress, it hurts "melons·" ; E u p hem i a, in her burn, she walked stooped, like old "prunes" ; John, in "lettuce"; lady. We have cot just for her. We Raphael, in "nuts"; Josephine, move to 'cotton,' and you find her. She in "cotton." Truly children of afraid, she shake all over." the crops. Here there is hope expressed in his When the nurse came upon brightened countenance, he is encourthem she saw Maria walking aged, as he continues: very stooped so that her worn thin dress, her only garment, "You nurse, you find her. Her burn would not be touching her open so bad for so long; you come often, sore which covered her abdomen "ou do much for Maria. It take you and thighs. She was frightened long time, many bandages, much work as she stood before the nurse for you, but now Maria she all well. holding her dress away from her God bless you nurse ! We cannot say body with trembling fingers and how much we thank you. Now, no told her story. more cotton, we go to valley for 'let- tuce' and 'melons'; work for me, feed The family took to the road in my family. heat no hurt Maria now 1930 when the father lost his job -she well!" and joined the "Gypsies of the Then there is the White fam- ily from Oklahoma – father, mother, and four children. For ten years Mr. White had been the "handy man" in the little town that was their home. He made sixty to seventy dollars a month. That didn't keep his [371 ]
relished it more than they could cents. Forty men went out and They are healing now. The describe. Just by picking they picked one crate of spinach. druggist was afraid to undertake could have all they wanted to treatment because of the severity eat. But the season was soon A Mexican father doesn't of the burn, but the nurse over and such things are just a know what to do. He asks the "breathes a prayer" and gives memory. nurse. He explains that there is the necessary treatment for it is no more cotton to pick, and he sixty miles to a doctor, and be- A Brief Round in Camp only has beans for his family to sides there is no money. The Visiting eat. The nurse has no alterna- druggist thinks it is the "prayer" tive but to suggest "relief." The Leaving the nurse's home, we father is proud, and explains, "I that did it-healing, he thinks, go seventeen miles on good high- never ask for that in all time. I was impossible otherwise. way, then eight miles on an just move here. My wife she sick adobe road, then the last half at heart, no can work much; I On to another camp and the mile over what is supposed to sick in stomach, cannot work all road is still slippery, and it is be a road, and into the camp, time." ten miles distant. This camp is thirty cabins in all. Separated from these are some larger cab- Drive toward the foothills and built beside a canal. Here the ins-these for the "permanent" on this road there are three Council nurse spent much time, help. It is wash-day. Tubs of camps. Roads impassable in effort and energy toward solving water are being heated over fires rainy weather. It is ten miles to built outside; clothes lines the first. the problem of sanitation. The stretched between cabins filled grower was very cooperative. with clean garments of all kinds, shapes and sizes. Some families asked the camp Over one tub is a Mexican EYE CLINIC IN A MIGRANT GENTER mother, rubbing away on a washboard, and beside her is her The nurse recalls that this manager concerning the nurse's three-year-old, the youngest of camp was one of her most un- authority, and the grower issued nine. He has on two sweaters sanitary camps, so much so that and a coat, and a dark cloth tied the camp manager remarked to the order that if families did not around his head. her, "I believe these children are cooperate with the nurse that the dirtiest of all cotton camps." they would be moved out. Camp The nurse discovers that the That can't be said now. The child has a temperature. She camp manager and the campers and cabins were cleaned. Five explains that he must be kept in gamblers who had caused the bed, and she takes the child by too were most cooperative in nurse no little concern, were the hand, leads him into the cab- changing things. Health kits moved out. Order prevailed. in, the mother follows and a containing wash cloth, soap, little pallet is made in the corner The sentiment of the people of the cabin. His clothing is re- tooth-brush, and comb, were moved and he is slipped into a given to the children. whom the nurse serves is best pair of warm sleepers that the expressed by the tribute to the nurse finds among her clothing The nurse inquires. about Mr. nurse by a country doctor who supplies. That dark rag is re- Gonzales who was burned so bad- depends. on their help to bring moved from the only window in ly at Christmas, and discovers healing and health to these mithe cabin, and she explains to that he has learned that she is in grants. "So much is heard and the mother that there must be camp and is getting the "water read nowadays of organizations sunlight. The mother im't un- boiling" for her to use in dress- and agencies. doing this and that derstanding why the cloth should for the migrants, but the one not be about her child's head, be- ing the wound. He has learned cause she explains, "Baby sick that it had to boil ten minutes who does the most and the most in the head," but she is willing worthwhile thing in helping the to do as the nurse says, and does before she could use it. First migrant is the little missionary not miss a word of the nurse's and second degree burns were on nurse who rarely ever gets one instructions to "rub the child's chest four times daily with warm his left shoulder and upper arm line of printed matter concerncamphorated oil; give plenty of ing her work in the paper." water and fluids, and keep baby -he had fallen on the stove. in bed."
It is late in the cotton season, and many people are not working. Some have gone out to pick spinach but so little could be made they didn't stay. One man explained that he had made ten
World–wide
A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events ~ EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO ~'================================-~~ LATIN AMERICA fered the boys. Near Saltillo, weekly broadcast of religious boys are taught in school to programs. 'A Latin American Cooperation in a Church Bell make rope, and other articles Youth Conference is planned for from raw materials they have February, 1940, in Lima, Peru. We all know about the denom- raised. They learn the art of inational cooperation am 0 n g making dyes, and using them. -Christian Century. Christian forces in Puerto Rico; At the same school, the boys of the union enterprises which farm a tract of land, raise cat- Among South American include a theological seminary, tle, hogs and bees. Indians book store, newspaper, university pastor, e~change of pulpits, Culture Missions, something The treaty signed between and other manifestations of the like an Institute, are held at in- Bolivia and Paraguay leaves the cooperative spirit; but this spir- tervals all over Mexico. For a way open for Christian work it does not end with formal en- period of ten days, five or six among pagan Indians of both terprises. When the Yauco Bap- educators meet with teachers for countries, especially in the Chatist Church, for example, had a lectures and discussion, with co area between the two. Var- 500 pound bell that would not graphs, charts and posters. Such ious indepe!ldent organizations fit its tower, and the Ensenada subjects as the cause and cure of have expanded their work among Presbyterian Church had a large eye trouble, or the digestive Bolivian Indians; while the tower but no bell, the Presby- processes, are presented. This South American Missionary Soterians bought a small bell and is work along constructive lines. ciety has completed fifty years gave it to the Yauco Baptists, of work in the Paraguayan Chawhile they in turn presented the Protestant Youth in South co. In Chile, the same mission Presbyterians with their 500 America has developed a work among pound bell. Mapuche Indians, two of whom The Protestant young people's have been ordained deacons. Rural Schools in Mexico organizations of Argentina and Uruguay held their second bien- In the Argentine Chaco, work The Federal Government has nial conference last April, with has been most encouraging. At put in operation some very prac- more than 100 delegates, repre- Easter 68 adults were baptized, tical ideas in rural education. senting seven denominations, in and a new area has been opened. Two groups of Southern Metho- attendance. There were three The Unevangelized Fields Misdist missionaries visited a num- visiting delegates from Brazil. sion has continued its pioneer ber of these rural schools last The program centered around work among Kayapo Indians of year, and their impressions are the deepening of spiritual life, Amazonia, who, it will be rereported in the World Outlook. and the challenge of the present membered, killed three mission- Almost every country school has day to young Christians. Three aries (the "three Freds") in a little store which the children things stood out: first, interest 1935. themselves manage, thus learn- in a g g res s i v e evangelism; ing how to buy and sell and order second, a passion for closer co- -International Review of Missupplies, such as pencils, tablets, operation in Christian service, sions. crayons, cookies, etc. Some have irrespective of denominational kitchens where the children differences, and a sense that After the Earthquake in Chile learn how to prepare many vari- Protestant Christians are bound eties of food. One school visited by a common loyalty to Jesus Reconstruction work is under maintained a barber shop, while Christ; finally, a desire that way in Chile, following the dispractically all of them raised Christian forces may reach out astrous earthquake, and at pressome living thing -chickens, into the realms of popular litera- ent there is a huge construction rabbits or pigeons. ture and social life. camp at Chillan, located there for months. Military authorities Nearly every school has an an- In these two republics, young have permitted Mr. William M. nual exhibit of needlework, and people's work is organized under Strong to open a center for rest there are special projects to be two national federations. Each and evangelism right in the undertaken by high school girls; publishes a religious monthly, in- heart of this vast encampment, perhaps a layette for a baby formative and well edited. For -its only place of diversion. brother, or her graduation out- several years the Argentine fedfit, while manual training is of- eration has maintained a bi- Evangelical workers were left practically unharmed by the [373 ] earthquake, says Mr. Strong. He
adds that when in 1757 half of Franco occupied Catalonia, evan- Church shall transfer the right Concepcion sank beneath the gelical churches were not inter- of the use of certain cathedrals, surface in a similar cataclysm, fered with, but it is reported that yet to be named, to the Hitler blasphemy, drunkenness and in- those in Barcelona are closed, Elite Guard for their neo-pagan decency were put aside for a though it is believed to be only ceremonies. long time; and asks if perhaps a temporary measure. a similar result will follow this All three demands were relatest catastrophe. -The Christian. fused on the ground that the Di- rectorate was not empowered to EUROPE The "Church of the Den" make any such decision. The demands were issued by the On the Montmartre, Paris Long before Wycliffe and chief of police over the head of Hus were born, the Waldenses the State's church minister, who The Tabernacle Church on the preached the Gospel which re- is reported to have fallen into Montmartre has a corps of de- formers afterward taught in disfavor among the radical elevoted workers. M. Charlet, an Europe. A few months ago a ment of the government; a reevangelist, was a merchant, a group of British tourists visited port that is coupled with the Parisian skeptic, whom God the great cavern known as "the statement that the "Gestapo" called to the ministry of preach- church in the den.". During the (secret police) are sick and tired ing. Andre Fune is son of a time of the persecution of the of the whole church business. French farmer, who is working Waldenses this cavern was used at real financial sacrifice with as a secret place for worship and Encouragement in the Ukraine his wife, a registered nurse. In study of the Bible. Access to it 1925 a young Swiss engineer, Al- is obtained by crawling through September 25, 1938, was the fred Escher, gave up a career to a narrow tunnel formed in the 950th anniversary of the foundserve this mission church. Fif- long past by a terrific upheaval, ing of the Ukrainian Lutheran teen Hollanders have found when the great rocks fell into Church. At that time a Harvest Christ in these meetings. M. the position which they occupy Festival was celebrated in Stan- Jacques Blocher, trained in the today. From the tunnel one islau, when people came from University of Paris and in the emerges into an immense nat- every direction, by wagon, train Bible Institute, Minneapolis, is ural cathedral, the only shaft of or on foot. All Evangelical Luanother worker. M. and Mme. light coming through an aper- therans participated in a com- Dumesil sold their property at ture in the roof. In this spot munion service, creating a pro- Dieulefit to serve as unpaid vol- hallowed by the prayers of mar- found impression upon all those unteers. M. Memmert came in tyrs a feeling of awe came over present. The Stanislau pastor, 1933 after careful preparation the visitors-a feeling that ex- Rev. Theodore J arczuk, writes in the Bible school of Pastor tended to the muleteers who had of the victories of the Gospel of Saillens at Nogent-sur-Marne guided them to it. They rever- Christ among these people: "The and in Glasgow. This does not ently removed their hats upon results of this Harvest Festival exhaust the list. entering. One of them ap- led to arrangement for a similar proached the leader of the tour- service for the Reformation An effective agency is the Gos- ist party and said, hesitantly, Festival on October 2:0. Attenpel poster; 500 of these have "If Monsieur prayed?" And so, dance was even greater. Those been put up in Paris and sub- with bowed heads and hearts up- who passed the chapel were asurbs. Many persons have bought lifted to the Saviour of all, Eng- tonished at the crowd of people, copies of the Scriptures as a re- lish, Irish and Italian, each and said: 'These Lutherans besult. Sometimes professional praised Him there for the past, lieve in God.' The Festival conbill pOosters tear them down; and asked His help in the future cluded with the singing of 'A sometimes unexpected results for the Waldensian Church. Mighty Fortress Is Our God.' In are produced in connection with many different ways the work other posters. For example, a Confessional Church Crisis was advanced." poster announcing a grand ball, had this significant addition at- Three new demands made on Pastor J arczuk writes further: tached: "And after it is over?" the Confessional Church by the Most of this work is done by the German chief of police, Hein- It has long been the custom of young people of the Tabernacle. rich Himmler, indicate that the Lutheran Ukrainians to worship on struggle between the Church and Epiphany at the bank of a river, in -So S. Times. State is nearing a decisive phase. commemo"ation of the preaching of These demands, as reported by John the Baptist at the River Jordan. Gospel Work in Spain the New York Times, were: 1. A few months ago such a service was The Confessional Church shall held on the banks of the Dniester. Reports vary considerably in relinquish its claim to a share of The crowd was constantly augmented, regard to the prospects for evan- the church tax. 2. The Confes- the nearer it came to the river. From gelical work in Spain, now that sional Church shall surrender its all neighboring villages came the folthe war has ended. Protestant status as a corporation of pub- lowers of the Gospel and the curious. churches are permitted to open lic right. 3. The Confessional At the place where the service was to in some centers, in others they be held, thousands of persons had alremain closed. When General ready gathered, listening with the greatest interest to every word of the service. Among those present were some who had come to disturb the serv-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ice. From the other side of the river at Memia, found no sale for her to work with God in the planta group of agitators came across in a pictures and turned to fruit cul- ing and working of their garboat. As they were crossing one of ture, finally gave that up also; dens.-American Board News. their number cried out: "Either I and offered her home to the Miswill throw the Lutheran pastors into sion. There was no money to "Separatist" Groups the water or will drown myself." But buy, but she agreed to rent and when the service began they listened, now the Mission is established These religious. groups in the and the longer they listened the more there. Union of South Africa number attentive they became. Soon the an- over 500, ilccording to official ger faded; they took off their caps The entire Bible is available figures. Similar movements are and began to nod approvingly. At in Kabyle; portions have been found in other parts of Africa. the close of the service the young man put into the Berber dialects of Whatever may be the underlywho avowed that he would throw us Morocco. So far, the Scriptures ing cause of the rise of these into the water joined our brethren and are almost the only literature in sects, they are hindering the began to make known his sympathy. these dialects. spiritual growth of the African Church. In general, the separa- AFRICA School in Elephant Land tist groups are formed by those who are moved by personal am- The "Book of Manne'rs" Children from the kraals of bition or who wrongly interpret southern Rhodesia attend schools the Scriptures; by those who are Mrs. E. M. Bailey, of the which are merely thatched roof seeking to avoid discipline or United Presbyterian Mission at sheds, and these are often de- have been disciplined by the rec- Minia, Egypt, writes that one stroyed by herds of roaming ele- ognized churches. Sometimes the of the most encouraging things phants. In these so-called "light movements spring from reasons that has happened in the Chris- houses" it costs about $1.40 which are racial or political, or tian school in a long time is the apiece to give the children an from the hope that in the ecclesivoluntary request of some of the elementary education, and is astical sphere the African will graduates for a special Bible their only chance to secure one. be able fo obtain a freedom of class. They are now in a gov- Of this sum, the government action which is denied him in ernment secondary school and supplies 68 cents, the American the political. Owing to the high they find there an atmosphere of Board contributes 30 cents and proportion of illiteracy among profanity and rudeness very dif- the pupil must somehow find the the rank and file of the African ferent from the Christian school other 42 cents, and also buy his people it is always possible for where they grew up. They are books. This would barely sup- a leader of strong personality, coming on a free afternoon to ply movie tickets for the Amer- by specious promises to carry study the Bible and have brought ican child, but we read of one numbers of people with him into several of their new Moslem lad who walked six miles.. each the body which he forms. schoolmates with them. One of way, to cut grass for six cents them, when the Bibles were a day; sold tomatoes from his -Congo Mission News. brought out, asked what they mother's tiny garden, and finally, were. A Moslem girl from last to complete the 42 cents walked WESTERN ASIA year's graduating class replied: six miles with a bunch of bana- "That's the book we get our man- nas on his head to sell them for a Another Side of Palestine ners out of." few cents. Picture Among the Berbers In the same section of Africa It is heartening to sight some there is conducted each year an islands in the sea of trouble Monsieur Warren, of the Paris interesting ceremony called "The which is Palestine. One is what Evangelical Missionary Society, Seed and Hoe Consecration has been described as a "boom" has recently visited the stations Service," a blending of long es- in Christian education. The of the North Africa Mission in tablished African custom and C. M. S. Girls' School at Amman Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Christian practice. Men, women has the confidence of prominent In The Link he describes the and children come with seeds Moslem families, and is looking curious Berber villages of flat- and hoes. The pastor recalls how toward a boarding department roofed houses, reminiscent of the the people would bring grain to for village girls. The Bishop's adventure of the spies in Jericho the chief to be blessed so that it School for Boys in the same (for Berber tradition has it that might be productive. "Here," town is becoming a cultural centhe Berbers are the descendants he points out, "we are bringing ter, and pupils of the different of Canaan's inhabitants, driven grain and hoes to God for His communities are mixing without out by Joshua). This sturdy blessing on our work." At Chik- strain in these schools. A race is not deeply grounded in ore, Rev. Frank T. Meacham re- marked increase of interest in Mohammedanism, and therefore ports that the Community Dem- social work is noted; large nummore or less open to the Gospel. onstrator spoke on the parable bers of the elder boys and girls More than fifty years ago, the of the Sower and then represent- volunteered to teach in daily vafounder of the North Africa atives of the congregation stood cation Bible schools during the Mission was interested in them, before the altar and repeated a summer holidays, and took a but the door was not open for pledge consecrating themselves deep interest in the thousand or evangelization. Years later, an English lady-artist built a home
more children who attended the taught that there is no God, no tees. An interesting experiment score of schools held. use in prayer, and that educated calculated to abolish purdah was people have ceased to be be- the formation of a "family cir- Christian medical work stands lievers. cle" in one constituency, with a out. There is a new hospital at view to promoting inter-commu- Es Salt, and a small temporary On the other hand, there is nal friendship and inculcating a clinic is at work in Jerash. Other developing a more open-minded healthy sense of freedom among hospitals and dispensaries report attitude towards many matters, the sexes, and to encourage increasing work. It seems cer- including religion; and although sport. tain that the spirit of Christ is there is no wide-open door for at work, and new hope has arisen Gospel preaching in Turkey, the Thus Hindu, Mohammedan, that the land sacred to three re- evangelist can get a hearing if Sikh, Parsee and Christian womligions may again become a land there is no suspicion that his en are cooperating for the uplift of peace. message has any political bear- of India's Women. . -International Review of Mis- ing. There is a free field for -Women's Missionary Maga- the circulation of Christian liter- sions. ature; and the Scriptures, which zine. have been published in Latin Palestine After Eighteen Years script, are selling readily. In Soviet Combats Missions the Istanbul area it has been Moses Bailey, writing in The found that the establishment M The Bombay Press Service re- American Friend, describes the small, scattered prayer groups ports': changes he observed in Palestine among the members of the Evanwhen he returned after an ab- gelical and Oriental churches has The Soviet Russian Godless League sence of 18 years. Better roads, served to strengthen and encour- has decided to establish international more land under cultivation, in- age them in life and witness. schools in Moscow to train propacreased orange groves, shade ganda experts to combat the missiontrees, irrigation systems, modern -International Review of Mis- ary work of the Christian Church in ways of doing things, were su- sions. the colonies, especially the humanitarperficial changes first noted. Per- ian and cultural work. Indians, Nehaps the tremendously increased INDIA AND BURMA groes and Arabians will be among the hatred, fear and economic insta- candidates to be trained in these bility might also be signs of Years of Progress :schools. modernity. In the midst of all this it is difficult to train boys The All-India Women's Con- The Bulletin adds: and girls for a useful life. Fiery ference is the acknowledged adnationalists' idea of education is vocate of the women of India, According to information received to have their wits sharpened the without any distinction of creed, in London, special propaganda cambetter to supplant their oppo- caste or class. It has a mem- paign for British India is announced nents. bership of over 8,500. At its by the Riga press bureau of the God- 13th session, about 200 delegates less League. The campaign includes, Mr. Bailey finds two outstand- were in attendance. The criti- among other things, the scattering of ing attributes in the Arab mind: cism that the Conference was 10,000 Russian atheists throughout a genius for friendship and a only for ladies of leisure was re- India. keenness for hard study, not futed, for the delegates were surpassed in any other race, so mostly teachers, doctors and oth- The same facts have been notfar as he has observed. Friend- er workers. ed in European papers. liness and ability form a combination that can go far. There The work of the conference Plea for Economy are two disadvantages, however, during the past year has been as Mr. Bailey sees it; religion, constructive and extensive. Pub- The Soc i a I Reconstruction whether Christian or Moslem, is lic opinion has been enlightened Committee of the American materialistic; and the fact that as to divorce, polygamy and the Marathi Mission presented to the the Arab feels first and thinks legal disabilities of women. Ag- Annual Meeting of the Council afterward; this makes them a ricultural improvement and a recommendation on family fertile field for the demagogue. home industries, such as leather problems, among them the ex- work, clay modeling and needle- travagant marriage c u s tom s Materialism in Turkey work, have been organized in prevalent in the Indian Chris- several centers. Considerable tian community. It was urged The westernization of Turkey attention had been paid to ma- that all Indian Christians and goes on apace; so much so that ternity and child welfare, and especially mission workers armissionaries are saying that it is clinics providing free medical range only simple and inexpennot primarily Mohammedanism, treatment, and in some cases sive weddings, without giving but materialism with which they free milk and clothing, had been dinners to the community, or have to deal. In many govern- established at some centers. The spending money on bands, on ment schools there is not only insanitary condition of certain processions, on lights or on rich no religious. and moral teaching schools and mill areas had been clothing for bride, bridegroom given, but distinct anti-religious tackled by a few health commit- or relatives; and without borteaching. The children are rowing any money for the occa- sion. To encourage those who would prefer to arrange wed- dings within their means, but who yield to the pressure of so- cial opinion, it was recommended
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
that Christians should not attend reminded of it by one of the augurate a New Life Movement, extravagant wedding festivities. women, a fact in itself encour- with the following objectives as aging. So a meeting was called their goal: It was further recommended to plan the campaign, and in- that all mission schools and in- stead of the six women expected, No filth in the house or around it. stitutions should introduce prac- eighteen presented themselves Every Christian wear clean clothes. tical projects which through ex- for Instructions. No debts contracted through mar- perience will teach all students riage, and workers the value of money The women were divided into No excessive interest. and how to use it; and will also groups of three or four, and each No expensive feasts. definitely discourage them from group was assigned a definite All disputes settled out of court. going into debt. number of homes to visit; thus Punctuality, all the homes in one village were Cleansing of tobacco from personal -Dnyanodaya. visited in an afternoon. In two and social life. homes the workers were asked No liquor. Bhil Christians to pray; those who asked for Adoption of a salutation-folding this said they had faith, but to hands and saying namascaram. The story of Christian Work accept Christ openly was a dif- At least one-tenth to Church, Chris- among the Bhils goes back to ferent matter. tian work and charity. the year 182'8, when a British Wiping out the remnants of caste. officer, an earnest Christian, was Mrs. Whitcomb went with a Family devotions every day. in charge of Rajputana, and in different group each day, and No recreation that cannot be taken his administration of the district was deeply moved by the ear- in the name of the Lord Jesus. prayed for the day when these nestness of these women in giv- A cooperative in every village people might hear the Gospel. ing their testimony. Their spirit (Kagawa method), But it was not until 1878 that of good will was contagious, and Wiping out of illiteracy. steps were taken to found a Mis- great benefit came to the work- Cottage industries in every home. sion among these aboriginal ers themselves, for they con- tribes. The C. M. S. put an ap- trasted the hopelessness of the -National Christian Council peal in the church papers for a villagers with the blessings of Review. missionary to go to the Bhil Christianity. country, and two years later a CHINA young recruit went out. After -Outlook of Missions. ten years of uphill work, results A Visitor's Impressions began to appear, and by 1892 Political Advance Helps there was a small Bhil Christian Evangelism A traveler visiting nine out- Church. Coming down to 1939, stations and one main station how has this Mission fared? A A writer in the Missionary of the China Inland Mission, re- recent report says that churches Herald argues that the obstacle marks that three things im- have been .established in nine to progress represented by finan- pressed her especially: the ear- main centers with a total mem- cial retrenchment will turn into nestness of the women, their de- bership of 1047. Schools have a stepping stone to indigenous s,ire to learn and their extreme been opened and there are now evangelization, and the steady poverty. In every place women over 500 pupils in them. building up of an indigenous walked from one to four miles church, because of the political in the early morning, bringing There is also a well developed development of the past year or just a few pieces of dry bread medical work. Presbyterians two. India has taken a long for the noon meal, and would sit have a mission among the same stride toward independence, and on hard benches all day study- people, and many thousands have from now on is ruling herself as ing a hymn, memorizing a bit been baptized in the last few never before; so also she is be- of Scripture, struggling over a years. ginning to realize that she must few characters. When the last also evangelize herself. This is meeting was over they would The work is quiet and inten- the trend of India's Christian trudge back 3 to 8 l~-not only s i ve; sporadic persecution movement; self-government not complaining, but pathetically . breaks out from time to time, but must be paralleled by self evan- grateful for the privilege of the missionaries carryon faith- .gelization. coming. Wind, cold, heat, in no fully the activities of schools, way deterred them, and they hospital, evangelism and pastor- In the light of this conclusion, s,eemed never to tire of meetings, al care. -C. M. S. Outlook. the United Theological College seldom less than two hours long. of Western India is redoubling They have a very real faith. and Women Volunteers its efforts to supply a trained to listen to their stories of an- ministry, and thus do a work of swered prayer is impressive. For some years at Baitalpur, strategic importance for India's Many are in direst economic it has been the custom for Chris- future. straits, yet not one asked for tian women to volunteer for financial help; many eve n evangelistic service in the neigh- Indian "New Life Movement" brought gifts of eggs or sweet boring villages. Mrs. E. W. potatoes to the Mission. Whitcomb who went to Baital- As an outcome of the Mara- pur after furlough knew noth- mon Conference, Christians of The visitor mentions the prev- ing of this custom, but was Travancore have decided to in- alence of demon possession. One saw and heard much of the pow- ers of darkness. In one instance
two Christian workers knelt for now is to institute a movement tians gave cause for alarm, as it two hours beside the afflicted for socialized reform compatible extended to local shops and even person in continuous prayer be- with the aspirations of all pro- necessary food was unobtainable fore release was finally given. gressive people. Portraits of for a time, but happily normal Lenin ruld Stalin have been re- conditions have been resumed. -China's Millions. placed by those of Sun Yat-sen One unfortunate result was the and Chiang Kai~shek. This has apostasy of a whole family of Reveals War Conditions been amply corroborated by oth- Christians with the exception of ers who know China; and this one of its members; and this cir- The Presbyterian Mission in destroys the point of J apanes.e cumstance was the more painful Peiping received the following assertion that they are fighting since the head of that family had letter in Chinese, written by an bolshevism. professed Christianity for nearevangelist living 30 miles outside ly forty years. of Peiping. This is the trans- Future of Medical Missions lation: More Gospels are entering Dr. K. C. Wong, Secretary of Tibet than ever before. Last Do not turn your face away from the Council of Medical Missions, year, with the financial support this my letter. But incline your ear says that of 217 mission hospi- of the National Bible Society of to your evangelist, a man filled with tals 81 were (in March) in "oc- Scotland, an adventurous jour': grief. Since my eyes last saw you I cupied areas," 82 in "fighting ney of two months was underhave been as a tree without leaves. I zones" and but 54 in "free Chi- taken by two evangelists who rehave suffered from one new moon to na." A survey made some ported the acceptance of hunthe other. The church members have months earlier showed that of dreds of copies of the Gospel. passed through four calamities: war, 34 mission hospitals in east Chibanditry, flood and famine. In this na 11 had been bombed or de- During the first three months our country there is no law, there is stroyed, 12 had been damaged of its existence, the "Gospel no peace. Bandits entered our town. or looted, 7 were "occupied" and Inn," of which mention has been They came with big shouting, they left 4 were closed. Since this re- made in these columns, more in clouds of black smoke. As a whirl- port some have been recovered than 800 travelers and pilgrims, wind they went over the land. Spoil- and opened, but almost every 700 ponies, yaks and donkeys ing and violence was before them. At week one or more has been dam- found shelter and more than 2'00 random they killed young and old. aged or destroyed. patients were treated for minor And they considered it but nothing to ailments. A capable Bible womrope seventy of our men together and Dockors and nurses are sadly an and her husband are in throw them into the river. In a well overworked, with most of their charge of the Inn. Beside the near our church twenty-eight women Chinese staff gone. However, daily Gospel talk, each lodger reand girls found death in escape from European refugees have ren- ceives a tract, or buys a Gospel their hands. Young Mrs. Wang, the dered ass,istance. So overwhelm- before he leaves. A public liwife of him who tends the sick in the ing are immediate demands that brary and reading room have mission hospital, was one of them, there has been no time to plan been established, where daily also Mrs. Yang and her daughter, for the future. Relief funds will papers and magazines are availwhom you know. In wartime life is not last forever; doctors cannot able. Another plan to extend the truly cheap. The iniquity of our time run one-man hospitals indefinite- usefulness of the Inn is that of is fiercer than evening wolves. The ly with from 100 to 200 clinical opening a grocery, where tired bandits trampled down the harvest, patients daily besides their in- pilgrims may buy such necessiburned our homes, kidnapped the girls, patients. Before the war many ties as tea, butter, flour and keroand plundered the stores. They took of these hospitals were practical- sene. Judging from the extent away our donkeys and drove our pigs ly self-supporting but for the to which this has been used, the before them. missionaries' salaries. Now the new venture is a success. supporting constituency has fled. Thou, Shepherd-teacher, will re- -Moravian Missions. member how the people used to sing 'One conspicuously efficient as taught at the evangelistic meetings. hospital recently was approached JAPAN -CHOSEN Now everyone is quiet. The men look by the Japanese to rent or to worried, the women have forgotten sell the plant to them, and it is Christianity Gets Official how to smile. For many, death seems reported that a refusal will be Status more desirable than life. A great met by the challenge of a new many have no home, no clothing, no hospital designed far to outshine The 74th Japanese Diet has remoney. 0, thou who art safe out of the mission institution. cently passed all the 89 bills inthis spot of calamity, incline thine ear troduced, not one being rejected and knit the little thread of our hope -The Christian Century. or even altered materially. The into a rope of victory. enactment of the "Religious In Western Tibet Bodies Bill," which in one form -Evangelical Christian. or another has for 40 years been Rev. Walter Asboe, Moravian a bone of contention in legisla- What About the Communists? missionary, reports both encour- tive circles, may have great or agement and disappointment in little significance for Christian- One who has lived long in Chi- the Tibet field. A severe boycott ity depending on what happens na, in a personal letter to a of missionaries and native Chris- in other respects. While acfriend, throws light on a question often asked: Is China going "red"? This writer says that Chinese communists have abandoned many of their ideological concepts, originating in Russia, and much of their violence ; they are now Chinese, first and foremost; their aim
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
knowledging the right to reli- anese laymen and of mission- and surgical work is done by one gious freedom guaranteed by the aries; one half are to be chosen foreign and one Korean doctor. constitution, the bill puts all re- from eastern Japan, and one ligious organizations under the half from western Japan. In 1938, the company spent regulation of the Ministry of over 60,000 yen for this medical Education. Creedal positions and Large Bible rallies in Tokyo service. There were treated in forms of worship must be ac- and Osaka give evidence of a de- the wards, dispensary and the ceptable to the authorities; ad- termined spirit in this move- surrounding villages more than ministrative, legal and property ment. -Bible Society Record. 40,000 patients (this is a record affairs must conform to regula- of treatments-not different pations, and all changes must be Chinese Y. M. C. A. Suppressed tients) . There were more than promptly reported. 400 major operations. Of the The Tokyo correspondent for treatments more than 10,000 Some Christians say that the The Christian Century made a were for outsiders. No charge new bill merely legalizes condi- visit to the parts of the city is made to anyone, but patients tions long in force; that Chris- where formerly many Chinese not employed by the company tianity is now specifically recog- resided and where the Y. M. must pay for their own drugs nized as one of Japan's' three C. A. and other cultural institu- and operating material. The accepted faiths, hence prejudice tions sought to serve those from company has never been known on the part of petty officials can the Celestial Kingdom. Chinese to refuse to send their doctor to no longer be a handicap; that are there still, but both Chinese distant villages to see seriously the new legal status accorded and Christian institutions as sick Koreans. both denominations and local such have disappeared. There communions will prove of advan- was a great exodus of Chinese -Korean Mission Field. tage in penetrating conservative students from Japan in the sumand bigoted regions; and that mer of 1937. Now hundreds of What Medicine Has Done for the bill will discourage the devel- Chinese youths are again com- Chosen opment of superstitious faiths of ing to Tokyo for study-this all sorts. The danger of state time from the occupied regions To form a correct appreciaregulation is minimized. of China. But who now will tion of the part played by medi- help them as did the Y. M. and cine in the regeneration of Ko- -Christian Century. Y. W. C. A. and the churches in rea, says Dr. O. R. Avison, one the days when Sun Yat-sen, Chi- must know what were the con- "Nippon Seisho Kyokwai" ang Kai-shek and C. T. Wang ditions when Protestant missions were occasional sojourners there entered the country in 1884. This is the name of the Japan and had many friends in Tokyo Even forty years ago, practical- Bible Society, recently organ- interested not in the politics but ly everybody was pock marked. ized. It marks another step in in the souls of these youthful All children were expected to the cooperative plans of the seekers after truth? have smallpox before the age of older Bible Societies, and reveals two; so many of them died that the courageous way the younger Medical Work in Mines mothers thought it hardly worth churches are rising to increased while to count a child as a memresponsibilities. One of the Th e Oriental Consolidated ber of the family until he had things that stood out clearly at Mining Company in Korea is survived this disease. An epithe Madras Conference was the known as the American Mines. demic of Asiatic cholera was exfact that these younger churches Its president from the beginning pected every five or six years. have made great strides. Many until he died in 1927 was Henry Both diseases were attributed to of them have grown up in lands C. Perkins of New York who, the power of demons. There was where Christianity was unknown throughout his life, had a deep no knowledge at all of sanitaless than two hundred years ago. interest in the lives of the min- tion ; vermin were abundant; ers and their families, one evi- excrement from human beings Many Japanese Christian lead- dence being the maintenance of infected with all sorts of intesers have been concerned that the medical care for these workers. tinal parasites was used as fer- Scriptures in use in Japan bore tilizer, and raw vegetables eaten the imprint of foreign Bible So- Much could be said of the gen- unwashed, or washed in polluted cieties; and after a number of eral policies of this company; water. Flies had access to conconferences of representatives how it has never been in the taminated places, and to good; of the foreign societies and their courts, has always paid at least mosquitoes were uncontrolled. Japanese advisory committees, a one yearly dividend; never fluc- Those ill with contagious disconstitution was drawn up and tuated prices nor padded its re- eases were not isolated. ratified last October. The essen- ports, but there is space only to tial objectives are the same as speak of the medical work. The One day Dr. Avison was walkthose of Western societies: the company maintains a little hos- ing outside the city gate when translation, publication and dis- pital with room for 25 to 30 in- he saw a strange sight-the tribution of the Scriptures, with- patients. Through a dispensary corpse of a child that had died out note or comment. The gov- and clinic connected with the of smallpox. Here was an operning body is composed equally hosuital 75 or more patients go portunity to pit the strength of of Japanese ministers, of Jap- daily except Sundays. Medical vaccination against the power of
a demon, if only he could be al- and have no Christian influence. from the war scene in Spain, or lowed to try. At first, all offers There are about 4,000 Japanese again it might fit the picture of were refused. Finally, a Chris- Christians living in Formosa. a Jewish refugee group on the tian mother agreed to let him see One hopeful sign for the future border of Czechoslovakia. But what he could do. Her child is the keenness and activity of no, it happened in the U. S. A.; passed its second year and then the Christian youth in Formosa. the pitiful procession was made its third without taking small- up of "sharecroppers" in Mispox; after that other mothers -International Review of souri, evicted from their shanwere anxious to try the new way. Missions. ties because, allegedly, landown- This incident opened the door to ers wished to change from tendisease prevention, and in time In Netherlands Indies ants to day laborers. the government made vaccination compulsory. Today, small- . The first Christian book in One More Poll Needed pox is rare. Javanese, other than the Bible, appeared in 1938. It is a child's We have "had plenty of "polls." -Korea Mission Field. Life of Christ entitled "The King Weare asked how we shall vote of Love." It originally appeared in 1940; even personal habits ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC in Arabic, then in Urdu, then are inquired into, so that we Persian. Christian work among know how everybody feels; but "For Value Received" young people in both Java and why not have a poll as to what Sumatra is being steadily pro- the churches intend to do about Filipino Christians are assum- moted. Annual conferences and the missionary enterprise? ing more and more responsibil- a Christian newspaper are some Would it not be possible to ask ity for work, which a few years of the means used. Autonomous 100,000 people in typical churchago had to be done, if at all, by churches are to be found in dif- es some such questions as: the missionaries. For example, ferent areas of the Indies, but in the wife of a Filipino professor some sections missionary work (1) Do I really believe that Jesus at Silliman University is teach- is forbidden by the government; started the missionary method, and ing music while the missionary in northern Sumatra and in Bali, believed that. His Gospel would evenhead of the department is absent for example, but Christians from tually win the world? on furlough. "Don't worry about other localities settle in these salary," she said. "Silliman gave areas, bringing their faith and (2) Do I really believe that my anme my education, and if I can witness with them. The fact cestors received civilization and every be of service I shall be glad." that now for the first time in uplifting ideal they possessed through One of the assistant professors Borneo the Asiatic ministry of Christian missionaries? Clearly this has started a flourishing cooper- the Church exceeds the Euro- seems true, and how anyone can doubt ative in Dumaguete; while an pean holds out hope for the fu- our obligation to share similar lifeinstructor is teaching local farm- ture. giving and level-lifting Christian ers how to make better use of ideals is beyond understanding. their resources. Still another -International Review of goes regularly to the small Missions. (3) Despite taxes, losses, fears, but churches to help with the music. admitting most of us still live in com- NORTH AMERICA fortable homeR and eat thrice a day, -Monday Morning. do I really believe that an annual per Where Did This Happen? capita gift of fifty cents per member Christianity in Formosa in our denomination proves our part- Last January the New York nership in a progressive and victori- Restrictions have been placed Times published a news story ous enterprise like winning a world on Christian work in Formosa, from which the paragraph be- for the Gospel of Christ? as elsewhere in the Japanese low is taken. Missions reprinted empire. Efforts have been made it and asked its readers to guess (4) Do I really believe that our to force all Formosan household- what part of the world the story missionaries exert important influers to set up miniature Shinto came from. ences for world peace, and that shrines, and neglect to do so has through them we are aidinp.: in the led to trouble in some districts. Along two highways more than progress of the Kingdom of God? This order is as unacceptable to 1,000 men, women and children non-Christians as to Christians, camped in the open air. They hud- -American Board News. since the former regard the sub- dled around camp fires, or makeshift stitution of new emblems for old stoves, along desolate rights of way, "Temperance Trailer" as destroying their own ances- sharing the contents of huge steaming tral religion. kettles. The number of camps was A "Temperance Trailer," still growing at nightfall as new- sponsored by the Friends' Tem- In 1936, the Canadian Mission comers straggled in on foot, or in perance Association of Philadelwithdrew from the Tansui Mid- dilapidated vehicles. The camps dot- phia, has made a transcontidle, and Girls' Schools in For- ted the road all the way to the border nental tour of over 10,000 miles, mosa, because of government re- line. Men feeble with age, one woman stopping in more than a hundred quirement in regard to shrine so ill that she had to be carried on a towns in twenty-eight states, and attendance. These schools are cot, and babies crying from fright and carrying a temperance message now under local management, hunger, added to the distressing pic- to over 150,000 persons. The ture. trailer is fitted out with various exhibits, including a "drunko- It might describe the plight meter," designed to dramatize of the Chinese; it might come the dangers of alcohol. Tem- perance lectures are given, and questions from the audience are
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
answered by the crew of three. missing from my daily life. In which he demonstrates the pos- There has been no acrimonious that immortal masterpiece of sibility of the miraculous by scidebate, or hostility. literature I find new inspiration. entific analogy. Up to March, That is why the Holy Bible is many thousands had listened to -The American Friend. my favorite book." these demonstrations; sometimes the lectures start thirty minutes Immanuel Mission to Seamen -Lutheran News Bureau. early because the auditorium is jammed. The audiences are Laden with Scripture por- Organization Changes Name about ninety per cent untions, workers of Immanuel churched. There have been defi- Mission to Seamen enter cabins The "International Save the nite conversions. A San Franand crews' quarters on vessels Children Fund," as this agency cisco daily observes that these of all types and nationalities has been called since its organ- lectures leave the audience less along the Pacific Coast. Oppor- ization in 1931, is now to be cock sure of their own wisdom, tunity to read at sea, the absence known as the "Save the Children and with a feeling that the mirof opposition and a lack of di- Federation." The President, acles of the Bible are not so imversion ensure a friendly recep- Dr. John R. Voris, says that the possible as they had supposed. tion for these workers. The name Federation is adopted be- Alaska salmon fleet carries a cause this is a movement, or as- Institutions Closed mixed group of Americans, Chi- sociation, and the name "Fund" nese, Italians, Scandinavians, no longer describes its functions, Because of financial strin- Mexicans and Filipinos. They as it did in the beginning. Drop- gency the Presbyterian Board. beg for reading matter, for ping the word "International" is of National Missions has voted Alaska is almost a spiritual of no significance, except to to close three of its institutions: wilderness. shorten the name. The Federa- the American Indian Institute, tion will continue to maintain Wichita, Kansas; Ingleside-Fee Malay and Javanese Scrip- relationship with the Save the Institute, Burkeville, Virginia; tures find their way to the crews Children International Union of and Brainerd Institute, Chester, of Dutch East Indies boats, and Geneva, of which the fund has South Carolina, in the Negro. Spanish booklets are used with been the American member ever field. All three have been givgreat blessing on various ships since its founding. The question ing splendid service, but their coming in to San Francisco from of changing the title of the agen- discontinuance was the only al- Puerto Rico. American liners cy has been under consideration ternative to a general retrenchsailing across the Pacific are for more than two years. Effort ment, which would have crippled supplied with Bible portions and has been made to find a still the entire program of the Board.. booklets. For a period of more shorter name.-The Churchman. than 24 years this work has been At the same meeting at which carried on among seamen. The Radio as a Missionary this decision was made it was Voice voted that the new hospital be- -Scripture Gift Mission ing erected to replace the over- Bulletin. The "Lutheran Hour," a Sun- crowded Brooklyn Cottage Hos- day afternoon coast – to – coast pital at Dixon, N. M., be named The Bible in the CCC broadcast, can claim a mission- the Embudo Presbyterian Hospi- ary bearing. Dr. Walter A. tal; and that the staff home be When CCC boys were asked Maier, of the Concordia Semi- called the Brooklyn-Nassau Cottheir preference in reading mate- nary Faculty in St. Louis, who tage. Embudo will be the post rial, a large majority indicated broadcast over 66 stations from office address of the new hospithat the Bible is their favorite October to Easter Sunday has tal. The name of the staff home book. The reasons given for this been heard by sailors on the high is the Board's expression of appreference were varied, but first seas, by isolated men in lumber preciation for the continued prize, if one had been awarded, and mining camps in the north interest of Brooklyn – Nassau would go to Wayne Berkshire of woods, by distinguished person- Presbyterial Society in this Company 793, Hill City, S. Da- ages high in the business, pro- project. kota, for the following reply: fessional and social life of the "My favorite book is the Holy nation – by a vast audience Indians Set Example Bible. Why? Because it is my whose number can be estimated mother's and my own wish that only from the tremendous num- In proportion to their means, I develop a more wholesome, sin- ber who send in their comments, the Sioux Indians give more for c ere and faithful religion. totaling 133,000 last season. the promotion of Christian activ- Through the Bible and, of course, ities than any other church the Church, I am striving to Treasure Island Gospel Project members anywhere. Once they reach that goal. I have discov- were the fiercest, most war-like ered and constantly rely upon Mention has been made of the of all North American Indians. the magic powers of prayer when San Francisco Christian Busi- They were the ones who wiped in trouble, in doubt, and at the ness Men's presentation of the out General Custer and his cavclose of every day. If I could Gospel at the Golden Gate Expo- aIry; now, every member of the not have access to the Bible each sition through Irvin Moon's tribe is a professed Christian, day, I would feel that something "Sermons from Science," in important and necessary was
All of them are peaceful farm- MISCELLANEOUS Persia …………….. . 40,000 ers. 40,000 Fifty Years-Past and Future Brazil …………….. . 24,141 A few years ago when grass- 23,553 hoppers and drouth practically United Presbyterian young India ……………… . 20,000 ruined farmers, many church people have been celebrating fif- Australia ………….. . 19,850 people advocated withdrawal ty years of organized work in from the South Dakota field, but their denomination, and are con- Mexico ……………. . 7,800 the Sioux Indians held a mass sidering the situation of today in China …………….. . 4,000 meeting, pledged a fifty per cent its relation to that of fifty years 2,591 increase in their giving and hence; facing a world of today, Cuba ……………… . adopted the slogan, "Move For- terribly disorganized economi- Spain …………….. . ward."-United Presbyterian. cally, socially, internationally, religiously and morally. They New Zealand ………. . The Church in the Arctic realize that there probably nev- er was a day of greater oppor- World O. E. Advance The aeroplane and the wire- tunity for youth to make an imless have caused tremendous press on their world. The older Two important changes in changes in mission work in the generation is looking on with Christian Endeavor activities Arctic regions. Last year Bish- keen interest as it sees young have taken place across the op Fleming traveled from 15,000 people ready and eager to spend Pacific. The Methodist Episcopal to 16,000 miles through the east- a large part of their summer Church of southern Asia has ern Arctic, covered much work vacation period in listening at- voted to discontinue the Epwhich had never been done be- tentively to leaders who try to worth League to permit its youth fore, and could not have been direct their energies in the path organizations to unite with the attempted but for the aeroplane. of Christ's Kingdom. While this Christian Endeavor Union of Plane travel is not expensive, fiftieth anniversary celebration India, Burma and Ceylon. This considering the e nor m 0 u s has paid tribute to the "giants is another step toward union of amount of time saved thereby. there were in those days," it Protestant missionary programs For the better spiritual care of makes clear that the younger in southern Asia. The Methodist the 11,000 people-Indians, Es- generation has a whole army of Church has nearly half a million kimos and white folk-within possible "giants." members in India, and more the Arctic Circle and a distance than 54,000 are registered in below it, the diocese of the Arc- -United Presbyterian. Methodist schools. tic was constituted in 1933, and comprises one-third of the whole Where Can the "Wandering The second move was the for- Dominion of Canada. Jew" Wander? mation of a Pacific Region of the World Christian End e a v 0 r There are two hospitals in the Union, to include China, Japan, diocese: All Saints, at Aklavik, Korea, Manchoukuo, New Zeaand St. Luke's at Pangnirtung. land, Australia, the Philippines, Remembering that the diocese the Fiji and Samoan Islands, and comprises over a million square other Pacific island groups. miles, one understands why Bishop Fleming is seeking to found From his original home in Pal- Youth at Amsterdam a third on the north shore of estine the Jew has wandered far Hudson Strait. The existing and wide. He has indeed been There is an alarming regimenhospitals are fully equipped with "the wandering Jew." The tation of young people in many electric light, X-ray apparatus, Christian Evangelist has given parts of the world in movements operating theaters, and other de- that are anti-Christian, or at sirable and necessary features·. an interesting tabulation to show least non-Christian. A World The government supplies the the present distribution of Jews Conference of Christian Youth doctors: the Church provides throughout the world: to be held at Amsterdam, Holthe staff and upkeep. land, July 24-August 3, is United States ………. . 4,228,029 planned to make the Christian Primitive animism is the re- 3,028,837 youth of the world more aware ligion of the native, Eskimo and Poland ……………. . 2,676,109 of their heritage in the Chris- Indian alike. Nineteen clergy- tian faith, and more forceful one an Eskimo deacon-and six- Russia ……………. . 728,115 and courageous in applying the ty or more lay workers assist Rumania …………… . 514,269 message of the Church in a Bishop Fleming. There is also Near East …………. . 499,682 world whose disintegrating forcwork for white people. Each 444,567 es are placing Christianity benorthern settlement has its Hud- Germany ………….. . 356,830 fore one of the greatest tests of son's Bay Company store, the Hungary ………….. . 300,000 its history. barracks of the Royal Canadian 260,000 Mounted Police (the "Moun- Czechoslovakia ……… . 240,000 The conference program is the ties"), and the wireless. station. Great Britain ………. . 191,408 result of two years of consulta- 161,312 tion among youth leaders from -Life of Faith. Argentina …………. . 156,817 all parts of the world. The 155,614 daily worship service will enable France ……………. . 155,125 all delegates to attend the type Austria ……………. . 110,127 of service to which they are ac- customed, and also to experience Morocco …………… . 95,000 other worship customs. 81,280 Netherlands ………… . 72,791 Canada ……………. . 72,550 Lithuania ………….. . 60,000 Algeria ……………. . 59,485 South Africa ……….. . 51,000 47,825 Turkey ……………. . Greece …………….. . Egypt …………….. .
Belgium …………… .
Tunis …………….. . Abyssinia ………….. . Italy ……………… .
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Our Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information Cry Dance. A Novel of the Ameri- It is an attempt to provide a While the main emphasis in can Indian. By Coe Hayne. 8 Yo. guide to the solution of life's dif- "This Business of Living" is 255 pp. $2.00. Harper & Bros. New ficult and often tragic problems. upon personal and individual York. 1939. Who among us would not wel- problems, the author pauses come assistance at this point and more than once to point out the The American Indians are a who is there without some friend application of his proffered solupicturesque and romantic people. or acquaintance whose need for tion to the larger social and na- They have been exploited, exhib- wisdom and guidance is great tional problems as well. "There ited, abused and protected for is no problem that is not in printwo hundred years. They sur- indeed? ciple a personal problem," he vive but are not yet made a civi- But will this book meet that truly says. And here are a few lized, Christian and integral part other wise observations: "Any of the nation. Many are strong need? Undoubtedly it will for victory won by force is a defeat" characters and capable of becom- the more intelligent reader, for ing highly educated and efficient the person who is equipped to "An agreement reached unde' r leaders. understand and appropriate that which is not always easy read- pressure is not an agreement, but As Secretary of Research of the ing. But it is a question whether the perpetration of a disagree- American Baptist Home Mission the common man, untrained in ment." "All war is defeat." "We Society, the Rev. Coe Hayne, philosophical and psychological must never surrender to the behas had many opportunities to lief that force has the last word." study the Indians on the reser- terms and methods, will find These words are true for the invations and has come to love and much of this helpful book avail- dividual; they are no less true admire them. Here he has told able for his needs. This is to be for nations. a stirring story of a young In- regretted since the common man dian, "Yosemite," who gave up is often the one who most des- VICTOR G. MILLS. his college course, and fine pros- perately needs the help which pects of a professional career, to Dr. Grensted offers. If the meth- Dynamic Christianity and the World throw in his lot with his people od and style of the book as a Today. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 8vo. in the Sierras and champion whole had been closer to the free 17? pp. 28. 6d. Intervarsity Fellowtheir cause in the struggle and easy spirit of the title it shIp. London; Zondervan Publishagainst poverty and wrong and would be more useful where ing House, Grand Rapids, Mich. in behalf of their rights in Amer- most needed. 1939. ica. A young white woman joined in the fight for the Red Yet with this one limitation, There are good reasons why man. "Cry Dance" tells the let it be said that for many, es- only earnest, believing followers story of the struggle-which pecially for those who would still continues. There are ad- help others in meeting life's of Christ are interested in proventures, bitter fights, and two moting Christian missions. One love stories woven into the nar- problems and crises, this book must believe in the importance rative. It is an incompleted tale will provide very real assistance. but the author shows good judg- Workers with troubled minds of a cause and in the claims of ment in his outcome of the love and hearts will be bet t e r its leader before one will give stories of white folk and Indians. equipped for reading it. It notes time and strength and money to Young people will find the novel advance that cause. Dr. Zwemof particular interest. It has a the nature of life's most common er has proved his faith by his definite Christian tone. problems, always stressing the works for he has spent nearly fifty years in many lands seek- This Business of Living. By L. W. fact that in the last analysis all ing to win Moslems to Christ- Grensted. 187 pp. $1.75. Mac- of these problems come back to by voice and pen and life. He millan. New York. 1939. the problem of self. The inef- knows that the only kind of Christianity worth following A cover notice calls this "a fectiveness of the common meth- and worth propagating is "Dy- book for everyman." One can- ods of help is made clear. And namic Christianity." This is the not but wish that this were more then the author points out the Christianity of the living Christ nearly the case, for every man one adequate answer which is who is the ever present Head of needs what this book has to offer. found through religion, when His Church and the motivating rightly conceived, and preemi- and achieving power of the Gos- nently through Christianity. The pel. chapter on "The Way of Release" is especially worth while.
[383 ]
The author has given us here wealth of Christian doctrine, scenes are laid, gives additional a dynamic book. The Gospel that and the last three which deal he proclaims is the same that with Christian experience based value to leaders of children's came through Jesus Christ and on that doctrine. Her analytical that "turned the world up-side- mind does not prevent her from groups. H. H. F. down" in the days of the Apos- seeing the beauty of the truth tles. It is the Gospel founded on she presents nor do her outlines Mary Reed of Chandag. By Lee S. faith in the Bible as the inspired obscure the life and power. One Huizenga. 37 pp. Paper, 35 cents. Word of God and in Christ as the wishes that she had drawn more Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Son of God and only Redeemer largely on her rich experiences Rapids, Mich. 1939. of men. This is the heart of to illustrate the truths presented. Christianity that has proved its But there is a reality and a glow Almost everyone knows the truth and power and that is dy- in her Christian life that is con- story of Mary Reed, who went namic today among all peoples tagious. These studies in Ephe- to India in 1884; became a leper; to whom the Gospel is pro- sians will richly reward any was healed through prayer and claimed in the power of the Holy student-preacher, teacher, mis- for forty-seven years has di- Spirit. sionary or layman. rected the Chandag Leper Home in the foothills of the Himalayas. Dr. Zwemer shows clearly that They Dared to Live. By Robert M. She recently celebrated her 83d this Gospel is everlasting; that Bartlett. 12mo. 135 pp. $1.25. birthday. This little, illustrated it has not changed; that it is Association Press. New York. book retells a story and gives absolute and is vitally linked 1939. important facts about leprosy with the "Changeless Christ." and its modern treatment. He shows that, while this Gos- This series of thirty-five tenpel is neglected and repudiated minute biographies are very H. H. F. by many who refuse to believe, brief stories of explorers, scienit is the Gospel that the whole tists, teachers, reformers, stu- Meditations on the Holy Spirit. By world needs today. The work of dents, social workers, artists, Toyohiko Kagawa. 167 pp. $1.50. Christ has made great progress, authors, doctors, political lead- Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Tenextens.ively and intensively, and ers and missionaries and Amer- nessee. 1939. mankind is accessible as never icans. They include British, before, but there are still great French, Chinese, Japanese, Ger- The world famous Japanese regions of the world and vast mans, Swiss, Russians, Czechs, Christian has given us an attracareas of humanity that are un- Africans, Norwegians, Indians tive statement of some great enlightened by a knowledge of and others. There are well- principles of the spiritual life. "the Light of the World." known names like Helen Keller Throughout it the author shows and President Masarayk, and ob- a strong mystical tendency. He This is not only an intensely scure persons like Roland Hayes is definitely Trinitarian and interesting and informing book, and Pierre Ceresole. The great clearly stands for the Personit is inspiring and dynamic. disappointment is t hat the ality of. the Holy Spirit. What would be the result if sketches are too brief, but they every Christian minister should make one wish to know more Readers who accept the inread it? about these men and women who errancy of the Bible will be dis- dared to work against obstacles turbed by Dr. Kagawa's tend- The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of and for a high purpose, and suc- ency to rationalize some of the the Christian. By Ruth Paxson. ceeded. miracles. He also appears to ac- 8vo. 222 pages. $1.50. Revell. cept Darwin's views of the New York. 1939. Far Round the World. By Grace W. "Origin of the Species" quite un- McGavran. Illustrated by Mar- critically. Another questionable Miss Paxson is already well garet Ayer. 118 pp. Cloth, $1.00. point is a rather naturalistic known through her spiritual Friendship Press, N. Y. 1939. view of the personal spiritual presentation of "Life on the experience of the Lord Jesus. Highest Plane." She is a devout Miss McGavran, the REVIEW'S With such reservations it is only and intelligent Bible teacher and Editor of "Effective Ways of fair to say that there is a great an evangelist of rare gifts and Working," and the author of deal that is searching and helpgraces; she has been widely and "Missionary Stories for Chil- ful, for the book evidently comes wonderfully used of God in dren," gives here eleven splendid out of deep personal experience. China, in Europe and America. stories showing the improve- The supernatural view of the ments of social conditions, de- Holy Spirit is accepted. In the present volume Miss cline in race prejudice, braving Paxson gives us some fruitful re- danger in Mexico, India, Africa, F. E. G. sults of her study in the letter Japan, China, Paraguay, Ceylon to the Ephesians, which she calls and the Philippine Islands. They Studies in First and Second Kings the "Grand Canyon of Scrip- describe events that actually and First and Second Chronicles. ture." It is remarkably rich, happened. A section at the back Arranged by Grace Saxe. 35 cents. suggestive and stimulating. She of the book, supplying facts 112 pp. Bible Colportage Assn. points out the connection be- about the countries in which the Chicago. 1939. tween the first three chapters, which deal chiefly with the These twenty-three studies in Old Testament history are de- signed for individual or class work. Exposition and applica- tion are well balanced. The mor- al lessons seem to flower forth
Encyclopedia of Religious
"How many baptized Christians in Burma?" "Where is the headquarters of the Evangelical Church?"
"How much does the average Baptist give to his church?" "Name three Christmas dramas suitable for church presentation." "How many denominations in the United States?" ''What are the best available books on the life of st. Paul 1"
"How many Christian missionaries in Egypt?" "What is Kingdomtide?"
"Is church giving going up or down 1" "Where is Washburn College located?"
"To what church does the Governor of Ohio belong?"
You can answer these and many more by turning to the proper pages in CHURCH MANAGEMENT DIRECTORY for 1939, now available in your book store. The price is but 65c. (by mail 75c.). If your bookstore cannot supply you, send the proper remittance to address l;Ielow. This directory offers the most complete almanac for the Protestant field.
CHURCH MANAGEMENT : Auditorium Building : Cleveland, Ohio from the Scripture itself. God Launch Out Into the Deep. By An' The New Sovereignty. Reiinald is clearly seen to be at work be- drew Gih. Edited by J. Edwin Orr. Wallis. 93 pp. Is. Pickering & hind the scenes. The great uni- 119 pp. Cloth, 40 cents. Zonder- Inglis. London. fying message in Kings and in van Publishing House, Grand Rap· Chronicles, Miss Saxe makes ids, Mich. 1938. One Gospel for Mankind. Hugh abundantly clear, in the impera- Vernon White. 72 pp. 35 cents. tive need of trusting God and Among the consecrated Chi- Friendship Press. New York. obeying Him. The book would nese soul winners is Andrew be still better if the author did Gih, now on an evangelistic tour Right Here at Home. Frank S. not lean so heavily upon a very in war-torn China. Previously, Mead. 183 pp. $1.00, and 60 cents. limited number of Bible scholars he made a three months' tour of Friendship Press. New York. for her quotations and if she had Australia with J. Edwin Orr, included more thought-provok- who says he was second to none Studies in I and II Kings and I and ing questions, along with the list for effectiveness. This book is II Chronicles. Grace Axe. 112 pp. of fact questions, at the end of in two parts: the first half be- 35 cents. B. I. C. Assn. Chicago. each lesson. ing s tor i e s of conversions through the Bethel Evangelistic When I Awake. Jack C. Winslowe. C. NORMAN BARTLETT. Bands, and the second half a 78 pp. Is. 6d. Hodder and Stough- collection of Bible readings on ton. London. The Doctor Comes to Lui. A Story such subjects as "The Dry of the Beginnings in the Sudan. By Bones," "Catching Fish," and The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of Eileen Fraser. Illus. 71 pp. Is. "The Way to Victory." "His vi- the Christian. Ruth Paxson. 222 Church Missionary Society. Lon- tal exposition of the Word of pp. $1.50. Revell. New York. don. 1939. God captivated both the saved and the unsaved," says Mr. Orr Yesterdays in Persia and Kurdistan. The reviewer and his wife in the preface; "Not a single Frederick G. Coan. 284 pp. $2.50. spent some years in the Sudan theme will be easily forgotten." Saunders Studio Press. Claremont, enjoying the personal acquaint- Calif. ance of the author and Bishop H.H.F. Gwynne who wrote the intro- Cry Dance. Coe Hayne. 255 pp. duction to the book. The story New Book. $2.00. Harpers. New York. of the establishment of many bush schools in darkest Sudan; The Acts of the Apostles. Studies The Greatest Words in the Bible and cutting down the jungle and let- in Primitive Christianity. W. H. in Human Speech. Clarence E. ting in the Christ; these are in- Griffith Thomas. 93 pp. 30 cents. Macartney. $1.50. 103 pp. Cokescluded, with some stories of the B. I. C. Assn. Chicago. bury Press. Nashville. mauling of African natives by buffaloes, lions and leopards and The Faith We Declare. Edwin Homeland Harvest. Arthur H. Limtheir recovery under the skillful Lewis. 236 pp. $2. Cokesbury ouze. 211 pp. $1.00 cloth, 60 cents care of Dr. Fraser. One feels Press. Nashville. paper. Friendship Press. New that the reader stands in the York. presence of a great and modest Far Round the World. Grace W. servant of Jesus Christ. Mrs. McGavran. 118 pp. $1.00. Friend- One Family. C. M. S. Review of Fraser's self-abnegation in writ- ship Press. New York. 1938-39. 62 pp. 6d. Church Mising of her talented husband and sionary Society. London. herself is remarkable but we The Gospel, in the Pentateuch. Herwould like to know more of bert Lockyer. 125 pp. 50 cents. Personality and Character Developthem. A minor criticism might B. I. C. Assn. Chicago. ment. J. D. Messick. 192 pp. $1.50. be that the narrative skips back Revell. New York. and forth in a way that makes God's Purpose. A Book of 365 Serit bewildering to follow the monettes for Home Worship. 366 The Remarkable Jew. His Wonder~ dates and, sequence of events. pp. 50 cents paper; $1.00 limp ful Future. L. Sale-Harrison. 224 fabrikoid; $1.50 art leather. Win- pp. 28. 6d. Pickering & Inglis. T. A. LAMBIE. ston. Philadelphia. London.
The Meaning of War. James W. The Rural Church in the Far East. Johnson. 57 pp. 75 cents. Revell. Ralph A. Felton. 258 pp. $1.25. New York. Friendship Press. New York.
The S. P. G. Story. 1939. 156 pp. 6d. Society for Propagating the Gospel. London.
Builder of Dreams. The Life of Robert Edward Chambers. Ruth Carver Gardner and Christine Cof- fee Chambers. $1.00. 200 pp. Broad- man Press. Nashville.
Day Dawn in Yoruba Land. Charles E. Maddry. 217 pp. Broadman Press. Nashville.
MOSLEM
PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION Editors: SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, EDWIN E. CALVERLEY Some Articles in the July Number Broadcasting Our Message Samuel M. Zwemer After Madras Paul W. Harrison The Theological Approach Al Sha'ranI the Mystic lens Christensen Our Debt to Moslem Arabs Margaret Smith An East African Experience An Ordeal in Central Asia lohn Clark Archer Mission Frontier in Palestine A. Rowland Pittwa'Y International Relations G. Raquette Book Reviews Survey of Periodicals E. Theodore Bachmann Robert S. Darbishire Current Topics Sue Moll~son Foster ._-•• SUBSCRIBE NOW ….- __ 150 Cents a Copy. $2.00 It Year (postpaid) In combination with THE MOSLEM WORLD THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City $3.50 a Year. (Foreign Postage, 50 Cents.) British Agents: MARSHALL, MORGAN & SCOTl', 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, E. C. Price in Great Britain, Eight Shillings a Year, net HAVE YOU READ?
THE LIFE OF GEORGE BOWEN OF BOMBAY By ROBERT E. SPEER The biography of a remarkable missionary whom the (then) Prince of Wales visited in Bombay at the request of his mother, Queen Victoria.
What some readers say of this book: Robert Speer's "Life of George Bowen of Bombay" is one was so far·sighted and so deep.seeing!-the former because of the richest of missionary biographies. the latter. If one wants to sum up the interests of our DR. J. LOVELL MUllIlAY, Director of the Canadian School of Missions, Toronto. students today-Biblical, social, theological-Bowen is a What a life! He was old enough to know why be went, representative ligure. And what a lesson in apparent failure! and bad enough to know the meaning of salvation. One by. product of his experience was his wonderful bumility-noth. . • . I feel strongly that' every student and alumnus of our ing in the show window and himself in the remote back. ground. It is inspiring. Seminary needs this book. Wbat better book to lead them to DR. GBORGI! P. PIERSON, formerly of Japan. feed on the Bible. One bears so much "vestibule religion"- We must all be grateful for this revealing of the main· men pointing to the door and taking their people as far as the springs of Bowen's character, his abiding faith in God, his threshold, but no opening up of the treasures within the earnest purpose to be a true and faithful follower of Jesus Christ; and his deep.seated conviction that the Gospel of Father's House. Read the topics of current sermons, and Christ could meet the religious needs of India's people. Bowen's expositions are precisely what Christians need in order to grow from puerility into spiritual maturity. Here is no WILLIAM HAzEN, adolescent, but a man in Christ. This is no volume to be Missionary in ShoJapur, India. read and dismissed, but to be marked and to be turned to repeatedly. A biography of one of the saintliest ligures of the nine. teenth century. I could not put the book down. There is a HBNRY SLOANB COFFIN, fascination and a depth in this man's soul which held me in President of Union Seminary.
devout attention. I found myself marking his moving sayings The Memoirs of George Bowen will continue to be for which would serve as starting points for chapel talks. He years to come a searching manual of devotion. He has set before me an ideal which few could attain; his life is a scath· ing rebuke to our ease, comfort, self.indulgence and ind- J. Ross STEVENSON, liciency.
President Emeritus, P,inrelon Seminar,.
Send $2.00 to.day for your copy of this latest book by Dr. Speer THE MISSIONARY REVIEW PUBLISHING CO.
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The Missionary Review of the World — March 1939
MARCH,1939
Vision and Power at Madras Paul W. Harrison Kenneth S. Latourette Foreign Missions Tomorrow John R. Mott V. S. Azariah Toyohiko Kagawa Recommendations from Tambaram Quotations from the Findings A Kashgar Moslem's Story Mrs. Glenn B. Ogden Primitive Animists in the Celebes Henry P. Van Dusen The Indian Poet-N. V. Tilak Kund Heiberg 25 Cents a COP'Y $2.50 a YeaT
to Remember Rev. S. S. Tema, a South African of Rev. Samuel Hinds Willqnson
Johannesburg, who works among the many years director of the Mildmay February 28-March 31- Teams of large African population employed in Mission to the Jews, died in London speakers from the Madras Confer- the gold mines and coming from many on January 5 at the age of 76. He ence are to visit a number of cities parts of Africa. He speaks four na- was the son of Rev. John Wilkinson, . in the United States and Canada to tive languages as well as Afrikaans who founded the Mission in 1876, and report on the most important fea- and English. became associated with his father in tures of that conference. One team the work in 1882, succeeding him as will consist of Professor G. Baez Obituary Notes director in 1907. He was a successful Camargo of Mexico, Dr. P. C. Hsu missionary'to the Jews and an accom- of China, and Miss Ila Sircar of Rev. Fred G. Mitchell, Presbyterian plished Hebrew scholar, being largely India. The second team will con- missionary to the Navajos since 1905, responsible for the translation of the sist of Dr. Rajah B. Manikam of died suddenly January 12 in his 81st Bible into Yiddish. India, Dr. Hachiro Yuasa of Japan, year. He had retired in 1933. Mr. and Miss Minnie Soga of South Mitchell labored for 14 years without *** Africa. a single convert, but during this time made invaluable contributions to the Rev. Dr. Alfred Williams Anthony, February 28-March l-WiQrld Alliance work as linguist and writer. In 1920, for five yearS! secretary of the Home of Presbyterian and Reformed he was made superintendent of the Missions Council of North America, Churches, Western Section, Pitts- Ganado Mission in Arizona; and from died at Waltham, Mass., on January burgh, Pa. 1930 until his retirement was Director 20. Dr. Anthony was 79 years of of Indian Wells Community Center. age, having been born in Providence, April 26 – Uniting Conference of Here he devoted most of his time to R. I., January 13, 1860, the son of the American Methodism, Kansas City, translation and evangelism. late Lewis and Britannia Anthony. Mo. He was graduated from Brown Uni- *** versity in 1883 and ordained as a min- May 25 – Presbyterian Church in ister of the Free Baptist Church in U. S. A., Cleveland, Ohio. James Fugat, volunteer worker for 1885. After a brief pastorate at many years in the Episcopal Mission Bangor, Maine, he taught in Cobb Di- June 8-Reformed Church in Amer- in the Philippines, was murdered there visional School and in Bates College, ica, New York, N. Y. on December 14. Mr. Fugat went to Maine. In 1911 he was made Corre- the Philippines from the United States sponding Secretary and Treasurer of June 20-25 – Northern Baptist Con- shortly after the American occupation the General Conference of Free Bap- vention, Los Angeles, Calif. of the islands and identified himself tists and in 1918 was elected Execu- with the native people. For a long tive Secretary of the Home Missions June 24-July l-E;agles Mere Confer- time he worked in the Moro agricul- Council, where he did very effective ence of Missions. Chairman, Mrs. tural school at Jolo, now closed. More work in cooperation in home missions. Earl Breeding, 24 Rugby Lane, recently, he was assisting at the mis- He is survived by his second wife, Scarsdale, N. Y. sion on Mindanao, where his death Mrs. Gertrude Libby Anthony. occurred. Personal Item. *** *** Dr. George B. Huntington, treas- H. W. Smith, Superintendent of the Mrs. J. H.Hudson, retired mission- Baptist Mission Press in Burma, died urer of the Aimerican Baptist Foreign ary of the Presbyterian East China suddenly of heart disease on January MIssion, died in Santa Monica, Calif., 19. He was fifty-six years of age, Mission Society, has -retired, and Mr. December 21. With her husband, Rev. and he had been in ·the service of the Forrest Smith, assistant, and then as- Junius H. Hudson, she went to China Board twenty-eight years. in 1879. They were stationed at Hangsociate treasurer, has been appointed chow, where Mr. Hudson developed a (Conc(uded on page 113.) small boarding school for boys into in his place. Hangchow Christian College, and was THf PRfS8YTfRIAn its first president. For two years **• after their retirement in 1923 they -=- The only weekly in the Rev. Ernest Grigg, Baptist mission- lived in Shanghai. Presbyterian Church.
ary at Maymyo, Burma, has reached *** .:- Its message is based upon retiring age, but feels the call of the the Revealed Word of God. Mrs. Marie A. Oldham, the widow land to which he has given 45 years of of Bishop William F. Oldham of -=- Goes into every state in Malaya, died on October 12 at the the Union, U. S. possessions service. He will spend months in dep- age of 81, and was buried beside her and many foreign countries. utation work in America and then, at husband in Glendale, Calif. She was born in Bangalore, India. Most of Subscription rate – $2.50 his own expense, win return to Burma. their missionary service was. in Ma- Ministerial rate – – $2.00 . **• laya, being located at Singapore. They celebrated the 50th anniversary of the SOc. extra–Canadian postage Dr. Paul W. Rood has resigned as founding of the Mission after they $1.50 extra– Foreign postage President of the Los Angeles Bible In- had passed the age of 75. stitute, and will devote his entire time THE PRESBYTERIAn to Bible conferences and evangelistic *** campaigns under the auspices of the 121 7 Market Street World's Christian Fundamentals As- The Rev. W. E. Cousins, for many Philadelphia. Pa. sQciation. years a missionary of the London Mis- sionary Society in Madagascar, died *** on January 5 at the advanced age of 99 years. Mr. Cousins was born at Dr. John Lyon Caughey, pastor of Abingdon, England, February 21, the First Presbyterian Church of 1840, and sailed for Madagascar in Glens Falls, N. Y., has gone to Shang~ April, 1862, a year after the death of hai, China, to become pastor of the the persecuting Queen Ranavalona. Community Church. In 1873 he began the great work of re- vising the Malagasy Bible, the impor- *** tance of which for Christian converts in Madagascar can scarcely be exag- Rev. J. C. de Korne, D'.D.• mission- gerated. He is the author 'of "Madaary in China until 1934, has succeeded gascar of Today," "A Concise Intro- Dr. Henry Beets as Director of the duction to the Study of the Malagasy Board of Missions of the Christian Language," and "Malagasy Proverbs." Reformed Church, who retired. upon • • • his· seventieth birthday in January. Among the interesting delegates attending the Madras 'Conference were Bishop A. F. Bennett of Auteaur6a, the son of a chieftainess of the Moari race of New Zealand. This race numbers now about 85,000 and Bishop Bennett· is devoting his life to work among them. Another delegate was
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REVIEW OF THE WORLD that now, while renewing my subscrip- Yokohama when you sail by tion I am ordering it also sent to the Empress to the Orient. Only DIlLAVA.N L. PlJi:RBON, Edjtor pastor of the Congregational Church. 3 more days to visit lovely Your magazine is especially valuable, Hawaii en route by Empress of VOL. LXII MAR., 1939 No.3 giving as it does important work in Japan, largest and fastest liner all the denominations. Dr. Speer's on the Pacific, or Empress of Publication and Business Offic&– article in the January issue greatly Canada. From California Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. impressed me." ADELE GREENE. ports connect at Honolulu: Editorial and Executive Office– Washington, D. C. Empress of Japan 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Entered as second-class matter at "We consider*TH*E R*EVIEW very val- Frequent sailings from both Vancouver and Victoria to Post 01l1ce, Harrisburg, Pa., under uable. The bound volumes as well as Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Act or March 3, 1879. the current issues are very widely Shanghai,HongKong,Manila. used by our faculty and students." Consult YOUR OWN TRAVEL 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. AGENT or Canadian Pacific: Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. FRANCES WARNER, 41 offices in U. S. and Canada. Published monthly, except August. Serials Librarian, Iowa State All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1939. British agents – Marshall, Morgan College, Ames Iowa. and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy. Honors to Missionaries 10 shillings a year. King George VI of Great Britain, MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Emperor of India, has announced the LISHING CO., INC. following missionaries in India as recipients of honors in his New Year's BOARD OF DIRECTORS Honors list. The Kaiser-i-Hind Medal ROBERT E. SPJi:Ji:R. President (First Class) was granted to Mrs. A. A. L. WARNBHUIB. Vioe-Pre,iIIent E. Harper, of Moga, who has had W ALTER McDOUGALL. Treasurer much to do with developing the Moga DELAVAN L. PIllIRSON. Secretarll Training Institute. Miss Ida Scudder, M.D., Principal, Missionary Medical PAUL J. BRAISTED College Hospital, Vellore, Madras SAMUEL MCCRIIA. CA.VERT Presidency, received the Bar to the D. J. FA.NT Kaiser-i-Hind Medal (First Class) . MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD Miss E. A. Douglas, M.D., a skilful WM. B. LIPPHARD surgeon in charge of the Lady Kin- ERIC M. NORTH naird Women's Hospital in Lucknow, SAMUJi:L M. ZWEMJi:R received the "Order British Empire." For about twenty-five years she has Editorial Chat given able leadership to the hospital in Lucknow. Miss Helen Gregory, This month we devote considerable Superintendent of the Baptist Mission space to the recent World Missionary Women's Hospital, Berhampur, Orissa, Conference at Tambaram, a suburb of received the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal Madras. Teams of speakers, made up (Second Class) as did Miss Mildred of Christian Nationals of various Louise Dawson, of the C. M. S., Tincountries and of American delegates nevelly, Madras Presidency. are now touring the country to report on the outstanding facts revealed and A Correction the plans proposed for the future of missions. In our February REVIEW (pages 77 and 79), two errors occur in the titles *** of illustrations in the article on the Seneca Indians. The Dowdy family Readers will be interested in the re- (page 77) are not Christian Senecas, ports of Dr. Paul W. Harrison of but are followers of the "Long House." Arabia" Dr. Kenneth S. Latourette of Chief Hubert Kusick (page 79) is not Yale, and others. Next month we a Seneca Indian but was the Chief of plan to publish two appraisals, one by the Mohawk Indians who came from Dr. H. Kerr Taylor and one by Dr. Hen- Canada to the Alleghany Reservation, drick Kraemer of Holland, the author and became a Christian. of "The Christian Message for the Non-Christian World" which was the Obituary Notes basis of much discussion at Madras. (Concluded from 2d Cover.) *** Rev. Ven. Robert Henry Walker, Later issues of THE REVIEW will pioneer missionary and the first archcontain articles showing the develop- deacon of the Church of England in ment of Native Churches in various Uganda, died at Ealing, England, relands, the methods and results in evan- cently at the age of 81 years. He was gelism, the unfinished task of the born in Yorkshire, England, ordained Church and sketches of outstanding in 1880 and as a result of the influence Christian leaders. A number of of a colleague, Bishop James Hanningarticles have been promised from ton, volunteered for service in Uganda Christian Nationals of various lands. in 1887. He passed through some years of experiences of war and per- *** secution in Uganda during the reign of Mwanga. He retired from service Recent letters speak of the help re- in 1919 but not until he had seen treceived through THE REVIEW for a bet- mendous changes in the growth of the ter understanding of world conditions, Christian Church in Uganda. for light on the progress of Christianity, for a clearer knowledge of Indian [113 ] problems and of the American city, as well as valuable suggestions for work in churches at home. The following are brief extracts from some of these recent letters.
DELEGATES FROM MANY LANDS AT THE MADRAS
1. MISS ILA ROMOLA SIRCAR, Secretary of the 2. MISS MINNIE SOGA, South Africa 3. MISS MA MYA KYI, a Christian Leader Student Christian Movement in India 5. BOON MARK GITTIBARN, Pastor of the Sec- from Burma 4. LEONARDO G. DIA, Moderator of the Evan- ond Presbyterian Church, Bangkok, 6. SOETJIP'l'O, Secretary, Student Christian gelical Church, Philippine Islands Siam Movement, Java 8. PAO-CHIFJN HBU, Professor at the Uni- 7. HACHIRO YUABA, Former President of versity of Shanghai (Baptist) 9. G. BAEZ CAMARGO, Secretary of the Na- Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan tional Evangelical Councll of Mexico
NARY
REVIB ORLD VOLUME LXII AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 3 MARCH,1939 Topics of the Times IMPRESSIONS OF MADRAS were present that no one stood out above the others. It was, in the best sense, a conference. Toward the International Missionary Confer- As in no other meeting in history, all Protestantence at Madras last December a great volume of ism was engaged in making plans for its next adprayer was directed. Thousands have been long- vances, particularly in the newer geographic froning that from this gathering a clear lead would tiers associated with the younger churches. be given to Christians the world over in a confused age, and that some pronouncement would come In the second place, the Conference was youthlike a ray of light and hope into a discouraged and ful in its composition. This was in part because bewildered generation. Did Madras accomplish so many of the leaders of the younger churches what we hoped? Was it worth while? The two are under fifty years old. It was also because of questions are not the same. Madras may not the deliberate policy of the organizers of the Conhave accomplished all that was hoped and yet, in ference. Seldom if ever has a gathering of unforeseen ways, it may have been eminently suc- church leaders been so generally drawn from the cessful. younger age groups. This means that those pres- ent have, on the average, from twenty to thirty In the main we believe that it did even more years of active life expectancy ahead. The friend- than those who actually planned the gathering had ships formed and the plans conceived will have dared to hope. It set in motion processes, all of a much longer period in which to come to fruition whose fruits will not be seen immediately but than if the gathering had been made up of delewhich, in the years to come, may prove of striking gates ten or fifteen years older.
significance. Six features of the Conference seem In the third place, Madras gave vivid evidence peculiarly striking. that the younger churches are coming of age.
First of all, the gathering was more widely rep- Nearly half of the delegates were non-Western resentative – more ecumenical- than any which members of the younger churches. At Edinburgh Protestant Christianity has ever seen. Over four in 1910 only a small handful were from the hundred and fifty delegates came from both the younger churches, and at Jerusalem in 1928 the younger and the older churches, and from about minority were from those churches. To a certain seventy different countries. The Jerusalem meet- degree this was by deliberate design. The organ- ing of ten years ago had a much smaller propor- izers of Madras purposely kept the percentage tion of delegates from Asia, Latin America, Af- from the younger churches high and at Madras rica, and the Pacific Islands. Madras was made the younger churches proved that in their own up of a cross-section of the leadership of Protes- right they were entitled to this larger proportion.
tant Christianity. No one or two or three persons Man for man their delegations were fully equal in dominated the gathering. Dr. Mott presided ability and character to those from the older throughout and his mind skilfully directed the churches. Several felt that the delegations from conference. Very fittingly he received an ovation India and China – which, naturally, were the when, near the end of the gathering, it was an- largest of the younger churches-were quite as nounced that he had consented to continue as notable as were the delegations from the Occident.
Chairman of the International Missionary Council The Chinese delegation was especially strong. Ten until 1941. But so many of the well-known figures years ago many of the Chinese and Indian dele- of the older and especially of the younger churches gates would have been still in college or university.
[115 ]
But there was no sense of cleavage between the emerging through such gatherin~s as Madras. delegates from the older and the younger churches. In some respects the Conference did not find it- In the former there was no attitude of condescension and in the latter almost no irritation born of self. Its pronouncements on international relaa sense of being regarded as still in tutelage. For tions and its suggestions for utilizing the resources these leaders the period of tutelage is past. Men of the churches in the promotion of world peace and women were recognized on the basis of their will to many seem colorless and weak. So, too, the true worth and the spokesmen for the younger findings on the Church's relations to the burning churches were not patronized or exhibited as a social and economic issues of the day will seem credit of their teachers. Through their leaders immature. In this they but reflect the present some of the younger churches are taking their stage of thought in Protestant circles. Here and rightful places as equals in the councils of the there proposals were made which have in them worldwide Christian fellowship. much of hope-such as the program outlined for coordinating the efforts of the churches in the In the fourth place, Madras was primarily a lands bordering the Pacific in an effort to make working conference and from this standpoint its that ocean deserve its name. Madras may mark utterances and achievements must be appraised. the beginning of a new and better day in the study Mind rubbed against mind, and spirit against of ways in which the churches can promote peace spirit, as the gathering sought to formulate a pro- between the nations and a more just social and gram for the next stage of the world mission of economic structure of society. Christianity. The entire body was divided into groups for free discussion on particular topics. In the fifth place, Madras was notable for its Out of each group came statements which em- fellowship. In some respects this was the greatest bodied the mind of those present and which were contribution. In a day when the nations of the presented to the entire Conference. earth are pulling apart, Christians from seventy different countries found the tie of faith in their The findings of Madras deserve a careful read- common Lord stronger than the divisions between ing by all interested in the world mission of Chris- their peoples. Chinese and Japanese, while they tianity. They are meant to guide younger and could not entirely agree on the issues which so older churches as the two together attempt to unfortunately divide their governments, met strengthen the Christian movement in the lands of around the communion table. They discussed, too, the younger churches. with amity, the present conflict. Anglican, Lu- theran, and Methodist bishops met the leaders of Madras, it will be recalled, was held primarily the non-episcopally governed bodies with an atfor the purpose of strengthening the younger tempt to win the others to their ecclesiastical posichurches. To them has been directed much of the tions. One communion service was according to effort of missions for at least the past generation. the Anglican ritual, and the other according to One of the strongest of the reports was on the Free Church procedure. The intimate life in the training of the ministry and there was an excel- simple yet commodious buildings of the Madras lent report on Christian literature, a field in which Christian College brought us quickly together and effective coordination and promotion are long facilitated acquaintance and informal conversaoverdue. Evangelism, as a means of fulfilling the tion. We seemed to catch a foretaste of that com- Church's mission and of strengthening the Church, pany which no man could number out of many received much attention and the unoccupied fields races and tongues who were disclosed in vision to were given a comprehensive survey. The relation the Seer of Pailmos. We saw before our very eyes of Church and State, so burning an issue in many the emerging Church Universal. We were explorlands, was discussed and the "faith by which the ing a new and more Christian road to unity than Church lives" as well as the nature and functions the Church has heretofore tried – a road which of the Church, were carefully examined. Pains- seeks a unity of the spirit and which makes unity taking studies on the economic basis of the of creed and of organization ancillary to it. "By Church and the problem of self-support provide this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, the best assemblage of facts which we have had if ye have love one to another." It was in strengthto help the younger churches in their efforts to be- ening this love that the Conference registered its come independent. The subject of the type of mis- greatest achievement. sionary needed and the preparation required is covered by a report which makes suggestions far In the sixth place, we left Madras seeing that beyond the present practice of the Boards. The our meeting was only the beginning of our task. group on cooperation and unity, pressed by repre- In his closing charge Dr. Matt rightly chose as his sentatives of the younger churches, came out with text the words: "To whomsoever much is given recommendations which, if adopted, will carry of him shall much be required." Madras must be cooperation to a further stage and will help to give appraised not by what was said there, or by the visible expression to the unity of spirit which is Findings, or even by the fellowship, but by what
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
is done in the months and years ahead by the dele- paganized Totalitarian government. The persecu- tions suffered by innocent people in the Third gates and those whom they and the Findings touch. Reich cause sorrow and indignation in all who love liberty and justice. Most of us have faith to believe that twenty or Unfortunately today there does not seem to be thirty years hence, we will see that Madras helped any territory to which these oppressed ones can flee for refuge. All the world is claimed, if not forward many movements in the Church and that actually occupied, by those who wish to control it. There are still great open areas, like those in Cenit was the beginning of others of first-class impor- tral Arabia, Australia, South America, Asia, Aftance. Madras may well prove to be one of the rica and Madagascar, that might provide a haven; maj or milestones in the onward march of the but much of such territory is not suitable for hu- man habitation. It is either barren or unwhole- Church of Christ. K. S. LATOURETTE. some. In addition to this the oppressive govern- ments also, like that of Pharaoh in Egypt, are not Yale University. willing to let the people go and to take their sub- stance with them so that they will be able to es- WHEN CHRISTIANS ARE PERSECUTED tablish homes elsewhere.
True Christians never persecute and they do not It is estimated that one million "non-Aryan" retaliate. They were warned by Christ to expect Christians in Germany are suffering with the persecution from those who are opposed to Him Jews, in addition to millions more who are opand His program but they were taught not to re- pressed and have their religious and social liberty taliate. "To return evil for good is devilish; to curtailed by the Nazi regime. Non-Aryans are return good for good or evil for evil is human; to forbidden to teach or to practice law and other return good for evil is Godlike." Christians are professions; they are banned from civil governinstructed to love their enemies, to bless those who ment positions, and are excluded from universipersecute them and pray for those who use them ties and government schools. The text of the Bible despitefully. Are Christians following Christ's itself has been altered in order to make it harmoninstructions today in regard to Nazi Germany, ize with Nazi tenets; church services and preachmilitaristic Japan and communistic Russia? Here ing are either under the ban or are subjected to is a test of true Christian character. the espionage of Nazi police. Christian pastors who do not conform to the governments' decrees Nevertheless some who call themselves Chris- as to religious practices are forbidden to preach tians are inclined to persecute those who differ and many are in prison and concentration camps. from them in their beliefs and practices, or who Many church organizations, especially of the will not submit to dictation. This was true in the youth, have been disbanded by order of the Govmiddle ages, when the Papacy was bent on per- ernment and church schools have been closed. secuting the "Reformers" who insisted on follow- Those who suffer include not only masses of uning the Bible and their conscience rather than the known Christians in Germany, but eminent scien- Pope. Similar persecutions are reported today in tists, doctors, professors, lawyers, authors and parts of Latin America and other lands where pastors. ecclesiastical leaders in power wish to dominate minority groups. Fox's "Book of Martyrs" tells What can Christians in America and Great the heartrending story of the persecution of Chris- Britain do to aid these sufferers, especially their tians; and the life of George Fox, who founded fellow Christians? The problem is too great for the Society of Friends, pictures graphically the any individual or small group to solve. We are aLmost unbelievable sufferings inflicted on a fellow confident that God will work out His plans in time; Christian in England by men professed to be fol- the best His people can do is to cooperate with lowers of Christ. The Puritans, the Pilgrims, the Him as the way is opened. Christians can pray, Huguenots and others fled from religious perse- not only for the persecuted, but for the persecucution in Europe, seeking some place where they tors. But Christians must do more. Committees could worship God according to the teaching of the have been fomned in Great Britain and America Bible and the dictates of their own consciences. In to raise funds and in other ways to help these sufthe Providence of God there was then a whole con- ferers, and, if possible to establish them in new tinent available where they might carve out their homes. The Jews in America have raised $250,000 destiny and build up a God-fearing community. for the present year to help the refugees of their race; surely the Christians can do as much or Today religious persecution is found all over the more. Now is the time of testing, not only for the world, in various forms and degrees. At present sufferers, but for Christians living in a land of attention is focussed on Germany. Not only are liberty and plenty. Every time of religious per- 500,000 Jews suffering there because they are Jews, but Christians also are suffering, either because they have a fraction of Jewish blood, and so are considered "non-Aryans," or because they are Christians and refuse to allow their worship of God to be .interfered with by the dictates of a
secution in the past has been accompanied or fol- are thirty million Protestant Church members and lowed by a spiritual revival-as in the time of the probably over three times that number in families Reformation, of the Wesleys, of John Knox and more or less connected with Protestant Christian churches. The followers of Christ have a great George Fox. May it be so today. * responsibility before them.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN HOME MISSIONS Professor Arthur Raper, of Atlanta, called at- tention at Baltimore to the "Present-day Trends In North America, with all of its great re- Toward Peasantry." F.armers and farming form the material basis for American prosperity and sources, its history and its opportunities, there are yet, with the increase of manufactures, the lack of conservation and growing soil depletion, many still millions of people who have no real knowledge farming and grazing districts-in New England, the South and the Middlewest-are engaged in a of God and His wise and .loving will for men. continual struggle with poverty. The demands for shorter hours, higher wages and regulated prices With all our wealth there are multitudes who live are causing increasing confusion and conflict. Not lack of opportunity but selfishness, in both in dire poverty-like the people in city slums, the capital and labor, lies at the root of the difficulty. With the increase of social security legislation and Negroes in black belts of the South, the moun- dependence on the Government for support, the independence, initiative and moral stamina of intaineers and sharecroppers in the South and West, dividuals are decreasing.
the miners, fisher-folk and lumber-jacks. In spite These social and economic trends strongly affect the Church, especially in rural districts. Dr. Will of our great public school system, multitudes are W. Alexander, Administrator of Farm Security for the Government, said: "You may not have still ignorant and uneducated. The evidences of realized that the present spiritual decline has gone hand in hand with the decline in the material welwidespread corruption, industrial conflict, greed, fare of a large part of our rural population. . . . The Church is failing to meet the religious. needs selfishness and sin crowd our newspapers and con- of the people because it has made little effort to meet their social and economic needs." Unsettled gest our courts. . or migrant laborers and farm-tenants, or insecure industrial workers, do not make good church mem- No Christian can be indifferent to the socIal bers. We are told that "one-third of the tenant families in America move on to new fields every trends of the world in which he lives; all moral, year." Such people cannot be expected to take much active interest in their community, churches, economic, political and social problems are di- schools, Government or even in establishing good homes. rectly related to God and His laws, and affect the The Christian forces in America must take a individual, the Church and the community. It is, real interest in these problems and must seek ways, not only to build up the moral and spiritual therefore in keeping with the purpose and plan character and life of the people in every commu- nity, but we must help to solve these problems of of Home'Mission work, to study and discuss the poverty, lack of education and social instability. Good economic and spiritual results were reported present-day social trends and to seek ways in from the development of cooperatives in Nova Scotia and in other districts where they have been which present-day weaknesses and evils may be established among underprivileged classes.
corrected so that all life may be brought into har- Home Mission fields and problems are changing in many ways. The Church, like the individual, mony with the Will of God as revealed in the Bible needs life from God, abundant spiritual life, and Christian forces need to work together sacrificially and in accord with the spirit and teachings of in order to serve each group and locality, in the midst of difficult and constantly changing con- Jesus Christ. ditions. That is a work in which Home Mission agencies. are engaged as representatives of the The recent Home Missions Conference in Balti- Church of Jesus Christ.
more (January 7-10) studied these disturbing so- cial trends and sought the remedy. Dr. Arthur E.
Holt of Chicago, said: "Something awful has hap;ened to Christendom. The industrial depres- sion, political turmoil and social decadence are evidence of spiritual disease. Nothing less than a moral revolution can save democracy." This is true but it is also true that there must be an entire change of front toward God and toward His Son Jesus Christ; a spiritual revolution is necessary to save the nation, the school, the home, the Church and the individual.
America has acquired strength by reason of God's gracious provision in natural resources~ ~nd in the past has developed power by recogmzmg God and putting Him first in national life and in the home and the school. Today the Church of Christ is weakened by neglect; the Bible is ignored in public life, and Christ Himself is widely re- jected as the Saviour and Lord of Life. But there is hope in the fact that there are still multitudes who have not "bowed the knee to Baal." There • The American Committee for Christian German Refugees Is headed by James M. Speers and the office is at 287 Fourth Ave., New York.
Vision and Power at
A New Contribution to the Twenty-ninth Chapter of The Acts t~··- _.•..gf I By PAUL W. HARRISON, M.D., Muscat, Arabia I ~==========================~I W HEN the Apostolic Church met a crisis or ful Church of the West, especially the Church of faced an opportunity, it held a prayer North America, was represented largely by mis- meeting. A. C. Dixon used to tell us that, sionaries and Board secretaries, because the name but it is not the whole truth. Those meetings were and sentiment of a "missionary" conference had for conference as well as for prayer. The men been inherited from the past.
and women who made up the Church of those But we thanked God with great earnestness, days, laid their needs before God. They listened for the guidance which His Spirit had given in the to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and in the light selection of delegates. from the different countries of His guidance, they sought strength and laid where the Church has not been so long established.
plans for the future. The capacity and penetration, the depth and con- The Apostolic Church of 1938 has recently held secration, of the whole Church of Christ were such a meeting. In the days of Peter and James there, and it was the privilege of a lifetime to and John, when the Church was in Jerusalem, it meet that group of four hundred and seventy men was easy for them to pray together, and think to- and women.
gether, and place their souls on the altar of con- Scattered through the group were some of the secration together. The Holy Spirit dealt with giants. of our time. These included Kagawa with the Church as a unit. It was one Church. his delightfully mutilated English, his tremen- But now the Gospel has spread through all the dously important cooperatives, and his five-year world, just as Christ said it would. The Church Evangelistic campaign, which has been used to is at home in almost every land and as a result, revive the whole Japanese Church; and Laubach there are now great difficulties in holding a meet- with his vision of a literate world, a vision which ing of the whole Church for prayer and consulta- under the touch of his extraordinary genius is be- tion and guidance. Men from every nation under ing objectified into literal reality; Stanley Jones Heaven, speaking many languages, must gather with his intense evangelistic soul fired by the vitogether. A few must represent very many, for sion of Christ coming back to rule in men's intel- there are six million Christians in India alone, and lects; Constance Padwick of Egypt who carries in a meeting of this sort, if it is to be a real unit for her face and in her voice, as well as in her soul, prayer must be a group of hundreds, rather than a vision of beauty and poise and harmony brought thousands. into the service of Our Lord, in worship and lit- Through those meetings of the early Church, erature and life. No one left Tambaram Con- God poured out His Divine power, and the mes- ference without a new realization of what God sage of the Gospel, given in the power of the can do in and through imperfect human beings, Spirit, was invincible. The world and the flesh granted only that He is afforded full opportunity.
and the devil together were not able to stop it. But very little time was spent in admiring the And so today the Church of many lands has dele- giants. They were simply members and repre- gated representatives to meet together again, to sentatives of the great universal Church, gathpray and listen, to confer and plan. The difficul- ered to pray and take counsel together and to ties were great, and some were not entirely over- gain a vision of God's will for His work in the come. The essential unity of the Church is badly days to come. To confer with that group was to broken on the surface, by sectarian divisions, serve on one's knees in humility, for it represented most of which are not very important, by differ- the very Church of God in her power and loveliences in theological outlook which are far deeper, ness. Here we caught the inspiration of God's and by subtle feelings of superiority on the part own visions for the future, and His wisdom for the of the stronger Western churches over the weaker present. Here, as we knelt together before God Eastern churches, which constitute the deepest and labored in comradespip with each other, we rift of all. For such a meeting, the selection of felt the mind of God directing us, and heard His the few to represent the many, requires great voice speaking to our souls. delicacy of judgment. Unfortunately, the power- The company was divided into sections to con- [119 ]
sider problems that press upon the Church from enemy of God had indeed come in like a flood. every side. Each section consisted of fifty or sixty When were the clouds over the world so dark as delegates, and a week of intense discussion and now? We saw the tiny Church in Turkestan torn study was given to sixteen different topics. to pieces as by a wild beast and scattered to the four winds. We saw the superb Church in Korea Section 1: "The Faith by which the Church pressed down under the heel of a hostile militaris- Lives." tic government. The Koreans' were the only vacant chairs in that great company. Shadows have been Section 2: "The Church, Its Nature and Func- growing darker over the Church in Japan and tion." Germany and over the whole Moslem Near East. Totalitarian Nationalism, like an epidemic of in- Section 3: "The Unfinished Evangelistic Task." sanity, grows constantly more and more menacing.
Each section included representatives from the But this dark background did not fill our horidifferent areas, about fifty per cent being na- zon. It was dwarfed by a vision which developed tionals, and fifty per cent missionaries and Board as the Conference progressed, and that stood besecretaries. Various points of view were repre- fore us at the end as evidence of the very power sented by men of experience, power and depth, and wisdom of God. It is not easy to put on paper but all alike were intense evangelists. and the dis- the tremendous thrill that took possession of our cuss{ons were carried on in a beautiful spirit. In souls as the mists cleared away and as we came no discussion did I hear any word which, either in to see the Universal Church, which is now at content or in emphasis, was to be regretted. After home in almost every land, and was represented four days of this intense study, a drafting com- by such a group of men and women to serve bemittee spent a more or less sleepless night embody- fore the Throne of God. The giants were there, ing the- discussions in a preliminary statement. but they were simply members of this great group This was presented the following day for the sec- which was nothing less than The Church of the tion to revise and amend, and was then drawn up Living God, gathered to pray and listen together into a more final form. After two weeks of this and to plan for a future which should be greater hard work the sixteen reports were presented to than any past. The caliber and vision and touch the main body of delegates and, after being fur- with God, which we saw in these men and women ther modified, were adopted as the Conference from China and from Africa, from Samoa, and findings. from South America, dwarfed everything human that we had known; we all saw the great Church We made one serious mistake here: we talked Universal, to some little degree as Christ Himself too much, and prayed too little. There was sees it, "the riches of the glory of His inheritance scarcely time to eat and sleep; it seems to me that in the saints." we did not meditate and listen to God as much as He would have preferred. But God is merciful; But it was not the Church merely which filled He has worked many times through men who our hearts with joy and confidence in the face of made mistakes and He did not withdraw His bless- the black clouds which covered the sky.. The ing because of this one. The prayers of many of Church by herself, even the Church Universal, His people were focused on that great company, with a frontierless comradeship that made us and our imperfect efforts, He sanctified with His think of Heaven, is still a human organization. overwhelming blessing. God does not demand He would be a rash devotee who reckoned her that we be wise, and that is well for we are often strength adequate to meet the enemies which opvery foolish. Without doubt we might have pose her, and to accomplish the impossible tasks brought to Christ's feet a much more beautiful which loom ahead. But at Tambaram God did not and fragrant and suitable offering, if the listening show us an empty-handed Church. We saw the ear had more often replaced the wagging tongue. Body of Christ with the eternal Gospel to pro- But our offering, however imperfect, was pre- claim. If one were asked for the central vision sented with clean hands and a pure heart, and and insight of Tambaram, I think that it would be with a degree of love and consecration to our Di- this, a vision of the omnipotent adequacy of the vine Lord which none of us may see again until Gospel. We did not see the Gospel apart from the we sit at Christ's feet in the world to come. There Church or any Church apart from the Gospel. was a unity of mind and spirit, a brotherly love What we saw was the Church of Christ, with and confidence and comradeship, which some of God's Good News in her hand, a magnificent, us had not thought attainable by imperfect human omnipotent Church of the Living God which could beings. look out on the dark developments of man's sin, with pity and love, in the light of that vision, Mountains of valuable information were gath- every opposing thing was like a small child's toy. ered for the Conference and were there to be di- devoid of all power and permanence. gested; multitudes of splendidly thought-out plans were presented for us to study. We saw, with a vividness that was terrible, that the arch-
THE VISION AND POWER AT MADRAS
SCENES AT THE MADRAS MISSIONARY CONFERENCE 1. The African Delegation at Tambaram 2. The Main Building, Madras Christian College 3. WILSON INIA, Delegate from Fiji 4. C. F. ANDREWS, of India 5. TOYOHIKO KAGAWA, of Japan 6. Bishop of Winchester In a Group Conference • 7. Part of the Missionary Conference In Session
There were outstanding results from this. The The call went out for more mlSSlOnaries. Conference knew one thing and only one: It was Doubtless there will be less place than before for centered on evangelism. Many other things were institutional mission enterprises. The Governmentioned, and were discussed, and well thought ments of the world intend to do their own educaout programs. were presented. There were discus- tional and medical work. But with a unanimous sions on education, and on medical work, and on voice the different "National" groups asked, not rural programs. But these were in the periphery for fewer missionaries, but for more. In the light of thought and attention, and were reckoned of Heaven all races are of the same color. valuable only as they contributed to the program of evangelism. That program was centered, not At Tambaram it was not difficult to believe in in missionaries nor in missionary organizations., the power of God. In the love and comradeship but always and everywhere in Christ and His between the Japanese and Chinese delegates. we Church. Missionaries are simply the contribution saw God's love and power defeating the evil effects made by a more strongly established section of the of human·sin. In.the superb Church growing up Church to a weaker or newer section. And the into power in Africa we saw God redeeming a call that went out was for a campaign of evan- whole race. The Church poured her human regelism to include every church everywhere, each sources into that Conference. Financial sacrifice in its own field first of all, and each sending out was there, and human wisdom, but it was the evangelists to the ends of the earth, wherever vision that came down from God out of Heaven, needs are great and spiritual darkness is still in- which made the Conference great. May the vision tense. Afghanistan was seen as primarily the re- of the divine power and beauty of the Gospel, and sponsibility of the Church in India, and Tibet of the omnipotence of the Church with the Gospel in the Church in China. her h~ds, lead us, like a pillar of fire, through all the days to come.
Foreign Missions Tomorrow * Extracts from Addresses and Discussions at the Madras Missionary Conference FAITHFOR A TIME OF CRISIS of our churches had, during the past two or three OPENING ADDRESS BY DR. JOHN R. MOTT decades, done all that we might have done to avert the present distress, then we might be pessimistic. Chairman of the International Missionary Council But with a sense of humiliation and contrition, We come from over seventy different nations or recognizing that none of our churches has done separate areas of the world. Thus we constitute a tithe of what we might have done to prevent the most widely representative. meeting of the theSe threatened disasters, then we are bound to World Mission of the Christian faith ever held, believe that better things are possible. We who and yet we are impressed by the great and blessed have gathered here know Whom we have believed. We well know that nothing has happened in these fact of our oneness in Christ. This is one of the most fateful moments in the recent difficult years which invalidates the claims life of mankind. Not in our lifetime, if· at any of Jesus Christ. Each one of us can say with St. time, have so many peoples been bearing sllch im- Paul in an hour of grave difficulty, "Be of good possible burdens, or undergoing such persecution cheer, for I believe God." We rest solidly on two and suffering. It seems that never has there been stupendous claims of Christ: "I am the Way, the a time when the world was so rent by interna- Truth, and the Life," and "I, if I be lifted up, will tional misunderstandings" bitterness and strife? draw all men unto Me." When have we been called upon to witness such Many have asked, "Why, in view of the present startling relaxing of traditions, sacred sanctions, state of the world, with its abounding troubles, and established law and order? When .has the hardship and depression, are so many Christian very atmosphere across the world been so sur- . leaders caned together, at such expense in money and in precious time, from many corners of charged with suspicion, fear and uncertainty? But we do not come together in despair, seeing earth?" The answer is, "Precisely because we are only the dark background. If we beHeved that all in a time of unexampled and baffling difficulties and confusion; in this time of so many unan- • From notes supplied by W. W. Reid. swered questions of central importance, it has
FOREIGN MISSIONS TOMORROW
been deemed absolutely necessary that such a ized by reverence f'0r religion. And where is there world-wide consultation he held. We must think a people more warm-hearted, more gentle, more out large questions of policy, and the adaptation courte'0us, more peace-loving? Here Christianity of methods to meet new world conditions; this ranks as one of four or five of the oldest of many cannot be done by the churches and missionary faiths; for here the ancient Syrian Church is societies separately. This International Mission- identified with much of the best in Indian life. ary Council is the body which comes together for Moreover in India is to be found a larger memunited thinking, planning and action, and weaves bership in the younger mission-founded churches together the various National Christian Councils than in any '0ther land. throughout the world. In India, too, we are in the presence of one of There have recently been held a great succes- the greatest areas of poverty, '0f human need and sion of world-wide Christian assemblies: the suffering, and of burden-bearing in all the world. World Conference on Life and Work at Oxford "Bear ye one another's burdens and S'0 fulfil the and the World Conference on Faith and Order at law of Ghrist!" What is most important for all Edinburgh, followed by the meeting to form a is the fact that India today presents, the world's World Council of Churches; there is also to be most instructive laboratory of Christian experiheld at Amsterdam next summer the conference ence, method and adventure. G'0d grant us the of the Christian Youth Movements of the world. humility, and the thirst and purpose to learn, that While these meetings were planned without col- we may discover much that will guide and inspire lusion they reveal the fact that all our major us. problems can be met best, in a world context, and with a world-wide desire to draw together in fel- (3) When has a conference '0f Christian leaders lowship and action. This World Mission Confer- assembled at such a m'0ment? This meeting was ence is by fa'r the most important in this series, projected three '0r four years ago with the thought because it is the first one which brings together that it would be held at Hangchow, China. The on a parity the representatives of the older events of recent months made it necessary to churches of Europe, North America and Austra- transfer the meeting to India. In these three lasia, and the younger churches of Asia, Africa; years, what seemingly imp'0ssible events have Latin America, and the Pacific Islands. The elapsed in the Far East: the transformations and World Mission of the Christian faith is the great- alarming developments in the Near East, notably est and the most important of the world move- Palestine, the land of our Saviour; the experiments of our time. It calls for the best thinking ences in Africa, in particular in Ethiopia, events and planning and the most courageous and united which have caused the Christian conscience of the action of which men are capable. world to tremble; the unbelievable '0ccurrences of the recent m'0nths in Europe; and the marvelous It would be difficult to overstate the possibilities developments '0f the last three years in India. I of this world-wide mission conference: venture to say that never has a world Christian gathering assembled at a time when simultane- (1) We recognize no limitation to our central ously, in so many parts of the world, has there objective. It reminds one of the ambition of St. been so great need of its high offices. Paul to "present every man perfect in Christ": "every man"-no limit extensively, "perfect"- (4) We realize the boundless possibilities as we no limit intensively, "in Christ"-no limit dynami- think of the challenges which come to us both cally. Our immediate objective is to arrive at a from the world ab'0ut us and from within the common mind as to God's will concerning the next churches themselves. Looking outside our steps which should be taken to build up the Church churches we are profoundly c'0ncerned as we witand to spread the knowledge of Christ. The ness: primitive races being brought suddenly into Chul1ch is the Divine Society founded by Christ vi'0lent contact with more complex civilizati'0n; to accomplish His will in the world. It is a wor- the breakdown of ancient and honored traditions shipping Society, a witnessing Society, a trans- and of highly valued institutions, also of solemn forming Society-the veritable Body of Christ. agreements and established law and order; the widespread disintegration of moral ideals and au- (2) We are privileged to meet in this fasci- thority; the inauguration of what someone has nating land where we witness so much of the characterized as "an era of god makers"; rival beauty, the grandeur and the majesty of the work challenges to the allegiance of men being-presented of God in nature, and some of the most impressive literally across the world, and, therefore, new atand surpassing works of man; in this ancient tacks on the Christian faith; the necessity of land, with great traditions; in this land of so fighting the battle of religious liberty over again. many varied peoples and tongues-the home of one-fifth of the human race; in this land which The fact that, in the West as well as in the East, is the home of great religions and cultures. Here the Christian message today is confr'0nted by a n'0n-Christian w'0rld. in India we find '0urselves among people character-
Looking to the churches themselves, we are also THE TRUE MISSION OF THE CHURCH confronted wi,th grave perils and inspiring challenges, such as the great continuing problem in THE RT. REV. V. S. AZARIAH the upbuilding and maintenance of the younger churches as a part of the world-wide Christian Bishop of Dornakal fellowship; Here and there are perils of halfconverted churches. There is grave danger lest A Hindu seeker after truth told me this, story Christianity become diluted or adulterated by in- of his experience: He had read the Gospels, and filtration of superstition and sub·Ohristian con- had been fascinated by the life of Christ, and ception of God. There are also ideas and attitudes greatly stirred by the death of Christ. Then he which are tending to cut the roots of the mission- read on into the Book of Acts and felt that he had ary undertaking because they cut the roots of entered into a new world. The Gospels told of Christianity itself. There is need of real thinking Jesus, His works, and His suffering. In the Acts, and sacrificial action with reference to the de· the Christ seems to go into the background, and velopment of a sound economic basis for the it is the multitude, the brethren, the church, the churches. The hour has come to sound out a disciples that take the place of Christ. What the strong recall to evangelism-the larger evangel- disciples did, and thought, and taught had taken ism. This is basic to all that we have most at the place that Christ had occupied; the Church heart. Then there is the problem of Christian continued where Jesus left off at his death. unity, and the fulfilling of the vision, a World "Therefore," this man said, "I must belong to the Council of Churches. The younger churches must Church that carries on the life of Christ." have a part in the realization of this vision. Do the churches realize that they exist to carry (5) We cannot here permit ourselves to think on what Jesus Christ came to do? The Church of limitations in the realm of our resources. exists to proclaim the revelation of God's love, to Think of the numbers of the Christian host, in proclaim redemption from sin. Every member contrast with those of earlier centuries and of of the Church is expected to go forward, continuearlier decades; think of the power of organiza- ing what Christ came to do. tion at our disposal and the means of distributing our forces most advantageously; think of the In baptism, we dedicate a man, a woman, or a wide range of knowledge and of costly experience child as a faithful servant of Christ to life's end. which has been accumulated throughout the his- Every person baptized should be a witness, othertory of the expansion of Christianity; think of wise he denies Christ. "Every Christian a witthe valuable heritage of all our Christian com- ness" is a slogan of our efforts at evangelism. We munions, large and small, notably in sacrifice; have been getting little groups of Christians tothink of that priceless asset, the momentum of gether and training them to go about and answer progress and victory in so many fields. the simple questions of Indian villagers. One was asked by a villager, "Have you seen God?" His With a deepening sense of humiliation and of answer was, "Sirs, you knew me two years ago. set purpose to bring forth fruits meet for repent- I was a drunkard. You know me now. I do not ance, let us dwell on our unused resources. How think I should have had all this change if I had comparatively unused in all our churches and in not seen Jesus Christ." There is no better anall our countries are the capacities of heart power, swer, and no better way of witnessing for God. of thought power, of statesmanship, of unselfishness, of saintliness, of adventure, of heroism, of Often we find that people learn most, not from sacrifice, of fellowship and unity. The only limi- intellectual discussions but from the things that tation in the possibilities seem to be in ourselves. they see and that go straigiht to their hearts. Illiterate men often teach me how to answer the When the whole world seems to be overshad- objections that men make to the Christian faith. owed by ,fear, it is important that we Christians A Hindu said to an illiterate man: "It is nonsense should remember that we have been called to a to believe that anyone can rise from the dead." great confidence in God and a great hope, remem- The man's reply was, "When we bury rice in the bering that illuminating and wonderful word of field and it dies, a crop rises up to feed us. Surely our Saviour: "In the world ye have tribulation. if God plants a life, He can raise it again." Be of go09 cheer; I have overcome the world." In the early church it was the laymen who In view of the alarming Istate of the world, in spread the Gospel of Christ. Christianity spread view of the so largely unfinished task, in view of from slave to slave, from soldier to soldier, from the great designs of our ever-living and therefore artisan to artisan. Every convert talked to the ever-creative Lord, our attitude and spirit should men of his own group. It is our duty to persuade be adventurous, forward-looking and forward- every person who iaa Christian to go out as a moving. witness for Christ. The sharing of experience with others adds to our joy and to our own Chris- tian experience. Let men stand somewhere as
Christians; let them just face a non-Christian But now, in the twentieth century, because we sit crowd; someone else may do the preaching, and others may do the singing; but the experience of in darkness and depression after the breakdown simply standing for Christ will lead people to bow their knees before Christ. accompanying the great European war and the I used to go among the churches and have the following economic difficulties, we have come to baptized members place their hands on their own heads and repeat after me: "I am a baptized understand more of the meaning of redemption. Christian. Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel !" Jesus showed redeeming love from the start of His Not only the individual but the group must wit- public ministry. Even when He was preaching ness for Christ. When six men of caste came and asked for baptism, I asked them why they wanted the most wonderful sermon on the Mount He had to be baptized. They replied that they had been watching the outcastes in a certain village church, a vision of the Cross. And also when He was and had seen that since they became Christians they were getting ahead of the caste people. happy with his disciples in Galilee, He was con- "They will be better than we are if we do not become Christians," they said. scious of the bridegroom's. destiny to be taken That very day the pastor of that village church away from them. He told them that the experihad been complaining to me of the sins among some members of that very congregation. So I ence of the prophet Jonah would be His own. said to these church members that the church was not perfect. To which they replied, "Yes, there Especially after the death of John the Baptist, are black sheep in every flock. But we know what they were ten years ago and what they are now." Jesus emphatically spoke about His coming death There are outstanding men in all religions, such and resurrection. And at last He informed His as Francis Assisi and Mahatma Gandhi, but it is when the common man is changed that people see disciples that His death was for the redemption the power of Christ. That is what is influencing Indian people to become Christians in the mass of many. movements. This inner consciousness of Jesus Christ was It is the Church's duty to concentrate its energies to do the work of Ghrist-not merely to wor- too deep for His disciples to understand. And ship, but to continue to do Christ's work with help and strength that we receive in worship. Too even today, many people cannot understand this much of the energies. of ministers and of churches is being spent in taking care of hereditary Chris- mystery. tians. The Church exists not to save itself but to save others. When a girl is still young she cannot understand THE MEANING OF THE CROSS the psychology of another person. When she DR. TOYOHIKO KAGAWA OF JAPAN grows older she understands the psychology of her On Calvary I see the blood of Jesus Christ drop- husband, and she understands the child's psycholping down from His body on the Cross! I hear the sound of the agony of the Lamb of God for the ogy when she has a baby. So with us. Unless we sins of mankind! It was for me and for my nation and for my race and for the whole world! I have a wider and deeper consciousness it is imhave committed sins and Jesus died for my sake! My race has committed sins ,and He died for my possible to understand the Ghrist's redemption of race. The whole of mankind had fallen into sin, so He died for us all. sinners.
Forgive us, Lord, for the sake of the blood of Jesus having the fine consciousness of God's law Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Saviour. and divine character could feel that He must die In the nineteenth century some theologians could not understand the wonderful revelation of for sinners. God's justice demanded it and men redemption because they were overshadowed by the amazing development of science and industry. needed to be redeemed from the penalty of broken law.
Some people ask, "If God is love, what is the need for redemption?" We must understand that God is just as well as loving. If He allowed man- kind to remain in sin, God could not truly be love.
There is the need of regeneration and redemption.
When we are saved and made perfect in Jesus Christ we are released from the penalty of sin.
When we study the physical function of blood, we discover how wonderfully the blood is used to heal the diseased body. It gives its life to cure wounds and heal the sicknesses. So the love of Jesus Christ was so great that He gave His very life blood for sinners. This mystery is so great that we cannot wholly understand it. Dr. Adolf Harnack would not understand the inner con- sciousness of Jesus Ghrist, and he thought that there were two Christianities, that of Jesus and that of Paul. Many disciples have written about this redeeming love of Christ, some attempting to set forth the vicarious suffering of Jesus Christ, and others writing about the high-priesthood of JesuL I Redemption pertains to every phase of life: the restoration to life of those dead in sin; suffering
for the weak to give aid to enfeebled strength; truth of rebirth. Isaiah, the prophet, taught this as necessary to pay the prke of sin; as ,a grain of truth many centuries before Christ; and it was wheat dying in order to produce fruit; His death fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ. This re- was the offering of the Lamb of God for man's sin; deeming love was the revelation of God. If we through His death comes justification, or the for- say only that we trust in God as the Creator and giveness of sins by the declaration of the satis- Ruler but do not believe in His love toward us, faction of God's justice; His death was the atone- then human society cannot see the light and way ment by which God is reconciled to mankind of Life in Christ.
through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Paul said: "Weare ambassadors for Christ, as The rituals of the temple in Jewish history were though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in merely the symbols of the coming redemption Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God" (2' Cor.
through Christ. 5 : 20) . What he said also in Colossians 1: 2'4 Every religion has made an ,attempt to discover and Philippians 1: 29 needs attention. Paul tried this way of redemption from darkness and suffer- to pass on to others the truth about the redeeming ing and sin. We have the fountain head in Jesus love of Christ. This is the real life in Christ.
Christ. When we are saved, we must pass on the reveia- Confucius did not know the secret of this mys- tion of the wonderful love of Christ to others.
tery. Buddha had not this redemptive message; This is the Kingdom of God movement.
nor had Mohammed or any other religious leader. The price for man's redemption having been It was only made real in Christ. paid, we must show the value of salvation to our neighbors; on the contrary how many of us com- There was a young couple in the city of Tokyo. mit sin and bring discredit on Christ. Since He The husband committed a crime and, trying to be died for us, we ought to be willing to die for merciful to his wife, he wrote a note to divorce Christ's sake. her. But his wife had attended a Christian Sunday school when she was young and when she received the note of divorce from her husband, she instantly remembered what she had learned about Jesus Christ-how He had died for sinners and MY MISSIONARY DAY how God has forgiven the sins of those who accepted Him. So, she said to her husband that she Oh there's blue and there's gray would not forsake him, having learned forgiveness In my missionary day. from Jesus Christ. But since she had become un- The sunshine and the shadows both His love and power display.
certain about the truth, she came to me to verify I see His gentle hand at work upon some burdened heart, the truth that Jesus had really died for sinners. And praise Him that in such a task He lets me have a part. She accepted the redemption of sins through the There is joy in every mornin~ and the night cannot dismay Blood of Jesus Christ and she and her husband were both saved. If I close beside Him stay Through my missionary day.
A weH educated young man in the Province of Yes, there's mire and there's clay Chiba had a brother in a college who lived in a In my missionary day, licentious way and began to steal from others in And I sometimes faint and falter in the muck beside the order to frequent evil resorts. This educated man way. So sad the cries of suffering, of sorrow and of sin, determined to kill his brother; but about this time I scarce can hear the sweetness of the still small voice within. he found at a secondhand store a book from which But the Lord has lit my candle and the comfort of its ray he discovered that Jesus died for sinners. He could not sleep that night because he did not know Shines golden through the gray why Jesus had done this. Later, discovering that Of my missionary day.
Jesus was a revelation of God, the Heavenly Fa- Lord, teach me to pray ther, he found that he also could love his own sin- Through my missionary day, ful brother. He believed in Christ and was bap- That I may love and guide aright Thy children gone tized; later he opened his house for a Christian astray, Sunday school. I shall not be discouraged, nor be lonely on the trail, If Thou Thyself walk with me on the mount and through Redemption through Jesus Christ is the means the vale. of remaking mankind. Recent developments in Thy lost ones may be found for Thee if I Thy voice obey. the world of physics and astronomy have begun to teach us truth about the creation of the uni- Oh, lead Thou the way Through my missionary day.
-Lois Johnson McNeill, in "Drum Call"
verse. But laws of moralIty do not teach us the (West Africa).
Recommendations From
A few paragraphs from the "Find:ngs" passed at Tambaram, Madras, by the International Missionary Council. Some of the phrasing may be changed in the final form of these affirmations. These are quoted from "Dnyanodaya," published in Poona, India, January 5, 1939. – EDITOR.
Jesus Christ and Non-Christian Religions Universal. They have their place in the great Christian brotherhood of all ages and races. But CONCERNING the faith by which the Church they should also be rooted in the soil of their own lives the Conference declares: "Our mes- country. Therefore we strongly affirm that the sage is that God was in Christ reconciling Gospel should be expressed and interpreted in inthe world unto Himself. We believe that God re- digenous forms, and that in methods of worship, vealed Himself to Israel, preparing the way for institutions, architecture, etc., the spiritual herit- His full revelation in Jesus Christ, His Son, our age of the nation and country should be taken into Lord. We believe that Christ is the Way for all, use. The Gospel is not necessarily bound up with that He alone is adequate for the world's need. forms and methods brought in from the older Therefore we want to bear witness to Him in all churches. The endeavor to give Christ His rightthe world. There are many non-Christian reli- ful place in the heart of people who have not pregions that claim the allegiance of large multitudes. viously known Him so that He will neither be a We recognize that in them are to be found values foreigner, nor be distorted by pre-Christian patof deep religious experiences and great moral terns of thought, is a great .and exacting spiritual achievements. Yet we are bold enough to call task in the fulfilling of which a young church can men out from them to the feet of Christ, because bring a rich contribution of her own to the Church we believe that in Him alone is the full salvation Universal! which man needs. Mankind has seen nothing to be compared with the redeeming love of God in The Call to Evangelism the life and death and resurrection of Christ. What He is for us, Judge and Redeemer, Friend "The Church's message to the world is the Lord and Teacher, Brother and Lord, we long to see Jesus Christ Himself in all His manifold grace and Him become also for others. . . . Christ is revo- power. It is the work of evangelism so to exalt lutionary; He brings conversion and regeneration and proclaim Him, crucified, risen and glorified, when we meet Him, from whatever point we may that men may awaken to God, and to a sense of have started. Paul said: 'What things were gain their sin and separation from God, may be led to me, those I counted loss for Christ.' to true repentance and to that act of will whereby they believe in and receive the forgiveness of their sins through Christ and enter upon a new life of Christ and People of Other Faiths trust and obedience towards God and of abound- ing hope for this world and that which is to come. "Three consequences of this view of the reli- For its maintenance and expression, this new life gious life of mankind may here be mentioned. involves membership of the Christian fellows.hip, First, it implies that witnesses for Christ must so that he who has thus received the grace and have a deep and sincere interest in the religious forgiveness of God, at the same time must enter life of those among whom they are sent, for the outward society of fellow-believers and in his Christ's sake and for the sake of those peo- turn become a witness to the truth. Evangelism, pIe. . . . while it involves the interaction of human beings "Second, this interest in the religious heritage of on one another, is very diff·erent from attempts to nations must not lead us to assume, as has some- dominate or invade the personalities of others. times been suggested, that the Scriptures of these It is a work whose end can never be attained by religions could take the place of the Old Testa- weak human instruments unless the Holy Spirit ment as introductions to the Christian Gospel. The Himself works previously in them and through Old Testament was the Bible of Jesus to which He them. Essentially the Church is the instrument constantly referred, and gives an indispensable whereby the living God, through His Holy Spirit, background to the Gospel by showing the early makes His impact upon the spirits of men. The stages of God's preparation for sending our Lord. Gospel of Christ carries with it the promise of "Third, when churches grow up in the environ- social transformation and of the realization of ment of non-Christian religions and cultures, it is such ends as justice, freedom and peace. A living necessary that they should get firmly rooted in the Church cannot dissociate itself from prophetic and Christian heritage and fellowship of the Church pra.ctical activities in regard to social conditions.
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True evangelism will always include a forward- the churches require a restatement of the function looking vision. and training of the future missionary. We are The Danger of Compromise driven to make the following major emphases. The maj or functions of the missionary in the next "The Council is not unmindful of the faults and decade may be stated as follows: mistakes which have crept into some of the evan- "(1) To be a colleague and friendly helper in gelistic work of the churches and missions and the upbuilding of the life of the younger churches: that have proved obstacles to the spread of the "(a) By enriching their spiritual life, especially Gospel of Christ and to its genuine acceptance by through Bible teaching, evangelistic work and de- many. In pra'Ctical matters of leadership, or- velopment of means to cultivate and discipline the ganization and finance, Western methods have not spiritual life.
always been adapted to suit the fundamental char- " (b) By helping to train leaders for the varied acteristics of Eastern peoples; they have pro- ministry of the churches.
duced superficial results into which the creative "(c) By special service in medical and educa- work of the Holy Spirit entered only a little. tional work, and social reconstruotion programs There is the danger of seeking to extend the in rural and industrialized areas.
Church numerically without due regard to the full "(d) By fostering the concern within the meaning and purpose of evangelism as the Council churches for the expansion of Christianity into understand it. The Church undergoes temptations unoccupied areas.
to obscure its witness by compromise when faced " (e) By standing against the tide of modern by the problems of relations with governments, secularistic civilization when it invades the life friendly or hostile. of the churches.
"Personal and social habits and practices, which "(2) To witness against all the varied forms of are matters of indifference in one part of the secularized and materialistic life in the society in Church, may be a cause of offence in another, and which he lives, particularly that which derives therefore a hindrance to evangelism; the Council from his own country.
commend for universal acceptance the principles "(3) To embody and communicate the experi- contained in 1 Corinthians 10. In many countries, ence of the Universal Church. He will need fa- denominational differences., and the deep racial miliarity with worship experiences other than divisions within the churches themselves, obscure those of his own Church. He will need to keep in the Church's witness to the Gospel and paralyze touch with the ancient Church and with the de- their efforts to win men for Christ. Beyond all velopment of the world Christian fellowship as a these, there are great obstacles and difficulties in- unity. There is also need for men and women herent in the aim and character of the work itself who embody this spirit and experience in large and in the situation of those to whom the Gospel measure to be made available for limited periods is addressed. The International Missionary Coun- to the service of the whole Church, or the churches cil is of the opinion that these, and many other ob- of a particular area.
stacles to the spread of the Gospel,can be " (4) To help build bridges of understanding overcome fully only in so far as the churches and and cooperation between classes, races and na- their members confront more resolutely the rad- tions, and thus assist the peaceful development ical weakness in their own life which enfeebles and adjustment of their relationships in an or- their power to lighten the spiritual darkness of dered society.
our time and to lead men out of their present be- "(5) To carry the Christian Gospel into the wilderment. The Church as a whole must redis- many areas where Christianity is now unknown, cover the living power of the faith it confesses, or where no churches exist. the very Word of God to our day speaking in and through the Bible it cherishes, and the inward A Christian Rural Civilization peace and constraint that come from the Cross "The past decade has given us the ideal of a with which the Church is marked. Only so will Christian rural civilization. We need now to see it be renewed and enabled by the Holy Spirit to more clearly the implications of this ideal and to undertake the great task of evangelism in our press on more vigorously towards its realization. time. What are the spiritual and religious values that inhere in the processes of agriculture and in the The Future of the Missionary "The basic call to missionary service remains social and economic relationships of rural life?
what it has always been, the inner compulsion of What is the moral responsibility of those who till Christ giving birth to an irresistible sense of di- the earth to care for it and to pass it on inviolate vine mission; but the present condition of the for the use of succeeding generations? What is world and the present stage of development within the relevance of Christian principles to rural
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FROM MADRAS
economy and rural social organization? . . . How "During the discussion it became abundantly clear that may the Christian message of God's redeeming love in Christ be best translated into the language the divisions of Christendom are seen in their worst light of rural peoples and speak to their physical, mental, social and spiritual needs? These questions in the mission fields. Instances were cited by the repredemand that Christians everywhere should engage in more earnest study and adventure so that we sentatives of the younger churches of disgraceful commay find and fulfil God's purpose for His children upon the soil. petition, wasteful overlapping, and of groups and indi- Ambassadors of Jesus Christ viduals turned away from the Church because of the di- "Concerning 'Missions of Fellowship' from the visions within. Disunion is both a stumbling block to the mission field to churches in the countries that send missionaries, the following suggestions are faithful and a mockery to those without. We confess with made as to the principles which should govern the visit of a mission from the younger to the older shame that we ourselves have often been the cause of thus churches: bringing dishonor to the religion of our Master. . . . Vis- "(a) They should go as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, never as 'specimens.' ible and organic union must be our goal. This, however, " (b) They should go simply to share their ex- will require an honest study of those things in which the periences of Christ without ulterior motive. churches have differences, a widespread teaching of the " (c) The members should be worthy representatives, intellectually and spiritually, of the Church common church membership in things that make for union which they represent. and venturesome sacrifice on the part of all. Such a union Cooperation and Unity alone will remove the evils arising out of our divisions. "While we are deeply humbled by the lack of unity in the Church, and by serious limitations . . . We appeal with all the fervor we possess, to the even in the practice of cooperation, we nevertheless wish to place on record the fact that the coop- responsible authorities of the older churches, to take this eration thus far achieved has led to a great increase of mutual understanding and trust. . . . matter seriously to heart, to labor with the churches in This unity of spirit has made us realize more fully how gravely our outward divisions are hindering the mission field to achieve this union, to support and enthe extension of the Kingdom of God, and indeed are stultifying our message of the love of God, as courage us in all our efforts to put an end to the scandalous the great reconciling force in a world that desperately needs it. . . . It is our deep and joyous con- effects of our divisions, and to lead us in the path of union, viction that in our advance along this path we have been led by God Himself and that He has put the union for which our Lord prayed, through which the the seal of His blessing on our cooperative service. We therefore urge the continuance and further world would indeed believe in the divine mission of the extension of cooperation in fields and in types of work where it is imperfectly practiced. . . . Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. .
"The following statement has been drawn up "We recommend: (1) That the International by the representatives of the younger churches Missionary Council arrange for studies to be and expresses their unanimous view. We ear- undertaken with a view to securing cooperation nestly commend it to the prayerful consideration in church discipline in regard both to the treatof all the Churches: ment of individual Christians who are under dis- cipline, and to marriage and other customs which are inherent in the social structure of the people. (2) That the organization of cooperative institu- tions be reviewed in light of the principle that the indigenous Church should have an influential share in the control and direction of policy, and in the relation of institutions to the whole Chris- tian enterprise. (3) That a deliberate and sus- tained effort be made by the International Mis- sionary Council and by the National Christian Councils to win the active cooperation of Chris- tian groups that are at present outside our fellow- ship. (4) That National Christian Councils be urged to initiate cooperative planning for the whole Christian enterprise in their respective fields, and that Mission Boards and churches on the field should consult with the National Chris- tian Councils in such matter. (5) That in view of the evident leading of God and the supreme ur- gency of the call for organic union on the part of the younger churches, the older churches take this to heart with the utmost seriousness, in the fields of prayer, thought, and action."
Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, makes this profoundly true observation: "Humanity desperately needs today a moral and spiritual rebirth, a revitalization of religion. There is no sure way to this supreme goal save through adherence to the teachings of the Bible."
A Kashgar Moslem's
-~ I Recorded by MRS. GLENN B. OGDEN, Kasganj, India Js- KASHGAR is a town on the plateau of Cen- edged Christ, came out of the crowd of bystanders tral Asia, north of the Himalaya Mountains and standing beside Joseph said, "I also am a and near the border of Turkestan. Here Christian." Joseph Ryehan was born. He came of good fam- They were marched through streets filled with ily, his mother being a noble woman and his armed soldiers and an excited mob who shouted, father of Jewish and Kashmiri descent. He was "Long live the King; kill the Christians." Arriva learned scholar, an ardent follower of Moham- ing at the Amir's court, the prisoners were lined med, and knew eight languages. The boy was up for judgment. Abel was shot; then beheaded. brought up strictly in the Moslem faith, but, when When Joseph's turn came he was questioned by still a small boy, was sent to the Christian mission the Amir who shook his fist at him, shouting: school conducted by the Swedish Mission. There "You are the very worst of the lot. You shall be Joseph heard the story of Jesus and the cross, and hung on my gallows tomorrow." The gallows. were was deeply impressed, but for a time he seemed to forget it. newly erected in front of the town's chief mosque.
After the boy had spent a year or two in the Dragged off to prison, Joseph was kept in the mission school, his father sent him to a Moslem stocks, his feet just touching the ground and his preparatory school; but Joseph was not satisfied arms bound so tightly at the armpits that he felt with the teaching there. He continued restlessly sure they would never again be of any use. After to explore other religions, even that of the local hours in this situation he was unbound, but a Chinese Buddhists. He went into their temple as heavy iron was put on his feet. He could not sit a "seeker" but found nothing to satisfy his inner down because the prison which had been a Chinese craving. Later he thought himself a Communist. cook-house, was crowded to capacity.
After a time the boy felt the burden of sin to During the niglit the Amir's younger brother be intolerable, and was unable to get relief. Sud- came into the prison followed by a troop of denly one day he saw a vision of three lights. He soldiers. Joseph thought his time had certainly believed that Christ appeared in glorious form. come. In the midst of his pain and half stupor When he came to Him the burden was lifted and came the thought: "My release has come; now Joseph was happy. Memories of the early Chris- I shall be with Jesus." When the question, "Are tian teaching returned. The New Testament, you not afraid of being killed?" was asked him, which before had seemed uninteresting, became a his reply was: "No, I shall go straight to God." living message, and he studied it with delight. The rej oinder was, "Ah, you should be killed. You Later he joined the Swedish Mission church and will certainly be hung tomorrow."
for four years witnessed at Yarkhand where he But he was not executed next day. A strange succession of events, which included much sufferhad been baptized.
One day an Amir appeared in Yarkhand with ing and reviling, left him still alive at the end of a large invading army, carrying all before him. seventy days. and nights, in the stench and filth In their youth this Amir and Joseph had been of that cook-house prison. Then another armed students together. The Amir proclaimed a Mos- force entered Yarkhand, drove out the Amir and lem crusade in the city, ordering that all Chris- released the prisoners. Joseph was immediately tians should be bound and brought to his court for sent by the friendly British Consul out of Kashgar trial. As Joseph was praying with some mis- into India.
sionary ladies who knew of the violent spirit in Since then he has been studying, preparing for the town, they heard a noise outside. As they further work for Christ. He says.: "I want to prayed, soldiers broke in and called Joseph to witness, always witness for Him." This summer, come with them. He was bound and in company for about two months, Joseph Ryehan was a stu- with many others was led through the town. As dent at the Henry Martyn School of Islamics, they were putting him into place in a line a young Landour, North India, and there told his story to man, called Abel, who never before had acknowl- friends.
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Animists in the
A letter from DR HENRY P. VAN DUSEN, written from Rante Pau, Celebes, Netherland East Indies DESPITE its diminutive dimensions on a hewn out of the solid face of rock-cliffs, where the world-map, Celebes is one of the larger and dead, after being kept in their own houses a year more important possessions in the Dutch after death with periodic feasts of an orgiastic Island empire of the East Indies. character and. considerable attendant promiscuity, *** are finally laId away, but with animistic beliefs about their continuing influence in the vivid spirit For almost twelve hours with only a break for the night we had been motoring from Makassar, world. the principal commercial and political center of At last, the road wound down into a river-plain, and we ienntaergerd~sas.t.ycpoivcearledvilcllaegaer.ingBut at the out- skirts, the left, a td the Celebes into the inaccessible mountainous hinterland. Mile after mile the rough road picks its way along the scanty edge of precipitous cliffs, brown steeple lIfted above the trees and the plain round hair-raising bends, up and up, with ever square building below announced itself unmisgrander, wilder jagged peaks on either side. Our ~akably as a Dutch church. It was Sunday mornancient Dodge bumped and swayed, shifting to m~ a~d one o~ two late worshipers were entering, second, then to low, and back again, but pushed shIeldmg theIr heads from the downpour with steadily forward and upward like a wiry kan- large banana leaves, Rante Pau's customary umgaroo. For hours we saw no white face, met no brella. A little farther on, another small white one Who could speak other than Malay and the !;>uilding suggested a hospital. In the doorway Just beyond a young doctor and his wife smiled a local dialect. As the scenery became wilder so characteristically Dutch welcome through the did the appearance and demeanor of the half- drizzle. naked little brown men and women along the road. Their rude rattan huts perched more and more We discovered many mutual friends; both had ins.ecurely on bamboo stilts. At the first sound of been leaders of the Student Christian Movement our car, they leaped for the edge of the road and in Holland before coming to the East. Cocoa turned rather wild and stupid eyes in frightened, and cake broke the ice and refreshed us after the uncomprehending stares after us. A fine drizzle journey. Then we inquired if it were too late to enveloped the mountains, and added a slimy sur- ~ oin the church service. Our host, explaining that face to the other hazards of this uncertain high- It was a quarterly communion and in the Toradja way. language, thought the service must be drawing to- Presently, we noted several of the houses for ward the close for he had heard strains of the which we had been looking, built in the shape of "middle hymn"-not the middle of the service but the native ships or prau which distinguish Makas- the middle of the sermon. (The middle hymn sar harbor, with great overhanging bows and bears certain analogies to a "seventh inning sterns. Then we knew we were in the heart of stretch" and is quite as serviceable, for the two the Toradj a land. For these little people (their halves of the discourse usually reach a half hour stature isa foot below average height), driven each !) tw~ hundred miles inland centuries ago, pushed We slipped into church and stole forward into theIr boats upstream before them and continue to front pews, for all others were crowded. The build their homes in that shape and to bury their Dutch minister, in tbhleacvkerGneanceuvlaar.gowOnn~ was read- ing his sermon in could not dead in prau, hewn of stone or wood. Secure in be certain that the auditors were grasping it much these mountain fastnesses, nearly half a million better than we. There was no slackening of revpeople have successfully resisted penetration by erent attention but I thought I detected a slight the stronger and fiercer tribes below. While the falling off in capacity for absorption during this lTaottreardjahapvraectibceeenunaMltoesrleedmpsrimfoirtivceeanntuirmiiess~ the and last ten minutes. But that did not seem greatly ancestor-worship. We passed their burial caves, to matter. One knew at once that the message of the worship was being conveyed, far more ef- • From The RresbY'terian T,-ibune, New York. fectively than by spoken word, through the un- [131 ]
adorned beauty of the building, through simple gested a garden-village. Again, the contrast to hymns to familiar tunes, through the indefinable the near-by villages through which we had passed intimacy of deep fellowship, perhaps most of all was staggering. We passed in and out among the through the stillness which pervaded the house houses, greeting the residents. On one porch a and all its company-simple, unemotional, genu- leprous mother rocked a new-born infant. Before ine, reverent, comradely, beautiful. another, children played in the sand. Everywhere cheerful, contented faces and cnrdiaI smiles wel- When the sermon was laid aside and the minis- comed us. We learned that the less severe cases ter took his place in the center of the long table can be cured. We noted no walls, no fences, no spread the width of the church and, after the guards. "Oh, but no one wants to leave. They lovely Dutch custom which so nearly reproduces would be driven from their own villages; quite the setting of the First Supper, the worshipers possibly they would be killed." Here was a lepercame forward and took seats at the table to his colony which was not merely a haven of refuge right and left and the bread was passed from hand and happiness for outcast souls but a model village to hand, one knew that Christian worship when for the entire locality! true and sincere is the same in every tongue and in every clime and that its focal center is in one The external contrasts-in cleanliness, health, place only-in the Supper of our Lord. One knew, intelligence, happiness, freedom from fear – no too, that what is supremely needed, alike for one could miss. But it was only later when we primitive animists of Toradja and for cultured visited in homes, inspected fetishes, learned in desophisticates of America, is that they should be tail of the customs and beliefs of the people that drawn through the unforced alchemy of that wor- the deeper contrasts could be fully appreciated. ship face to face with Him who first took bread and broke it, and washed His disciple's feet. It was, late evening before we got around to the hospital itself. Darkness had fallen and we felt As we took our places at the table, facing the our way around the dim wards by oil-lamplight. congregation, we had an opportunity really to Here and there beneath a bed, one or more memlook at them. We saw over two hundred clean, bers of the patient's family were curled up on the alert, well and tastily dressed men and women and floor; only on this condition would they permit girls, spotless in their simple native cos,tumes, hair their sick relative to enter the hospital. I was immaculately arranged, barefooted but winsome surprised to note several beds empty, but was and charming; almost every face was lighted by pointed to a figure stretched underneath; the ocan eager sincere reverence and open confident re- cupant could not rest comfortably on a cot so had pose. The contrast to the unkempt bedraggled rolled onto the floor and there slept peacefully. appearance and the bewildered, staring faces· of Seventy beds, always overcrowded for the conthe past two days was overwhelming. In their stituency number,s 300,000 people. The area of presence most of the discussions of missions one responsibility, close to 10,000 square miles of has heard evaporated into irrelevance like mist at jagged mountains pierced by hardly a road, must sunrise, or like "modern sex theories" in the be covered mainly on horseback. The medical staff radiant serenity of a truly Christian home. So numbers one doctor and one trained nurse, aided much utter nonsense is talked about Christian by locally trained native helpers. Tuberculosis, missions! I defy anyone, with open eyes and a venereal diseases, leprosy, cholera, trachoma, rupmodicum of concern for his fellow-men, to con- ture-these are the major ailments. Just now the front primitive life and religion in stark reality, most pressing need is an electric plant to supply and then witness a center of Christian faith and illumination, drying facilities and above all X-ray; life among them without confessing not merely the but that is a dream to conjure with in the distant validity but the inestimable worth of missions. future. When I was saying goodnight and laid on the table a paltry bill-less than an evening's Our host inquired if we cared to see the mis,sion theater at home-the young doctor grasped my leper colony. A half-mile back from the hospitaI hand with tears in his eyes. we came out upon a little plateau to discover one of the most lovely little villages we had ever seen. As we drove off in the gray dawn the following A dozen small houses, beautifully designed and morning, our last glimpse of Rante Pau was of constructed in the familiar shape of the native two dim figures standing in the doorway where prau and decorated by the inhabitants, each with they had greeted us the day before-weary and a its colorful garden, furnish haven and treatment little haggard but still smiling-surgeon, general and even cure to some hundred and forty lepers. practitioner, obstetrician, ophthalmologist, trop- On the hillside just above, a somewhat larger ical disease specialist, friend-at-Iarge to 300,000 prau serves as village church; the whole sug- primitive people-what a man's job!
Indian Poet, Narayan Varnan Tilak*
By the REV. KUND HEIBERG, Madras, India Missionary of the Danish Missionary Society, 1905- N ARAYAN VAMAN TILAK was called the India and Christ-these are the notes that re- "Tagore of Maratha-Iand." This is not a sound in all of Tilak's songs and in his life's deeds very accurate characterization, but is a tes- since the day he first gave his heart to Christ. timony as t'O the high esteem in which he was held not only among Indian Christians but by his Narayan Vaman Tilak was born seventy-seven Hindu fellow countrymen.. When he died twenty years ago (February 10, 1862) in Karazgao, in years ago (May 9, 1919) his name was known Dapoli Taluk, Konkan. He was a member of a far beyond the limits of Maratha-Iand and he was prominent Brahman family, and up to his ninth considered the greatest of modern Christian poets year lived in his grandfather's house. Here he in India. He was eulogized by a Hindu contem- grew up in beautiful natural surroundings. The P'Orary as follows: plain is one of the most fertile and luxuriant in India, being watered with abundant rain. These "The well-known Maratha poet and Pundit, surroundings developed in the boy a vivid love N. V. Tilak, was a pious Christian, but his Chris- for nature and moved the poetic chords in his tianity, as is the case with a constantly increasing soul. Love for nature was a great part of his life.
number of Indian Christians, 'Only helped to make Religiously he was profoundly influenced by his his love for his country more ardent. He was a mother who was of a poetic and imaginative natrue patriot, who looked into the future with deep ture and more independent in her thought and understanding and he was respected by all on ac- views of life than Hindu women are as a rule. In count of his truly religions life. As a Maratha later years he 'Often spoke of her as the one who poet he occupied a very prominent place among taught him to fear God and to love and serve man. his contemporaries." He declared that he never met another woman who was so nearly perfect as his pious mother. A well-known Hindu paper in Bombay wrote at She was, his first guru or spiritual teacher. the time: "Tilak's death is a loss not only for Indian Christians; it is a loss for the whole na- The grandfather was a pious Brahman who 'Obtion, which will preserve a loving remembrance served his devotional practi1ces with such zeal that of his truly holy life." the inhabitants of his little town even made fun of him. His religious zeal made a deep impression Pundit Tilak's ardent love for his Motherland upon his daughter's son who often played near found a beautiful expression in many of his poems him and t'O whom he was, much devoted. and gave the imprint to his life. But while his love for India was great, his love for Christ was Tilak's father does not seem to have been a greater. He had found the Pearl of Great Price model of amiability, but was a hot-tempered, vioand to possess it he sold all he owned; of this two- lent man. The boy could not get along with him fold love he s,ang: and when the mother died, he ran away from home and tramped to the town of Nasik with his Hindustan is my mother and all her children are most younger brother. Here he succeeded in obtaining precious jewels to me; instruction from some Indian pundits, among whom was a teacher by the name of Ganes Shastri Some lie covered with rubbish, and some lie hid in earth's Lile. Later in life Tilak always spoke of this man dark depths as having been, after his mother, his second guru. Shastri Lile taught Tilak to love India and it was Some are adorned with the radiant crown of Hindustan. in his school the foundation was laid for Tilak's My heart longs for them all; each one I love, ardent patriotism. The boy's talents attracted the I, the humble servant of my Motherland. interest of several prominent men who helped him in many ways. A message have I to bring, Hark ye, all ye sons of Hindustan. The boy attended an English school, but his in- Without Christ all is in vain; quiring (not to say revolutionary) nature did not Only if He fills your hearts, only then Can we know God's aim for our lives. It is Jesus who makes me a patriot true, So that I, His slave, am my Motherland's servant.
• Translated from the Danish by the late Dr. C. Theodore Benze. fit into the four walls of a sichool, any more than [133 ]
it afterwards could feel quite at home in the con- (3) There is no earlier birth and no repeated rebirt~s. fessionallimits of anyone church. All human suffering is due to man's personal failure III fulfilling his duties. A man's condition in this life depends Years of drifting followed during which he partly upon his heredity and environment and partly upon eagerly studied Sanscrit and English, religio~s his.own conduct. and philosophy. He worked hard to learn ArabIC so as to be able to read the Koran in its original (4) The essential thing in all religions is love and surlanguage and thus to penetrate more deeply to the render to God and men. heart of Mohammedanism. Buddhism fascinated him for a time and he determined to be like (5) Idolatry is sin, yea, the ·greatest of all sins; but Buddha in all but his faults. But neither Bud- such virtues as love, truth, mercy may be personified and dhism nor Mohammedanism could hold him per- worshipped. manently. Even in his early childhood he had broken the rules of caste and he continued to assail Tilak understood that if a man wishes to found the system of caste all his life. His mother. a~d a new religion, its future will depend upon such a his teachers who were Hindus and who were dIS- founder's personality. He says: "I saw that in posed towa;d reform, had influenced him in this order to propagate these principles I myself must direction. be a wonderful man. I began, therefore, to study the lives of founders of religions carefully." All Tilak's searching was now directed to finding the religion that would bring salvation, Tilak observed that most founders of religions strength and self-respect to his beloved Mother- were said to have performed miracles. Hence he land. He longed to see India great and free; but wanted to obtain power for this and devoted himit was clear that this could be attained only by self to Yoga practices, from which, according to spiritual regeneration. How to a,ccomplish this Hindu teaching, the power to perform miracles was the burden on his mind day and night. can be obtained. He spent two years in the severest ascetic practices and for days at a time While engaged in these speculations, Tilak came he sat on a mountain top, lost in meditation. His in contact with a religiously inclined Hindu in food consisted of plants and fruits such as he could Nagpur who spent great sums of money to acquire find near by. He sat there without noticing the Hindu literature, both ancient Vedic writings and burning heat of noon or the cold night winds. modern books. To this man's library Tilak had But he experienced great disappointment at this free acces's and "for three years," he says, "I swam very time when he thought to have reached his and tumbled in this sea of spe!culative thoughts goal. and poems." His studies resulted in an attempt to establish the fundamental principles of a "new" The people from the surrounding villages bereligion that was, to be higher and purer than any gan to come in crowds up the mountain to catch a other and which was to unite all of India, nay glimpse of the lonely saint and to call upon him more, all the world, in one brotherhood. For this for help. Indeed, once or twice he was reported new religion Tilak actually set down a number of to have been the means of wonderful healing. principles. Then their enthusiasm grew and the mountain hermit became the object of wondering adoration. This attempt to found a new religion is a strik- But this very enthusiasm opened his eyes to the ing example of the strong religious power, found emptiness of the whole business. "See," he said within the old Hinduism, which constantly seeks to himself, "it is only to get a glimpse of me, or to penetrate. to something better than Hinduism in the hope of a temporal good, that these people can offer. India's religious history reveals both are coming. They do not care anything for the in ancient and modern times a series of such at- teachings of my new religion. All their attention tempts. Its strong minds (like a Rabindranath and their talk centers in me. My doctrine can Tagore) have steadily endeavored to break the amount to something only if I myself can be lost iron bonds of the old Hinduism, especially· its to view while presenting the message I have to caste system. But in all these attempts one finds bring. that the fundamentals in reality point to the truth in Christianity. So he came down from the mountain and ended the Yoga practices. Up to this point Tilak did The following principles were enunciated by not concern himself about Christianity. He says: Tilak for his new religion: "Strangely enough, in my religious investigations I never thought of the Bible or of Christ. The (1) There is a rational Creator of the universe, who is reason for this was that the Bible seemed such a not an indefinite absolute Something like the Brahma of plain book to me." As a Brahman he wanted to the Hindus, but a personal being with a fatherly heart center his attention upon complicated problems, and all men are his children. as Brahmans like to do. He says "The Brahmans are by nature people who enjoy and admire either (2) All holy writingS! in all religions are the. work of such literature as is above their comprehension or men. The only writing in which we can study all about isa riddle to them. There are many Sanscrit God is the book of nature, the whole universe. books, which, I am sure, if they were translated
THE INDIAN POET, NARAYAN VAMAN TILAK
into the vernacular, would be cast aside by these pletely refuted. I began to embrace a love for very Brahmans, as useless rubbish. But let a Christ Himself and I continued to read on to the Brahman sing a few mantrams, which neither he last page of the Bible so as to learn as much as nor his hearers understand, and both parties will possible about Christ.:' be captivated. The simpHcity of the Bible was one reason why I had never investigated Chris- In Rajnandgaon there lived a Christian intianity. Another really important reason was spector of police who gave Tilak some Christian that no Christian preacher had ever talked to me books. One of these, Bushnell's "Character of about Christ and I had never seen any Chris4;ian Jesus," made a s.trong impression upon him. All book in Marathi that I cared to read." of this brought him into a severe spiritual strug- gle. He did not wish to take up the new religion The Christians, whom Tilak so far had met, carelessly but by reflection he came to be constood on such a low intellectual plane that he, an vinced of the truth of Christianity. Christ was educated Brahman, did not regard them as any the Teacher whom India and the world craved. better than idolators. The next step was to be convinced of the power In 1892, when Tilak was thirty years old, his of Christianity. How this happened is told by wealthy admirer wished him to publish a new Tilak in the following words: philosophical and religious periodical. Only two numbers appeared, for since Tilak set forth in "One day I fell into doubt about Christ's word them the new doctrines enumerated above, his 'Ask, and it shall be given unto you.' Like an patron abandoned him and he had to give up his ignorant child I determined to test the truth of editorial position. He then ac·cepted an offer of a the word. I prayed that I might receive a book position from an Indian prince, the Rajah of which would inform me about the history of Pal- Rajnandgaon. The journey thither became of estine and the times in which Jesus lived. I added great importance for he says: in my prayer that if my prayer would not be granted, I would reject the doctrine that God I traveled in the intermediate class and as I entered the showed mercy to His child. Suddenly the next compartment, the only European present, in place of re- day I was transferred to another government pulsing me, made room for me with a friendly smile. office. To my great joy and surprise I found in a box under some old junk, three books, all religious, I had my favorite Sanscrit poet Bhavabhuti with me and that treated of Christ and Christianity. These and the strange gentleman began to talk to me about poets books gave information about the very things. I and poetry. I was much interested in what he said and had prayed to be enlightened on. God continued to I discovered that he knew something about poetry and the send me many wonderful answers to my prayers art of writing it. I discovered that he knew some San- and I came to love Christ." scrit and was well informed on the Sanscrit literature. Afterwards he changed the subject and asked me about At this time Tilak came in contact with Baba my attitude toward Christianity. I told him about my new Padmanji, a learned high-caste man who had bedoctrines and he remarked to my great astonishment that come a Christian. The correspondence and subwithin two years I would be a Christian. I thought the sequent companionship with him was a great help man must be crazy to say such a thing. We talked a long to Tilak, who here found a guide that understood time. Finally he said, "Young man, God is leading you. him and could help him. More and more he ex- Study the Bible and study the life of Christ and you will perienced the power of Christ. The regeneration surely become a Christian." In my heart I scoffed at of soul, which his Yoga practices had been unable what I considered the man's impertinence. But he finally to effect, he found in his communion with Christ. offered prayer and then he gave me a copy of the New Testament. I promised to read it, not from any interest Tilak began to utter his new thoughts and his in the Bible itself, but for the friendly feeling which the changed views of life in verse and prose, in pubman's kindness had aroused in me. I left the train at lished poems, and printed articles. He wrote Rajnandgaon and we took cordial leave of one another. under a pen-name, but was soon discvered and Strangely enough, neither of us thought to ask the other his friends understood that he had become a Chrisfor his name, residence or position. tian. Persecution broke loose upon him, "such a persecution," he writes, "as can hardly be imag- Tilak never learned who his traveling com- ined, except by Hindus who turn to Christianity. panion was, but he began to read the New Testa- But God helped me and delivered me from various ment as he had promised. The book took hold of difficulties; He prepared 'a table for me with spirhim, especially the Sermon on the Mount. He itual food in the presence of mine enemies.' When writes, "I could not tear myself away from these I earnestly considered baptism, I was suddenly words so full of attractiveness and beauty, which reduced to poverty, lost my position, and lost my express the love and gentleness and truth, that friends. I had no acquaintance among Christians. the Sermon contains. In these three chapters I Even my own wife, whom I had considered to be found a satisfying reply to the most difficult ques- convinced of the truth of Christianity, turned tions in Hindu philosophy. I was astonished to see how the deepest problems found their solution here. To my amazement I discovered that the doctrine of the transmigration of souls was com-
against me and sought to overcome my determina- that people spoke disdainfully of "Christian Martion to be baptized. athi" until Tilak began to speak and sing.
"In November, 1894, I dreamed the same dream With the lower forms of speech there went gen- erally an inclination to despise all that was one's three nights in succession.: A person appeared own, to ape the missionaries in dress and man- ners, and to give up national peculiarities. This before me and said, 'Follow Me and fear noth- led to the deplorable situation that Hindus reing.' " . garded the conversion to Christianity as treason to their own land. To become a Christian, was Then Tilak chose the course he would follow. to them the same thing as to renounce Hindustan, He wrote to an American missionary, Mr. J. E. the Motherland.
Abbot, and ask him to inform others that he had In the person of Tilak there now stood forth an become a Christian. The 10th of February, 1895, Indian singer and preacher, who spoke and sang he was baptized by an Indian pastor, T. Nathoji, in words and tones that gripped Hindu hearts. in the American Mission church in Bombay. Tilak Those familiar with the Marathi language look says, "It was exactly two years after the man in upon Tilak's work as a spiritual regeneration of the train had given me the Bible. Thus does the the language used among Christians, yes, even as Lord lead His children and thus His will is done an enrichment of the language itself. One of Tilak',g disciples says it was like the spring that on earth." breaks forth in freshness and beauty.
Tilak's baptism was the introduction to active Tilak's poems have been widely cir,culated. In the streets of Ahmednagar, the beggars sing them. labor in the Ispread 'Of the Gospel of Christ and In Christian homes they have introduced new the Kingdom of God. He became pastor in the songs,. Even the theistic society, Parthana Somaj in BoOmbay, is said to use some of them, with alter- American Marathi Mission Church and accom- ations. One of Tilak's admirers thinks that his plished much good. One of the difficulties of the great poem Christayana ("The Story of Christ") Christian Church in India has been, that most of will exert the same influence upon the speech of its members. have come from the lowest class of Christians as Tulsi Das's Ramayana has exerted population, who before their baptism stood out- upon the Hindu language.
side of the real Indian community and Hindu cul- Tilak stands today first and foremost the poet of India. He sang of his beautiful country, which ture. The result has been that the Indian Chris- to him is "the crown of the earth." tian communion has been isolated. Tilak did what In one poem, "The Ascent of the Mountain," he was in his. power to build bridges. His old Hindu sings of the greatness of the land, its far-stretched friends locked him out when he became a Chris- mountains and valleys with their endlessly varied tian, but his poetic gift had already created a natural beauty. In the poem, "My Motherland," name for him. In this may be seen a reason why, he has sung the praise of In~ia, as her Christian son. after all, many leading Hindus showed him friendship. On the other hand, he was used to lift the Tilak has also been called the poet of flowers. Christian communion out of its isolation into the His language is a language of flowers, colored with many pictures from the world of nature. He is a movements of the times. singer of nature, but with a deep mystic sense for the world of eternity, extending beyond the sur- Tilak labored incessantly to win others for face of the visible world. Christ, especially among the educated classes. His poems have doOne a great work. Likewise his The poet expresses his poetical sense of nature sermons in the church, his instruction of the in the poem, "Woodland Flower," which reports a young and his training of pastors. Social work conversation between the poet and the Woodland he carried on with great zeal. In times of pesti- Flower. The poet admires its beauty, but deplores the fact that the Flower wastes its life in the lence and famine he was among the first to provide wilderness, alone, unknown, and of no use, since help for the needy. The founding 'Of a children's it has no man to admire and use it. But Woodland home and of a Society for Social Work are due to Flower indignantly defends her life in the jungle his efforts. forest by saying that right there it lives its life, free under the open sky and serving God. It well But Tilak did his greatest work as an author. knows the fate of flowers in the house of men who His poetry had a far-reaching importance for the pluck them and use them for their selfish ends. Christian Church in Marathi-land. He is consid- The poet tries to persuade Woodland Flower to ered the greatest Christian poet in the Marathi give up her ascetic life and to come and live among language.
When Christianity is presented toa people, not by one of the land's own sons, but by foreigners who never have completely mastered the language, and when besides most Christians come from the lowest classes of the people and from their least developed dialects, it easily happens that the Christian speech remains undeveloped. This was the characteristic of Marathi Christian speech, so
THE INDIAN POET, NARAYAN VAMAN TILAK
men and to be useful. Woodland Flower says It moveth my inmost soul; "No!" and the poet gives up his case. But as he A vision is flooding with splendor of light leaves the Woodland Flower, his heart is suddenly The halls of my soul. changed and wherever he goes after that, he no- All motion of hands and all action of thoughttices that the Flower lives in his heart as well as It quivers, it sinketh, it ceaseth. in the Woodland. He becomes himself that which My soul drifts away; no longer do bonds he has seen. Now fetter me close to the shores of this world.
Some readers see in this poem the doctrine of o sleep! how I long now to sleep! Have mercy upon me! meditation and action as found in the ancient Indian poem, the Bhagavad Gita. Others interpret Let no one awake me again! it as a description of the poet's peace of heart on seeing the flower in its right place, in the poet's Another example of the mystical trait in Tilak's own soul and there created music. From this the poetry is his poem on "Love" in the form of a thought is derived that the true Gardner of the riddle: soul gives the human soul a chance to grow freely, wherever the right place is. It need not be plucked A flower-it grows way down in sorrow's plain, off sacrificially to adorn us or our surroundings. Guess ye the name? It drinks of tears the rain; When sorrow's sun departs, so hot and dry, Whichever interpretation is correct, we are It groweth upward toward the bright blue sky. agreed on one thing, admiration of this poem and the other nature poems such as "The Joy of A magic drink-can you its name discern? Spring," the "Dance of Nature," the "Music of the One taste of it, the dead to life return: Birds." And silent lips break forth in melody, While eyes of blind see visions heavenly. Tilak is the poet of unity. The striving of this Indian soul for unity back of all multiformity A magic word-ah guess it if you can; breathes forth from many of his songs. In some It makes a "fool" e'en of the "wisest man": of his poems he records the mixed character of The "I" and "thou' he doth no longer know! the times with all their "Noise," "Turmoil" and Who knows the meaning, straight to God shall go. "Division." He meets men, some highly cultured, some without culture, and their common trait is Now have you guessed? What is this flower so rare, that they deplore the times. India's heart is torn That when it blossoms; God is always there? asunder by congresses and conferences, by moderates and extremists, by theists, theosophists, ad- As a religious poet Tilak is, in one sense, a herents of the Arya Somaj, Brahmans and Sudras, continuation of the series of religious poets within caste people and subcastes, by people who desire Hinduism, commonly called "Bhaktas" because reformation and people who clamor for reaction, they gave expres,sion to the devotion of love which by Mohammedans and Hindus, and no one can tell is called Bhakti. But there is a difference. The where all this division will end. But Tilak's op- Bhaktas are like those who seek. This applies to timism answers that from disunion, will come the ancient Bhaktas, like Tukaram, as well as to union, as light breaks through darkness; back of the moderns like Rabindranath Tagore. Tilak the uproar of the times is, God's everlasting mel- has found the secret. The religious songs of India ody which shall some day burst forth as the song contain the most beautiful expression for the longof harmony. Men say India is old; but India is ing of the human soul after the living God; but forever young. in Tilak there is one thing more, thanksgiving for having found God in Ghrist. Bhakti, the devotion The same longing for union, for harmony, for of love, loving faith, meet in Christ, the God who rest meets us also in Tilak's religious poems.. Here is Love. we see a self-surrender as deep as only the strong emotional life of the East can create, and clothed We quote below several of Tilak's religious in rich tropical imagery. The inner union of the songs. soul with God, the penetration into divinity, that is that for which the poet's soul longs. AWAKE, MY SOUL!
In the poem "Presamadhi" we are led into his Awake, my soul, awake and praise mystic thought-world. Immersed in a spiritual The sovereign Lord o'er night and day. trance, in which all ,consciousness of the world of Go forth along life's way again, sense disappears, he feels his whole being over- Praise God, the Glorious One, in song. whelmed, yea engulfed in the object of his love. He sings: To think of Him filled night with song, To serve Him filled the day with peace; o love, I sink down in a timeless sleep, By day, by night at His footstool, We joyed to be at one with Him. Sink down in a timeless sleep, An image uprises before me Whate'er the coming day may bring Bring thou thy offering to Christ; Give up thyself in faith, to Him, And at His feet adore, my soul!
Seek, if thou wilt, the whole world through, Where wilt thou find a friend like Him? He leadeth thee with loving care- o follow Him in all thy ways.
To save thee is His only aim PRAYER To help, to teach, to heal thy heart, And to refresh thy weary soul, Prayer in loving humble hearts, And call thee home from all unrest. Opens wide the doors of heaven, Prayer is God's own dwelling place Thou art the weapon, He the hand, Where His children see His face. And every counsel comes from Him- Upon His altar lay thy will, We from earth a ladder raise, Abide with Him from day to day. Prayer we call it by its name, Prayer is God the Father's knee THE LOVE OF CHRIST Where His trusting children sit.
One all unworthy to be called Rain of love and Spirit's light, Among disciples in Thy school Tears of joy in prayer we have, Thou, in Thy love didst call "a friend," Walk with God, and feel His kiss, Oh Love, amazing, great! That is prayer His servant knows.
So weak am I, oh God of grace Tilak is not only the poet of India, nature and So all unworthy in Thy sight, religious tenderness. He is also the poet of home. That e'en the dust upon Thy feet He himself led a happy home life after his wife Is worth far more than I! returned to him and also was baptized four years after his baptism. In the poem entitled "Sushila," Thou dwellest in unending light Tilak brings before us a young girl's life and Above all earthly sin and shame- growth at home and her spiritual development. In That Thou shouldst bear our sin and shame! the introduction there are a few stanzas that in Can I such love tell forth? no wise yield to the tenderness and beauty of Western song in praise of home. Did He not deem the heavenly throne A matter of such small account, HOME And yet esteem it great to be For me a mortal man? Is there on earth such a lovely place That it may be compared to the one true home? And when the nails pierced deep His flesh Did He not bear it patiently? Where every assumption of "me" and "mine" Then how describe His life divine, Is utterly gone and you never can find So patient and so pure? The slightest traces of selfishness left And love is the ruler that weareth the crown. Thus Love came down in human form, Love's Self, from saving love for me! Where pride is not known that bows down to itself, I hardly dare behold His face Where the good of the neighbor is the same as one's own, For shame, for bitter shame. Where all are intent in one aim to compete, To render each other the service of love. And if there be aught good in me I owe it all to Thee alone Where under the fashions so manifold, Then guard and guide me, 0 my Lord, One mind alone wieldeth harmonious sway, As Thou dost guard Thine own! All suffer, all conquer, all smile or else sigh, Bring Paradise back to the plains of this earth. UNION WITH CHRIST Where under the gentlest and tenderest care, As the moon and its golden beams are one, The highest, most glorious actions spring up, Thus my prayer is this, 0 my Lord and God, And blossom together as in gardens of old, The prayer of the mendicant- And grow to perfection as glorious fruit. That I may be one with Thee! The home which has fostered from the day of their birth, Like a loving wife will I hold Thee fast, And lavishly nurtured all over this earth Yea, hold Thee forever in loving embrace, The heroes and poets, the wise men and saints, Like a daughter I call to Thee, The house that refreshed in their pilgrimage days. Like a sister I sing Thy praise! God's ladder by which all humanity mounts, As words and their meaning are tied in one, And being thus tied they can serve but one aim. To the mountains three t of its highest desire. Thus let us be bound, 0 Lord, Thus utter thy speech through me. A heavenly dwelling and temple divine, Where bideth the Maker, the Father of men. Oh grant that my soul might a mirror be That Thee I might see in its polished face, Yea, is there on earth such a lovely place In my thought, my speech, my life, That it may be compared to the one true home? Oh make them all bright and pure! Tilak had one more string to his bow. We see And take Thou my body, oh my Saviour dear, him also engaged as a polemic writer. His activity And make Thine abode in my inmost soul, as minister and churchman, involved him in all To be without Thee, oh Christ, questions which in recent years have agitated In- Is sin, is the deepest death! t The three mountains of desire are the heights of religion, wealth and position. The desires of the senses, according to Indian thought, are everything that man can wish for.
THE INDIAN POET, NARAYAN VAMAN TILAK
dian Christians. The most burning is the ques- the poet of the proud VISIOns, who foresaw a glorious future for Ghrist's Church in the land tion of the independence of the Indian Church. which he loved and whose sons, as he hoped, should spread Christ's Gospel in their Motherland. Self-consciousness has grown strong among In- Tilak was something of a free lance and a man dian Christians as it has on the whole, among all of opposition; to say it more practically, he had in himself the nature of the woodland flower. Orientals. Hitherto the foreign missionaries were This nature, this urge toward freedom and inde- pendence, induced him finally to give up his posithe ones who guided and directed all affairs of the tion as a pastor and to work for the coming of God's Kingdom to his Motherhood, as a free singer church; now we have come to the time of transi- and preacher of God's grace, as a Sunyasi, his love for India coalesced with his love for Christ. tion in which the growing Church desires to stand Death prevented Tilak from being very long upon its own feet, to be independent and to pass active as a Christian Sunyasi. But the tones which he first caused to resound in the hearts of from dependence to freedom, from subordination Indian Christians, India and Christ, are now heard everywhere in the church of India. to equality. We will close with the poem, "My Motherland," Tilak took part in these discussions and in one which is a fit summary of his spirit.
of his poems gives strong expression to the feel- MY MOTHERLAND ings of Indian Christians, their craving for in- (In the style of an Indian Lyric) dependence, their longing to find their own forms Chaff will I eat and tatters will I wear for thy love's sake, my Motherland. For thy sake will I cast in the dust of expression for their Christian consciousness, all that is thought to be honor and happine.ss.
independent of the dogmatic foreign mold which Sooner or later shall my soul leave this tabernacle of dust and depart hence; but can death part me from thee? the missionaries brought, and in which Indian Thou knowest, it cannot. To be thy child, what blessed- ness is this! Who can take this from me? Has any robber Christians have grown up. The poem is addressed courage to do so? Has time? Has death? Nay, none of them. to the foreign missionaries. . I will offer up my body, my life will I give in thy service, You came here bringing Christ to us, my noble land. Some will laugh, some will weep over this You brought your body, life and all to us! burning love. I care naught for that. Born to be thy son, There is no limit to our debt to you for this; I shall be that to the limit. May God help me to that end. We owe you all. But now we have a little prayer to make. Our riches, our good name, our wisdom, thou carest not Will you then listen? for these. It is we and we alone whom thou regardest as You are our Mother and our Father, we but helpless in- life of thy life. Oh thou loving Mother, take then this my self, which I offer thee, however trifling the offering may fants. be. And as, I do this, I do nothing more than follow my But now it is time these things should end! Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, my Friend, thy Friend and You are the ones who wrought this rule of bondage. the Friend of all. Oh call it not God's kingdom. Weare the dancers, you the orchestra. May the Almighty help me, that the Disciple may be- How long yet shall this last? come as his Master, fully and completely like Him, and How long yet will you have us be linactive? not a particle less than that and to do for thee, my mother- Hath God not eyes to see withal? land, and for the world, what He did. Then shall I, whom Then let us swim, or let us drown. thine eyes may see tortured, slain or dead, serve thee Thus only can we learn at last to swim. throughout the ages, how many of them, neither you nor Keep all your doctrines to yourselves alone, I may know. But let us first find Christ. And be not wroth, for I am but a messenger at best, And what folk utter, that I tell. Let us be brothers first and sisters; Then let us find the answer to our other questions.
Tilak dreamed of a great future for the Indian Church. At the Centennial of Marathi missions he uttered the words: "The century just passed was that of the foreign missionaries. The coming one is ours."
These words give us a clear picture of Tilak, THE LIFE MORE ABUNDANT Christianity is not the religion of sorrow and gloom; it is the religion of the morning, and carries in its heart the happiness of heaven. .
Christianity is not a restraint but an inspiration-not a weight but wings; not subtraction but addition.
Christianity brings zest and sparkle to life; it is sunshine on the flowers, rather than moonshine on the snow; it is life more abundant; it is leaving the little narrow life behind and leaving it for ever.
Christianity is the' experience and the expression of Christ in the heart.
DOCTOR TAKING A PATIENT TO THE HOSPITAL, THE CABOOSE ON RUNKERS FOR WINTER
15 MILES AWAY, BY SNOWPLANE NOTE THE CHIMNEY FROM THE STOVE INSIDE Messengers of Faith in Manitoba IIBishop's Messengers of Faith in the Diocese of Brandon"
~- -e( I By MISS ROSALIE F. PENNELL, Manitoba, Canada A LL are ready for the Christmas festivities at senger speaks of the Light of the World and tells .r-. Dunkinville. True, tomorrow, not today, is how each one must come to that Light to have Christmas, but the Messengers live about their own little lamp kindled, and must then take twenty miles away so that it is impossible for it out into the dark world to give light to others.
them to reach Dunkinville on Christmas Day- Then, in symbolic action, each worshipper brings the "local" runs the day before. an unlighted candle to the Crib, lights it there, It is bitter cold, well below zero. The Mes- and joins. in a procession to bear, as it were, sengers who have started at 7 a. m. are met at Christ's Light into the darkness.
the little station and drive the seven miles in an After the service, Christmas greetings are given open sleigh. There is just time to warm up be- and received. Then the Messengers make their fore the carol service begins in the Community way to the stricken house where lies the body of Hall. But tragedy is stalking abroad on this the little girl. There was no one among the group holy Christmas Eve. A small boy of seven, play- of women gathered there who could do what was ing with a gun, points it at his sister in jest. The necessary. They were all afraid, so that it fell to gun goes off and the little community is thrown the senior Messenger to take charge. There was into gloom. But the Christmas service takes place practically nothing with which to work – only as arranged so that nothing shall hinder the faith- dirty rags and a little soiled cotton-wool; the only ful Christians from honoring the Christ on the sheet in the house being one with a bright check.
evening of His nativity; but the merry-making Then the Messengers. returned at 2: 30 a. m. to as planned is omitted. find that their dear old hostess had been keeping It is so cold that only a few children have been turkey warm for them.
able to brave the weather, their clothing not being "Who are these Messengers and what do they adequate to keep them warm out of doors. The do?"
congregation numbers about sixty, more than half In 1926, Miss Fowler, a graduate of St. Chris- of whom are men. Many are away from home in topher's College, Blackheath, England, asked the the "bush," cutting lumber. Bishop of Brandon to send her out to help the It is a beautiful and heartfelt service, held in lonely and isolated women of his distant diocese the long frame building, dimly lighted by oil in Western Canada. As a result the Order of lamps. Bishop's Messengers of St. Faith's was formed.
The lights in the Christmas Crib glow all the Miss Fowler and a companion were sent to brighter in the surrounding dimness. The Mes- work, not in the town of Swan River, where there [140 ]
MESSENGERS OF FAITH IN MANITOBA
was a resident priest, but outside of Swan River, One Christmas, when the priest, accompanied with a roving commission to do what they could where they could. by a Messenger, was traveling by snow-plane the Starting with a small shack and two workers, Communion wine froze. On another occasion the there are now over a dozen trained and licensed Messengers, and a number of helpers. The Mother engine of the "local" froze at Swan River and the House is located at Swan River and Daughter Houses at Birch River, Cormorant Lake, Wa- priest who should have been at Birch River (20 bowden, and a one-roomed shack at Mafeking. Some of the Messengers minister also to outlying miles north) at about 11: 30 a. m. did not reach districts, holding services and classes in schools or homes. Two other dioceses have borrowed there till 6 p. m. . Messengers from the Order. There are also meetings for Guides, Cubs and What do the Messengers. do? During the summer there is always visiting and visiting and VIS- Brownies, and there is the Guides' Camp at Madge ITING, running a race with approaching winter. At least one Messenger goes out in the Sunday Lake at which many of the Lone Guides get their school caravan. Services are held at as many points as possible, generally once in two weeks, first idea of the team spirit of Guiding. There are and at these schoolhouse services, in spite of the old harmonium, the children's uncomfortable desk game nights, at one of which might be found, on seats (rather a misfit for grown men and women) and day-school surroundings, there is often an a certain night 50 below zero outside, as many as "atmosphere" of worship that would compare favorably with that of many a stately and well-ap- twenty-seven children packed into a room 14 by pointed city church. Something is done to make the building more church-like – a few pictures 15 feet, with two beds, a stove, three tables, chairs are hung up; the teacher's desk is pushed against the wall and draped with hangings; a small and benches! There are socials where many corwooden Cross is placed on it, and someone will bring a bunch of flowers when they are to be had, ners are rubbed off and differences forgotten, and either gathered on the way or from their own garden. you may hear some tired farmer declare that he Then there are classes for preparation for bap- has not laughed so much for years. Mothers' tism and confirmation; men, women, boys, and girls. The Bishop on his annual visit, goes to meetings and unexpected guests at all hours are every point where there is even only one candidate rather than summon them to a central place, added to the heavy but important work of the and thus the congregations get to know and love their Bishop and their place of worship is hal- Sunday school by Post, which is often the only lowed by these associations. religious teaching that children receive in isolated Many difficulties are overcome in reaching these little outpost flocks. Weather looms large in the places. Bundles are constantly being sent out to work of the Messengers, and roads that are good in fine weather, become nightmares in snow or needy families. For example–Edna, a member after rain. All sorts of conveyances are used; in summer usually the auto, which often runs long of one of the congregations, was to be married. after it is wise and this results in many adventures. In winter, cutters, dog-sleighs, box-sleighs, She had worked very hard on the farm and in the cabooses, and on special occasions the snow-plane, which is a sort of car with an aeroplane engine home as her mother used to walk five miles to earn and propeller. It can reach a speed of 30 miles per hour. It is bitterly cold and noisy inside but a dollar by washing. The few dollars that might the chief drawback from the Messengers' point of view is the cost as ic has to be hired at so much have gone to provide a little trousseau were swalper mile, and the miles mount up horribly. lowed up when a summer gale blew off the top of their house. After that they had to live in the chicken house, until they could put on the new roof. The Messengers heard of the disappoint- ment and ransacked the bale room to select a bundle of clothing for Edna. "Were the things nice?" the senior Messenger asked. "I'll say,"
was the brief but unmistakable reply.
Hundreds of Christmas parcels go out to homes which in many cases will have no other material "Christmas cheer." The bale room also stocks the Jumble Sales which take place at each centre about once a year. This is indeed a red letter day for every mother, and pennies are carefully saved to buy the merest trifles for the family. No Bond Street shopper could have more fun in the excite- ment of choosing! The proceeds of the Jumble Sale are put into a fund, aptly called "The Samari- tan Fund," to help the people in sickness and other divers needs. There is the occasional funeral when no minister is within reach, and a great deal of sick nursing.
As one of the Messengers said: "Our work can never be dull for every day brings something un- expected." Inspiration comes through the Mes- sengers' daily private devotions and reading, and in public worship.
Home Missionaries Need
By MILDRED S. CAPRON Secretary to the Protestant Episcopal Missionary Bishop of Wyoming W E ARE a strange people! Families employ or translation, or equipment providing mechan- a cook and provide her with cooking uten- ical and more rapid means of caring for routine sils; a farmer has his faImling imple- work. ments; an architect is not expected to retain his For the most part these are items which the plans in his head but is given a medium for re- average person would take for granted, items the cording them; a nurse or doctor is never without necessity for which the office person or houseequipment. And yet for years church people have keeper or schoolteacher would readily underbeen sending women missionaries, evangelistic stand. Because they are so easily taken for and religious education workers, to their posts, granted, they are likewise easily forgotten. expecting them to do a first-rate job without pro- Many workers have gone to the field quite unviding them with tools or equipment, money for aware of how their hands were to be tied for purchasing teaching materials, for employing lack of materials. One instance comes to mind: a translators, funds for office equipment or postage, woman worker was given the job of revising all traveling expenses on the field, and such items not the teaching materials in the Church school from otherwise provided. For years the missionarie1> primary up-a job requiring several years for have been doing a first-rate job, in spite of the completion. And in a foreign tongue! Obviously handicap, and have skimped on their small sal- a translator was necesary. The only fund availaries to provide in at least a meager way essen- able for paying a competent translator was a tial materials, but feeling always as one mission- monthly amount sufficient for a coolie's wage. ary expressed it "like a bird suspended on a wire." This missionary, though appalled by the size and The day has passed when a desire to be a mis- importance of the job committed to her, did a sionary, or have a call, is sufficient to make a mis- splendid job, but at a great personal sacrifice. sionary. Just as in secular teaching, we now insist that more than a bodily presence is necessary, so Volunteer help was solicited at every turn. the job committed to the missionary demands Those in Church school and rural work are adequate training. This often means a training in history, literature, psychology, sociology, to- aware of the inadequacy of our printed materials gether with pedagogy, also some knowledge of and how we are continually turning to other commusic, finance, practical nursing, handicrafts, munions to supply our lack. domestic science, and possibly other specialties. The evangelistic and religious education worker Visual education is the great need today. But on the mission field is called upon for everything pictures, and maps, and posters, and books all and by everybody. He or she must be so alert cost money. mentally as to undertake any job and do it well. A woman missionary must be able to teach illiter- Again are we doing right when we provide a ates with the same agility as the educated. She rural worker with a car without providing gas must have great facility with children. And above and oil as well? Those living in the broad areas all, she must have the same love for people as that of the deep West, where distances are so great, of Christ the Great Teacher. roads often bad, and gasoline so high, know some- thing of the high cost of locomotion. The cost in Some of the tools needed for this super-person dollars and cents of searching out and extending may be grouped into four sections: a helpful healing hand may seem hardly com- mensurate with the number reached but Christ's 1. Printing. Leaflets, maps, posters for Church religion is not on a per capita basis and wherever schools, auxiliaries, clubs, summer conferences, His children are, it is our high privilege to minand for materials for use in f3!milies. ister to them. These people so isolated, that it is not only necessary to make long journeys to de- 2. Supplies of books and pamphlets to help in liver books and magazines and Sunday school religious education of all ages. material-that could be done by mail-but there should be the uplifting personal contacts, for these 3. Means of travel and traveling expenses be- people are so dependent on their own resources, tween mission stations. that much travel is required to comfort them in their troubles and sorrows and to bring them new 4. Secretarial and office help for clerical work • Adapted from The Spirit of Missions. hope and vision and joy of Christ.
[142 ]
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Effective Ways of Working crested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MISS GRACE W. i.VICGAVRAN, 5718 OAK AVE., INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA ~'=I============="~ How a Pastor Enlisted tions and classes already carry- vistas of service and responsi- His Whole Church ing out a program of their own bility are opening up before us. is obvious. He is the logical one From Berkeley, California, to present to them all the oppor- Are you using the newer miscomes a report of a new plan for tunity for a cooperative study of sionary hymns? Or are you still missionary education. Sunday value to everyone. In this case singing about yourselves, "lightschool classes in this church cus- his wisdom was shown in using tomarily had supper meetings on existing class and organizational ed with wisdom from on high," Wednesday evenings. Through units, so that machinery already denying to souls benighted the the fall months the missionary existing might function. Too often an all-church missionary lamp of life? The old hymns education plan has made use of study ignores existing relation- are rich and full. There is still this set-up, displacing the usual ships, doubles administrative a place for them in worship. But loads and loses the automatic in- you need the modern form and activities. clusion of lukewarm persons, words to make responsibilities . Each organization or Sunday quite willing to wor~ witp.in seem vivid, and points of view in their accustomed relatIonshIps, today's missionary task seem school department was given a but not at first interested enough vital. It will stimulate your country or field, in which the to attend extra or unusual gath- missionary group's thinking and foreign and national boards of erings. add much more than just novthe denomination have missions. elty to your meetings to move This assignment was made in Another point to be noted is order that through the fall they that the pastor is familiar with into the field of the new missionmight study it by any means at the needs of the existing groups. ary hymns. their disposal-study books, let- He knows what their program includes. He is able to help sug- Thefollowinghymn (page 144) ters, pictures, etc. gest assignments. which will sup- The church calendar at the end plement their regular activities was written by a Danish man and studies and develop their after the folk school to which he of September listed the 23 as- special abilities. had given hi,s heart's devotion had signments thus made, so that each might know the field of The pastor, too, in most to be closed. It had to be closed their own and the others' studies. churches, is an effective admin- because the government would Africa, Korea, Our Southern istrator. He knows the best not give it the additional aid Mountains, The American Bible channels for publicity. He is usually accorded such schools, on Society-such were the assign- aware of resources. account of his rather liberal ideas. As he agonized over the ments made. As you consider missionary seeming destruction of all he Every Wednesday eve n i n g education in your church, look carefully to the possibility of held dear, there suddenly came groups met for study a?d ~or having your pastor lead the plan- to him a longer view of life. He preparation for a culmmatmg ning and execution of the proj- wrote this hymn, serene in its activity designed so that each ect. It should not mean less faith, rich in its imagery. might share some high points of work for other leaders in the church. But in many cases it Kagawa has "adopted" it an.d their own study with the other will mean a more effective piece it is sung in the meetings of hIS groups and also with those who of all-church work. movement. Cooperative groups use it. It is a good hymn for had not in any way been involved Gain New Strength Through missionary groups in our counin the study. Worship try and elsewhere. What if our This culminating activity took It is a new world we are liv- cause does not go forward as it the form of a three days' exposi- ing in, with new concepts and should? We must look at it with tion turning the whole church new modes of expression. New a longer vision and learn to work into'the "world" and showing re- earnestly even for that which sults of the study by booths, pic- [143 ] may never come to fruition in tures, talks, etc., put on by dif- our life-time. ferent organizations in different parts. of the church. Dse this hymn first as a solo, giving something of its ~ack The pastor's place in such a ground as we have given It to plan which involves organiza-
you here. Have it sung very Young People Make Inter- problem connected with this venture simply. Use its music as pre- racial Contacts has been the securing of delegates lude to your devotional. It is an from the non-white and non-native easy tune and will become fa- The following report has some born American groups, for these are miliar very soon. Then, in some points well worth pondering arid almost invariably composed of low inone meeting, take time to learn emulating: come families.
to sing it together. Use it fre- The summer conference for Meth- The young people of one suburban odist young people of Chicago and church felt they would like to help quently thereafter until it is as vicinity has for some years been op- solve this difficulty by raising a fund erated on an inter-racial basis-and to take one or two delegates to the familiar as "From Greenland's that is a story in itself. Through the Institute as their guests. Surveying Icy Mountains." depression years the most difficult the field, they discovered that Ne- groes, Chinese, Filipinos and several That Cause Can neither Be Lost nor Stayed European groups had been repre- sented in previous summers, but never CHRISTIAN OSTBRCAAItD Danish Folk TUI e anyone from the Mexican group. Ac- cordingly, they began to make plans. J q'"lt •••• Ii •• The Mexican Methodist pastor was '"It -=-J .~ contacted and was delighted to coop- erate. The young people decided upon ~ a lawn festival as a first money- 1. That cause can neith – er be lost nor stayed raising device. The Mexican group 2. Each no' – ble serv – ice that men have wrought sent out half a dozen young people 3. There – by it – self like a tree it shows; who played and sang as a feature of the festival. After the last guest had 4. Be then no more by a storm dis -mayed, departed, the local young folks and their Mexican visitors held an im- • ~_ J ~ promptu party which was a delight to all. ~~kIp. Jfi~ :J -z;I" .". 019- "U The Mexicans were auick to invite their new friends to attend their own Whl.ch takes the couI rse of what ":rod bas made; young people's meeting and on a sub- sequent Sunday evening a joint meet- Was first con – ceived as a fruit – luI tho't; ing was planned. A large group went That high it reach -es, as deep it grows; into the crowded quarter of the city where the Mexican church is located. For by it the full-grown seeds are laid; Several of the visiting young people had the novel experience of bringing ogg r IJ r IF- J=t!=J greetings to the young Mexicans .". :6t through an interpreter. After the formal meeting another delightful ~§:j§j~~~~m9~ w~ And is not trust – ing in program of singing, recitations and and tow – ers, instrumental music was staged.
Each wor· thy cause with a fu – ture glo-rio'us The proceeds of the lawn festival were supplemented from other sources AHJ-~ ~f~~f~-E=:~~~t1~"I-;E~J And when the storms are its branch – es shak-ing, and eventually enough was realized And tho' thp. tree by its might it shat-ters, to invite a boy and a girl to attend .. .. tt· the summer conference as guests. These delegates were selected with the ~ aid of the Mexican pastor, and they '- ~ had "the time of their lives." The But slow – ly grow-ing from seeds to Bow -ers. interest generated by this experiment By quiet – Iy grow-ing be -comes vic – to – rious. carried over into the followinl; year It deep – er root in the soil is tak – mg. and there were a number of other ex- What then, if thous-ands of seeds it scat -ters. changes. A major note in the whole •… ~9!90 interprise was an emphasis upon the • '-=" contribution of music and friendship which the Mexican youth were able to Translated from the Danish by ]. A. Aaberg. make, so that there was an absence The song has been used with the permission of of condescension -and superiority on Cooperative Recreation Service the part of the American group.-J. L.
We should like to draw atten- tion to several points. First, the problem to be solved was one of more than local significance. It involved a policy of the confer- ence, that of operating on an inter-racial basis. The young people started out by wishing to do something to help forward that ideal.
Second, the spirit of the proj- ect became theirs in their deter- mination to take as guests those for whom they financially made conference possible. The differ- ence between belonging to an in-
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
timate group within the bigger to take them as guests. They did the Reformed Church. The cast ingroup for the Mexican boy and not raise money for them but cluded more than forty people from girl, and that of going on their with them. It was a joint enter- the different participating churches. own, no matter how welcome, is prise. Later there was the fur- Our own church furnished the boys for apparent. The difference be- ther joining with the Mexican the boys' school scene, as well as three tween having as part of their pastor in solving his problem of of the leading characters. More than own group the guests they were feeding and clothing his needy. a thousand people crowded into the responsible for, instead of mak- largest church in town and more than ing casual contact with them The pastor's place in mission- a hundred of them had to stand durfrom "the outside," is equally ary education is one which no ing the two hours of the performance. visable. other person in the church can fill. If he does not fill it, it There are several points· Third, the relationships estab- stands empty-a gap in the forlished opened an avenue for serv- worthy of note. First is the ice through the Mexican pastor, ward movement of the Church heading on the enrollment blanks for the needy among his people. toward the Kingdom of God. -"Jesus in the Life of Today- Instead of the usual, "we help Six Sunday Evenings 'To Learn the Mexicans" (or any other A School of Applied group) these young p e 0 pIe and to Worship.''' A rather joined with Mexican people of Christianity good statement of the mission of like interests and attainments in the church, isn't it? "Jesus in relieving human need known to Too often a school of missions the Life of Today!" And the rethe Mexican pastor. is an isolated effort, for which a lationship of the local church to complete plan of organization that – to learn about it and to There are many young peo- worship in terms of it. ple's groups where one or an- and promotion must be provided. other of these procedures could The inclusion of specific study in Another good point is the cirbe carried out to the great en- a series with other studies avoids richment of their experience and this and helps to put the study culation of enrollment blanks for development of their under- several previous Sundays. That standing of the world mission of of the world mission of the the Church. church into right relationship is, the continuation of the series with other emphases. in the study of studies is taken for granted, The Pastor Guiding Youth and a definite intention of tak- of the local church's program. ing part crystalized into enroll- Are you pastors allying your- Here is a report which shows ment, so that proper provision Are you pastors allying your- for books, etc., might be possible. self closely enough with the lead- the outcome of one such inclusion ership of youth activities in your of the mission study with other This church felt that the use state to be aware of areas where of study books prepared for the real progress can be made by en- studies in a series. listing the youth of your church various classes would have an in something big enough and We came now to the series of serv- advantage over the research type worth while enough to challenge ices which we felt would put our whole of study. That is often the case. their interest? program to its severest test. We in- stituted a series of six Sunday eve- But note the hour in which all This pastor knew the pastors nings which we called "A School of gathered for special things of inof other racial groups. Guidance Applied Christianity." Really it was terest to all. The variety is extoward the Mexican group was a school of missions. Several Sundays possible because he was sure of previously we had circulated enrol- cellent. adequate response there. An ment blanks, headed: "Jesus in the The closing pageant, while it enterprise which falls fiat, be- Life of Today"-Six Sunday evenings cause of difficulties beyond the "To Learn and to Worship." Then did not rise directly out of the power of the group to overcome, followed the dates and program and a study, was a culminating presenis not usually a wise activity to place for signature. We began at tation of the field of the study, undertake. Are you enlarging seven o'clock with five instruction and and was done on a scale worthy your own acquaintance with discussion groups, ranging from of being of value to more than leadership among the nationals junior high school to adult. Each just the groups who had been of our own country so as to have group studied and discussed one of the carrying on the six weeks of good judgment is guiding your current missionary books, either on group toward enriching experi- Japan or on Oriental life in the study. ences? United States. This period was fol- The worth of the closing pag- lowed by a worship service, which fea- This pastor knew the danger tured such things as a stereopticon eant to those who had studied of the development of a superior lecture on Japan, a group of foreign Japan was, of course, greater attitude rising from "doing for" students from a near-by college, an others. He adroitly avoided the address by a returned missionary, an than to the rest of the audience, pitfalls for his group. They did evening of Japanese poetry and song but it had a real message for all. not plan to send some other and movies on missionary work. We young people to conference but were overwhelmed when we discovered And note finally, the provision that the assembled groups filled the auditorium to overflowing. for publicity in the city papers. We deplore the devotion of our The seventh Sun day evening daily papers to murders and brought the climax in the presentation of the pageant-drama: "The Cross scandals. Yet we too often neg- Triumphant," which was written by lect our own responsibility for the missionaries of our own Reformed using the daily papers as a Church in Japan, and tells the story of Japanese family life and how it is channel for letting our city know blessed by the coming of Christianity. of the constructive things which We used authentic Japanese costumes, are being done by the church for provided especially for the pageant by the character – building and the Woman's Missionary Society of Christian education of our people.
A Story for the
By VIOLET WOOD, Missionary Education Movement THE WORLD BEGINS "Why not invite the whole writing while I was speaking?" asked Teacher. ALL OVER AGAIN junior and primary department "It's a prayer for our gardens. "The March wind blew me to bring flowers on Children's May I read it?" asked Mary. Day?" questioned David. right into Sunday school," "Yes, indeed," nod d e d laughed Grace. "When our story time is over Teacher.
"Teacher, where does winter we'll invite the children of the Mary read her prayer, "Fa- other classes," agreed Teacher. ther, we pray thee that every go?" asked John. "This morn- "I am sure the Children's Day little seed we plant will grow service will be the most beauti- into a beautiful flower which we ing there were snowdrops on our may give to the sick, to the poor, ful we have ever had. and to make the church beautiful lawn and mother told me that "Now the story today is about on Children's Day."
means that winter is going." an old man and a young boy. Making Use of This Story The old man had white hair and "I know a lovely Indian story lived in a dark cave. When he Children often feel that they are breathed, the rivers froze and left out of the grown-up world toabout winter and snowdrops," the soft earth grew hard as a wards which they look with great rock; the trees shed their leaves longing. The parent or teacher may smiled the Teacher. and grew stark and bare. When guide the child to a simple apprecia- he shook his white head the snow tion of his part in worship and praise "Let me hear it," said Peter. fell. He had only to wave his the child for his singing in the junior arms and the birds were silenced. choir, and for his part in the seasonal "I am to have a garden of my pageants and church socials. "'I am king over the whole own this spring and when my world. Noone can master me,' Ask the children to find out facts he would cry every night. No about young boys whose interest and flowers come up I shall bring one dared to rebuke him and he love of nature led them to become reigned supreme for man y great scientists. They may look up some snap dragons, sweet peas the following names in their libraries months. at home or at school: and poppies to Sunday school." "But one day, when he Michael Pupin, the shepherd's boy "I'm going to have a garden, breathed, the rivers did not from Serbia who made a great discovery about light and sound too!" cried Mildred. freeze. He puffed with all his waves. might and the trees trembled, "Daddy let me help him put but they did not moan. He Luther Burbank, an American, who shook his head fiercely, but in- became a great naturalist and some dahlias in the ground last stead of snow a gentle rain fell. cultivated new fruits and flowers. He looked around impatiently. fall. He said the snow would Hugh Bentley, a New Englander, "'Yes, King Winter, I have who took the first photographs cover them and keep them come once more,' laughed a of snow drops. merry young boy with twinkling warm," David exclaimed. eyes and golden hair. 'The A,sk the children to look through the world will begin all over again.' Psalms for phrases telling of the "We have a window box with He clapped his hands and green wonder of God's creation, such as Psalm 19: 1-4. hyacinths now. In summer we buds stirred in the trees. He smiled and the sun grew Enough have geraniums," said Julia who brighter. He whistled a long, It is enough; I come. lived in a crowded part of the low note and chirping birds an- Christ's human face, divinely lit, swered him. And God's love shining out from city where there was no room "The old man fled back into it for gardens. his cave; when the bright sun- Have conquered. light touched him he disappeared I come; it is enough. "I bet everybody is going to and where he had stood some Is it enough? I go! beautiful snowdrops. pee p e d His hand points toward the plant some kind of seeds, 'cause through the ground. farthest shore I am, too," nodded Joan. " 'Good-bye, King Winter,' the Where human han d sou t- boy laughed. 'Spring is king "I have a wonderful idea." stretched are begging for now.' " The Christ who conquered – 10, David was so enthusiastic that "I like that story, Teacher," It is enough; I go!
he shouted. "Big people bring said Mary. MARY A. HOLT. Baptist Missionary flowers at Easter time for "I didn't think you were listen- ing, Mary. What have you been Review. church. Why couldn't we bring [ 146] some of our ft.owers on Chil- dren's Day?"
"That's a good idea, David,"
agreed Mildred, "because that would make us care more than ever for our gardens."
"I'd like to bring my ft.owers for church," offered Joan. "I'd weed every morning just to be sure I got extra pretty daisies."
"God loves ft.owers and if we bring them, that would be a good offering, wouldn't it, Teacher?"
asked Julia.
"God gives us seeds and the earth and the sun and rain; he makes the ft.owers grow," Peter chanted. BULLETIN Council of Women for Home Missions EDITED BY MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, 297 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
Annual Meeting of the Council CO,uncil, secured three new visor in the far West. Mrs. Shotof Women for Home Missions VOIces. Seventy-eight speaking well has a B.A. in Religious engagements were reported for Education and has received her The thirty-first Annual Meet- the year. Material concerning Master's degree in social work. ing of the Council of Women for Council projects was fed to the Her experience in service of mi- Home Missions was held in Bal- denominational press. A volume grants gives her exceptional timore, Maryland, January 7-10. descriptive of the ministry to the qualifications for her new work It was preceded by the meeting families of migratory laborers to which she has come from the of the Executive Committee and has been published entitled, Nevada State Department of by a two-day conference of great "They Starve That We May Public Welfare. Miss Helen importance in the national cap"- Eat." A leaflet "Together" has White, who has acquitted herself ital at which church leaders hav- been distributed outlining the by many summers of service in ing administrative responsibility Council activities. Migrant centers, has been apfor home mission work among pointed to supervisory service in Indians were informed by Mr. Advance p.rogram the Middle West. Miss Lowry John Collier, Commissioner of retains national supervision and Indian Affairs and his associates There is a growing interest in direct contact with the centers in in the Indian Bureau, of the vari- the work among the Migrant the East. ous phases of service which the families. In California, coop~ government is carrying on in be- erative enterprise has been World Day of Prayer half of the Indians. It is hoped initiated, participating organizathat the result of this conference tions being the Ministerial As- Every year a larger number will be reflected on the field in a sociation, church groups, and of places report the observance closer cooperation between mis- civic organizations. To meet the of the World Day of Prayer, sionary forces and government needs of the large camps of Mi- with corresponding increase in workers. grant workers in the west, espe- the use of the program materials cially in California where the and in offerings. In many in- The sessions of the annual groups present a year round ap- stances evening meetings are remeeting proceeded under the peal, a more effective strategy is quested in order that men also genial guidance of the Presi- planned. As rapidly as the may attend. Mrs. Daniel Poling dent, Mrs. Augustus Trow- necessary finances are supplied, reports a new departure in Philbridge. The financial reports it is proposed to provide four adelphia, where Jewish synawere encouraging, all depart- teams, each consisting of a gogues are to be open for prayer ments reporting a balance in the clergyman and his wife with a for the coming of the Kingdom treasury, whose total disburse- public health nurse, whose duty of God and where in an evening ments amounted to $56,63l. it shall be to visit the camps, re- mass meeting Catholics, Jews One-third of this, about $20,000, maining for several weeks or and Protestants will participate. was contributed by the constit- months at a time in order to esuent Boards. The World Day of tablish religious. services and to Christ and the World Commu- Prayer offerings. reached a new provide for health and hygienic nity-at Home high of $15,000 and the dividend safeguards as may be found fixed by agreement with the Mis- necessary. Of these, two shall The general theme chosen for sionary Education Movement, to operate in California, and one the mission study courses of which the entire responsibility each in the states of Oregon and 1939-40 is "Christ and the World for the publication of mission- Washington. The lamented death Community." On the home misary textbooks has this year been during the year of Miss Adela J. sion side it is "Christ and the transferred, realized $5,000. Ballard, whose tireless devotion World Community – at Home." encouraged thousands of migra- The maj or book of this course is The Editorial and Publicity tory people to new life and hope, being written by Dr. Arthur H. Committee has had an unusually left a great gap. She herself Limouze. On the foreign theme, active year. A Speaker's. Insti- pointed to her successor, Mrs. F. "Christ and the World Commutute, conceived as a means of E. Shotwell, who has consented nity Abroad," the author is Basil training women for making pub- to take up the work as super- Mathews. A sec 0 n d book, lic addresses on behalf of the "Women and the Way: Christ [147 ]
and the World's Womanhood," is Missions – met in Washington Election of Officers a symposium in which each of for a two-day conference. Out twelve women contribute a chap- of that conference emerged the The following officers were ter. The usual graded publica- National Committee of Church elected: tions are in process of produc- Women, representing the three tion. above-named organizations and MRS. AUGUSTUS TROWBRIDGE, Presi- for the better cooperation and dent *** coordination of the common in- terests and activities of the three MISS ELINOR K. PURVES, First Vice- Discussion of the liquor traffic organizations. Mrs. E. H. Silver- PJ'esident revealed that missionaries report thorn is Chairman of the Comgrowing problems arising from mittee which has headquarters MRS. KBNNETH D. MILLER, Second intoxication and that the situa- in Room 63, 297 Fourth Avenue, Vice-President tion in Alaska is especially baffling. New York, and four members MRS. J. W. DOWNS, Third Vice- from each of the three cooperat- President *** ing organizations serve with her. MISS DOROTHY A. STEVENS, Secre- The world is one today and "Already the Committee has tary its problems also, for even in made great strides. There are home mission assemblies the four subcommittees carrying on MRS. NORMAN V. PEALE, Treasplight of Spanish war sufferers the work formerly carried urer of Chinese refugees and Jewish jointly by the three organizaexiles makes its appeal and re- tions. The subcommittee"1 are: These are some of the highminds us of our inescapable ob- lights of the first two days of the ligation. "Committee on the World Day annual meeting. Several ses- of Prayer: Miss Margaret Ap- sions were held jointly with the A Decalogue of Peace Home Missions Council for con- plegarth, Chairman. This Com- sideration of such items as Home Upon recommendation of the mittee has pre par e d the Mission Sunday, Government Committee on International Re- and Resettlement Projects, Town lations, the Council voted to programs and other material for and Country, and World Day of limit its relations to peace or- the observance of the Day of Prayer. One of these was a ganizations henceforth to three: Prayer held annually around memorial service paying tribute National Committee on the the world on the first Friday in to Mrs. John S. Allen, Miss Cause and Cure of War, National Lent. The theme for February Adela J. Ballard, Dr. Lemuel Peace Conference and the De- 24,1939, is 'Let Us Put Our Love Call Barnes and Dr. Rivington partment of International Jus- Into Deeds-and Make It Real.' D. Lord, who entered into their tice and Goodwill of the Federal reward during the preceding Council of Churches. The Com- "Committee on May Lunch- year. A notable feature of the mittee also presented a "Church eons: Mrs. Henry Hill Pierce, days was a festive luncheon in Women's Decalogue of Peace," Chairman. This year for the which members of the Council an admirable statement of prin- first time there was a nationciples by Miss Elinor K. Purves, wide ob~ervance of the May Day were invited fa participate with chairman of the committee. It is available upon application to luncheons. In over four hundred the Woman's Interdenominathe editor. different communities women of tional Missionary Union of Bal- all denominations came together timore in the celebration of its National Committee of Church at luncheons for fellowship and Twenty-fifth Anniversary. Women inspiration following the theme of a suggested program, 'Unity The last two days were de- During the year, the coopera- voted to a conference on "Home tion which the Council of Women in Christian Service.' Missions and Social Trends." for Home Missions has been "Committee on International The following topics were precarrying on in an increasing de- sented: "Social Trends in Amergreesince 1927 has culminated Relations: Miss Elinor K. Pur- ica," "Trends toward PeaQantry," in the organization of the Na- "Home Missions and Cooperational Committee of Church ves, Chairman. This Committee tives," "Social Trends as Related Women, whose constitution and unites the church women in in- to Women and Children," "Relipurpose are best described in the telligent work for peace, pro- gious. Trends Among Underfollowing official statement: privileged People," "T r end s "Immediately following the An- motes attendance at the Cause among Lan g u age Groups," nual Meeting 1938, a committee and Cure of War Conference an- "Church Buildings and Equipof representatives from the three nually, and issues news letters ment." The proceedings of these cooperating women's organiza- from time to time covering in- two days may be secured from tions – the Foreign Missions terests in the field of public the Home Missions Councils at Con fer en c e (Committee on affairs. twenty-five cents each. They Women's Work), the National provide an unanswerable argu- Council of Church Women, and "Committee on 'Churr~ Wom- ment for the importance and the Council of Women for Home an': Mrs. J. N. McEachern, magnitude of the Home Mission Chairman. The Church Woman enterprise and the value of the is a magazine published monthly cooperative adventure exempli- fied in the Home Missions Coun- by the National Committee of cils. Church Women reflecting edi- torially the activities of the Story of the annual meeting was written women composing its member- by Mrs. Orrin R. Judd, a member of the ship." Administrative Committee.
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~ OufM:y~r~~;sp';!~:cu~t~:~ok .If EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO ~'=-==============================~~~ LATIN AMERICA crowds cannot all get inside on The following week, the mission- New Call to Evangelize special occasions. aries were given three months'
This group of believers does notice to vacate the building In view of the recent Pan- not wait for a missionary to lead where they held meetings; American Congress in Lima, them; they go, alone or two by whereupon believers launched a Peru, the purpose of which was two, while those who stay at program to build their own to strengthen the foundations of home look after the farms. Over church, and a site has been pur- democratic government, we note mountain trails these witnesses chased as the first step.
that the missionary opportuni- tramp to take the Gospel where ties in Brazil are of vital concern Ghrist is not known. Their ef- The Gospel by Radio to every Christian and to every forts have led to the establish- There have been occasional at- ment of another group of bap- tempts to radio a Gospel mes- American. Forces that are hold- tized believers; Christian schools ing large areas of the world in sage in Brazil, but only recently has this been done in a systemspiritual bondage, not content have been established, with na- atic way. In Rio de Janeiro with domination in their own tive teachers. Young men and lands, have turned "missionary women are being prepared for every Sunday night at ten o'clock every Brazilian who has and messianic." The phrase the Bible Institute and for more a radio can now hear the Chrisheard so often at Lima: "One effective service. The adminisfor all, all for one" can best be tration and spiritual oversight of brought about by spiritual unity the church is with the local com- tian message. In many places where there is no church there among the nations. We shall be mittee, and capable men they are radios, and it is an interestwell on the way to make the are. Their leader is a man of western hemisphere Christian God, loves the Word, and knows ing development that in some communities the principal famwhen we evangelize the "land of how to preach it. ilies have opened their houses on the Southern Cross." Sunday nights. for the conven- A Suffering Church ience of those who do not have There is no lack of churches radios, thus bringing about the in Latin America, and symbols The Peruvian Evangelical hearing of the Gospel by cultured of Christianity are much in evi- Church is hated by the pagan people, who would not ordinarily dence; rites and ceremonies are world and persecuted by Roman- be reached. In the capital it has practiced everywhere, but these ists. Not long ago a Catholic been noted that in many coff·ee have taken the place of true Congress was held in Cuzco, houses where men were lounging spiritual Christianity. In Brazil when opportunity was used to about, drinking and playing pool, the government of President bring everybody under control of all grew quiet when the hymns Vargas is liberal, leaving the the papacy. All the school chil- began, and men took off their doors open for evangelical work. dren were marched from their hats on hearing the Scriptures Wherever such work is being schools and compelled to attend read. -Watchman-Examiner. carried on, remarkable results the confessional. This was a have followed. terrific test for evangelical chil- The Mennonites in Argentina dren, as they were sure to be -Christian Observer. failed in their studies if they did Mennonite missionaries have not conform. The decorations, Indigenous Church in Colombia Far in the interior of the Cor- parades and enthusiasm of this been at work in the Argentine dilleras range is a mountainous the oldest city of South America Republic for twenty years, ocdistrict of Colombia called Cam- made it plain that after thirty- cupying stations on the Western pohermoso, a coffee-growing re- five years of evangelical witness Railway line of the Province of gion. Some years ago a land the city is far from being evan- Buenos Aires. During these years they have seen their efforts owner was touched by the Gos- gelized. pel, and through his testimony a A cardinal sent from Rome bear fruit, and they now occupy group of believers organized, for the occasion urged the Cath- 27 stations, all under the superelected a board of five men and olics over the radio to run every vision of two bishops, eight mismighty results have followed. evangelical out of the city. He sionaries and their wives, five The church building has twice told them they had the power, national workers and their been enlarged, but still the and it was up to them to do so. wives, a number of Bible women [149 ]
and Bible coach workers. They will have nothing to do with mili- "The exercise of religions in Alhave an orphanage, their own tary service. Something in the bania is free; but proselytising printing pre s s, kindergarten nature of "pure democracy" ac- propaganda is forbidden by law schools in most of the big towns, cording to the Greek plan is and such cannot be tolerated, beand a clinic. Their membership maintained, for important prob- cause it creates divisions and reaches about 520, but in com- lems are settled by discussion in disharmony among the religious mon with other missionary which the whole community elements." The choice of relibodies they are feeling the ef- takes part. gion, therefore, is not purely a fects of increased opposition. personal matter of religious con- -Christian Advocate. viction, the State intervenes on -South America. the ground that a change of re- Churches Still Grow ligion is detrimental to the in- EUROPE in Germany terests of the State.
Totalitarian Youth Movements Dr. Henry Smith Leiper pre- Baptists in Rumania dicts that worse things are still Addressing a men's meeting ahead not only.for the Jews but High ecclesiastic authorities in Leeds, England, the Arch- for the churches. Wholesale in Rumania have chosen the time bishop of York predicted that mass killings are possible in the when the world is watching, the hate motive behind youth near future. Confiscation of with strained attention, the movements in totalitarian coun- Catholic properties will be fol- working out of other minority tries would ultimately destroy lowed by similar action with re- problems to snuff out religious tho.se movements. Said he: gard to Protestant properties minorities in their country; and where there has been any opposi- the latest restrictions impo.sed "No fellowship, no community tion-vocal or otherwise-to the upon Baptists will probably close o.f interest of that sort can sur- Nazi program. In spite of all every Baptist meeting place vive for long, and soon all the this, aNew York Times corre- when (and if) the decree behatred, pugnacity, and ill will spo.ndent reports that 5470 of the comes effective on December 15. which you have used and di- population still belongs to the rected against the enemy will Protestant Church, and the per- The larger Protestant groups, show itself inside the fellowship centage is on the increase. More Lutheran and Reformed, have itself and break it up." suffered much in the expropria- than 95 % of all children born to tion of property and in interfer- Another "Brook Farm" ence with their schools, but they Protestant parents are still be- have had the advantage of a As long ago as 1936, a group recognized legal status, as the of earnest German Christians ing baptized; 90 % of those dy- Baptists have not. fled from Nazidom, went to England and established a colony ing are still buried with Chris.. -The Christian Century. which has become a model for tian ceremonies; and 8070 of Britons in the vicinity. There are those marrying – from among Bible Distribution in now forty families in fhe Cots- Protestants-avail themselves of Old Austria wold "Bruderhof." They own the church's blessing. Corre- 211 acres and rent 100 more. A sponding figures for the Catholic "God recompense you!" are hundred acres is under cultiva- churches are even higher. Also, words often heard by the mistion, eleven are in kitchen gar- according to the same source, sionary who travels among the dens, and the remainder is held Confessional churchmen who isolated hamlets, mountain vilfor use in growing fo.od for the prayed for peace during the Sep- lages and cottages of Austria. stock. German industry has tember crisis, and were punished Perhaps it is to avoid Nazi demade the project prosperous. In therefor are nevertheless pray- struction of his work that a colorganization the colony is some- ing for all who are being perse- porteur of the Scripture Gift what like America's Brook cuted and confessing the sins of Mission does not identify the Farm. All goods are held in the German people. little town where his visit is decommon. The women work in scribed as follows: the communal laundry, do the Juggling Words in Albania gardening and instruct the chil- The lonely folk living in these dren. The men till the soil Officially, and theoretically, isolated places of the world, at a (there is a provision that farm- Albania has religious freedom. height of between 4,000 and 6,000 feet ing shall be the means of earn- An individual is free to follow above sea level, were delighted as I ing a livelihood), and carryon the religion of his choice-it is talked with them of the things of God. the vario.us crafts that make the purely a personal matter. Four At every cottage I experienced a warm community self-sufficient. There men who believed this, became welcome, and as -soon as I arrived in is a community dining room Christians and were arrested, one of these mountain cottages, chilwhere all meals are eaten. Re- taken to the capitol under dren and parents gazed with admiraligion is prominent in the life of armed guard, confined to prison tion and were eager to get the Scripthe colony. The Pro.testant the- for ten days, followed by two tures. Some of the shepherds are ology is that accepted, but the months close police supervision. really eager to know the teaching of people refuse to. take oaths and An official communication sent the Scriptures, and I had opportunity to the missionaries who had of giving Gospels to some who were taught these converts runs thus: seeking their lost goats, and to others who were watching their cows on the
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
hillside. Old women on the wayside chists and school teachers in dif. agitate for a re-housing project and farmers engaged in the fields, do- ferent parts of the country come to eliminate slums, and made a ing their last work before the snow from Nnewi, and this year, for start on private funds. Since starts, were all pleased to receive the first time, a native of the then 3,000 modern, brick homes God's Word. town was among those ordained. have been constructed. Almost all are cottages, because the All the houses I have visited in this -Life of Faith. South African prefers them to distant valley have not had the Gospel apartments. hitherto. I have left Gospels in al- Advance in Tanganyika most every house, and for the first In the fight against strongtime I have been able to sell some, for The colony of Tanganyika has drink, the present goals include: the people are very eager to obtain been brought into the limelight To stop wine rations to farm booklets in these high regions where since the crisis in Europe, last laborers; to prohibit sales to nareading matter is very rare. September. It was one of the tive Negroes; to restrict sale territories handed to Great Brit- hours; to control bottle sales to AFRICA ain by the League of Nations at non-native colored people; and the close of the World War, on permit local option. Since wom- Work of the A. I. M. the understanding that the wel- en have had suffrage for only fare of the inhabitants should be seven years, it is not yet known The Africa Inland Mission is uppermost. The Mandates Com- what effect their votes will have in direct touch each week with mission at Geneva last year made upon the liquor evil. at least 500,000 people, out of the comment on the excellent work 2,000,000 for whom it has under- done there by the British Gov- Christian Council of taken responsibility. During the ernment, in which the Church South Africa past year, 10,000 Africans in Missionary Society had no small this area have professed their share. There has been close co- This recently organized group faith in Christ. The number of operation between government is one of the latest links in the native teachers and evangelists and missions; the number of world chain of cooperative counhas increased from 2,000 to Christian schools has been in- cils, affiliated with the Interna- 2,400; and at least 100 Christian creased, there are child welfare tional Missionary Council. It weddings have taken place. This centers and two well established has just published the "Christian last fact has real significance in hospitals; and more and more Handbook of South Africa," in a land where polygamy is almost responsibility for the main- which, for the first time, an atuniversal. tenance of the Church is being tempt is made to classify the borne by the Africans them- many activities of the churches A Moslem advance and a for- selves. and missions in South Africa, ward movement of communism and the Protectorates. Some make the situation there an It is doubtful whether any 1,300 institutions and organizaurgent one. -Life of Faith. country presents such complexi- tions, and about 3,500 Christian ties in life as Tanganyika. There workers are listed in the Hand- Progress in lbo-land are no national distinctions, and book, which includes the work German, Dutch, French, Greek of the Roman Catholic Church. The recent dedication of a and Italian are, with British set- It is hoped that this information new church at Nnewi, native tlers and officials, found in will serve to give a true view of lbo-land town of about 6,000 in- closest contact with Indians, the activities of the Church, and habitants, furnishes a striking il- Arabs and Africans. To plunge of the unfinished task in South lustration of growth made by the them now into a political up- Africa. Copies may be ordered Church Missionary Society. The heaval would be most unfair to from the World Dominion Press, first effort to gain a footing there the native races, and a breach of price 4/6 postpaid. was made thirty-four years ago. faith as well. Considerable danger was en- Madagascar's Last Queen countered, but once the people -C. M. S. Outlook. agreed to accept a teacher steady The remains of Ranavalona advance has continued. There Problems in Capetown III, Madagascar's last queen, are now four large permanent exiled in 1897, were brought churches, built of cement blocks Slums, intemperance and back to her island domain last and well furnished, in different marijuana are three basic prob- October from Algiers, where she quarters of the town; the one lems that must be dealt with in died in 1921. In bringing back which was recently dedicated is South Africa as well as else- her body, the French governcapable of holding over 1,000 where, although juvenile delin- ment has made a gesture that people, as are all the other three. quency does not bulk so large as has touched the heart of Mala- There is a central school in the in the United States. Mrs. gasy people, in whose opinion to town with about 500 scholars Muriel Jones, of Capetown, be buried away from home is to and twenty teachers, all Afri- South Africa, President of the lie uneasy and neglected. cans, and three "feeder" schools National Council of Women, is of about 100 children in each. in the United States studying Most of the present generation these questions. Ten years ago never saw their queen. Eleven All ordinary parish activities she and three others began to are to be found, including weekly prayer meetings, women's guild, Scripture Union, and Boy Scouts. Large numbers of cate-
years before she came to the Balkan Entente, the four-power book. After reserving enough throne she was baptized in the pact toward the East, and a for necessary bills, she was able church at Ambohimanga. She sturdy policy of friendship with to buy a few books which she attended high school like any the European countries. The de- listed and numbered. She then other young girl, except that she velopment of industries also has offered to pay the postage on the had a slave to carry her books. contributed largely toward eco- little periodical "Messenger of Her Protestantism was sorely nomic stability. The title of Truth" if the workers would sub- tried when, at the time of the Atatiirk was conferred on him scribe, which they did. She French conquest, came the Ro- November 26, 1934. This corre- writes in Woman' s Missionary man Catholics, as in the case of sponds very nearly to "Father of Friend: his Country." Ethiopia years later. It was As time went by I was able now openly declared that to be a Prot- Solve This Problem estant was to be a traitor to and then by a slight margin in the Religious liberty means differ- work funds, or my tithe, or a personal France. ent things in diff·erent places. A gift, to increase the number until now The queen stood firm all prominent official in Damascus we have in the Telugu 171 books for through her exile in Algiers. adults ,and 251 for children; and 78 in the Kanarese language. . . .
Her body now lies beside Rana- recently made the following pro- We make charts; write the names valona I, the persecuting queen of our workers with the books they who, for a quarter of a century, nouncement on the subject: have read and those they have had kept all the missionaries out of "Yes, we believe in religious lib- read in their villages. Comparisons erty, but we Moslems are not ex- are made and all can see who are the her country and wa.ged cruel war ercising our full liberty. The readers. . . . against Christian subjects. To- In the last six months in my two day, Protestant and Catholic Moslem religion teaches that an church members form one-third apostate must be destroyed, and districts, thirty-six workers have read we are not practicing religious 295 books, thirty-four school children have read 49, and fifty-four village of the population of three and a liberty in that regard." An- people have read 114. At the present half millions. A recent proposal time there are 220 books out in the is to make Madagascar a na- other Moslem official in north district being read. Syria recently advanced the thetional home for persecuted Jews of Europe. ory that it was proper for a Jew Against Polygamy WESTERN ASIA to turn Christian, or for a Chris- A bill to make polygamy il- tian to turn Moslem, for in each legal in India has the support of Atatlirk-"Father of His case the change would be a step the All-India Women's Confer- Oountry" upward and forward. But since ence, and various provincial Christianity was an improve- women's groups as well. For It is worth while to note the many years, protests against difference between the Turkish ment on Judaism and Islam an polygamy have been issued by dictator and the former dicta- advance on Christianity, it could women's conferences, and advotors of Europe in that Kemal not be tolerated that a man cating social boycott for those would go backward to Christi- anity. There is no constitutionknew how to accomplish things al way in the Syrian state where- who persist in plural marriages. by legal methods, instead of re- by a person may legally change There seems little doubt but that sorting to force or personal de- his registration from Moslem to the educated women of India are cree. The world acknowledges Christian. of one mind in demanding this with wonder the long list of his A change from Islam to Chris- reform. achievements of the past fifteen tianity is legally possible in Leb- The men of India, however, years. He rescued his country anon, but is beset with difficul- are not very enthusiastic in their from reactionary Moslem forces ties. After the application is support of this reform. They are by separating religion and the made, a public hearing is held at inclined rather to be silent or to state; the caliphate, religious court. Representatives both of resort to jesting in their refercourts, dervish orders were all the faith he is renouncing and ences to it. An editorial appearabolished, and the secular power that which he is confessing are ing in a leading paper in Northconsolidated. The list of bene- permitted to be present and to ern India says: "When a man ficial reforms includes compul- use their influence. It is easy marries two or more wives, sory education, purification of to see why converts are so few. surely there is no need to punish the language, adoption of family -Foreign Affairs Bulletin. him by law." names, reform of the calendar, the alphabet and the metric sys- INDIA, BURMA, SIAM However, the question is not tern; the reorganization of the regarding the punishment that legal system, founding the Uni- Importance of Literature comes to the men in polygamous marriages, but to the women. versity at Angora and the mod- A missionary of Tandur saw ernization of the one at Stam- the need for reading material not -Indian Witness.
boul. Perhaps his greatest con- only for children and adult con- New Bible House tribution to his time was his verts but for village workers as steady cultivation of friendly re- well; and consulted a catalogue A new Bible House has been lations with all the neighbors. of of the Christian Literature So- erected in the heart of the busi- Turkey, the establishment of the ciety, then the state of her pocket ness district of Secunderabad,
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
and fills a long felt need in the two other buildings collapsed made more classrooms available. State of Hyderabad. It houses with the weight of the crowds in The aim is to build more such both the British and Foreign attendance, evidence of the in- homes, not only to offer home Bible Society stock and display terest aroused. training to all the students, but rooms, and the Christian Litera- No statistics can measure the to release the whole main buildture Society depot. The large value of this work. When the ing for classrooms and chapel. assemblage of people present at general evangelist for this field -Siam Outlook. the formal opening found the made a tour of 171 non-Chris- Bible attractively displayed in its tian villages, ninety of them various languages. The local asked for Christian teachers. OHINA Society has to date furnished "Give us some one to show us The Old Order Changes Bibles or portions in fifteen how to live," they said, and "we A writer in China's Millions different languages. In the ad- will follow Christ." While less shows how present forces are joining rooms the Christian Lit- than fifty adults have been won changing all of China. (1) Poerature Society displayed its fine to Christ by these young people litically: no longer do local war assortment of literature and from Bassein, many lives have lords desolate the country with pictures. been influenced and some vil- the sole purpose of gaining per- lages have one Christian family, sonal power. Petty quarrels are The annual meeting of the and others two families or more forgotten in united allegiance to Bible Society followed the dedi- to set an example for their Chiang Ka.i-Shek. (2) Geocation. It was announced that neighbors. In the village of graphically: whereas there were the Bible Society of Bristol, Eng- no motor roads in the interior a land, was largely responsible for Impala there are nearly sixty few years ago, there are now the funds which made possible who are about ready to give up roads in all directions, linking the. new Bible House. their heathen customs and follow the provinces and making travel the Christian way of life. -The Indian Witness. and shipment of goods less la- Training at Dara Academy, . borious. (3) Socially: the in- Ohristian Oolleges in India Siam flux from the coastal areas to the The extent of Christian educa': tion in India, under Protestant The training offered to girls in interior, the migration of univermissionary auspices, is indicated mission lands must prepare them sities and their faculty and stuby the fact that the missionary to meet real problems; to imagencies conduct 38 colleges, in- prove their home conditions and dents cannot but affect the social cluding five theological schools help neighbors do the same. life, and (4) there is also a spirin seyen provinces. These insti- But the environment at school is itual change. "They that were tutions have on their staffs 339 so different from what the girls scattered abroad went every- Indian Christian teachers and have been accustomed to, and the where preaching the Word," is 412 non-Christians, in addition dormitory so unlike the little being fulfilled in China, and not to 181 foreign teachers. The bamboo houses they live in that only winning new converts but strengthening weak Christians.
resident Indian students number not all their training can be ap- As to the Christian Colleges 4,685, of whom 1,599 are Chris- plied. Realizing this, Dam tians; there are also 13,741 non- Academy at Chiengmai started a Through all the hardships of resident students, of whom 824 project about four years ago in warfare, the 12 American-sup- a little bamboo house on the ported colleges in China continue are Christians. campus. It is simply furnished, to teach the principles of Chris- Young People's Evangelism in keeping with what the girls tianity and democracy. Only in Burma have in their own homes, and is two, however, are conducting all used as a practice home. Now their work on their own cam- A native evangelist of the two more frame houses have puses; Yenching and West China Burma Baptist Mission person- been added, each home being in Union University. Of the ten ally raised funds to send young charge of a Siamese teacher who which have had to move, six people from the Karen Theo- lives there. The girls do all the have been able to remain near logical Seminary and the Wom- housework and laundry. Nor is their original sites, and thus to an's Bible School to work among religious life neglected. Family continue serving the areas from needy villagers. Beginning in prayers are held in each house- which their students are nor- 1936, the number of volunteers hold every evening. mally drawn. The remaining has increased each year. The The teachers choose which four have moved far into "Free first task was to make friends girls are to live in the practice China," where the problems of with Buddhist Karens and ani- homes, and each group remains travel for their normal student mists. Daily Vacation Bible all year. The project is too new bodies and of finding satisfac- Schools were conducted, and last for one to judge results, but tory accommodations are both year there were fifteen such there can be little doubt of the very serious.
schools, with a total enrolment value of the plan. Aside from Efforts are being made in of 375. Two of the schools were any other advantages, the build- every instance to retain posses- held in Buddhist monasteries; ing of these practice homes has sion of property. Those not now
being used for educational pur- killed, but still they can yield no cause so many refugees from poses are, under supervision of money. other places are in Shanghai resident Americans being used nearly every parish and mission for the relief and protection of Japanese fired 110 shells, by actual was represented. Many of the war victims. count, costing hundreds of dollars, on women are homeless and, as a Chinese fort where there were refugees, are SUbsisting on a With 54 of the 114 Chinese neither Chinese soldiers nor guns. minimum of food and clothing; Government universities de- With the Chinese gone, little customs yet they met to plan, and carry stroyed or closed by the war, income, it is the Japanese people who forward the work of the Church. many of their students are turn- pay. On the other hand, in "free" ing to the American Colleges, all China the trade balance is in China's The annual offering, by some of which are cooperating closely favor. Competent observers say that miracle, amounted to over $1,500 with the Government and its her reserves far exceed those of Japan. Chinese currency. The women agencies. The most urgent prob- make yearly appropriations to a lem is that of financial support, -Christian Advocate. wide range of objects, including and emergency funds to the the Chinese missionary district amount of $330,000 are being 'War's Effect on the Churches of Shensi, the diocesan mission sought. board, endowed hospital beds, Mr. H. Witt, writing in "The the Chinese Churchman, dio- Destruction in China Bible for China," says that the cesan conference, and $25 to the .problem of local churches due to American Woman's Auxiliary It is difficult to picture the war conditions has two aspects; triennial. amount of destruction that has one, the breaking up of churches been going on in China during when flight becomes necessary, -The Living Church. the past eighteen months, since and the other the arrival of the Japanese began their cam- Christians from other parts of Envelopes with Christian paign. Bombs, arson and raids China who, however, do not come Message have destroyed hundreds of to stay but move on again after thousands of lives and have laid a comparatively short time, tak- It occurred to Archdeacon low thousands of buildings and ing part in the "trek" to the Donnithorne, of the C. M. S., equipment that have cost millions West which ultimately will give that the backs of business enveof dollars and years of labor. rest and safety to 300 millions of lopes might carry a Christian One missionary society alone refugees. This situation has its message. He now uses such en- (The Methodist Church, South) value in the opportunities af- velopes for all his business correports property looted, damaged forded to preach to outsiders. respondence in China. At the or destroyed in Shanghai, Nan- There are weeks of evangelistic upper right corner is a picture of siang, Taichang, Changsu, Sun- meetings when most of the audi- Chiang Kai-shek, and under it kiang, Changchow, Huchow and ence is made up of students and his testimony: Soochow. It is a repeated story officials, some with their fam- – buildings occupied without ilies, who are willing to come out I have now been a Christian for permission, looted, stripped of definitely for Christ. Soon they nearly ten years, and during that time wood-work, bombed or burned. are gone and another type of I have been a constant reader of the Nevertheless, the lives of the people take their place. Bible.' Never before was this sacred missionaries have been spared, Book so interesting to me as during the morale of Chinese Christians Another feature of the situa- my two weeks' captivity in Sian. . . . is unbroken and the work is go- tion is that pastors, evangelists The greatness and love of Christ burst ing on with marked success. and Bible women who have lost upon me with a new inspiration, in- their positions offer to work in creasing my strength to struggle Why Still Confident some new locality, a factor that against evil, to overcome temptation sometimes produces an unstable and to uphold righteousness. A missionary attests the truth element in the work. But the of General Chiang's statement: simple testimony of Christian At the upper left is a state- "Japan has lost the war. China refugees who will faithfully wit- ment about the "New Life Movehas not yet won it"; and gives ness to the Lord, wherever they ment"; at the bottom, an emthe following illustration to go, will undoubtedly make a deep phasis on being "born again"; prove it. impression upon their people and at the right of this are the and there, too, much seed will be words: "To support General I visited Amoy and saw on the Bund, sown on fertile ground-for it is Chiang you ought also to be a the formerly active waterfront, only far more fertile than ever before Christian !" three Chinese. Of course there were – which will sometime bear many Japanese soldiers on guard, and fruit. -C. M. S. Outlook. a tank running up and down the street. The Chinese had all left. Chinese Women's League Japanese Occupy Hainan Japan is left holding an empty city. There are no people to tax, no busi- The Chinese equivalent of the On February 10 the Japaness from which to secure income. Women's Auxiliary, in the dio- nese army landed military forces Folks with money and the middle cese of Shanghai, held a business on Hainan, the Chinese island off classes have moved on. Only the poor session recently for the first time the coast of French Indo-China. are left. They may lie tortured, finally in two years. Only the Shanghai This large island is of vital im- churches were able to send their portance to French Indo-China, full quota of delegates, but be- to the Chinese Government, to Great Britain and to the Japa-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
nese, on account of its strategic practically impossible for for- Life of Christ. Japan can't win. p 0 sit ion. The Presbyterian eign physicians in Manchukuo, Nobody can. If the war goes on, Church in the U. S. A. has four missionary or otherwise, to ac- it will end in the collapse of both main mission stations on this cept Japanese, Korean or Man- countries. Some way must be island – at Nodoa, Kiungchow, churian patients. found to bring it to an end be- Kachek, Hoihow – with 24 mis- fore exhaustion comes." sionaries. It is a large and im- A religious law, just promulportant work. Several times the gated, forces Buddhists, Confu- He was asked whether the island has been bombed by Jap- cianish:;, Christians and even time had come for Christian peo~ anese airplanes and mission Shintoists to obtain permission pIe to prepare the way for peace, property has, been damaged. It for their activities, and demands and replied: "Not yet. Just is not yet known whether the a written statement of their aims now it would serve no good purmissionaries will be permitted to and methods. pose, and might do harm. Let remain and continue their work the Christians on both sides pray during the military occupation United States and British mis- without ceasing. The day of of the island. sionaries, driven from Korea by peace will come when it is least a similar law and having fol- expected." "Born Again" in Hainan lowed large groups of Korean colonies into Manchukuo, believe Love in Scavenger Town About two years ago, the that their activities will soon be church buildings at Nodoa were impossible. Imagine a community of subject to constant depredation 25,000 people, living in wretched at the hands of a gang of ruffians -New York Times. shacks made of every conceivbetween 14 and 16 years old. able kind of refuse, crowded There were broken windows, JAPAN-CHOSEN along alleys reeking with sewage ruined trees, rubbish in the door smells, with children and mothways. Some of these boys had "Exceptional Christians" ers doing piecework in the hov-· been in the Sunday school, and els, with diseased bodies and one belonged to a Christian fam- A Christian week-day school crippled minds hovering in the ily. Last fall, three Christian of religion with 750 voluntary alleys, with undernourished tots young people started an evening attendants is news anywhere, weaving in and out among the Bible class in the home of one of and such a school is in operation shacks, with images of superstithem, and gathered in street in the conservative city of Tsu, tion at every turn of the path, children to teach them hymns Japan. Small children, dismissed and all of this laid down in a and Bible stories. The gang from public school earlier than swamp hole that might be flooded stood outside the door at first, the older ones, come first; the feet deep when the rains came. then went in and finally took older children come an hour or Here you have a picture of part. Then followed a week of so later. "Scavenger Town" in East evangelistic meeting~ in the Tokyo, where eight hundred church in which the theme was One of the government teach- families live, well watched by "Ye must be born again." Every ers remarked that most of the Tokyo police. The hovels were member of the gang responded, best pupils of the school were en- thrown together after the earthand now the group is always at rolled in the classes in religion, quake in 1923, for unfortunate church, keep up regular Bible and added: "I don't know paupers, many of them with study and go on evangelistic whether they go to the Christian criminal records. Recent events trips to villages. classes because they are excep- have tended to increase the pop- tional or whether they're excep- ulation. Physicians Hampered in tional because they go to those Manchukuo classes." But all is not dark there. Within the settlement is a Japan's hand is seen in the in- The school of religion has been cleared space, a playground and creasing restrictions e x per i- conducted for the past 13 years. several clean modern buildings. enced by foreigners in Manchu- Missionaries in Tsu believe that This is the Ai Kei Gakuen – "a kuo. When a Korean woman a large part of the good will to- Garden Radiating Love and patient of a British doctor died ward Christianity in their neigh- Blessing," the work of a missionafter an operation, two Japanese borhood is due to this project. ary of The Woman's Missionary lawyers induced the family to Society of the Methodist Episswear out a complaint, and the -Monday Morning. copal Church, Miss Mildred A. doctor was arrested on a charge Paine, graduate of Oberlin Colof manslaughter. After a fort- Kagawa Writing a Life lege. For more than eight years night's detention in a native jail of Christ she has given her life to the servthe doctor was released upon ice of the children of "Scavenger payment of a large sum to the The Japanese are a reading Town," and has drawn around family. people, and will read anything her a corps of well-trained J ap- Kagawa writes. He is now writ- anese young women, devoted to Such precedent, despite Brit- ing a "Life of Christ" in fiction the needs of the boys and girls. ain's strong protest, makes it form. Dnyanodaya reports him President Yoshimune Abe, of as saying: "We Japanese are miserable about the war. What Japan needs is redemption and remission of her sins, and I have just come to that chapter in my
Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, is presi- astrous for them. There are New Britain Dictionaries only about 7,000 Japanese in dent of the trustees and the work these islands, but a victory for Members of the Young Womhas the support of the Tokyo the forces of the "son of heaven" en's Missionary Movement in Methodist Social Service Federa- would mean trade pentration. Australia achieved a remarkable tion and Japanese and American Japan sells more goods there feat and made a great contribu- Christian leaders. than Holland, cutting prices with tion to Christian work in New the natives. In outlying districts, Britain when they typed out six -Christian Advocate. they are beginning to take up dictionaries for the better equip- the farms; in the mines they ment of missionaries. To type a The Challenge in Korea have $222,500,000 invested. book of 900 pages seems a monu- mental undertaking, but when it An outstanding Korean pas- There is a compact colony of is a dictionary and grammar in tor thus describes the change Japanese in Davao, and Japanese a foreign language it is a very that has come about in Korea exacting task. It was all done within the last three or four concessions in Surinam; the by voluntary workers, and when years: center of their pearl fishing fleet completed the books were bound is in the Aru Islands. If the J ap- with special tropical inSUlation. "The Korean Church has en- anese pursue their notion of desjoyed fifty years of religious tiny, and should oust the British Report from the Philippines freedom. It now seems to be from Singapore, Netherland Instarting on a fifty-year period of dies folk would expect their rubpersecution." It is demanded of all citizens of the Japanese em- ber, sugar, tea, coffee, petroleum Lucena Church is the largest pire that they show their patriot- and most progressive in the ism, not only by swearing alle- and tin all to go to Japan. province of Tayabas. Dr. C. N. giance to the same emperor and Magill, Presbyterian missionary by saluting the same flag, but Should the Chinese win, the who has been in the Philippines also by worshiping the same result would be equally unde- for thirty years, reports that adgods. Those citizens who refuse sirable to them, for the Chinese vance has been made during the to worship the mythological gods past year, in spite of difficulties. of Japan endanger their oppor- outnumber the Islanders seven to Loyalty, perseverance and dilitunities for education, their jobs one. The fear is that they would gence have characterized the with the government, their embark upon the same kind of little struggling churches in that rights as citizens, and even their province, none of which have lives. nationalistic fervor for raw ma- any wealthy members. When terials as the Japanese. Thus, Dr. Magill was asked what were "Daily, Christians are coming the Far Easterners follow the example of the West. -Christian Advocate.
to the missionaries for advice Bible Circles in Java the principle crops of Tayabas, and comfort. They have been he replied: "Coconuts and chilthreatened, b eat e n, deceived. Javanese young people have dren," adding that while coco- The ear of the missionary is the organized "Circles of Five," to nuts were worth only 25 % of the only safe place to tell their meet and read the Bible, under price received 10 years ago, chiltroubles. It is a time when fam- one of their number 'as leader in dren were worth much more ilies are divided because of the the higher classes of elementary than they were then, for they are Gospel. One can no longer trust schools and of secondary schools. building character. the non-Christian members of Each circle becomes a sort of Spirituality and benevolence his family. No longer can union of secrecy and fidelity of go hand in hand everywhere. In brother trust brother. Secrets uncommon strength, marked by Lucena Church, sacrificial givhave such a strange way of personal devotion. Attendance ing has made possible a full-time reaching the ear of the police- at the weekly meetings is· con- pastor and three women workman." sidered a sacred duty, not to be ers, with all bills paid and a sub- Missionaries are hampered, missed. Printed outlines of Bi- stantial balance on hand. Bebut not harmed; they are fol- ble study are sent in advance to sides regular services, about 400 lowed by spies, but their words each circle, to be discussed at the persons hear the Gospel at six are not muzzled, and they can meeting. Coordination is se- different Sunday schools. Weekly cured by monthly meetings of services are maintained in two still tell "the old, old story." leaders, mostly girls and boys villages. There are only five or- -Christian Observer. under twenty. dained Filipino pastors in the The number five was chosen province, so that much of the ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC because in Java it is a sacred activity must be done by lay number, expressing completion. workers. Twenty-four trained Rulers and Ruled in the Five is the number of the fingers women have a large part in Dutch Indies and expresses unity. Five was building up the churches. Church An "undeclared peace" would the number of the prayer circle sessions are usually half women please the people of the Nether- in Antioch from which the Holy and half men. lands Indies, for they feel that Spirit selected and commissioned A large amount of literature, victory by either side in the Sino- Paul and Barnabas. both English and Tagalog, has Japanese struggle would be dis- -World Dominion Press. been distributed. One publish-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ing house in the United States cedure which has the following sible effort to ensure accuracy of sent surplus material that has five points: these figures. The report shows been most useful. They include that the membership of the beginners' stories, quarterlies, 1. Every member of the Communist churches in the United States incharts and picture cards. The Party belongs to a neighborhood creased twice as fast as the pop- Scripture Gift Mission of Lon- branch, a factory or shop unit, or an ulation in 1937. Significant of don contributes tracts and blot- industrial unit. The whole pyramid the trend toward church unity is ters with a Bible verse. of the party rests on this broad base the fact that 97.3 per cent of the of thousands of 11- or 12-member total membership is in the fifty NORTH AMERICA units, or 20- or 25-member neighbor- larger bodies-all with member- hood branches. ship of 50,000 or over. The small Bible Verses in Street Cars bodies account for only 2.7 per 2. The Communist Party publishes cent of the total church popUla- "A Bible Text in Every Public more pamphlets than any other or- tion; furthermore, the former Car" is the objective of Chi- ganization in the United States. number of 212 denominations cago's Best Seller Publicity Com- has been reduced to 200 by mermittee. It was initiated by a 3. Since publishing means nothing gers, or disappearance. small group of Chicago Chris- without distribution, communists have tians, and is similar to a move- one of the largest book store chains in Havoc Wrought by ment begun in England 55 years the country; sell more pamphlets and Godlessness ago. For the past year, one out magazines than any of them, and alof every fourteen street cars of most as many books. Here is a further slant upon this great mid-west city has dis- our growing juvenile crime probplayed a Gospel message with 4. Every "unit" has a literature lem. From time to time the striking attractiveness. The De- agent, whose business it is to promote judges of our courts make some cember card was the work of a wide reading. pronouncement upon the under- Pulitzer prize winner artist, and lying causes of this menace to other prominent artists have 5. More than publishing and distri- our cherished institutions, and contributed their skill. bution is required; there is also edu- here is what Judge Hill, Man- cation, and communist "Workers' hattan's foremost juvenile crime Written response to the car Schools," to which every member must jurist, presiding justice of the cards has afforded much stim- repair twice a week. New York Juvenile Delinquency ulus to the work. No sooner had the displays appeared than a let- Church Unity Gains Court, says: "70 % of the 6,000 ter from a Chicago man revealed that he had "prayed for four- The thirtieth anniversary of delinquency cases which anteen months that someone would the Federal Council was marked nually come before his court are start a work of this kind." The by wider Christian unity, ex- the result of dissolute and Godsentiment of evangelical believ- pressed in four important ways: less home environment." He ers was set forth in another of said: "As a jurist who judges the communications: "It has re- Admission of the Syrian Antiochian thousands of crime-broken boys j oiced the hearts of many Chris- Orthodox Church of North America and girls each year I know that tians to find such verses while into membership – the first of the religious interests for young peoriding the cars." Greek Catholic group to become offi- ple are essential for their moral cially affiliated with the Council. welfare and future as worth- The Best Seller Publicity Com- while American citizens. Relimittee (Box 409, Chicago) in- Enthusiasm for the projected World gion is necessary to the happivites response. Council of Churches. ness of American youth, but it is not enough merely to send chil- Scripture texts in public ve- A plan by which local and state dren to church. Parents must hicles provide fulfilment of councils of churches, as the instru- attend church, for the child in- Christ's missionary coonmand. ments of cooperative unity in local evitably follows the examples set Chicago is the largest Polish city communities, may become affiliated by its father and mother." in the world and the third with the Federal Council. largest Jewish city. There are Sunday School for Offenders 4,000 Chinese and one of the Concrete projects for united action. largest groups of Negroes in any For five years, the Mayor of northern city. Here then is op- After the completion of the Guntersville, Alabama, has been portunity to reach people of all University Christian Mission sending minor offenders to Sunraces and all nations. this year, a new evangelistic day school instead of levying undertaking for 1940 – to be fines, or sending to jail. To save Look At the Communists! known as the National Christian embarrassment to the offenders, Mission-will be launched. An this plan was not made public, Shall we say that lukewarm invitation will be sent to Chris- and only recently has it become Christians could profit by con- tian forces of other lands to join known. Then it was revealed sidering the enthusiasm of com- in a world-wide movement of that not one of more than 100 so munists in this country? Prot- evangelistic advance in 1940. sentenced had reappeared before estant Episcopal headquarters the Mayor, charged with any supplies an outline of their pro- Church Membership Increases The Federal Council's weekly issue of Information Service for January 14 gives the total church membership for the United States as 64,156,895. Of these 52,379,579 are more than 13 years old. The total number of churches in this country is 248,410. There are 200 different religious bodies.
Dr. Herman C. Weber, editor of "The Year Book of American Churches," has made every pos-
crime. About half the culprits region for just our kind of gos- the Indians, in whose music is a became regular attendants at pel work. Only about 7 out of 68 certain plaintiveness. They are Sunday school after their sen- places this season have any local very poor, yet most of them tences expired. Most of them, Christian work at all, and one of bring two or three, some four or before being sentenced, had these is mostly for Indians. And five skins as their gift, and a never been inside of a Sunday the Mormons are sending out skin is valued at fifty cents. school. 2,000 emissaries to win converts." MISCELLANEOUS – Watchman-Examiner. Union Work for Indians The Church in the World Sunday School Extension The Government I n d ian of Today School at Flandreau, South Da- The Presbytery of Cumber- kota, is one of six such schools in Unquestionably, darkness is land Mountain, Tenn., is an ex- which religious activities are surrounding the C h r i s t ian ample of successful correlation carried on by the Home Missions Church in many lands today; not between pastors and Sunday CouncIl's Committee on Indian only the darkness of unevangeschool extension workers, a pro- Work. This Committee, which lized paganism, which still pergram that began more than fifty represents 23 churches of the sists in many areas, but the oryears ago in this territory. In United States, was organized to ganized barbarism sweeping addition to the several Presby- enlarge and coordinate Christian over large parts of the world terian churches that have been work among our Indian people. once classed as Christian. But organized as a result, many Bap- Interdenominational religious there are other facts, equally untist, Met hod i stand other work directors are maintained at questioned, to be set over against churches have been organized these six schools through offer- this. and built up. Especially in the ings on the World's Day of lumber and coal camps a high Prayer, appropriations from va- In India the number baptized value has been placed on this rious church boards and private has multiplied tenfold in the Sunday school extension effort. contributions. present century, and more than More than 2,000 children and doubled in the past twelve years. young people have been reached. A new feature of this work is a "bookmobile," which carries a Africa south of the Sahara has In many communities classes traveling library to Indian reser- also shown a prodigious growth. in Week Day Religion have been vations. In the Philippines the number of conducted in cooperation with Protestant communicants has school teachers. Besides this Eskimo Thank-offering risen from practically nothing much help through the years has in 1900 to over 190,000. In been given through the distribu- The Church of England has a Latin America the growth has tion of clothing to the needy and Mission at Aklavik, Alaska. An been phenomenal and the nummany children have been enabled important annual event is Rat ber of communicants appears to to remain in school in this way Sunday. "Whatever is that?" have multiplied more than sevwho otherwise would have had you say. Rat Sunday is a sort of enfold in the present century. to drop out. Portions of Scrip- harvest festival, when Indians ture, Bibles and other religious and Eskimos who make their liv- In Japan the number of comliterature are being .distributed ing by catching muskrats bring municants has increased nearly continually. some of the skins to the church fivefold in the same period, and as a thank-offering, when they has grown by about fifty per Religious Destitution in Utah come to Aklavik to sell their cent in the present decade. An summer's catch. At this service, advance of nearly seventyfold is A writer in Light on Mormon- after the singing of hymns and reported from Korea, and the ism has made a survey of four other devotional exercises, the number of communicants in counties in Utah. Putting the church wardens go around with China is said to have multiplied settlements as located all in one large plates on which are laid the about fivefold since 1900. direction (68 places) they would little bundles of skins. The Incover 160 by 20 miles, with pres- dian service is held first; follow- Of more importance than the ent population of about 30,000. ing this, the Eskimos hold theirs numerical increase is the evi- In all this area, only six or seven and their thank-offerings of dence of deep rooted Christian places of Christian worship were skins are brought in big white faith in the lives of new converts. found, not including two or three bags. To quote Dr. Kenneth S. Latour- Roman Catholic ones. The total ette: "In a day when Christianat all these Protestant meetings In church both Indians and ity is being tested as it has not was perhaps 100 out of 30,000. Eskimo are notably reverent. been for over a century, and Says this writer: The men sit on one side, women when chaos international and and children on the other, all in- within many lands is increasing, "During all of 1937 we found tent on their worship. A baby the younger members of the only 6 or 7 places with Christian may cry, a little child may run world-wide Christian fellowship work out of 46 visited in over across to her father, but the have been increasing in numeri- 600 miles of field worked. Noth- sense of devotion is not broken. cal strength, in leadership, and ing more is needed to show the Eskimos sing more heartily than in self-reliance." tremendous need of this whole -C. M. S. Outlook.
Missionary
Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information The Heathen. A Study in Ethnology stating common things in an un- mon expression since men and and Religion. By Henry W. Frost, D.D. 106 pp. 35 cents. Funda- common way, and an almost un- women may endure but cannot mental Truth Publishers, Findlay, Ohio. canny ability to perceive the understand the reason or know The author is not ashamed to heart of truth and to present it the outcome. use a good old word to describe those who are without hope in so that thought is stimulated and Margaret H. Brown has been Christ and without a knowledge the heart satisfied. of God. He believes that the for fifteen years a missionary of Book of Genesis gives the true story of man's origin and that FRANCIS SHUNK DOWNS. the United Church of Canada. the widesprea;d traditions of a deluge are evidence of its univer- Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines. In- She has been stationed in Honan sality. "The heathen" are without hope of eternal life, except in troduction to the Study of Sufism, and later in Shanghai and was Christ and His Gospel, which is an eye-witness of many tragefor all in lands of darkness. Our with Special Reference to India. By dies. Here she tells the story only criticism of this brief bib- John A. Subhan, B.A., B.D., Lec- vividly and sympathetically as lical study is the title; and to the seeming limitation when the turer, The Henry Martyn School of author says: "As long, then, as the Church fails to give the Islamic Studies, Lahore. 420 pp. the story of a farmer, Chang Good News to the people in far- Yungshan, who suffered insults, away climes and they have not Rs. 4/- or $1.50. Lucknow Pub- abuses, temptations and privaheard and received it, we must tion after he moved to Shangthink and speak of them as lishing House, Lucknow, India, 1938. hai. Then followed the terrifyheathen." We can find many ing experiences in the Japanese heathen nearer than in Africa or Islamic mysticism goes by the China. The non-Christian world name of Sufism (from the Ara- invasion. The bright spots were is not a geographical unit. bic word for wool, because the the kind acts of Christians early mystics wore a woolen whom he met and through whom S. M. ZWEMER. robe). From the second century he became a Christian. It is a of Mohammedanism this teach- moving tale, filled with fa.cts, "Filled with the Spirit." By Richard ing spread in all lands until to- and all with a true Chinese at- Ellsworth Day, D.D. $1.00. Zon- day no one can really understand mosphere. Read it-young and dervan Publishing House. Grand the religion of the common peo- old – and your sympathy with Rapids, Mich. 1938. ple unless he knows this phase also. the Chinese will increase. Dr. Day's earlier books, "The Shadow of the Broad Brim" and A Moslem convert, who once "Bush Aglow," are inspirational belonged to a dervish order, has biographies of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Dwight L. Moody. given here a very careful study The Approaching Advent of Christ. This new volume-"Filled with of the origin, history and prac- By Rev. Alexander Reese. 8 vo. the Spirit"-is a book of devo- tices of Indian Moslem mysti- 328 pp. $2.40. Marshall Morgan tions for daily reading and & Scott, Ltd. London; Zondervan, meditation. cism. The book is carefully docu- Grand Rapids. mented and bears the mark of Dr. Day has a rare combina- scholarship. Our only criticism An unusual book is this. As tion of appreciation of evangeli- is that there are a number of the title suggests, it deals with cal truth and the ability to typographical errors. All who a branch of eschatology which express, in winsome and distinc- work and pray for the Moslems has become highly controversial tive language, the great and of India will be interested in the and concerning which strong gracious things which God has prejudices exist. The 328 closel'evealed. He has a real gift for book. It is a witness to growing .ly printed pages are devoted to interest in the evangelization of the seventy-seven million Indian a spirited, documented and very full discussion which even fair- Mohammedans. S. M. ZWEMER. ly well instructed Christians will Heaven Knows. By Marg,aret H. find it difficult to follow. Debate Brown. Illus. 167 pp. $1.00. in this sphere has been largely Friendship Press. New York. 1938. confined to the opposing "pre- No one who has not suffered in millenial" and "post-millenial" the devastation wrought by the schools of interpretation; this Japanese in China can imagine writer discounts both and identi- the horrors which the people fies himself with the view of a have endured and are still indur- small but estimable group of ex- ing. "Heaven Knows" is a com- positorssometimes referred to Any of the books noted In these columns will be sent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
[ 159]
as "a-millenialists." The authQr prQminent in the Gospels. If the and the Church, are hardly less is a missiQnary labQring in SQuth QbviQUS meaning is to. be at- evident than that between the America, who. has given twenty tached to. the language Qf many Old and New Testaments. Mulyears to. the preparatiQn of this well-kno.wn passages, then the titudes Qfstudents have fQund it volume. The main argument is theQry set fQrth in this bQo.k, of clarifying and helpful to. trace directed against what is termed intervening signs and events, be- these successive stages in an un- "Darbyism," having reference to comes untenable. folding plan, and to. increasing J. N. Darby, an Qutstanding The mQre theQIQgically-mind- numbers the pro.cedure seems leader amQng the Plymouth ed reader will naturally give at- elementary and necessary. Nev- Brethren, whQse advQcacy Qf tentio.n to. the analysis o.f leading ertheless this is, in effect, the dis- pre-millenial views has had wide passages relating to. the "last pensatiQnalism which this authQr influence during the past half- things," and here the authQr's so. severely arraigns. He WQuld century. CIQsely connected with exegesis is Qften interesting and have dQne well to. include in his the pre-millenial dQctrine Qf suggestive. It is no. dQubt true extensive bibliQgraphy a notable Darby and his followers is the that prQPonents Qf each Qf the volume entitled "After the ThQuteaching referred to. as "dispen- views discussed have claimed too. sand Year·s" by George F. sationalism," which is also large an area of scriptural sup- Trench, which deals in a CQnstrQngly QPposed. In fact, the PQrt fQr their theQries. But be- vincing way with the histQric whQle eschatQIQgical system as- fQre setting aside on narrQW development Qf dispensational sQciated with these views meets critical grQunds a dQctrine so. teaching. such disapprQval as to. eVQke the thoroughly embedded in Chris- We question whether the pro- statement: "It is as pure myth tian tradition as the pre-millen- digiQUS effQrt represented in this as ever entered the brain of ial return of Christ, it is natural elabQrate treatise will accom- to inquire if any Qf the alterna- plish much tQward clarifying o.r man." An excess Qf zeal is also. dis- tive views accord as nearly with unifying opiniQn in matters Qf eschato.IQgy, Qr will cQntribute in played in the effort to. discredit Scripture teaching. methods of interpretatiQn which Learned expositQrs have PQint- substantial degree to. sQund bibfQr generatiQns have had wide ed out that the pre-millenial lical schQlarship.
acceptance amQng trusted ex- view serves to. Qrganize and give HUGH R. MONRO.
PQsitQrs; there is a disregard Qf co.herence to. the entire teaching Ra-Ha-La-Hi-Ho (My Brother in of Scripture, while it is of great Madagascar). By Andrew Burgess. evidence which WQuld definitely Illus. 8vo. 224 pp. $1.00. Augsnarrow the area Qf debate. In practical impQrtance as an indealing with certain pivQtal pas- spiring mQtive fQr Christian liv- burg Pub. House, Minneapolis, sages, for example, Mr. Reese ing. It is also recognized that Minn. 1938. seeks the most favorable trans- biblical predictiQn is nQt a mere The Norwegian Lutherans Qf latiQns for his purpQse. He fre- timetable or calendar by which North America QCCupy twelve quently turns to. MQffatt and the student may identify dates, missiQn statiQns in the extreme GQQdspeed (who. do. nQt co.m- but a mine in which the devQut sQutheastern district Qf the large mand the cQnfidence Qf evangeli- may delve for buried treasure. island Qf Madagascar. Other cals) and to. WeymQuth whQse There are profQund spiritual Lutherans have the sQuthern half translation, while generally ac- reaSQns why this shQuld be SQ. Qf the island as their field, while ceptable, is assQciated with a The authQr's rejectiQn of dis- the LQndQn MissiQnary SQciety, viewPQint in eschatolQgy to. pensatiQnalism raises entirely the Friends and French Evangel- which few evangelicals sub- different issue. Here questiQns icals wQrk in the northern half. scribe. On the Qther hand, ex- Qf eXPQsitQry methQd are in- This vQlume by Mr. Andrew PQsitQrs, such as Kelly, SCQfield, vQlved, rather than doctrine. Burgess, the field representative Gaebelein, Griffith-ThQmas, and With full appreciatiQn, hQwever, Qf the missiQn and who. married Sir RQbert Anderson, are lightly Qf the extravagances which have one Qf the Madagascar missio.npassed Qver Qn the grQund that been attached to. this line of aries, gives graphic scenes fro.m they are bQund to. the sQ-called teaching, may it nQt be true that the experience of missio.naries Darby system. But even the re- the principle is implicit in the frQm the early days until the jectiQn Qf these well-knQwn writ- structure of Scripture itself. present time. The incidents are ers is less significant than the Any co.nceptiQn of an expanding well to.ld and describe the days ignoring Qf evidence that pre- Revelation and the differing o.f slavery, missiQnary pioneermillenial teaching largely domi- principles which have marked ing, life amQng primitive savagnated the thought Qf Christians GQd's dealing with mankind es, cQntacts with witch dQctQrs, in the first and seco.nd centuries. through the ages suggests a dis- wQrk with bQYs and girls, super- This: verdict Qf leading historians pensatiQnal structure. Terms in stitio.ns and belief in evil spirits establishes the cQnclusion that this instance are unimpQrtant, and the rewarding results Qf acceptance Qf the pre-millenial but the fact that inspired his- missiQn service. The many drawview preceded Darby by at least tQry falls, into certain natural ings, phQtQgraphic illustratiQns eighteen hundred years. Anoth- epQchs Qr divisiQns is to.o self- and maps vividly PQrtray the naer neglected area Qf investigatiQn evident to be ignQred. Distinc- tive beliefs and custQms and the is the teaching cQncerning the tiQns between the patriarchal missiQnary life and wQrk in imminence Qf Christ's cQming, so. and the Kingdom Age, Qr Israel Madagascar.
Two Ways. A Play in Six Epi- and sometimes illuminating. The sion Hoispital at Wai, India
sodes. By A. L. E. Williams. 53 New Testament references refer cents each; $5.00 per dozen. Bom- pp. lB. Society for Promoting very little to archeological finds. bay Tract and Book Society. Bom- Christian Knowledge. L 0 Ii don. It is a good book for beginners bay, India. 1937. in the stUdy. Christianity and the Creative Quests. Drama is finding an increas- The Holy Bible. Illustrated from Gaius Glenn Atkins. 232 pp. $2.00. ingly large place in church work. color drawings by William Hole. Cokesbury Press. Nashville. Some of it is very effective in its 8vo. 1,252 pp. Eyre and Spottis- Christian message. This mis- woode, London. Evangelism for the World Today. sionary play is by an Anglican As Interpreted by Christian Leadvicar and calls for about thirty Family Bibles were formerly ers throughout the WorId. Edited performers including angels, the found in many Christian homes by John R. Mott. 296 pp. $2.50. apostles, priest, Peter the Her- in large print and used for fam- Harpers. New York. mit, monks, abbess, sisters and ily worship as well as for a leper, Moslems and others. The record of marriages, births and Fire in India. Canon Manuel's Work six episodes cover the time from deaths. This one, not so large in Irugalur. Ruth Henrich. 16 pp. Christ's ascension near Jeru- as the old style, has also pages 1d. S. P. G. F. P. London. salem to northern Indian and the for "photographs" and is illus- Jerusalem Conference in 1928. trated with twelve excellent col- Gems from Bishop Taylor Smith's The plot and treatment are in- ored pictures from the artist, Bible. Compiled by Percy O. Ruoff. teresting and impressive. The William Hole. There are no 142 pp. $1.00. Zondervan Pub. greatest difficulty in m os t cross-references or notes on this House. Grand Rapids. churches will be learning some edition which is the King James parts of the longer dialogues. All Version and is in large clear How Long? Why the Jews Are Peris truly Christian and mission- type. Here is a very satisfactory secuted and Studies in the Psalms ary in spirit. family Bible in handy size. of Israel. 118 pp. $1.00. Eerdman Pub. Co. Grand Rapids. Who Claims the World. By Cecil The Book of a Thousand Tongues. Northcott. 100 pp. lB. net. Liv- The Translation of the Bible, with Let Us Build. P. E. Burroughs. 154 iilgstone Press. London. 1938. over 1,100 samples from the text. pp. 60 cents. Broadman Press. Edited by Eric M. North. Illus. Nashville. .The Literary Superintendent Four indexes. 'Quarto. 386 pp. of ,the London Missionary So- American Bible Society. New York. Launch Out into the Deep. Andrew ciety presents here for young 1938. Gih. 120 pp. 40 cents. Zondervan people a very effective argument Publishing House. Grand Rapids. for world-wide evangelization- The miracle of the pentecostal the need, motives, the progress, "gift of tongues" is repeated to- Meditations on the Holy Spirit. the unfinished task and the dy- day by translators who have Toyohiko Kagawa. 170 pp. $1.50. namic on which the enterprise given us the Word of God so that Cokesbury Press. Nashville. depends for success. Some six practically all the people in the objections to missions are pre- world can read it in their own Poems and Verse of Betty Scott sented and three good. diagrams. tongues wherein they were born. Stam. 129 pp. Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., This book offers excellent ma- Here is evidence of the fact; and Shanghai. terial for pastors and others who it is most effectively presented, wish to promote missions among with facsimile reproductions of The Prayer Life. Andrew Muiray. the youth. parts of the Scriptures in over 153 pp. 35 cents. B. 1. C. Assn. eleven hundred languages and Chicago. Thrilling Voices of the Past. By T. dialects (in native characters). Christie Innes. ' Illus. 151 pp. There are also brief descriptive Mary Reed of Chandag. Lee S. Hui- 28. 6d. Pickering and Inglis. Glas- articles on forty-two of the lan- zenga. 36 pp. Zondervan Pub. gow. 1938. guages, notes on other versions, House. Grand Rapids. and portraits of natives of many Biblical archeology is receiv- races and nationalities. The in- The Second World Conference on ing much attention these days troductory section, on the trans- Faith and Order. Edinburgh, 1937. and the discoveries are evidence lations and translators, is very Edited 'by Leonard Hodgson. 386 of the trustworthiness of the illuminating. The whole volume pp. $2.50. Macmillan. New York. Biblical record. Mr. Innes, a is a work of art and is indismember of the Royal Asiatic So- putable evidence of the indis- The Story of Chung Mei. Charles R. ciety tells here, in a brief and pensable work of the American Shepherd. 265 pp. $2. Judson popular way, of the evidence Bible Society. Press. Philadelphia. archeology offers us to the flood, Abraham, Jericho, the Exodus New Books ~!,mns and the New Testament history. of tbt There is also a helpful, but brief, By Life and By Death. The Diary of <tbristian . bibliography. The author is a John C. Stam of China. E. Schuyler lLift believer in the Bible record and English. 62 pp. 25 cents, paper; rejects the evolutionary theory 50 cents, cloth. Zondervan Pub. ell BOOK of worship in song, comof religion. The evidence on O~d House. Grand Rapids. bining a hymnal for general. Testament sites and customs is church use, and a song book for evanfragmentary but is interesting Christ and the Dawn. Copy of a ~elistic purposes. ODly songs soWKl Painting by an Indian in the Mis- lD the raith and inspirational in char- acter included—emphasizing Evanp- ism, Missions, and the Deeper Life.
Many of the new—the best of the old.
504 Songs Responsive Readings Topical Index Gold Embossed Published in round notes and Roxite cloth < edition only at $65.00 per lOO–an especiall, low price. Single copy, 85e postpaid.
Write toda, for returnable .ample ",?'"
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The Missionary Review of the World — December 1937
1937
A Kurdish Christian Prophet J. Christy Wilson Sermon by a Converted Moslem Sa'eed Kurdistani First Five Centuries of Christianity Kenneth Scott Latourette The Evangelical Church in Brazil Miguel Rizzo, Jr.
In the Midst of European Revolutions Adolph Keller The Dilemma of Japanese Christians T. T. Brumbaugh Faith Working by Love in Japan Winburn T. Thomas 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember Mrs. McDougall was born in Detroit, PARENTS
Michigan, June 13, 1869, the daughter December 12-Universal Bible Sun- of the late Arthur T. Pierson and In the Foreign Mission Field day. Sarah Frances Benedict. Subsequent- Endorse Calvert School ly she lived in Indianapolis, Philadel- Home Study Courses January 2-9-1938 Universal Week of Prayer. phia and Brooklyn, moving to Upper for Children Montclair, New Jersey, in 1917, where NATIONAL PREACHING MIS- she made her home with her brother, Calvert School, through its Home Instruc- SION the Editor of THE REVIEW. She mar- tion Department, will give your child a ried Mr. McDougall in 1928 following superior elementary education … by mail, December 2-S–.Tacksonville, Fla. regardless of where you may live. Mod- a year and a half spent in Japan with ern, approved courses from this famous Obituary Notes her sister, Mrs. Frederick S. Curtis, school are being used by parents all over the world with outstanding success. and with her friends of the Kwato Mission in Papua. For forty years Mrs. McDougall was active in various forms of Christian work in connection Give your children the advantages of these The Rev. John McDowell, D.D., with the Church and various mission- interesting lessons, carefully chosen books, Associate Director of the Department ary organizations. For some years she and attractive materials. Instruction is of Social Education and action of the has been the volunteer Promotion Sec- under the personal guidance of teachers in Board of Christian Education of the retary in America for the Kwato Mis- Calvert's prominent and successful private day school in Baltimore. Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., and sion of Papua. formerly moderator of the General Write today for booklet of complete in- Assembly of the Church, entered into The Rev. Dr. Paul W. Koller, for formation. Costs are low. rest on November 13th after under- nine years executive secretary of the going a major operation. Dr. Mc- Board of Foreign Missions of the Dowell was born in Scotland in 1870 United Lutheran Church, died Noand was brought to America by his vember 11th at Baltimore, Md., at parents when two years old. He was the age of 65. graduated from Mt. lIermon School Dr. Koller was born in Glen Rock, and from Princeton University and after a special course in the Theo- Pa., and educated at Gettysburg (Pa.) ment be extended to foreign lands and logical Seminary was pastor succes- College. He attended Gettysburg Dr. Boville spent a year in the Far Theological Seminary, was ordained East founding schools. sively of churches in Steelton, Pa.; in 1897. After serving pastorates in Detroit, Michigan; Newark, New Cleveland, Ohio; Hudson, N. Y., and *** Jersey, and Baltimore, Maryland. Mansfield, Ohio, in 1921 he was named Canon Streeter, provost of Queen's He was Religious Work Director dur- president of the Lutheran Synod of College, Oxford, and Mrs. Streeter ing the War and in 1919 became a Ohio. In 1928 he was elected to the were killed in a plane crash in Switzsecretary of the Board of Home Mis- post he held at his death. He had erland, September 10. Dr. Streeter sions, later the Board of National served as a member of the committee was a scholar' and theologian of high Missions, of the Presbyterian .Church. of Reference and Counsel of the For- ability. His writings have been He was a popular speaker at summer eign Mission Conference of North widely read in this country. conferences and was author of several volumes, including one on Dwight L. America, and had been a member of *** Moody, one on "The Christian Spirit the Missionary Laymen's Executive in Industry," and one on "Christian Bishop William H. Heard, of the Essentials." He is survived by his Committee and the executive commit- African Methodist Church, died in a wife, and one daughter, Mrs. Robert tee on cooperation in the Near East. Philadelphia Hospital September 12, C. Cory. A biographical sketch of at the age of 87. He had attended the Dr. McDowell will appear in an early He also had served as president of World Faith and Order Conference in issue of THE REVIEW. Edinburgh, and while there experi- the conference of Foreign Mission enced difficulty in obtaining hotel ac- … … … Boards of Lutheran Churches in commodations. Dr. Temple, Arch- bishop of York, offered him the hos- Dr. Frank W. Bible, the Central America. pitality of his home. District Home Base secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Mary *** B. Koller, and a daughter, Miss Kath- erine Koller, Professor of English at Bryn Mawr Co..l.leg..e. . …
Presbyterian Church, died in Chicago, The Rev. Dr. Robert George B.o- .T. Harvey Borton, a Philadelphia Ill., November 15th after an illness of ville, founder of the Daily Vacation business man, well known in religious several months. He was born in Bible School movement in the United circles, died on October 80th in the Milesburg, Pa., July 18, 1877, and States and director of the world-wide Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, after graduation from Park College organization for the religious educa- following an operation. He was born and from Auburn Theological Semi- tion of children, died in Yonkers, N. at Rancocas, New Jersey, sixty-five nary, he went as a missionary to Y., on November 8th. Dr. Boville years ago, and lived at Moorestown, China in 1904. There he taught in lived in Riverdale, N. Y., and was N. J. He was connected with the the Hangchow Christian College for eighty-three years old. Hajoca Corporation, manufacturers fifteen years. On his return to Amer- Dr. Boville was born in Belfast, Ire- of plumbing supplies, and was a ica in 1919, he became associate gen- land, and came to New York from a member of the Executives Association eral secretary of the Committee of pastorate in Hamilton, Ontario, in of Philadelphia. Reference and Council for the Foreign Missions Conference of N. A. and in 1901 to become secretary of the Bap- Mr. Borton was an active member tist City Mission. That same year he 1924 was elected· district secretary. of of the Society of Friends and a frethe Presbyterian Board. Dr. Bible began the nation's first daily vacation made a tour of the world in 1930-l. Bible schools. He found a group of quent speaker at the Sunday services With his extensive knowledge of con- young college and seminary students at Girard College. He was also chairditions both at home and abroad, he who were willing to donate their varendered valuable service in promot- man of the council of the V:ictorious cation time to religious training for ing foreign missionary interest. Life Testimony, which directs the these children. One thousand children * .. * were enrolled the first year. work of the Pioneer Mission Agency, Anna Pierson .McDqugall, the wife Dr. Boville traveled throughout the the Keswick Colony of Mercy Kes- country organizing Bible schools. By of Mr. Walter McDougall for tWenty wick Grove, N. J., and summe'r conyears the treasurer of the Missionary 1916 the movement had spread and ferences held at Keswick Grove' Review Publishing Co., entered into the organization was incorporated as the International Association of Daily chairman of the board of trustees of the Life Beyond on Sunday, November Vacation Bible Schools. Missionaries the Belgian Gospel Mission; and a 7th, following a serious operation. in the Orient requested that the move- member of the board of directors of the Sunday School Times Company.
His wife, Alice McClure Borton and a daughter survive him. '
MISSIONARY Do You When the good
REVIEW OF THE WORLD Read the Old Testament calls you East … sail DELAVAN L. PIERBON, Editor Understandingly? p&O VOL. LX DEC., 1937 No. 12 How often have you longed for This year marks a full century of P & 0 Publication and Business OIDce– a book that service to the lands beyond Suez! Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. would present the historical, geo- Whenever you are called to the other graphical, cultural and archae- side of the world, choose this tradi- Editorial and Executive OIDce– ological backgrounds of the Great tional route. Cross to England by 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Book, and thus make the study Cunard White Star •.. and there Entered as second-class matter at of the Bible more meaningful? embark in a great liner of the P & 0 and British India fleets, led by the Post OIDce, Harrisburg, Pa., under JAMES C. MUIR, noted autltorHy and new 22,5oo-ton Strathnaver, Strath- Act of March 3, 1879. lecturer on the Old Testament has just aird and Strathmore. Regular service completed a new and unusnal book that to Egypt, Sudan, Persian Gulf, India, 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. sweeps away the mists of unreality with Burma, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. which time has enshrouded the old China, Japan, Australia, East and Published monthly, except August. Testament narratives – the title, South Africa, Mauritius. Low rates. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1937. British agents – Marshall, Morgan HIS TRUTH ENDURETH Convenient through bookings can be arranged and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, by your local travel agent or any office of London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, Tltls boole Is more fascInating titan fIction. 10 shillings a year. It enables the student to assimilate more CUNARD WHITE STAR LINE readily the backgrounds of the Old MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Testament. Here is the story of the GENERAL AGENTS LISHING CO., INC. rise of civilization, the history of peoples who were contemporary with the chil- 25 Broadway and 638 FifthAve.,NewYork BOARD OF DIRECTORS dren of Israel in Old Testament days, ROBERT E. SPEER, President together with the latest archaeological A. L. WABNBHUIB, Vice-President information bearing on the many sub- WALTER McDoUGALL, Treasurer jects covered in the book. DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary You Need This Book SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT Buy It Today From Your Bookseller D. J. FANT List Price $2.50 MRB. ORRIN R. JUDD NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. PHILADELPHIA WM. B. LIPPHARD ERIC M. NORTH 180,640 Net New Believers in 9 Years in Korea SAMUEL M. ZWEMER This is equivalent to Editorial Chat 70 new parishes of 300 helievers each The Editor and Board of Directors year. Some mission fields haven't of THE REVIEW extend very cordial won 20,000 in 50 years. Christmas greetings to our readers, What is the "secret" of it all? missionaries and other Christian friends in every land. The picture of May it be the Bible emphasis? a warring world is a sad commentary on humanity's response to the Gospel Last year the Korean Church held of peace, but the very fact that man- ~,344 Week-Long Bible Conferences. kind shows so little evidence of ac- (J7R,SJ3 attendance.) ceptance of Christ and His Gospel is 10.0oo!n Bible Correspondence. a compelling reason for carrying His message of life and love to every part S4'.~68 III Sunday Schools. of the world by the power of the Holy 55.075 in Bible Vacation Schools. Spirit at Christmas time and without ',500 in 6-10 Week Bible Institutes. ceasing. May this "NEVIUS METHOD" he the This and other numbers of THE Dynamic of All Methods. REVIEW give encouragement by telling how this work is being done and God Honors His Word. how God is making the work fruitful. Read Korea t" Story in the New Book Read the back cover of THE REVIEW "THE NEVIUS PLAN FOR MISSION for our special offer. WORK IN KOREA" (370 pages). *** By CHARLES ALLEN CLARK. Ph.D.• D.D. THE REVIEW is to puhlish Dr. (35 years in Korea.) Speer's new book-a life of George Bowen, one of the most unique and Postpaid-~ remarkable of all the missionaries to India, who died about fifty years ago. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. Note the announcement on the back Seoul, Korea ~ – – – – – – – Y5.oo cover. E. C. HEINZ, * '" * S6~' 5th Ave. S.. Minneapolis, Minn. $t.OO "I want to congratulate you on [ 561 ] your Rural (June) issue. You have assembled a lot of fine material on the rural church."-Dr. Wm. R. King, Executive Secretary of the Home Missions Council.
"THE REVIEW*, in* my* opinion, is one of the best periodicals that come to me. I always welcome it and find inspiring articles in it."
WM. JAY SCHIEFFELIN, New York.
TEACHElRS IN CAMPINAS SEMINARY-FOREIGNERS AND
STUDElNTSAT THE CAMPINAS THE"OLOGICAL SEMINARY, BRAZIL (See Article by Dr, Miguel Rizzo, page 576)
NARY
ORLD VOLUME LX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 12 DECEMBER, 1937 Topics of the Times WAR AND MISSIONS IN CHINA dun, the Chinese troops saying "They shall not pass!" and Japan pouring in a continual stream The Chinese armies in the Shanghai area be. of soldiers with superior mechanized equipment. gan (on October 27th) a well-executed retreat Bombing of cities, railways and other lines of from their first lines of defense to a second line south and west of Soochow Creek. This brought communication in this area has been continuous the fighting into areas adjacent to the French for two months. Soochow, Kiangyin, Chinkiang Concession and Nantao, the old Chinese city, and and Nanking have suffered from especially freforced the evacuation of St. John's University, quent and severe air raids. Recently in a bomb- St. Mary's School for Girls, The Seventh Day ing of Sungkiang, 50 miles southwest of Shanghai, Adventist Sanitarium and other institutions. The the splendid center of Southern Methodist miseffects of the severe struggle have been felt on sionary work and lay-training, suffered heavily. the edges of the International and French settle- The Girls' School was set on fire, a missionary ments and from stray shells falling into these residence was demolished and other buildings settlements. Many mission and interdenomina- were damaged. tional organizations were forced for a time to move from their offices near the Bund. Communi· The landing of Japanese troops on the northcations with inland China have been maintained ern shores of Hangchow Bay, south of Shanghai, by bus and motor car service. An increasing may endanger mission centers at Sungkiang, number of missionaries who were sojourning tem- Kashing and Huchow. Christian work is being porarily at other ports or summer resorts have maintained at Hangchow and cities south and been returning to Shanghai and some have gone west. Hangchow Christian College has an enon to their inland stations. A large missionary rollment now of 500, Wayland Academy (Baptist) colony, chiefly mothers and children, is now in has over 1,000 students and the Union Girls' the buildings of the Shanghai American School. School has re-opened. Soochow, 50 miles west The National Christian Council, mission head- of Shanghai, is affected more seriously. The three quarters and other central offices are keeping in Christian hospitals there are crowded with touch with missionaries and churches in the in- wounded and Soochow University is being used terior by means of radio and a limited mail service to house wounded and refugee civilians. Missionwhich has been remarkably efficient considering ary doctors and nurses are staying on. difficulties of transportation. Chinese ~hurches in the settlements and out of the immediate fight- Since the partial destruction of Central Goving zone are continuing their regular services of ernment Hospital in Nanking by an air raid on worship and are undertaking many forms of re- September 25 the University (Drum Tower) lief work. The presence of hundreds of thousands Christian Hospital has had to carry a double burof refugees in Shanghai, who face the winter den of medical aid and relief work. This hospital without food and shelter, constitutes a grave prob- has cabled word of its desperate need for medical supplies, especial anesthetics, tannic acid and anti-tetanus serum. Other mission hospitals in the three eastern provinces of Chekiang, Kiangsu lem. and Anhwei are meeting heroically the emergency Nanking is 200 miles northwest of Shanghai, demands upon their services, with diminished in- come from fees and serious shortage of supplies. Hangchow 150 miles southwest. These three cities form a triangle which is becoming a great Ver- The University of Nanking and Nanking The- [563 ]
SUlIj'UAN JEHOL I.
o /…-'~-1''0 • /C:3 Q-a———-t—–4~~~~ .l KA. U ~ Yenano / l'I'i:,ngChen ,, . -·f….~ …… ,,—-…..- ……'-…—~' o ;- , /~UngShU~ •0 NanchaJlIC _~_V..:"~s'.ht.a,a::n:tiu,;t,e;,S;-I;tI;e-s'IT:~;o—-, GS I " ; ~ FengSl'o O 0 • …………". Shenchcw Tungpjn~ Sinchang K I A :J I0 TureSianR I . 50 100 I'
PRINCIPAL AREAS COVERED IN THE JAPANESE INVASION OF CHINESE TERRITORY On November 11, the Japanese had moved their armies in the north as far west as Talyuan, Shans! Province. Their line extended south of Pelplng, nearly to Tientsin. From Shanghai they had moved south on the road to Hangchow, and were marching west to attack Nanking. The cities named show the principal Protestant mission stations; the location of other stations is marked by circles. Rail- I'oads completed and under construction are also indicated.
ological Seminary have re-opened in Nanking also an increasing exodus of students from the with about a third of their normal enrollments. coastal provinces westward. So far the Chiriese Ginling College is carrying on some of its work Government has encouraged schools to continue in connection with Hwachung College in Wuchang and students to pursue their studies wherever and St. John's University at Shanghai. Govern- possible, believing that China must keep on buildment educational institutions are more and more ing for the future. As a consequence, Hwachung College, Yale-in-China at Changsha and West moving to central and west China and there is
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
China Union University have enrollments far .is moving part of its work including the Medical above the average. School to west China. The Northern Presbyterians and Southern Baptists have extensive work in The National Christian Council sends encour- Shantung. Some missionaries of these and other aging news from churches all over China, even missions are staying in the interior, others are at those in fighting areas. Christian relief commit- the port of Tsingtau keeping in close touch with tees are being organized in many cities. Mission- their Chinese co-workers and making occasional ary work in central and west China is going on visits inland. The Southern Presbyterian Mismore normally and Szechwan and Yunnan seem sion which works in north Kiangsu still has misto be the safest provinces so far. Air raids have sionaries at Haichow, at Suchow the important extended as far inland as Hankow, Wuchang and railway junction and at Tsingkiangpu. Mission- Changsha. After an air raid on Wuchang which aries are remaining in considerable numbers in reduced a poor section of the city to shambles and Honan Province and the United Church of Canwhich came near destroying the Methodist Mis- ada has recently decided to send some missionsion Hospital, a Hankow newspaper reported, aries back who have completed their furloughs. "Scores of operations and amputations were performed by candle light at the Methodist Hospital Cities in northern Shansi where missionaries owing to the electric light system failing. There reside have been bombed and as this article goes is a lamentable shortage of doctors and ambu- to press news comes of the Japanese seige of lance workers." Taiyuan, the capital. The American Board and Church of the Brethren missions have important Air raids have continued on the coastal cities work in Shansi. Taiku and Fenchow, south of of Fukien and Kwangtung with especially de- Taiyuan, are centers of American Board educavastating effect in Canton, but no serious damage tional, medical and evangelistic effort, including to mission property has been reported. One mis- the Oberlin-in-Shansi schools. Christian work sion hospital in Kwangtung has been struck. Fu- here is much disturbed but a group of missionkien Christian University and Hwanan College aries have refused to leave and are doing what in F'oochow and Lingnan University, Canton, are they can to help alongside their Chinese colopen with limited enrollments but with morale leagues. high. From Great Britain come reports that British Yenching University in Peiping and other missions are holding their own. The China Inland Christian schools in the Japan-controlled area Mission is not returning missionaries or sending have opened and the number of students is steadily new missionaries for the present. Detailed news increasing. Few of these students, however are from inland stations comes through slowly. from central and south China and all educational work is conducted with peculiar difficulties. Busi- On September 21st the National Christian ness has been hard hit in the invaded territory, Council of China adopted the following resolution unemployment is increasing and Christian insti- which was later broadcast from Shanghai, "Along tutions and churches which depend upon con- with the material relief we must give is the spirtributions and fees will all suffer. Letters coming itual uplift of the nation. The soul of China is through, however, tell of great faith and courage at stake. An effort should be made to keep up on the part of Christian groups. Paoting, the the morale of the Chinese Christians, so that their capital of Hopei, an important center of mission Christian faith, hope and love may not be dework of the American Board (Congregational) stroyed by the terror of war. What China needs and Northern Presbyterian Mission, suffered from at present is a reinforcement of spiritual power, a heavy siege and looting as the Japanese line and that power Christianity alone can give. Since moved southward. A small group of missionaries this war is going to put a strain upon the restayed on and ministered to the suffering. Teh- sources of the human soul as well as on material chow, another American Board mission center in resources it would seem important that we should northern Shantung, has been captured by J ap- bring together all Christian forces available for anese troops and Changteh, a mission center of the task of deepening our spiritual resources, the United Church of Canada in northern Honan. leading people to look up and find God a very The Japanese advance will probably be halted present help in time of trouble, assisting the for the time being at the strong defenses along churches and schools in clear thinking about the the Yellow River. The fighting is coming close issues raised by this conflict, and giving them to Tsinan, the capital of Shantung. There are comfort, healing and strength." fears that attacks on ,the Shantung coast may force the Chinese armies to abandon Shantung Dr. E. Stanley Jones, who was in Shanghai province but at the present writing the defense when hostilities broke out there, and went to Mais strong. Cheeloo University at Tsinan, in which nila instead of starting upon his projected six thirteen American and British missions cooperate, months' evangelistic tour of China, has now gone from the Philippines to central and west China
for a month of evangelistic meetings, at the re- refused to allow the facts as to their students to quest of Chinese Christian leaders. be made public.
Chinese leaders, both Christian and non-Chris- In one prominent university, where there is a beautiful $2,000,000 chapel and a college pastor, tian, have expressed in many ways their appre- two-thirds of the students said they had not at- tended chapel once that year. ciation of the service missionaries are rendering The religious influences surrounding students in the present tragic situation, and have urged are of special importance since the United States Government acknowledges God as the supreme that missionary work be continued at all costs. ruler and the students of one generation largely mold the life and character of coming generations. Most of the mission boards are raising special How can our students be reached with sound funds for emergency needs in their own fields religious teaching and won to Christ? The great- est need is for truly Christian instructors, but and are also supporting the general campaigns .there is also a loud call for greater spiritual vital- ity in the college churches, in chapel services, and for relief work in China sponsored by the Fed- in the Christian Associations. There is need for better cooperation between the colleges and home eral Council of Churches, American Red Cross, churches from which students come. Parents and even pastors often seem to be impassive or in- China Famine Relief, and other agencies. different as to whether or not their young people give any attention to spiritual things while in col- Since the war may continue for a long time, possibly several years, mission boards are begin- ning to adjust their policies to the special condi- tions. Whatever changes may be necessary in methods of work there seems to be no plan of withdrawal. Missionaries on the field and mission societies here are determined to carryon in war as well as in peace. FRANK W. PRICE.
lege. Much more interest is shown in their intel- EVANGELIZING COLLEGE STUDENTS . lectual standing, their athletic games and their One of the most serious problems of the present social events such as college dances. How many parents would spend a week-end to attend college day in America and other lands is that of winning chapel?
the youth to an intelligent and whole-hearted alle- In view of this situation it is of especial inter- est and importance to note that the National giance to Christ and enlisting them unreservedly Preaching Mission, which last year toured the in His service for mankind. It is estimated that country without making much impression on the colleges and universities, is this year undertaking there are at least sixty million youth in America a University Christian Mission especially among under twenty-five years of age. Of these not more students. Dr. John A. Mackay, the new and vigthan one half are under any definite religious in- orous president of Princeton Theological Semstruction. The, Sunday schools enroll about inary, is chairman. The following statement retwenty million but much of the Christian training veals the purpose and plan of this Preaching received there is haphazard and very inadequate. Mission. $ome of the. finest youth of the lane. go to our colleges and other'higher educational institutions to Due to the dominance of a naturalistic philosophy in so prepare}ol;' life and work. When they leave home many university centers, unprecedented religious illiteracy most' of' them are interested in knowing God and among students, combined with increasing manifestations they are apt to have an ambition to use their lives of spiritual hunger, the responsibility of the Church is to good purpose; many lose both this interest and ambition in college. A report issued by the "Coun- overwhelming. . . . cil of Church Boards of Education," giving the Aimless liberty is palling upon many who'seek an abidresults of a recent comprehensive survey of college youth in 1,171 American institutions of ing loyalty for their devotion. They are looking for a higher learning, shows that 88 per cent of these Master in whom they may believe utterly, and for a cause to which they; may commit themselves with sacrificial abandon; th~y ~~ek light on the perplexing framework in students acknowledge some religious preferences, which their lives are set; in growing numbers they debut only about sixty per cent of them regularly mand to know what Christianity is and what it has to attended any religious services while in college. offer. Many are indifferent and some state that they are Such a situation is a clear caIl to united Christian action. The University Preaching Mission will undertake opposed to God and religion. three major tasks: It will deal with false conceptions about Christia_nity which .are current in university circles. These facts show a serious situation and a great It must also make plain' that Christian faith is fulfilled need and opportunity, especially since these youth only in Christian life !l,ntl.action, and that it is relevant ought to be future leaders in political, educational, to all issues in society which involve the welfare of human economic and religious life. Twenty-four out of beings. The mission will p.im to bring forcibly to the at- 1,458 institutions in nine states reported that it tention of student.s the implications of the Christian meswas illegal in those states to inquire into the reli- sage for all spheres and phases of life, and to set forth gious preferences of students. Other institutions the vision of a world Christian community as the Role hope of saving a sinful world.
A Kurdish Christian
The Story of Dr. Sa'eed Kurdistani as Told to ,. Christ,r Wilson, Tabriz, Iran W E PULLED our chairs up beside the fire of pure water near us. None of us came down in his Teheran home. I had long awaited with the cholera. the chance for this interview with Dr. "As a boy I was always busy with books. I Sa'eed Kurdistani, perhaps the most noted con- read the Persian poets and was so well versed in vert from Islam in all Iran. The story of his life Arabic and Persian that, when my father died, (here told as nearly as possible in his own words) when I was thirteen years of age, the Imam is a human interest document of importance. The Jumeh placed the white turban on my head and sidelights also show the thoughts and the heart of made me a teacher in the same school where my a true Moslem and how such an one may be led father had taught in the mosque.
to Christ. The beloved doctor began: "My father was a very pious Mohammedan. I "I Was born in the year 1863 in Senna, a city of can never forget his supplications to God at mid- Kurdistan. My father was Mullah Rasul; he was night. He said that he had the promise that, at from the village of Buzan, near Sulemanieh. My the resurrection, he would be raised to the plat- mother's name was Mahenisa, meaning 'Moon of form of Joseph, because as a youth he had fled Women.' For seven generations our people had from the same sin as Joseph, under similar cir- been Mullahs (or Moslem teachers) of the Sunni cumstances.
sect. "Father used to tell us stories of the mystic "My father conducted a school for children saints when we were children. During the famine which I attended. I was known as a very preco- he found a sum of money, but sought out the owner cious child, and at six or seven years of age I was and returned it though we were ourselves in des- reading the Koran. The people thought that the perate need. Years later the great difficulty· of· Angel Gabriel had taught me in a dream. By the my brother Kaka in accepting Christianity wa:~', age of nine I was reading the poems of Sa'di and what would become of father, for he thought· he astonished everyone. must be among the saved. Finally I helped him "When I was about ten, it occurred to me that to solve the difficulty by saying that if we live up it was not right for the Kurds to pray in Arabic; to the light we have, our future is in the hands of and not understand what they were saying so 1 a just God. I had very early acquired from my endeavored to put the regular prayers into Persian father a deep sense of the reality of God.
poetry. When eleven years old I began to study Oontacts With Ohristianity Arabic with men who were more learned than my father. At twelve or thirteen I became a follower "There were seventy or eighty Roman Catholic of the 'Naqshbandi' sect of dervishes and went to Assyrian families in Senna and the bishop used to their meetings. Their leader was named Sheikh come from Mosul to visit them. I got a part of Mohammed. the Old Testament in Persian from an Assyrian "I was very regular in my prayers and attend- Catholic, named Fatah Petros, a deacon who had ance at the mosque. I intoned the call to prayer sympathy with the Protestants. He knew the and also the prelude to the prayers of the leader whole of the Psalms in the ancient Syriac. At one in the mosque. I pursued other studies, the laws time the bishop found some Protestant books in of Islam and religion in Arabic. I still have a copy his library and burned them. I read a good deal of the 'Feq' which I wrote and read as a boy. of the Old Testament but did not get much help "When I was about ten years old a great famine out of it. I did not admire the worship of the came over the country. Thieves broke :into our Catholic church, and put them on the same plane house and stole almost everything we had. My with idol worshippers. I prayed daily for my an- father with my brother Kaka and me started on cestors who had suffered but had accepted Islam, foot on a seven days' journey to the region of and thanked God for the great benefit I had re- Meriwan, west of Senna. There was food there ceived from them. I was devoutly thankful for and we stayed with relatives. My mother re- Islam and considered it the very truth as com- mained in Senna. We returned after a few months pared to Christianity. But I was ever a searcher.
to our home to find cholera raging there. My Finally I obtained a New Testament in Persian mother died a short time later. Our house was at from a man who had been in Teheran. I read it the outskirts of the town and there was a spring and asked the Catholic priests why they had taken [ 567] ..,;
out of it the references to Mohammed. I was in fact quite the opposite of what I saw in our own shown the last verses of Revelation, but I told Moslem religious leaders. My conscience awoke them they had put that in to make people think it and I felt very miserable. I was about sixteen had not been changed. At one time two Assyrian years old at this time. Once I asked Kasha his colporteurs came to Senna, but I did not talk to idea of Mohammed but he did not wish to tell me. them or get books from them. I also taught a boy I assured him no harm would come and finally he whose father was Assyrian, and his mother Ar- gave me some hints. Often as I taught the Koran menian. The more I saw of Christians, however, I saw that the things he had hinted as to faults in the more I was confirmed in my Islamic views. the life of Mohammed were confirmed. I got more miserable and became uneasy about the character "Then Kasha Yohanna of Sulduz came to Senna of Mohammed. One evening, as I was going to with two colporteurs, Shemisha Seyad and his son. the mosque to call the faithful to prayer, the idea Kasha Yohanna asked for a Persian instructor came to me: 'What if Mohammed is not true?' I and I went to teach him. But I did not wish to banged myself on the head with my fist, and said, give the salaam (Greeting of Peace) to an infidel. 'You should be cursed for such a thought concern- Shemisha Seyad told me that they also were 'peo- ing the holy prophet.' I went to the mosque for ple of the book' and that therefore it was lawful the ablutions and prayers but came home very for a Moslem to give them the greeting of peace. miserable. I had no answer, and so, as a hypocrite, I used to greet the Christian colporteurs half under my Mohammed or Christ? breath with the words: 'Sahum ile kum.' This sounded like the greeting of peace but means 'May "In my despair I burned the calves of both legs, a sword come upon you.' so that the scars will be there to my dying day. According'to this Kurdish custom I took an irre- "Kasha Yohanna, whom I taught early in the vocable vow, first, never to go to Kasha Yohanna morning before his school, had the Psalms in again or argue religious matters with any Chris- Syriac and a copy in Persian was given to me. tian; second, to live a holy life. I was ashamed, Shemisha Seyad led in prayer, and I heard a real for I knew that the life of Kasha Yohanna was Christian prayer for the first time. I was aston- better than my own. I gave up going to him but ished to hear him pray for his enemies. There I felt very miserable. Whenever I saw him on the was no swinging censor-just a spiritual prayer. streets he was like Jonah to me, and in my heart Shemisha Seyad and his son went on to Kerman- I knew that I was wrong. His life, so in accord shah and I continued teaching Persian to Kasha with what he believed and taught, had affected me Yohanna. I wanted to learn other languages, so so that I could not sleep. At last I went back to he taught me Syriac. We used the New Testament him and renewed my inquiries about passages in as a textbook. the Bible.
"Kasha Yohanna was a very bright man. The "One night I was very miserable during prayers Jews used to come to argue with him. He asked in the mosque. Realizing my sin I went home and me to take the Persian Bible and look up refer- fell on my face in the dust of the hallway. I ences as the Jews looked them up in Hebrew and prayed God to guide me to the Truth, as he was Kasha in the Syriac.1 I was deeply impressed by the Saviour of the lost. Then I went back to the wonderful evidences of fulfilled prophecy con- Kasha and studied both the Bible and the Koran. cerning Christ. When I showed the New Testa- I took some of my difficulties to the Imam Jumeh ment in Syriac to my brother, he was displeased and others, but was not satisfied with their exand told me not to study it. But I continued to do planation of the Koranic passages. After four so in secret. Marking in a Persian Bible the months of such study, the Light broke in upon my prophecies we had read, I showed them to my soul. I can never thank Him enough. brother, saying: "These must be about Mohammed for no one else could be worthy of such ref- "How happy the old man was when I confessed erences. Let me study this branch of knowledge my faith in Jesus as the Saviour. My not going and we shall soon be able to turn all the Catholics to the mosque or getting up early for prayers made and Jews into Mohammedans. I interpreted the my brother Kaka uneasy. Several people came to prophecies according to my own ideas and clus- our home and argued with me but I took the Christered them around Mohammed until I came to the tian side and defeated them. Though I did not words in Isaiah, 'A bruised reed shall he not break, say I was a -Christian, Kaka took up his rifle and and the smoking flax shall he not quench.' I could wanted to kill me. For some time things went on not apply these words to Mohammed. in this way, growing more difficult all the time. People were talking about how to kill me. "Then the life of Kasha Yohanna began to affect me very much. He was truthful, honest-and "At last I felt I must let Kaka know of my new faith and I wrote a letter to give my brother. I 1 Missionaries to Moslems may well note the methods of Kasha feared it would mean certain death and went out Yohanna,–a great evangelist and preacher.
A KURDISH CHRISTIAN PROPHET
in the yard and prayed to God. Then I went back Bible so he took the saddlebags that contained my and gave Kaka the letter. He read it and began books. I went after him and wept. He told me I to tremble. Another man who was there burned must go to the great Sheikh and renounce Christhe letter on a castor oil lamp in the room. I con- tianity; otherwise he would be killed and our fessed my faith again and begged Kaka not to bouse destroyed. Kaka began to torture and beat argue while he was so angry. I would gradually me like a dog. Though I repeatedly kissed his feet explain to him. If he killed me I was a martyr. he would not give back my Bible. How delightful If he let me live I might help him. We went to are Gods comforts! Persecution is the better life, bed under the kurlsi and when my foot touched his, much more wholesome! he roused and said, 'Get away, dog. A dog of a man cannot live in a house.' It was midnight and "My brother saw that I was determined. Both we could hear the wolves howling about, but I had he and my friend wept, but they left the saddleto leave at once. Some of the Roman Catholics knew I had become a Christian, and I went to one DR. SA'EED KHAN KURDISTANI of their houses, but they feared to let me in. At As He Appeared When Winning His Way to Recognition as a last a Catholic woman, named Sherin, took me in. In the morning I went to my school in great fear, Prominent Christian Physician in Teheran especially of Kaka. He thought I would attend He Was Recently Put Into Prison by the Iranian Government prayers in the Catholic church, so he took his gun and sat in a shop across from the church intending for His Christian Faith and Courage to shoot me as I entered. Life in the town was miserable. bags and went away. It was indeed a painful sep- aration. I went to bed and wept bitterly, thinking "About April, in the year 1882, Mr. Hawkes, of that perhaps I would better go back to the village the American Mission, came to Senna with Agha of our relative. I even thought of returning to the Hyeem, the Jewish convert, and a colporteur Sheikh to renounce my faith to bring peace to all named Johannes. One day when I was in his of us. Then like a flash of lightning Jesus' words room, about fifty men ran into the yard to kill me. came to me, 'he who does not renounce . . . even The Lord had so ordered that the son-in-law of the his own life is not worthy of me.' Then I lay down Imam Jumeh was there and he took me home and went to sleep. How I thank Him for the revwithout allowing the people to touch me. elation of His presence.
"About this time Fatah, who had first given me "Kaka went home and said he could not reach the Old Testament, came back from Russia. An me. The people of the quarter collected and a Assyrian preacher in Ardabil had lent him 'Mizan ul Haqq,' 'Tariq ul Hayat,' and 'Meftah ul Asrar,' 2 books that were a wonderful help to me.
"Mr. Hawkes went back to Hamadan, and he wrote me inviting me to come. He would teach me English and I could teach him Persian and Arabic. But how was I to get permission from my brother to go? I showed the letter and told him it was sure death for me to stay in Kurdistan. He knew this was true and at last he accompanied me to a river and carried me through on his back. He deposited me with the muleteers and we started on our troubled journey.
"Later I found that a relative of ours, who owned villages along the way, had told Kaka he would bind me and bring me back, but like Saul he had gone away to hunt his asses. Next day the people wanted to kill Kaka for having sold his brother to the foreigners. So my brother and a bosom friend of mine came on a day's journey after me and found me reading Christ's Sermon on the Mount in Persian to the muleteers. They told me at once that unless I should go back Kaka would be killed and our house would be ruined. I said I would not go. Kaka knew how I loved my • The three great books by Dr. Pfander. Though written a century ago they are still classics in their field.
brave rider was chosen to go after me. He had his I became very homesick and wanted to return. horse saddled and ready to start but at that mo- But I thought, if God would settle my difficulties ment his master sent for him. When the latter and satisfy my longing soul I would go on. The learned what he was about to do he sent him off in answer came that He would. an opposite direction on business connected with "I had a medical certificate from Teheran and his property. had practiced in Hamadan, but I wished to become "I came to Hamadan and there I learned Eng- a really good physician. I was attracted to Sweden by some good people but I could not agree with the lish. In September of 1882, Miss Montgomery views of my friends there in some matters of docand Dr. Alexander and his wife came to Hamadan. trine. So I went to London, still feeling that I With my bit of English I interpreted for Dr. Alex- was in darkness. I read how Agrippa thought ander and so fell into the practice of medicine. I Jesus was dead, but Paul argued that He was also continued to teach in the school and with Mr. alive. I thought: that is enough for me; Christ is Hawkes. People from Senna came and tried to alive. get me out by a trick to kill me. I had many conversations with Bahais and others. I still had dif- "None of the great men in London solved my ficulties with many passages of Scripture but I got difficulties. Then I came among some poor workgreat help from Mr. Hawkes and from the home ers who studied their Bibles, and in their company life of Dr. and Mrs. Alexander. Miss Montgomery every difficulty was solved. God gave me underread and explained the New Testament, Mr. standing of mysteries, prophecies and all. Ah, my Hawkes gave me very helpful spiritual books to soul rejoices in Him. Thank God for all His read, but still I had a thousand and one difficulties mercy. and could not find real satisfaction. I was like a child who loves his parents but is not able to ex- "I studied for two years at Cook's School of plain it. I loved the Lord Jesus passionately. Anatomy and Physiology. I attended post-grad- Often I wished that Mohammed's words were true, uate lectures and demonstrations. In 1895, after that such a beautiful person as my Lord and my studies there, I returned from London to Ha- Saviour was not tortured on the cross. One day madan and took up medical practice. We have had I came across a hymn by Frances Xavier, three children: Sarah, who is now the wife of a Christian physician in Hamadan; Samuel, who 'My God, I love thee not because– married an American girl and mixed the royal I love thee because thou took my place.' blood of the Kurds wi.th that of the Americans; and Lemuel, who died in London. His name means From that moment I knew that He took my sin, 'portion of God' and that he was.S and became sin for me that I should be the righteousness of God in Him. "In Hamadan at one time I took the Dr. St. Claire Tisdall's book, Yanab ul Islam,4 to a Mujta- "After a year Kaka paid me a visit. Later he hid. Many people thought that I had written it, as they thought that no other Christian in Persia came to stay. It is n<it true, as has often been knew enough languages, nor enough of Islam to said, that Kaka came to Hamadan to kill me. We write it. When persecution broke out against me had many long discussic»rs. After several years the Governor Ein id Dowleh took me to his own house and helped me to leave town. I fled to he was converted when t was able to allay his Teheran after the Mujtahid had issued the death sentence against me. Later, after I had become a doubts about my father. He was not sanctified well-known physician in Teheran, I returned to until troubles came and he broke his knee; like Hamadan and this same Mujtahid called on me. Jacob he finally became lame but a true Believer. He said, 'You have made a lot of money in Te- heran. You ought to give me half, because I was "In 1888 I was married to a Nestorian girl, Re- the cause of your going to Teheran.' becca, the daughter of Kasha Shimun of Geogtapa. The whole town made a demonstration during the "The second time I located in Teheran, Ein id month of Moharram and notices were posted on Dowleh was Governor of Khuzistan, where I had the mosques and in the bazaars. The governor been his private physician. I was in Teheran quieted the town by a trick, without my knowl- when Ein id Dowleh became prime minister. He edge. He told the people I had deceived a Chris- wrote a letter to many of his friends saying that tian girl and wanted to make her a Moslem. Per- I had come to Teheran and he wished people would secution finally drove me with my wife to Teheran. give me a trial. When the prime minister says Even there the mullahs of Senna wrote a letter to the Turkish Ambassador to have me put out of the 3 I made two other trips to England for the purpose of further way, saying that I was a blight on Islam. study. On the first of these I took my son Samuel with me. On the second I met Sir Wi1l1am Osler, and some of my letters to him are "In Teheran Dr. Potter, with his beautiful published in his blographY.-Ba'eed. Christ-like life, was a great help to me, as were also the ladies of the mission station. While there • "The Roots of Islam." by Dr. St. Claire Tisdall. I determined to go to Europe to study, leaving my wife and two children in Hamadan. On the way
A SERMON BY A CONVERTED MOSLEM
anything the people are ready to do it in a hurry. matter. When I prayed, I received my answer Sol stepped immediately into a practice with the and wrote that I would come if they would promaristocracy and best families. ise me security from attack. I went and was used to cure the great man of blindness. The mullahs "I was able to speak for Christ to the prime of Senna sent eighteen men to kill me, but they minister and to the leading men of the country. did not succeed. My escort heard of their plans Dr. S. M. Jordan asked me to preach in the church and wanted me to change my cap to disguise my but I asked if he did not think it too soon. He identity. The man who had charge of the attempt said, 'All know you are a Christian.' So I prayed was later brought by the government to Teheran, over it and I think I was the first convert from and showed that he has been very much ashamed. Islam to preach in that church. The greatest He often calls on me and I give him Christian thing I can say is that the Lord Jesus Christ loved books and tracts. a great sinner. He saved a brand from the burning, and He loved me to the end in spite of all my "The missionaries sent an evangelist to Senna, sins and failures. who was no doubt sent to Assyrian Catholics and Jews, but I, a poor Kurd, was most blessed. "In 1912 I made a return journey to Kurdistan. Praise be to God. How wonderful are His ways. While I was in Hamadan a note came asking me I have told you the good things of my life. If I to visit a wealthy man in the mountains. I im- should tell you everything you would not want to mediately wrote saying that I could not do it. But write it down or look at me. But Jesus forgives as I was waving the letter to dry over the fire I me all. How good is the God whom we adore." said to myself that I had not first prayed about the A Sermon by a Converted Moslem Based on the Story of Naaman in 2 Kings, Chapter 5 -. I~I By SA'EED KURDISTANI, M.D., Isfahan, Iran I J;t– J~==============================~I A MAN may have high place in the public eye Leprosy has no cure, but he who suffers from and perhaps may gain a national reputa- it sees it gradually attack all his members until tion; he may through his business exceed his whole body is unclean, full of sores and decayhis highest hopes in accumUlating wealth and ing. His face becomes hideous, his fingers drop property; he may acquire great honor in his own off, his voice is hoarse and weak, and his members country, reaching the highest military rank and lose all sense of feeling. He becomes repugnant, possessing medals and titles from the great na- even to his own brother and sister. And this is a tions of the world. In other words, a man may true picture of the ruined condition of the man reach the exalted position of Naaman, who was of whom sin holds in its power. The unfortunate the first rank and commander-in-chief in the sinner, like the leper, sees that all his efforts and great country of Syria. Yet of what avail was all all his searoh for a cure to his disease of sin are this to Naaman? For he was a leper. In the without avail, and that its horrible results are same way it makes no difference what the rank daily on the increase. and reputation of a man is in the world, if he is a sinner. Ah, this one thing ruins everything for My friends, how awful and accursed a thing sin him; it changes all the joy of the world to sadness, is! Perhaps you have often longed that you might and turns the sweet cup of pleasures into bitter- grow better, but you perceived that you really ness and deadly poison. How unfortunate is he grew worse. In all Syria and in the capital of its who at the time of death owns nothing but money great king there was not found one physician who and fame, when he must undergo the just judg- could cure Naaman's disease. In all the earth ment of God and realizes that he is a sinner and there is no remedy for sin; in no tribe or nation has no certainty! Of what benefit were all Naa- will you find any man who has a cure for it. The man's medals and possessions to him? What joy whole world is a huge leper house with all its indoes he have as he gazes at the signs of his leprosy habitants infected. Both kings and beggars are and watches the exudations from his open sores? sinners.
It is remarkable how God has chosen the weak-
est things of the world for His work. We see that from sin. The command to wash in the Jordan it is a little maid, a captive and servant in the made the leper angry. Man is always displeased house of this great man, who is the means of at the remedy God has chosen for sin and wants bringing a message of .joy to the great general of instead the cure he himself thinks is good. He Syria. She said: "Would that my master could prefers his own worthless prescription to the dego to the prophet in Samaria to be cured of his pendable and efficacious prescription of God. "Are lep.rosy." In the same way I say to you: "WoVld not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, betthat you came to the blessed Jesus that He might ter than all the rivers of Israel?" In the same cleanse you of your sin." way, the unfortunate moral leper says: "Are not the teachings of my own religion better? It says I beseech you, when you hear this name, not to to me: Keep the fasts and all the regulations. be so unpolite as to stop listening to me, but think Complete the ceremonial washings. Pray all a little, and realize that I also, like you, was af- night. Go as a pilgrim to far places. Is it not flicted with the leprosy of sin, yet, through faith better to wash in these great rivers of my own in the expiation and the shed blood of Jesus, and religion than to have faith in this word of God through His resurrection from the dead, I have about the death of Christ?" Very weH, my found eternal salvation, and thousands of others friend, wash, wash, wash in your own rivers, but who were like me have also come to Him in con- among all the millions of men who have done this, fidence and have found a perfect cure. You know show me one person who has become clean from that you are a sinner and that up to now neither sin. With all earnestness I say to you that there you nor a single one of your acquaintances can is not one who certainly knows that he is among make bold to say that you have found salvation those who are saved. and are safe from the just punishment of God. How then is it that I and thousands like me have Naaman's servants said to him: "If the prophet such certainty that we are safe from this punish- had ordered you to do some great thing, would you ment and will forever live joyfully in the holy not have done it? How much rather then when presence of God? Is our confidence without a he said to you: Wash and be olean?" From all foundation? Is our joy purely imaginary? Give the peoples of the world there is evidence of the careful attention and think whether a person has lengths to which men will go in their search for ever found lasting happiness through imagination salvation-long pilgrimages on foot; costly offeralone. And this thought is also worthy of your ings., even of their own children; self-immolation attention, that perhaps you, too, through divine beneath the chariots of the idols. To what exfavor, can find deliverance from the terrible dis- tremes will they not go in the hope that their sin ease of sin and attain salvation. will be forgiven? But God will admit of only one way of cleansing. Naaman finally came to the prophet Elisha, but Finally, Naaman went down into the Jordan notice that he came in the way that man comes, and washed, and his flesh became clean like that standing at the gate with his horses and chariots of a little child. So with those who are washed by Christ. How clean and spotless are these new and bearing gifts. Man likewise thinks that by creatures! Oh, that you would, with the eye of faith, perceive that you may go under the waves his good works and his charities he will be re- of death with Christ and rise with Him from the dead, freed of all the spots and wounds of your ceived by God. He presents to the King with his leprosy. Then will you be able to exhibit to God dirty hands a flower from the King's own garden, and the world the countenance of a new man and show forth heavenly qualities through your words and expects a reward! But Elisha wanted none and deeds. That this is God's remedy for sin and of Naaman's gifts. and praises. One cannot sell your chance of a cure is plain from His own Word, the salvation of God. Elisha sent him a message: where we read: "For if we have become united "Go, wash in the Jordan." He would not go as with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be far as the gate to meet the general, but oontented also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing himself with a message. Salvation today also this, that our old man was crucified with him, that must be by faith, not by seeing with the eye, for the body o(sin might' be done away. But if we Jesus Christ, the healer of sin, has sent the mes- died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live sage of peace through His Word. Whoever hears with him; knowing that Christ being raised from it in faith receives salvation. the dead dieth no more. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God The river Jordan is a symbol of death, and for in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6: 5.). the leper Naaman there was no other remedy but that he dip seven times in the river of death. I can say to you that in all the world there is no other way by which a sinner may find healing but by the death of Christ. His blood alone can cleanse
First Five Centuries of Christianity*
A Review by SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, D.D.
–tEl Professor Emeritus of History of Religion and Christian Missions at Princeton Theological Seminary THIS is undoubtedly one of the great books of The fact that this first volume supplies the an- the year, and if the author completes his am- swers to these searching questions makes it a text- bitious plan, it may well prove the standard book and source-book on the science of early work on missionary history of the twentieth cen- Christian missions, as well as a history of the tury. As now planned, the work is to be incor- enterprise.
porated in six volumes of approximately 150,000 Dr. Arthur J. Brown's masterly volume on a to 200,000 words each. Volume I covers the period Century of Presbyterian Missions is in compari- to the Conversion of the Roman Empire, about the son with the scope of this one volume as a beauti- year 500 A. D. The second volume will cover the fully engraved cameo showing all the particular thousand years between 500 A. D. and 1500; the detail of one Society's work in one century. Here third, from 1500 A. D. to 1800. The last three is a massive canvas not only portraying a pano- volumes are to be devoted to the 19th and 20th rama of apostolic zeal in many lands and many centuries. Volume IV will deal with the general centuries but transfused and transfigured by the movements in Europe and America conditioning miracle of all history-the Incarnation-which at the expansion of Christianity during the last cen- the outset throws its bewildering light on the tury and a half. Volume V will cover the spread whole scene. Miracles in the technical sense, and of Christianity in Latin America, Africa, Asia, according to prevailing Protestant the 0 log y, and the islands of the Pacific. Volume VI will ceased with the Apostolic age.t But in that age conclude with a retrospect of the entire work, and in the message that came from the lips of the summarizing the conclusions. Apostles, miracles had a supreme place; for as Except for its anachronistic jacket (supplied by Archbishop Temple remarks in his latest volume, the publishers), this scholarly production is in Basic Convictions: "The only Jesus for whom every way attractive and worthy of its great there is any historical evidence at all is a super- theme. On the jacket, however, we have a John natural and miraculous figure."
the Baptist figure preaching to a group of men in The literary sources available for the history of Moslem turbans, palm trees and a minaret in the primitive Christianity may be fragmentary, as background, and the whole in a frame surrounded Harnack states in his great work, The Missi,on by heterogeneous crosses! The breadth and scope and Expansion of Christianity. But he goes on of the first volume is large enough to startle the to remark: "How extensive they are compared thoughtful reader at the very outset, for Dr. La- to the extant sources at our disposal for investitourette is dealing with the philosophy of history gating the history of any other religion within the as well as with history itself. He proposes to an- Roman Empire!" swer seven questions in this and the succeeding volumes: In our opinion an anti-supernaturalistic ap- proach to these primary documents in the New (1) What was the Christianity which spread? Testament mars the treatment of the sources both (2) Why did Christianity spread as it did? in the case of Harna«k and also to some extent in (3) Why has Christianity suffered reverses and at times the volume before us. Professor Latourette ex- presses his own evangelical faith in the super- met only partial success? natural character of Jesus Christ and what he (4) By what processes did Christianity spread? (5) What effect has Christianity had upon its environ- ment? wrought and taught, at the close of chapter four, (6) What effect has its environment had on Christianity? in words that seem to conflict with his earlier (7) What bearing do the processes by which Christianity statement in the Introduction and in Chapter One where he "has endeavored to conform to that kind spread have upon the effect of Christianity upon its environment and of the environment upon Chris- tianity? of objectivity extolled by the school of history in • A History of the Expansion of Christianity (Vol. 1): The First which he has been trained." That school appar- Fioo Centuries. By Kenneth Scott Latourette. Harper & Bros., New York. 1937. 412 pp. ,$3.50. t Oounterfeit Miracles-Benjamin B. Warfield.
[573 ]
ently accepted the Evolutionary hypothesis that who had been the intimates of Jesus. Whatever "religion is a comparatively late phenomenon in the cause, that the stream flowed on is clear. It the life of mankind"; that a creature which may . is the uniqueness of Jesus which seems the one be termed human emerged about 1,200,000 years tenable explanation of the fact that Christianity ago (page 2); that "the Israelites thought of is the only one of the many Jewish sects to break Jahweh, their God, as a tribal divinity" (page 33) ; off from the parent stem and outstrip it in size that belief in personal immortality developed and influence. . . . In Jesus, therefore, and in slowly and late in Israel (p. 36); and that "frag- his death and the conviction of his resurrection ments of discourses, pithy sayings, parables, and and of moral and spiritual rebirth and immor- incidents, some of them put together without re- tality through him, is to be found the chief reason gard for the correct sequence, make up large por- for the triumph of Christianity. Without Jesus tions of the first three Gospels and the fourth is Christianity would not have sprung into existence, chiefly an interpretation" (page 46). And we and from him and beliefs about him came its main see our David in Saul's armor again when he dynamic."
writes: "The question is often raised as to what It is cause for regret that in the treatment of was new in the teachings of Jesus. For prac- Apostolic Christianity the historian failed to emtically all, if not all, of the specific precepts and phasize the axiom laid down by Mandell Creighton beliefs attributed to him it is possible to find in his introduction to the Cambridge Modern Hisprecedent in the pre-Christian literature of his tory (Vol. I, p. 5): "In the vast and diversified people. What Jesus did was to penetrate into the area of modern history the point of view deterheart of the moral and religious concepts which mines the whole nature of the record or else the he had inherited from the past and to pick out whole work sinks to the level of a mass of details what seemed to him essential. He performed this uninformed by any luminous idea. The writer not in any systematic fashion. He wrote no book who strives to avoid any tendency becomes dull, in which he attempted to give permanence to his ideas. . . . The novelty of Jesus must be sought, and the cult of impartiality paralyses the judgnot so much in fresh principles, but in his phraseology, in what he emphasized, and espec~ally in ment." what he was as revealed in his words and deeds.~' In the extensive and valuable annotated bibliog- raphies for each chapter we miss, for the earlier chapters, well-known conservative evangelical Naturalistic Explanations scholars both on the history of religion and on the It is refreshing to find the author himself Apostolic age while the extreme liberal school of wholly dissatisfied with such naturalistic explana- thought is conspicuous. One receives the imprestions when he sums up the reasons 'for the tri- sion of a certain lukewarmness that is incon- gruous in the portrayal of Christ our Lord and umphs of the Gospel at the close of chapter four: Paul his great missionary Apostle. There is no "The more one examines into the various factors substitute for the missionary passion even in mis- which seem to account for the extraordinary vic- sion history.
tory of Christianity, the more one is driven to No reader will find the style of this work dull search for a cause which underlies them. It is or the treatment uninteresting. The only other clear that at the very beginning of Christianity history of missions comparable to it is that of there must have occurred a vast release of energy, Harnack which covers only the early centuries and unequalled in the history of the race. Without it has long been out of print in America. The chief the future course of the faith is inexplicable. value of these scholarly chapters on the early his- That burst of energy was ascribed by the early tory of Christianity lies in the interpretations disciples to the founder of their faith. Something which Dr. Latourette makes of the facts so care- happened to the men who associated with Jesus. fully collated and documented. It is a philosophy In his contact with them, in his crucifixion and in as well as a history of missions. What the Roman their assurance of his resurrection and of the con- Catholic historian, Schmidlin, indicated in a para- tinued living presence with his disciples of his graph is here expanded and illuminated, namely spirit, is to be found the major cause of the suc- the difference between early, medieval and mod- cess of Christianity. That experience and that ern missions. During the first five hundred years assurance were transmitted to succeeding genera- the area cove_red by Christian missions was the tions. Why this occurred may lie outside the Mediterranean basin and the Church had a narrow realms in which historians are supposed to move. and insecure base for a wide ·field of action. Dur- One reason is probably to be found in the contin- ing the medieval period the area included all .ued study of the earliest written records of Chris- Europe from a broader and firmer base. Modern tianity and in the effort to preserve intact the missions has crossed the. seven seas and reached belief and the experience of the circle of apostles out to all races. Early missions were largely spon-
THE FIRST FIVE CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY
taneous, incidental and individual in their method; councils, although both have their place. It is not medieval missions conducted by a church hier- concerned primarily with the decline of the Roman archy were cooperative and social; modern mis- Empire, nor with the result of Gothic invasions. sions, both Catholic and Protestant, are both indi- It traces the mighty work of God's Spirit through vidual and social. Early missions had for their the Church and individual believers to the conobj ect peoples of like race and culture; medieval summation of His eternal purpose. The end of missions dealt with like races but of lower culture; the first five hundred years is prophetic of the modern missions have approached all races of onward march. Dr. Latourette says: every level of culture. Early missions aimed at the conversion of individuals; medieval missions In our hurried pilgrimage through the first five censought the conversion of the masses; modern mis- turies of the spread of Christianity we have watched that sions deal with both and with the social structure faith moulded by element after element of its environment. of society. Left to begin its career with a minimum of organization, without a literature, and with no formulre with which to The periods into which this magnum opus is di- define and defend its content, and thrust into a world in vided are therefore logical as well as chronolog- which syncretism was the fashion, Christianity might well ical. The author has the rare talent, exhibited in have seemed foredoomed to absorption and to lose whathis earlier History of Christian Missions in China, ever distinctiveness it may have inherited from the teachof an unprejudiced judgment together with true ing and the story of the life, death, and resurrection of catholic sympathy for all sorts and conditions of its founder. . . . Christians. Amid the mass of factual detail he never loses hold of his central theme and argu- At the close of its fifth century of expansion Christianment, namely, the gradual expansion of Christian- ity was in a very different position than at its outset. ity as Divine light and leaven in the world. This From being one of the smallest of Jewish sects, it had beis not a history of dogma, nor of ecclesiastical come the religion professed by the majority in the most populous of the cultural areas of mankind. Never in the history of the race had so complete a religious revolution been wrought in so short a time among so large a propor- tion of civilized man.
MY AFRICAN FATHER* My father's children did not love him. They feared him very much. My sisters feared him even more than we boys. If we offended him, such as drinking the dregs of his palm wine or standing near any of his wives, he thrashed us unmercifully. We dared not lift our eyes when he was near.
When he was a young man he became a hunter. After he excelled in shooting he swore an oath that he would not marry until he had killed a man of the Bakembe clan; so he went to the witch-doctor whose advice he followed. After he had prepared the war feast, the war- riors, the only ones invited, ate and danced in their ceremonial dress. Then my father took his gun and crossed the river to the Bakembe clan. He stealthily walked to a certain hut and removed the bark that closed it. There lay a man and his wife, fast asleep. He prayed to his gun, "Oh gun, pick off this man and this woman!" The gun sounded. It killed the sleepers. Immediately the hut caught fire and the whole family perished-not one was left to plant a lily bulb (commonly used to exorcise evil spirits). When he returned to his village he danced and sang the songs of warriors for which he was given much goods. With this he obtained his first wife.
Later, my father became a great "medicine man" and a priest of both the Nge and Urn cults. He sacrificed his mother to become a priest of the Nge.
Father married twenty-four wives, but he allowed only one of them to cook his food for fear of poisoning. When the sun was high in the heavens his favorite wife would set a stool out in the street of our village. There my father sat down while she brought hot water, bathed and rubbed his body with redwood powder. One day he killed his brother because he took from him one of his wives.-Zacheus Body-hardened.
i * Drum Call, West Afl'ica i_______.._______________________________ _
Work in
The Rev. MIGUEL RIZZO JR., Sao Paulo, Brazil Pastor and Recently Moderator of the Presbyterian Church ~._ of Brazil; a delegate to the Centenary Celebration of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
T HE history of the evangelization of Brazil Presbyterian Church, in the capital of the country, could be divided into three phases: first, has been one of the greatest missionary agencies efforts made by 'the French in the sixteenth of South Brazil. He organized the first theological century; second, beginnings made by the Dutch class from which came three preachers who did in the seventeenth century; and third, the definite a very considerable amount of work. He wrote establishment of the work started by American sermons which fed the piety of the first converts.
missionaries in the nineteenth century. He published a journal which is yet a model The first two attempts would furnish abundant worthy to be imitated by the modern evangelical material for many very interesting narratives, but press. All this work was done in the short period the specific purpose of this article does not permit of eight years. He died when he was thirty-four me to write more than a .few words on that sub- years old, but his blessed memory is still highly ject. venerated by all evangelical workers of Brazil.
The first evangelical preachers and lay workers Many other American missionaries have folwho landed in Brazil were sent by the Reformed lowed and have been working earnestly at the Church of Geneva. The French Government was side of national preachers for years. The work then in possession of the country, recently dis- established on such solid foundations has reached covered. These pioneers were martyred by Vil- considerable proportions. The Presbyterian legagnon, a cruel adventurer who found that the Church of Brazil has now 1275 preaching stations Protestant preachers, whom he himself had called with 330 church buildings, 294 organized to Brazil, were not servile instruments to carry churches, and 144 ordained preachers. It receives, out his political program of oppression against the on an average, 2500 new members every year and inhabitants; he therefore persecuted and put has 35,199 communicant members and 30,114 chilthem to death. dren on its rolls. The Sunday schools include 3183 teachers and 39,476 pupils. The theological semi- The record of the noble courage and unbroken nary in Campinas has 37 students and seven fidelity of these preachers, although written in teachers, while more than 80 other students are blood, is one of the brightest pages of the religious preparing to go to the seminary. For many years heritage of Brazil. the Presbyterian Seminary of Pernambuco has The efforts of the Dutch Christians were more been sending many preachers to northern Brazil.
successful. They organized a Synod with more Almost all churches and missionary stations under than twenty preachers, established schools and the control of the Presbyterian Church in central did much social service on behalf of the poor and and south Brazil are now supplied by graduates sick. When they were expelled from the country of the seminary at Campinas.
by the Portuguese all the evangelical work they A missionary society, sponsored by the Church, had built up vanished. The Jesuits who came after supports a missionary in Portugal and hopes to them have tried to defame them and to discredit send another to that country next year.
the great work they established. When the history In order to understand the real opportunities of the nation is written from a critical and un- and the great needs of the Brazilian evangelical partial point of view their work will appear in a field, we must have in mind, among other things, clear light. The rehabilitation of their memory the following facts: is already being promoted by expert historians. In many regions of the country new areas are After these two unsuccessful efforts in estab- being populated so that the traveler who a few lishing a permanent evangelical work came the years .ago passed through some of these regions American missionaries. The first of them was the will be surprised to see the hamlets and villages Rev. Ashbel Green Simonton, who landed in the where previously he had seen only forest. A field he had chosen in 1859. There he organized a popular expression in Brazil is that, in certain really great work. Through many years the First zones, "cities are sprouting out quickly." This [576 ]
EVANGELICAL WORK IN BRAZIL
growth offers a great opportunity to the churches. ficult part of the Gospel. His letter shows clearly In many of these regions the Roman Catholic that his mind is preoccupied with religious prob- Church has not the same influence it exerts in lems.
other places. When this church begins work at Another fact: a few months ago I was inviter!
the same time as the Protestants we generally to visit an engineer high up in one of the depart- have advantages. Experience shows that many ments of the Government. He wished to present people, moving into a new place, are more ready a subject which could better be studied at his to hear the Gospel. Some of the settlers of new home. I went to his house and he explained that regions have lived in cities whe"'e it was n.ot easy before her marriage his wife had intended to be a to hear a Protestant preacher because they had nun and that all her family were very devout.
to face the criticism of friends 'and relatives who He had in his library a Bible which she read; im- could not understand h.ow anyone could leave the mediately her conception of religion changed. She religion of his father. Moving to a new place, was in great trouble because she could n.ot now these people find themselves in a new environment accept the teachings which for so long had been in which the obstacles to hinder attendance at the guide of her life. She even thought that her Protestant services are much fewer than where spiritual trouble must be a temptation of the they formerly lived. In regions recently opened devil. She went many times to see her priest but up, evangelical work is growing c.onsiderably. If he could not answer her questions satisfactorily.
we can use efficiently such opportunities as these, She finally asked him about her new view of the new cities now being organized will be very Christ, and he said: "The Christ you are intro- different spiritually and morally from the older ducing to me is a Protestant Christ." She had cities where it is so difficult to preach the Gospel never talked with a Protestant but now she be- because the people are proud to be "tl'!aditional" came curious to meet one. That was the reason I Roman Catholics. had received the invitation to visit the husband.
1. Brazilian evangelists are working actively She and her children are now connected with my in some of the new areas. Many Presbyterian church and, through her, the door seems to be missionaries are opening the way into the far in- opening to many .others in high places in the city.
terior and are establishing work even in places Still another fact: at a religious meeting in where the population is very scattered. one of the churches of Sao Paulo a lady was taken 2. Another fact worth while considering is that ill during the service. We found that there were many years ag.o great numbers .of German im- six medical doctors in the audience. That is remigrants came to Brazil and brought their pastors markable when we remember tha;t the Roman with them. The religious service was conducted Catholic Church is doing all it can to prevent in German, which now, in many cases the children people from attending Protestant churches.
do not understand. They are Protestants but they The manager of the largest bookstore in the cannot understand the service conducted still in city where I live is a regular attendant at our the language .of their fathers. In one region oc- meetings. He told me that now they are selling cupied by our missionaries there are tens of thou- more religious books, imported from France, than sands of people in such condition. One of the ever before. Most of these books are written by missionaries, Rev. Harry P. Midkiff, has now Protestant preachers. , thirty-five congregati.ons in .one of these new I could state many other instances, but theRe areas and many more places offer opportunities are sufficient to show that among the intellectual f.or preaching; but a man must not attempt to classes of Brazil there is now more interest in cover too much ground. Can the Church be in- the religious question than ever before. Even different to the spiritual destiny of such a multi- in the Roman Cattholic Church we can observe a tude? change in the attitude toward the evangelical 3. The intellectual classes of Brazil are now churches. There are, of course, still many perse- cutions. A few months ago two of our buildingR more inclined to listen to the Gospel. A few months before leaving Brazil, I received were burned-one in Alpinopolis, Minas, and the a call from a person sent by one of the intellectuals other in Pinheiros, Pernambuco. But generally of the country who had been president of the the educated priests do not now use against the State and is recognized as an outstanding de- Protestants the expressions they formerly did. fender .of the Roman Catholic Church. He sent Recently one of the outstanding priests delivered his representative to ask me to interpret a passage a great eulogizing speech about Erasmo Braga, a of the Bible. He explained that he had already very well known minister, before a selected audimade the same request of many of the cultured ence in the Municiple Theatre of Sao Paulo.
priests of the city and they had not succeeded in 4. Besides the Presbyterian Church there are giving him a satisfactory explanation of that dif- many other Protestants working in Brazil. The
total constituency,according to the last statistics people is remarkably developed. The Sunday is 200,000 communicant members; generally there School is generally very wen attended by young are families and relatives and friends who through people and adults. Many of the churches have a them receive their religious influence, so that it very well organized work in religious education. seems to me that it is not an exaggerated The habit of family worship is not so widely estimate to multiply that number by five. This spread as it should be, but many families are very makes a million persons in Brazil under indirect scrupulous in maintaining it. There are in all the influence of the Gospel. The population of Brazil churches groups of strong Christians and they is over forty-two millions so that the quantity of have a blessed influence on the whole. salt is yet very little in proportion to the mass it must season. If we want to win the country to The ancient name of the country of Brazil was Christ we have before us a task of gigantic pro- "Land of the Holy Cross." We hope that this name portions. But we surely will face that duty. in the future may be applied to it, not as a geo- graphical designation, but as a symbol of the Such facts speak for the spiritual life of the power of the Christ of the Cross to redeem the Church in Brazil. The missionary spirit of souls of its children.
Forty Miles from a Hospital-in U. S. A.
FIFTEEN years ago, fired by the needs of a The story of those adventurous years can only remote neighborhood in the Tennessee hills, a woman opened a two-bed "hospital" in an be hinted at here. There were day and night calls unpainted shack without furnace or plumbing. The little village was far from railroads, and the in all weathers; swollen streams that must be main highway was a hog-wallow after rains. But there were wild trails and one-room cabins forded on horseback or muleback; canyons too DR. MARY CRAVATH WHARTON steep and rocky for even a mule to find footing.
aplenty, with typhoid, tuberculosis, pellagra and Patients were brought in from long distances on hookworm,burns, broken bones and gunshot wounds. extemporized stretchers; babies were delivered Pooling her resources with those of two by the light of log fires. Many homes lacked the friends, she put up a $6,000 building-chartered under the State Charities Act and irrevocably most primitive conveniences, or what we call nededicated to public welfare and community service. Everything was very simple and plain. The cessities; yet out of such homes are coming back country was still "the wilderness"; the nearest hospital was forty miles distant. splendid specimens of young manhood and wom- anhood.
Working under its own Board of Directors, Up- lands-for so the institution was christened-has undertaken a many-sided piece of definitely Chris- tian rural betterment work at Pleasant Hill, and has carried it on with unflagging zeal in the face of formidable difficulties. Clinics and dispensaries, public health teaching, inoculations, the care and feeding of babies, first aid, home nursing, and the growing and canning of vegetables to correct the traditional diet of dried beans and cornbread -all have a place in its constantly expanding program. What this harbor of refuge has meant to hundreds, stricken by sudden illness or in- volved in the accidents common to the mountains, can never be told. The work is Christian but non- denominational, and supported largely by volun- tary contributions. It has grown to a health cen- ter with ten buildings, thirty hospital beds, an x-ray machine, and a corps of trained workers.
It is still c-arried on by its founder, Dr. May Cravath Wharton, whose ability, devotion, and vision, together with her record of achievement, are convincing evidence that its work has only begun. DORA READ GOODALE.
Pleasant Hill, Tennessee.
the Midst of European
By PROFESSOR ADOLF KELLER, D.D., Geneva Secretary of the Central Bureau for Inter-Church Aid for the Evangelical Churches of Europe T HE peace and tranquillity of the Christian in labor circles, an anti-god or godless movement Churches have come to an end in Europe. has sprang up, as one can see in Russia and Spain. The Church idyll is over. It may still exist in some hidden corners, in remote villages, in What does this mean? It means that the Church countries far away from the thoroughfare of of Christ is no longer made up of the majority of modern ideologies and conflicting political powers. the population in modern nations, but represents On the crossroad of the life and thought of the again, as in the time of the Roman Empire, the European nations the Churches have to fight for liWe flock, a minority struggling for its life their material and spiritual existence. against modern indifferentism and secularism. This minority is ridiculed by the modern skep- There are only a few countries on the European ticism which prevails in many of the cultured Continent where nation and Church are more or class as well as in labor circles; the masses are less identical and where most of the citizens also advised by them to "leave heaven to the sparrows members of the churches. This may be the case and to the parsons." in certain Roman Catholic states and in the Scan- If Christianity is no longer a predominant dinavian countries. In Norway, for instance, the Church Government or administration is identical power in many countries, it becomes again, as in with the State Department. In Sweden nobody primitive Christianity, a missionary group. The could, until recent times, just leave one Church missionary task disappeared or was forgotten without entering another one. In Finland, 99% where the Church comprised a majority of the people, where everybody by birth or by custom of the nation are members of the National Lu- was a more or less active or convinced member theran Church. The relation between State and of the Church. Today the Church is again con- Church is hardly a problem or a conflict in these fronted in the midst of "Christian lands" with her countries. original missionary task. The Gospel must again But even in certain Roman Catholic countries be preached, not only to the heathen in dark con- like France and Italy, a large part of the nation tinents, but to millions of modern heathen who has given up church membership or active par- have been baptized or educated as Christians, but ticipation in church life. In France, for instance, for whom Christianity has lost its meaning. the Roman Catholic Church claims not more than The new missionary task with which the Church ten millions out of forty-one millions of the inhabitants; the Protestants count hardly one mil- is confronted is taken up afresh by the Churches lion. Where are the other thirty millions of the themselves and by religious groups who undertake French people? Germany counts officially forty a preaching mission similar to that sweeping over millions of Protestants out of sixty-five million the United States. The Confessional Church in inhabitants. But before Hitler came into power Germany actually considers ,the German people as her first missionary field. A special committee one could count sixteen millions of Socialist and under Herr von Thadden is organizing "Evan- Communist votes and it is well known to what gelical weeks" in the large cWes for bringing extent the Christian Church lost membership in again the Gospel to the land of the Reformation. continental Labor. A French student of theology, These gatherings draw new thousands in the A. Reymond, lived six months as a worker in fac- largest churches and assembly halls who wished tories of French industrial cities and made a study their evangelical witness to off-set the vague naof the religious conditions in the labor class. His tional religion which hardly deserves the name of impressions were that the large majority of the being an offspring of Luther's faith. These French labor classes not only have given up church "Evangelical weeks," the largest missionary propmembership but they no longer know what :the aganda undertaken in Germany, were continued Gospel is or what Christ means for mankind. until the Government forbade them and put the leaders in prison. Wherever Marxism and Bolshevism, with their materialistic philosophy have become predominant The voice of the German Churches could not be [ 579 ]
silenced by such administrative measures. The the thesis that confession is allowed but that pub- Christian people hear the Evangelical message lic discussion and propaganda of religion is forfrom the pulpit, in private assemblies and by a bidden. living and encouraging witness mouth to mouth. The Church in Germany shows in these times of The same thesis is found in the Bolshevist reliconflict that she lives alone on the Word of God gious legislation and its interpretation by the Boland recognizes no other Sovereign than her Lord, shevist party. Religious propaganda, therefore Jesus Christ. The former compromise between evangelization and missions, are prohibited in Church and State which led the German theo- Russia while atheistic propaganda is allowed. logian Richard Rothe to the thesis that the Church This prohibition is only one aspect of a religious would be dissolved in the State, has come to an persecution. The law, especially the new constiend and now the Church is drawing a clear bound- tution, does not speak of it. Religious liberty is ary line between her divine message and its im- granted on paper, but in practice the elements of plications and the claims of Caesar. The Church a religious persecution are seen in the following recognizes the State as a divine order to which facts: The importation of the Bible into Soviet she owes obedience according to God's law, but Russia is prohibited; the free preaching of the she refused to betray the Gospel to a State phi- Gospel is prohibited; thousands of priests, bishlosophy or a modern pagan or half-pagan myth, ops and Protestant ministers have been killed, such as it is developed in Rosenberg's "Myth of banished, or sent to the concentration camps in the Twentieth Century" and in other modern na- Siberia and near the White Sea. All religious tionalistic religious movements. education before the eighteenth year is forbidden. Innumerable Church buildings have been alien- Evidently, it needs that peculiar courage which ated from their religious use and are transformed faith has always shown to defy a totalitarian into museums, cinemas, assembly halls, variety State and to remind the omnipotent State that the theatres or are so heavily taxed that the congre- Lord is God and the Supreme Sovereign. This gation has had to give them up, as is the case courage has awakened new leaders like Barth, with the last Reformed Church in Odessa. Of Dibelius, Koch, Niemoller and many others who two hundred Lutheran pastors working in Russia say again with Luther: "Here I stand, I can no before the Revolution, today only five or six are other." They prefer to go to prison rather than still in their villages and nearly every week their betray their faith. Persecution has quickened the friends in Western countries receive letters aclife of faith and isolation gives back to the Church cording to which new arrests take place. her original independence from the world. From an external point of view the Church in In Italy a similar philosophy of a Fascist State Russia has come to an end although hundreds of seems to have concluded a compromise with the church buildings are still open in the large cities Roman Catholic Church which has a privileged and are crowded on Sundays. The official strucposition and accepted a large endowment of 1700 ture of the Church is shaken; the patriarchate, millions lire in the famous Lateran Treaties of the Synod, the Episcopate, the theological acad- 1929. But a compromise in spiritual matters al- emies, the influence on public life. But it is a ways contains germs of future conflicts. Already wonderful and paradoxical experience that the it becomes manifest that Church and State in Church today is saved by the Russian Christian Italy are becoming two rival and competing pow- mothers. They are the most influential and faithers in the sphere of education and marriage. Mus- ful missionaries of the present time. They teach solini tried to escape a conflict by establishing his their children, often in a very elementary way, doctrine of the "two sovereignties"-that of the what the Church can no longer teach and they State for temporal matters and that of the Church continue the faith and Christian tradition of that for matters spiritual. He has shown much diplo- deeply religious people. These simple farmersmatic skill in meeting the spiritual claims of the poor, uncultured, despised people–have a large Church and not only granted her the privilege of share in the spiritual revival which exists among being the national religion, but introduced the the Russian people today. The Russian writer, New Testament into the schools and concluded a Berdjaev, declares that Bolshevism is the child favorable concordat with the Vatican. At the between Marxism and the deep religious mystisame time he granted religious liberty to the cism of the -Russian people. Marxism is an out- Protestant minorities, especially the Waldensian, come of Western culture. Mysticism is the natin the treaty, "I Culti Ammessi" in 1929. The ural life of the Russian people and it seems that question today is whether Mussolini can protect Western influence has not been able to overcome for the future the Waldensians from the conse- the great natural gift of religion, even in a crude quences of an unfavorable interpretation of the form, which the Russian soul has maintained for treaties by the Roman Catholic clergy defending centuries. It is to be hoped that the time will come
IN THE MIDST OF EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS
when the Russian Church can again undertake the The fourth window may be seen in a beginning greatest missionary enterprise in Europe – the of social work within the Orthodox Church. Such evangelization of the Russian people by the Bible social interest in the former mystical, hierarchic and the preaching of the Word of God. and sacramentarian Church might have spared Russia a revolution, as Methodism did to England Already four windows are opening in the Or- in the Eighteenth Century. The beginnings are thodox Church towards Western evangelical Christianity. The first is that the Orthodox weak, but hopeful. Church begins to preach. At our ecumenical con- The Church of Christ is going through dark ferences we have heard more than once a sincere evangelical witness from the mouth of an Ortho- times in these European countries shaken by revdox preacher; where the priests remain silent, olutions, but the Divine light shines in this darkthe laymen, simple men and women, begin to ness and the Church is again going through that preach. In the former Raskol, through the marvelous experience which St. Paul expressed Stundist Movement, the Russian Orthodox Church in the words: "When I am weak, then am I has had a Reformation of her own which could not strong." The revolution has revolutionized men's be quenched and is still alive among the Gospel- inner life and martyrdom, wherever it happened, Christians. has again proved to be the real seed of faith in The second window opens through the theo- Christian churches. logical studies which Orthodox theologians began The Church of Christ has again become the at Western Theological Seminaries. Following little flock, but this little flock is a real Church of such studies these Orthodox theologians have faith. The Church is becoming poor like her shown a remarkable independence. They have not founder who had not whereon to lay his head, but only learned from Protestant theology but have she has become spiritually blessed. She is per- secuted in many places but she feels again that defended and expounded their own faith with an she is bearing the Cross which her Master has original theological skill and sincere conviction. Men like Father Bulgakow, Florowski, Wyszes- carried. lavzev, Cassian, Zander and Zenkowski at the Or- These European Christians are suffering in thodox Academy in Paris, and such theologians as Zankow in Bulgaria, Arseniev in Konigsberg their terrible poverty, in their isolation and perseand Alivisatos in Athens have the merit to have cution. They are the "unknown Christian," opened a new understanding of the Orthodox which the wealthy, powerful and busy Churches Church to Western Protestants. in the West so easily forget. Their answer to the world is silence and martyrdom. They can hardly The third window is opening in the present-day speak. It is, therefore, the task of their happier Youth Movement in the Orthodox Church. It be- but perhaps, less blessed brethren, to speak to came hopeful with the fact that the Western them, to comfort them in their terrible loneliness, Christianity refrained from proselytizing the Or- to strengthen their faith in their vicarious sufferthodox Church, at least that part of it which is ing and to show them that evangelical solidarity collaborating with that Church in the ecumenical which is a privilege and a necessity of the Chrismovement. tian life. Such solidarity was recently declared at Oxford and Edinburgh to be one of the urgent ecumenical tasks of present-day Christianity.
SHALL WE KEEP ON ASKING GOD?
By THE LATE JAMES H. MCCONKEY More than half a century ago George Muller, that prince of intercessors with God, began to pray for a group of five personal friends. After five years one of them came to Christ. In ten years two more of them found peace in the same Saviour. He prayed on for twenty-five years and the fourth man was saved. For the fifth he prayed until the time of his death, and this friend too came to Christ a few months afterward. For this latter friend Muller had prayed almost fifty-two years!
But someone says: "How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in God's hands?" He alone, and not we, must decide when we shall cease from petitioning. We may stop praying for someone because we receive the answer or we stop because we believe God has given His answer. The faith of our heart is as sure as the sight of our eyes, for it is faith in God. More and more as we live the prayer life we come to experience and recognize this God-given assurance, and know when to continue our petitioning.
Dilemma of Japanese
_.•..gf By the REV. T. T. BRUMBAUGH, Tokyo, Japan r;;,··- Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church Since 1924 C HRISTIANS and idealists of Japan are "on This is not only a wholesome change from the the spot" of public scrutiny even more at attitude of Christians in all other wars to date, home today than abroad. Every Japanese but it is in great contrast to the positions taken by is required by his Government, and the people who other religious and cultural bodies in Japan.
support it und.er the Constitution of 1868, to give Without exception, Japan's thirteen religious sects absolute and unquestioning obedience to the na- of Shinto have been vigorously supporting the tion and its rulers. The highest moral principle nation's military policy on the Asiatic mainland; in the Japanese code of ethics is loyalty to em- they have indeed been centers of the combative peror and empire. Consequently when his gov- nationalism of the past half-dozen years. Bud- ernment, in a crisis such as the present, seeks to dhism also, while never so unrestrained in grati- obtain assurances of loyalty from the various reli- fication of desires, has given unquestioned support gious bodies functioning in the land the National to all Government policies and certain sects and Christian Council of Japan, representing two hun- Buddhist groups have by popular subscription dred thousand Christians of various affiliated de- raised large funds for the purchase of airplanes nominations, feels obliged to assure Government to be given to the imperial army and navy.
and rulers that the Christian Church "pledges it- In Christian circles the Roman Catholic Church self … to render faithful services to the State." has also recently been very active in assuring the None who read farther into this recent declara- authorities of its unswerving loyalty to the Gov- tion of the Japanese National Christian Council ernment in all temporal affairs, this being an can fail to note, however, that there is deep regret effort to overcome the suspicion that has rested in and chagrin that Sino-Japanese relations have Japanese minds ever since Catholicism was drifted into the sorry mess of today. Japanese stamped out of Japan in the sixteenth and seven- Christians feel their own share in responsibility teenth centuries for alleged connivance with Rome for all this; they call for a movement of spiritual and other capitals of temporal power in Europe.
regeneration within Japan, one which may bring Protestants have occasionally taken up the cudgels Christians and non-Christians alike to conscious- for nationalistic expansion on "Deutschland-iiber- ness of guilt as well as to a sense of God's will in alles" patterns; but the unprejudiced observer the present situation. As regards the crisis within cannot fail to observe a much more moderate and Japan they are determined to show the nation and international attitude throughout C h r i s t ian those in the empire's military service that Chris- groups and "spheres of influence" in Japan than tians minister to all those in need, whether physi- is found elsewhere.
calor spiritual, and they join fervently in prayer Christians and other advocates of world fellow- that the conflict may speedily be ended and in ship in Japan today are in a serious dilemma.
such a way as to make for permanent peace and They have been drawn to the Christian faith and friendship between China and Japan. its humanitarian ideals because it seems so ob- All this may sound pitifully inadequate to those vious that only such a world community under a hoping to hear a more positive voice out of Chris- unitary and loving Divine order can solve the stu- tendom; yet anyone recalling the attitude and offi- pendous problems of life in the modern world- cial statements of Christians in America and personal, social, economic, and others. But they Great Britain during the World War may find in are puzzled and baffled by the fact that European this declaration some reason for gratification. and American social and national life, in spite of There is here no breath of hatred for China, no many centuries of Christian background, is not suggestion of national glorification, no attempt to actuated by Christ-like motives. The JapaIese sanctify war. There is, rather, a deep sense of feel themselves the victims of white supremacy remorse that, in spite of Christian and other ideal- throughout the earth, and Christians cannot deny istic efforts for peace, open warfare has come be- it. They see that this form of white imperialism tween Japan and her neighbors, and there is a has been built up htrgely by military power and desire to mitigate the horrors of war while pray- that, whereas certain groups of Christians have ing for its swift conclusion. in recent years been renouncing further aggres- [ 582)] sion by such violence, not one "Christian" nation, ness; considering thyself, lest thou also be or even one sizable group of Christians, has re- tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens and so pudiated its nation's obvious determination to fulfil the law of Christ." keep for 'itself all the advantages acquired so largely by force. This not only applies to the land It is to Christianity's eternal credit that by and available resources of Christian nations, evangelization, education and the natural penetrawhich compare so to Japan's disadvantage with tion of the humanitarian ideals of Jesus the people its vast population and narrow confines, but it is of Japan, China and all other as yet non-Christian especially clear when one compares the standards lands have been awakened to their need of a more of living of Christian peoples in the West with abundant life, material and spiritua1. It will be a those in the Orient. hard blow to Christian prestige if now awakened Japanese decide that Christianity cannot or will The gist of the matter is that Christians in these not undertake to provide for these needs. We may favored lands do not concern themselves with the condemn as unchristian and immoral the methremoval of obvious inequalities and injustices, and ods that Japan is employing in China in her efforts that they and their governments have deliberately to attain her own economic salvation; but if set economic obstacles that hinder the efforts of Christendom cannot indicate and demonstrate a the Japanese to solve their own problems by peace- better way, then our testimony will be to them as ful means. The charge of Japan's nationalists can sounding brass and clanging cymbal. The Christscarcely be refuted, that Christianity and interna- spirit, even when exercising moral restraint as in tional idealism have not been concerned with a the present effort to restrain Japan in Asia, must practical and just solution of Japan's stupendous be redemptive. Let American Christians not problem of feeding seventy millions of people from overlook or neglect the redemptive quality of their a tillable area in Japan proper equivalent to the faith. Western two-thirds of Ohio. WHAT CHINESE CHRISTIANS SAY Christians in Japan also find it difficult to understand an attitude of mind on the part of Western Dr. Chester S, Miao of the National Christian peoples which will complacently tolerate the vast Council of China says: (1) Everyone should do extent of both economic and political imperialism his best to steady the morale of his community that obtains today in China under European and and help to secure peace and order. (2) We American responsibility, and at the same time re- should endeavor to carryon our daily work and gards with such horror all Japanese effort to solve help others to do their regular work. (3) War Japan's economic problem by similar though per- conditions are a breeding ground for rumor and haps more thorough-going methods. Here we note propaganda. Let us do our best to act as agents the difference, if any, between expansion by the for reliable news and for the dissemination of usual methods of economic penetration and that truth. (4) There is no better time than this to openly supported by military force. Japan cannot bring home to our people the Christian message forget that only ten years ago America and Great of the cross of suffering, We need faith to sus- Britain requested Japanese naval cooperation in tain our hope and to endure suffering. (5) Let Nanking to save our nationals and our property us launch a movement in every city for raising from the confusion attendant upon the northward relief funds and needed materials for suffering advance of Chiang Kai-shek's armies. Artillery people. (6) Let us pray for peace and the adbarrages were then laid down around the Stand- vancement of the cause of Christ. (7) Let us ard Oil compound to protect Occidental lives and show that we love justice and seek to manifest the property with a disregard for Chinese life and love of God. interests not unlike that for which Japan's army and navy are condemned today. The Chinese Christian leader, Mr. C. K. Lee, gave this answer to a student who asked why we In brief, Japanese lovers of peace and world fel- should teach Christianity to China when it has the lowship are in a tight place. They are opposed to ethics of Confucianism: any blood-thirstiness in their national program but they are truly and proudly Japanese. Perhaps "There are three reasons. First of all, Conwe have expected too much of a nation only sev- fucius was a teacher and Christ is a Saviour. enty-five years out of feudalism and a careful China needs a Saviour more than she needs a pupil of western forms of national development. teacher. In the second place, Confucius is dead It would seem to one acquainted with the New Tes- and Christ is alive. China needs a living Saviour. tament that Western Christians might well recall In the third place, Confucius is some day going to Paul's injunctions to the Galatians: "Brethren, stand before Christ to be judged by Him. China if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are needs to know Christ as Saviour before she meets spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meek- Him as Judge."
Working by Love in
The Story of the Omi Brotherhood I _•..e/ By WINBURN T. THOMAS, Tanaka, Kyoto, Japan I Ji.- O NE of the most interesting places to visit in Christian work. This might have sent other less Japan is a small village in the province of enterprising evangelists back to America; but Omi, an hour from Kyoto. While the not so young Vories. He determined to give up country is rich in picturesque scenes and in his- his teaching salary and to remain in Hachiman toric treasures, many tourists, with only a few until he had helped his young disciples to a,ttain days to spend in Japan, take time to visit this spiritual maturity. The situation forced him to town on the shores of Lake Biwa. These visitors become an independent, self-supporting missioncome to see the Omi Brotherhood, "a nonsectar- ary. ian experiment in rural evangelization." A Yale University professor, who had seen the work, ex- Some of his young Japanese friends stood by claimed, "It is one of the most interesting social Vories, sharing their school allowances until outexperiments in the history of Christianity." An side aid arrived; one of the young students American philanthropist said, "This is the most shared his room with his teacher. Some of these interesting missionary story I have ever heard." young men are today active members of the A French atheist after spending several weeks in Brotherhood; their fidelity is much like that of the village wrote, "I have never seen or heard Japanese retainers for their lords.
anything like this. You really believe. Although I haven't yet a consciousness of God or an understanding of Jesus Christ, I could join your Broth- hood today, believing in you."
The Omi Brotherhood is no new form of monasticism, for it is very much a part of the world's life. It conducts a successful business; its mem- bers speak over the radio; it carries on evangel- istic work over a large area. Instead of being wholly Japanese, it includes among its workers, Americans, Koreans, Chinese, and nationals from other countries. While members of the Brother- VORIES, YOSHIDA, NURATA, H. SATO, MIYAMOTO, KOGHO hood refrain from the use of tobacco and alcohol WHO WERE TOGETHER IN THE ACADEMY IN 1905 stimulants, they are not ascetic. In a country (Photo taken in 1930) where even Christianity is too often looked upon Fortunately Mr. Vories had studied architec- as a festal observance, a life insurance for the ture and it was not long before he received some future world, theological speculation, or a matter small commissions to design and erect mission of sectarian loyalty, the Omi Brotherhood repre- buildings. Later he became so busy that he was sents Christian life and the purpose of the group obliged to engage a staff of assistants. In the is experimentally to demonstrate the power of thirty-two years since the establishment of this Christ in daily life and conduct. Brotherhood, Mr. Vories and his assistants have Over thirty years ago, William Merrell Vories designed over a thousand buildings, including came to Japan to teach English in a government some as large and well known as the Daimaru de- academy at Hachiman. Not content with in- partment store in Osaka. A score of draftsmen structing the boys in his native tongue he started are busy in the Omi Hachiman office and branch a Bible class. This move went unnoticed until offices are maintained in Tokyo and Osaka. The some of the boys decided to become Christians. vast evangelistic program centered about this vil- Later money was provided for the erection of a lage has been carried on with the aid of Vories'
Y. M. C. A. in which to carryon Christian activi- "little pencil." Not only has the income from this ties. When the building was nearly completed branch of the work enabled him to finance its the opposition was so great that Mr. Vories was evangelistic program, but the office has intro- asked to resign from the school or to give up his duced many badly needed housing reforms.
[584 ] The next project undertaken was to provide vised by Dr. Vories, all strictly observe Sunday, a building materials and equipment. This neces- practice hardly known in Japan. In some cases sitated the organization of the Omi Sales Com- this has resulted in one day in seven being granted pany which imports and manufactures hardware, as a holiday for all employees, notably in the case refrigerators, household furnishings, and other of one of the large department stores. The Brotherhood factory at Omi Hachiman demon- LUNCH TIME AT THE KINDERGARTEN, OMI MISSION strates Christian commercial principles. Em- ployees are treated and paid as though they were modern equipment. Probably the most profitable children of God rather than as economic slaves venture was acceptance of the Oriental sales to be exploited. The workers receive the benefit agency for Mentholatum. Japanese druggists at of city wages while remaining in the country. first refused to handle ,the product, but it has now become almost a household necessity throughout Some results of the mission work of the Broth- Japan. Two small incidents show how wide- erhood are seen in its churches, Y. M. C. A., gymspread its use has become. One day while the nasium, and sanitorium. One of the finest tuberwriter was visiting a movie studio, a leading lady culosis hospitals in Japan, conducted by the misfell and bruised her arm during the "shooting" sion, is located at the foot of a hill overlooking a of a scene. Immediately one of her fellow ac.tors plain that leads to Lake Biwa. One day a memcalled to the "makeup" girl, "Bring the Menthol- ber of the Brotherhood was told that he had tuberatum." Again, at a country hotel, when a mem- culosis. To care for him and similar cases the ber of our party accidently slipped on a rock and first section of a sanitorium was constructed; bruised his hands, a maid produced a small can this has now developed into a modern hospital of this salve and all was well. When the packages with thirty workers and eighty-five beds. Docof Mentholatum are put up by the Brotherhood, tors estimate that one person in seven (some say a Bible verse and an invitation to correspond are as many as one in three) in Japan is a tubercuincluded in each package. As a result many Jap- losis case, but many have good prospects for reanese have been led to Christ. covery.
Evangelism and business are united in the The Brotherhood is non-sectarian, and its memmembers of the Brotherhood, and the two forms bers are free to join any denomination they of work are carried on side by side. On the sec- choose, but the local Congregational church is ond floor of the general offices in Omi Hachiman, the newspaper evangelism and publication depart- THE TUBERCULOSIS SANITARIUM-OMI HACHIMAN ments are conducted. Several full-time workers are busy preparing Christian magazines and most closely connected with the work. This conbooks, and in sending out Bible lessons and litera- nection dates from Dr. Vories' earliest days in ture to those who inquire about Christianity or Japan when he was invited to speak on Sunday who are taking correspondence courses. mornings to a small group of persons who gath- ered in a private home for worship. Within a These various business enterprises, begun only as a means of financing the evangelistic work, have been the direct means of promoting evangelism. Even in the building operations,super-
few years this group was able to erect a chapel One unusual feature of the work is the "Galiand to call a minister. One of the unusual things lee Maru," a motor launch used on Lake Biwa. about the work is that a collection is never taken About 100 Brotherhood workers carry their acat the meetings; those who wish to contribute tivities into six other places around the lake, condrop their offerings into a small receptacle at the ducting church services, Sunday Schools, Y. M. rear of the auditorium. The congregation has C. A.'s, kindergartens, cooperatives, and agriculgrown so that the worship services were recently tural conferences and experiments. transferred to the large gymnasium of the community house, in the front part of which there is The Omi Brotherhood expresses William Mera day nursery and a kindergarten. rell Vories' dream of a "complete independent mission enterprise, of such a variety of activities as will reach all classes of people in a given local- ity and will develop its own support on the field." In the Omi-Hachiman area of 1,616 square miles, with a population of 700,000 living in one city and 1,376 towns and villages, the Brotherhood's aim is- IN THE MENTHOLATUM PACKING ROOM 1. To preach and practice the Gospel of Christ without reference to denominational differences. A comparatively recent innovation of the Brotherhood work is a girls' high school. The 2. To completely unify the work in a fellowship of all higher education of Japanese boys has been taken workers, regardless of nationality or race. care of by government institutions, but girls have been left to shift for themselves after graduation 3. To evangelize communities unoccupied by any other from grammar school. To care for their needs Mission, and under no circumstances to overlap with the in Omi province a former residence was remod- work of such a Mission. eled and a girls' high school begun with an enrollment of about fifty young women. Three separate 4. To evangelize rural communities, as the most conbuildings house the dormitory, dining hall and servative element of mankind and the most probable source class rooms. of leadership.
The most recent building is a new Y. M. C. A., 5. To seek, enlist and train leaders and Christian workwhere the work is in the hands of a full-time sec- ers. retary and where classes are conducted for the village and Academy boys. 6. To promote social betterment-including temperance, social purity, Christian marriage customs, industrial, physical and sanitary reforms, and definite work for the neglected classes.
7. To study and experiment with new methods of Chris- tian evangelization.
The Japanese authorities that formerly perse- cuted and opposed the work of the Brotherhood are now loudest in the praise of Dr. Vories for through his efforts, he has put Hachiman on the map, has employed a large number of its people, and is gradually raising the economic, moral and religious level of its citizens.
"GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY!"
Some years ago a prominent French jurist was attorney for a murderer. In his final address to the jury he said: "Gentlemen of the jury! My task is very easy. The accused has confessed; a defense is impossible, and yet· I want to add a .few words. There, on the wall, I see the picture of the Crucified Ch:rist and I pay homage to Him. There hangs the picture, in this hall of justice, where you condemn the guilty. But why do we not hear anything of Him in our public schools to which we send our children? Why does the murderer, for the first time in his life, see the Crucified One here in this hall, wh~re the law will punish him? If the attention of my client had been directed to the Crucified when he sat on the benches of the school, he would not now sit here facing disgrace and infamy. Yes, it is you, gentlemen, whom I accuse. You that brag, with your education and your culture, and yet are barbarous, who spread atheism and lust among the people, and then are astonished when the people reply with crime and vulgarity. Condemn my client, gentlemen. You have a right to do it. But I accuse you; that is my duty."
Naturally Love to
By the REV. JAMES F. RIGGS, New York Field Committee on United Promotion, Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
W ITH rapt attention the children listened. plan for such instruction, and make it interesting The speaker knew children's interests. He by calling attention to what it does to character, was fascinating. In closing his address he the child responds naturally and gladly. This asked if anyone present wanted to help the cause does not apply to money alone, but to any service of Christian education to continue the work de- rendered as well. Money is merely the tool most scribed. Eagerly the hands went up. Then the frequently used. Stewardship both in theory and minister rose and said, "These children are poor. practice covers many aspects of the Christian ex- They have no money except what working fathers perience.
or mothers provide for them. It is not reasonable Schools of stewardship with classes for youth, to ask them to give to any cause. In fact they stewardship dramas, interesting biographies of need many things themselves." generous givers are all assets in the development The speaker was surprised, as well he might be, of true Christian stewards. Youth learns from since the children did not appear to be in need or them that the giving of self, service, substance, for impovished. However, with a smile he inquired the propagation of the Gospel is not a matter of if he might ask a question. When this permission likes or dislikes. It is an imperative. When was granted he said, "How many of you children properly taught this conception becomes as nat- go to the movies?" Every hand was raised. ural as it is beautiful in the child.
"How many of you go on an average of twice a One church quickened this sense of obligation week?" Many hands shot up. "How many go at to the causes represented by the church program times more often than that?" A few hands were through the making and showing of a set of slides held aloft. Then turning to the pastor he re- on giving. These revealed in the form of charts marked, "I feel sure that it would be no hardship and graphs what the average person spent for for them to share in Kingdom enterprises." luxuries like amusements, tobacco, candy, as con- trasted with the amounts contributed to Church, But two long, searching thoughts filled his mind. Sunday school, Christian Endeavor, etc. The ef- Why do adults deprive children of the privilege of fect of these slides was very convincing. When giving? And why do older people so often pre- this was discussed in Sunday school classes and sent vital work in a manner uninteresting to age groups it resulted in a number of increased youth? pledges accompanied by heightened interest in the cause. Children love to give. They give to what they are interested in. The Church however very gen- Conventional giving is not only w:ithout thrill; er.ally expects interest, but often does not work but is likely to be very short-lived. It will cease creatively to generate it. Usually young people at the first opportunity. The child's money will have not the remotest idea of what they are giv- be absorbed by any secular cause or object which ing to when they drop their offering in the blue is appealing. Children are eager to do what is Sunday school envelope, or in the church collec- interesting. They are right in expecting, if not tion plate. Like their elders they give as a matter requiring, that they should get some degree of of course, as a bit of church routine. Consequently. satisfaction out of the causes which they help to they do so without any enthusiasm.
The Theory and Practice of Stewardship support. They ought.to know why they give, as well as what they give to in supporting church Usually stewardship is not taught in any prac- work. If the basic reasons presented to them are tical way. As a result the rising generation real- stated in terms of life, alert in meeting human izes only in the vaguest possible manner that God needs, the children will respond wonderfully.
is the source of all blessings through the years, There is nothing which appeals more deeply to a including the gift of life itself. As a result all the child than to know that he is meeting a real need.
daily benefits are accepted as a matter of course. Sympathies are ever ready and near the surface It is necessary that stewardship should be taught, in childhood. Youth yearns to do worthwhile and practiced too, if it is to mean anything vital work to help others.
to the child. When parents and teachers have a A far more wonderful response, than is gen- [ 587]
erally the case, will be generated if the principle John D. Rockefeller, Jr., say that in the next genof learning by doing is used to acquaint the on- eration we shall have no more concentrated coming generation with the causes to which they wealth, it is essential that the Church build up a contribute. An intermediate group was expected multitude of small but vitally interested givers. to aid in the support of the mission boat "Prince- In days to come their interest will make them ton," which ministers in so many and varied ways "pillars" of the Church. on the tooth-like Alaskan coast. As the youngsters knew very little of the "Princeton," or the Young people today are more versatile and more work it was doing, their giving was sluggish and mature for their years than in any previous genhad never reached the amount pledged. Often the eration. Youth marches on! May it be with the offering was "forgotten"; or just a few pennies Church – because their imaginations and hearts were given. However, when a manual training have been captured by the challenge of bringing teacher agreed to help the group to make a small the abundant life of Christ to underprivileged peomodel of this boat out of scrap materials from the ple. Thus youth may learn to identify itself with department stores, the change in attitude was Kingdom causes. amazing. Boredom and lethargy gave place to the keenest interest. Attendance became almost 1000/0 MESSAGES FROM D. L. MOODY even at week-day meetings. The group devoured eagerly stories of the service rendered by this If you cannot do some great thing, you can do boat. The giving came up without any visible ef- some little thing for Christ. fort or special pledging in excess of the amount pledged. To these intermediates giving became God is ready and willing to work, if we are "alive." It is spontaneous when interest is hehind ready and willing to let Him, and to be used by it. Jesus' words were once more fulfilled, "Where Him. your treasure is there will your heart be also." What we want today is the spirit of consecra- Tested and Helpful Methods tion and concentration. May God pour out His Spirit upon us, and fill us with holy. enthusiasm. Among the other helps in developing interest in benevolences are moving pictures showing the Many people are afraid of the word "enthusiwork supported. These may be secured at nom- asm." Do you know what that word means? It inal expense from many of the Mission Boards. means "in God." The person who is "in God" Dramatic presentations of evangelistic, medical, surely will be filled with enthusiasm. educational work, carried on by children's gifts are also valuable. Missionary progress may also If the Lord sees our faith for those whom we be portrayed dramatically. Animated biographies wish to be blessed, He will honor it. He has not of famous missionaries are often used with excel- disappointed the faith of any of His children yet. lent effect. There are in addition exhibits of curios; and costume meetings in which the cloth- It is far better to get one hundred men to do the ing of the country aided is used by the speaker work than to do it one's self. Only when the rank and ushers.. These educational settings have a and file of the Christian churches are enlisted in very great appeal. active service for Christ will His Kingdom ad- vance as it should. Hand work is always alluring to active boys and girls. Sometimes stories are told while the work In all ages, God has delighted to use the weak is going on. Or the young people may carry out a things. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that GOd visual program in the form of exhibitions of what uses foolish things, weak things, base things, their money accomplishes. One church put on a and things which are not. But if we are leaning series of tableaux of this sort. Another wrote up on God's strength we have more than all the and acted out its entire hooevolence budget with strength of the world. the aid of the young people themselves under the direction of two or three adult advisers. Medical Compare our opportunities of serving God with service was shown by a hospital scene with the those of the early Christians. Look at the mighty children impersonating the doctor, nurse and pa- obstacles they had to encounter and surmount. tient. Education pictured a teacher cooperating Let us grasp these opportunities to serve Him; with a class in working out a special project. then we may expect great things. He will not disappoint us. All these are but forms of the practice of Stewardship. This is essential to the present-day Let us lJot give heed to gloomy and discouragchurch in a changing world. In an era when men ing remarks; in the name of our great Comprominent in financial circles, like J. P. Morgan, mander, let us march on to battle and victory. "Be of good courage and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of our God; and let the Lord do that which is good in His sight.
African Bishop in
The Story of a Missionary's Journey By R. R. WRIGHT, Jr., Woodstock, Cape Province I Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church 1Ja- ~=-=-=-=-=-====================~ C OMING to South Africa a total stranger to stantly, walking many miles each day. We took people, language and customs, I found it tea in his small cottage, which was a marvel of highly necessary to acquaint myself as cleanliness. quickly as possible with my work, and decided that the only satisfactory way was to travel by Here Mr. Gordon left us and we proceeded to automobile. I was fortunate in getting as chauf- Beaufort West where I was to lay the cornerstone feur a young Zulu, who spoke very correct Eng- of a new church. We found the ceremony post- poned because of the sudden serious illness of the !ish, also Afrikaans, Sesutho, Xosa, Zulu and two aged minister. We visited him and spent the or three other dialects; an expert driver, a good night in the home of an old colored seaman, who mechanic familiar with the geography of South looked like the old-time pirates we read about Africa. We took with us maps, guide book and when we were children, but who, in spite of other books and references; an Afrikaans gram- tattooed arms was indeed a kindly old gentleman mar, dictionary and Bibles in Afrikaans and Eng- and an elder in his church. This was our first lish. We drove from beautiful Capetown through experience of sleeping in a "location"-an area the grape-growing districts of Paarl and Well- just outside a city, set apart by the municipality ington to Bain's Kloof, where we gradually rose for the habitation of natives, and sometimes other to a height of 2,000 feet above sea level. This colored persons; the ground is owned by the city, gave us a fine view of ocean and mountains, and which often builds the houses and the people pay villages lying in the gorgeous valleys. We de- rent to the city. These houses are usually two or scended amidst even more beautiful scenery to three rooms, built of mud in the crudest fashion. Worcester, 82 miles from Capetown where we The supervision is usually in the hands of a white lodged with the Rev. D. P. Gordon, who went as "location manager." As there are over 200 "lo- a missionary to this place thirty-two years ago. cations," one can find all types of character in The result of these years of labor are partly seen these managers, from outrageous exploitation to in a comfortable church building which can seat kindly paternalism. In some "locations" there are 400 people, a three-room school building with 215 a few beautiful homes which the people were alpupils, four teachers, and a mission house of seven lowed to build for themselves. But the fact that rooms. The school is now recognized by the Gov- they cannot own the ground and that they may ernment. Mr. Gordon is now 69 years of age, have to move at any time, is most discouraging. and is honored by all for the Christian service he "Locations" were originally designed for natives has rendered. who were brought out of the country districts, Accompanied by Mr. Gordon, who also has away from their native tribal life to work for the whites, and. whom the whites would not allow to supervision of churches on many farms in the live in their cities. This forced segregation has vicinity, we visited the school at De Wet. Here brought on many problems for which have been were two teachers, with 110 pupils in the one- found no adequate solution. The municipality room church building, which had a dirt floor and gives to each church a plot on which it may build benches for about half the children. All seemed an edifice to be used as a church and school. Naunderfed. I had prayer, said a few encouraging tive education is in the hands of the church at words, consulted with the principal and departed present. With all the efforts of the churches there for De Doorns, fifteen miles away. Here again are hundreds of children out of school and it is I found the same type of building, teachers, equip- estimated that 2,000,000 native children in South ment and pupils. The pastor, Mr. Legolie, an Africa do not go to any school. The problem of earnest man past middle age, with little education, education is indeed large. but with great zeal, had not only organized this little church, but churches on six farms. He had At Kimberley, the diamond city, we found an over 200 members to whom he ministered con- intelligent pastor who had built a new church and [589 ]
planted flowers around it, a very unusual thing. in the South African Council, the South African The churches all joined in welcoming us, and I Institute of Race R~lations, the Bantu Men's SJfound here, as everywhere else, a close bond cf cial Center, and in nearly everything that CJn :-;ympathy between denominations. An Anglican cerns the welfare of the natives around Johannespresided, the white Dutch Reformed minister burg. made the principal address of welcome, and the Dutch Reformed colored band played revival In the Johannesburg gold mining center, called hymns to dance rhythm. Brother Nantlahla gave the Rand, from a third to a half of the world's us the manuscript for the African Methodist gold supply is mined. Here are over a third of a Hymn Book on which the Rev. C. Nyombolo, now million natives taken from every tribe in Sou.h deceased, and he had worked for twenty years. Africa, detribalized, underpaid, underfed, living Our next stop was at Wilberforce Institute, our in the world's worst slums-a contrast of poverty leading educational institution in South Africa, and wealth, ignorance, superstition and enlightfounded in 1909 and named for the famous Eng- ened ,Christianity, perhaps nowhere else seen. lish antislavery agitator, William Wilberforce, Here the churches have their hardest task, and and for Wilberforce University in Ohio, whose the A. M. E.'s are trying to do their part. At early graduates are now leaders of our church several places in this gold mining region I called here. together the ministers and discussed educational work and the extension of our church work. We After devotional exercises at the Institute, I have over 125 preaching points on the Rand and left for the administrative capitol at Pretoria. Transvaal. Here I met officers of the Native Affairs Department, of the Department of Education, and of the When I preached I usually had two interpret- Immigration Office; I explained my work and the ers, one each for Xosa and Sesutho, sometimes purpose of my presence in South Africa. I found three and once four. Many Moody and Sankey all the officers without exception not only cour- hymns, as well as the great hymns of all churches, teous,but sympathetic with my plans, although are translated into these tongues and sung to when I expressed my intention to build a Teacher familiar tunes. "Praise God from Whom All Training College in the Transvaal, one said it was Blessings Flow," may be sung to the tune of "rather ambitious." Since then, however, a "Old Hundred" in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Sesu- 12-room building has been started in faith, and tho, Xosa, etc., at the same time. Nearly every workmen are going forward. Our members hav2 Africanin the Rand understands simple English, themselves given me over £750 ($3,750) in sup- but is at home in the vernacular. The African port of this effort, notwithstanding their poverty. native does not "shout". as does the American We proceeded to Johannesburg next day and I Negro. He listens very attentively; he prays ferconsulted with business firms as to materials to vently, always sings all the verses of a hymn, start our building. Thank God, I succeeded in get- assembles for worship promptly and does not ting credit for more than £600 ($3,000) worth of want to stay too long. material from one firm, whose managing director said, "We have never let natives have more than On the Rand I met all types of natives, the lowly £50 or' £60 credit; but I am impressed with your and highly intelligent. There is only one native purpose, your plan and your organization, and physician who was educated in America, one, will take the risk." My next discussion was with lawyer, no dentists, one accountant, many prithe Inspector who had expressed doubt that na- mary teachers, a few nurses, a few politicians, tives could erect such a school building. In fact, editors and business men. All were anxious to the specifications read, "All skilled work shall be hear about the American Negro, and I was kept done by Europeans; i. e., white mechanics." I, from morning till night answering que.tions about however, got permission to have it read, "By com- America. petent mechanics-," and am proceeding with mechanics of my own race, much to the surprise and In all, I spent ten days on the Rand. My nex'; satisfaction of the Inspector, who has publicly stop was at Bremersdorp in Swaziland, where at praised the work. midnight, under a perfect African starlit sky, I met King Sobhuza II, Paramount Chief of the I conferred with Dr, J. Dexter Taylor, of the Swazis. He gave me a hearty" welcome to his American Board, at his home in Johannesburg. country. Far through the night we discussei re- He is, a member of our Board of Trustees of Wil- ligion, education and the general economic ani berforce Institute and I have found in him a true social life of his people. I shall never forget this friend and guide. He has been in South Africa meeting~. ,nor the man, still under 40, a philosoover 30 years and he is loved by the natives and pher,scholar and statesman. I met the Qm:en respected by the Europeans., He is a: leading spirit Mother in her kraal, consisting of over 400 huts of thatched roofs, surrounded by high cane fences. She received me seated on the ground, encircled
AN AFRICAN BISHOP IN AFRICA
by her advisers. Our interview lasted nearly an the marriage ceremony for Chief Seiso Maama hour. I was guest in the kraal of Chief Ben and remained for the festivities. Mrs. Seiso Nxumalo, uncle of King Sobhuza II. The Chief Maama is a woman of beautiful character and went to America in 1928 as a delegate to the high ideals. Her husband, unlike many other A. M. E. General Conference, and got many mod- chiefs, has only one wife and is a devoted Chris- ern ideas, some· of which he has tried to put into tian preacher.
practice. The National Training School is a new At Morija is the hundred-year-old French mis- venture of credit to the Swazis. sion which has done more than any other mission We have fifteen schools in Basutoland, but the to develop the Mosutos language and literature. government gives grants only to the older We visited its famous printing plant where more churches-the French Mission, the Anglican and than twenty-five natives do printing for all de- Roman Catholic churches; all are doing such nominations in South Africa. The French misgood work that Basutoland, I was told, has the sion encourages native African initiative in a way largest percentage of native school attendance in worthy of imitation. At Maseru we saw in the all South Africa. Some of the most powerful . Government offices the first black stenographer chiefs are members of our church and have given .and typist since we left America. land and buildings for schools, which we have We saw very few naked natives, except chilbeen inadequately supporting. I was guest of dren. We met none who had not heard of Jesus.
Chief Seiso Maama, who gave the ground for We heard testimony to the two hundred years of Maama Memorial Church which I dedicated in the heroic missionary endeavor, and also the great inpresence of 1,000 people who had come from fluence of a recent visit of Dr. John R. Mott to mountain fastnesses to witness the ceremony and South Africa. I have met most of the outstanding partake of the chief's hospitality; he killed sev- leaders of all denominations, and all seem coneral oxen for the occasion. As we were leaving, scious of the great work still before them, not the chief and his wife asked me to join them in now so much of securing acceptance of Christ but holy wedlock after the Christian fashion; this I of putting Christianity more into practical life. promised to do when I returned to Basutoland. We who know how hard this is in America, espe- We proceeded to Johannesburg and to Evaton to cially where the darker races are concerned, can inspect our new building. At the insistence of one 'imagine the task before earnest Christian leaders of my presiding elders I visited the Western in South Africa. As much work needs to be done Transvaal. At one place, I was surprised to find among the whites as among the blacks, if there is the most prosperous looking natives I have seen. ever a satisfactory answer to the question, "Shall My host owned in his own right 1;800 acres of Africa Be Christian?"
land, and I met a group of men who owned or I have repeatedly asked myself during this leased over 10,000 acres. They were anxious that journey, "What can the American Negro do?"
the church purchase several large plantations and The answer is, "Much." Wherever I have gone move the people on them, thus giving them better people have said, "Tell us about people in Amer- protection and a better chance for worship, edu- ica," no matter what the occasion. So the Amer- cation and economic improvement. While their ican Negro is an inspiration to the African-he argument was apparently sound, I was not able to wants improvement in living and an outlet for the give them much hope, so far as the church is con- "more abundant life." The rapid growth of the cerned. I sincerely hope that some Christian or- A. M. E. Church is due to this fact. However, ganization may become interested in the economic very few American Negroes are in South Africa.
imprqvement of these people. I have not met a dozen who came here during the After a brief rest we returned to Wilberforce past twelve years. American Negroes trained in to hold the executive board meeting of the wom- social work, in agriculture, as well as in religion, en's missionary organization, headed by Mrs. could help the native and the country at large, if Maxeke, a graduate of Wilberforce University in they come under cooperative, rather than under Ohio. With her husband she has labored nearly denominational auspices. The task is far too forty years in South Africa. I was pleased with great for the individual church.
the earnestness and intelligence of these native I have supervision of over 430 preaching places, women. Next day I laid the cornerstone for the separated by nearly 3,500 miles and reaching new building at Wilberforce Institute and received every .tribe of .Africans, representing the work of contributions from the natives of nearly $500. forty years. But I need helpers. The harvest Two thousand people attended and it is estimated truly is plenteous but the laborers few. Pray that that 90 '10 of them contributed. The inspector of God may move the hearts of more Americans of native schools was the only white man present. African descent to come over and help their be- Then we returned to Basutoland and performed nighted African brothers and sisters.
A Ponca Breaks Paths for
A Chapter in Rural Education for Indians in Oklahoma By the REV. COE HAYNE, New York The American Baptist Home Mission Society SCORES of young Christian Indians are ac- which the Choctaw church worshipped. The old cepting positions as teachers in schools in shack of a building had been given to the Indians most difficult communities, amid desperate for a schoolhouse. And Louis Rhodd had arrived poverty and privation, which they must share, to open the first school for the Choctaw at Bas- that they may be of service to their people in the come. One side of the building, lacking window name of Christ. Going to their stations under ap- frames as well as window panes, was open to the pointment by the Department of Education of the weather. There were cracks an inch wide in the Indian Service, with foreknowledge of the condi- warped and decaying flooring. There were no tions they must confront, they endure the cold in seats or desks in the building. A small platform poorly equipped school buildings and the loneli- at one end of the room indicated that it had once ness in remote places without complaint. In many been used for public gatherings.
localities Indian children would be without school Asked whether or not he felt like turning his privileges today were it not for the enlistment of back on such a school equipment, Mr. Rhodd said: these young Indians in this pioneer educational "I was glad to have such an opportunity."
enterprise. Soon the Ponca was joined by a young Choctaw The Special Indian Day Schools in Oklahoma who from his home a quarter of a mile distant, are served by one teacher each. In these schools had seen the automobile stop in front of the old they find that "teacher" includes many profes-· church building. The Choctaw introduced himsions. Often they are asked to give advice in self by saying that he suspected that the newcomer native disputes; their judgment is sometimes fol- was the man who was to teach the school. He in- lowed and sometimes not. They assist at times vited Mr. Rhodd to go home with him assuring of birth, illness or death, not only the Indians but him of a lodging there over night and possibly also the whites within the community. They offer longer. The father in this Choctaw home did not plans on how to run a home, farm or chicken give an immediate answer to Mr. Rhodd's request hatchery. They are athletic directors in the com- for a permanent abiding place. During several munity. You find them some evenings within minutes he gave no sign that he had heard the their schoolhouses cutting the children's hair. question. When he spoke it was to speak dis- Wherever aid is needed these teachers are called paragingly of the food his home could offer. When upon to help. Mr. Rhodd assured his host that he would be glad The experiences of Louis Rhodd, while conduct- to share with the family whatever comforts were ing a rural school in a neglected Indian neighbor- available and to pay for same, the desired per- hood in Oklahoma from 1934 to 1936, bring into mission to board and lodge in that humble home sharp relief the spirit with which many forward- was granted.
looking Indian youth are meeting their Christian Mr. Rhodd began at once to repair the old responsibilities. Mr. Rhodd, whose former home church building for school purposes. Although was Pawnee, Oklahoma, was educated at Bacone under appointment by the Indian Office he did not College and the University of Oklahoma, the first hesitate to appeal to Mr. Walter Haggard, Pitts- Ponca Indian to obtain a college degree. He was burg County superintendent of education, with appointed by the Office of Indian Affairs to con- offices at McAlester, Oklahoma, for assistance.
duct a school among the Choctaw Indians at Bas- Mr. Haggard had a new floor put in the school, come, Oklahoma, in September, 1934. the doors, windows and steps repaired and the From the Agency of the Five Civilized Tribes schoolroom painted white. On opening day thir- in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he was conveyed by auto- teen pupils were enrolled -later the number mobile to the location of his prospective activities. reached nineteen, all members of the Choctaw The Agency man drove away, leaving the Ponca tribe, twelve of whom were fullbloods. Of this and his traveling bags in front of a dilapidated group only three had been to school before. The little Methodist meeting house, abandoned these ages ranged from four to seventeen years.
many years. Nearby stood a newer edifice in During the first two weeks Mr. Rhodd did not [592 ] have textbooks suitable for beginners. There I have visited Indian homes and seen school children was a total lack of paper, pens, ink, pencils and that were five and six years old correcting their parents' blackboards. For classwork he depended upon table manners. the children's experiences and knowledge of the country and his own resourcefulness. He told Good habits such as inhaling pure air, refraining from stories and encouraged the children to talk con- spitting on the floors, coughing or sneezing in the faces cerning their people and their surroundings. He of others, adequate rest and food, and in general a wellconducted hikes; names of trees, rocks, crops and regulated life will do much to prevent T. B. towns in the locality were listed; maps of the neighborhood were drawn; health topics pertain- In another important matter the cooperation of ing to school and homes were discussed. At the the parents was secured. As the Indian child is end of two weeks each pupil was supplied by the extremely shy and self-conscious the lack of county with textbooks, writing tablets, ink, pen knowledge of good English is a real handicap to points, pen holders, pencils, erasers and crayons. him. In all the homes the native Choctaw lan- The schoolroom was equipped with blackboards. guage was spoken when Mr. Rhodd arrived on the The Indian agent had sent some government books field less than three years ago. The aid of the that were used as supplementary material. The parents was gained to increase the use of English equipment sent by the county included a basket- within the homes. In the Choctaw Indian lanball, two soft balls, bats and some lumber used in guage there is an order opposite to that of the making see-saws and backboards for basketball English. The children had a tendency to speak goals. the English in the same order but they worked hard with the language and by Christmas time The first community gathering at the school was the second, third and fourth grade pupils were an old-fashioned pie-supper given to raise funds writing letters to friends in English. to purchase baseball equipment. The ball games that followed brought the Indians and white peo- Within the schoolhouse has grown a small liple together in clean entertainment, promoting a brary consisting of books on history, poetry, bulbetter understanding between the two racial letins pertaining to farm and home, newspapers, groups. magazines, and also religious reading material. Both the state and national governments issue The parents were unable to provide proper diets bulletins on various subjects that are always oband clothes for the school children. Money ap- tainable free of cost. The Department of Agripropriated by the Indian Service and Pittsburg culture tells the farmer how to fertilize the soil, County provided hot noon lunches for all enrolled. select seed, fight insects, pests and plant diseases, The clothing collected by Bacone College students plan farm buildings, care for stock and poultry came as welcome Christmas gifts. and market their products. Bulletins are also issued in behalf of the housekeeper, telling her Four families moved from a distance of twenty how to care for the health of her family, feed chilmiles or more, leaving fairly comfortable homes dren, preserve fruits and vegetables for winter to live in hastily built shanties so that their chil- use and how to take care of perishable food. By dren might attend school. The winter of 1934- collecting these pamphlets and making them avail- 1935 was a cold one but during the severest able, Mr. Rhodd helped the Choctaw people to weather no family moved back to a warmer house, obtain expert advice in many situations confrontpreferring to endure hardship with the school ing them in their isolated communities. Once a children. Mr. Rhodd helped to seal the shanties month the people come to the community house with building paper. to discuss the problems within the community, and especially the work which the school is try- Adult education was made possible through an ing to accomplish. alliance between the homes and the school. Through the cooperation of the children health Concerning these community forums Mr. Rhodd instruction was transmitted to parents. reported: This Ponca instructor has something very defi- Such problems as conservation and prolongation of life; nite to say about health: knowledge and control of domestic life; knowledge and control of physical environment and creative activities Good health gives better character, greater usefulness, are discussed with much spirit within the school, church increased anility to perform our daily tasks. To let a and homes. Such discussion of problems provides an acchild suffer from ill-health when he might have a strong, tivity that has a permanent and far-reaching result. We healthy body is foolish. are gradually laying a suitable foundation for the day when this community will insist that all its members con- One of the first centers of interest around which useful form to certain standards. learning may start is the school lunch period. This provides an activity that has a permanent and a far-reaching The Choctaw church board, at Mr. Rhodd's reresult. He is taught the proper posture at the table, the quest, consented to have lessons of the Sunday correct use of the spoon, knife and fork, and other de- school taught in the English language. sirable habits. The older children are given an opportunity to wash the dishes and clean the room after lunch.
Missionary
By M. E. RITZMAN, PH.D., Reading, Pa.
Professor of New Testament and Missions, Evangelical School of Theology DR. A. J. GORDON used to say that he not? What is his supreme purpose regarding His stopped praying that the Lord Jesus would Church? We find it summed up in that cate- have compassion on a lost world. "I seemed gorical imperative, "Go ye." Jesus' first command to hear him say to me," said this man of God, "I to his disciples was, "Come ye after me, and I will have had compassion on a lost world; now it is make you fishers of men"; .his last was: "Go, for you to have compassion. I have given my make disciples of all the nations." Discipleship heart; give your heart." and apostleship are one and inseparable. We learn but to teach; we know of Jesus but to tell Dr. Gordon was right. Christ came into the of Jesus; we commune with Him but to comworld, a missionary from Heaven to earth, to show municate Him. Only so far as His Church acus God's infinite love and compassion. He lived cepts her responsibility for teaching all nations to and taught and spent His days in blessing the observe all things whatsoever He has commanded humble poor and His nights in prayer. The Evan- her, may she experience the fulfilment of His gelist tells us that "when He saw the multitudes, promise, "Lo, I am with you always." He was moved with compassion." That was the mind that dwelt in Christ. But He was rejected Some are prone to think that only the more by His own; betrayed by priest and disciple. He pious and zealous Christians need be witnesses. agonized in the Garden and confronted there the But to make Christ known must be the commandarchenemy of our souls. He bore the scourging, ing purpose of every Christian. The early Christhe hissing, hooting, and spitting. He staggered tians understood their Master's meaning, and under the weight of the cross, died on it, went when they were scattered abroad, they went into our sepulchre and rose more than conqueror. everywhere preaching the risen Lord. Now He stands on Olivet. Angels beckon Him. The Father is waiting for Him. With outstretched Because Christ's heart longed for the salvation hands He tells to His disciples that all power is of all men, because He died on the cross to save His, and bids them, therefore, to go everywhere every man, Christianity is distinctively and essenand tell the Good News to all the nations. Then tially missionary. The missionary enterprise is the heavens receive Him. All power was His, not a by-enterprise, a mere incident in our modtherefore they were to go. That was before ern life in which a few enthusiasts take an inter- Pentecost. The missionary idea came into the est and of which they are making a fad. The misworld with the birth of Christianity. sionary work of the Church is not secondary, but primary and supreme. It is not a work which In spite of these "marching orders," in spite of must take its place among other works, that may the missionary enthusiasm of the early Church, be done or neglected according to our mood. If we have the staggering fact to explain that though it is true that the eternal Son of God took upon more than sixty generations have come and gone Himself man's nature and lived on this earth and since our Lord gave His message, out of every died upon the cross for the sins of mankind, there three persons in the world, two are practically is no other fact in history to equal it, and it must without knowledge of Jesus Christ. The need of be told everywhere. these hundreds of millions is indescribably great. Most of them are living in ignorance and dark- It is therefore impossible for the Church to live ness, steeped in idolatry, superstition, degrada- in disobedience to the last command of Christ, tion, and corruption. While the so-called non- and remain Christian. Obedience to Christ is not Christian religions furnish some moral principles less an essential to salvation than trust in Him as and precepts of value, they do not afford adequate the atoning-Saviour. Christians should live up to standards and motives by which rightly to guide their profession by making it their first and highthe life, nor power to enable one to take the step est concern to "preach the gospel to every creabetween knowing duty and doing it. ture." They must either be missionary Christians or they will soon be missing Christians. Tested What is the great thought of Christ with refer- by the words of Scripture, the Church is Christian ence to this great mass of people who know Him and Christ's so far, and so far alone, as it has [ 594 ] obeyed and is obeying the Lord's last and supreme salem never seemed to catch the world-wide mis- command. In this day too many feel they can sionary vision, never seemed to apprehend that obey whatever command of Christ it pleases them the Gospel is for everybody and everywhere. They to obey, and disobey whatever command of the wanted to keep their best workers at home, and, Master they do not choose to obey. so far as we know, never sent men or money to '
It is a historic fact that the Church has pros- evangelize the heathen. While it weakened and pered according as she has cooperated with God's declined, the Antioch church flourished like a plan to give the Gospel to every creature or has green bay tree until in the time of Chrysostom declined to do so. Individual churches and whole half of the city of more than 200,000 population denominations are examples of this. Weak was Christian. What was the difference? One churches with missionary zeal soon become strong fell in line with God's plans for the world-wide churches, whereas a strong church that is an- propagation of the Gospel and God blessed and tagonistic or apathetic toward missions, finally prospered and gave it mighty power. The other becomes a weak church. Nor is this strange, for did not fall in line with God's plans and he withwhat interest can Christ have in the declaration held his power and the church suffered and at last of a man or a church that they believe in Him disappeared.
as the Son of God and the universal Saviour, when There are other reasons that compel me to be they repudiate that confession by denial of that missionary minded. There is no place where one Saviour's mission to the race? Dr. James 1. Vance can invest his life where it counts for as much as has well said, "The church that ceases to be mis- in the mission field. Shortly before Dr. John E.
sionary can no longer be evangelistic; the church Williams met his death at the hands of a Chinese that ceases to be evangelistic can no longer be soldier at Nanking on March 24, 1927, he was evangelical; and the church that ceases to be asked by his wife, as they stood one evening look- evangelical may well doubt whether it is Chris- ing at the lights of Nanking University to which tian." Dr. Albert Schweitzer, of Germany, one of he had given so many years of missionary service, the great Christian philosophers of today, and now "Jack, if you had known all you know tonight, serving as a medical missionary in the heart of would you do it over again?" Quick was his an- Africa, says that our Western civilization is swer: "Yes, a hundred times over! Where else doomed without a dominantly unselfish world in- could I have invested my life in a way that would terest. How much more necessary is it that the have brought me such large returns?"
Church have such an unselfish world interest! Is it not the irresistible logic of the Christian Yea, verily, it is utterly impossible to separate conscience that we are bound to share what we Jesus Christ from this world-wide missionary in- have which we know to be universally good? The terest, and the church that tries to do so may well better it is the more we are bound to share it; write "Ichabod" over its door, for its days are and since Christ is infinitely the best we have, we numbered. are more bound to share Him than by any other The loss of its world vision will more quickly obligations in the world.
bring death to the church at home and obedience Paul felt this when he cried, "I am debtor both to our Lord's last command will vitalize and to Greeks and barbarians." Why? Paul felt he quicken her life. If the church of today would had something which the rest of the world needed have the power of God come mightily upon her, and must have for its redemption. What a chal- if she would know her Lord's intimate presence, lenging motive this should be for us! We have she must receive it in the pathway of larger obe- received more than millions upon millions of our dience to the missionary command of Christ. Cut- fellows. Therefore, according to the Christian ting down our missionary force, closing up fields, principle, we should give more. We are "debtors."
reducing our missionary work to a minimum to If we believe that in Christ alone is found the save expense, is no way to receive God's blessing. truth that satisfies the intellect, the power that re- Only as the Church makes heroic sacrifices to meet generates the life, and the hope that illumines the its missionary obligations, only as her member- future; if we believe that to men's need of Christ ship has something to sacrifice for, only as we there is no exception, and to His power to save give our best, can we expect the Christ of God to them there is no limit: if we believe that He is the walk with us in the way of blessing and pros- gift of the Father to all, that He died to make perity. atonement for the sins of all, that He has been The church at Antioch was an informed and lifted up to draw all men unto Him – then we obedient church. They fasted and prayed and must believe that our first duty is to give the sent forth the best they had, and as a result the knowledge of this Saviour to all mankind. Verily, church became one of the greatest churches of we are "debtors." Are we ready to pay our debts?
the centuries. The old mother church at Jeru- The Apostle Paul meant much the same thing
when he said, ~'We also believe, and therefore also and at last dying the martyr's death? He says it we speak." He who has convictions of any truth was the love of Christ that constrained him. important to others, is ever moved to make that What was it that drove David Livingstone through truth known. You can judge of the sincerity of a Central Africa again and again? What was it man's convictions by the ardor of his proclama- that kept John G. Paton in the South Seas when tion. In this there is nothing peculiar or arbi- the savages again and again tried their best to kill trary. The astronomer discovers a star, and him? What was it that impelled Adoniram Judstraightway desires to give his discovery to the son in his heroic sacrifices for Burma? What was world. The honorable medical man who discovers it that steadied Robert Morrison, during the long a sure prophylactic during the progress of an epi- years when China resisted like a rock? What was demic, would be insanely selfish if he did not pro- it that drove Dr. A. L. Shelton repeatedly to Tibet claim it. As soon as any conviction of important until he lost his life at the hands of a bandit? truth becomes central and vital, there must come Their abiding motive was the love of Christ which an immediate and irresistible desire to utter it; constrained them. Does it constrain us? Do we then sacrifice is gladness and service is joy. The love Him with a love that surpasses all human early Christian Church believed in the sinfulness of man's nature, in the atoning power of Christ's loves? sacrifice on the Cross, the regeneration of the soul Some years ago an American young woman was of man by the Holy Spirit and in the judgment to come, the issues whereof are eternal. Under the called to China. She was the only child of her pressure of these truths, the early Christians could father, precious to him beyond expression. After not but speak, for the truth was a fire in their a tremendous struggle with his own heart, that bones and neither dungeon nor stake could turn father gave up his daughter for China. On the them aside from their purpose. Neither austere night when she was bidding farewell to church climate nor violent opposition could restrain the and friends, the father was asked to say a few medireval missionaries who believed these same words. At first he could not speak; then he said: truths and they went forth to Hun and Goth and "Friends, you all know me, and you all know my Teuton. Because our forefathers in America and Susie, and you all know what she has been to me the early pioneers of our own church, believed all her life, the very light of my eyes, the joy of these fundamental doctrines of the Christian my heart. Jesus Christ wants my daughter in faith, they went forth with heroic sacrifice to China and she is going. All I can say about it is preach the Gospel in our western states and then this-I have nothing, nothing too precious for my on to China and Japan and other lands. Men may Lord." say that they were mistaken, but there is the fact -they believed, and therefore they also spoke. Have you? Have I? Have we anything in Can we do less than they; or are we doing Tess heart or life today that we cannot willingly, because we believe less? gladly, give up to win men to Christ? May God bring us all to that heaven on earth, where, look- But above all,_ there is driving power in the ing into His face, we can truly say, "I have nothlove of Christ. What was it that drove Paul from ing too precious for Jesus Christ, my Lord." the Eastern end of the Roman empire to the When all who profess His name can say that, Western, preaching and teaching and suffering there will be no more missionary debts, there will be no lack of volunteers; our missionary prob- lems will be solved.
A PRAYER FOR MISSIONARIES o Lord Jesus Christ, the desire of all nations, who didst come down from heaven to seek and to save the lost; grant Thy blessing, we beseech Thee, upon thy missionary servants who are carrying the light of Thy Gospel to the dark places of the earth. Preserve them from every danger to which they may be exposed; from perils by land and sea, from persecution and pestilence, from discouragement in their labors, and from the devices of the adversary. May they see thy work prospering in their hands; and do Thou hasten the time, 0 gracious Saviour, when the multitude of unbelievers shall be gathered into Thy fold, and when all in- every land who neglected Thy salvation shall be converted unto Thee. And to Thee, Lord Je- sus, be the praise, unto whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be an honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
of Converts from
I 1I)It- -sf Sent by STEPHEN o. KOOBYAR, Tabriz, Iran Il====~~ "I WAS formerly a very bigoted Moslem and that if Islam were true I should see the proof in had a reputation as a woman of religious my dreams, and if Bahaism or Christianity were zeal. I had made a thorough study of the true that I might see other evidence. It so hap- rules and ritual of Islam and spent my time day pened that my dream that night pointed to Chris- and night in keeping those things which I believed tianity and the next night the same thing took to be my duty, especially in fasting during the place. Still I was not convinced.
special month and daily prayer and almsgiving. "Later I went into a closet to change my clothes.
At the same time I continually implored God to It was dark and the feeling came over me that I save me. must fall down upon my knees and pray. I did "Nearly twenty years ago severe family trouble so, not being able to resist the power that impelled came upon our home, so that I had to flee and me. I poured my heart out in prayer and then found shelter with a widow who had formerly came a vision of Christ. It was as though I were worked with us as a servant. At this time one of drawn to Him by a power above my will to resist.
the American missionaries opened a small school From that moment there was not the slightest in our district, which was entirely Moslem, and doubt in my mind that the claims of Christ were became a teacher there. For the first time I found true. I told my mother and asked her to make and read the Old and New Testament. My condi- arrangements for me to study and be baptized.
tion was changed and finally the light dawned in She asked whether I were certain that Christ was my heart. I accepted Christ as my personal Sav- my one and only Saviour and my ground of hope iour. It was my need that first led me to Christ. for time and eternity. I replied fervently that I "After I was forced to leave my home I was had absolute assurance. Her beaming face showed most despondent and lived a life of gloom until I me that she was praising God. found Christ and this was changed to continual joy and happiness and assurance. Just as the "I began to study the New Testament with a sun is not appreciated until one has known the new spirit and, after a period of probation, I was darkness, so it took trial and trouble as a back- baptized. Christ has sustained me through all ground to make me appreciate the light of Jesus my trials and I know that He is the highest rev- Christ."-From a lady who has been a Christian elation of God. There are many great things in for fifteen years. Christianity, but the greatest is that Christ is able to change life and make a new person; all things *** become new in Him."-A young lady, twelve yearts a Christian. "Fourteen years ago there were six people in our family. My mother had become a Christian *** and the others were all Moslems. I was by far the most zealous of the whole family in the Mo- "This servant was born a little more than fifty hammedan faith and during the month of fasting years ago into a village family. My parents were godly people though neither of them was able to I would arise before daylight to prepare my own read or write. My father had made several pil- food as I would not eat during the day. At times grimages to the Shiah shrines of Islam. I was I argued with my mother to persuade her to re- especially beloved, as I was an only child. My turn to Islam. She did not ask me to become a parents were neither very rich nor very poor, but "Christian but urged me to read the New Testa- wanted to give me every possible advantage. ment. This made me even more fanatical. I went When I was six years old they placed me in the to the mosque and sat at the very foot of the pUlpit village school. when the mullah preached and joined in the prayers very earnestly. I had some very close "They wanted me to learn to read and write. friends who were Bahais (a reformed Moslem If they had a child who could read the blessed sect) and they urged me to attend their meetings Koran it would be a great act of merit for them in and presented the claims of their faith. I became this life, and they believed that the reading of the Koran after their death, would atone for their very unhappy and, being little more than a child, sins. From earliest childhood I had a desire for my mind was filled with superstition. I prayed religious things and my talents seemed to lie along [597 ]
this line. When I had passed the first grades in captured my attention and interest in spite of mythe village school, the teacher suggested to my self. I was miserable for a time, wondering parents that I was worthy of all the education they whether truly salvation were in Islam or Christ. could give me and asked them to send me to the Finally the words of Jesus came to me with specity school. I went there and did well in my les- cial force, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are sons until I was considered worthy to study the heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' I found the higher branches of Islamic law and religion. I truth of this promise in my own life. I came to entered with zeal upon these studies. Him and found rest. From the day that I gave myself to Christ my troubles became less and my "After some time I heard that certain mullahs heart became joyful; my load became light, and and mujtahids were not true in their faith. I found myself making progress in joy that Christ Though they kept up the appearance of being true alone can give. I believed in the God who gave Moslems it was rumored that they did not be- His only begotten Son to be the atonement for the lieve the very things they taught and that their sins of the world, and in Christ who bore the lives were not in accord with their doctrine. I burden of our sins upon Himself and died upon went to a leading priest who was said to be a 'lib- the cross to ransom us, to save us from destruction eral' and asked him a number of questions. His and bring us salvation and life everlasting. answers only served to increase my doubts and I Among the race of men there is no other free from worried more and more about my faith in which sin who could save us from its guilt and power. I was supposed to be a teacher and leader. Salvation and forgiveness is found in Him alone. Christ took up His abode in my heart and I found "The thought came to me, 'How can it be that comfort in every trouble. He gave me salvation the most educated people of the world in Europe and freedom from the death of sin. and America, with all of their science and invention, can be mistaken about their religion?' My "So I give praise to God that He has led me out first contact with Christianity at this time was of the darkness into His eternal light and has prothrough a Christian priest. Later I met a mem- vided a Saviour who has made perfect atonement ber of the Evangelical church who received me as for my sins and those of the whole world."-A a real brother. Our hearts became knit together and I became his disciple. I learned from him of 1foung mother. my own sickness of sin and the remedy in Jesus Christ. From that time to the present every ad- THE TOUCH OF CHRIST TODAY vance in spiritual truth has shown me in more bold relief my own shortcomings. It is only in Among the hills of Galilee, Christ that I have found peace in my heart; He Through crowded city ways, has shown me my sin and need and also the atonement for sin through the sacrifice of His cross. The Christ of God went forth to heal And bless in olden days. "I should be happy at some time to set down in detail my experiences, that perchance this road The sinning and the sad of heart which I have traveled, from a priest of Islam to In anxious throngs were massed one who has surrendered all to Christ, might help some brother to find the Way."-A former Mo- To catch the great Physician's eye And touch Him as He passed. hammedan Mullah. We have not in our hours of need *** His seamless garment pressed, "I was born in a family which was not religious. Nor felt His tender human hand Even as a child I had yearnings for spiritual op- On us in blessing rest; portunities which I saw meant much in the lives of other people. When I was young my mother Yet still in crowded city streets died and my father placed me in the dormitory of The Christ goes forth again, the girls' school of the American Mission. Later my father died and I was left an orphan. Whenever touch of human hand Bespeaks goodwill to men. "In the school there was a Moslem girl who constantly kept asking me why I did not perform Whenever man his brother man the stated prayers and read the Koran and keep Upholds in helplessness; the fasts. I had never learned to do these things as I had not come from a f3mily that paid much Whenever strong and tender clasp attention to religion. We had Bible lessons in the A lonely heart doth bless, school, and this girl and I read these merely because we must, but we did not pay attention. As The Christ of God is answering time went on certain things in the New Testament A stricken world's demands And leading back a wandering race By touch of human hands.
New and Old in Moslem
ByA. T. UPSON, Rayleigh, England I !ie– I Author of "High Lights"; Former Secretary of the Nile Mission Press I D URING the thirty-seven happy strenuous as that?" Yes; but look at their surroundings in years spent among the Moslems of the Near which they have been reared. Most of the villages East, there were many signs that "The old there have two water-holes, one for humans, and order changeth, yielding place to new." During the other for cattle which they befoul as beasts the last few years, the pace has quickened and will do! But the village referred to has only one tendencies are now more clearly seen. water-hole for cattle and men!! Is it any wonder In recent years certain things have passed away. that typhoid fever is rampant there? Is there any We have great sympathy with the Eastern demand worse sanitary condition in any part of the world?
to abolish "Foreign Privileges." But as the East Yet the local people say that they absolutely refuse grows more nationalistic, what will be the fate of to come under the rule of Damascus, some eighty such encouraging meetings as one held in Iraq, miles off!
when about fifty men listened to an address on Opportunities Remain: The Nile Mission Press "Christ, the Ransomer by His Blood"? What colportage car still goes to the south of Algeria, would have been the fate of my oldest colporteur, and Miss Grautoff, of the Algiers Mission Band, Yaqub? * What would have happened to the seven still goes to an oasis 380 miles to the south to do converts from Islam in those days? Ere a dozen "men's work." The colporteurs in Egypt are still years are past, we shall be discussing "The Pass- plodding on. And in spite of the nationalism of ing of the Foreign Missionary" from all Moslem Iraq and Iran there is more receptivity among the lands. What a call to us to "Work while it is Shiah Moslems than in some lands.
called 'Today.' " Further, some new opportunities seem to be de- But Islam remains; in fact, is more active than veloping. For instance, the German Carmel Mis- sions hold an annual conference for Arab priests ever. In Egypt Islamic broadcasts are made, by of the Greek Church. For several years a wellradio, twice daily. For the first time, they have known Moslem convert has been greatly used of legalized preaching in the open-air, i. e., in the God there. squares of Cairo. But on what subject? The claims of Christ? Certainly not; Islam, and Faithful witnessing remains. Not only is it Islam only, is to be preached. Does one wonder true that "When God buries His workers He carthat the annual drift from the Coptic Church to ries on His work" but also, when political condi- Islam, which was 1,000 a year in my day, is now tions render it unwise for the foreigner to remain 1,500 a year? in a country God carries on His work. How? He has His 7,000 that "have not bowed the knee to Bigotry and Persecution Remain: The expulsion Baal." One still tours Lebanon and North Syria, of Dr. Liley from Tripoli, Barbary, and the half- and most Moslems know that he is a convert from dozen workers from Abyssinia are fresh in our Islam. There are other Moslem converts holding minds-perhaps because the victims were Euro- meetings in Egypt. peans. But what of the native believers in Morocco and other lands? Even in England, an over- A very remarkable testimony was, unwillingly, seas student refused recently to accept a copy of perhaps unconsciously, borne by a Moslem conthe New Testament because of persecution. vert, a former friend of mine. On leaving the Protestants, through marrying a Roman Catholic, Disease and Sin Remain: For the first time in and drifting into unbelief, he still watched us. In thirty-seven years' service, I was recently pelted 1931, when I went to Jerusalem, he wrote a fourwith clods of dirt in a Syrian village. I was not page article warning the people against me, and hurt, though hit with dust and earth about seven saying, "The reason this man (Abdul-Fady) is times, yet it was an uncomfortable experience. dangerous is that he belongs to a group of people The reader may ask, "Are they still as backward • His striking story is told in Mr. lipson's book. "High Lights in who never know when they are defeated, but just fight. on !" the Near East," 2/G )1. M. & S. London; $1.00 Zondervan, Grand Rapids, :lIich.
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Effective Ways of Working i 'fested Methods far Increasing Interest at Home I I s. EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~=~====================~==-, Missions and World Peace readily available. For older The Far Eastern Crisis, by Henry Thus far only incidental ref- groups, for the wee~ly pra;v:er L. Stimson. Harper Brothers, $3.75. erence has been made in this Department to the third mission meeting, contests, ralbes, specIal A Place in the Sun, by Grover study theme for the current year -World Peace; but its great emphasis programs, contests, de- Clark. Macmillan Co., $2.~0. . importance needs no added em- We or They, by HamIlton FISh phasis in the .setti~g of the present world sItuatIOn; nor can bb aetset s~faadldl,r epsasneesl and, probably Armstrong. Macmillan, $1.50. any argument fo~ its fundam~n discussions in tal connection wIth the foreIgn Vital Peace, by Henry Wickham missionary enterprise be required when we consider the which a group seated on the Steed. Macmillan, $2.75. devas:tated properties and im- On the Rim of the Abyss, by James paired personnel in many. evan- rostrum converse informally gelical missions which It has T. Shotwell. Macmillan, $3.00. taken centuries to build up. after an opening lead by a chair- And We Are Civilized, by Wolf- Practically every denomination which has sent its new mission- mdiascn~sasinodn,, avoiding pro and con gang Ackerman Covici Frie?e, $2.50. ary literature to the Dep~rtment exploit various sides War-drawings and etchmgs, by Editor for inspection maJors the theme. Earnest preparation has of a subject previously well pre- Kerry Eby. Yale University Press, been made to implement the purposes and sentim~nts of ~he pared upon, in conyersational $2.V50ic. tories of Peace, by GI·11 and Christian Church m Ame~ICa. Pullen. Friendship Press, $1.00 and As the birthday of the Prmce style, the audience bemg all~w~d of Peace draws near, the time is 50¢W. orld Peace and Chns.t.H~n M.1~- particularly opportune to stress to participate after the tOPIC IS sions, by H. E. Fey. FrIendshIp the plans and literature. A few sample programs, alone, in our well opened-through an these Press, 35¢. pages would be quite inadequate to the need. Every church means inclusive of pastoral ser- Educating for Peace, by E. M. and should approach the considera- J. L. Lobengier. Pilgrim Press, $1.50. tion of the subject with broad, emnoends~npdulirnpeoss·eosf may be awakdeep preparation and plans laid activity mapped America Must Act, by F. B. Sayre, for a coordinated effort among Asst. Secretary of State. World all departments of activity, f~om out to make the world peace- Peace Foundation, 75¢. primary department of the BI?le school all the way through semor minded. Community rallies and Highways to International Good and adult organizations and in- Will, by Walter W. Van Kirk. Abingclusive of the pulpit. contests in speaking or essay don Press, 50¢.
For younger children we have writing are inva,luable and lend What Can Christians Do for already referred to "Ship East, Peace? by T. A. Green (syllab1!s ~or Ship West," by E. M. Lobengier themselves particularly to an en- church discussion groups). PIlgrim (Friendship Press, N. Y., or Press, 25¢. your own denominational litera- deavor whose motif must be ture bureau; $1.00 and 50c) , giving the choicest of stories and Christian Brotherhood and its facts on world peace; leaders among junior groups may wen method cooperative. For adults Write to the Foreign Policy Asmake this a starting point, following wit h other material a very effective plan is the circu- fsoorciatoitohn~r8 West 40th St., New York, special pamphlets. The lation of standard books on the subject, a regular church library Women's International League for being a worth-while investment Peace and Freedom, 1924 Chestnut of the Lord's money. It is a St., Philadelphia, Pa., and Th~ Na- cheap move to pass the responsi- tional League for the PreventlO~ of tWona,r' D5.32C1., 7 tahlsSo t . ,h aNv.e.W.th.,~,Wgarseha~mesgt- bility for the outlawing of war onto munitions makers, "capital- profusion of "ammullltlOn agamst ists" and that ambiguous group war, much of which the Editor has called "the moneyed interests." used or inspected and found well They have their part in the con- adapted to its purpose.
tinuation of the war game; but Your own publisher will doubtless be glad to order any they are at most only a symptom of the foregoing books for you.
of a much deeper malady in the heart of humanity-self-seek- PICTURES, STORIES, PLANS ienrhg~opdr.idTe haendfotlhloewliancgk of broth- Friends in Everyland-12 pictures listing of with story on back of each, 25¢.. available material is only p&.r- Never Again-group o~ elg~t tial but will at least pave the Everyland stories of world frlendsh.Ip way to a larger ~onsi<;lera~ion of and peace–printed and bound smt- the subject WhICh lIes m the ably for any library. 50¢ per copy.
very heart of Christ's mission: Suitable for gift book. .
Friends of All the W orId Series: Book 1~f for children eight or nine BOOKS years age, Children of Other oLfanadg~s, 85¢. Book 2, 10 to 11 years Why We Went to War, by Newton The Way of Friendship, 85¢. D. Baker. Harper Brothers, $1.50.
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EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
Book 3, 13 years of age, Heroes of at the church (or otherwise) tion of women of Islam. The Friendship, 85¢. and invite the men to attend. 16mm. film rents for $1.25 and Make it "strong meat," not the 35mm. for $2.00. Friendship Paper Dolls-Four dolls wishy-washy sentiment such as eight inches high, like real children of does not appeal to "the breth- "Padre Sahib"-a new study Korea, China, Japan, India. Change ren." of the Moslem world, produced of costume for each doll, in three by William L. Rogers and wife, colors. 25¢. If you value the well-being of with advisory service from the your own children and those of Motion Picture Committee of Order foregoing from Women's Mis- others; if you would make our the Missionary Education Movesionary Society, United Lutheran country a shining example of ment (4 reels, 16mm., silent) is Church in America, 723 Muhlenberg the effort to live the peace a story of everyday missionary Building, Philadelphia, Pa. teachings of Jesus ChriJst; if life in northern India. It offers you would remove the greatest vivid insight into the problems Graded Foreign Mission Stories present obstacle to the pr.ogress and needs of all Christian mison Missions and W orId Peace. Bap- of foreign missions, do some- sionaries. The action of this tist Board of Education, 152 Madison thing at your earliest opportu- picture centers in a typical com.. Ave., New York, 15¢. nity and follow it up with more munity of Moslem Indians. A education and more practical Moslem woman rebels when her A Junior Teacher's Guide on proje,cts. husband brings home a new W orId Peace-projects and program wife, taking her small daughter, activities. Friendship Press, 25¢. Missions in Moving Pictures Zebada, whose eyes had been healed by the doctor. She seeks Children from Many Lands-post- The H arm 0 n Foundation refuge with the missionaries. ers of children of 10 countries with (with which the Religious Mo- Later action of the ,picture is appropriate verse for each. National tion Picture Foundation was concerned with the efforts of Council for Prevention of War (ad- merged) has among its declared Zebada's father to force the dress given above), $1.00. purposes: "To produce socially marriage with Karam Bege, to valuable motion pictures for whom he had betrothed her in Graphs, Program Materials, Illus- educational and church use" and return for 500 rupees. The trated Booklets and Discussion Mate- "to serve as a clearinghouse for action of this picture gives an, rial. Foreign Policy Association, 8 information on the most effec- opportunity to develop the daily W. 40th St., New York. Headline tive use of motion pictures and activities of the Christian misbooks, 25¢ each; program materials, other visual aids in church, edu- sionaries in this atmosphere. 15¢ each. cational and related fields." Its Rental, $4.00. Order all films, catalogue ~hows a most compre- as well as complete catalogue, Posters on World Peace–"The hensive library of silent films- from The Division of Visual Ex- Better Way," 24 x 36 inches; "Se- educational, dramatic, mission- periment, Harmon Foundation, curity Through Federation," 18 x 12 ary, on religion and life, life 140 Nassau St., New York. All inches. World Peaceways, 103 Park situations, social and economic the new films may be purchased Ave., New York, 5¢. studies, the arts, etc. The very in copy by church boards for use large list on "The World and Its in churches of their own de- American Posters on World Peace, Peoples" and "The Church in nomination, prices to be quoted five titles, size, 12 x 12 inches. Amer- Action" co ve r s missionary on request. ican Friends Service Committee, 20 themes. Those which the De- S. 12th St., Philadelphia, 10¢ each. partment Editor has used in Helpful New Literature s.chools of missions proved ex- English Posters on WorId Peace- cellent. They are usually made The Woman's Missionary Soover 30 titles, size, 22 x 30 inches in cooperation with missionary ciety of the Evangelical and Re- (imported by Friends Service Com- authorities, and each year lead- formed Church, 416 Schaff mittee) ; sets of 13, $1.50; each ers on the current foreign study Building, 1505 Race St., Philaposter, 15¢. themes are brought out. As delphia, Pa., has recently sent mentioned previously in this de- for inspection some leaflets and How Shape the Future for Peace? partment, "Islam in Egypt" fits pamphlets which will be helpful -excellent program analysis and the study of Mohammedans. It in any denomination. plan on page 13 of How Can We depicts the mysticism and Shape the Future?-a discussion learning of Mohammedanism in A stewardship packet containcourse for young people by Margaret Egypt, the intense loyalty of its ing a variety of leaflets: Holley Tuck, based on Basil Mathews' followers, its strong customs Shaping the Future. and laws of life. Exteriors and "What's in a Chance?" (leaflet interiors of various mosques are against gambling), 4¢. That's a Dream-similar plan and shown, the call to prayer is outline, page 10 of We Can Change given and "the faithful" shown "Alcohol Advertising Appraised," the World, for Women's Societies responding. The freedom of girls 4¢. and Senior World-wide Guilds, based in an Egyptian school is conon Mathews' Shaping the Future. trasted with the degraded posi- "What Price Repeal?" 5¢. "There Lies the Way," containing Both the foregoing to be ordered instructions for anti-war instructions from the Baptist Board of Education. for children, 6¢. These four Christian Citizenship PAGEANTS AND DRAMATIC leaflets sell as a packet at 15¢.
SKETCHES A Peace Program for Juniors, by Jane Gilbert. Baptist Board of Education, 5¢ each, or three for 10¢.
Send to The National Council for the Prevention of War (address already given) for a long, very complete list of pageants and plays on Peace, for children, young folks and adults. Write your own literature headquarters for many others we cannot list here.
It is suggested that each woman's society should prepare an especially worthful program inclusive of a convincing pageant, if possible; have a supper
"The Rainbow Pageant," a thank- grounds have few real contacts. When they arrived, we found offering service, 15¢. Our series of Public Nationality they had packed their car with Nights, intended to promote a treasures of silk, china, wool "For Such a Time as This," pag- world point of view, started embroideries, pottery, etc., for eant presenting the United Christian when we suddenly realized that which they had combed their Adult Movement, 10¢. though our denomination works congregations. We spread out among Hungarians in New York their beautiful things alongside "The Call of the Hills," play pre- and New Jersey, we knew noth- the collection from New York senting scene in mountain ca0in ing about them-actually less (which we had insured for one (mistakenly accredited in a former than of the Arabians and East day for $200). issue to the Lutherans), 5¢. Indians whom it serves far away. So we set about prepar- About 150 attended our Hun- Woman's Missionary Society ing a Hungarian evening. garian evening on a snowy of the Evangelical Church, Third night. The program came first, and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa.: The Hungarian-American So- interspersed with readings and ciety, Radio Center, New York musical numbers, then our pas- "Men Discuss Missions," a heart- City, arranged to let us have a tor introduced the brother searching demonstration to be staged valuable display of embroideries clergymen, who brought greetby the best men of the church, 5¢. and other handwork. A leaflet ings from their churches. As a from them gave material for a thrilling close, all stood while "Leaven on Noisy Creek," a dia- brief reading on "The Hun- the little orchestra played the logue by two mountain women, 5¢. garian Love of Art." Etude, Hungarian anthem. Oct., 1930, and a bibliography Dramatic plan for Mother-Daughter from the Foreign Language In- Opportunity was given to view 1lanquet, 3¢. formation Service, 222 Fourth the remarkable exhibit of hand- Ave., New York, listing Na- work and to talk to the visitors. Story leaflet, "When the Prince of tional Geographies with articles So on 15-cent admission and 5- Peace Won," 3¢. on Hungary, provided data for cent cafeteria refreshments we another article on "The Hun- made friends and cultivated "Going Farther with the Master," garian Love of Music." Our friendly attitudes, and took in an excellent devotional series of 12 church board sent material for over $20.00; for, passing along leaflets, 15¢ per set. a third short paper on "Our the tables displaying the art Church and the Hungarians." works, one came naturally to a "They Also Wait," a mountain long table filled with cake, sandsketch in two acts and with 10 char- Local resources were used wiches and coffee and a cashier acters, 12¢. next. Two of our melPbers had at the end.-FLORENCE GORDON, their piano teacher give them Weehawken, N. J. "A Mountain Woman's Fight for Hungarian duets. An organiza- Life," a missionary pantomime, 15¢. tion of church singers, invited ("An Evening in Japan," by to prepare two numbers, chose "Suggestions for Creating Atmos- Lis z t 's "Liebestraum" and this same writer, will appear in phere in Program on Southern Brahms' "Around the Gypsies' an early issue.) Mountains": in Japan, in China, in Campfire." A young woman of Nigeria, West Africa, and among Hungarian descent agreed to How MISSIONARY INTEREST Italians in America, 5¢ each. teach the girls the national folk . BEGINS dance, the czardas, and a lovely The Baptist Board of Mission- folk song, "The Old Gypsies" One of the greatest givers of ary Education, 152 Madison (Marks Music Co., 225 W. 46th our generation was asked how it Ave., New York, has brought St., New York, victrola record happened that he made such out the following excellent pro- 20749, Arten Cigany). She sang large gifts to missions. "It grams and study outlines for the last verse in Hungarian. She didn't hap pen," he replied. adult and young people's< groups: also danced the czardas with the "When I was a boy my mother girls, wearing her picturesque taught me to give a part of every "The Way of a Witness," a Project costume in red and green, the dime and every dollar. The only Course in Personal Evangelism, by Hungarian colors. A local music thing that has happened is that Margaret Holley Tuck, based on "The school taught a small orchestra I have more dimes and more dol- Way of the Witnesses," 25¢. of its students a Brahms dance lars now!" and the national anthem. "How Can We Shape the Future?" Katherine Scherer C ron k -a Discussion Course, by Margaret Letters explaining the plan said: "We might say to the hosts Holley Tuck, based on "Shaping the were sent to the two Reformed of church members who are in- Future," 25¢. Hungarian pastors in another different to missions, 'How did county, with a request for infor- it happen that you took no in- "The Future of Missions," a Proj- mation about their congrega- terest in missionary work?' ·'It ect Course in World Evangelism, by tions. They offered to come per- didn't happen,' they might truth- Margaret Holley Tuck, based on sonally, bringing art objects fully reply. 'When we were chil- "Missions Tomorrow," 25¢. from the homes of their people. dren there was no missionary training in our Sunday school "We Can Change the World," five and no missionary society in our programs by Anna Canada Swain, church.' " based on "Shaping the Future," 15¢.
"Six Programs," by Dorothy A. Stevens, based on "Rebuilding Rural America," 15¢.
The following are for 'teen age young people: "Seein' Things," by Mabel A. Silke, 25¢.
"Hills and Veils," by Irene A. Jones and Mae Deal Shane, based on "Highland Heritage" and "The Young Moslem Looks at Life," 25¢.
Nationality Nights A HOME-FoREIGN PROJECT We live across the Hudson from cosmopolitan New York, in a polyglot community, but those of different national back- The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK ~,~~====~~~~~~~~~~====~=~~ Peace in Our Time militant nations in utter disre- zations participate,and the Na- gard of their commitments tional Peace Conference which God of the nations, near and far, through treaties and peace pacts, includes more than forty peace Ruler of all mankind, and at a time when the United societies and organizations with States is feeling its way toward departments of international re- Bless Thou Thy people as they strive a renewed sense of its responsi- lations, such as the Federal The paths of peace to find. bility to share in the world effort Council of Churches and the to prevent war as the only sure women's interdenominational The clash of arms still shades the sky, way to permanent peace, it is agencies. Thus a certain unity King battles still with king – well to remember that there are has been given to the peace organizations and groups of movement and a great force has Wild through the frighted air of night people who are actively engaged been created which should ul- The bloody tocsins ring. in building the peace movement timately, in spite of discourage- in this country and in trying ments and set-backs, lead the o Father! from the curse of war to find a way to banish war from people of our nation towards the the earth. goal of a warless world. We pray Thee give release, And speed, 0 speed the blessed day The churches are taking an in- New Materials for Peace Education Of justice, love and peace. creasingly active part in this 1. Marathon Round Tables -Presbyterian Hymnal. movement, condemning war as 1937-1938.
Compassionate Father, whose sin and utterly futile as a means The National Committee on eyes are in every place and the Cause and Cure of War has whose heart is burdened with to settle international disputes. prepared the following courses the sin and suffering of Thy chil- for use by those who wish to pardren, while we go forth in safety The organized women of the ticipate in Marathon Round and comfort to our work, we re- Table Discussion Groups: member our brethren in lands churches are also working for where war is bringing anguish Plan A-"United States and and poverty and pain and death. peace in ever increasing num- the World." God of justice, deal sternly with them who have drawn the sword, bers, and are making their in- This is the basic course for those and bring home the guilt and who wish to study world peace mafolly of violence. God of pity, fluence felt in their communities. chinery and the relation of American look in mercy on the helpless foreign policy to such world organivictims of strife and on them Believing war to be destructive zations. who are made to slay those against whom they have nothing. of all those forces which make Individual kits $.75. Make sensitive our consciences to Group kits $2.50. know ourselves involved in and for human brotherhood, and the responsible for a world where Plan B-"Adequate National greed of gain and lust for power bringing in of the Kingdom of Defense-What is it?" move us and our brothers in every land. By the shame and God, they are working to create This course considers national demisery of strife, lead us to re- fense in terms of moral, political, milipentance. By the persuasions of a public opinion opposed to war, tary and economic armaments, and the cross draw all men to the is linked up with the Campaign for more excellent way of love, and and in favor of peaceful methods World Economic Cooperation of the lead the nations in paths of National Peace Conference through righteousness for His name's to effect needful changes in in- the use of the Headline Book of the sake, who is the Prince of Peace. Foreign Policy Association "Peace- ternational relations. . ful Change-An Alternative to War," -Henry Sloane Coffin in which is the basic book for that cam- the Presbyterian Tribune. Church women find their place paign. Through the use of these in the peace movement through Marathon materials church groups Church Women in the Peace their connection with the Council will be cooperating not only with the Movement of Women for Home Missions, National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, but with the Na- In these days of "undeclared the Woman's Committee of the tional Peace Conference' Campaign wars" and acts of aggression by Foreign Missions Conference, and the National Council of Fed- erated Church Women, all of which have departments, or com- mittees of international rela- tions, and through these repre- sent church women in certain of the national peace organizations. Most important among these are the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War in which eleven women's national organi- [ 603 ] for World Economic Cooperation, and State, to acquaint church people people throughout Europe and it is hoped that great many of these Marathon Round Tables will be with the struggle through which Asia who are working together formed this year by churches, clubs, and community peace groups. their brothers are passing and for peace. The World Alliance its relation to international re- for International Friendship Individual kit '$1.00. lations. Price 40 cents, Foreign through the Churches is a mem- Group kit $3.50. Policy Association, 8 West 40th ber of the American Committee Write for further information Street, New York. and the Council of Women for to the Council of Women for The International Peace Home Missions has also signi- Home Missions, or to the Na- fied its intention of joining in Campaign tional Committee on the Cause this movement believing that the and Cure of War, 70 East 45th In the year that has inter- work for peace should be world- Street, New York City. vened since the Brussels Con- wide and that there is strength in uniting with the people of 2. "Peace in These Times," is gress when the International the title of a series of four pro- Peace Campaign was organized, other nations in this great cause. grams of worship and discus- many of the countries of the sion on the causes of war and From time to time the women the way to peace published by world have, through their peace of the churches will hear of the the Presbyterian Board of Chris- organizations, joined in this work of the International Peace tian Education, Philadelphia, movement, and today there is Pa. The four programs, "Jesus, a t r u I y international peace Campaign and those who are in- Christians and War" ; "The movement, which through Peace terested in keeping in touch with Way to Peace"; "Nationalism VB. rallies, National Peace Con- it may subscribe to the bulletin Patriotism" ; and "What Can gresses, and public meetings of sent from Geneva every few Christians Do?" are intended to many kinds, is trying to bring weeks to tell of the work being arouse church people to a will to peace and a determination to pressure upon governments in done in all the countries where work for peace, and may be used the International Peace Camas the basis for group discussion, favor of peace; believing that if paign is functioning. Write to or as four consecutive programs the people of the world unite for meetings of church groups, for peace no ~overnment will the International Peace Cammen or women. They are espe- dare to lead a nation into war. paign, Palais Wilson, Geneva, cially good for a Woman's Mis- Switzerland. The subscription sionary Society. Price 25 cents. Weakened by the absence of the rate is three Swiss francs. peace societies of Italy and Ger- 3. Another new set of pro- many, the people of the other At this Christmas season there is fighting and death by violence countries of Europe where the in China, Spain, Ethiopia and International Peace Campaign is strongest, are nevertheless work- perhaps other places, and men of goodwill seem powerless to grams is that published by the ing together for peace by col- stem the tide of hate and selfish- Council of Social Action, 289 lective action ana are a mighty ness which lead to war. Yet Fourth Avenue, New York City, force in building public opinion millions of men and women hate under the title "World Peace." in their respective nations. The war and are working for peace, This is a packet containing a churches have a leading part in and have faith enough to bestudy outline, a Worship Service, this movement, bringing the in- lieve that eventually goodwill pamphlets and reprints, among fluence of the Church to bear up- will triumph and international these being "Five Sectors .of the on this problem. justice put to an end some of Peace Movement" by Fosdick, In the United S tat e san the "sore spots" which lead to an article on "Neutrality or Col- American Committee to cooper- war. lective Security" and one on ate with the International Peace The women of the churches in local Peace Councils. T his Campaign has been formed. This missionary societies and in other packet is arranged for church Committee consists of those or- church organizations, believing groups, men or women. Price, ganizations which favor inter- as they do in human brotherhood 25 cents, plus postage. national cooperation to prevent and in goodwill between men and 4. Of special i n t ere s t to war and believe that the United women of all nations, all of church members is one of the States should participate in such whom are equally children of headline books of the Foreign international efforts within the God, the Father, gladly share in PolicyAssociation called "Church limits of its commitments under this work for peace with their and State" with the Study the Kellogg Pact, and that the brothers and sisters in other Course which accompanies it. four principles adopted as the lands, and pray with them for For those who are concerned program for the International the realization on earth of the wit h the situation i nth e Peace Campaign must be inter- Christmas message: "On Earth churches of Europe in such preted in the United States in Peace, Goodwill to Men." . -Elinor K. Purves.* countries as Germany, Italy, the light of our national policies.
Spain, and Russia, this study has The American Committe is plan- • This Bulletin has heen prepared by Mlsb Elinor K. Purves, Chairman, Cooperating great value. It is written in col- ning to enter into such activities laboration with some of the as may fit into the American Committee on International Relations for the leaders at the Oxford Confer- peace program and thus to join Committee on Women's Work of the Foreign Missions Conference, the National Council ence on Church, Community and hands with the thousands of of Federated Church Women, and the Council of Women for Home Missious.
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L= = =O= u-= 1=E=:;=~=·s =:~=:=~=R;=.:=~=d=~ =:=st;w=: =e=~ =of=G~=~=~=,?=x~=~=;~=:=o~=}=~O=ts=o=k= = = I~ EUROPE the Roman Catholics, 10 per Bible Society is gIvmg aid to- cent, out of a population of about wards the translation, printing Bible Reading in France 1,000,000. and circulation of the transla- tion. A hymn book in the ver- The Societe Centrale Evan- Protestant w 0 r k is repre- nacular is also being compiled. gelique reports 17,527 Protes- sented by a small Evangelical mission at Kortcha. Its particu- -The Christian. ro tants in its various preaching lar work of preaching, Sunday schools, circulation of the Scrip- AFRICA centers, a 15 increase over tures and religious literature en- 1935. joys the benevolent regard of Southern nlorocco the authorities. The mission, It is interesting to note that however, has no legal status. Someone has said that to offer when M. Chasles, a Roman Cath- Albania recognizes that national the Gospel to a Mohammedan is olic, an archivist and well-known stability and progress is best as- "to ask the proudest man in the scholar, paid a chance visit to a sured by granting wide liberty world to accept something he small Protestant chapel in Paris, for religious instruction and hates from someone he dehe gained such an interest in the helpful spiritual influence to spises." In the face of such op- Bible that he wrote a book, The youth. The immediate strength- position as this, workers in the Bible for Catholics, which has ening of evangelical work is now Southern Morocco Mission have had a wide circulation. He has possible, if the men and the proclaimed the Gospel for fifty also been lecturing at the Sar- means are available. years. bonne on the Bible, and earnestly recommends the reading of -World D.ominion Press. Morocco – 0 n I y three-and-a the Bible to his large audiences. half days' journey from England "Remnants" in Eastern Europe -used to be a Christian land, The Bible in Germany but is now in the firm grip of Protestants have a constant Islam. It is peopled by those The conflict between Chris- struggle to maintain Evangeli- who pride themselves that their tianity and Nazism goes on, with cal work against the fanatical religion wiped out Christianity. more church leaders arrested foes of all religion on the one An encouraging sign of progress from time to time. For over six hand, and unfriendly govern- today is the eagerness of the months in 1936 the colportage ments on the other. Lutheran children to. learn to read and of all religious literature, includ- and Reformed are minority write. The wo.rk of the missio.n ing Bibles, was forbidden, the groups, in some countries "rem- centers in boys' classes, a book secret police giving as the reason nants," often desperately poor; shop and preaching in Moroccan that communLsts, under cover of but they are not only holding market places. selling religious books, were dis- their own, they are winning contributing their propagandist ma- verts by thousands, notably in -Life of Faith. terial. Only in parts of the coun- the Ukraine (Southern Poland), try where the prohibition was Austria and Czechoslovakia. A Step Toward Temperance not strictly enforced were col- Most of the people are simpleporters able to continue more or hearted, unlettered land work- In South Africa a British less their usual activities. Yet ers, scattered thinly over the Commission has ordered that in spite of this, and the growing country. 202 of the 220 saloons be closed propaganda against the Bible in in Mcordance with the Liquor the press, the total number of The greatest need is for com- Act of 1928, a measure which copies circulated by the British petent leadership. The Central provided that after ten years the and Foreign Bible Society col- European Bur e a u of Inter- licenses of no saloons were to be porters, was considerably higher Church Aid, an <ecumenical com- renewed unless they had been than in the previous year. mittee of which Dr. Adolph Kel- converted into restaurants or -W.orld Dominion Movement. ler, of Geneva, is secretary, is hotels. Few have been so con- doing much to organize the con- verted. Unfortunately, the legis- Opportunity in Albania verts and provide such leader- lation allows them to continue as ship. A prime need is to provide wine and malt houses. Never- In Albania Moslems consti- a Bible in the Ukraine vernacu- theless, the closing of such places tute 70 per cent of the people; lar and the British and Foreign to the sale of whiskey and next come the Orthodox, num- brandy is regarded as a step tobering 20 per cent, and lastly [605 )
ward temperance. Church and gathered to watch something.en- Christians there; they were all social organizations are hailing tirely foreign to them-the BISh- outside, having given up their the move with satisfaction. op laying the cornerstone. The places in the chapel to t~eir ground plan of the church was friends, so that the latter mIght -Alliance Weekly and Chris- drawn with the help of a Nuba hear the words of life. Already, tian Advocate. Sheikh, whose workmen dug the more than 20,000 have signified foundation. In the evening, aft- their wish to become Christians. Sunday Schools in South Africa er the laying of the cornstone, The next problem is to train a mud wall had been built, about them in Christian living. More than half the total in- two feet high. The walls grew crease in the membership of the daily; they were molded in red Spanish Guinea Is Quiet world's Sunday schools has been mud one day, the workers patin Africa. In the Union of South ting the mud gently with stones Moorish troops have gone AEufrroicpa~anse,sptehceiaSlluyndaamy osnchgootlhies to prevent cracks. When the from Spanish Guinea, since a live and progressive institu- walls were finished a special pol~ there is nobody left to kill! Comtion. This is one of the reasons ish consisting of a thin layer of munication with Spain has been why South Africa has been mu'd rubbed with a wild nut, reopened; Spanish steamers chosen for the next World's Sun- was applied. come and go, but business is day School Convention. practically at a standstill. . "Meantime, arches for the The Wayside Sunday school roof were being made. Some The attitude of the authOrIhas grown tremendously during brought grass for thatching; ties to the Evangelical missionthe past two years, and reaches others long poles on which to aries is favorable. There is no thousands of children who would rest the arches, and still others official frowning upon the 35 otherwise be outside the influ- made palm leaf ropes to tie the catechetical schools, as the Govence of the Church. It is esti- roof. The old men hacked long ernment thinks that results simmated there are 2,250,000 chil- tree trunks into seats, these to ilar to those in the Cameroun, dren in South Africa who do not rest on mud pillars a foot high. where missions have produced attend Sunday school, largely Ninety people can be seated." thousands of literates, will be because of the distance to the The church was dedicated with desirable in Spanish Guinea. nearest church. these words: The centenary of the Mission -South African Outl.ook. "We here dedicate to the glory of Evangelica de Guinea Espanola God this building, to be called 'The is being celebrated by a joint Italy Controls Ethiopian Church of Christ, the Good Shep- campaign of the mission and the Church herd,' to the extension of His King- Native Church to win 15,000 na- dom to be the place where the Sacra- tives to Christ. Three months The Italians have announced ments are administered, and to be the were spent in preparation and that the Coptic Christian Church House of Prayer for all the peoples of prayer. During the succeeding of Ethiopia i.s no longer under these hills, in the Name of the Father, three months 11,000 men and the control of the Coptic Patri- and of the Son, and of the Holy women turned to Christ. Nine archy at Alexandria, Egypt. Ghost." new communities have been sup- plied with evangelists in the past Corrado Zoli, former gover- -C. M. S. Outl.ook. two months, who are fully supnor of Eritrea, announced that ported by the native church. bishops of key cities of Ethiopia, A Worthy Centennial Goal such as Addis Ababa and Ak- -World Dominion Press. sum, will either be named by the African Christians in the Coptic Church of Ethiopia and Cameroun are out to win 15,000 Self-Support in Africa confirmed by the Italian Govern- new believers as their contribument, or be named directly by tion to the centennial observance There is a steady movement the Government. The announce- of the Presbyterian Board. In toward self-support in the Afriment further stated that it is some of the village chapels, can churches. The Methodist possible that the right to crown writes Dr. W. C. Johnston, sec- Church of South Africa is now the Emperor of Ethiopia will be retary of the Mission, the Chris- independent, so also is the Bapgiven to the Roman Catho~ic tians have given up the long an- tist Church. The Bantu Pres- Apostolic delegate to Add 1.s ticipated privilege of hearing byterian Church is moving in the Ababa instead of the Coptic visiting evangelists and mission- same direction. Last year the Bishops of Addis Ababa and Ak- aries and sit outside after bring- Dutch Reformed Church consum. ing their non-Christian friends tributed over £96,000 for mis- to the gathering. At the close sions, and its mission churches -The Living Church. of one meeting, the missionary and native Christians raised asked Christians to leave,- so £20,000 and £2,375 respectively. First Nuba Mountain Church that he could talk further spe- It is making every effort toward cially to the non-Christians. No reviving family worship. Illit- Pioneer Christians i nth e one moved. He repeated his re- eracy is the outstanding hin- Nuba mountains have completed quest, urging the Christians to drance to Christian work. their first church building. withdraw. Then someone ex- plained that there were no -World DominIon Movement. "A group of interested Nubas
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Sunday School Convention- lend a hand to. uplift their peD- in the CDurse Df the wsaeyrvitche~ 1940 pIe. -World D01ninion Press. shDwing in a striking Great inter&<;t ,is manifest in u.nity and diversity Df Chris- eastern and sDuthern Africa in New Clinic in Baghdad tIans. The invDcatiDn was given the prDspect Df having the One might suppose tahanwD6~0a0n0 in English, the language Df the patients wDuld keep WDrld's Sunday SChDDI AssDcia- ch.ief missiDnary sending CDun- tiDn meet at Durban in 1940. doctDr busy enDugh, but Dr. trIes, and Df the cDuntry giving Durban's climatic gactDutnarvarecantniitDeenne~eDisft·s~ Abushadid Df Baghdad is ask- the. invitatiDn to. this service. accessibility and ISaI~h.53d was read by a Jewish also. the financial ing fDr mDre by Dpening a clinic ChrIstIan elder in ancient He- fDr WDmen and children. brew, the tDngue in which Dur fered by its mayDr all pDinted to. Dr. Abushadid is a graduate Maste~ must have read and pDnthe wisdDm Df the choice. Df the Presbyterian MissiDn dered It. Prayer was Dffered in FollDwing the precedent set SChDDI in Beirut, and was asked Syriac, by an Assyrian elder in fDrmer wDrld hacvDenvaepnptriDDxnis~ by the Iraq GDvernment to. Dr- SDuth Africa will Syriac being the nearest living ganize health wDrk fDr WDmen language to. the tDngue in which mately fifty per cent representa- ~nd gi.r1s in that cDuntry. Start- Jesus spDke and in which he tiDn in the cDnventiDn, the Dther mg wIth the six thDusand girls prayed. A passage frDm 1 CDr. fifty per cent cDming frDm Dther in the public SChDDls, she is de- 12 was read in Armen itahn~ this parts Df the wDrld. It is esti- velDping the wDrk still farther language being that Df first mated there will be 2,500 dele- in the recently Dpened clinic. In natiDn in histDry to. becDme a gates. PrDbably Africa will have the SChDDI Df HDme ECDnDmics Christian natiDn; and finally, mDre representatives in this she gives her students practical prayer was Dffered icnDuIrnatnryiain~ the. language Df .the wDrld gathering than have been experience in the care Df chil- fDund in any similar wDrld CDn- dren by cDnducting a nursery WhICh the meetmg was being clave in previDus years. where the girls are respDnsible held, a cDuntry that is learning fDr the day and night care Df a to. sing His praises.
WESTERN ASIA number Df babies; thus carrying Educational Project in Syria DUt the traditiDn Df the SChDDI. Arabia's Slaves To. prDmDte a cDnsDlidated Peace Pact in Near East A recent repDrt ShDWS that plan Df educatiDn in Syria, plans aTe under way fDr the Drganiza- Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Af- Arabia has at least a milliDn and tIDn Df the Evangelical CDllege Df Aleppo., Syria, a jDint prDject ghanistan, in a dDcument Df ten a half slaves. A large prDpDr- Df the American BDard and Presb~terian MissiDns, and the Sy- articles, have undertaken to. keep tiDn Df this number came frDm rIan and Armenian Churches. It is hDped the SChDDI will be- peace amDng themselves and to. the Sudan and Abyssinia. CDme indigenDus, making bDth suppDrt and administratiDn the assist Dne anDther in all matters Slaves are Dpenly bDught and respDnsibility Df the IDcal Christian grDUps. ?f cDI?mDn interest. The pact sDld, the markets fDr WDmen Df IS ~ahd fDr five years, a periDd beauty being specially cDnducted WhICh may be renewed indefi- and develDped. A recent edict ni~ely, and it will be registered Df Ibn SaDud, king Df Saudi wIth the League Df NatiDns. Arabia, fDrbids the impDrtatiDn The pact dDubtless is a respDnse of slaves by sea, and even by to. movements tDward wider lib- land, unless it is proved that the erty, mDre religiDus tDlerance impDrtee is al read yslaavesslaavre~ Children bDrn Future of Transjordan and general prDgress. I ran Df If the partitiDn Df Palestine is might be called the key to. the themselves slaves. ~arried into. effect by the Brit- Ish GDvernment, TransjDrdan arch which suppDrts the MDS- -Christian Century. ,,:ill c 0. m e into. prDmmence. Smce 1921 the cDuntry has made lem edifice in the rMeaidl drleeliEgiaDsUt~· INDIA, BURMA, SIAM rapid prDgress, and the Dfficial yet there is mDre attitude to. missiDnaries, dDctDrs Missionaries Not Wanted? and educatDrs has been unifDrm- liberty in Iran at the present ly appreciative. The Arab GDV- A new regime in India seems ernment has Dffered generDus mDment than in any Df its neigh- certain to. affect missionary financial help to. rebuild the hDS- wDrk there, according to. a World pita;l Df the Church Miss,iDnary bDring cDuntries. A MDslem in Dominion bulletin. A reformed SDcIety at Es-Salt, and will give Hindu paper, the Arya Samaj it a free hand. Iran may becDme a Christian recently issued a statement that India dDes nDt want Christian . MDslems send their bDYS and nDt Dnly wthitehDuuntcshuafnfgeeridngMDdselaeth~ missiDnaries any mDre. It adgIrlS to. the missiDn SChDDls at which is mits the present prDgress Df Amman, and the gDDdwill of the Christianity and declares that Emir and his cDunsellDrs can be law, b1;'t t~e civil pDwe~ will prD- the strDng religiDus fervDr Df cDunted upDn by all who. will the missiDnary is the mDst im- tect hIm m the exerCIse Df his pDrtant Df the variDus reaSDns for his success. It laments the individual liberty Df cDnscience.
-World Dominion Press.
One In Christ-Iran At the wDrld-wide cDmmuniDn service held in Hamadan last year, five languages were used
materialism of many Hindus, ary women, "we'll use our own school and have made it more and appeals for a new realiza- houses as classrooms. If there's worthy of the church. tjon of the Hindu faith. no money to spare for teachers, VVorkers in Karachi are con- we'll do the teaching ourselves. vinced that bazaar preaching is If there's no dormitory for the a real test of a church's life. Changes in 20 Years women they can fit into the girls' boarding school somewhere." So Thirty-five I n d ian student the school has begun: a two- Usually, crowds are so interested teachers were recently asked year course for training village they refuse to disperse. Last what noteworthy changes had women in home making, child year fifty non..:Christians were taken place in South India in care and Christian living. baptized, in contrast to the one the past twenty years. The first or two baptized four years ago.
eight changes which follow are -C. M. S. Outlook.
arranged in the order of the An Answered Call Indian Preachers' Conference strength of the vote; caste dis- Anglican church funds, on betinctions are disappearing; un- half of Mass Movement work, In an effort to encourage pertouchability is being rapidly dis- will be used first to send teach- sonal testimony and more dy- ers to villages that have been namic preaching, a "Preachers' carded; child marriages are de- begging for them; next to procreasing; female education is vide for the intensive training Conference" was held at Bareilextending; co-education is be- of volunteers and others to equip ly, in September. Two groups coming more common; the pub- them to deal with new inquirers. were invited-a large group of A third item will be to provide lic is taking much more interest houses for pastors and teachers, pastors from the main pulpits in education; the demand for and help towards the erection and a small group of good home rule is more widespread of headquarters' churches; a preachers. Each day there were .and insistent; work for rural fourth item is the extension of reconstruction is multiplying; medical service. two sermons in Hindustani and one in English, as well as a epidemics are being mastered; Great care will be taken to round-table dis c u s s ion on Indians are replacing British of- avoid using this money to build preaching. Thus by example up work which could not be ficials ; India has come into the maintained by the Indian church and precept something definite bicycle-bus age; Gandhi cannot in the future. was done in inspiring and instop the whirl of machinery; houses are improving; women -C. M. S. Outlook. structing preachers. In order are entering public life; person- that the results of the confer- al habits are changing; the ence may be available to those Christian community is steadily who could not attend, and be preserved for future reference, growing and taking much more· it is planned to issue a printed responsibility; and socialism Opportunities in Sind report, incorporating a synopsis and communism are spreading. of each sermon and a gist of each Last year was memorable in statement made in the discus- -World Youth. the history of Sind, not only in sion.-Bishop B. T. Badley.
School for Home Builders that it became a province but Progress in Toungoo that the Christian Church scored At Toungoo, Burma, the out- "The case for village girls is advance. Money was raised by standing piece of work for the hopeless," bluntly said a student sacrificial giving for an enlarged year was a Daily Vacation Bible in the missionary's Bible class and beautified church. school in the village of Kelinsait. An old Christian living in that in Allahabad, India. Unques- The greatest advance is in the village had a son and three tionably, village houses were un- fact that the Karachi congrega- daughters who had attended the sanitary; there was too much tion of the Church of England mission school at Toungoo. They asked the mission to open a vacajewelry and too little water; Mission has accepted responsi- tion school there and gave all the support they could. As a result there was sickness, unbalanced bility for the maintenance of all five people were baptized at the close of the school, and five more feeding of the household even the evangelistic work at present acknowledged their faith during the services at Christmas. VVithwhen poverty did not preclude being undertaken in the district. in nine months this village has variety; there was quarreling, Members of the pastor's commit- indecent talk, and a stolid indif- tee have taken a keen interest ference to conditions. Such was in the leper asylum at Mango the background against which Pir, twelve miles from Karachi, missionary wives at Allahabad and for three years have visited Agricultural Institute h a v e it regularly, preached to the pa- started a school for village home- tients, and shown their love in makers. No such school exists many practical ways. Others gained ten Christians, and Qthin the United Provinces. Neither have gone in the evenings to the ers are convinced of the truth of building, money nor staff is many quarters in the city where Christianity. available. But the school has the poorer Christians live, and Much of the credit for this bebegun. "If we can't find a corner have taken part in regular serv- longs to two Christian Burmans, in the Institute classrooms and ices for them. Others have be- a preacher and a Bible woman. laboratories," said the mission- gun to teach in the Sunday – Watchman-Examiner.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
New Bible School in Siam operation at Pitsanuloke. A Nearly seventy per cent of the Five-Year Plan of Advance has men who are now determining The need for native evangel- been adopted. -Siam Outlook. the policies of modern China are graduates of Christian colists in East Siam has been keen- OHINA leges. ly felt for some time. Accordingly, a Siamese Bible School was Progress in Ohina Education is one of the chief established last year in Korat. aims of the present government, A group of six men and one When I went to China fifty which has accepted the responsiwoman comprised the first class. years ago the period of early bility of providing universal ele- The beginnings were neither seed-sowing had not entirely mentary education for 70,000 sensational nor pretentious. passed away. The difficulties children. This, however, is bare- Lacking a class room, students were numerous and visible re- ly one-tenth of the school-age suits were few. The people were population. met under the missionary's still conservative and did not home. There were no dormitory welcome new ideas. But the pe- About fifteen per cent of the accommodations, s 0 students riod of sowing produced great higher education in China is had to be quartered in various results. The Church in China handled by Christian colleges places about town. These ar- has not grown and is exerting and professional schools. Nine rangements were inconvenient every effort to become self-reli- per cent of the college students, ant. It is willing to assume re- and twenty-four per cent of the and far from satisfactory; but sponsibility and desires to in- professional students a t ten d a very profitable seven months crease the Chinese ministry. Christian institutions. of study were passed together. There are Christian congrega- tions of one thousand people -Christian Advocate. This project is an outgrowtH. that are entirely self-supporting. Oommunion Under Difficulties of the keynote "Go Forward," -F. L. Haws Pott, St. John's University, Shanghai. The Rev. David S. Tappan, of adopted at the Siamese Regional the American Presbyterian Mis- Mission Situation sion in Hainan, tells of a com- Conference. -The Call. munion service in the mountains. Most of the missions in China Faith with Works expect to car r y forward as "To prepare the communion much of the work as can be help- elements we were at our wits' Three years ago the Church fully continued. Missionaries, end. There stood the crude taof Christ in Siam was organized. especially men, will remain at ble but for a cover all they could Ninety-nine and a half per cent their posts so long as they can find was bed drapes not yet used; of the Siamese Christians had serve those in distress. The no cups but some made for wine no real idea what it was all Boards at home will accord them and used in heathen idol worabout, but those who did com- a large degree of discretion, and s.hip. Pastor Wu pointed out the prehend the significance of it in case of danger they may with- verse in 1 Cor. 10: 21: 'Ye canhad faith and were ready to back draw to safety. not drink the cup of the Lord it up with works. The church and the cup of devils,' and apconstitution was two years in The Presbyterian Board au- plied it instantly. But when it the making. thorizes the withdrawal from was proved the cups had not yet danger zones of aged and in- been used in idol worship, they An outstanding move of 1936 firm missionaries, of mothers were accepted. was the appointment of a Re- with children, and of all those vival Committee of two, whose not suited to serve under hard- "No tray for the cups, so a mission it was to visit as many ships that may be inescapable. huge wicker sieve used for siftas possible of the churches, to The· China Council and the mis- ing rice was brought in. No hold meetings and stimulate sion executive committees are bread, so the missionary took Christian life and activity. The expected to make wise allocation some of his supply of twice American Bible Society paid the of the reduced personnel. toasted bread from his lunch expenses of a third member of (fresh bread would have been this committee. Stewardship Evacuated and furloughed mildewed in the dampness). No was their major theme. The re- missionaries, prevented from re- grape juice, so a tin of Amerisults were astonishing. Tithing turning to China, will be used can orange juice, also from his was started or increased in many to strengthen temporarily the lunch, was stirred full of native communities, and the spiritual understaffed missions in neigh- brown sugar and answered the life of many individuals was boring countries until they can purpose. greatly stimulated. return to their own fields. "Nearly one hundred moun- . A second advance step has Educational Missions tain folk caught a glimpse of been the adoption of Pitsanuloke their Lord that day, and some- Station by the first General As- Fifty-one per cent of all the how I feel that He was as much sembly as its own project under Chinese college graduates listed at home at that table as at any a wholly national staff. The in the Chinese Who's Who are communions in America with Church in Siam has also as- products of Christian colleges. their perfect appointments." sumed full responsibility for the work of the Charles T. Santvoord Hospital for three years on a contract similar to that in
Chinese Medical Association of the vast Buddhist and Shinto for one month, and 405 women constituencies. for two and a half months. At The Chinese Medical Associ- Pyengyang Institute, 80 men enation was formerly made up al- Salvation Army Rift rolled for nine months' study. most entirely of foreigners, but The Presbyterian Theological as fast as Chinese doctors be- A rift in the Army has become Seminary also reports one of the came qualified they were ad- an open break. A group of offi- largest first-year classes in its mitted. Now the percentage of cers, representing the younger history. Two young men have Chinese members is very large. leaders, but themselves men of been commissioned as foreign At the last conference about 70 mature age and rank, demanded missionaries; one is laboring in per cent of the 900 attending drastic changes in the Japanese Shantung, and the other in Manwere Chinese, states Dr. John organization. The revolt is defi- chukuo among Chinese and Chi- E. Lenox of Chengtu, West nitely a nationalist movement, nese-speaking peoples. China. protesting against what is al- leged to be a condition of sub- A Korean named Chang, who, JAPAN-CHOSEN servience to the control of the as a boy of 12 watched crew and foreign headquarters, and com- passengers of the steamer Gen- Masses Want Peace mand in London. It is also a eral Sherman struggle out of protest against the Salvation the water, only to be beaten to S. Hirakawa of Tokyo, speak- Army's military organiz'ation, death by the mob, is now an old ing recently before the Friends' with its uniform, its army ter- man over 80. Last year he stood World Conference in Philadel- minology and its dictatorial sys- QY the same Pyengyang River phia, declared that 90 per cent tem. Also it is a demand for and showed to one of the secreof the Japanese are opposed to more emphasis upon the reli- taries of the British and Foreign the war with China. The pres- gious aspects of the work, and Bible Society the place where ent invasion is motivated by a less upon the social and relief one of the passengers, Mr. militaristic clique which is try- phases. The recalcitrant officers Thomas, a colporteur of the Naing to protect the Manchoukuo have been dismissed or have tional Bible Society of Scotland, venture, an experiment that has wit h d raw n, and have now threw to the crowd copies of "a thus far proved a colossal fail- formed one more Christian de- red-bound book"-the New Tesure. Japan is spending much nomination, the "Japan Gospel tament in Korean. He also more money in Manchoukuo Evangelistic Association," mod- showed him a beautiful Thomas than she is getting out of it. eled after the two branches of Memorial Chapel, marking the Another speaker, R. Yamano, the Holiness Church. place of martyrdom and told said that the only place in which how, in his own lifetime, there desires for peace may be pub- -Christian Century. had sprung up a Christian comlished is in the Christian denom- munity of over 260,000 with inational press. Remember the Frogs 4,200 places of worship.
-Christian Adv.ocate. A solemn service in commem- -World Dominion Move- oration of the sacrifice of 100,000 ment. Conditions in Japan frogs which had been used in the past year in biological and ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC A correspondent from Japan anatomical experiments, was says that the absence of civilian held in Tokyo in July. Sixty Spiritual Currents in Java hatred is one mitigating feature professors from Keio University of the grievous war situation. participated and a monument According to the Evangelical Chinese by thousands are still representing two bullfrogs in News Bureau of Holland, three living in Japan and going about stone, with a tribute to frogdom outside factors have influenced their work unmolested and in in general, was unveiled. ·The the spiritual currents in Java in perfect safety. According to a service was held in a Buddhist the last decade: first, the awakrecent report not more than cloister with much incense and ening in Eastern Asia after the 6,000 out of the 30,000 living in beating of gongs. Japanese victory over Russia, Japan have yet returned to and the national-cultural inde- China. By way of contrast the British pendence efforts in B r i tis h and Foreign Bible Society have India; second, the influence of But the dilemma of a Chris- celebrated the translation of the politico-religious movements tian Church in a country at war Scripture into the one thou- in Egypt, Arabia and British is pressing with peculiar inten- sandth tongue, a feat that out- India, seen in the existence and sity upon the Christians. Insig- does anything any single uni- development of trade societies nificant in numbers, and with versity has done. that have become more political the onus of a long inherited sus- organizations; and third the picion of disloyalty still bitterly -So S. Times. influence of communism. Ever held by many people, the Chris- since 1917, the comintern has tian movement now for the first Bible Reading Koreans striven to connect the classtime in a national crisis finds its struggle with the nationalist leaders called in council on equal Bible Institutes are popular movement in the East. Its revoterms with the representatives in Chosen. At Chai-Ryung last winter, 455 men were enrolled
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
lutionary propaganda activity mission spheres and the need for many needy, and the clinic was first reached Java via the na- an adVisory committee to work crowded each day. tive students' union in Holland. toward closer cooperation of Vigorous action on the part of government, churches and mis- Congregational Work Grows the government during the last sionaries. It is hoped that a four years has largely put a stop policy may be adopted broad The American Board reports to this undermining force. enough to cover the different a very successful conference of conditions in the various states workers in Dansalan, Mindanao, The attitude of missions to- on the protection and control of P. 1. There were 130 delegates. wards these spiritual currents the nomadic tribes, their grad- Much time was given to prayer, cannot be merely that of an in- ual development and restoration meditation and praise. In the terested spectator. They will of racial pride and confidence, business sessions much attenhave to deal with the great com- the uplIfting of the half-caste, tion was paid to the extension pleXIty ot moral quesdons wich the suppression of abuses and of the Kingdom in unoccupied which the people of Java have "CO protection from exploitation. areas. A real Home Mission wrestle in these days by preach- program was adopted. Statising the Gospel of God's King- -Anti-Slavery Reporter. tics revealed marvelous growth dom. during 1936. Twenty years ago Education in the Philippines there were three congregations Character of the Papuans and two Sunday schools in Bishop Mosher of the Philip- other places. Today, the North The Evangelical News Bureau pine Islands, who attended the Coast Conference alone has 48 in Holland says there are two ~piscopal General Convention churches and chapels and gave opinions about the Papuans of in Cincinnati, said: $5,500 for the work of the Dutch New Guinea. One is that Church. In all three conferthey are heartless, cruel and Now that the Philippines are inde- ences of Mindanao about 1,000 murderous; the other, that they pendent, they need an army and must new members have been added are good, friendly and even get the money for it somehow. It is education that will pay the price.
pleasant people; those who know The government has closed the 5th, to the churches. them best agree with both opin- 6th and 7th grades in the public ions. The Papuan has really scho lIs. This throws out great num- Filipino Evangelical Strength two sides to his character. One bers of boys and girls. We have is human, that is why the Pap- From the beginning, Filipino 1,200 pupils in our day schools. After the children finished the 4th grade, uan is hospitable, friendly and they formerly went to the public Protestant churches have emdesirous of peace. The other schools. Now the Roman Catholics phasized the value of the Gosside is demoniac, devilish. Some- are getting them; they have the pel in their hospitals and dispentimes, however, the Papuans' funds to have dormitories and to saries; Boy Scouts and Camp equip their schools.
acts are bad only in our eyes, Fire Girls; services for pris- but are good in their own opin- Clinics Had to Be "Sold" oners, for lepers and relief of ion. They, themselves, feel the various kinds. The most potent conflict in their being. They Dr. D. J. Ago, Filipino physi- influence in winning people to know the difference between cian at the mission hospital in Christ has been the private life good and evil. Legaspi, P. 1., could give some and character of Protestant practical suggestions on "sell- Christians, and their public Effective missionary work is ing" a new idea to backward stand on moral issues. The lives not possible without an accurate people. Wishing to establish of both the leaders and the memknowledge of the people. There- clinics in a new area, Dr. Ago bers of the churches have furfore the first demand is: get to first called on the local church nished the strongest testimony know the people, their language, members, taking plenty of time ethics, laws and religion. With- to explain his plan. to the truth of their message. out winning their confidence, Evangelicals also have a good far-reaching influence over them Then he had to persuade the record in public morals. The is impossible. municipal authorities that he fight against alcoholism was was not trying to undermine started and carried on almost Australian Aborigines their prestige. ' Next, the local entirely by them; pro t est s drugs shops had to be convinced against public dance halls and Missionary leaders in Aus- that the clinks would help, not prostitution come largely from tralia are considering the prob- hinder, their trade. The dentist the same source; campaigns lem of the 77,000 Aborigines had to be drawn into the project, against the cockpit and other with great care. This is attrib- and lastly, each of the above had forms of gambling originate uted to a change in public opin- to be persuaded to serve as ad- with the Protestants. ion. vertisers of the proposed clinic. Other elements favoring Prot- Some of the questions that When all this was done, the shy- estantism are the general adhave come up for discussion have ness and fear of the first ven- vance of education, the large to do wi,th aboriginal customs- turesome patients had to be dealt number of educated, liberal nomwhat should be allowed and what with. Then, at last, word spread inal Roman Catholics who have forbidden; the overlapping of abroad that here was help for no vital church membership but
believe in God, and the strongly To Raise Standard of Ministers writes the Pocket Testament anti-Fascist attitude of Evan- League of the religious work gelical Christians. They offer a After a two-year study, a carried on at the prison. reasonable faith to hundreds of commission of the Disciples' thousands of young people in Church introduced a resolution There is an organization here in the schools. at the International Convention the West known as the "Fellowship in in Columbus, Ohio (October Bible Reading," whose aim is to get -Christian Century. 28) , proposing the following as many Bible readers as possible minimum requirements for min- each year during the month of Oc- NORTH AMERICA isterial ordination: tober to concentrate in reading a cer- tain Book of the Bible each day dur- Students As Evangelists 1. Good moral character and per- ing the month. This year the Book sonal fitness for the ministry. of Romans has been selected for spe- Because they feel that a true cial reading and studying. Those Christian life is the only answer 2. A full college course or its equiv- joining agree to read at least four to the problems facing college alent and, if possible, graduate train- chapters a day in Romans during Ocstudents everywhere, the stu- ing in religion. tober, or as another choice they may dents of Wheaton College, Illi- read Romans through in one reading nois, have sent 15,000 copies of 3. Experience in Christian work at least once a week during October, St. John's Gospel to the students which shows real leadership, vision, or they may agree to read Romans of the University of California. pastoral qualities and preaching abil- through daily during October. Here Each copy is inscribed with the ity. in the prison 143 have signed up to statement: "This little booklet join the Fellowship in concentrating will help us all to win in the As matters now stand, a per- on the book of Romans during Ocgame of life." son without even a high school tober. Six of those signing up are education may be ordained in inmates on the condemned row, who Theodore Benson, senior at the church. Opposition to these are facing execution shortly. The Wheaton College and president requirements is expected from a number of inmates who have joined of the Scripture Distribution So- group of conservatives who will the Fellowship by no means takes in ciety there, says: "Our purpose contend it would be a step away all those in the prison daily reading is to discharge our responsibil- from the church's historical con- a portion of the Bible. There is a ity as Christian students to these gregationalism, and toward ec- lot of Bible reading here in the prison our fellow students. We know clesiasticism. Furthermore, be- by the inmates. of no more effective way to reach cause of their independence local the student world than to pre- congregations would not be Religious Radio Programs sent them with the Word of bound to observe the require- God." ments. The Federal Council is spon- soring a new program of radio Survey of American Girls Juvenile Crime Deterrent religion. In addition to the two regular programs of religious A composite picture of the Here is a suggestion in the worship on Sunday which have American girl, 1937 model, is field of crime prevention. Juve- been broadcast for several years presented by General Foods, nile court workers have discov- there will now be a daily pro- Inc., as the result of an effort to ered that many children who are gram of a rather different chardiscover facts about future brought into court are charged acter from 12: 00 to 12: 15 homemakers. From a question- either with stealing toys or steal- every weekday of the year. naire, submitted to shoppers in ing money to buy toys. Out of These noonday messages will be half a million retail food stores, this grew the idea of establish- inspirational and educational in it appears that six out of every ing a toy-lending "library." One character, addressed particularly ten American girls between the has been operating for several to the public. The same speaker ages of 18 and 25 attend church months in Kansas City, Mo., and will be heard each Monday for a regularly. a second one is now being pre- period of three months; another pared there by women of Grace speaker each Tuesday, another Reasons given for non-attend- and Holy Trinity Cathedral. each Wednesday, and so on ance were: through Saturday. The play room in the parish Too lazy …………….. . 36.5% house is to contain the collection The Foreign Missions Confer- Lack of interest ………. . 28.5% of toys, new and "recondi- ence is cooperating in this Too busy ……………. . 19.0% tioned," which the women have presentation. Inconvenient …………. . been collecting. Any child in the 9.2% neighborhood may have a "li- America's Spending brary" card, signed by parent or In answer to the question: guardian, entitling him to bor- The National Committee for "Do you consider it more desir- row a toy. When it is returned Religion and Welfare Recovery able or less desirable, than it in good condition, he may take has prepared a chart to show was in your mother's day, to out another. The toys will be that the American public gave take an active part in church af- sterilized on return. fairs?" replies were given: 30 % less to churches, 29 % less "Fellowship in Bible Reading" More………………… 37.3% to general benevolences, 24 % Less ………………… 26.30/0 The chaplain of California Same………………… 35.70/0 State Prison at San Quentin less to community chests, and 18 % less to colleges in 1936 than was given from the smaller in- comes of 1932. On the other hand, expenditures for jewelry,
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
theaters, cigarettes, automobiles. Creek Indian Christians race are characteristics of the army and navy, whiskey, radio Indian people. The Indian has come a long and beer increased from 25 % to way in spiritual development, as Their belief that, although life 31 rtf). -The Living Chu,rch. evidenced in a recent meeting of is mysterious in all its manifes- 1,000 Creek Indians near Eu- tations, yet it can be trusted if Land of the Unexpected faula, Oklahoma. The preacher human beings act in cooperation was Roly Canard, chief of the with it, may be the secret of the Think of a church service at Creeks. Although a university Indian characteristics of poise which every inhabitant of a vil- graduate and a master of Eng- and restfulness, quiet strength lage is present; where every lish, Canard preferred to speak of character, a keen sense of huworshipper sang all the hymns in his native tongue, as do most mor and delight in the gay and from memory! Rev. C. O. of the Creeks both in private and joyous. Unhurried by life's de- Weber, Moravian pastor of Win- in public. Only the text, which mands, they take time to think ston-Salem, N. C., found this was repeated many times with clearly and concretely. Expectamong the unexpected experi- emphasis, was spoken in Eng- ing its constant changes, they ences of a visit to Alaska. lish: "Behold, how good and face the world with courage.- how pleasant it is for brethren The National Board Y. W. C. A. When he arrived in a village to to dwell together in unity!" speak in a church, the bell was Health Education at Sitka, rung long and vigorously. To Around the tabernacle and his delight he found the congre- church building were smaller Alaska gation eagerly drinking in every arbors and sheds under which word of the message and no were long dining tables. Beyond A new departure in health watches pulled out to check the these outdoor dining and cook- education for both boys and time. He was amazed to hear ing quarters were the tents of girls at Sheldon Jackson School, Eskimo Christians pray in pub- the hundreds of families who Sitka, Alaska, has been more lic fluently, and to note the ex- had come for the four-day meet- thorough testing for tubercupressions on their uplifted faces. ing. losis, which is greatly on the in- This is his answer to the ques- crease among the native population he is often asked: "Are re- Without a leader, one Indian tion of Alaska. In Sitka governsults worth the time and money after another starts a hymn if ment school last year, 78 per spent?" he feels the urge and others join cent of the children were found in. Another common practice to be infected. This is partly -Moravian Missions. is for all to pray aloud at the due to poor living conditions; same time. Often this unison of partly to the lack of recreational From Communism to prayer is for some common ob- facilities, but alcohol is probably ject, such as the recovery of a the largest contributing factor. the Church sick brother, or the missionary work of the association. After One phase of this health ex- A. J. Muste, who has recently a few minutes all voices are periment is the isolation and become minister of Lab 0 r silent save one, and the prayer special care of a group of twelve Temple, New York, succeeding is concluded by this one peti- tubercular suspects. This group Edmund B. Chaffee, has issued tioner. has a special table in the dining the following statement: room. Their dishes are segre- -Southern Baptist Home gated and sterilized. Each sus- I return from the left wing political Missions. pect is isolated in the dormitory movement, from radical Marxism, and is given a special rest each from passionate secular idealism, The Gifts of the Indian day. -Presbyterian Banner. which made me condemn the Church People as conservative, as retarding prog- United Christian Council ress, as martyring free spirits. I re- Because the Indian people of Alaska turn to the Church! Why? Because have felt that usefulness without these years of experience have taught beauty is not enough, they have A United Christian Council of me that the Church of the redeemed created beauty in design, sym- Alaska wit h representatives is the only great redeeming agency. bolism, color, rhythm and poetic from the Congregational-Chris- The nucleus of any effective movement thought. For our use they have tian Churches, the Metlakatla against war, against a social order brought corn and other foods Christian Mission and the Methbased on the spirit and method of and herbs, they have broken odist Episcopal Church has been war, will have to be composed of trails for us and taught us ways organized and incorporated in those who by the grace of God, and of living in the out-of-doors. the State of Illinois. insight into the meaning of the Cross, have renounced the spirit of war; To value character above pos- Formed on July 10, the Counfirst in their own hearts and then and sessions, to consider one's tribe cil will be an elastic, interdenomtherefore, in all relationships of life; above oneself, to appreciate the inational group designed to proof those who know the overcoming achievements of others, to wel- mote closer cooperation among power of prayer and humility and come the stranger, to respect the participating denominations sacrifice; of those who are not led childhood and age, to feel al- at work in Alaska. The sponastray by the will to dominate or de- ways a self-respecting pride of sors hope and expect that other stroy anyone, because Christ lives in them. The Church often fails in this, but I see no other agency doing it at all. That is why I return to the Church.
-Federal Council Bulletin.
denominations willJater join the diers to buy copies of the New Matto Grosso, Brazil Council. It marks a.:distinct ad- Testament and ask for prayer. The definite aim of the Inland vance in a cooperative approach to home missionary tasks. Uther mIssionaries keep in touch South America Mis s ion a r y Union is to reach the Indian Among the practical develop- with college students. Full use world, and its purpose is to carry the Gospel to tribes not ments that have resulted is the is made of the press and book -The Christian. shops.
launching of the Alaska Marine Forward in Colombia included in the plans of other Mission to serve the vast, hither- organizations. One can scarcely to neglected territory in Alaska. The Synod of Colombia was believe that regions on this earth duly organized in Bogota on still exist where men live as July 29, a milestone in the his- "Children of Eden," ignorant of LATIN AMERICA tory of Presbyterian missions in the existence of a world outside that country. Rev. Julio Her- their own. The heart of MaUo Sunday School Influence Brazil, Argentina, Chile and nandez, pastor of Sec 0 nd Grosso, Brazil, is such a region, Mexico have each their own na- C h u r c h, BarranquiIla, was and its evangelization has for tional Sunday school missionary elected moderator; Rev. E. G. years been the hope of the Inengaged in developing Sunday Seel, secretary, and Rev. Gus- land S. A. Missionary Union. school work. Textbooks in Span- tavo Villa, treasurer. Delegates The first missionary expediish and Portuguese are being from the three presbyteries, with tion of the Mission was launched prepared for the training of the help of a map, indicated their in 1926 when possibilities were Sunday school teachers. In Ar- fields of activity and the limits gauged. In 1934 another start gentina alone over 2,000 young of their territory, also the re- was made. A third expedition people have undergone training gions to which they hoped to ex- resulted in the erection of a misfor Sunday school and Bible tend the preaching of the Gospel. sion station. This third expediclass work. From the start, the It was shown that if the work tion covered 2,000 miles in 75 Sunday school, for both adults is continued with enthusiasm, days. Thirty-four days were and children, has been one of soon no one will be able to pass spent in canoeing. The main the most successful agencies of through Colo m b i a without purposes of the journey were: touching some evangelical terri- to visit the circuit of Indian vilthe evangelical movement. It is estimated that there are tory. lages and to introduce the pionow more than 2,000,000 people 'l'he importance of having a neer missionaries – the Big connected with Pro t est ant well-organized seminary for the White Chief and the White churches in South America, and theological and pedagogical Mother; to choose a site suitfreedom of thought and expres- training of national workers was able for the mission station and sion has been greatly increased. made clear; in fact, all the pro- to devote some time in building posals, plans and projects were a mission house; to reestablish Work Goes on in Mexico directed toward a great central friendship with the fierce Ka- purpose, and gave the idea of In spite of restrictions, Prot- the different pieces of a jig-saw mauras, whose hostility had been estant missionaries remain in puzzle which only needed to be of nine years standing, due to a Mexico, doing effective work, in fitted into place to reveal the or- breach of promise made by an dered whole. some respects even better than explorer. They had closed their before. Here are some new -Colombian Clippings. tribal portals to every outsider, including foreigner and Indian. methods that have been adopted. Cuban Schools In one of the best restaurants Requests are now coming The educational problem in of Mexico City, "Wednesday Cuba has yet to be solved. Gov- from the Indians themselves ask- Breakfasts" are arranged by ernment high schools and uni- ing for the "good people," mean- Dr. Wallace, a Presbyterian mis- versities are closed, and a few ing the missionaries, to come in sionary, and Professor Baez and live with them. Camargo, Secretary of the Na- -Amazon Valley Indian.
tional Council of Evangelical mission schools have been the Fascism in BTazil Churches. Members of the in- only secondary schools open durtellectual classes are invited to ing recent troublesome years. Evangelical churches of Bra- the breakfasts, and invariably Among the boarding students zil are thoroughly alarmed over listen with deep interest to mes- this year at the Baptist Colegio the increasing menace of Fassages on vital topics by Chris- Internacionales are Carlos Man- cism. Organized about five tian leaders. uel and Flavio de Cespedes, two years ago, mainly with Italian Mr. Norman Taylor, also a grandsons of a former president and German descendants or .nat- Presbyterian missionary, is do- of Cuba and great-grandsons of uralized citizens, Fascism soon ing splendid work among sol- the Cuban patriot and first revo- gained the support of many libdiers. He visits the camps in lutionary president, Carlos Man- erals and young leaders in the his motor-car, entertains the uel de Cespedes. This is a tes- Protestant churches, who not soldiers with a port.able wireless timony to the confidence placed only came out openly for the set, and then gives a Gospel talk. in the school. cause, but distributed literature -WatchrYUJ,n-Examiner. among fellow churchmen. It is usual for many of the sol-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Methodism voices its appre- MISCELLANEOUS Anti-Semitism hension in the Expositor Christao: Church Council Discusses War A conference held at Prince- ton, N. J., in September on the "Every Protestant or Evan- Should America go to war Jew and the Pre s b y t e ria n gelical is, by nature, a liberal with Japan? Is China guiltless Church went on record as urgdemocrat. It follows, therefore, in the present slaughter? Will ing the Presbyterian Church to that Fascist violence will be dictator nations crush democ- speak out clearly on the dangers aimed against the physical life racy? These questions were of anti-Semitism to the Church of the Evangelicals, in case it put to Methodist leaders in Chi- itself, and to take its full share wins out in Brazil. Millions of cago recently. Bitter condemna- of responsibility for the relief of Brazilians are under this threat, tion of the smugness of democ- the social, human and spiritual among them the great majority racies in not considering the eco- needs of the victims of antiof the Evangelicals." The two nomic needs of over-populated Semitism, wherever found. branches of Presbyterianism- nations now enslaved by dicta- Independent and Synodical- tors vied with vehement denun- The purpose of this Conferhave condemned all extremist ciation of the bombing of Chi- ence was to appraise the work regimes. nese cities. Some advocated for the Jews now being carried swift and complete embargoes; on by the Presbyterian Church The Congregational Church others saw embargoes as useless through the community 0 r went farther, and adopted the and vicious. A II inveighed neighborhood c en t e r, and following resolutions: "(1) No against America resorting to through the parish approach, pastor shall be permitted to af- arms to curb Japan in China. whereby churches are urged to filiate himself with the Fascist extend their services and welparty. (2) All churches which Dr. Elbert M. Conover, of come to Jewish neighbors; to' have members who are already Philadelphia, advocated a light- consider the problems arising in Fascists shall exhort them to ningembargo on war material, connection with it; and to deabandon such a doctrine; but including oil and other elements velop a more adequate and efif they persist in remaining vital to fighting, while Rev. N. fective program. such, they must be cut off the A. Christensen of Oakland, Cal., church rolls. (3) Any church was just as positive that an em- -Monday Morning. which allows Fascists in its bargo is useless, dangerous and membership, shall be excluded evil, because it imposes the pun- Problem of Mission Property from the union." ishment on the people least re- sponsible for war, and leads al- One of the problems of the es- -Christian Century. most inevitably to war. Diplo- tablishment, and relationships matic and social ostracism even- of an independent national Demand for Books tually can apply sufficient pres- Church to the home board has to sure to break any nation's ruth- do with the fact that in almost Dr. R. E. Diffendorfer says lessness. Such ostracism is every mission field new national that in South America the rapid slower, but more' drastic in or ultra-nationalistic regulations progress in secular education effect. are affecting the tenure or title has gone far beyond the ability or terms of mission property of the Evangelical churches and Sacrificial Giving holdings. In Mexico many clear the missions to follow the new titles have been simply wiped intellectuals with an adequate Missionaries see the world's out by the Government, with no Christian m e s sag e. These desperate need at close range. remuneration or redress. Elsegroups know philosophy, politi- Nearly $5,000 out of their per- where increments of value have cal economy, economics and sonal incomes has been contrib- been denied or imperilled. In sociology, educational theory and uted by Presbyterian mission- many lands the nat ion a I practice, and especially the aries to the Centennial Fund of churches are disposed to argue physical and social sciences. To the Board of Foreign Missions. that all mission property is held reach these groups by the sole If their average gift were in trust for them, even though method of preaching and organ- equaled by each of the 2,000,000 it was wholly provided from the izing churches is to lose the op- Presbyterian church members at west, or by people who gave it, portunity. Books need to be home, the reply of the Church to not for the endowment of the written by Latins or translated the General Assembly's urging Church in some one land, but from English, and from other "that the churches and individ- for use in the evangelization of languages on the Christian mes- uals make a sacrificial response" the whole world. sage of the world today. He to the appeal for a $1,000,000 further says that the scarcity of Centennial Fund would make a -Presbyterian Banner. reading material in some lan- total response of at least $10,- guages is so great that many 000,000. Every member of the "To myself a heart of steel; boys and girls lapse into illit- Board and of its executive and To my fellows a heart of eracy after havirig completed clerical staff has contributed to love; the work of the primary schools. the Centennial Fund. To my God a heart of flame." -Christian Advocate.
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i Our Missionary Bookshelf I I Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information ~,===—–==——–=======""",-,==~,~ A Bible Believing Church. The gives new courage; greater zeal is the result of painstaking Nevius Plan for M.ission Work, Il- study, marked by discerning lustrated in Korea. By Charles and stimulates faith in spiritual a n a I y s e s. The journalistic Allen Clark. 8vo. 370 pp. $2.00. Christian Literature Society. Seoul, methods. The work is one of the sources which underlie the body Korea and E. C. Heinz, 3624 Fifth most outstanding examples of of the text have this unique fea- mission work in the world. It is ture that they present the co- Ave., So., Minneapolis. 1937. well organized but does not Are missionary executives spend its strength on machinery. temporaneous opinions of the proven to be too satisfied with There is life in the organizm. editors. Rather than say that conservative, old-time methods? Every missionary in every the book is well documented, it .Are they and the missionaries field will do well to read this im- should be said that it is in the portant report. The methods main-and professedly so-doctoo hesitant to break loose from need not be slavishly copied but conventional lines and to pioneer they teach lessons that could be uments with interpretative comin missionary activities? As a put into practice in other fields ments. also. Churches at home would matter of fact most modern mis- also profit by a fresh study of The history sketches for the sionary work has broken away these ideals and by adopting reader Japan's emergence from many of these methods. from Apostolic New Testament her centuries of seclusion and methods and has attempted to Japan in American Public Opinion. proceeds to detail what she establish occidental institutions By Eleanor Tupper, Ph.D., and learned from the West-the way George E. McReynolds, Ph.D. 465 in lands where life is more pp. $3.75. Macmillan. 1937. we live, what we know, what we simple and primitive. Dr. John believe and how we fight. What Some time ago it was pointed we condemn in Japan's use of L. Nevius, for many years a mis- out that history centered first in modern engines of war, on the sionary in China, strongly ad- the Mesopotamian region, then earth, in the air, and under the around the Mediterranean basin, vocated a return to apostolic then on the Atlantic coasts, and sea, she learned from the West. methods; this was forty years finally in our day on the Pacific. In condemning her appropriatago. He emphasized evangelism This progress westward fol- ing policy, we condemn our- lowed the migration of the J arather than institutionalism; an phetic races. There was also a selves. great migration eastward, unindigenous church with early til now mankind has almost The volume, in conducting us filled the earth. Japan and through the phases of the probself-support and self-government America are turning back on rather than continued foreign themselves. It would be well if lem of the Japanese in Califorcontrol; and spiritual emphasis each could do the turning grace- nia and Hawaii, the wars with fully; it would be better if they China and Russia, the annexaon Bible lines rather than could do it in the Christian way. tion of Korea, through questions higher intellectual training to "Japan in American Public of immigration and n a val reach secular standards. The Opinion" recounts the way J a- Presbyterian mission in Korea pan has been turning for the quotas, the Japanese Monroe last few decades, as observed by Doctrine, the 21 demands, the early adopted the Nevius ideals authors and editors in America. Lytton Report, and the like, and methods and the results The book is an encyclopedic have been among the wonders of source book of facts concerning leads us up through the intricamodern missions. Dr. Clark de- political changes in China and cies of Japan's operations on the Japan, and in America vis-a-vi:s continent of Asia to the summer scribes these methods, how they of 1937. have been applied and the effect. Numerical results show 180,640 .To statesman, merchant, and new converts to Christ in nine years. This is equivalent to 70 missionary the volume is a valu- able storehouse of information. new parishes, each with an aver- It presents both sides of the sitage of 300 believers every year. uations and should have on both Here is the story of how this was ,sides of the Pacific a wholesome done without a large staff of foreign workers or the expenditure influence on those to whom facts have the major appeal. of large sums of foreign funds.
It is a thrilling story that these two countries. The volume G. P. PIERSON.
Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
[ 616 ]
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
Then and Now in Kenya Colony. of nature and of man's place and the facts stated. The index is By Willis R. Hotchkiss. 160 pp. purpose in relation to God. confined to names of authorities Price, $1.50. Fleming H. Revell quoted. A bibliography of ref- Company, New York, N. Y. 1937. Dr. Morrison is one of the out- erence books would be exceed- standing Christian scholars of ingly helpful. "It is given to few men in this Great Britain. He is too big a wonderful century of develop- soul and too sane a thinker to be Definite Experience. By A. S. Wilment to have witnessed the son of New Zealand. 128 pp. Margrowth of a colony from relative classed either as a Fundamen- shall Morgan & Scott, Ltd. London. savagery to a high degree of talist who defies or ignores civilization." That privilege has science, or a Modernist who ab- In our daily experience and been enjoyed by Mr. Hotchkiss jectly surrenders to science and teaching we are prone to emphain Kenya Colony on the East ignores the evidence of God's size faith, if we are introspec- Coast of Africa. He went to tive in our thinking, and works Africa forty years ago "not be- revelation of truth. The dictum if we are retrospective. In his cause men were heathen and in of authority "Men of science tell timely volume Mr. Wilson brings need of civilization, but because us" is but a poor substitute for faith and experience, or "faith men were sinners and needed a and works," into a beautiful and Saviour." "Thus saith the Lord." convincing harmony. He shows that to be filled with the Spirit In the process of presenting These seven studies were in is not only a privilege of the that Saviour the missionaries part given as Cunningham Lec- Christian but is necessary for a have found that Africans, ac- turers in New College, Edin- fruitful Christian life. cepting the Christian way of life, have assumed many of the burgh, in 1936. They take up On page 74 we find this harmore desirable qualities of our mony brought out clearly. Mr. civilization. The author shows the wonders revealed by the mi- Wilson says that Romans 8: 13 also that the white man's ideas croscope, the telescope, radiation is "one of the deepest teachings and methods are not always and chemistry, the mysteries of of the Word on sanctification. helpful. Often Africans who science, the supernatural, evolu- Sin remains in the body to the have come in contact with the end. The deeds of the body, each new environment of the cities, tion and the "ascent or fall of sin, as it seeks to rise up, can be far from the restraints of vil- man." They are interesting and put to death. It is the presence lage life and tribal connections, of Christ, through the Holy Spirfind it difficult to withstand the clear, scientific and reverent, it that does this." temptations and are greatly de- sane and honest. The most emimoralized by influences which nent and up-to-date scientists Holy living is emphasized they do not understand and to are freely quoted. Many of them throughout the book. Chapter which they cannot adjust them- seven on "Be filled with the Spirselves. honestly admit that "science is it" should be noted as outstand- completely baffled" to explain ing. The author's use of the The effectiveness of Christ in such things as whence came phrase "Bringing in the Kingchanging the lives of men is dis- dom," is post-millennia1. closed when Mr. Hotchkiss says: matter, motion, life, and man. "One conviction alone has re- His view of miracles is that they A. H. PERPETUO. mained not only unaltered, but confirmed with cumulative force are not contrary to nature but Men of the Outposts. The Romance throughout the years, and that transcend our knowledge. He of the Modern Christian Movement. is that the Cross of Christ is the views Christ as unique, "a By Herbert Welch. 8vo. 261 pp. all-sufficient answer to the prob- veritable incarnation of God." $2.00. The Abingdon Press. New lems of Africa, as to the rest of York. 1937. the world." He believes that evolution is only a theory and has been very There is no more stimulating CLARA L. BENTLEY. much overworked, is often mis- reading than good biographies- history teaching by examp~e. Christian Faith and the Science of understood and takes too much The life stories of great and Today. By J. H. Morrison. 8vo. for granted. "Redemption, not godly men and women reveal 228 pp. $2.00. Cokesbury Press. God working in human life. Nashville. 1936. evolution, is the Christian watch- Here are twelve fascinating sketches and interpretations of Here is a book that will repay word." He holds that the "Chris- nine men and three women who any intelligent man or woman tian doctrine of the fall of man gave their lives and used their for reading. Ministers, teach- is not necessarily in conflict with talents sacrificially to advance ers, missionaries, and others who the findings of modern science. the cause of Christ among manare sometimes disturbed by the kind, especially in mission lands. claims of modern science, or ill- . . . When man sinned he fell, They include pioneers – Xavier informed or half-baked expon- and suffered a permanent moral and Livingstone; evangelistsents of scientific theories, will disablement. . . . Christian op- John Wesley and William Tayfind here a scientific but sane lor; educators·- Wm. Clark of . and reverent study of the facts timism is based on redemption, Japan and Isabella Thoburn of not on development; on the di- vine grace that sends help from above, not on any power in man to evolve."
This volume would be a good antidote to the false and hasty conclusions of science (falsely so-called) as taught in many of our schools and colleges. Ex- tremists on both sides will no doubt disagree with some con- clusions but they cannot dispute
India; doctors-C h r i s tie of 000 Negroes out of 11,800,000 dently writes with the Lutheran Manchuria and Schweitzer of (or about 50 per cent) are not constituency especially in·mind.
Africa; Christian soc i a 1 re- members of any church." The The book, however, has a timely formers-Verbeck of Japan and percentage is larger in urban message for evangelicals of Mary Slessor of Calabar.; and centers. "This constitutes a every name. The pOSition of the home base leaders-Bishop Wm. challenge to the churches for a author will be regarded by many M. McDowell and John'R. Mott. united march against sin and as extremely conservative, but Only two of the twelve'tare still for the salvation of souls." it is temperate and scholarly. living and working on ·'earth. Among the religious sects re- He does not contend that the The least known is William S. ported are "Black Jews," Mos- writers of the Bible were mere Clark; all are worthy of more lems, "Faith Eternal" (Father amanuenses whose personalities intimate acquaintance. There is Divine), and Moorish sects. The were submerged in the commu- variety in their characters, their largest ,number of Negroes are nication of the divine message.
fields of service, their types of members :of the Negro Baptist What is insisted upon is that the work; all were actuated by de- Church (1,950,296 members). writers were preserved from er- votion to Chrisf"imd by a desire Other churches with over 100,- ror of statement and that no to help theiriellow men and to 000 each are African Methodist view of inspired communication bring them into harmony with (6 branches) and white Meth- can be intellectually sound in the will of Goo. odist Episcopal. which inspiration does not ex- Dr. Welch is a bishop of the The section on "The Negro in tend to words which correctly Methodist Episcopal Church and Poetry and Fine Arts" is very express the truth. To hold that was for sixteen years in Japan. interesting – including "the ori- only the thought is inspired These studies, given as lectures gin of the tango." raises the serious difficulty as to at Drew University, are well More might be said to advan- whether the mind is capable of written; they offer valuable il- tage on the Negroes' missionary entertaining any intelligent conlustrative material for sermons work at home and abroad. as well as interesting half-hour ception which does not take form in words. .
fireside readings. The index re- Mann of the Border. By D. Emmett The most valuable portion of Alter. 188 pp. $1.00. Wm. B. veals a wealth of topics and per- Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand the book, however, is not the dis" sonalities that have contributed Rapids, Mich. 1937. to the onward march of Chris- cussion of varied positions touchtianity. This story of a medical mis- sionary on the Northwest Fron- ing the question of inspiration, Negro Year Book. An Annual En- tier of India, among the wild cyclopedia of the Negro. 1937-8. tribes of the Afghan borders, is but the author's careful exam- Edited by Monroe N. Work. 8vo. written by a missionary of the 575 pages. $2.00. Tuskegee In- United Presbyterian Church. ination of the internal evidence stitute, Alabama. He does not make clear whether the stirring incidents described which the Scripture itself af- This ninth edition of the year are based on fact or whether book is exceedingly valuable be- they are oniy fiction. The cham- fords. We could hardly suggest cause of its comprehensive and pion for Islam, a fanatic Mullah, up-to-date information on the meets the Doctor at first by open a more painstaking and satissubject and the arrangement of opposition and violent words and topics which make it easy for threats; then they meet at a factory digest of this evidence, reference. wrestling bout where American dash and jiu-jitsu overcome the unless it be found in the large Both students and general readers will find it good reading volume by Gaussen bearing the title "Theopneustia." In the light of powerful evidence the open-minded reader will realize how much more consistent and logical is the author's view than are any of the prevailing alter- natives. HUGH R. MONRO.
and worth owning. For example, brawn and weight of the stal- Scripture Calendars for 1938. Pick- wart Afghan. Finally the Mul- ering & Inglis. London. the section on "Some: Achievements of the American Negro" lah's followers are won by Each of these calendars carry a daily Bible message and some shows their ec9nomic progress, Christlike love and service. The of them have also helpful comtheir intellectua] and cultural ac- story is well told but the miscomplishments, their inventions sionary approach is not ideal. S. M. Z. ments by s u c h well-known and standing in the field of preachers and authors as Bishop sports, as well as in business, The Foundations Must Stand. By P. Moule, C. H. Spurgeon, D. L. E. Kretzmann, Ph.D., D.D. 123 pp. politics and religion. On the Concordia Publishing House, St. Moody, Arthur T. Pie r son, other hand, the Negroes' crime record is not ignored. The Louis, Mo. – James Stalker, C. I. Scofield, F.
famous "Scottsboro Case" is This small volume dealing R. Havergal, J. R. Miller, Adolph dealt with impartially and' its with the inspiration of the Bible Sophir and Alexander McLaren. is a veritable arsenal for the de- They are mounted on attractive, significance is indicated.
In the section on the "Church fender of the faith. Its author lithographed picture cards made Among the Negrot!s" (30 pages) is a professor in a seminary of for hanging on the wall. They we read that "more than 6,000.- the Lutheran Church and evi- make very acceptable gifts, rang-
ing in price from 1 shilling to 2 life and progress of the people Hallock Johnson suggests in his shillings, 6 pence. each. of India. Reports on cholera, introduction, in the manner by smallpox and plague show an in- which the argument in each There are also almanacs with crease. Leprosy, venereal dis- chapter is turned into an appeal. Scripture texts and "Golden eases and tuberculosis are also Grain Diaries (Is. to 6s. 6d. studied. The information on J. WESLEY INGLES. each), and Christmas cards 15 Government education is meager. for Is. 9d.). Ali Lives in Iran. By Caroline Singer The Heart of the Christian Faith. and Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge. Illus. A Mighty Winner of Souls: The Life By Francis Shunk Downs. 209 pp. 72 pp. $1.75. Holiday House. of Charles G. Finney: A Study in $1.50. American Tract Society. New York. 1937. Evangelism. By Frank Grenville New York. 1937. Beardsley, Ph.D. 192 pp. $1.50. This fascinating story of a American Tract Society, New York. This little volume deals with little boy and girl (Fatima) who the cardinal verities of the lived in Iran, as Persia is now ~…. 1937. Christian faith, making its ap- called, is based on firsthand ob- No man was more used of God peal to the heart more than to servations made during a motor journey of 5,000 miles in Iran. in his day and generation than the head. The book is most attractively the subject of this biography. Dr. Downs, as a preacher in printed, and illustrated with Tens of thousands of people marginal drawings. Children throughout the United States the First Presbyterian Church who read will be captivated by were brought to Christ through of Berkeley, California, minis- it and will learn to understand his preaching. He reminds one ters to large bodies of university their Iranian brothers and sisof the Scripture that says: "His students, and gives here a series ters better through their lives ministers a flame of fire." The of sermons on doctrinal themes. pictured here. Jewish Isaac, author was Professor of The- His chapter on "The Inspired Zoroastrian Cyrus' and Chrisology and is now Chaplain of the Book" dismi,sses apparent dis- tian Luke are also introduced Missouri Society S. A. R. His crepancies as due to errors in with good effect. knowledge of Church History is translation or errors in transadequate for a proper presenta- mission, and meets not at all the Full Assurance. H. A. Ironside, D.D. tion of this life and its back- problem of an inspired and in- .125 pp. 75 cents. The Bible Instiground. He portrays Finney as fallible Canon without an in- tute Colportage Assn. Chicago. a winner of souls, as an evan- fallible Church to select it. The gelistic leader, as pastor of a book moves into a much stronger 1937. church and also tells of his con- position in the second chapter nection with the founding of on "The Person of Our Lord One of the largest Protestant Oberlin College. In the words Jesus Christ," where Dr. Downs congregations i n America – of the Preface: "Nothing will lays his finger correctly on "the more than three thousand-regserve to promote an interest in central issue of controversy in ularly attend the ministry of the evangelism more than a study of our generation." Here is a the lives and measures of the cogent array of testimony to the author of this book at the Moody men who were successful in win- deity of Christ. Memorial church, Chicago. This ning souls in the past, not that we may attempt to reproduce It is both the strength and small volume of sermons extheir methods, but that we may weakness of the book that it is plains this remarkable interest; catch something of their spirit filled with quotations, many of it deals with a vital truth in and discover those principles them marked by vigor, beauty, terms which are readily underwhich underlie all true evan- and truth. In some places the stood. Dr. Ironside is an able gelism." Well worth reading, frequent selections are like and full of inspiration. pearls gathered from many expository preacher and the wide sources and strung on the thread influence of his sermons sug- S. M. Z. of the author's argument. gests that this type of preaching has sustained interest beyond India 1934-35. 8vo. 145 pp. 50 cents. In the midst of an unoriginal Government Press. Delhi, India; treatment of great Biblical other more "modern" types. British Library, 270 Madison Ave., themes, 'are found illustrations New York. 1937. that hav~ne11ing force or clarify- The aim of the auth{i'1"'iri the ing power. Dr. Downs shows present volume is to le'M:Chris- This official report, presented his homiletical gift and ability to to the Indian Parliament, deals organize his material. tians into an experience of enwith agriculture and industry, t ire assurance of salvation commerce, finance, communica- Laymen who have had little through Christ-a high objections, defence, politics, health evangelical teaching and young tive. Each of the ten chapters and education, and scientific sur- people who need aW'arm and is founded on one of the great veys. The wealth of information concise antidote to the popular assuring promises of Scripture gathered is especially important and superficial lectures of some and there is pointed illustration for the Government and those iconoclastic professors that tend and searching comment to bring engaged in education. Nothing to weaken faith. will find much is said about religion but all the help in this little volume. Its the truth home with power. The topics are closely related to the chief virtue lies, as Dr. Wm. popular essays on ethics and so- cial behavior are shallow sub- stitutes for the satisfying spir- itual realities presented in this book. H. R. MONRO.
The Parables of the Gospels: And Those Who Would Enjoy the Their Meaning for Today. By Hugh More Abundant Spiritual Martin, M.A. 251 pp. $2.00. Life Must Seek It Daily Abingdon Press, New York. 'Cb¢ Upp¢r Room This interesting interpretation of the Parables, by a leader in JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, 1938 the Student Christian Movement Now Ready for Distribution of Great Britain, approaches the subject from the standpoint of Jesus taught his disciples to ask only a daily portion from present-day needs and issues. Heaven's inexhaustible store-"daily bread"-"daily forgive- His purpose is to furnish a book ness from sin"-"daily deliverance from temptation." suitable for teachers in the classroom and the pulpit, and not to It has been the sole purpose of THE UPPER ROOM from supplant larger standard works the beginning to endeavor to re-establish in the minds of on the Parables. An introduc- Christians, regardless of faith or creed, the necessity of some tion, on the character of the form of daily devotions, out of which will most surely come Parables is followed by a treat- a new spiritual vitality for both individuals and church conment based on the translation of gregations. Dr. Moffatt which is used as the text. It is always reverent, Many pastors and group leaders will want to use copies of sometimes incisive and fre- the January, February, March issue of THE UPPER quently portrays a canny insight ROOM as a Christmas gift to members of Bible Classes, into the application of the Par- Young People's Groups, Missionary Societies, and to inables to our own day; for ex- dividual members of the congregation. Special Christmas ample: "Weare still building on envelopes, in two colors, will be furnished at one cent each, sand. The Great War saw the postpaid, in quantities of ten or more j plain, unprinted, at collapse of the imposing edifice fifty cents per hundred, postpaid. of nineteen centuries of 'Progress.' And so little have we Use one of the order forms below. learned the lesson that the few slender gains we thought we had CONSIGNMENT ORDER INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIPTION' wrested from the wreck, are now disappearing." Issue for January, February, March THB UPPBR ROOM, Our chief criticism is due to (For use of Pastor or Group Leader. Doctors' Building, the brevity of some chapters. Nashville, Tenn. Only three pages are given to the Order ten or more copies.) Gentlemen: Unjust Steward and seven pages to the Prodigal Son. This means THB UPPBR ROOM, I am inclosing herewith thirty cents (foreign, a very inadequate treatment of forty cents) for which please send me T he Up· the greatest of all our Lord's Dodors' Building, peT Room for one year, postpaid, beginning with Parables. On the other hand, Nashville, Tenn. the book abounds in careful Gentlemen: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _~quarterly is.uc. exegesis. The parable of the Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ leaven is held to refer, not to Please send me copies of T"e evil, but to the Kingdom of God. Street or Route _______________ Upper Room, postpaid. I will sell these for five S. M. ZWEMER. Post·office __________-"State'_ __ cents per copy and pay for same when sold. It Twelve Clever Girls Who Became *A sin~le copy by mail anywhere 10 cents. Famous Women. By H. A. W. is understood that I have the privilege of return- Hamilton. Illus. 12mo. 95 pp. 1s. Pickering & Inglis. London & ing at your expense Bny unsold copies. Glasgow. 1937. Name _____________________ Some of these women are widely known-like Queen Vic- Street or Route ________________ toria, Frances Ridley Havergal, Post·office _ _ _ _ _ _State'_ __ Mary SIessor, Mrs. Ann H. Judson, and Florence Nightingale. Others, not well known in America, will also repay closer acquaintance. They were all remarkable for their nobility of character and for their useful service. Their life stories will be especially inspiring to young girls.
Books A Christmas Present FOR SALE-3l new white
$2.00 each; 19 new black pleated choir Apostle of Japan, Samuel Isaac . for Your Minister Joseph Schereschewsky. James gowns, $3.75 each. all or part. L. J. Arthur Miller. 264 pp. $2.50. Give a subscription to Morehouse Pub. Co. Milwaukee. LINDNER, 42S-MRvV Seventh Ave., New CHURCH MANAGEMENT York City. Daily Guidance. Fairlie Thornton. 31 pp. 6d. Pickering & Inglis. "Found in Prosperous Churches" Orient-three in India, three in China London. and one in Japan. This is perhaps 1 year, $2.50; 2 years, $4.00 women's greatest and most practical Everyday Life in Burma. Pictures enterprise in Christian international- to be colored. Is. S. P. G. London. CHURCH MANAGEMENT ism.
India in 1934-35. 50 cents. 145 pp. Auditorium Building Now, after twenty years, Mrs. Pea- British Library of Information. body goes to the Orient again as an New York. Cleveland, Ohio ambassador of friendship. This is a great work for the emancipation of Japan in American Public Opinion. Year Book of the Society for Propa- women, begun under the "Treaty of Eleanor Tupper and George E. gating the Gospel Among the Bethlehem" through the Saviour of Reynolds. 465 pp. $3.75. Mac- Heathen. 120 pp. S. P. G. London. women. One hundred million women millan. New York. of India are still without expert med- Personal Items ical aid. The demand for graduates Japan Today. T. T. Brumbaugh. of Vellore Medical College make Mrs. 500 pp. Kyo Bun Kwan. Tokyo. Rev. Irwin W. Underhill, Jr., the Peabody's trip of special importance. only Negro missionary in the foreign Men of the Outposts. Herbert Welch. service of the Presbyterian Church, *** $2.00. 261 pp. Abingdon Press. was recently elected a fellow of the New York. Royal Geographical Society for his Dr. E. Stanley Jones will be back splendid work among the pygmies in in India at the end of this year and Miracles in a Doctor's Life. Walter Africa. He is a graduate of the will be available for service in the Lewis Wilson. 122 pp. B. 1. C. School of Finance of the University Indian churches from the beginning Assn. Chicago. of Pennsylvania and of Princeton of 1938. On account of the trouble Theological Seminary. He received between China and Japan it is not The Nevius Plan for Mission Work. the degree of doctor of divinity from possible for him to continue his work Charles Allen Clark. 372 pp. $2.00. Lincoln University recently. in China. Christian Literature Society, Seoul, Korea, or E. C. Heinz, 3645 5th Dr. James K*elly*, s*ecretary of the *** Ave., South, Minneapolis. World's Sunday School Association, Dr. and Mrs. Fred H. Hope, mis- Negro Year Book-1937-38. Monroe recently visited Bulgaria in the in- sionaries of the Presbyterian Church N. Work. 575 pp. Negro Year terests of religious education. He in Cameroun, West Africa, have re- Book Publishing Co. Tuskegee, Ala. also visited Jugoslavia t;) confer on cently returned to Elat where they the reorganization of Christian youth have been engaged in missionary work On the Holy Mount. Joseph Pearce. work so as to place it on a more stable for over twenty-five years. Dr. Hope 95 pp. Is. Pickering & Inglis. basis. is superintendent of the Frank James London. Industrial School, a very effective *** mission enterprise. Twelve Clever Girls Who Became Famous Women. J. A. W. Hamil- Dr. John H. Finley, editor of the The Presbyterian ton. mus. 96 pp. Is. Pickering New York Times, and Dr. Arthur H. & Inglis. London. Compton, winner of the Nobel prize A weekly religious newspaper in for physics in 1927, and professor of its lo6th year of continuous pub- Under New Management. Raymond physics at the University of Chicago, Iication under the same name. H. Benton. 128 pp. Is. 3d. Pick- have been appointed co-chairmen of ering & Inglis. London. the laymen's committee of the $10,- It is conservative and evangel- 000,000 sesquicentennial fund for The W orId from a Window Garden. Christian Education. This fund is to ical, gets its news by telegraph Grace E. Pulling. mus. 90 pp. stabilize the financial situation of 54 S. P. G. London. Presbyterian colleges and 52 univer- and keeps abreast of the times. sity centers where the Presbyterian John Wesley's Awakening. James Church through its Board of Chris- It goes into every state of the Richard Joy. 50 cents. 124 pp. tian Education maintains pastors. Methodist Book Concern. New Union, the District of Columbia, York. *** and U. S. possessions.
Ali Lives in Iran. Caroline Singer Mrs. Henry W. Peabody, formerly It goes to Asia and Africa, South and Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge. mus. a missionary to India and of recent 72 pp. $1.75. Holiday House. years well known for her effective America, Canada and New Zealand New York. activity in behalf of peace, temper- and into twelve countries of Eu- ance and missions has been requested rope. Religion on the American Frontier. by the directors of Madras Christian Vol. II, The Presbyterians, 1783- College for Women, Madras, and the Subscription Price, – 1840. William Warren Sweet. 939 directors of the Women's Christian Ministerial Rate, pp. $3.50. Harpers. New York. Medical College, Vellore, South India, to go to India for the celebration of 50e. extra—Canadian postage The Study of the Bible. Ernest Cad- the twentieth anniversary of Vellore man Colwell. 184 pp. $2.00. Uni- Medical College of which Dr. Ida $1.00 extra—foreign postage versity of Chicago Press. Chicago. Scudder is president. In 1920 Mrs. Peabody was chairman of the Promo- THE PRESBYTERIAN Stocking Tales. Stories for Children. tion Committee for securing buildings J. T. Stocking. $1.25. 119 pp. and equipment for seven union Chris- 1217 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Pilgrim Press. Boston. tian colleges for the women of the Three Typical Beliefs. 115 pp. $1.50. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
Why Worship. Muriel Lester. 25 cents. 43 pp. Cokesbury Press. Nashville.
LIFE OF GEORGE W
By ROBERT E. SPEER This is the biography of a very remarkable Christian missionary to India and for twenty years the influential and able editor of the Bombay GlIardian. Dr. J. Sumner Stone called him, "The White Yogi."
When George Bowen died in 1888 there was call for a worthy biography but its preparation was delayed. Later all the biographical material-including his diaries, letters, reminiscences, and the books and pamphlets of which he was author-was turned over to Dr. Speer. This material has now been put into shape for publication and the result is a frank and stimulating picture of the man,-his experiences, unique character, forceful views and methods of work. Here is a life story that is of absorbing interest and will richly reward the thoughtful reader.
CONTENTS I. Family of George Bowen. XI. A Decisive Year, 1849. II. Boyhood and Youth. XII. From 1850 to 1855. III. Three Years Abroad. XIII. Ten Years of Independent Work. IV. Life in New York, 1840·1844. XIV. The Bombay GlIardian. V. Illumination of a Hopeless Love. Relations with the American Board. VI. Conversion to Christianity. XV. Association with the Methodist Church. VII. At Union Theological Seminary. XVI. Bowen as a Writer. VIII. His Missionary Appointment. XVII. Correspondence with Henry W. Rankin. IX. The Voyage to India, 1847. XVIII. Closing Testimony. X. Beginning Missionary Work. XIX.
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The Missionary Review of the World — October 1937
1937
Mohammedan World Number The Moslem World Today Dwight M. Donaldson Some Trends in the Moslem World Edward M. Dodd Influence of Moslem Superstitions Davida M. Finney Why Preach Christ to Moslems? Samuel M. Zwemer The Christian Approach to Moslems W. Wilson Cash Moslem Reactions to the Gospel James Haldane Educating Moslems for Christ John Van Ess A Christian Doctor Among Moslems Paul W. Harrison The Power of the Printed Page Mabel H. Erdman My Experience with Moslems Frank C. Laubach Moslem Views of "Those Nazarenes" J. Lowrie Anderson Christian and Moslem Homes Eleanor T. Calverley How to Interest Christians in Moslems Estella S. Aitchison Best Books on Moslems and Missions Samuel M. Zwemet'
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to Remember WORLD DOMINION SURVEY
September 27 – October 1 – Dallas, SURVEYING THE WORLD Texas. Pres., Mrs. E. R. Alderson, 561 Goodwin St., Dallas, Texas. Here is a series of real missionary sur- veys, scientific and evangelical, written with September 27 – October 1 – Houston, a grasp and definiteness of fact, a perspec- Texas. Dean, Mrs. A. B. Haynes, tive of view and a passion which makes 618 Highland Ave., Houston, Texas. them comparable to a military reconnais- sance. One after another the great fields October 2-6 – Triennial Convention. of missionary endeavof afe being covered Women's Missionary Society of the with topogf~phical accuracy from a stand- United Lutheran Church. Buffalo. point vitally evangelical and entirely non- denominational. The books come from the October 3-Presbyterian World Com- munion Sunday. press bound like government monographs, in big type and made vivid by splendid maps.
October 5-6 – Southern Mountain Catalogue on Application Mention The Missionary Ret'iew Child Service Conference; under auspices of Save the Children Fund WORLD DOMINION OFFICES of America, Inc. Hotel McAlpin, New York. 156 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY October 5-6 – Warren, Ohio. Mrs. The Rev. George S. McCune, D.D., ceived an honorary doctorate degree George Konold, 314 Scott St., N. E., LL.D., for about 30 years a Presby- from Yale in June. At a meeting of Warren, Ohio. terian missionary in Korea and presi- the Associated Boards for Christian dent of the Union Christian College Colleges in China, he made a clear October 6-12-Annual Meeting, Wom- of Pyengyang has joined the admin- statement of his Christian faith, and an's Home Missionary Society, istrative staff of the Moody Bible In- of the part that that faith had in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Se- stitute of Chicago, and will also teach release of the Generalissimo last attle, Wash. and assist in the evangelistic pro- Christmas. gram. Dr. McCune was also for a October 14-15 — Interracial Confer- time president of Huron College, '" * .. ences. Asbury Park, N. J. South Dakota, and brings real talents, Dr. Raymond C. Walker, pastor of October 21- Baltimore, Md. Mrs. experience and spiritual strength to the Market Square Presbyterian David D. Baker, 410 N. Calhoun the service of the Institute. Church of Harrisburg, Pa., was win- St., Baltimore, Md. ner of the $150 prize offered by the * … '" Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- October 24-31-Presbyterian Centen- sions for the best missionary sermon nial Week. Mr. Dugald Campbell, agent of the preached in connection with the cele- bration of the Board's centennial. November 7-11-International Good- National Bible Society of Scotland, is Dr. Walker's subject was: "These Are Will Congress. Boston. retiring as agent for Northern Africa the Great Days of God." Other prizes since he can no longer undertake the went to Dr. George E. Sweazey, of Your Missionary Activities long pioneer journeys on the fringes Danville, Ky., Dr. George Johnson of of the Sahara Desert, and other parts Lincoln University, and Dr. Paul F. Should begin at home. Get a of Africa, as he has done for many supply of our years. He hopes to spend the re- .. . Barackman, of Brookly.n.. . New York. mainder of his days in Johannesburg, GOSPEL TRACTS James Hardy Dillard, eighty-year- .. South Africa. old president of the Jeanes Fund for Sound, attractive, convincing the Improvement of Negro Education, '" '" has received the Theodore Roosevelt Sample package, 250. medal for 1937. This medal is given Mr. Arthur T. Upson, formerly of annually for human achievement or FAITH, PRAYER and TRACT LEAGUE the Nile Mission Press, has returned the development of American char- to Palestine from England. He will acter. Dr. Dillard receives the award Dept.R.W. Muskegon Heights, Mich. be at Mt. Carmel until December 10, "in recognition of sixty years of wise and subsequently at Fairhaven, Alex- and devoted work in behalf of the Personal Items andria, Egypt. He plans to do mis- American Negro, and the creation of sionary work and to give Bible read- a better understanding between the Dr. Iran Lee Holt, minister of St. ings in various places to help weaker white race and the black."
John's Methodist Episcopal Church, Christians. … '" … ~Obituary Note'S South, St. Louis, Mo., and a former General Evangeline Booth left Rev. William Milne, a Presbyterian London on September 22 for a tour missionary stationed on the Island of president of the Federal Council of of the United States and Canada. Nguna, New Hebrides, was killed by Churches, has been appointed chair- After conducting the Salvation a native April 27. Army's annual Congress in Atlanta, man of the Federal Council's new New York, and Chicago, she will go The native was the son of the chief to Winnipeg, returning to New York of the village near the mission sta- Commission for the Study of Chris- tion, and he had seemed demented. by way of Montreal. He attacked several natives who ran tian Unity. The commission is to be- to the mission station, where Mr. and * * '" Mrs. Nottage, missionaries from angin its work when sufficient financial other island, were present on a visit. Dr. H. H. Kung, the Minister of support for it has been secured. Finance in the National Government The madman rushed at the mission- of China, and vice-president of the aries with an axe and struck Mr. Dr. and Mrs. '"Ern'"est'" Lyons, veteran Executive Yuan (vice-premier in the Milne with the axe. Government), has recently visited Methodist missionaries to the Philip- America. He is an earnest Christian Then the village chief commanded and stands next to the Premier, one of his men to shoot his son. pines, have retired from active serv- Generalissimo Chiang Kaj-shek, in responsibilities and authority in the Rev. William Veitch Milne had ice. They went to Manila in 1903 Government. Dr. Kung is a 75th de- served as a missionary in the New from Singapore, and have seen in scendent of Confucius, but in his life Hebrides for over 20 years. His fa- and work he has repeatedly testified their thirty-four years of residence to his faith in Christ and has taken (Continued on pag6 449.) his stand for Christian principles. in the Philippines a most phenomenal Dr. Kung, as a representative of his growth of the evangelical Christian Government, attended the Coronation ceremonies of King George and ramovement. In 1913 Dr. Lyons took the bar examination, thereby saving the church thousands of pesos for legal expenses, as well as enabling him to serve as advisor in critical sit- .. .. . uations.
Dr. Charles Stelzle has been ap- pointed executive director of the "Good Neighbor League" in place of Dr. Stanley High, resigned.
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REVIEW OF THE WORLD In the Foreign Mission Field Fast Days Endorse Calvert School DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor Home Study Courses TO TBE VOL. LX OCTOBER, 1937 No. 10 For Children ORIENT Publication and Business Office– Calvert School, through its Home Instruc- Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. tion Department, will give your child a superior elementary education ••. by mail, Editorial and Executive Office– regardless of where you may live. Mod- 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. ern, approved courses from this famous Entered as second-class matter at school are being used by parents all over the world with outstanding success. Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879. Give your children the advantages of these interesting lessons, carefully chosen books, 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. and attractive materials. Instruction is Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. under the personal guidance of teachers in Published monthly, except August. Calvert's prominent and successful private All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1937. British agents – Marshall, Morgan , day school in Baltimore. and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, Write today for booklet of complete in- 10 shillings a year. formation. Costs are low.
MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- CALVERT SCHOOL LISHING CO., INC. 180 E. Tuscany Road BOARD OF DIRECTORS Baltimore ol> Maryland ROBERT E. SPEER, President Obituary Notes Empress of Japan-holder of A. L. WARNSHUIS, Vice-President the Pacific Blue Ribbon WALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer (Continued from 2nd Cover.) DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary • ther, Rev. Peter Milne, was one of SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT the pioneer missionaries in the New Go direct fromVancouverand Victoria in 10 days by Em- WILLIAM I. CHAMBERLAIN Hebrides. press of Asia or Empress of D. J. FANT Russia. Only 3 more days via MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD *** Hawaii by Empress of Japan WM. B. LIPPHARD (fastest ship on the Pacific) Dr. Claire H. Denman, who served or Empress of Canada. Con- ERIC M. NORTH as medical missionary in Siam for nect at Honolulu from Cali- SAMUEL M. ZWEMER twelve years, died recently in Berk- fornia ports. Low round-trip eley, California. He was first located fares include passage from Editorial Chat at Chiengmai and later established and and to Seattle. built the first hospital in Chiengmai. This number of THE REVIEW is de- He was also editor of The Laos News, ~fi+ voted to the study of the Moslems of which later became The Siwm Outlook. For rates and sailings, see the world-their distribution, char- Being an ordained minister as well acteristics, influence and the extent as doctor, he made numerous tours YOUR TRAVEL AGENT or Cana- and results of Christian work among into the interior with both foreign Mohammedans. It is an interesting dian PSaacnifiFc:raNnceiwscYo,o3r8k~tChheir- subject and will be studied by thou- and Siamese evangelists. cago, sands of Christians in America this year. The articles we present are by *** cities in U. S. and Canada. experts-men and women who have spent years of service in Moslem The Rev. Dr. Frank Rawlinson, lands. Other equally fine articles, Editor of the Chinese Recorder, was crowded out of this issue, will appear accidentally killed by the explosion of in November. Look for them. a bomb in Shanghai on August 14. He was at the time with his wife and Moslem Women and Children- daughter but they were uninjured. Mrs. Herrick Young. Dr. Rawlinson went to China under the auspices of the American Baptist Encouragements in the Work- Foreign Mission Society in 1902 and Geo. Swan. later became associated with the American Board (Congregational). Testimonies of Converts from He showed great ability in his edi- Islam. torial work and in his understanding of the Chinese. His death is a real Sermon by a Former Moslem- loss to the cause of Christ in China Sa'eed Kurdistani. and one of the tragedies of the con- flict between the Japanese and The Story of Sa'eed Kurdistani- Chinese. Christie Wilson. Ambrose Sw*ase*y, *prominent Bap- New and Old in Moslem Lands- A. T. Upson. tist and trustee of many educational and missionary enterprises, died in *** Cleveland, Ohio, recently, at the age of ninety. He was one of the world's The following shows the esteem in leading scientists, having constructed which THE REVIEW is held by readers the giant telescopes for the Lick Ob- who use it for their own personal in- servatory, the United States Observ- formation and in church work. atory at Washington and the Yerkes Observatory at the University of Chi- *** cago. He was also a generous sup- porter of interdenominational mission- "I think the Rural Number of THE ary work. REVIEW is a very fine contribution to ,the cause. I am receiving a great (Concluded on 3rd Cover.) deal of help and enjoyment as I read the various articles."-Dr. Ellsworth [449 ] M. Smith, Field Representative, American Baptist Hom.e Mission So- ciety.
*** "THE REVIEW means much to me in my work with the women of our church."-Emma H. Mills, Santa Cruz, California. MOSLEM WORLD R op SOUTH INDIAN ATLANTIC OCEAN OCEAN H· REVIB ORLD VOLUME LX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 10 OCTOBER, 1937 Topics of the Times WHY THIS INTEREST IN MOSLEMS? many other points in common with the Christian Few people on earth are as difficult to lead to faith. This too is a challenge. There is a foun- Christ as are the Moslems, and yet this year thou- dation on which to build. sands of Christians in America and England will 3. They are people of strong character. They be reading and studying about the countries take their religion and its obligations seriously. where the followers of Mohammed are most nu-. They are willing to fight for their convictions, to merous, and about the work that is being done make sacrifices and even to die for their faith. to win them to Christ. Multitudes of earnest They are not easily led to abandon their beliefs prayers will be offered for their conversion and large sums will be given to support missions or obligations as they conceive them and are diliamong them. Why? gent in teaching their children to follow their Prophet. Apostasy is considered an unpardonable It is not because of any personal gain to mis- sin and in Moslem law it is a crime punishable sionaries, or any desire for political, economic or with death. These facts constitute a challenge to ecclesiastical advantage. It is not because the Christians; they may be transmuted into Chriswork is producing large results or because the tian graces when touched by the Holy Spirit.
Church of Christ is moved by a spirit of imperial- 4. Moslems exert a great influence on the world ism for world conquest. There are at least seven reasons why every true follower of Christ should for good or for evil. They constitute a real probtake a deep and practical interest in Moslems and Christian work in their behalf to the extent of lem in Egypt and Turkey, in Iran and Syria, in earnest prayer and sacrifice. Arabia and India. In lands where they are in 1. The number of Moslems in the world and their wide distribution are challenging. At least power they offer great obstacles to progress of one in every ten of the population of the earth is a Moslem. There are between 200 and 250 mil- Christianity and to the promotion of peace and lion of these people scattered over the globe. Nort~ Africa, Egypt, the Sudan, Turkey, Syria, good will among all classes. They believe in a ArabIa, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Java and Sumatra are almost solidly Mohamme- totalitarian Moslem state and in government condan. Millions more live in Central Africa, India, Central Asia, China, the Philippines, South trol by force of arms. Their influence might be Africa, Russia and Bulgaria. Many are found in other parts of Europe and in North and South turned to the advancement of the cause of Christ America. These multitudes cannot be ignored. and for the principles for which He stands. 2. They are people with positive and strong faith in God, as the one eternal, omnipotent 5. More potent than any of these reasons is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. They believe fact that Christ died for Moslems; He died that He might give tliem the life of God. They are sinners and know it, though they have wrong ideas of sin and its expiation. MthoereGoovse~reloutor Lord's command to "Go, preach every creature" certainly includes the Moham- medans today, even though there were none in existence when He first gave the command. There is no other way for Moslems to be saved than by Christ and the acceptance of His gift of Life.
in Christ as a unique prophet and in the authority 6. Another great reason is the obligation that of the Old and New Testaments. They believe in Christians have to Moslems because the contact prayer, in almsgiving, in immortality, and have of Arabians with 'a weak and distorted form of [451 ] Christianity was what led Mohammed to estab- and evidently thinks herself able to defy the publish his new form of religion. If Mohammed had lic opinion of the world. Her military party is been truly and intelligently converted to Christ ambitious to carry out its program, without in his youth what a difference that would have much regard for justice. It is reported on good made to the world ! We owe Moslems a debt, both authority that ninety per cent of the Japanese for the temporal things we have received from are opposed to the invasion of China, but the peothem and for spiritual truth we have failed to ple are kept in ignorance of the real situation share with them. by very strict censorship of the war news. J a- panese Christians, and others with more enlight- 7. A final reason for the support of Christian ened and pacific ideals, are greatly disturbed over work among Moslems is the encouraging results the aggressive policies of the military party that that have come in the conversion of Moslems to now rules Japan. These policies destroy the bene- Christ. Some outstanding trophies have been won ficial effects of the friendly advances made by in Syria and Egypt, in Iran and India. Every such Japanese Christian leaders as Dr. Toyohiko Moslem is supposed to be a missionary and, when Kagawa and Miss Michi Kawai. Apparently Jawon to Christ, should have the same zeal to ex- panese military leaders feared that China was tend their faith, in spite of persecution. What a growing in strength and was becoming united wonderful example is Dr. Sa'eed Kurdistani, the under the able Christian leadership of General- Kurdish Moslem who has become a great Chris- issimo Chiang Kai-shek and so determined to tian physician in Iran. Others are Kamil of strike while there was more likelihood of being Arabia and Michael Mansur of Egypt. There are able to achieve their purpose. multitudes more whose lights shine in narrower circles-but they are known to God. In Sumatra The modern war machine of Japan is much and other parts of the Dutch East Indies there more perfect and complete than that of China. are fifty thousand Christians who formerly were Airplanes· make it possible to carry destruction Moslems. They have their own schools and large far inland, and there seems little effort on the self-supporting churches. The influence of Christ part of the. Japanese to limit destruction to is permeating Iran, the Philippines, Africa, India, enemy fortifications and military forces. Already and many other lands to break down prejudice many thousands of noncombatants have been and build up an intelligent faith in Jesus Christ killed and wounded and peaceful villages have as the true revelation of God and the only Saviour been destroyed by ruthless Japanese airplane atfrom sin and its consequences. tacks. Foreigners and foreign enterprises have also suffered. In the north Japanese forces have Truly we as Christians have reason to preach occupied Peiping and Tientsin and are pushing the Gospel of Christ to Moslems, to carryon the their campaign north to the Great Wall and south work sacrificially and to expect that God will to the Yellow River. Without any declaration of honor our fulfilment of His will, by bringing Mo- war, Shanghai has been attacked with warships, hammedans into the fold of Christ. airplanes and cannon. Even the International Settlement has suffered and many educational THE TRAGEDY IN CHINA and missionary institutions have been bombed. The Chinese troops have offered brave and deter- Apparently the Japanese have determined to mined resistance in spite of their inferior equipgain control of China or of the northern prov- ment. They have now retired to their second line inces. Impartial observers who have followed the of defense on the west of Shanghai. events that led up to the present conflict can see no justification for Japan's invasion of China. What will be the outcome of this invasion of The excuse offered is the Japanese desire for eco- China, no one can foresee. China is too great a nomic development, their determination to sup- nation and too large a territory to be conquered press anti-Japanese feeling, and. a desire to com- in a short time. The Japanese attacks have bat the communistic influence of Russia. They united Chinese as never before, even communists have taken a strange method for accomplishing offering their service to the Nanking Government. these purposes. The first end might have been China is fighting for her life and for the pringained by friendly agreement and cooperation; ciples set forth by Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father the second aim is thwarted and made more im- of the Chinese Republic. possible by each new invasion of China's territory and by utter disregard of China's sovereign The warfare is naturally affecting the missionrights. The third aim-to destroy communistic ary work in China. Reports come that the people influence in China-can scarcely be achieved by in war areas are filled with fear and that there methods that stir up the spirit of communism and are signs of religious revival in many places. seem to give reason for its promotion. Christians meet to worship, in spite of danger, and pray earnestly for the guidance and strength- Japan feels conscious of her military strength
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
ening of their rulers. The Protestant community meantime we can all work for greater unity numbers over one million and Roman Catholics re- through the guidance of the Spirit and through port 2,702,000 on their church rolls. Foreigners loving cooperation in the work He has given His in China number about 10,000, of whom over one- Church to carry forward. There is no room for half are Protestant missionaries. Many of these jealousy, for a desire to rule or for personal am- have left China on furlough; women and chil- bition, rivalry, suspicion and selfishness in such dren have been taken with other refugees to the unity. Philippines; missionaries on furlough are being kept home and others are being advised to leave Mr. Erling C. Olson, a New York business man, the danger zones. Probably by November first recently broadcasted over a network of stations the number of missionaries on the field will be re- some very helpful meditations on "Christian duced to 2,500, but most of these will elect to Unity," based on the one hundred and thirtystand by their flocks and to suffer and die with them if necessary. The missionary work most third Psalm. He said in part: * affected is in the area of Peiping, Tientsin, Shangh:;d and Nanking, although Japanese bombing The New Testament principle of fellowship and complanes have carried their attacks as far as Han- munion was beautifully expressed by our Lord, when He kow in the west and Canton in the south. said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." One would nat- The Christians in America and England can do urally assume, therefore, that when any body of Christians most by upholding their missionaries and the meets together they would experience this delightful comforces of righteousness by prayer. Much suffer- munion which the Psalmist so wonderfully portrayed, ing of innocent Chinese can be allayed through when he said, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is missionary and Red Cross ministrations. Gifts for brethren to dwell together in unity!" No one takes to meet present emergencies should be sent exception to this principle. It is good for capital and through the mission boards working in China. labor to dwell together in unity. It is good for any in- dividual to enjoy the fellowship of other members of his THE BASIS FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY group and preserve a spirit of unity. Such being the case, what an indictment it is against the Christian fam- Many movements are on foot for church union ily when there are petty squabbles and when the spirit of -on mission fields, in England and in America. discord and consequent disruption are present, as has been Some of these are to unite denominational fam- evident, particularly in recent years, even among men ilies, as in the Methodist, Baptist, Congregation- and women who actually have been born again by the al, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Reformed bodies. operation of the Spirit of God and the Word of God. I Some unions have already been effected, while am not talking about Christendom as we know it today. others are still being agitated. Other union move- I am not talking about the vast body of Christians and ments, as in Canada, include different denomina- non-Christians gathered together in one great melting pot. tional groups, while still other communions, like I refer to the body of Christ; to those who know that their the Protestant Episcopal Church eagerly advocate sins are forgiven, who know that they have eternal life a united church but can conceive of it only on the through faith in Jesus Christ, who know that they have basis of the acceptance of ecclesiastical ordination passed out of death and into life and therefore know that in harmony with their belief in the "historic epis- the Lord Jesus Christ is their Saviour and have acknowlcopate." edged Him as their Lord.
All true and intelligent followers of Christ ac- It is no wonder that the Church appears so impotent cept unity as the Christian ideal for which our before the world when the members of the Church are at Lord prayed three times in his high-priestly variance with one another. prayer: "That all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they may be one as in There can be no united Church except on a solid foundaus"-they are given eternal life in order that they tion. I do not think it is possible to have unity between may know God and be sanctified, kept, perfected. two groups of people, one of whom believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the other believes that He is The recent conferences at Oxford and Edinburgh a mere man; or to have unity between a group that looks have again emphasized the ideal for unity and upon the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross as a divine union among Christians, but seem to have found transaction, wherein God made 'atonement for sin, and a no new basis in which to realize such union. Hu- group that looks on the Cross and the death of Jesus man individuality, with differences of personal Christ as that of a martyr or a good man who died for a interpretations, tastes and methods of operation, cause. There can be no real fellowship between such must be recognized and respected until we all real- groups-but there can be unity between every member of ize that union with Christ that can find full ex- the body of Christ whose feet rest solidly upon the fact of pression in the harmony of faith, love and service the deity of Christ and upon the death which He died upon only as we realize perfect union in Him. In the the Cross.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says, "I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuifering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to' keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
In the 16th chapter of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle gives a similar injunction: "Now I beseech you, • Quoted by permission.
brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences tion. In Java and Sumatra alone, where the contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid Dutch Christian influence predominates, there them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus are over 50,000 converts from Islam. Christ, but their own belly . . ." That is a strange expression. Mark those men and avoid them, for they do There is the challenge of Jewry-not a popular not serve the Lord. They serve their own selves in their challenge but one we must face as Christians conlust for preeminence, or their appetite for power. cerned with the spiritual welfare of the youth of the world. The key to the Jewish problem every- Again, our Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain-head of all where is the recognition of Jesus Christ as divine truth, in His great high-priestly prayer, recorded in the Lord and Saviour of all mankind. Fifteen million 17th chapter of John's Gospel, said, "Neither pray I for Jews are without the knowledge of the saving these alone, (that is, the apostles gathered around Him) grace of Jesus Christ, and yet what do we owe but for them also which shall believe on me through their to the Chosen People of God for the preservation word; (that means us) that they all may be one; as of the Old Testament, and the knowledge of Christ thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may and His Way of Life. be one in us: that the world 11WIJJ believe that thou hast sent me." What a terrific responsibility rests upon each The challenge embraces many non-Christian member of the body of Christ to observe a spirit of unity, lands such as India and China. There is the mass in order that the world may know that our Lord Jesus movement in India towards 6hristianity; whole Christ is the Son of God and sent by Him to die for us! communities are pressing forward to become Christians. The immediate need there is for When brethren dwell in unity we will determine that, Christian education and the greater development instead of causing divisions, we will endeavor to keep the of indigenous leadership. China is plastic to new unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Holy Spirit impressions and the greatest hope of the Chrisalways makes for unity amongst believers in Christ, for tians of China is their vision of a Chinese in- He dwells in them. digenous movement adapted to meet the religious needs of the people, and effective in arousing in * SOME PRESENT-DAY CHALLENGES Chinese Christians the sense of responsibility for the extension of the Kingdom of God. Weare living in a world which is more or less in a broken state, when even the bravest are apt There is also the challenge of unreached areas to grow despondent. The difficulties and problems in Central Africa, in South America, the Islands are of many kinds-political upheavals and mass of the Pacific and other unevangelized fields. movements are ruthless in their disregard of Christianity; nations are dissatisfied with what Then there is the challenge of Europe today. they have seen of modern civilization, and are In Central and Southeastern Europe Protestantfilled with bitterness and antagonism. But a new ism is fighting for its life. Nationalism and Comproblem is becoming the most serious menace to munism are seeking to capture youth with teach- Christianity, namely, a refined heathenism. Also, ing, much of which is subversive to the ideals of in their very antagonism to Western civilization, Christ and the best interests of humanity. some non-Christian religions are absorbing the principles of the Gospel of Christ. While thus The needs of this weary, war-torn, restless refining their own religion they still stand in ab- world and the great opportunities that confront us solute antagonism to the Christian faith. In the constitute a challenge to every Christian. God is early days of the Christian Church, they, too, more concerned about the needs of the world than found that a purified paganism was more insid- we are; the Christian teaching and training of ious and powerful even than an antagonistic bar- youth is a great burden oli His heart even more barism. than on ours. One of the greatest words in Chris- tian literature is "Immanuel" – God is with us. We believe that these problems are not per- Here we find the motive and the power for Chrismanent, nor even paramount; they are passing tian education. God loved, and when He loved, phases; to followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, He served, and when He served, He sacrificed they constitute, not reasons for fears and misgiv- His best. There is but one service which is the ings, but a challenge. service of the Kingdom of God; one race, and one Cross; one world of men, and one Kingdom; and First, there is the challenge of Islam. Moham- one glorious, peerless, Saviour for the whole medanism is conscious of a solidarity and unity world. which does not exist to such an extent in any other religion. They have their sects and their divi- This world is not going to be won except by sions, but they are conscious of a brotherhood great sacrifice. We must have the spirit which wherever they are. Today the Mohammedan recognizes that only by entire dedication of ourworld is restless, but it is more responsive to the selves and all our resources can we truly serve message of Christ than it has ever been. Per- Christ. As Hudson Taylor once said, "Christ secution and opposition exist, but nothing so must be Lord of all or He is not Lord at all." clearly proves the power of the Gospel as opposi- • From an address at the World's Sunday School Convention, Oslo, by Dr. James Kelly.
Moslem World
-"if By the REV. DWIGHT M. DONALDSON, D.D., Ph.D., Meshed, Iran )Bt– Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., 1915- I T SHOULD never be forgotten that when the maintain this political and military authority, it armies of Islam were victorious in Syria and has come to be a matter of policy for Western in Persia, they took over the authority of the governments to have strict regard for the cultural old Persian Empire. This ancient empire, under and religious preferences of their Mohammedan the Achremenide'S, had been the scene of the far- subjects. Whatever criticisms may be voiced flung adventures of Xenophon and the Ten Thou- against this Western domination, it will not be sand; under the Parthians had held the haughty claimed by intelligent Mohammedan leaders that Romans at bay for more than two centuries; the Christian faith and practice are being forced upon same empire, under the Sassanidre, was forced to them. give place to the conquering Arabs. Afterwards, when this famous empire of the East became Mo- There is now no longer a Caliph in Islam, since hammedan, much of its culture and prestige sur- the Sultan of Turkey was compelled by his own vived to adorn the courts of the new rulers. Noble people to abdicate in order to open the way for the Persian families, some of them Zoroastrian and Turkish Republic. Of the entire Mohammedan some of them Christian, furnished viziers and population of the world, about 240 millions, there treasurers for the Caliphs, and scholars and trans- are nearly one hundred millions who are living lators for the libraries. under the authority and protection of the British crown and forty millions ruled by the Netherlands It is customary to ascribe the failure of the Cru- in the Dutch East Indies. Of the remaining 100 sades to a lack of effective cooperation among the millions, there are about thirty-two millions in the leaders of the Christian nations. No doubt real French colonies and protectorates, sixteen milunity in Christendom during the tenth, eleventh lions under the iron hand of the Soviet Republic, and twelfth centuries would have produced a dif- fifteen millions in China, and some four millions ferent situation. As a matter of fact unity of ac- in the Philippine Islands, in Japanese possessions, tion among the Mohammedans was but sporadic and in Europe. There remain to be accounted for and short-lived; they too had repeated failures only about thirty-three millions, who live in the that were primarily due to dissensions among five self-governing Mohammedan countries, twelve themselves. Time after time a new attack from millions in Turkey, eight millions in Iran (Perthe Christians would serve to bring them together. sia), three millions in Iraq, six millions in Af- In the course of the Crusades, each generation ghanistan, and four millions in Arabia. seemed to feel that the East and the West were, through some necessity, fighting again. On each H. R. H. Amir Saoud, the son of King Abdul side religion was part of the war propaganda. Aziz, remarked recently that "it is not easy for Now that many hundred years have passed, we independent countries to enter into a thorough look back upon those long continued conflicts and federation with countries that are only partially see how they served but one fatal purpose in world independent." When he was asked about his opinhistory. Their one abiding result was to hand ion in regalld to the suggested Middle Eastern bloc down to succeeding generations a heritage of between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, he hatred, suspicion and fanaticism. In their atti- said that "this would be a welcome development tude towards each other East anq West, for the and would certainly receive our blessing," (Great most part, have shared this heritage. Britain and the East, July 8,1937).* While today there is no longer a great Moham- In any effort to classify and describe the vast medan EmpI·re, as l·n th.e day.s of the Crusades when the actual dominion of the Caliph extended • counAtriceosncmisaey sbtaetefmouenndt oinf tWhe. Def.foSrctsheorfmCerhhroisrtnia'sn rmeciesnsitonbsooikn, t"hTehsee from the Indus to the Atlantic, yet Mohammedan CsthimriSutliaatningMisssuiorvne. yinotfhethJefodwehronleWporrolbdl"em(choafptmeris1si0on);s atondMaohmaoms-t medans is given in Dr. S. M. Zwemer's "Across the World of Islam." civilization has continued to prevail in vast areas Attention should also be called to an article in the July number of The Moslem World, which publishes "A Statistical Survey," by that have come under the political and military Carlo Gasbarri. This article has been translated from the Italian authority of Western peoples. In order to help by Phlllip T. Blackwood and it is probably the most up to date ~~fli~!S ;~r~~ question of the distribution of Mohammedans through- [455 ]
group of mankind that make up the Mohammedan with pious cant and hypocrisy, that boy may come world, divided as they are into many sects and to regard as genuine the open honesty and fairscattered in many countries, it is easy to make play that he sees in some Christian college. In serious mistakes. Aside from the fact that ac- such a case there is much for which to be thankful. curate census reports are not to be had in some of The lad acquires the habit of the conscientious these countries, a numerical survey of the adher- quest of truth for its own sake. But something ents to any religion is apt to be misleading. There further is needed. New eagerness to learn what are millions of Mohammedans whom the puritani- is true mus,t be directed into the spiritual realm as cal Wahabis in Arabia and Iraq would not recog- well, and this must be done by those whose ways nize as true believers. Likewise the self-satisfied of living he has come to admire. Here is an op- Shi'ites of Iran and India can see little hope for portunity for the possible coordination of the boy's those who rejected and dishonored their Imams. new life with the direct evangelistic work of the The modern reformers in India have suffered mission, or better still, with the agencies of the agony of soul when they realized the ignorance indigenous Church. and superstition of thousands upon thousands of their own religious community, whose systematic Another young man may show more interest veneration of fetishes and saints they regard as and ability in social life rather than as a scholar. sheer idolatry. And orthodox groups in Egypt, He may attend a Christian wedding in a beautiful who adhere to the Koran ,and the Traditions as garden in India. There he will see Christian interpreted by the four recognized schools of law, young ladies moving about modestly but graare indignant at the man-made movements of the ciously, animated with gay hospitality, and talking Moslem "modernists." From any of these varie- freely with both ladies and gentlemen. When he ties of believers you may easily find a friend who returns to his dormitory room he may voice a prowill assure you, "In these modern times it is hard test, as I once heard such a man do, against the to say who is a Mohammedan." unreasonable restrictions of Mohammedan so- ciety, and ask, "How long will it be until we can Objections to Christianity have the same clean and natural and loyal family life the Christians have?" Notwithstanding these inherent difficulties, whether a missionary go to Cairo or to Constan- Here also is a point of contact for some discerntinople, to Beirut or to Teheran, to Baghdad or to ing Christian friend to show him, in the right way Lucknow, he will hear certain uniform objections and time and place, that it is not what comes from to Christianity for example, that it has three gods, the West but what comes from Jesus Christ that or that the true Gospel that Jesus brought down makes the big difference. This, however, will not from Heaven is no longer extant. These objec- be accomplished by mere assertion. A careful tions are usually met best indirectly, in the course study together of the pre-Christian social standof calm and patient teaching and explanation of ards of some of the modern Christian peoples may the New Testament. But almost everywhere we be necessary. The missionary's objective is not to discover also that Westernization, in the form of suggest that one social culture be abandoned for secularism and nationalism, is making serious in- another, but rather that the culture of every naroads on Islam. And if we read again the opinion tion be submitted to the transforming power of of one of our foremost American orientalists, Dr. the will of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. D. B. Macdonald, (Aspects of Islam, p. 12), we realize that what required discerning insight a In such circumstances a program of Westernizafew years ago is now written in the Islamic social tion only would be hazal'dous and inadequate. structure so that one who runs may read: And what has been said with reference to schools and colleges applies with equal force to mission Islam as a religion is not holding its own against the dispensaries and hospitals. In this field also getunbelief that is flooding in from the European civilization. ting somewhere from the Christian point of view Young men are growing up into crass and material forms means getting beyond mere Westernization. There of atheism; forms that the best intellectual life of Europe is something fine and noble in a Christian doctor's has itself thrown off. And as education spreads and attitude toward his patients that witnesses to the deepens, as history vindicates for itself its place, as the spirit of Christ. It is this that enables him to work moral feeling becomes more watchful and sensitive, so the with patience and sympathy with people who are legend of Muhammad will crumble and his character be often unreasonable and exasperating. He has seen in its true light. It is, then, for the Christian schools something else than the discipline of his profesand preachers to save these peoples, not only for Chris- sion, something that has for its purpose, not the tianity, but for any religion at all; to vindicate to them white man's supremacy, not national honor, not the claims upon their lives of religion in the broadest sense. personal distinction, but a deeply laid desire for the dominion of the healing love of God in the But Westernization cannot be depended upon to hearts and bodies of suffering mankind. produce Christians. When perchance a Mohammedan youth has a father who disgusts his son
THE MOSLEM WORLD TODAY
As we think of many famous cities in the Islamic ary epistles in the New Testament, in their salutaworld where missionaries are now working pa- tions, exhortations and farewells. tiently and devotedly as true knights of the Cross, it is a sobering thought to realize over what a These national Christians also work with the wide area they are scattered. We rejoice also in missionaries in adapting Christian teaching to the strategic advantages they now have in this meet what has been called "the new Moslem apolgreat crusade for the peaceful penetration of the ogetic and polemic." In their candid social and love of God in Jesus Christ. Important and fa- intellectual relations with Mohammedans of the miliar cities in which they are witnessing, cities present day, missionaries find that many are not of more than 100,000 population according to the as dogmatic as they used to be. Things have been last issue of The Statesm.,an's Yearbook, may well happening to give them a broader background. be mentioned: They are inquisitive and receptive in the fields of history, of science, and of philosophy; and their Calcutta ………………………….. 1,485,582 opposition to Christianity is apt to be less bitter Constantinople ……………………… 740,805 and fanatical. Bombay …………………………… Cairo …………………………….. 1,161,383 On the other hand, if Moslems are irritated into Madras …………………………… 1,064,567 explosively proclaiming their objections to Chris- Hyderabad ………….. ,"""",',…. tianity, they may say things that are palpably Alexandria …………… ,………….. 647,230 specious and superficial. They may maint;:tin that Teheran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466,894 the Christian Scriptures teach that the blind and Lucknow ………………………….. 573,063 leprous are impure and that Solomon was an Rangoon ………………… , …. '….. 360,000 idolater. As the Mohammedan takes for granted Damascus …………………………. 274,659 the dogma that the prophets were sinless, they will Delhi …………………………….. 400,415 insist that the Bible is in gross error in saying Lahore …………… , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193,912 that David became a prey to temptations and that Smyrna ………………… , ……… ,. 447,442 Aaron joined in the worship of the calf because of Cawnpore …………………………. 429,747 fear of the people of Israel. Like the Jews of old Agra …………………………….. 170,546 Moslems still exclaim that it is blasphemy to say Ahmadaoad .'……………………… 243,755 that Jesus is the Son of God, that it is directly Tabriz ……………………………. 229,764 contrary to the Koran to say that one person can Allahabad …………………………. 313,789 bear the sin of others, that it is immoral and fool- Tunis …………………………….. 219,000 ish to say that "the Law is a curse," and naively Amritsar … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183,914 anthropomorphic to speak of God as being "tired" Howrah …………………………… 202,405 or "repentant." Poona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264,840 Soerabaya ….. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224,873 To counteract the considerable influence of Baghdad ………………………….. 250,187 Christian teaching among the students in the Diwaniya ………… '……………… 146,944 schools and colleges of India, the Ahmadi sect Fez ……………………. " . . . . . . . . . . . 353,840 make such allegations as these against Jesus: Patna ……….. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341,068 Aleppo ……………………………. 106,838 That He was given to drunkenness. Karachi ……. ,……………………. 159,690 That He exceeded all bounds in vulgar abuse of the Jews. Meshed …………………………… 177,313 That He was a coward and afraid to face death. Beirut ……………………………. ' 263,565 That He was disrespectful to His mother. Ankara …………………………… 139,000 That He was friendly with women of questionable char- Isfahan …………………………… 134,655 123,699 acter. 100,000 That His teachings were too idealistic and impracticable. That He grew angry and lost His temper. Some of the most gratifying work for Christ is That He was provincial, and that His message was only done in towns and rural districts that lie across the plains or in the mountain valleys beyond the for the Jews. cities. It is from these regions that hundreds and That He was weak and helpless. hundreds of patients come to mission hospitals; That His mission was a failure. and country boys and girls come to attend mission That Jesus did not die on the Cross, and that there was schools. National Christians, sometimes accompanied by missionaries, go out and tour from town no Resurrection. to town, or from village to village, having their part in modern apostolic witnessing. The fellow- But as a rule Mohammedan readers put a disship of believers is beautifully shown when these tinction between the Gospels and Chri.stian propamen and women, often themselves converts from ganda literature. Many of them are able and Islam, are able to be in the same little place for a ready to refute superficial and hostile objections while with some isolated Christian family, or to to the character of Jesus. They feel too much of have a series of meetings with some struggling the significance of His life and teaching to let His little group of new Christians. And when letters character be smirched "by the pen of an enemy." are exchanged afterwards, it is interesting to see that they write after the manner of the mission- "It cannot be," as Dr. Murray T. Titus has ob- served in his book on Indian Islam, "that honest
truth-seeking Moslems will continue indefinitely ulation, with sharp differences between the varito refuse to face all the facts, and pursue a policy of evasion of the real issues of history and life, ous region; in the Northeast they reach 82%, in even though such investigation leads to the questioning and study of the very sources of revelation the East 8 %, in the West 32 %, in the center 470, itself. . . . The sum of it all is, that the highest revelation of God to man is through a living per- and in the South only 2%. sonality. That the modern Moslem apologist is becoming more and more conscious of the funda- Percentage mental importance of this truth is revealed in the Moslems of population fact that he is emphasizing the personality and character of Mohammed as the means by which Morocco ………………. 5,215,000 97 God's grace was shed upon the world, and as the fact of central importance in Islam. The problem, Algeria ……………….. 5,174,872 82 therefore, for the Moslem as for the Christian investigator, is to apply the same honest and fear- Tunisia ……………….. 1,932,184 93 less critical methods to the study of Mohammed and his revelation as have been applied to Jesus Egypt ………………… 11,658,148 91 and the Bible," ("Indian Islam," Murray T. Titus, 1930). . Libya …………………. 1,205,000 94 For missionaries among Mohammedans, as for Anglo-Egyptian Sudan …… 2,800,000 66 their supporters in the homeland, and for their colleagues from the national Christians in Moslem Mauritania …………….. 254,000 99 countries, the issue is clearly drawn; our purpose is "to ,give the light of the knowledge of the glory Senegal ……………….. 915,000 75 of God in the face of Jesus Christ." French Sudan ………….. 1,061,000 42 Eritrea ……………….. 225,000 56 French Somaliland ………. 210,000 100 British Somaliland ………. 300,000 100 Italian Somaliland ………. 1,500,000 99 Ethiopia ………………. 2,500,000 37 French Guinea …………. 1,045,000 66 North Nigeria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,889,000 64 South Nigeria …………. 1,940,0000 25 Chad …………………. 925,000 72 Cameroons …………….. 500,000 25 Nyasaland …………….. 160,000 10 Kenya ………………… 1,000,000 40 Uganda ……………….. 600,000 20 Tanganyika ……………. 400,000 10 A STATISTICAL SURVEY OF ISLAM* By far the largest Islamic country in Africa is Egypt where, as in West Africa, the Moslem prob- Every good Moslem is, and in fact must be, a lems are of particular interest.
"missionary." In 1900 the Moslem world had at Since 1930 Moslem missionaries from the el-Azhar University in Cairo have been diffusing its disposal two hundred printing presses; today culture and orthodox doctrine among the Moslems of various countries. An American observes that it has eight hundred and eighty. Out of a world the "Christians are talking about converting Af- rica, and the Moslems are doing it." Roman Cathpopulation of 2,053,600,000, we can accept 240,- olic missionaries state that the Moslems succeed in making propagandists among their converts, 000,000 as a figure for Islam. while the Catholics cannot succeed even in in- structing their catechumens. Moslems in A'sia are most numerous and in- Islam constitutes about two one-hundreths of clude 17.970 of the population. one per cent of the population of North America, and one-eighth of one per cent of South and Cen- Percentage tral America, with a total of scarcely 135,583 Moslems of plYpulation members.
Turkey ……………….. 12,600,000 92 In Europe and Soviet Russia Moslems represent 2% of the total population. They include 584,000 Syria …………………. 2,159,259 77 in Albania, 1,337,000 in Jugoslavia, 690,000 in Bulgaria, and 2,400,000 in Russia. Palestine ………… . . . . . . . 557,649 70 There are no general organizations for all Islam Transjordania ………….. 2,850,000 92 with a purely missionary scope, and the attempt to create an Association for the Defense of Islam Arabia ………………… 4,000,000 100 is a failure. The only organization of the kind, which will perhaps soon become international Iraq ………………….. 2,640,700 96 through increasing growth, is the Association of Moslem Youth, with headquarters in Cairo. An Iran ………………….. 8,830,000 95 international movement has developed from heret- ical Moslem sects, principally from the Ahma- Siberia, Kirghiztan, etc. ….. 16,462,442 80 diyah of Qadian and Lahore (British India), and from the Bahai sect, of Persian origin. Afghanistan …………… 6,380,500 100 British India …………… 78,000,000 21 French Indies ………….. 15,000 5 British East Indies ……… 2,025,000 47 Dutch East Indies ………. 43,000,000 86 Philippine Islands ………. 443,037 4 China …. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000,000 5 Chinese Turkestan ………. 1,200,000 48 The leading Moslem country in Asia is India. Moslems in Africa number about 37% of the pop- *eondensed from The Moslem World (July, 1937), New York; translated from an article by Carlo Casfarri in Il Pensiero Mis- sionwrw (Rome), December, 1936, by Philip T. Blackwood of Princeton, N. J.
Trends in the Moslem
By EDWARD M. DODD, M.D., New York Author of "To Mecca and Beyond"; Formerly a Missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Iran A GENERATION ago the world of Islam was As one surveys the wide reaches of the Moslem still predominantly a unit. Though living scene, and ponders the changes taking place, there under diverse national and political condi- appear to be four fairly well defined trends of the tions, Moslems had a strong sense of their solidar- day. This observation applies chiefly to leaders, ity. Except for certain well established heresies to urban centers and to youth. The vast rural or minor offshoots, and allowing for the begin- bulk of Islam is still conservative, orthodox and nings of revised and modernized thinking which relatively little changed. But where the city goes affected a relatively small group of intelligentsia, now the village will go presently, especially with there were no outstanding .divergencies in the the radio and the automobile and the printed page Moslem road, or deep rifts in the Moslem front. arriving everywhere. We are here concerned with In the main the religious road of Sunnis in India, these lead-trends to the future.
Turkey or North Africa, for example, ran parallel, 1. In the first place we have the conservative or rather they loyally converged on Mecca. The status quo plus the "Puritan" revival in Arabia. Sultan-Caliph was still on the Constantinople Externally or mechanically Arabia is being gradthrone; and the faithful from Morocco to the ually modernized but religiously it remains ortho- Philippines, and from Bokhara to CapeTown, dox, with the re-emphasis of the Wahabi Moverecognized and revered him as their head. It ment. The tale which at once illustrates the point, was still not wholly fantastic to talk of a general as well as the consummate skill of Ibn Saoud, has Mohammedan Holy war; indeed Turkey made an been told more than once. When it was proposed abortive attempt at this as late as the closing year to install a telephone system in Riadh, the desert of the World War. Moslems had not yet trans- capital of Saoudi Arabia, the conservative relilated the Koran out of Arabic. The veiled and re- gious leaders protested. The thing was not of the pressed status of women was still universal. Even Koran and therefore not lawful. Ibn Saoud put in heretical Shiite Persia the Old Order was not the matter to the religious test. He suggested visibly disturbed. that a Mullah read the Koran into the telephone at one end of an experimental line and another But what have we now? Shocks from without Mullah listen at the other end. If the apparatus and revolutionary transformations from within, conveyed the sacred words, surely the thing was accentuated by the WorId War but largely repre- of Allah and lawful. How could one object to that? senting the influx of the modern age, have shaken Needless to say, Riadh now has telephones. Yet and confused the House of Islam. Turkey has the ecclesiastical hierarchy is intact. One wongone secular and modern, while Arabia is Puritan ders how long this intellectual straddle can hold Wahabi. The Caliphate has been summarily abol- up, for Islam tends to give way or to be revised ished, and there are no significant efforts afoot to as it is exposed to the modern impact. re-establish it. Egypt has developed theological modernism; and Azhar University, the intellec- North Africa, west of Egypt, shares with tual nerve-center of Islam, has been made over on Arabia the characteristic of Mohammedan conmodernized lines. The Koran has been translated servatism, even though in the social externals of for the use of Moslems into Turkish and is being life it is also becoming Europeanized. translated into other languages. The veil has been largely discarded in Turkey and is officially banned In Central Asia we have the complicated situain Iran. The Turkish National Assembly has now tion of conservative religious leadership, assaulted a number of women delegates; Egypt has a vig- by the socially radical and religiously atheistic orous feminist movement. Turkey and Iran are Soviet government and also facing a considerable busily harking back to their Turanian and Iranian feminist movement. The prospects are that the origins, and are turning away from the Arabic- religious old order will be overpowered by the Islamic culture. In the Near East generally, ex- social new order. A real battle is on. cept for Arabia, there is considerable disintegration in Islam. 2. There is another group which we might call the reform or revision states, conspicuously illus- [459 ]
trated by India and Egypt, each in its own way. be called the drifters. The drifting away from They are formulating definite philosophies, which Islam is a part of what is going on all over the have been developing and spreading for a number world-the drift away from all religion. In these of years, and which are changing and diversifying Moslem countries the dominant interest is political the religious picture. The outstanding contribu- and nationalistic. Nationalism is becoming the tion of India is the Ahmadiya movement. The net new religion rather than Islam: the ardors of result in India, according to Mr. Murray Titus is loyalty, the mass demonstrations, the allegiances reinvigoration. He concludes that in spite of di- of youth-these are now channelled largely into visions and weaknesses, "Islam in India today is nationalism. There is a wholesale drift of youth better organized, better educated, more progres- away from the old religion. Outward observances sive, more reasonable and tolerant toward its may still be maintained, though many of these are neighbors than ever before in its history. Of weakening, but the inner conviction is crumbling Egyptian thought, Dr. Charles C. Adams of the away. The movie theatre is found to be much American Mission says: more exciting than the Mosque; the radio broad- "Mohammedan modernism in Egypt may be cast is more intriguing to the younger generation said to have taken form as a definite movement than the call to prayer. Inert fatalism, the resig- during the last quarter of the preceding century, nation of Islam, has a hard time surviving the under the leadership of the late Grand Mufti of automobile and modern medicine.
Egypt, Sheikh Myhammad Abduh, who died in . The Iranian Shah has made it unmistakably and 1905. It constitutes an attempt to free the reli- dramatically clear fuat progressive nationalism, gion of Islam from the shackles of a too rigid embodied in himself, rules, and not Islam. But orthodoxy, and to accomplish reforms which will there has been no official disestablishment of the render it adaptable to the complex demands of latter. The youth of Iraq says that Mohammed modern life. Its prevailing character is that of was well enough for his day, but that he is now a religious reform; it is inspired and dominated back-number; let the religious hierarchy die in chiefly by theological considerations. It differs in peace; they no longer count. But no official overt this respect from the reforms instituted by the change has been made. Syria's consuming na- Indian group of nationalist reformers, who aim tional interest is in the new political situation cre- primarily at a cultural movement, and the adjust- ated by the transition from French mandate to ment of Islam to the conditions of modern Euro- independence. The races and religions in this pean civilization. The fundamental assumption, polyglot country increasingly unite on the basis of however, that Islam is a world religion, suitable Arab nationalism, which tends more and more to for all peoples, all times, and all cultural condi- transcend religious and racial lines.
tions, is common to both movements." Similarly in far~off Java, one of the largest In both countries there are strong social move- Moslem units of the world, there is a well-devel- ments among women, which are attacking prob- oped movement to return to the pre-Islamic Na- lems of health and well-being, of polygamy, di- tional culture. There is a strong nationalistic vorce and prostitution. All of this is within the movement, which is of far more vital interest to frame-work of the established religion. the younger generation than any religion. With These two groups, the orthodox and the revised, them Islam is increasingly under criticism and in give no evidence of breaking away from Islam. the discard.
They are making their social and theological adap- 4. Finally there is the radical state, Turkey, tations from within. The state or the community which alone has turned squarely away from Islam is still a "church" state or a "church" community. as an official institution. It has not turned against ("Church" is of course used as the nearest intel- Islam, nor is it antireligious in general, but it has ligible counterpart – not because Islam has a decided that, in order to become a modern and pro- church in the Christian sense.) gressive country, it cannot brook the inhibitions, Both of these groups are strongly missionary. interference, and frustrations of the old Moslem The Ahmadiya movement is very active and the order. Kemal Ataturk has therefore set up a sec- Azhar is still a powerful propaganda center, with, ular state which, in itself, is a repudiation of basic Africa as its chief missionary field. In India the Mohammedanism, because the Mohammedan sys- new situation created by the Outcast movement tem has hitherto claimed the whole stage. A away from Hinduism, and the Ambedkar an- typical indepenuent Moslem country was ipso nouncement of their readiness to consider some facto a religious government – a "church" state; other religion, appeals tremendously to this funda- the only law was the Moslem law; there was no mental missionary urge of Islam, as well as hav- concept of a separate civil law.
ing its important political hearings. This radical national departure, coming from 3. Other predominantly Moslem lands, like the country which had so long been the seat of the Iraq, Iran, and Syria, as well as Malaysia, might Caliphate, the spear-head of the whole Moslem
INFLUENCE OF MOSLEM SUPERSTITIONS
World, struck a body blow at world Islam. India hardly be water-tight compartments. There is and Egypt and the far isles of the Pacific rever- bound to be mingling and overflowing in this day berated with the shock. Turkey was branded as a of interchange and questioning and remolding. renegade and apostate, but the fulminations were It is an intriguing question as to which if anyone futile. Turkey went serenely and successfully on of these trends will prevail to any general extent. her way, and nothing has come of the scattered efforts to revive the Caliphate. It is, of course, incumbent upon the Christian enterprise to understand these trends, and the The course which Turkey has pursued has also varied fronts which they present. It is one thing had its admirers in other lands. Iran, for ex- to deal with a zealous, intolerant Wahabi Bedouin ample, is very apt to follow the same patterns as of the far desert reaches and another thing to talk her neighbor on her western boundary. There are with an indifferent, agreeable, irreligious young not wanting those, among the younger generation government clerk in Iran, or Syria; it is still anelsewhere, who think that Turkey has really other thing to sympathize with an active woman shown the way to do the thing. social reformer of Egypt, who also presents the new Moslem apologetic; and again another thing The patterns of national development, though to be a strictly inhibited missionary in Turkey. distinctively represented by national units, can Influence of Moslem Superstitions By DAVIDA M. FINNEY, Ramleh, Egypt II ~. – Missionary of the United Presbyterian Church '~==========================~I O NE of my earliest recollections as a child is Nurses and mothers frighten their erring children of a Moslem sheikh who came to call upon with, "Be good or the bu' bu' will catch you." my father. He sat alone in our drawing- room, waiting for father's return. I did not know Only about ten years ago I was dining with a he was there, and was wandering, rather discon- number of Egyptian college students about to re- . solately, down the hall when suddenly I was star- ceive the baccalaureate certificate. Turning to the tled by a flurry of robes, quick breathing, and one on my right, I asked: looked up to see the sheikh in full flight from the drawing-room door. When he saw me, he stopped "What did you think the bu' bu' was when you precipitately, and muttered, were a child?"
"An afreet! He blew down the chimney!" Then "A negro giant," he told me, "with flashing eyes he continued more calmly, "Let me, if you please, and a red mouth." sit outside here in the hall." At once the group around us was adding detail I remember glancing into the room, astonished upon detail. A discussion of afreet followed. Made at his fright and yet wondering if after all my a little uneasy by the vividness of descriptions mother might be wrong about afreet, and my na- given, I finally remarked: tive nurse right, and that I might now catch a glimpse of one. The sunny room lay silent and "Isn't it a fine thing that today we need no empty, however. No grinning afreet perched any- longer fear the bu' bu' and the afreetl" where, not even on the little iron stove. Faith in my mother returning in a comforting wave, I There was instant silence, and then the man on murmured loftily: my right said, "Pray be seated." "But you are a Westerner. We of the East know." This incident was my first introduction to the fact that learned men as well as my nurse were "But have you ever seen'an afreet?" I asked in- afraid of spirits. credulously.
In conversation with many Egyptians, I have To my amazement he nodded. found one word an open sesame to a common "One day," he said, "I was walking across a bit ground of experience, and eventually to a feeling of waste land. Suddenly I saw an afreet approach- of intimate friendliness. We discuss the bu' bu'. ing, very tall, clothed all in white. I looked to right and left, hunting for a place of concealment, but there was none. So I cowered down and hid my face until he had passed. One must always do that with an afreet; it is death to oppose him. Once a friend of mine, who happened to be armed,
met an a/reet and in his fright fired at it. The weaned her child. Women threatened with harm a/reet disappeared, but in a short time my friend may protect themselves by wearing a bit of palm was dead. If you oppose an a/reet, within a year stalk (gareeda). you die." No bride should be approached by a person just Over and over again in conversation with all circumcized. A woman who has just lost a child sorts of Egyptians one is reminded .of the fact that or a qati/ should not enter a house where there even today, for the mass of the population, ginn is a weaning child or one with sore eyes. If she and a/reet are real, a daily concern, terrifying. does, it will become blind. My friend, Mr. Khaleel Modern education, the radio, the cinema, closer Armanios, the blind evangelist of Alexandria, has contacts with Europe, a constantly increasing use often been asked if he was blinded by a qati/. of newspapers, these factors and many others are rapidly modifying superstiti.ous beliefs. Yet in Just after shaving a man must not approach a fairness one must remember that these educative bride, a pregnant, nursing .or weaning mother, if influences reach .only the minority in any country he has not previously met them, lest they become where literacy is low. Even in educated folk, barren or lose their milk. Evil consequences may brought up by superstitious parents, such belief be avoided if the WDman enters the room of meetis instinctive and dies hard. ing and walks around the man seven times. On the .other hand, if he shaves in his own house with A few years ago the editor of a fairly well- the woman close beside him no harm is done. Or known daily, then being published in Cairo, de- the woman may take the razor used, soak it in scribed to me his visit to an old convent. water, and .on a Friday when she bathes, pour the water over her body. Should her well-being be "I went alone," he told me, "although the place threatened by a qati/, or some other woman, she was full of a/reet. But," with quiet pride he con- may escape harm by securing some blood from the tinued, "J was not afraid." other WDman and placing it in her bath on Friday.
It is the modern educated youth who more Mr. Khaleel told me of a family of his acquaintnearly achieve freedom from fear. I am not writ- ance who had a bitter quarrel with a neighboring ing of Christians and well-traveled and well-read family. One of the women had weaned a child Moslems who for years have been unconsciDus of but had not yet seen the new moon. Forgetting such fear. I write rather of the general mass, not this fact, when her neighbor gave birth to a son the small group. she went to call upon the rejoicing mother. In a short time the child died, and, even worse, at the The women and girls with whom we come much end of a year the mother was still barren. After in contact are dominated by fear of el Mushohira much consultation and thought, the neighbor's (literally, to be monthed), the Ain (the Evil Eye) visit was remembered. She was apprDached and magic, and spirits. These spirits may be El Zar agreed to do what she could to repair the damage. (the Visitor), El Ginn, or El A/reet. The masses They took some blood from her hand, and the believe in certain charms to be said or used to mother placed it in her bath on Friday. No good counteract these evil influences. They think that resulting, again the neighbor was approached and .one must be quick to observe, and punctilious in again gave blood, this time from her foot. Still performing such rites, if one wishes to avoid no good resulting, .once more she was approached, injury. and asked to contribute blood from some other part of her body. This she indignantly refused t.o The Mushohira gets its name, as far as I am do, claiming that if she were the cause of the curse, able to discover its root, from shahr, month. The blood from one part of her body would be as effiidea in its use is that escape from harm depends caci.ous as from any other. Rapidly the quarrel on seeing the new moon. The evil effects of the grew, and for three years neither family has Mushohira fall upon certain groups of people and spoken t.o the other. are brought about by certain people. Those most commonly recognized Mushohira, bringing evil, There are other unlucky deeds by which one perare: a mother weaning her child, called El Qati/; son may bring evil upon another. If one crosses a a man who has just shaved; a person just cir- river in boat or train and then at .once enters cumcized; one who is ill or with sore eyes; and a where there is a bride, a sick person, a pregnant bride when she meets another bride. Those who or weaning mot!ler, injury will result. To avoid suffer from such individuals are brides, pregnant bringing injury, this person should remain in anwomen or mothers weaning a child, and the sick. other room until the woman enters where the new- The Mushohira is caused by other means, but less comer is and circles him seven times. Mr. Khaleel frequently. called recently in the home of a woman who once was visited by s.omeone just after crossing the If a Qati/ approaches a bride ora pregnant river. In a few days the woman became blind. woman, she becomes barren; if she approaches To remove the curse, her br.other took her in a another Qati/, the milk will be stopped. To rid herself of this baneful power, the Qati/ must see the new moon as soon as she has completely
boat to cross and recross the river. He was told not speak to or interfere with them. If a person that at once her eyesight was restored. Constantly accidentally stumbles or falls to the ground there one comes across the effects of the Mushohira. is grave danger that he has injured some of these spirits. The only way to appease them is to The Ain is injury brought about by admiring sprinkle the spot with salt, water, or even sugar something not your own. This admiration is prob- and bread. Last week a woman stumbled in ably envious and therefore brings evil conse- alighting from a street-car. She hastened to a quences. It is considered much more proper and friend's house, borrowed salt, sugar and water, considerate not to praise at all, but if impelled to returned to the spot and silently sprinkled it. To do so one should preface the remark with "Yikhzi maintain silence is essential if the rite is to be el Ain" (May God put the eye to shame), or "Aini efficacious. aleykum barda" (My eye is cold upon you). People are especially liable to be possessed by One man may say to another, "Aini barda, but spirits at certain times; at marriages, perhaps you seem to be in excellent health." Then all is because at that time they are concerned about well. It is difficult to remember this instinctive their appearance and frequently look in a mirror; shrinking from praise of anything a man holds when bathing, because they may inadvertantly addear. Nor is it easy to hold a baby in your arms mire their bodies; when sleeping alone, as spirits and make no admiring comment. If your eyes are always infest a solitary place; when going to bed blue, better far not even to look your pleasure. in a worried or angry frame of mind, as the spirits find access easy at that time. To be freed from the evil consequences of the Ain, it is thought necessary to secure a piece of Should one become possessed by a spirit one garment worn by the envious one, or some dregs must appease him and remove the cause of his from his coffee cup. No offense must be given, so anger. This is done by the holding of a Zar. one must not let him know that he is suspected of There are special women thought able to reconcile having done injury. If it is impossible to secure the spirits. The one possessed gives such a woman a bit of his clothing surreptitiously, often it is an article of her wearing apparel. She places it possible to secure a bit through a bribed servant beneath her pillow; during the night the offended or a sympathetic friend. Sometimes people are spirit tells her the cause of his anger and also startled to find a small piece gone from some val- what gift will satisfy him. Next morning the ued garment. This snippet is burned and the woman tells the possessed person what the spirit smoke passed over the child. Coffee dregs are wants – jewelry, a sheep, a new dress, or some boiled and the steam is passed over the child. piece of furniture. Many women take advantage of this custom to secure for themselves things they As for vengeful spirits, the ginn and zar are cannot otherwise obtain. considered always present. The ginn live usually in kitchens and bathrooms or in lofts where sup- The Sarukh (the cry), is brought about through plies are kept. The loft of a house in which Mr. an unnatural death. If a man is murdered, the Khaleel once lived was infested with rats. Neigh- spirits which live in his blood, continue to cry bors visiting in the house heard scurryings and aloud for vengeance from the spot where his blood squeakings and were firmly convinced that ginn was shed. There is no fear of evil consequences to the house if he dies away from home, otherwise it haunted the house. becomes infested with his afreet. In the case of A little Mohammedan girl once stayed in our any violent or accidental death, the spot where death occurs remains a place of danger to all home for some time. One day she went into the passers-by. kitchen to get some water but came out hastily without it. When asked what was the matter, she These are some of the superstitions with which one comes in contact day by day in schools, homes, said, and in one's travels. Many sheikhs studying in "There's an afreet in the pot on the stove." the Azhar University are today electing the course Looking in, I saw the lid of the tea-kettle rat- in modern education, similar to that given by the Ministry of Education. Such men will not fly pretling furiously as the water boiled. When taking cipitately from a room when the wind blows down a bath, if suddenly startled or frightened, one may the chimney. A new day has dawned in Egypt, a be sure that a ginn has taken possession of one's fact which is being felt even in EI Azhar Univer- sity. Yet those who visit in homes aU over the body. country, who deal intimately with men, women, Besides the ginn, the earth is believed to be in- and children, are forced to realize more and more clearly each year how great is the hold that superhabited by other spirits. These are divided into stition still has upon masses of the population in three main divisions; El Sitt (the woman), El any Mohammedan country. Seed (the master), and El Abd (the slave). They are found everywhere, but especially in any open or waste piece of land. Here they busy themselves with their own affairs. If one is forced to cross such a piece of land alone, one may see and hear them. To avoid injury by them, one should
Preach Christ to Moslems?
By the REV. SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S., –..g{ Princeton, New Jersey }Sc-.- Editor of "The Moslem World"
"IF YOU will only organize Christian missions lidity and necessity of Christian missions to to the heathen in my province, instead of at- Moslems? tempting to convert Mohammedans, I will do 1. If ,the Gospel of Christ in its simplest form everything in my power to further and support (which is also its deepest mystery) includes the them, but I cannot approve or allow, at any rate Incarnation, the Atonement and the Resurrection at present, the opening of a mission to the Mo- then the world of Islam certainly needs our meshammedans." So said the governor of Nigeria, sage for it is news and offers Good News to every about thirty years ago. This policy was that of Moslem. Islam is not a Christian sect or a Chris- Lord Kitchener in the Sudan, of the British in the tian heresy. It is an eclipse of the Christ as re- Malay States, and is not yet abandoned every- vealed in the Gospel. It is an Arabian palimpsest where. superinscribed over the message of Jesus by an- The validity and the necessity of carrying the other hand. Its categorical denial of the deity of Gospel message to Mohammedans have been ques- Christ, of the crucifixion, of the finality of Jesus tioned in times past and are being questioned Christ as God's messenger and of His way of life today! The late Professor G. Kampffmeyer of through regeneration is evident from the Koran the University of Berlin in "Whither Islam?" itself.
deals with the subject in the same attitude; his The analogy of Paul's attitude toward Jew and conclusion is that missions in the Near East among Gentile holds today as regards missions to Mos- Moslems are as dangerous as they are futile and, lems and to other non-Christians. It was because for the good"of humanity, should be discontinued. the Jew had so much that was true and noble and yet needed the Gospel that Paul preached every- Dr. Hugh Vernon White, a secretary of the where to the Jew first. Their theism, their knowl- American Board, in the magazine called Chris- edge of the Old Testament, their zeal for God, tendom, plainly states that "Christian efforts to their passion for the Law did not invalidate their evangelize the Moslem have met with signal and need of the Gospel but emphasized it. This imconsistent failure. The response to such efforts plication would hold also for those Moslems of today is negligible and there is little likelihood of China, Africa and India who live in the midst of any marked change in the near future. . . . The paganism or polytheistic ethnic faiths. Christian Church ought to quit trying to make proselytes of Mohammedans. It should bring the In the Near East and North Africa, we have an best works of Christian service to the Moslem additional argument. There we are not merely world in a spirit of ecclesiastical and theological trying to lead Moslems to Christ, but rather to disinterestedness. " lead them back to Christ. Here we have the argu- ment of church history; the inspiration of the Father T. Bennerth, writing in a Roman Cath- cloud of witnesses, the apostles and martyrs of the olic missionary magazine for April 1930 says: faith; and the very stones of ruined churches and "As the conversion of the great bloc of Islamic monasteries would cry out if we were silent. nations to the Christian faith is not to be expected in our century " . . it is of the highest value that The Great Unoccupied Moslem Fields Islam at least maintains the belief in God in puri- fied forms. If this refuge of belief in God should 2. The missionary forces have hitherto moved vanish, then Western Christianity will be threat- across or around this great Moslem bloc. The fol- ened by a new seat of danger." lowing areas, or. countries in which the popula- When we compare these statements with the tion is wholly or predominantly Moslem, are still verdict of the Roman Catholic Conference, held in practically unoccupied. The missionary confer- Louvain in 1930, we find that ,there also the entire ences of Cairo, Edinburgh, Lucknow, and Jeruworld of Islam is labeled "le bloc inconvertisable." salem successively laid them all before the Church, In view of such opinions and statements, what but with little result-Afghanistan; the provinces satisfactory reasons can be advanced for the va- of Hejaz, Asir, Nejd, and Hadramaut in Arabia; [464 ] Russian Turkestan; parts of Siberia, Bokhara; blasted. The Moslem World Conference held at the eastern part of the Malay Peninsula; Socotra Mecca, and afterwards in Europe, proved a failand the Moslem populations of Madagascar, Rus- ure; none of the resolutions was carried out. sia in Europe, British and French Somali-land, Tripoli in North Africa, the French Sudan; the The Dutch Orientalist, Dr. Van der Meulen, who Great Aures Mountains, the Saharan Atlas spent many years in the diplomatic service at ranges, the central populous mountain regions of Jiddah, asks, "Are we standing at the eve of a re- Morocco, and the vast Sahara itself. These un- vival, a renaissance of Islam? No, the phenomena occupied fields have a total population of approxi- do not point this way. Except for the Wahhabi mately thirty-six million. How can we speak or movement in Central Arabia, it has all been a sing of evangelizing the whole world and leave all question of self-defense and resistance," (Moslem this outside of the program of occupation for World, October, 1936). Christ? Regarding the enormous area and population of Disintegration and Decay of Islam Indonesia, Professor C. C. Berg speaks of "de- structive forces that are at work against Islam all 3. A religion that once was the hope and glory over the world." Of the favorable factors he says of millions shows signs of breaking up. Old sanc- that they "might possibly result only in the long tions are disappearing. Their anchor-ground has run in a decrease in the rate of decay," ("Whither proved insufficient in the rising tide of material- Islam?" pp. 306-311). ism and atheism. Some tell us that there are signs of a resurgent Islam and of revival of faith in The geographical expansion of Islam in Africa Mohammed. But all signs point in the opposite has often been exaggerated. The latest statistical direction. This years report of the Board of For- survey shows a smaller proportion of Moslems in eign Missions of the Presbyterian Church states: nearly every area in North-central Africa (Mos- "There is now abundant evidence that the religion lern World, April, 1936). Dr. Deaville Walker of Islam is slowly disintegrating." wrote a few years ago: The collapse of the caliphate, and the failure of Within a comparatively short time, we pictured great all attempts to revive it, would lead to the conclu- pagan populations being rapidly Islamised. I am consion that Pan-Islamism is dead. The policy of the vinced that the position is wholly different today. Careful new government in Turkey and the complete sec- personal investigation in Sierra Leone and Mendeland, ularization of that republic points in the same the Gold Coast and Ashanti, Nigeria, and in the French direction. The Turkish press utters severe judg- colonies and protectorates of Dahomey, Togo, and the ment on Islam and its Prophet, while one by one Ivory Coast,· have made it very clear to me that the adthe old sanctions and customs of religion are pub- vance of Islam is being definitely checked, and that today licly discarded. A few years ago a British official we are winning far more Africans to the faith of Christ of high standing actually wrote to me: "Islam as than the Moslems are winning for their Prophet. Startling we once knew it is dead in Turkey; it is dying in as this may sound, I believe it to be absolutely true. Persia; it has ceClJ8ed to carry real weight in Egypt; it may survive some generations in What elements in Islam are today resurgent? Arabia; but the basic truths of Christianity will Does the old Mohammedan law or jurisprudence in the long run even there prevail." Such judg- any longer prevail under the new nationalism and ment is undoubtedly somewhat premature but it the new state? Or has the purely -Islamic-govis prophetic. erned state disappeared even in Arabia and Afghanistan? Islam faces a crisis in the lands where once it was dominant. Its efforts at propagandism in Has the social structure of Islam withstood the India and Africa "remind one of those sparse feminist movement and female education anygreen twigs sometimes still appearing at the ex- where? Can we seriously speak of "resurgent treme ends of half-dried-up boughs in trees whose forces" as regards polygamy, slavery, concubicore has for long been decaying from old age." nage, and the seclusion of womanhood? Was the Islam suffers because it feels itself under the suppression of the age-old Moharram celebrations tutelage of the West. In Turkey it suffers by be- in Persia a sign of vitality in Islam? Is the reli'- ing violated in its own bosom; in Russia from gion of Islam showing a new vitality when three Soviet persecution; and in Persia from a revolt of its "five pillars" are crumbling? The daily against the Arabic language and tradition. Mus- prayers are no longer observed as they were ten tapha Kemal Ataturk of Turkey raised great ex- years ago. The number of pilgrims to Mecca, in pectations, but he has turned out a bitter disap- spite of new facilities by motorbus and steampointment for all Moslems. The disenchantment ships, has dwindled from 250,000 to 80,000. was cruel but complete. The high hopes fixed on Mecca is losing its importance. Are the uniting Ibn Saood of Arabia to revive the caliphate were forces that remain, the Arabic language and cul- ture, the sense of brotherhood, the press and Al Azhar of Egypt-are these forces strong enough to counteract the disintegrating factors? Or will the progressive secularization of Moslem life rob
all life from the religion of Islam? Will the wan- Hospital in Northwest China, reports that Moslem ing of the Dervish orders and their suppression, as in Turkey, continue? patients crowd the doors, kiss the feet of the The fact is that Islam has been severely Christian physicians, listen eagerly to the meswounded in the house of its friends. The younger Egyptian modernists, instead of building care- sage, and that some at least find new life in Christ. fully on the foundations of reform laid by Jamalal-Dinal Afghani and the great Mohammed'Abdu, More and more thousands of Moslem youth are have ruthlessly undermined what remained intact. Mansur Fahmi, in his doctor's thesis, proved that sitting at the feet of Christian teachers in every Islam was progressively responsible for the degradation of womanhood. Dr. Taha Housain raised land. Day schools, boarding schools, colleges, and a storm of hostility by a book proving that much of early Islamic literature was a forgery, ·fabri- universities tell of an increasing number of Moscated to prop up the Koran and tradition. "The story of Abraham and Ishmael building the Kaaba lem pupils and of the leavening power of Chrisis all fiction." Ali Abd al Razik went even further, and in his book, "Islam and the Fundamentals of tian education that reaches far beyond the cur- Authority," advocated the abolition of the caliphate, "which has always been a misfortune." riculum and the campus area. Everyone should Moreover, he proposed the complete separation of Church and State, and the abandonment of the know that the emancipation of Moslem girlhood vast body of canon law. (Adams, "Islam and Modernism in Egypt," pp. 254-265.) and womanhood began in mission schools. It is When the best thinkers in Islam accept an hon- not only unkind but ungrateful and unhistoric to est historical research of all her spiritual property, it will mean a revelation of bankruptcy. trace these modern movements to hybrid sources. When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Only the real gold, the theistic Christ alone removes the veil because He demands spiritual values of Islam, will be able to withstand the heat of this inevitable furnace. A careful and imparts purity of heart. Moslems themselves study of the whole question leads to the conclusion that as a cultural and even as a political force have testified to this fact. there is yet a future for Islam, but as a religious force the future does not look promising-except The great Christian literature societies and comin Christ and His Gospel for Moslems. mittees in Cairo, Constantinople, Teheran, Shang- The Response to the Gospel Message hai, across India, and in the Dutch East Indies are 4. This great response, as we see it today, should not surprise those who believe God's prom- producing and distributing ten times as much litises and who have experienced the final fruitage that follows the "patience of unanswered prayer." erature as they did a decade ago. Illiteracy is de- Others have labored, since the days of Henry Martyn, and now we are entered into their labors. creasing. Education is becoming compulsory. Others have knocked long and loud and waited patiently before locked doors-now those very doors The stigma of disapproval now rests on old superare nailed open. Eastern Arabia, Hadhramaut, and the cities of Meshed, Iran, and Riadh in Cen- stitions that once had religious sanction. tral Arabia, are outstanding examples. There are public baptisms in places where for- The Bible has been translated into all the great languages of the world of Islam. It is the best merly the "law of apostasy" would have adminprinted of all books and has an ever-increasing circulation. One has only to read the annual re- istered public ostracism or private vengeance. In ports of the two great Bible societies to realize the miracles of grace accomplished every year by the Java alone there are 75,000 Moslem converts gathprinted Word. ered into Christian churches. In North India Every hospital and dispensary across the map from Tangier, Morocco, to the Borden Memorial there are other thousands and in Persia we can truly speak of an indigenous church-weak still in numbers, but strong in the spirit of sacrifice and boldness of witness.
Those who challenge the validity and success of work among Moslems need to remember the lines of Arthur H. Clough: .
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
For not iJy eastern windows only When daylight comes, comes in the light; In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright.
While for years Christians have been battering against an impregnable position in North Africa, Islam has been steadily sweeping south and pagan tribes have become followers of the Prophet and have been lost to Christ. Suppose the Church had concentrated its efforts on these tribes in the rear of the Moslem position, and had flung a barrier of Christian churches across Africa, would Islam have made the progress it has southward? Might not the Church have found in Christian Africans, the allies who would have won far greater success than white foreigners can hope to achieve?
A. S. McNAIRN.
Christian Approach to
By PREBENDERY W. WILSON CASH, London I Secretary of the Church Missionary Society I~ ~==============================~ H AS Christianity anything to offer Islam? disappointed, goes forward with undimmed faith In answer to this question, one group of and courage, proclaiming Christ and Him cruci- people fall back upon the threadbare argu- fied as the only Hope of the world.
ment that "Islam is good enough for the Arabs." This difficult situation makes us pause and study They do not think, however, that is good enough afresh the task before us. First of all, nothing in for themselves. this past hundred years in any way invalidates the The question is sometimes put in a different way Gospel of Christ. Men of many nations and races -What is there in Christianity that is not found have found a new eternal and abounding life in Islam? through Christ, the living Saviour. The experi- The Moslem himself approaches the issue from ence of men converted in evangelistic campaigns a very different angle. He is certain that Islam in Europe or America is duplicated in the lives has much to offer to the Christian world, and par- of Africans, Indians, Chinese, and many others. ticularly just now when international affairs are Revival sweeps through parts of India and Africa so tangled and difficult. and tens of thousands find peace with God. But The missionary meets the point by a bold and the Moslem world still stands like some impreg- frank presentation of the Gospel of Christ as the nable rock, almost unshaken, and as a rule undis- only adequate religion for all the world. turbed by missionary witness. The reasons for A missionary recruit, going out to a Moslem this are many; some of them must be briefly field for the first time, is shocked to find that the stated. When the Moslem armies invaded the Moslem is just as eager to convert him to Islam countries from Syria to the Sudan and North as he is to win the Moslem for Christ. This is Africa they found a responsive body of nominally only the first of a series of shocks. As he settles Christian men ready to join their ranks and to to his work he discovers for himself what he had fight for them. The armies of the prophet were always heard, that the Moslem is about the most increased daily by many who saw in Mohammed a difficult man in all the world to bring under the deliverer from the hated Byzantine rule. The Em- influence of the Gospel. peror used the Church as an imperial tool, and in A survey of the past hundred years of mission- the minds of most people Church and State were ary work among Moslems does not reveal appre- one.
ciable progress in most areas. In one or two coun- There were alsothe divisions within the Church tries there have been remarkable results, notably and the disruptive elements in its own ranks. The in the Dutch East Indies; but against this suc- Roman and the Greek churches were separated cess must be set the inroads of Islam into the and the Greek and the Coptic churches were no Christian Church in the Near East. In Egypt it is longer in communion with each other. The ornate estimated that from 500 to 800 Copts annually ritual of the Eastern churches was contrasted become Moslems. The history of Islam is one of with the simple forms of mosque worship. The ceaseless encroachments on'Christendom, until pictures and images in churches gave the impres- now we speak of Bible lands, which were once sion of polytheism, and the abstruse theological Christian, as Moslem lands. The large propor- controversies still further weakened the spiritual tion of the peoples of Syria, Palestine and Egypt life of the Church. The fact is that the Christian are Moslems today. The Christian Church of faith was so badly misrepresented by the Church North Africa has been blotted out. The formerly of the day that people could not see Christ through Christian areas of the Sudan are now solidly Mos- the maze of ritual and ceremonial, the selfish am- lem. And still the Church sends missionaries to bitions of prelates and the secular encroachments Moslems and many are willing to give their lives upon the community. Race superiority was re- to Moslem evangelization, in an effort to remove sponsible for a good deal. The Roman or Greek the reproach which lies at the door of the Church. pattern was stamped upon the churches every- And still the missionary, though often baffled and where. There seems to have been nothing in- [467 ]
digenous in the Church of North Africa; and in into a new environment, utterly foreign to him.
Arabia there does not appear to have been any The strain of this social upheaval upon a young translation into the vernacular, either of the convert is so great that it develops any idiosyn- Scriptures or the Christian liturgies. In Rome cracies and oddities in him and in the end drives people worshipped in Latin and, therefore, they him back to his old surroundings.
had to worship in Latin in all North Africa; sim- The history of Christian expansion down the ilarly, because in Constantinople the liturgical centuries does not show that the nineteenth censervices were all in Greek, they had to be in Greek tury policy was adopted in other periods. In also in the Arabic-speaking world. Any approach earlier days people moved towards the Christian to Islam by the Christian must take account of faith by communities, by families, and tribes. In such facts. They are not dead matters of history doing so they became Christian without having but living issues today, and a study of them will had to suffer a catastrophic upheaval in their sohelp us in our evangelistic work. cial life. Instead of being uprooted from their The Gospel, it is true, needs no vindication. natural environment their social heritage was Once it is given a chance in the lives of men it Christianized, while they lived in the same homes proves itself, and its validity is recognized, but as before, carried on the same occupations, and the method of presentng the Gospel is a very dif- met much the same people, yet things were differ- ferent matter; after the experience of the past ent. The homes were transformed, they worked hundred years it is surely evident that we must from different motives, and their relationships to all face anew how we are to preach the Gospel in others were new; a different standard of life came Moslem lands. into the community through the coming of Christ.
The Nineteenth Century missionary expansion While such people found by personal conversion was marked by a strong emphasis on individual- the way to God, yet they moved together, families ism. Personal conversion was the note struck; were baptized, and communities received into the evangelistic missions sought to pluck men as faith.
brands from the burning. No one who knows This contrast requires careful and detailed in- Christ as his Saviour and Lord would' wish to vestigation. Is the cause of unsatisfactory con- weaken the appeal for personal conversion, but it verts in Moslem lands due to the break up of their must be admitted that there are other factors to be social environment? If so, may it not be equally considered. Moslem converts in many cases have true that a wrong method has hindered the whole proved to be utterly unsatisfactory. Curiously progress of the Gospel. Some years ago in a vil- enough a normal Moslem often became an eccen- lage in the Near East a large number of Moslem tric Christian. Missionaries labored to win that . families asked for baptism. When I met them it convert and when he was baptized disillusionment was obvious that some were thinking of Chris- set in. Instead of fitting into his new surround- tianity in terms of "loaves and fishes," but others ings, often he proved to be restless and required seemed to be genuinely sincere. Once the news a great deal of nursing. When discipline was even leaked out great pressure was brought to bear by mildly applied he would fling off in a temper, re- the Moslems to prevent these men from becoming nounce Christianity and go back to Islam. Most Christians. Large bribes were offered if they missionaries in the Near East have had this ex- would remain Moslems. In the end .some went perience; but they have pegged away through back to Islam, but others accepted Christ. Now heart-breaking disappointments always hoping the point of this is that while the missionaries did that things would change and that a better type emphasize personal conversion the converts came of convert would appear, as in fact he did from forward as families. They lived on as before in time to time. their own village and tilled their land. They were The problem is not due to any failure of the sufficiently numerous to remain as a community Gospel, nor indeed to lack of faithfulness in the in the village. Instead of being driven from house missionaries. The Message has been honestly pre- and hQme, ostracized and disinherited, they con- tinued in their old homes which now became sented to Moslems. A certain number have be- Christian. Here the difficulties experienced so come Christians but many were failures. These often, of abnormal converts, did not appear beare the facts. What is the answer? A survey of cause in becoming Christian they still preserved the Moslem world shows that in the Dutch East Indies, and to a certain extent in Persia, this un- their social heritage.
satisfactory result does not obtain. If we examine This line of argument raises several still bigger the social environment of the converts, I believe issues. The old method of missionary work was that we shall find that, through the process of con- mainly an attack upon Islam as wrong and on the version, we have uprooted the Moslem, torn him prophet as false in his claims, and by comparison from hi'! QWn. ~pciftl Jif~ aIld transplanted him a pre~~nt~tioJl Qf Chri~t as th~ only true Saviour,
THE CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO MOSLEMS
The second half of this is all right. We believe similar experiences that Moslems claim to have. Christ to be the only Saviour, but by contrasting This may be illustrated frQm the eighth century Mohammed with Christ missionaries have created in Khurasan, where a young prince had a remarkin Moslem minds an antagonism to Christ. Instead able vision. He was out hunting one day when he of a Moslem agreeing that Christ was superior he heard a heavenly voice calling him from the purrather felt a kind of suppressed grievance against suit of pleasure to the service of God. This vision Him. Thus a wrong impression was created and came to him three times and at the third appeara missionary found himself in the prejudiced at- ance he fell to the ground and gave his life to mosphere, which frequently led to a heated debate. God's service. He then walked across to a shep- As the situation hardened the controversial herd near by and exchanged his clothes and horse method became a very common 'One in missionary for the shepherd's woolen garments; without propaganda. Argument led to counter argument, funds or material resources he set out on pilgrimand attack to counter attack, until the atmosphere age to Mecca. was so strained that it was impossible to sit down quietly and to explain the Christian message with- Missionaries need to study more the meaning out at once being involved in a bitter wrangle. of Islam because the root idea of complete sur- render to God contains a truth no Christian can lIo~ VVin nlosleDls? afford to neglect. Moslem mystics glory in the will of God and the strength of their position is How can I approach the Moslem without an- this acceptance of whatever God sends as right. tagonizing him? First, I must understand his Too often we have used the Koran simply for purpoint of view, his spiritual aspirations, and what poses of controversy, forgetting that it does conreligion means to him. We often hear it said that tain the spiritual pilgrimage of one who started Moslem prayers are a matter of words and for- with undoubted sincerity and who wrought a refmula because certain prayers are memorized and ormation in his own land such as no one either repeated five times a day. If therefore, as a Chris- before or since has ever been able to accomplish. tian, I talk about prayer to a Moslem and at the The strength of Mohammed was not merely milisame time believe that he has no real prayer life, tary prowess. He hammered out in the desert a I start from a prejudice and an assumption which conception of God that carried the Arabs to will make fellowship with Moslems impossible. I heights previously unattained, as he described God have heard Moslems pray extemporaneously, with as the Eternal, the Great, the Glorious. He drew no set form, with every evidence of intensity and men to religion by saying, "Whichever way ye reality. Here is what one Moslem lays down as a turn there is the face of God." He said: "All on rule about prayer: earth shall pass away, but the face of thy God shall abide resplendent with majesty and glory." Before the time of prayer comes the servant must be in a state of meditation and recollection, free from wander- Whatever may be our attitude toward Islam, we ing thoughts and considerations, and the remembrance of cannot help a Moslem unless we are really honest aught save God alone. Those who enter thus upon prayer in our approach. If we trade upon his ignorance from the heart, intent only upon God, will proceed from of either his or our faith, if we fail to see the eleprayer to prayer in that same state of recollection, and ments of truth and reality in his religion, if we will remain therein long after they have ceased to pray. condemn him and his faith when we do not know it enough to pass judgment upon it, we are not There is here a depth of insight into the meaning of prayer that could at once form common honest. ground between Christians and Moslems for a There is a Christian way of approach to the sharing of mutual experiences in prayer. Why should not our approach to the Moslem be by the Moslem which is noncontroversial, where we value road of prayer, by beginning with quiet and medi- all that is good in his faith and appreciate the tation, by a remembrance of the name of God, so spiritual values it contains. We need not give up that there may be between us a spiritual affinity any Christian convictions, nor need we deny our which would make discussion easy. own faith to recognize a value in his. We can well begin by learning from the Moslems, by shar- Again can we not appreciate more the teaching ing our spiritual experiences with them in such a of Islam on spiritual things? The Sufis have much way as to enable them to share their experiences in their writings that is curiously like parts of the with us. We may find much common ground in New Testament. One writer says, "The Sufi is our prayer lives, in our worship and in our conone whose heart is pure toward God"; another ceptions of God. How surprised many of us misaffirms that "Sufism is enmity to the world and sionaries would be if, when preaching about the love to the Lord." indwelling of Christ in our hearts, we heard some- one say, "I gazed into my own heart. There I As Christians we rightly place great importance saw Him. He was nowhere else." upon the need of a personal spiritual experience of God. It would help us to study more carefully Yet this comes from a Moslem. Often when we
get closer to the mystic we find a religious toler- earnest Moslems let us not forget that the witness ance that puts some Christians to shame. There of the Spirit ultimately always leads to Christ.
is a saying: "0 Lord, none but Thyself can No man can say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," but by fathom Thee; yet every mosque and church doth the Spirit. If we depend more upon the Spirit, harbour Thee." and realize that God is at work in the Moslem Where 9.oes all this lead us? Not to any form world, we shall see our task in new proportions.
of syncretism, but to a new sense of the values of We shall be content to let our lives be as living all truth, even where that is found in another seed. ,We shall not fret if converts are few at the . faith. It leads us ultimately to Christ who, in the moment. We shall not worry if men call Mo- end, must be the Crown of Islam. We lose nothing hammed, prophet. We shall see Christ supreme by recognizing broken lights of Him who is the and alive, seeking to break through in spiritual Light of the World. We do not diminish Christ's revelation and power into the lives of men. As glory when we see how God illumines every man the living truth works in the hearts, we shall see coming into the world. It is true, as St. Paul hasl men and women discovering a new meaning to said, "God has not left Himself without witness." life, as they learn that Islam must involve not only If we see evidence of the witness of the Spirit in surrender to God, but to God revealed in Jesus some of the teaching of Islam and in the lives of Christ.
A FEW FAOTS ABOUT ISLAM Islam, more than most religions, reflects the personality of its founder, Mohammed. He was born in Mecca, near the western coast of Arabia, about 570 A. D. When he was about forty years of age, he had a series of experiences which he interpreted as visions from God.
These ordered him to attack the idolatry and worldliness of his fellow citizens, and to proclaim one supreme God and a day of judgment. Converts at first gathered slowly, and they were subject to persecution.
In 622 A. D., the Hijrah, or Flight to Medina, took place, from which the Moslem calendar came to be reckoned. In Medina, Mohammed soon became head of the community and ruler as well as prophet. At the time of his death, in 632 A. D., not only Medina, but Mecca and practically the whole of Arabia, had accepted his doctrines.
The sayings of Mohammed, which are believed to have been dictated word for word to him by the Angel Gabriel, were later gathered together and they constitute the Koran. This scrIp- ture is divided into Suras, or chapters, arranged roughly according to length rather than in any chronological order. The Koran is the Bible of Islam, considered verbally infallible. Since it is often obscure, and since it failed to prescribe conduct or attitudes to be observed in subse- quent situations that arose, it was early supplemented by Traditions as to what Mohammed said or did under various circumstances. These rules of conduct were, in time, codified into legal systems.
The five principal observances of Islam are: (1) the recitation of the creed-"There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet"; (2) worship, the set forms of prayer which are to be performed five times a day; (3) alms, a certain proportion of the income being pre- scribed from those of means for the benefit of the poor; (4) fasting from sunrise to sunset during the Ramadan; (5) malting the Haj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca once in a lifetime by those who are able.
Among various prohibitions are intoxicants, usury, making of images, and games of chance. On the other hand, Mohammed's relations with women led him to permit four legal wives as well as concubines, and to recommend the seclusion of women. The Jihad, or war against countries controlled by unbelievers, has always been considered a duty. As in other religions, these observances have been much relaxed in practice.
In the first century of its existence Islam split into two principal sects, the Sunni, which is in the majority in most Moslem countries, and the Shia, containing the bulk of Persians, about half of Iraq, and smaller communities in other lands. In addition to these, there have been many other sects. _ Moslem theology has emphasized the unity and power of God, and has been especially severe on anything that seemed like polytheism or idolatry. At the same time saint worship has been quite general; there is also much superstition, together with mystical or emotional exercises.-Quoted from "The Moslem Faces the Future," by T. H. P. Sailer.
Reactions to the
By JAMES HALDANE, Mazagan, Morocco -.•~ Southern Morocco Mission; Author of "Missionary Romance in Morocco," "Morocco in Mufti," etc.
W HEN we present the Gospel of Christ to tion and have the means at their disposal to carry individual Moslems we find them reacting the effort to a climax.
to our message in a variety of attitudes Jeremiah, and other Hebrew prophets, acted and tempers. When the reaction is born of fa- sometimes in' strange manner with a view to exnaticism the man allows you the utterance of only citing their audience into a listening mood, and a few sentences, after which there is a manifesta- employed what we might call a sanctified guile to tion of petulence, rising to passion and finding its grip hearts which could not be reached by ordiclimax in vociferation and whirling gestures. The man's mind is infested with vitiated religious sentiments which, when stirred by an element that opposes them, make the body a medium for their manifestation and produce a condition akin to madness. In the presence of such a man the missionary is confronted with the question of what means he must employ to exercise these exorbitant religious notions from the mind where they are lodged.
Let it be said with emphasis that, whatever A MOSLEM "HOLY MAN'S" HABITATION IN MOROCCO attitude we take towards the fanatic, whatever means we employ to deal with such malady, it nary means. Let me give an instance – one of must be based on sympathy. A display of irrita- many used in my work among Moors-to illustrate tion, an exhibition of caustic temper or rancor, the method. far from mitigating the evil, will aggravate it. A movement from the basis of sympathy to attack I was dealing with a small group of men while religious enormities and delusions, as manifested a number of others, who were merely spectators, by the fanatic, does not imply an unsteady tread sat beside us. There was a wild scene in which suggestive of fear and helplessness. It means reason was caged and rowdyism became rampant. that we are approaching with love and under- I tried everything within the range of ordinary standing a victim who has been born and reared methods used to calm them into a listening attiunder the glare of superstition and religious in- tude but all in vain. I was faced with the alternafatuations, one who has come under the impact of tive of doing something unusual to overcome this a single idea which drives him past all other con- devastating display of fanaticism, or abandoning siderations. these men as hopeless material. I decided to imi- In deaJing with such men it may be necessary to adopt an attitude of silence, at least until some of their fierceness has subsided. In some instances one may detect, seeping through the crevices of a disordered mind, an occasional show of intelligence which casts a passing gleam upon the countenance. Just at that moment one may be able to shoot in a word like an arrow that will find its mark, touch the reason and stimulate it to accept the challenge of a new line of thought. And on occasion fanaticism may be countered by cajolery. But this experiment should not be tried by any but those who, through long contact with the peopIe among whom they labor, understand the situa- [471 ]
tate the Hebrew prophets. Taking off my boot, as if he were afraid that the usual tone of voice ignoring my audience as if it did not exist, I filled would be an interruption. With this show of init with stones. These I shook inside the boot, tense earnestness he lures the preacher on, and emptied them out and filled the boot again. With just at the moment when we are ready to urge his a show of much earnestness this process was kept surrender to Christ he riSes up, draws his fingers up for sometime. Their interest was directed into through his beard, shakes the dust from his gara new channel; they could not understand what I ments, exclaims in a loud voice, "There is no God was doing and were astonished that I had so easily but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet," and tripped away from a serious theological discus- strides away with an air of triumph. sion into the trivial business of shaking stones inside a boot. Their curiosity mounted until it could In some of our meetings, within doors and in no longer be curbed: the open, we have an audience that has come to- gether by consent to extract some pleasurable ex- "Whatever are you doing?" they asked. citement by engaging the foreign preacher in argument. On one occasion a number of young A VISIT TO MOSLEM BEDOUIN fellows came tumbling into my meeting for this purpose. As clearly as if the words had been "You are all acting like madmen and I deter- chiselled on their foreheads I read, "Weare here mined to help you ollt,~' T replied. for fun." I put away my Bible, erected the black- board, put down a sum in addition and invited This had the desired effect for it suddenly struck anyone in the company to come forward, take the them that their vociferation and whirling move- chalk and do the sum. Several came forward and ments were, in the circumstances, as foolish and attempted to add the figures but no one added futile as shaking stones in a boot. Then at my them correctly. invitation they squatted on the ground and together we examined calmly the message of Jesus. "If ever you are to rise above being water car- riers and laborers you must learn to count," I said. Another type we meet is the man who reacts to our message with a cunning camouflage, whose So we continued the exercise until they became aim is to humiliate the missionary. He makes a greatly interested and some could add up figures show of much earnestness and on occasion will before we finished. I invited them to return the sway his body to emphasize his concern for his following week to learn subtraction. soul. At the mention of forgiveness through Jesus Christ he will stare with the surprise of one who "This is the way into an office and a good job," has just made a great discovery. And as the I heard them say as they talked among themselves. story unfolds he will say in a whisper, "Proceed," They were so pleased with their progress that they all shook hands with me before taking their de- parture.
The following week they walked into my meet- ing, some of them with copy books and pencils. We put simple subtraction problems on the board. Interest reached a climax when some of the more intelligent ones were able to find the solution to what I had put down. At this juncture I wrote on the board: ADD TOGETHER: FORMAL PRAYERS, FASTS, LUST, LOVE OF THE WORLD.
SUBTRACT: DEATH.
RESULT: NOTHING.
What a discovery this was! Addition and sub- traction could be applied to theology.
Again this problem: ADD TOGETHER: SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
SUBTRACT: – THE REDEMPTION OF JESUS'
CHRIST.
RESULT: FORGIVENESS AND ETERNAL LIFE.
This proved to be the beginning of an interest- ing work among those young fellows, some of
MOSLEM REACTIONS TO THE GOSPEL
whom continued· to attend my Bible class for that, if he gives Christianity a trial and it does not years. fulfil expectations, he may find the doors of the Then there is the polite man, the person who fold he has left barred against him. He wants to wishes to be courteous and who would treat an make an experiment with a new faith, for he is outburst of antagonism from any religious quar- deeply conscious of the inadequacy of Islam to ter as an outrage against good manners. When provide the assurance of pardon that he seeks.
we introduce our Gospel to this type there is no He is like a man who, dissatisfied with the job he display of opposition and almost no evidence of interest. He simply allows you to talk on, and says, "Yes," to everything. He is like a man who, busy with his own thoughts, will occasionally make a remark to the child that chatters by his side just to show that he is not displeased at its interrup- tions, although he finds nothing in its chatter to be cherished as valuable information. When we have given our Message and ask this man what he thinks of it, and what attitude he is going to take towards Jesus, he skirts the issue by inviting us to drink tea, or by diverting attention in some way calculated to close the subject.
What are we to do with that sort of man? Va- rious methods may be employed in an effort to awaken real interest in him. I give one example: "Well, let's go inside and drink tea now," said my Moslem friend after I had made a serious en- deavor to point him to Christ. We sat down to sip tea and I put this question to him: "I'm interested in Islam; what steps would I be required to take if I decided to become a Mos- lem ?"
The question gripped him and he began to teach me with much solemnity. He had gone far when I injected extraneous matter.
"Are your shoes made of leather or cloth?" I inquired.
He talked on and every now and then I inter- jected some trivial question and gazed around me indifferently. He became annoyed and said: "You are not listening."
"It doesn't matter, just go on," I replied. There was a spell of silence and then I asked: "Do you consider me a bad listener?"
"You certainly are," came the quiet reply.
"Do you know who taught me to listen badly?"
"Say who?"
"The gentleman who sat with me outside the A MOSLEM FANATIC IN MOROCCO door a little time ago." has, would fain go out and search for another, but "So you are taking revenge?" he said with a is afraid that should his quest fail his present em- ployer might not take him back. grin. "N0, only trying to teach you a lesson."
A more interesting, as well as more hopeful, In dealing with this type, which is common type is the man who has a real interest in spiritual enough, rush tactics do not succeed. In exalting matters and who is willing to make some real sac- the capital doctrine of the agency of the Holy rifice to reach the assurance that there is a way Spirit in dealing with such men we must not over- to obtain God's forgiveness, an offer of Eternal look the means of patience and instruction from Life. But there are difficulties in the way. The the missionary's side. To expect such a man, man is encumbered by an imaginative ignorance whose mind is sodden with superstition and that dogs his steps the moment he steps out to cramped from bold thinking by ignorance, to take meet Christ. He is embarrassed with the fear one long stride towards the objective we place be-
fore him is rather too much. He states his need, types enumerated above, gathered in a meeting shows interest in the Gospel message, but shies at where the Gospel is to be preached with a view to the suggestion that he should pass immediately their conversion. Our aim is to gain a hearing over the chasm that separates Islam and Chris- from them all. It would simplify matters if one tianity. Every time the man is forced forward could separate them according to their class, and he reacts with caution. present the Gospel in a manner calculated to meet the particular needs of each section, but this is HIGHIDR CLASS MOSLIDMS OF MOROCCO rarely possible. We must take the audience as we find it. In an effort to arouse the indifferent from their torpor we may say something that will un- sheath the passions of the fanatic and so have a tumult before the meeting is well begun. Or if we stress the finality of the cross of Christ as a means of taking away sin we are likely to hear the muffled rumblings of some who consider it is their duty to counter this teaching by repetitions of Islam's creed. These cross-currents will in turn disturb the polite section of our meeting whose only desire is to conduct themselves in a proper manner, and who would probably rise up and go out if there was any sign of rowdyism.
To place such a meeting in the hands of an in- experienced missionary is to do an injustice to our cause. Some will say: "Preach the Gospel and leave it at that. Let them all have the pure Gospel: there our responsibility ends."
The fact is one considers the Gospel to be such a blessed thing, and such consequences hang upon its presentation, that it is felt to be a kind of sacrilege to offer it to a rabble.
In a meeting of the type I am describing there are two factors which determine what results will be produced. In the first place there is the factor of atmosphere; the missionary's first business is to create one that will harmonize with the exalted theme he desires to present. This cannot be One more type is the man who meets all our – approaches with deadly indifference. In extreme cases we are almost made to feel that we are A HILARIOUS GROUP INTERVIEWING A MISSIONARY speaking to a corpse! The man can be turned from one position to another, rolled over from achieved by a process of shouting and pounding. one doctrine to another, without showing interest What means, then, must we use to create an ator resistance. There was a half silly man who mosphere worthy of a serious undertaking such as lived in our village in the days of my boyhood. presenting the issues of life and death as con- We used to tease him. He had enough sense to tained in the message of the New Testament? look after a cow but little more.
"Ah, Geordi," we would say, "did you give the cow a drink?" "Yes," he replied. Of course there would not be any water in the pail. We would continue. "No," he would reply naively. That silly teasing comes back to my mind almost every time I meet the Moslem type I am now dealing with. He answers "yes" and "no," according as we suggest, no matter how contradictory the replies may be.
Now think of fifty Moslems, a mixture of the
The answer is: a vigorous and proper use of The second factor is, motive. I have not space the native tongue of one's audience. There is no to develop this point. The most ignorant audience, substitute for this. Accent is not a serious handi- not to speak of those on a higher level, is concerned cap, but to flounder about in a sea of foreign words with the motive of the preacher. This concern is is simply to tickle or irritate an audience accord- born, not of analysis but of instinct. There is an ing to its mood. An easy flow of language, studied instinctive feeling of enquiry in every audience and correct, has a tremendous effect. If one can we face as to the motive of our preaching. That is prove to the listeners that he has not only an easy why many missionaries will not develop any phase flow of their language, but also an understanding of work where money comes into play. Mercenary of its underlying significance and subtleties, the motives may easily be attributed, by primitive chances are in his favor for getting a good hear- people, to money transactions accompanying Gos-' ing. Sale points out in his introduction to the pel services. (See the New Testament on this Koran that the success of that book is due in no subject.) small measure to the jingle of its words. The opening chapter of the Koran, when well read, My aim here is to show that natives are consounds like the jingling of bells. If, then, we find stantly watching our motives, and unless we can the atmosphere in a meeting unsuited to our mes- convince them that all our work springs from the sage, we must not imagine that we are false to our motive of love, we labor in vain. That is why a mission if we introduce some extraneous matter warning about sin and its consequences, a referfor the purpose of getting the proper conditions ence to the futility of Islam or an exposure of its established. Here is a method I have employed contradictions should never be carried out with times without number when faced with a meeting any show of triumph, lest we give the impression difficult to handle: that our aim is to score points. Even when en- gaged in disputation, as must sometimes happen, The audience is a mixed multitude-antagon- our words should be the breathing of love. Livism, hilarity, indifference and suspicion surge ingstone's achievements among primitive Afrithrough the atmosphere, and one detects an effort cans were due, almost solely, to this fact: he conon the part of some to scuttle the meeting. To in- vinced them, not merely that he was an honest troduce Jesus Christ in this atmosphere would be man or a good man, but that he loved Africa and to give them the very opportunity they desire to its people intensely. wreck the meeting, for it would present the object for attack. Much to their surprise the preacher With these two factors-a suitable atmosphere, claims only that there is one God and He has no and divine love in our hearts to supply the impetus partners. The next step is to show that all the for all our work-we may say, even when statistics good things we receive in this life are from His deny their support, the faithful missionary of hand. A sense of reverence asserts itself, for this Christ "shall doubtless come again rejoicing is what they all believe. The next step is to show bringing his sheaves with him." that many of the boons that reach us, coming from God, do so through the medium of our own DISTRIBUTION OF MOSLEMS labors, as for instance when we plough. "That," we say, "is why it is a good thing to have a trade." By GOVERNMENTS We then introduce lines from one of their own poets. This creates interest. There is now an Total Moslems in the world-about ……. . 240,000,000 atmosphere of reverence and interest. We quote Moslems under British rule (including Egypt) 94,000,000 the lines again and again: Moslems under other Western Governments ., 94,000,000 Moslems under MQslem Governments ……. . 38,000,000 Mal jiddeen A parent's legacy Moslems under other Eastern Governments ., 14,400,000 Yiteem; Will finish hastily; DISTRIBUTION-BY CONTINENTS Ma yibka All will fade Khir snaa Except the trade America-North and South …………… . 130,000 Australia and Islands ……………….. . 1,030,000 Yideen. You handle daily. Europe and Soviet Russia …………….. . 12,000,000 Africa ……………………………. . 53,000,000 It may be said that there is no Gospel in this. Asia and Malaysia ………………….. . 154,000,000 True; and there is no Gospel in a banner, a bell or a band. Yet these are constantly in use in INTERESTING HISTORICAL DATA Christian work for the purpose of creating interest and a proper atmosphere preliminary to intro- Birth of Mohammed, 570 A. D. Death of Mohammed, ducing the Gospel. I have a whole collection of 632 A.D. Moslem poems, proverbs and stories which I use almost daily in my meetings, for the same purpose Hejira (Mohammed's flight from Mecca), 622 A. D. as I use low gear in my automobile; that is, to get Battle of Tours (defeat in West Europe), 732 A. D. Moslems driven from Spain (by Ferdinand II), 1492. a start. Capture of Constantinople by the Turks-1453 A. D. Young Turks proclaim new Constitution-1908 A. D. End Qf the Caliphate (Turkey), 1924 A. D. Religious freedom in Iran (Persia), 1925 A. D.
Moslems for
By REV. JOHN VAN ESS, D.D., Basrah, Iraq Missionary of the Reformed Church in America THE objective of missionary work is to bring With this as my creed, I go back tomorrow to Moslems to a saving knowledge of Christ. my school. It is the last week of my twenty-fifth But what is "a saving knowledge"? Is bap- year as a teacher of Arabs. For twenty years this tism of converts the criterion of success? Christian school was on the crest of a wave of popularity. Being the first in this region, it has Salvation is assuredly not merely a "ticket into educated or at least vitally touched about three the ark," so to speak. To "accept Christ" is not thousand young Arabs. Each of these has met merely to assent to the formula "Christ died for Cl).rist or heard His message in the vernacular my sins." Our Lord's constant emphasis on the from my own lips, months and years on end, in Kingdom implies a King and an organization, with systematic and progressive Bible study. Hundreds laws, implied strife and victory. This Kingdom of these young men have been absorbed into the begins on earth but will be an eternal Kingdom as political and economic life of the land, and you its King is eternal. When a man is saved, there- can count on the fingers of two hands those who fore, he is saved not so much "from" as "unto"- have definitely gone bad. I can explain it only on unto Life, unto obedience, to fruitfulness, to har- the assumption that the light of Christ has somemony, to eventual and complete adjustment to how produced a change on the film of their heart God. The Cross is not merely a tragic drama on and thought life. Calvary on a Friday afternoon in a city in Palestine. We read of the "Lamb slain from the foun- And now has come nationalism. The Iraq Govdation of the world," of the Word that was in the ernment, in its youthful exuberance, is establishbeginning with God, that was God. The Cross was ing schools of all grades everywhere. They are eternally in the heart of God; Calvary was its good schools, well equipped and staffed. They tragic demonstration in time. The Atonement has have behind them all the prestige and resources of a gigantic sweep, far wider than the salvation of the Government. There are many respects in a confessed minority. The Atonement is a process which, pedagogically speaking, I do not agree with of divine dimensions, a process that began with the system. But the Government has the right to God's eternal purpose of good, reached its supreme decide its own objective and to formulate its own demonstration on Golgotha, and was consummated method. In a missionary school I cannot compete on Easter morning. "If Christ be not raised, ye with the Government on its own ground, nor are yet in your sins." should 1. Two summers ago, driving along a coun- try road in Michigan, I asked a farmer, "Where So I do not visualize myself as standing on a does this road go?" He replied, "Stranger, if you dock with a boat-hook, desperately grasping at follow it long enough, this road will lead you to the souls that come rushing by. According to my the cemetery." As Christians we are often in Lord's precept and example I work for individuals, danger of going up the road to a mental cemetery, but all the time I am conscious that those whom I where lie the dead bones of dead controversies. may miss do not "drift beyond His love and care." As missionaries we are in danger of going up the Above the din and clatter of my clumsy efforts I road to a cemetery of method, if not of message. hear Christ say "I have overcome the world"- The famous Dr. Abraham Kuyper of Amsterdam the cosmos. And so I visualize the world, the said, "The fault of the Church is not that she made whole cosmic order, the whole social, economic, creeds, but that she stopped making creeds." political, as well as the religious set-up, as being brought into obedience unto Him. Anything else As a missionary educator, I am closing a chap- is defeatism and defeatism is treason. Pro rege is ter of twenty-five years, with no regrets, and with. the device on my banner. pleasantest memories, grateful that it has been my privilege to be a pathfinder, and looking around Physical death, then, can no longer be a cri- for new fields to enter and new paths to open. I terion of anything either to me or the Moslem. am deliberately cutting out the top of my tree, so My missionary work is only a beginning, and in- to speak, gradually eliminating the high school deed will never stop. Christ promised a Life that grades, and concentrating on the depressed classes now is and spoke of death that ceases to be.
[476 ] who comprise about two-thirds of the population. outside of myself, illuminating the whole and shed- They do not come within the perimeter of the offi- ding its power over myself and my pupils. But cial vision, and will not do so for a generation. there is the phenomenon. They are desperately poor but they are desperately in earnest. Their economic condition does not For years and years I had tried to present allow them to remain in school more than six years Christ to the Arab boys: His life, His Cross, His at the most, after which they must return to their salvation. A young American, fresh from college, villages or to their former economic plane, equip- with the light of heaven in his eye and the smile ped, we trust, to lift up that plane to a higher level. of God on his face, came to join me for a short Any higher education I leave to the government term. For fifteen months he taught the boys, lived schools which admittedly qualify only for govern- with them, played with them, brothered them. ment jobs and already have reached the point of Then, by an accident, God took him. The boys besupersaturation. Out of the morass of this little' gan to come to me and say, "Sir, now we underproblem I leave the government to struggle as best stand what you have been trying to teach us about it may. God; how He made Himself visible, and lived among us, and suffered with us, and died for us. And so, after a quarter of a century, I stand We have seen it in Mr. Raymond. That is what again where I stood at the beginning. I am again God did." I awoke to the fact that we cannot teaching small boys in simple subjects, and am make men hear the Atonement; we must make back in the daily irritations of discipline and routine. One of my former colleagues, a man of wide men see it. reputation, said to me: "Van Ess, I thought you had it in you to put up a college in Iraq." To I am quite unruffled by government competition which I replied, "I am really prouder of the fact and by decreased appropriations. Indeed, the dethat I had it in me not to put up a college in Iraq." With the rise of nationalism, missionary colleges pression and the consequent cuts have made me are being forced to the wall. India may be an ex- cut out a lot of underbrush, so that I can now see ception, though in the new constitution lurk the path more plainly. Even the casual remarks ominous obstacles. That they have done a splen- of well-meaning friends that the school seems to did service is undoubtedly true but how much be going backward, does not sting anymore. As room there remains for them is a serious question. But there remains a great deal of room at the a matter of fact, there is a far greater percentage bottom. This to my mind is the great challenge of Moslems in the school than ever before, and all to missionary educators today. The greatest con- available space is filled. "Why are most of your tribution we missionary educators can make is not boys barefoot?" asked a government inspector. in the doing of big things in a comparatively small "Why do all the barefoot boys come to me 7" I way, but in the doing of little things in a big way. answered. For that task we need all the mentality, and all the education and all the experience, and all the Where now does all this fit into my pretentious manhood, and all the linguistic ability, and all the creed? Next door to my house is an electric powerhumility, and all the spiritual equipment we can station. Into one end is fed the crude oil; out of command. When the world's proletariat awakes, the other end comes that strange, invisible, potent within the next generation, as it inevitably must, fluid called electricity. The cause is not at all will men, by that time, be familiar with us and commensurate with the result. The only function our message and our Lord, or will they, as in of the crude oil has been to be consumed. Some- Russia, revolt against Christianity that has cham- where along the line, in the dynamo in fact, it has pioned the rights of the privileged classes? If been transformed into energy. It is carried miles one great truth of the Cross of Christ is, in Jesus' away to the wharves where it raises heavy burown words, "I have power to lay down my life dens and lights dark streets and houses. I cannot, and I have power to take it again," surely we dis- and we cannot by education or any other method, ciples can best preach that Cross in our own daily change the world. But we can be consumed, willhumiliation. I, for one, wish to bear witness to ingly, humbly, gladly, for our efforts are made dythe compensation that comes from a humble effort namic in the Cross. "I fill up on my part that in that direction. which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." During the past year I have had a daily experience, which you may explain as you like but which Anyone who knew Turkey before the World is, none-the-Iess, intensely real. As I teach the War knows that there was not one ray of light Gospel lessons to class after class, lessons which I on the horizon of missionary work among Moshave taught literally hundreds of times, a shaft of lems. In five short years, what happened? The light seems to come from somewhere, certainly Caliphate was abrogated, the Sultan was expelled, and a republic was established; Islam was dis- established, womanhood was emancipated, suf- frage was made universal. The Turkish revolution came like a bolt from the blue. I have heard
famous professors of international affairs confess innovations, which seemed impossible a decade or their inability to explain it. It seems plain to me, two ago, are rapidly being realized. however. For eighty years the American missionaries had been working in Turkey, and prayers, Another innovation, the lawfulness of which the tears, the sighs, the labors, the gifts of God's has been hotly contested, is the translation of the people were consumed for Turkey. They were Koran into English. After a lengthy debate in the made dynamic in the eternal Cross of Christ; the secular press, the Government and the leaders of energy was banked up behind the barrage of God's reform have gotten round the difficulty by affirmpurpose until in His own time He let it loose on ing that while the Koran can never be translated Turkey, and something more had to happen. into any other language, what is now being at- tempted is to translate the teaching of the Book A couple of generations ago a young Chinese especially for the benefit of the English-speaking lad named Sun Yat Sen learned in a mission school peoples. The large increase of religious articles in Honolulu the three uniquely Christian prin- and debates in the secular press, both Arabic and ciples: Liberty, Democracy, Social Justice; today English, is another noticeable development, and if China is in the throes of a new birth. And so it to this we add the broadcasting of the chanting of is in India, and I believe in Russia. To me the the Koran several times a day, while Christians great and humiliating fact about Russia is that the are not allowed to broadcast even a reading of the Church has let Communism steal her thunder of Scripture, we get an idea of the strength of the demanding social justice. propaganda that is being daily carried on.
From the segment of a circle we can tell from The remarkable growth in Egypt of Moslem rethe degree of curvature, not only how big the ligious societies to further the teaching of Islam circle is but where the center is. And everywhere from every aspect impresses itself upon Christian in the round world today we can see the segments residents. The most active of these is the Young being filled in, all centering in Christ, a gigantic Men's Moslem Association. It is a regular centre sweep, a stupendous Kingdom of Divine dimen- of political and religious intrigue. The same sions. spread is also noticeable in the Islamic periodicals and magazines, which are distributed far· and So I go back to my little school tomorrow, con- wide, even in the remotest villages. This new fident of contributing a small but none the less a movement has even reached the neglected southern real part to one segment, and overwhelmed by a European Moslems, and very recently these held sense of unutterable privilege. How many bap- a Moslem conference in Geneva, so that they tisms? A greater missionary than any of us said: should not be left behind in the reforms. Needless "Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach." to say, Islam is being interpreted now-a-days in terms of Christian doctrine. MODERN REFORMS IN ISLAM The agitation of the Feminist Movement against The disintegration of Islam is true only in a plurality of marriage, the prevalence of divorce very qualified sense. The old and primitive type (at present 47 per cent), and the neglect of chilof Islam is giving way to a new form of teaching dren is but like a voice crying in the wilderness, and to an interpretation in line with modern which soon dies in the arid air of Islam. The Western ideas and philosophy. This new move- greatest hindrance to Arab advance and the ment carries with it the vitality and momentum of spread of Islam has been hitherto the wide diveryouth, accompanied with the zeal, if not fanati- gence of views and the animosities among the difcism, of the old Islam, so that, in a very real sense, ferent states, but the Alliance recently signed there is revival in Islam. among all the Arab states and with Egypt joining them, presents a united Islamic front. This revival is most in evidence in Egypt, which is taking the lead among Moslem countries. It Islam is essentially a primitive religion, a fact has actually carried along with it the great centre of which all the leaders boast -and emphasize on of Islamic learning, the Azhar University, that all occasions; no wonder if we see it breaking immobile institution which has for the last thou- down under the demands of modern progress and sand years defied any scheme of reform. The cur- civilization; they are trying to reconstruct it riculum of the University now demands the study along modern lines. It will remain to be seen of science along European lines, and of modern whether such external reforms will prove the relanguages. Promising students have even been vival or the death of Islam.–Condensed from an sent to European universities, and other startling article by an Egyptian Christian in Egypt, "Gen- eral M-vssion News," 1936.
PATIENTS AT A WAYSIDE DISPENSARY IN
A Christian Doctor Among Moslems By PAUL HARRISON, M.D., Muscat, Arabia Missionary of the Reformed Church in America ~~N0. ' I DO NOT believe in forcing religion with God. I have never met a missionary who was down people's throats. I believe in med- foolish enough to suppose that a man could be ical missions though." forced into Christian faith, nor wicked enough to More mistakes it would be hard to put into two attempt it.
sentences. Ordinary missionaries force religion And if any have illusions as to the redemptive upon the sensitive innocence of the unprotected, capacity of Atebrin pills, and Elastoplast band- whereas the medical missionary who has re- ages, and Davis and Geck sutures, the medical mis- nounced the Devil and all his works, redeems them sionary has none. Men with their hernias skill- with pills, plasters, and catgut sutures. fully repaired, stab their neighbors just as fero- Neither the minister nor his medical colleague ciously in the bazaar, and marry their fourth wife, is so foolish. None of us try to force anything on a baby of twelve, with just as animal a glitter in anybody. Those who are willing, we introduce to their eyes, as they did before. None watch the Jesus Christ, with as deep and discriminating an dreadful pageant of human ignorance, and sin and introduction as desire anct background make pos- suffering, with quite so deep and terrible an under- sible. Christ's contact with them depends even standing as the doctor, none know so well as he, more on the depth of our surrender to Him, and that the wages of sin is death, and before it is the radiance of our daily walk in His company. death, it is disease.
In the affairs of the spirit coercion is poison. Be- And so the medical missionary thanks God with fore us always is the beauty of Christ's example, all his heart that he is as other men are; i. e., an as He led free men into a redeeming fellowship evangelist whose life object is to bring Christ to 479
those who need Him. Ignorance has crippled the afternoon, in the hospital courtyard, and on weekmen whom Mohammed captured so many years day evenings they saw Christ on the Cross through ago. Sin has overcome them. Their diseases the stereopticon. Smooth sailing? Not always. come from sin. So does their poverty which is A month ago our outlying dispensary in Nuchl, 75 almost worse than disease in these terrible areas. miles from Muscat, was summarily closed, and we So, also, that emptiness of soul which makes the ejected. But the people there want us to return, inner poverty of the rich, worse many times, than and it will be only a short time probably, before the outer poverty of the poor. If only Christ can we are back. fill some of these souls with the radiance of His Eternal life, they will be a light for the entire There are many areas in the world where the community, just as He promised. Yes,. and in medical missionary is still a pioneer in the simplest sense of that word. No missionary except he. can AN ARAB CHIEF, WITH DR. HARRISON WHOM HE INVITED enter. Central Arabia is such an area. Sois TO VISIT HIS TRIBES IN INLAND ARABIA Afghanistan, and Tibet, and parts of Northwest China. Often even he can go only by special invithat radiant group, Christ Himself will find the tation, and very infrequently. Sometimes he can one joy and happiness that men are capable of take his evangelistic colleague with him. On~e I giving Him. heard of a consecrated music teacher finding an entrance when even the Doctor was shut out. But What part have the medical missionaries played the brunt of this campaign is carried by the docin the great Eternal enterprise of carrying Christ tors. They visit such places on medical tours, to the Mohammedans? A genuine part and an treat those who need medical help, present Christ honorable one. We go where no one else can. to those who will listen, make many friends. Harold Storm made a trip two years ago which included pretty well the whole southern coast of On occasion theYl;re driven out, but they re~ Arabia. With trifling exceptions, that whole sec- turn.. and eventually tlieMission is invited to come tion can be reached only by the medical mission- in and establish a permanent station. Such a staary. And can the Gospel be preached on such a tion may begin with only the medical missionary tour? It can. Last year in Sur, a wild and fanati- in residence. Eventually he is joined by his evancal place, men listened to the Gospel every Sunday gelistic colleague.
It is a great step in advance when a permanent mission station is established. Then the impact of Christian family life is felt, and that is by far the heaviest piece of artillery that we have. The difference between the Christian and the Moham- medan family is an apologetic which admits of no answer. But in this station too, the active medical work of the mission hospital has a great part to play. Dozens and scores and hundreds come to the dispensary. They do not become Christians, but they do become friends. And in the hospital itself men listen to the Christian message with a more friendly ear than elsewhere, and during their days of comfortable convalescence, the same mes- sage can be repeated many times, until some de- gree of comprehension is reached. Christ walks up and down the aisles of these primitive mission- ary hospitals, and the doctor succeeds in making Him visible to some of those who are his guests.
Abdullah was such a patient. He came with the largest ulcer of the year, and we have many ulcers by no means small. His measured six by four inches. Only the swollen condition of the foot made such dimensions possible. After three months he is nearly healed. Abdullah is one of' those fine, sincere, gentle souls, who show that Christ is indeed the light that lighteth every man. The Gospel story was water to his thirsty soul. Abdullah is one of the fortunate few who can read. For weeks he was a hospital fixture, with his leg
A CHRISTIAN DOCTOR AMONG MOSLEMS
stretched out so it could lie in the sun, while he emerging medical profession in these new states earnestly studied the New Testament. He follows can reach full growth. In the meantime the med- Christ now, with deep sincerity, and just ahead is ical missionary can take under his wing these newthe realization that Christ and Mohammed do not fledged doctors, and to their science add ethics, walk the same road. Abdullah returned home two and to their ethics compassion, and to their comweeks ago. May God keep him. passion, freedom from the love of money, and if when he has finished with some of them, these Young men of the community make up the hos- things be in them and abound, he will have made pital staff. They are chosen after much elimina- a very great contribution indeed. And the most tion of inferior material, because they have unusual deftness of hand, and kindliness of soul. PATIElNTS AT THE MISSION HOSPITAL They are not Christians when they enter the hospital service. No such material is available. But important members of this group which he trains, some of these boys come to see Christ as He walks will be the Christian doctors who become under beside them, ministering to men and women who his hands, pillars in the church, and ornaments of suffer. Mobarrek is such a convert. The whole the Kingdom of God. town of Muttreh has been lit up by the beauty and simplicity of his Christian confession. Two of his The medical missionary is a member of the comrades in the hospital have already followed his great eternal succession, through which from example, and the Sultan himself has listened to Abraham to Hudson Taylor, God has unfolded His his testimony. program of Divine power and salvation. The Church of Christ has been set up in the Moham- The medical missionary is a missionary in his medan world. In Iran she has reached the magown right. He is also a member of a mission sta- nificent virility of youth. Even in Arabia the intion where team work is very important. The fant church has been born. Thus does the last evangelistic impact of such a team can be very citadel of human error and sin slowly open to the great. Only a small part of the preaching can be love of Christ. The medical missionary's heart done by the doctor. Proclaiming the truth of is filled with gratitude that in this great adventure Christ is the evangelist's task, illustrating the of the Divine Will, he has been permitted to have grace of Christ is the doctor's (though to be sure a share, and at times to carry the flag. the evangelist does that too). The intelligent and effective mercy of the hospital is a Christian les- ISLAM AS A RELIGION son of the first order. It is the hospital which makes the Christian Gospel intelligible. Moreover Moslem Creed: "There is no God but God and Mohammed there are Christian lessons of no mean order in is the prophet of God." Includes pantheism and scientific medicine per se. Truth is one thing, and animism. error something else. Noone who assists at surgical operations doubts that for very long. The Jesus is regarded as a human prophet inferior to Mopatients believe it too. Ignorance is one thing and hammed. discriminating knowledge something else, and no one knows that quite so wen as the patient to Materialistic and sensual Paradise. whom an accurate diagnosis brings relief after Five supreme duties-witnessing, saying prayers (five many disappointments. Cleanliness is different times a day), almsgiving, the Fast of Ramadhan, pilfrom filth, a rule that holds in the realm of the grimage to Mecca. (Also Holy War.) spirit as well as in the world of bacteria. There Weakness or Islwm-formalism, fatalism, militarism, senis no antidote to superstition like the microscope. sualism, stagnation, polygamy, slavery, blind adher- A louse there, looks far more dangerous than the ence to tradition. evil eye itself. St?'ength of Islamr-belief in one supreme imnipotent God, loyalty to their faith, people of one sacred book, ag- The function of the medical missionary is a tem- gressive in witnessing, courageous. porary function. He understands that. We do not send medical missionaries to Japan. Medical schools are making their appearance in nearly all of the Moslem countries. There is such a school in Teheran, Iran. There is another in Baghdad. They will give first class medical training. In such a country the medical missionary faces a new problem, and new problems mean new opportunities, if only we can see them with God's eyes. The place and the need for the medical missionary are passing away, but it will be years before the
Power of the Printed
By MABEL H. ERDMAN, Beirut, Syria i Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. s. A. 1Jie– I .l"". "/ LITTLE old man with greying beard and than all else I was impressed by the beauty and kindly, smiling hazel eyes sits in a wheel the purity of Christ's teaching and character. chair on the veranda of a Home for the "Suddenly I was covered with confusion. This Aged in a near East city. His face is lined, but thing which I considered beautiful, this story the Tines are those of a thinker. He is talking to which was written in my own sacred tongue, was his Moslem neighbor – a thin, time-scarred old a despised Christian thing, a false book which they gentleman whose bed has been pulled out on the dared to set up in comparison with the holy balcony. The first old man is telling something Koran! Hastily I hid it lest I be detected.
of his early life. A missionary friend listens while "Days slipped by, during which I condemned the tale is told. myself on the one hand and indulged my curiosity "Years ago I lived in the Holy City where I was on the other. Finally I decided that there was no a keeper in a large mosque. I was a devout Mos- harm in carrying the book about with me. After lem, wearing the green turban to which I was en- all, my devotion to Islam could not be questioned.
titled as a direct descendant of the Prophet. Five I managed to read all of the Gospel of Mark, and times a day when the muezzin called, I prayed then, still firm in my own faith, I made bold to with the faithful. One of my duties was to clean visit the foreign lady again and ask for other and fill the many ornate lamps which hung in that books of the same sort. I do not know what im- mosque. I was also expected to collect the rents pression I made upon her, but she received me due from houses owned by the mosque. In these kindly and without question gave me three other houses lived all manner of people, the better apart- Gospels.
ments being let to foreigners from whom we could "In a short time I had read all four Gospels and demand a high rental. One of these tenants was then I secured the Book of Acts. It was not long a lady who lived alone. I wondered why she had then before I had to acknowledge that Jesus the left her far-away home to live among strangers, Christ had won me as he had Paul of Tarsus, who, to judge by myself, loved her little. though my own conversion was much less dra- "One day, quite accidentally, I learned why she matico I was filled with a great longing to serve had come. When she gave me her rent money she my Saviour and Friend, who had revealed God to handed me a small book. I suspected at once that me in a new light-as a loving Father to whom I it must be an accursed book of the Christians, and was precious.
had it not been for the precious money and the "So strong was my new faith, so compelling His courtesy due a tenant of the holy mosque, I should plea to leave all and follow Him, that I knew I have dropped the hated thing which seemed to must make open declaration. The great mosque burn into my hand. As soon as possible I bowed became an intolerable place; the copies of the politely and left the foreign lady. sacred Koran, the shining lamps, the very rugs "There were other collections to be made that leered at me.
day, and lacking opportunity" to do otherwise, I "I knew that I must turn my back on all this.
slipped the small book into my pocket. I forgot My parents would disown me and disinherit me; about it until later in the day when I sat alone in a my friends would seek to destroy me; my wife shadowed corn~r of the great mosque. Curiosity would have to do as her parents and mine decreed, overcame my fear and I opened the book sur- and I should have to leave her and the children.
reptitiously. "Weeks and months slipped by as I hesitated.
"Many years have gone by now, but never shall My life was comfortable, even luxurious. I was I forget my first impression of the beauty of that loved, respected, trusted. In giving up Islam I '
story. It was the Gospel according to Saint Mark, should be giving up all security and respectability and as by some outer force I was impelled 'to read as I knew them. But while I debated about this through the verses which described John the Bap- other Prophet and compared His life with that of tist, Christ's Baptism, His temptation and the Mohammed, I knew what I must do; and at last calling of some of the disciples. Perhaps more I did it.
[482 ] "The result was all that I had anticipated, but Dark tales were whispered over backgammon though my suffering was great, I felt no sorrow boards and between sips of thick, sweet coffee- nor regret. There were many new friends now tales of clever thefts, of quick, sure fingers on to replace the old, whom I loved with a greater knife and trigger, of amazing feats of horseman- love than ever and forgave wholeheartedly when ship and of unbelievable endurance.
they persecuted me. Penniless, I left my home city J-'s quiet, pale Armenian wife, whom he had with all of its dear associations, and traveled taken from a refugee camp just after the World northward. Everywhere Christians who had War, had borne him a son and a daughter; but for heard of me welcomed me, but whenever I encoun- him there was no united family life; it had never tered those of myoId faith, they reviled me merci- occurred to him that such was necessary or de- lessly. I was refused shelter in every Moslem sirable. His own mother had often sent him as a home; I was shamefully cursed and ejected from boy to carry supplies of money and food, to her restaurants and all public places where I was father's home, against the inevitable day when her known. husband should tire of her. Many a day on the "For a time doubt assailed me. I wondered road he had met other boys, his friends, going on whether God had forgotten me. Things were the same sort of secret errand. Home for J – strange as I traveled away from home; I did not meant shelter from rain and cold, even from ene- slip easily into the new customs and religious mies to some extent, but little else.
practices. I missed my loved ones, particularly It happened one day that J-, natty in his well- my sons, who would now grow up considering fitting uniform, passed a meeting house in the their father a renegade, an infidel, a betrayer of center of his home town and saw a crowd of peo- the faith. Perhaps these were the hardest hours ple assembled. Curious, he looked in and saw his of my life. wife and children there. Upon questioning some "But when my sorrow was deepest, when the bystanders he learned that an evangelist had come outlook seemed blackest, God made Himself known from the far west to help the harassed Armenian to me, and I was able to rise up and follow Him refugees to return to their ancient faith in God with renewed strength and vision. and His Prophet Jesus Christ. J- was amused, "Now after all these years I can testify that and leaning against the rear wall of the building, He has never forsaken me at any time and that listened while the foreigner read a story which He is worthy of every sacrifice made for His sake. seemed to be all about a new way of Life. The I would not go back to the old IHe, with all of its preacher then talked simply about repentance and security and material comfort, for all that the salvation. It was all so easy to understand, so world has to offer. I have tried to witness to straightforward, that J – was amazed. The meet": Him, to tell others of His love and beauty, and as ings continued for several days, and J- attended life's shadows lengthen around me, I realize that all of them, hearing little more than the simple I must work harder that no time be lost." Gospel story told in none-too-perfect Turkish.
Thus the fascinating tale came to a close. When- That story was enough to change his life. From ever he can do so, this truly converted believer that time on J – knew that his old ways were not reads from his "Beautiful Book" to his compan- in keeping with God's will. To his astounded asions, and if we were there to see, we should note sociates he declared his new faith as openly as he that many a face is softened, that new light comes had boasted of his heinous deeds. He resigned his into hard, cold eyes which have seen much bitter- position with the gendarmerie, and rearranged his ness and disappointment, for the Prince of Peace whole life. There was little he could do to earn an hovers near. honest living, but he did what his hands could find to do, often enough working as a day laborer. *** After their first amusement at J-'s new A few years ago a gay young man rode daily "stunt," his former friends and associates began through the crowded streets of the northern towns to persecu~e him. Finding that he paid little heed of Syria, cursing and jostling the shepherds and to them, they spat upon him, kicked and reviled other traders who came in from the desert to sell him; caused him to be thrown into prison. They their produce. His bright, dark eyes sparkled as were humbled and astounded the more when he he drew rein, for he knew his power and his repu- turned the other cheek. He who had once been so tation for cruel justice. His uniform indicated quick to retaliate now bore the harshest treatment that he was one of the gendarmerie, and well was without reproach. His former powerful char- he known in village and town and out in the far- acteristics were changed and beautified. His rest- away places of the desert. No danger was too less energy led him on to greater and greater tasks great for him to face, no journey too distant for and sacrifices; his splendid physique enabled him his strength. Bold, winsome, rash, J – was at to endure great suffering and deprivation without once the terror and the pride of his associates. apparent harm.
In quiet moments J- sadly counted the years of Before long a crowd gathered, and J- took his life which had been spent in wickedness and occasion to tell his story of Jesus and to distribute riotous living, the blood-stained deeds of his im- tracts. The Sheikh listened as attentively as the petuous youth, and he longed to recall them and others, and when J- had finished he stood up and dedicate them to God. told an amazing story himself. J-Iater recounted this story to us in detail. Some years have passed during which -he has grown steadily in grace. He is tireless in his task About three years ago the Sheikh went to the of spreading the Gospel, his journeyings covering dyeing establishment of an Armenian Christian. the breadth and the length of his native land. On the table in the small shop lay an open book. The bitterest of his enemies are being won over, one by one, for the old charm of J – coupled with "What book is that?" asked the Sheikh, using this new, compelling love, is irresistible. Now and Turkish as readily as his native tongue, Arabic. then there is one who still distrusts, even persecutes him, but to no avail. Into prisons, among "A Bible,!' answered the Armenian. castaways of all faiths, he takes Bibles and Gos- "Is it the good book of which the Koran pel portions and religious tracts. At the doors of speaks?" mosques, in the homes of rich and powerful "Yes," answered the Armenian, a bit on his sheikhs he preaches Christ and distributes lit- guard with so staunch a Moslem leader. The Arerature. menian, though fearless in his faith, had experi- enced something from the fanaticism of Moslems. Recently he was visiting some of the scattered "Tell me about it," persisted the Sheikh with hamlets on the edge of the north Syria desert genuine interest. when he met a man whom he had not seen for "Let me read from it," answered the dyer; "it some years. At sight of that man J- thanked tells its own story better than I can." God and said, He picked up the Book and read some chapters in Genesis. As he read the Sheikh received a new "Brother, do you remember me?" vision of the greatness and the power and the majesty of God as compared with the sinfulness "Yes, indeed," responded the lean shepherd, his of man. The Armenian saw that the effect was keen eyes narrowed in his weather-beaten face, real and read on. "you used to be in the gendarmerie. I have not Later his customer returned and begged to borseen you lately, but I remember you well." row the Book. The dyer volunteered to secure for him an Arabic version, and with this copy in his "Do you remember that once a goat was stolen hands the Sheikh began at the first chapter of from you?" Genesis and read through all of the books of the Old and New Testaments. When he reached the "Ap, my friend," laughed the shepherd, "a goat last verse of Revelation he began again and read is often stolen from a shepherd in these parts. as before. What can I do? The poor have no rights." After that second reading he was convinced that "I stole a goat from you once,and I thought I the only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. was clever to do it without being caught. My Then one night he dreamed that his city was being friends and I had a fine feast." destroyed because of the wickedness of the people, as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Great "You?" grinned the shepherd in mock surprise. was his grief and helplessness when he turned "I cannot believe it." away from the awful scene-and there he beheld Jesus upon the cross. He dreamed that he rose "But yes, I did," averred J- in all seriousness. up, threw his arms about the bleeding feet and "And now I wish to pay for that goat, and to ask wept for his sins and those of his people. your forgiveness. Here is the money." So it happened that when J- came to this town Overcome, the poor man who seldom sees even the Sheikh took courage openly to declare himself paper money, for he trades in kind and is always a Christian. "Do not call me 'Sheikh' any more; in debt to the money-lenders, exclaimed, "Is it I am a Chris-tian, a follower of Jesus Christ," he possible that one steals a goat, is not caught, and declared to the crowd. then comes back to pay for it?" The Word of God is living and active, and sharper than "Yes; it is possible," responded his companion, any two-edged sword. Hebrews 4: 12. "if one steals while he is in darkness and sin and then learns to know Jesus Christ." My Word shall not return unto Me void. Isaiah 55: 11.
What better sermon could have been preached Surely the Word of God is a powerful witness to that poor, ignorant Bedouin of the desert? to Christ and can be used to achieve great results if we can but put it into the hands of men and Leaving the desert, J- went to one of the larger women everywhere. towns and was invited to meet the head man who owns more than three-fourths of the town's land and houses. He bears the important title of Sheikh and is a man of great influence.
Experience with
By REV. FRANK LAUBACH, Ph.D., Mindanao, Philippines Missionary of the American Board C. F. M.
FOR four centuries the Moros of Mindanao pealed to the supreme court, entering a plea of fought the same relentless war with the Span- self-defense. Our case was so well prepared that iards and Filipino Christians that the Moros Pambaya was ~cquitte!i. He is now my/fast friend (Moors) of Africa had fought in Spain during the and will be yours if I introduce him to you." five centuries before Columbus discovered America. The annual war in the Philippines would So this man .]?ambaya, who so nearly spent commence as soon as the winds were favorable for twenty years in,i'Irrison, became my friend, taught the Moro vintas to sail northward, or for the me the .Maranaw language, and has been our Spanish galleons to sail southward. strongesfhulw3;rk ever since. He has toiled with us for cOU)ltless. hours in building up a Maranaw When the United States took over the Philip- dictionary, haS'-helped in the translation of the Old pines in 1898, we inherited this endless war with Testament stories and the Gospel of Luke, and has the Moros. American soldiers, with their greatly ~ided in the preparation of many other books.
.superior weapons, broke the power of the Moros But his chief function is to keep his ear to the and instilled in them a sense of fear and respect, ground for signs of opposition and to make friends though outlaws have hidden in the forests and Qut of potential enemies. No missionary in a performed exploits of murder and robbery every Moslem country can get on very well without some year up to the present day. man of that type.
In the year 1915 my wife and I visited Lanao for the first time, hoping to establish a mission for the Moros. We found the air tense, the nerves of the officials taut, the Moros sullen, and rumors of impending attacks being whispered from ear to ear. We were told plainly that no Christian missionary effort would be tolerated as it would certainly add to the fanatical fury of the Moros.
We left Lanao to work in other parts of the Philip- pines, awaiting a more propitious day.
It was not until 1929 that we felt the time had arrived. A large percentage of the trouble makers had been imprisoned or killed, and the Province had become comparatively quiet. Because there MORO GI1,;LS'l'H:tNK;iTH:EY WILL DIE U' THEIR PICTURE· IS was no school suitable for the education of our 'l'AJ(;EN,BUT 'fHEY Tf.:KE A CHANCE TO son, and also because we were not sure how safe pLlllASE THE; MISSIONARy Lanao would be for women and children of missionaries, I left my wife and son in· the northern Tclie first :rno.n~~,be:fo.:re I had found Pambaya, wer¢, among the hardest Of my life. I did not seem part of the Philippines, and entered Lanao alone. to be able to get the right beginning. I climbed The officials still expressed misgivings about any Signal Hill, back of my cottage, night after night, religious work being attempted, and permitted me with no companion but my dog Tip, and remained to begin my work on the understanding that it until long ·after dark while the finger of God would be educational and social, and not contro- painted marvelous colors against the western sky.
versial. I was a missionary of Christ, with my I recall the heartaches and the yearnings with lips practically sealed~ which my eyes roved around the lake below me, I asked a big-hearted American, Lieutenant where the Moros had their villages. The deepest Cramer, whether he knew a Moro whom I could spiritual experiences are born of pain, if one lets trust. Cramer replied: that pain drive him to God. Out of the loneliness "There is a Moro who was convicted of murder of Lanao came some of the most precious soul ex- and sentenced to serve for twenty years. Feeling periences of my whole life. During one of these that this sentence was too heavy, some of us ap- sunset trysts I was telling God aloud that He must [485 ]
guide my pathway, for the obstacles were like a sinless man to be crucified. That would not be mountains. I spoke aloud, for nobody could hear justice." He snatched Jesus out of Gethsemane, me but God and Tip. Then my lips began to sp.eak and then changed Judas into the appearance of to myself, voicing a new light which had come Jesus, and allowed the Jews to crucify Judas, as into my mind: he deserved. The Koran teaches that Jesus now sits on the right hand of God interceding for men If you want these Moros to be fair to your religion, be -more kindlihearted than the Moslem God. In fair to theirs. Study their Koran with them. Medina there are four graves: that of Mo- hammed; that of Fatima his daughter; that of I told some of the Mohammedan priests that I Omar, the greatest Moslem missionary, and an wanted to study the Koran, and the next day my empty grave. Tradition says that Jesus will re- turn, will reign a thousand years, will die, and MORO POET WHO WON A CONTEST will be buried in that fourth grave.
house was full of priests and hadjis with their What broke down the wans between the Moros Korans, all of them bent upon making a Moham- and myself more than anything else was a pammedan out of me. We found to our delight that phlet published by the Moslem Propaganda Society there was much in common in our religions. Islam of India. This pamphlet was brought to me to has about seventy-two prophets, of whom we show me how to become a good Moslem. To my found the names of sixty in our Bible. delight I was able to translate into Moro, before all the priests in my house, these important facts: Those who do not know the Koran will be surprised to find how it exalts Jesus. He was born of Islam has four holy books: a virgin, according to Moslem tradition, but he (1) Torah, or the books of Moses; was not crucified. In the Garden of Gethsemane, (2) Jabur, Qr the Psalms of David; so the tradition goes, God said: "I will not permit (3) Kita.J Injil, or the Life of Jesus; (4) The Koran of Mohammed.
"I have studied these first three sacred books many years," I told my Moslem friends, "and will tell you all I know, while you tell me all you know about the Koran."
Two or three of the men studying the Koran knew English and so acted as interpreters for the others and for me. They began to ask for a class to teach them to read English.
"Our constant warfare with the Christians has left us far· behind the rest of the Islands," they told me, "and we want to catch up."
The Moros had burned down fifty school build- ings in the years just preceding my arrival, and were for the most part unfriendly to the schools. Yet they began to realize that they were harming themselves and nobody else by this attitude. I knew that for these adults the mastery of English would be a very long process, so I said: "Suppose you learn to read your own language first with English letters. Then it will be easier to learn to read English."
This sounded reasonable, so we began to pre- pare lessons in the Maranaw language with Eng- lish letters.. Nothing had ever been printed in their language up to that time. We had to decide upon an alphabet. Fortunately the Philippine languages have adopted perfectly phonetic alpha- bets, and we followed these in all but one letter. We needed but sixteen letters in all.
At first we used the ordinary sentence method of teaching, but this seemed unnecessarily long for learning sixteen simple letters; so the Moros joined me in seeking a method better adapted to their own language. Month after month they
MY EXPERIENCE WITH MOSLEMS
toiled with me, making positively exciting prog- are you going to get· your money back? Our ress. As the course became easier the numbers imams will not teach us the Koran unless we pay who desired to learn increased, until at last hun- them in advance." dreds came to the large old building we had purchased. Thus began the first of those literacy This gives us our opportunity to tell the religion campaigns based on the principle of "each one which under other circumstances they would be teach five more" which have since spread to many unwilling to consider: parts of Malaysia, India, Africa, and Latin America. "I have studied the wonderful life of Nabi Isa. From the time he awoke in the morning until he The second year the highest Chieftain in south- closed his eyes at night he spent every minute of ern Lanao asked me to attend a three-day feast the day helping people. He was always teaching which he was holding in celebration of the opening of his school for adults. He had moved out of DOCTOR LAUBACH AND PAMBAYA, A MORO FRIEND his largest house and turned it into a school building. The day I arrived was Friday. Kakai Daga- or encouraging, or defending or healing or saving langit, for this was the chieftain's name, asked me somebody. That is a wonderful way to live. If to accompany him to the mosque, and I accepted. everybody in Lanao lived like that we would have I washed my hands and feet as is the Moro cus- a paradise. The climate is perfect, but the people tom, and followed the chief into his mosque. He hate and fight and defraud one another. Because took me to the front prayer rug, placed a black I see everybody must help everybody else, I am hat-far too small for me-on my head, and said trying to teach all I can. And I have discovered I was a "Christian pandita." By this brilliant the secret of happiness! When I was looking for name he hoped that Islam and Christianity might happiness I could not find it. It escapes like the be reconciled. He returned my courtesy by at- rainbow. And when I harm people I feel mean tending our Christian church, dressed in a magnificent shining satin coat and trousers. Since inside. But when i spend my day teaching peothat time I have accepted the invitations of many of the highest chieftains to attend their mosques. ple, my heart sings. Go out and teach others and do not take a cent for it, and see how your heart Kakai Dagalangit has one of the most brilliant will sing!" minds I have ever met. He asked me endless searching questions and told me the populations of all the principal countries of Europe – some army captain had told him what they are. This chieftain also made a contribution to education which may have very far-reaching effects.
When the depression came I had to call all my teachers and the leading chieftains of Lanao together and announce that the little money I had left would permit me to retain only three out of nineteen teachers. Kakai Dagalangit arose and said, with his usual brevity: "This campaign is the most important thing that ever came to Lanao. It shall not stop. Every person who learns must teach five others. I will see that they do."
This is how it happened that we began the "each one teach five" idea, which proved a great success in Lanao, and has proven a cheap and effective method of reaching adults in their homes throughout the Philippines and indeed in every country I have since visited.
A literacy campaign along these lines has proven to be a very fine way to make friends. If you sit beside an illiterate and teach him with patience and real love in your heart, he grows more and more surprised at this new experience, and at last interrupts the lesson to ask: "Why are you teaching me without pay? When
Thus we introduce Jesus at the point where He so tenderly, so perfectly as in the face of Jesus. is most irresistable-His great burning heart and Until men have known Jesus they have not known His loving service. We help people to act like the best fact about God, that He is, that any being, Christians long before they think of becoming even God, can be as good as Jesus! Christian in name. Arabs are poor slipshod business men. Jews There was equal eagerness on the part of stu- and Christians can beat them in business with the dents from Irak studying in the American Univer- utmost ease-:-and do! Mohammed· met Christians sity in Beirut, and Iraneans whom we met in who told him wonderful stories about the lovely Turkey. Now as I write from Dar es Salaam in Jesus-and then proceeded to take advantage of East Africa, I am having one of the most thrilling him in their business transactions. The result experiences of my whole life preparing lessons was that Mohammed, one of the supreme religious and teaching Moslem men every morning, and geniuses of all time, loved Christ and hated Christeaching Moslem illiterate women every afternoon. tians! If Christians had lived what Christ taught A leading African Mohammedan imam is collect- and lived, Mohammed might have become the ing the illiterates. With the memories of thou- greatest Christian since Paul. So ten thousand sands of Mohammedans who have looked at me times over this planet one runs across instances and held my hand in loving appreciation, I feel deeply as well as believe profoundly, that the day TEACHING MORO ADULTS IN THE MARKET PLACE for embittering controversy is past.. For centuries it was the fashion for the two religions to expose of the fact that Christ's chief enemies are Christhe worst features they could find or imagine about tians who betray Christ in their lives and their one another. The time has come to call a truce to business relations. this, and for these two religionS to appreciate one another. We ought to be fair to Islam, for we need to ask mercy in judging Christianity. We have failed so There is much Christians may learn from Islam tragically that we are asking the world to believe if they will look for it. For example a good Mos- that "Christianity has never yet really been tried." lem prays five times a day. Of course Christians We ask others to begin to try it, though Christian are supposed to pray oftener than that-but how nations have never tried it themselves. many of us do? For Moslems the one overwhelming fact is the will of God. We who have come I often hear Christians in Asia and Africa say: into contact with Islam have been reminded that "You can't trust any of them." I dare not tell the one imperative duty of a Christian is to find that Moslem what I think of him, but I will tell and carry out the full will of God in every detail you. What he means to say is: "You cannot trust -,-but how many of us do? Every Moslem is sup- any of them to allow you to despise them, outwit posed to regard every other Moslem as a brother, them, underpay them, ostracize them, and browregardless of race, nationality, wealth, or social beat them." No,he is right, you cannot. Moslems , condition. Moslems do not need to be introduced are mirrors, giving back love for love, hatred for in order to speak to one another! The Arabs inter- hatred, suspicion for suspicion, trust for trust. marry with the Africans and thus make Moslems But so are all the people of the world-mirrors! of them. Christian whites compel Africans to And the majority of ~very nation are responsible live in segregated sections of the African cities. if one treats them decently. The Christian teaching is exactly like the Moslem teaching on the point of brotherhood-but how Nobody can appreciate how valuable it is for many Christians practice it? On the other hand Christians and Moslems to cooperate in some such the Moslems are in tragic need of a vital contact campaign as this, unless he has gone through the with the Christ whom they hold in high esteem, experience. Our experience in Lanao while seekbut about whom they know so little. The more ing the best method of teaching Maranaw, was generously we appreciate their merits the more particularly fortunate. Letters began to reach us readily they will accept the Christian experience of Christ. In a very real sense therefore, we can speak of sharing with Islam.
Some people fear that words like these will paralyze missionary giving. But any person who stops giving for this reason does not need to read more ugly pictures about other religions; what he needs isa fresh experience of Christ. Those of us who have touched other religions know that never in any religion have men seen God so winsomely,
MOSLEM VIEWS OF "THOSE NAZARENES"
fromaH parts of the world inquiring about our Only by some such sharing can one discover campaign. These letters were read to the Moros, what wonderful and zealous friends the Moslems who boasted inordinately about showing the world can be, and how "Christian" many of them are in how to become literate. Some of the young men spirit. Whenever we told Mohammedans about prepared a large map of the world, and ran green our Lanao friends they worked with tireless enlines out to the countries from which letters were thusiasm in preparing lessons in other languages. received. When three years ago we announced A dozen young Moslems and two missionaries our plan of visiting other countries, all Lanao worked almost night and day preparing Malay wanted to go along! Hundreds of datos came down charts in Malacca. In VeIlore India, the Printo the seacoast, a distance of twenty-five miles, to cipal of the Mohammedan Government School and bid us farewell. They crowded the deck of the his faculty struggled and toiled and sometimes steamer, making highly exaggerated but wholly nearly fought over the difficult Urdu. The Presisincere speeches. Then they selected the leading dent of the Arabic College in Madras gathered the imam to pray while they held out their hands great lights of Urdu in a most inspiring meeting, turning their palms alternately upward and down- staged a successful demonstration, put fragrant ward as they responded to the prayer. Mingling flowers around my neck and made such speeches Maranaw with Arabic the imam asked that this as I have not heard, no, not in all ChristenQom. American friend, who had cooperated with them in making the easiest lessons in the world, should When the students of the Lahore Government have the blessing of Allah as he introduced their Training College heard the story of the Lanao method to other countries. They kissed me fare- Moslems, several Mohammedan students followed well, with their long Arab whiskers, and the me home and would not permit me to eat my lunch imams said: before taking the train. One of them wept as he begged me to change my program and visit Jind "We will pray for you in every mosque in this State at once! Two others hung on me resolutely province, while you carry our method to the until I promised to go to Afghanistan. They said world." they would write at once for the government to issue an invitation. I was as excited as they, for Then the Mohammedans stood in silent rever- few foreigners and no missionaries enter Afghanence while the Christians prayed and sang: "God istan. be with you till we meet again."
Moslem Views of "Those N azarenes"
By J. LOWRIE ANDERSON United Presbyterian Missionary in the Egyptian Sudan W HAT a member of one religious sect thinks a man here know or care about the elections in of those of a different faith depends upon America? I thought.) the prejudices in which he grew up, on his temperament and critical faculties, on his second- "But why?" I asked. hand knowledge, and on the members of the other "Because Hoover was against liquor, and the group with whom he is acquainted. other fellow is for it. I am sorry that America turned its back on Hoover and prohibition." (In- The average Moslem knows little or nothing toxicants are prohibited by Moslem law.) about the Christians of America. Only once did I In the French consulate in London, awaiting a find interest in a moral issue in America, and that, viise to our passport, we met a young Turk who strangely enough, in a small city where no Euro- had been a student in Paris and London, and was pean or American lived. We were on an evan- returning to his native land. He was interested gelistic journey in 1934 and visited a town three that we were going for the first time as missiondays' journey from the nearest railroad. Discov- aries to a Moslem land. ering that some in the party were from America, "In recent years," he said, "Moslem countries a stranger sought us out to question us about our have retrogressed. That is because Islam, our country. In the conversation he said, faith, has been weakened. Our great days of power were the great days of faith. When Mos- "I am sorry that America rejected Hoover and lems closely adhered to their religion they were took this other fellow." (What in the world does
the leaders of the world. When faith decayed, so The man of the street in the Sudan has become did their political power and intellectual leader- interested in one report that has reached him, ship. namely, that Islam is spreading in Europe and America. Where the report started I know not, "In Christianity it is just the opposite. It is but in every corner of the Moslem Sudan it has the nations who have abandoned the attempt to gained credence. In many different cities I have follow their religion that are at the forefront. been asked if I knew that all Germany had aban- France and England pay only lip service to their doned Christianity and gone over bodily to Islam. religion. They do not follow the ideals of Jesus. This is probably how the news of the rise of Nazi- And because they have left these out, they have ism and the Neo-pagan Movement in Germany has become great. This is always true." finally filtered into the broadcasting agencies of these simple people. I was at a loss to account In the Sudan, years later, I heard a strange for the origin of the report that in the United variant to that same theme. The spokesman was States five millions have declared themselves Mosnot a graduate student, as the first had been, one lem. Any attempt to deny the statement would be who had traveled in Europe and was learned in useless. Perhaps the Sudanese had heard about the branches of Western science. He was a poor the recent movement among the Negroes in Amer- Sudanese black, who had traveled little if any out- ica to claim that they are not Negroes, but Moors, side hi!,! native region, and who knew how to read with a history not of slavery, but of conquest. Arabic, but no other language. Our colporteur When such Negroes dress in Arab costume and pointed him out, sitting in the shade by the side wear fezzes, worship Allah, and go through forms of the road, and said: of worship, these things have no relation to Islam. But when we realize that they have done this to "That man I believe to be a Christian. He has get away from the stigma white Christians have read the New Testament many times, and he has put upon their race and color, we need to be bought some other books. He knows about Chris- ashamed. Jesus quoted with approval the saying, tianity, although he will not confess Christ." "My house shall be called a hous!'! of prayer for all peoples." But it is hard to find a church in Amer- We walked over and sat down on the log beside ica without the color bar. No wonder Negroes the black man. After introductions were over, the prefer to be considered "Moors" and to profess old man turned to me and said: Islam, rather than Christianity.
"You Christians are the queerest people in the Although the Moslem in the Sudan knows and world?" cares little about the Christians of the West, he has known his Christian neighbors. In Greece, "Why do you say that, Uncle?" Syria and Egypt the ancient Eastern churches "I have read your books. I have read the Gos- still exist and their members can be found in every pel through many times. I find that Jesus section of the Sudan. From these Christians the preaches peace. He tells his followers if they are Sudanese buy their sugar and cotton cloth, and to smitten on one cheek to turn the other. He com- them they often sell cattle or dates. mands that when a man asks for your coat you shall give your cloak too. He says to forgive each "Drunk as a Christian" is a metaphor that was other, and to love your enemies, and to pray for not coined from imagination. The great Christian them. Is that not true?" festivals of Christmas and Easter have too often "Very true, Uncle." been largely drunken orgies in the East. A Mos- "Before you Christians came to the Sudan, we lem funeral is marked with dignity and solemnity. thought we knew something about fighting. All "This is Allah's will," the mourners say, "and as our men le~rned how to use the sword and the His creatures we submit to it." But shrieking and spear and the javelin. Some of them knew also wailing, cursing God for having taken the loved how to shoot a rifle. But that was nothing to what one, and every sign of grief and desolation mark you Christians have shown us how to do. You the death of a Christian. No (me would ever befight with machine guns that kill people, not one lieve that they are followers of One who is the at a time, but by the scores. You bombard towns Resurrection and the Life. Often for years the with cannons fired from many miles away. You Christians display the outward marks of grief and fight not only on land, but on the water, and under priests fatten on the superstitions of the people. the water, and under the land. Nowadays you He alone can intercede effectively for the sins of even fight from the air. Yet you claim to be fol- the people, and only when his palm is crossed. lowers of Jesus, who preached love to all men." The keys of the future life are in his hand, and only gold will give him strength to turn that key. Acknowledging inconsistency of professing This the Moslem knows, and thanks Allah that he Christians, I tried to show the man my own conviction that nothing of Western civilization built on force will endure but that the teachings of Jesus are the only sure foundations for abiding life, in the East or in the West.
needs no intercessor as he comes to God. For this the Gospel in the Apostolic Era. Moslems who reason he further despises the Christian. have become acquainted with them have a better conception of what Christians are like than if they Moreover, the Moslem usually knows little about did not know any Christians. the religIon of the Christian, and what little he knows usually repels. Religious pictures, and the Conversation with Moslem converts has concandles that burn before them, leads him to think firmed my own observation. A convert who had the Christian little better than an idolator. Many learned to hate Christians, found those he met in Moslems believe that the Trinity consists of God school to be little different from Moslem boys, exthe Father, Mary the Mother, and Jesus the Son. cept that they had a better spirit of mutual coop- They reject this suggestion as vile and puerile. eration. Eighty years ago in the Sudan, Arab All are sure that the doctrine at least betrays mud- slave raiders attacked a native village and took dled thinking. Nor has the witness of Christians the women and children as slaves. Among the to their own faith usually been strong. In the group was the son of the chieftain, a twelve-year- Sudan, because they are in the minority few have old naked savage, brighter than the rest. The been willing even to discuss with Moslems the Arabs called him Ibrahim. He attributes his conthings they believe. Thousands of Moslems would version to Christ to a conversation he had while die for their religion, and in the days of the Mahdi still a slave with an untutored Copt in a small vilproved it by courting martyrdom. But when the lage in upper Egypt. In half an hour the Copt same Mahdi ordered all Christians to turn Mos- explained to the inquiring black youth the myslems on pain of death, they scurried like fright- teries of the Incarnation and the Trinity. The ened rabbits into the folds of Islam. Many re- young man's heart went out to Christ who became mained Christians secretly, and when the power flesh and tabernacled among men. His conversion of the Mahdi's sway was broken, confessed it was real, as is proved by Ibrahim's years of faithopenly again. It is the blood of martyrs, not the ful service as a colporteur and evangelist in Egypt saving of life by apostasy, that is the seed of the and the Sudan. Church. Sudanese hold to their faith so strongly, and count death so lightly, that they have no re- In recent years there has grown up a small Protspect for people who change their religion as they estant community in the Sudan. Their interest in do their cloak, when they meet the fierce wind of evangelism has thrown them into contact with the persecution. But the influence of the Eastern Moslem majority and their emphasis on the ap- Christian churches on Islam is not all negative or plication of the teachings and spirit of Christ to detrimental to Christian progress. My experience daily life has not only given them a higher standin the Sudan has caused me to moderate my own ing with the Moslems, but has influenced the memviews on this subject. The presence of the Chris- bers of the older Eastern churches. Moslems of tian in the Sudan, though he be worldly, is a the Sudan are thus having the opportunity to constant reminder to the Sudanese of the presence judge Christianity on its real merits more than of this other faith. Moreover he sees the Chris- ever before, as they see persons who seek to lead tian, not as the vile and wicked monster some- the Christ-life in their daily conduct. times portrayed in their tales, but as a man in many ways similar to himself – with the same "Never have I had a superior like this one," needs and aspirations, the same passions and said a Moslem doorman at the Government office temptations, much the same likes and dislikes, where a Prot,;)stant held a high position. "He is hope and fears. Moreover, he knows Christians always polite, always considerate, and I believe to be people of "The Book," and that interests him that he takes a personal interest in me." more in the religion of Christ. Very uncertainly at times, but on the whole effectively, the Chris- "The best loved in all Wad Medani is Mr. tian has raised the standard of monogamy in the Toobia," said a Moslem to me concerning our Sudan, which many Moslems are coming to recog- Christian pastor. He is probably the most unnize as superior to their own polygamy and easy selfish man in all the district-a man whose face divorce. Christians have many faults and the and life are stamped with the marks of the Lord Christianity they profess is often a caricature of Jesus. the real thing. That their standard of. religion and morals is far from that of the apostolic days. The Church Mission hospital in Omdurman, The Moslem of the street despises them, and not where Christian doctors give freely of time and without cause, yet, all in all they have been an strength and of their own souls to serve their Mosasset to the Gospel, and their scattering through- lem brothers,.has given many a new conception of out the cities and towns of the Moslem Sudan is a what true Christians are. Perhaps the day is not preparation for the Gospel, even as the Dispersion far distant when the Moslem will say not that a of the despised Jews was a help to the spread of certain Christian "is good enough to be a Moslem" -their highest compliment today – but that un- selfishness in a Moslem is one of the marks of a Christian. S~irit-filled Christians can bring that change about.
and Moslem
By ELEANOR T. CALVERLEY, M.D., Hartford, Conn.
Formerly a Missionary in Arabia A MEENA rocks her baby in an Arab cradle baby of her own. The Saviour Divine to whom .r-.. made of date~sticks just as the Moslem her faith looked up during those days and nights of danger and suffering at the beginning of her mother in the next mat hut rocks her little widowhood is the One of whom her neighbors hear one. Next door the mother chants softly to put her sing. Yes, Ameena means the words. Christ her child to sleep. is her saviour in a very real and tangible way. She knows from what He has saved her and she "La ilah il allah knows from what He has saved her tiny daughter La ilah il allah." who sleeps so peacefully without benefit of Mos- lem charm or amulet. Her little one is perhaps Over and over again from the first day of his life the only native child in the whole town and for the Arab child hears these sacred words of the many hundreds of miles around who will enjoy Moslem creed. "There is no god but Allah." For all Islam no other lullaby could compare with this the advantages of a Christian home. in beauty or in soothing power.
The song which Ameena sings as she rocks her little daughter is a Christian hymn. Her neighbors are beginning to learn the words which they have heard so often.
My faith looks up to Thee Thou Lamb of Calvary Saviour Divine.
Does Ameena think of the meaning of those words? Does her faith really look up as she sings to her baby girl? Does her faith lift her above the level of the sordid life with its filth and misery and wickedness which is all about her little home? THREE ARAB BOYS AND A GIRL IN KUWAIT Does it make her home different; more lovely and more happy than the homes of her Moslem neigh- Few towns in Arabia have the example of a bors? Is Christ her saviour in a really practical home like that of Ameena. She and her husband sense? If so from what has he saved Ameena? are of slave descent, and for that reason are more independent than members of Arab families. Eight years ago Ameena's first husband died. Under the prevalent patriarchal system it would It was he who had taught the young wife to become with him a follower of Christ. Gently and with great patience year after year as he and Ameena lived together among neighbors who thought them traitors and infidels because they were no longer Moslems the husband shared with be. difficult for the son of a family with social his wife the knowledge which meant so much to standing in a Moslem town to become a Christian. him. She was very shy and slow to learn but Even though a young man might be willing to live when her husband died she proved that his teach- as simply as does the husband of Ameena, for him ing had not been in vain. Although the whole to take a wife of his own choice and establish an Moslem community seemed determined to force independent home where his bride could enjoy the her to return to her former religion and accept a privilege!'! of Christian womanhood would seem to husband of their choice, Ameena stood her ground. most Arabs an impossibility. For this reason, in ' Even when death threatened, with back to the wall Arabia at least, the only Christian homes with she persisted, never wavering in her witness for which most Moslems can compare their own are.
Christ her Saviour. the homes of foreigners.
Years have passed and Ameena has another In Kuwait on the eastern coast of Arabia where Christian husband now. At last hftr arms hold a it was our good fortune to make our home for [492 ] eighteen years, the missionary family was always uttering three times the words, "You are dian object of much interest and curiosity to the vorced." His wife however has no similar right. women of the town. For two years we lived in Concubinage is taken for granted; slaves are both rented houses. These were built like other native Negroes and white women from countries farther houses with blank outside walls designed to pro- north. Women who live in the town, when in pubtect women occupants from the gaze of men. The lic must cover the entire face with a layer of black rooms surrounded a central courtyard which was cheese-cloth through which they can see dimly open to the sky. When our new home was built although their features are not visible to others. with outside windows admitting sunshine and A black cloak called an "aba" envelops their whole fresh air to every room many women visitors came to see the house whose arrangement seemed to ARAB WOMAN AT EN'ImANCE TO AN ARABIAN TOWN them so strange. person from crown of head to feet, when on the "Which is your room?" they asked the mission- street, excepting only one cheese-cloth-covered eye. ary mother, thinking that she like themselves would have but one room to call her own. Few Arab women can read and fewer still are permitted to learn to write. Fatalism restrains "The rooms are all mine; you see the family any desire for progress or for change. What is shares them all. This where we now are is the "written" on one's forehead must be endured. living room where we sit together and visit with Marriage and motherhood, especially the motherour friends." hood of sons are practically the only aim of exist- ence for these women. "You mean the reception room for men." "No, for both men and women." It is not fair to generalize about the home life "Surely you don't mean that men and women of all Islam from conditions in a backward sit together in the room!" country like Arabia. Great changes are tak- "Certainly they do." ing place in many Moslem lands. In Turkey, for "And this," continued the hostess, leading her instance, almost overnight through the adoption friends into the dining room, "is where we eat. With us, the mother sits at one end of the table and the father at the other end while the children sit at the sides." "You cannot mean that you and your husband eat together!" "Yes we do." That was hard for the guests to accept, for in their homes the men are served first and the women have their meal afterward. "They tell us," persevered the callers, "that your children are all girls. Is that true?" "Yes it is true." "Won't your husband divorce you because you have no son?" "No, he will not divorce me."
"Well then, won't he take another wife on your head?"
"No, in our country a man would be arrested for having two wives at a time. But I am thankful to say my husband does not even wish to take another wife."
"Oh! how fortunate you are!" exclaimed the visitors; and then, more wistfully, "How we wish that we were like you!"
Eas,tern Arabia is very conservative and is little affected by Western ways. The laws formulated in the Koran are still the rule for life. Polygamy is usual for those who can afford more than one wife and is also practiced by many who are poor. Early marriage of girls, not infrequently at the age of nine but more often between the ages of twelve and fourteen, is the established custom.
A man may divorce bis wife at will by simply
of the Swiss code and the separation of Church sionaries' home in order that they may become and State Turkish women were released, in theory accustomed to the association of men and women at least, from many of the restrictions we have in social intercourse and may learn to feel at ease mentioned. Legally, polygamy, the veil and un- in acting as hostess in their own homes.
equal divorce laws have all disappeared. As a Surprisingly enough the most violent opposition Turkish woman discussing modern social prob- to changes proposed by feminists in the status of lems said,* "What was moral in my grandmother's women in the home often comes from women day is now taboo, for instance polygamy; whereas themselves, especially from women of the older the perfectly normal social relations of young peo- generation. There is something not only indecent ple today would have formerly been considered but traitorous they feel in the new-fangled ideas immoral." of their sons. Virtuous women of Islam through In Egypt, Syria and India groups less radical all the centuries since Mohammed have gloried in than the Nationalists who are in power in Turkey submission to what they felt was Allah's will.
"We know the 'kind of life you Westerners live,"
said some Arab women returning from a visit in India, to a fellow passenger who talked with them on the ship. "We have seen life in your country pictured in the movies at Bombay." Then they described indecorous behavior of men and women together as they had seen it pictured on the screen.
That sort of thing would be to their minds the inevitable result of discarding the veil and giving to women a position similar to that enjoyed by men.
That freedom has its perils cannot be denied.
BAHREIN GIRLS' SCHOOL MADE OF DATE' STICKS When the veil is taken from the face of women a veil of character to shield the heart becomes imare endeavoring to secure social justice for women perative. Western civilization, nationalism and by reinterpreting Islam. Laws set down in the feminism must all have their part in bringing so- Koran to meet seventh century conditions need cial justice into Moslem homes; but all of these not be followed literally in the twentieth century together could not do for Ameena and her home they believe. And so, although more slowly than what Christ has done-that Saviour of whom she in Turkey, the status of women is beginning to be sings. raised in many Moslem countries.
In speaking of the effect of Islam on home life THE OHALLENGE OF ISLAM it is usual to consider principally the injustices imposed upon women. Educated Moslems are be- To win Moslems for Christ is a task of supreme ginning to realize that in the system of polygamy difficulty and many Christians regard it as one and in seclusion and lack of education for women, from which practically no results are to be exmen also suffer loss. In the face of opposition from pected. his superstitious and hysterical women-folk a man is helpless to apply the discoveries of modern Let it be admitted that it is the Evil-one's counscience to the care of his children. After losing terblast to the Gospel in the Eastern world. These child after chUd, in Arabia.where the infant mor- very facts make the conversion of a Moslem to tality is appalling, I have heard Moslem fathers Christ one of the most signal illustrations of the exclaim in despair, "What can I do? The women power and grace of God. In Moslem lands there are like cows!" Moreover, when men become edu- are today many men who once recited, five times cated in the Western sense as is happening more a day, with passionate conviction, the Moslem and more frequently in Iraq, for instance, they creed, but who now, with equal sincerity, are desire wives with whom they can enjoy compan- preaching Christ. In Morocco alone there are ionship. Sons frequently refuse to accept their little assemblies of believing and baptized natives, parents' choice of uneducated girls to be their who manifest the gifts and graces of the Spirit. brides. This fact perhaps more than any other Such instances are a clearer proof of the triinduces fathers to send their girls to school. umphant POWel' of the Gospel than the conver-· sion of hundreds of those, who, for various pre- Men students in Iran, I was told by the wife of disposing causes, are eagerly stretching out their an American professor in that country, are begin- hands for the Word of Life.-Condensed from a ning to bring their young wives to call in the mis- letter by Rev. E. J. Poole-Connor of the "North Africa Mission," printed in "The Christian" * Quoted from "Moslem Women Enter a New World," by Wood- (London).
small.
Ways of
'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home s. EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO "New Roads in Ancient Islam" but rather mentioned as they ap- "The People of the Mosque," by L. pear in the outlines for work and Bevan Jones-a scholarly and detailed "To the majority of our church study sent in to this Department study of Islam and a challenge to members, the Moslem World is an un- by various denominations. In Christianity (cloth, $2.00). known sphere and therefore holds little this no discriminations have interest. To us as leaders is given been made. Leaders in any com- "Voices from the Near East"-writthe opportunity of opening up this munion have only to submit their ten by Christian nationals (50¢ and fascinating and most challenging prob- materials for the Editor's exam- 25¢) . lem facing the world mission of the ination, whereupon they will be Christian Church today." given attention and publicity in "Young Islam on Trek," by Basil the interests of the common Mathews (25¢). "Glimpses of the Moslem World good. show us that change is the order of "Islam Awakens," by Herrick B. the day. Whether it be a surge of The Source Material Young – a course for senior high nationalism here, a welling up of re- school groups (25¢). ligious fervor there, a zigzag course The main study book is, of of progress and reaction elsewhere, or course, "Mecca and Beyond," by "Masoud the Bedouin," by Alfreda just an unheralded drift from the old Dr. and Mrs. Edward M. Dodd, Post Carharlr-stories of Bedouin life moorings, there is something going on priced at 50¢ and $1.00. One of (25¢) . which is unprecedented in extent and the most excellent "How to Use" scope in all the thirteen centuries booklets (15¢) the writer has "Tales from Moslem Lands," edited since Mohammed. Modern civilization ever seen furnishes the plans for by William W. Reid (50¢). is flooding un on the world of Islam young folks and adults, men and and changing the face of that world. women alike. In addition to pro- "Christian Adventures in Moslem . . . The great question is, 'Whither, gram outlines of the subject mat- Lands," by Winifred Hulberlr-a study Islam?'" (From "How to Use," ter, complete worship services, for intermediate groups (25¢). Mecca and Beyond.) poems and the like, there are suggestions for invitations in- "Doorways," by Mary Entwistle- Our foreign mission theme is clusive of 0 utI in e picture stories for juniors (75¢ and 50¢). so rich in subject matter, so col- sketches, two complete dramaorful in plans for pres.entation, tizations and plans for a variety "Musa: a Son of Egypt," by Perkso dynamic in possibilities that of others, plans for use of life ins and Entwistle-a primary course it would be wasteful to give stories taken from the book, im- (25¢). space to prefatory remarks. personations, imaginary broad- Sampling the main study book casts, airplane trips, etc., a rib- "The Story of Musa," by Entwistle or any of its supplementary vol- bon demonstration, a candle (25¢) . umes, or of the articles in the lighting service, a "convers'abody of this magazine, may well tion" between a Moslem and a "Esa: a Little Boy of Nazareth," be trusted to win students with- Christian, a "pageant of antiq- by E. Mildred Neville-for beginners out explanatory "sales talk." uity," a new "Riddle of the (25¢) . The potentialities bound up in Sphinx," matching and other the theme, "The Moslem World," "tests," an "impersonation of the A variety of others may be readi.ly are explosive enough to rend pyramids," questions for prac- located from the listings of Boards of Christendom, or powerful enough tical discussions and many other Missionary Education, or denominato furnish motive power for devices for making topics attrac- tional publishing houses. building the King's Highway tive and forceful. "Effective Ways of Working" through the Orient. So whether Supplementary books: with the Study Topics making this an entire unit of study or merely incorporating it "What Is This Moslem World?" by The Central Committee on into some addresses and pro- Charles R. Watson ($1.00 and 60¢). United Study of Foreign Misgrams, our readers cannot afford sions, 186 Massachusetts Ave., to turn it down because not rep- "The Young Moslem Looks at Life," Boston, MMS.: resenting a field of endeavor in by Murray T. Titus ($1.00 and 60¢). their own denominational work. Miss M. H. Leavis, its secretary, "The Christian Approach to Mos- states that she has had great difficulty As in last month's citation of lems," by T. H. P. Sailer – a study in securing the illustrative curios helps for the home theme, ma- with teaching aids for adults (25¢). such as enlivened our study of Africa terials are not all listed under last year, receiving either nothing or their many publication sources, [495 ] novelties in too small quantities to be because of our space limitations, advertised, but that she is ready to furnish the following aids, in mim- eographed form: Life stories of the authors of "Mecca and Beyond"-Dr. and Mrs. Dodd ………………. 5¢ Story-"He Sent the Comforter" (to be read and questioned upon) ……..•…………. 51/'
Poem-"Desert Thirst," by Mary W. Vassar (Moslem woman's dream of God) ………….. 31/'
Poem – "Our Moslem Sisters" (communion story on "Has Any One Been Missed?") ……… 3¢
Poem-"The Tapestry Weavers". 3¢ saw. She asks, "What if we could The United Christian Mission- Plays- see all around the world through win- ary Society, Missions Bldg., 222 dows in all countries? Would you like "My Baby Is Sick," by Mary to try it? Which countries would you Downey Ave., Indianapolis, Ind.: Vassar – two women and a like to see? Can you think of any doll. . . …. . . . . . . .. . . . … .. 5¢ friends you would like to meet?" A Has no work in Mpslem lan_ds but game is then played in which the chil- "Yesterday – Today," by M;ary dren in the circle represent different expects to devote two months to the Vassar – mother and daugh- nations and the child in the center study topics and will use materials ter dialogue …………… 5¢ chooses from whatever nation she pre- to be mentioned later in the year. fers, the old tune, "Go in and out the Their catalogue mentions "Moslem "Persian Proverbs and Wise Say- Windows" to be used with words be- Children"-pictures at 50¢ per set, ings" •…………………. 3¢ ginning, "Go round and round the and a "Cut-out Sheet of Moslem "The Experiences of a Moham- nations." Types" at 15¢. medan in Christian America," "What We See First through Open by Mrs. F. G. Platt. . . . . . . . . . 3¢ Baptist Board of Missionary Windows" shows a picture of Christ Place cards – picture of "Mecca and the children of all races. Leader Education, 152 Madison Ave., and Beyond" on green card with directs conversation to the idea of N. Y.: . space for name ………. each 1¢ God's garden with differently colored flowers, these being the children of all The graded missionary materials ar- A Window Transparency-the lands. "Weare going to visit this ranged by this board are for use in camels and the star (directions garden and enjoy these flowers." A Sunday schools or organized groups of for making) ……………. 3¢ song, "His Garden," is then sung. It corresponding age interests. In order- is suggested that Friendship Paper ing the publications listed, note that "The Mecca Certificate"-a beauti- Dolls be used in this connection (four all materials marked (*) should come ful reproduction in a series of four dolls eight inches high, like real chil- from the board headquarters as cited plates (9x22in.) of the certificate dren of various oriental countries, above, but books and other helps (ingiven to every Mohammedan who price 25¢ a set). clusive of publications of other demakes the pilgrimage to Mecca. The nominations) are to be obtained from art work is fine and intricate. Ex- Succeeding lessons emphasize the the American Baptist Publication Soplanation and translation accompanies needs we see through open windows, ciety, 1701 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, certificate. 10¢. ourselves through open window, "The Pa., or its various bookstores. World Looks through Our Windows- Cash must accompany all orders for And What Does It See?" etc. Beginners: the foregoing materials. Auxiliary materials suggested and "Esa: a Little Boy of Nazareth" Women's Missionary Society which may be ordered through the furnishes the main story material. of United Lutheran Church, 723 For visualizations, use "Friends in Muhlenberg Bldg., Philadelphia, Lutheran headquarters are: Everyland"-12 pictures with story Pa.: on back of each, including "A Moslem Picture Sheets in "Child Life of Friend in India" and "A Friend in "Zahia" – dialogue between Mo- the World" ………….. each 25¢ Turkey," 25¢ (listed elsewhere by its hammedan bride and school- publishers, the Women's Society of the mate ………….. 3¢ or 6 for 10¢ Lutheran Picture Sheets on Af- United Lutheran Church); "Posters rica, India and Japan …. each 5¢ of Moslem Children," 25¢; and hand- Special Program Helps to Use work such as "Arabian Village Cut- with "Open Windows" ……. 15¢ Picture Maps of Africa, India .. out"-eight cardboard sheets with di- ……………………. each 50¢ rections for coloring, 50¢; "Desert This pamphlet is especially helpful Life Panel Posters"-four brown sepia in presenting the book to children. Picture, "The Hope of the World" panels, 12×36, with colored cut-outs to Its keynote is in the opening para- (Christ and the children) …. be pasted on, 50¢; "Near East Paintgraph: "Through open windows that ………… postcard size, 5¢; ing Book"-seven pictures with colorlook out into the world, we see boys sepia, 35¢; large size in colors, 60¢ ing instructions, 10¢. Other stories and girls in China and India, in Af- recommended are "Just Like You" by rica and Egypt, in Japan and Borneo. Picture games – I n d i a, Africa, Lucy W. Peabody-a book of stories The stories of their lives and adven- China ………………. each 20¢ from many lands, 25¢; "A First Book tures are told so vividly that it is not of World Friendship," by the same hard to feel that we really see them Pictures through Magic Windows author-a collection of "Just Like You through the open windows. The leader -18 Bible pictures and verses Stories" in six little books, $1.50. may also reverse the idea so that the in attractive form ……….. 75¢ boys and girls realize that children of Primary: other countries are watching us also. "Friends in Everyland"-12 sto- The book contains ten stories. Each ries with large picture ……. 25¢ The stories are found in "Missionmay be told separately or some of the ary Stories to Tell," which contains material may be combined and used Teaching Pictures on Rural Life two short stories from Moslem lands. for six or more programs. The lead- around the World ………… 50¢ $1.00 and 50¢; "Our Little Friends of er's aim is to open the windows of a the Arabian Desert" (illustrated) child's heart and help him to make Presbyterian Board of Na- which takes us to visit the children of friends with all people who pass by." tional Missions, Central Distrib- a Bedouin sheik, $1.00; "The Story of uting Department, 156 Fifth Musa," by Entwistle-eight illustrated The ensuing pamphlet suggests Ave., N. Y. (Checks payable to narratives, 25¢; "Graded Foreign ways for leaders to carry out the fore- Central Distributing Department Mission Stories" (*), to be ready in going ideal, furnishes an outline guide December, 15¢. for each program, hymns, prayers, of the Mission Boards) : Scripture, a long list of excellent The visualizations and handwork group activities in the way of poster In addition to the study books listed are "Children from Manv Lands"- making, dramatizations and construc- previously, with their respective teach- portfolio posters of children of 10 tion work, outline illustrations of ing helps, "Fun and Festival from countries, llx14 in., in colors, with posters, directions for making an in- Moslem Lands" (25¢); "Primary Pic- verse for each picture, $1.00; "Life ternational house or village, map in Moslem Lands"-21 pictures with work, plans for scrap books, etc. ture Stories – M 0 s I e m Children" descriptive titles, 25¢, and all the ma- (25¢); and a moving picture, "Islam terials listed for the beginners. A sample of some of the preliminary in Egypt" are listed. Special attenplans will furnish an idea of the tion is called to this last valuable item, Juniors: method employed: which is a one-reel film taking ap- proximately 15 minutes to show. The The Stories are "Doorways," 75¢ Introducing the idea of theme, the rental price is $1.25 in 16mm. and $2.00 and 50¢; "Graded Foreign Mission leader has the children-individually in 35mm., plus transportation charges. or in groups-look through the largest ordering from Visual Aids Division of window near them, then tell what they The Westminster Press, 925 Wither- spoon Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.
"Living Water" is a play taking 20 minutes, 13 women, 2 children (5¢).
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
Stories on Missions and World Peace" "Hostess Hints," covering menus Oriental music suitable for Moslem (*), 15¢; material from the primary and recipes for Arab cookery, 10¢. studies includes "Where My Caravan section. Has Rested," "Till the Sands of the "Traceaole Sketches" – outlines of Desert Grow Cold," "Bedouin Love Visualizations and handwork include flags, suggestions for place cards, Song" and "Kashmiri Song," with a picture map of the world-art map fruits, human figures, etc., which may other selections from collections of 30×50 in. with 23 small pictures to be readily be copied by tracing and used Oriental Music by Amy Woodfordepasted on, 50¢ "Cut-out Sheets of in a variety of social ways, 10¢. Finden. Inquire of any music dealer. Moslem Types"-20 outline sketches with directions for coloring, 10¢; "Islam," a dramatization with nar- The Religious Motion Picture "Friends of the Caravan Trails"- rator and 14 characters – outstand- Foundation has now merged its intersuggestions for handwork on pp. 21- ingly informing and worthful, 15¢. ests with those of another concern and 24, also sketches in insert sheet, 25¢; should now be addressed as Departmaterials listed under primary section. Sketches, "Mohammed" (4¢), and ment of Visualization, Harmon Founda- "Mohammedanism" (3¢). tion, 140 Nassau St., New York. It Intermediate and Young People: has a large number of religious and Story, "The Forgotten Words," 5¢. educational moving picture films in Story telling from "Tales from Leaflet (easily dramatized), "A stock, and each year additional ones Moslem Lands"-illustrated adventure Kabyle Wedding," 4¢. on the current study topics are prestories, 50¢; "M,asoud the Bedouin," Young women have a course on pared with the heln of an interde- 25¢; "The Beloved Physician of Te- "Highways and Skyways in Minaret nominational committee. heran," $1.00; "The Moslem World" Lands," including the textbook, for -a book of facts about foreign mis- 60¢. Some Rural Programs sions (*), 15rb. For Standard Bearers (of junior age), "Moslem Adventures on the By ANNYE ALLISON Visualizations and handwork include Magic Carpet of Imagination" con- "Christian Adventures in Moslem tains all necessary materials for a For primary pupils, make Lands" – suggestions for handwork, program of strong appeal to young 25¢ ; Set of Twelve Charts with folks, $1.00. poster headed "Win Rural Amergraphs for blackboard work or poster "Doorways" (50¢) and its "How to ica for Christ," showing church, making, 50¢ per set; Maps of the Use" (10¢) are recommended for the Sunday school, daily vacation Moslem World, to be colored and wired younger groups, along with materials Bible school, young people's for project purposes-wall map 30×46 listed elsewhere in this Department. meeting, hospital, orphanage, in., 60¢; large outline map, 28×32 in., 25¢; small outline map, llx14 in., 25¢ Woman's Board of Foreign colporteur, etc. Dramatize some per dozen; and some of the materials Missions, Reformed Church in features. Have group of chilfor the younger groups. America, 25 East 22d St., New dren pretending to fish or pick York: berries, and let lady enter and There is one stereopticon lecture on invite them to the D. V. B. S. the Moslem World, revised by Dr. "Camel Bells"-complete programs which is to begin the next day. Zwemer, entitled "The Spread of including semi-dramatic and easily When children arrive, seat them Islam." It rents for $2.00 and car- dramatized material, under the topics in circle with lady in center to riage both ways. Address the Vis- "Letters from a Saddle Bag," "Cara- tell a good religious story. Pass ualization Department, Council on van Trails," "Oases" and "Behind the paper and crayons and have chil- Finance and Promotion, 152 Madison Lattice," 10¢. dren draw pictures to illustrate Ave., N. Y. "God's Good Gifts" or "God's "Playmates in Mission Lands"-at- Beautiful World." Hymn, "Jesus Plays: "Black Tents" -life among tractive illustrated primer booklet on Loves the Little Children of the Bedouins in Syria; 4 boys, 3 girls, A, B, C plan, for very young children, World" ; the Lord's Prayer; 20 minutes, 25¢; "Tara Finds the and including Arabian features. simple Bible verse such as "God Door to Happiness"-life of Moslem is love," "Suffer the Little Chilwomen and girls in India; 2 women, "Under Many Flags," 5¢. dren," etc., following with the 7 girls, 2 boys, 30 minutes, 25¢. "Silhouettes," 5¢. circle talk and another hymn. "True-False Test on Arabia," 1¢ "The School of Missions"-a hand- each sheet. The brighter side of the hosbook of information on setting up a "Cross Word Puzzle on Arabia," 2¢ pital theme may be dramatized school, by William A. Hill, free (*). each sheet. by having a child who has been "Fun and Festival from Moslem cured waiting for his mother to Woman's Foreign Missionary Lands," 25¢. take him home. Nurse wearing Society, M ethodiJst Episcopal Wall Map of Moslem World (60¢) white dress, cap and apron and Church, 581 Boylston St., Bos- and Outline Maps of Moslem World arm band with red cross on it is ton, Mass.: (large size, 25¢; small, 25¢ per with him and teaches him a Bible dozen) . verse. Child presently runs to "Complete Program Outlines for "Spiritual Adventuring" is a very meet mother telling how good Auxiliaries" (woman's societies), giv- worthful manual of worship for mis- people have been to him, about ing suggestions and plans for a year's sionary societies, giving complete out- the cards, Bible verses, hymns, work, 25¢. This begins with a beau- lines, including poems and prayers, etc., which he will repeat when tiful installation service for the offi- for a year's meetings, 10¢. he gets home. At nurse's call the cers and continues through Moham- doctor enters and mother pours medan studies including "The Moslem Additional Helps and out her gratitude for a denomand His World," "North of the Sa- Suggestions inational hospital to which counhara," "Christmas and the Christ's try people with very little money Land," "Behind the Bourka," "The Further missionary dramatics, ob- can send their sick children. Sword of the Moslem." Additional tainable from sources whose addresses programs of universal application have already been given herein are: [CONTINUED IN NOVEMBER.] (omitting one specific to Methodist "An Afternoon in Arabia"-10 young plans) are on "Christian College Stu- women and girls, taking about 10 dents around the World," "World minutes-5¢ (W. B. F. M. of Reformed Citizenship," and "On the Road to Church) . Hangchow." May be used by groups in any denomination. "Christ or Mahomet – Which?" 4 scenes, 12 characters, 15 minutes-10¢ Excellent coordinated materials are: (W. F. M. S. of M. E. Church).
"Go Ye," a year's devotional out- "Kasim"-modern life in Persia, 5 lines, 15¢. men, 5 women, 1 hour-25¢ (Mission- ary Education Movement, 150 Fifth Ave., N. Y.). The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK Over half of the population of the United States is rural. Under what conditions do they live? What are their problems? What groups have special needs?
How should they be met? Is the church meeting the needs of Rural America? What must we do to Rebuild Rural America that it may be a part of a great Christian nation of which we can be proud? What lessons can Rural America teach us today? The contribution of Rural Amer- ica to urban life and the develop- fllent of the nation has been great, as has been its contribu- tion to the Christian Church, which has its roots in rural life.
CHARLOTTE M. BURNHAM.
STUDY BOOKS For Adulbs Rebuilding Rural America, by Mark A. Dawber.
A PRAYER THE CHURCH AND RURAL Dr. Dawber has for years trav- eled the whole United States as Teach me, Father how to go AMERICA a leader in rural church work. Softly as the grasses grow; He reports graphically what is Hush my soul to meet the shock This is the month when many happening to,rural America, and Of the wild world as a rock; of the women's societies will take describes rural people and con- But my spirit, propt with power, up their studies of the home mis- structive enterprises that the Make as simple as a flower. sions theme for 1937-38. The churches are undertaking. A books this year are not only in- chapter is given to groups with Let the dry heart fill its cup, tensely interesting and challeng- special needs as the Migratory Like a poppy looking up; ing, but are vitally related to our Worker, the Southern High- Let life lightly wear her crown national life and the critical pe- lander, and the American In- Like a poppy looking down, riod in which we are living. As dian. Cloth, $1.00.. paper, 60 When its heart is filled with dew many of the speakers at the Mis- cent8. And its life begins anew. sions Institutes this summer have pointed out, we can no longer The Church and American Rural Our Father, help us to root expect to hide our own family Life, by Benson Y. Landis. our lives as deeply as Thy trees, skeletons from the world, and which grow so grandly; to rise unchristian conditions in our- A leader's guide based on Restraight and true as Thy grasses, own country, and unchristian building Rural America, conwhich grow so simply; to make behavior toward other countries, taining many helpful suggestions the results of our living as-beaU- prove a stumbling block to the for study groups for city and tiful as Thy flowers. Amen. foreign missionary as well to rural churches. Paper, 25 cent8. those at home who are trying to "Sorvices fr>r th.e Open." spread the Gospel of Jesus. Migrant Laborers. They Starve T hat We May Eat.
Two million migratory workers ' on the road, in the fields and at the canneries; a challenging problem in the rural field with a description of a challenging program of action for the church. . This composite study has been written by authorities in the church and secular field [498 ]
BULLETIN OF THE COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS
and edited by Edith E. Lowry, joyed to learn that I was to go School Methods, Adult Educa- Executive Secretary and na- to Lisle, New York, for a set- tion Methods, Round-Table Dis- tional Director of Migrant ting-up conference. cussions on Work with Young Work. Paper, 35 cents. People, Handicraft, Health Pro- Nearly fifty migrant workers gram, Infant Care, Nutrition, For Young People who are to serve in the Eastern Methods in Work with Children, Migrant camps this summer ar- Methods in Recreation, First Aid Highland Heritage, by Edwin E. rived in Lisle, a typical, peace- and Camp Sanitation, and a dis- White. ful, happy, country community, cussion on our relationship to and were welcomed most gra- the community, the employer The book has literary charm and ciously by our host and hostess, and the migrant. the task of the churches in rural Dr. and Mrs. Richard Edwards. America is vividly illustrated by [This little community has a By the third day, many doubts what is happening as new high- population of three hundred and had come to my mind. Can I do ways and power lines are driven our conference, plus a young all that these other people have through the isolated valleys of people's conference, swelled the done before me and can I put in the "horseback country." Cloth, number to four hundred. You these long hours each day? $1.00; paper, 60 cents. may well see that we overflowed the Inn, the conference rooms For the last vesper service on Rural America Challenges Chris- and the village homes.] Saturday evening, we climbed up to the highest point in this local- tian Youth, by Edwin E. White. PICNIC LUNCH AT A MIGRANT CENTER ity where we seemed to be on the top of the world. I felt, almost A leader's guide based on High- The first evening we met for instantly, a great sense of peace land Heritage containing sug- vespers on a near-by hillside steal over me. My doubts seemed gestions. for youth groups as an looking out over the valley be- to vanish during this vesper approach to the study of the low. This experience instilled service and I felt a sense of re- church in rural America. Paper, in me a sense of quiet and in- newed strength to carryon in 25 cents. spired courage for the many this chosen work. "May I prove hard days ahead. Later that my mettle and may I bring these For Children evening, former migrant work- people the ideals and under- ers gave us a bird's-eye view of standing that will enable them Missionary Stories to Tell. the work and their experiences to come to a greater feeling of in the migrant centers. These fellowship with God and an Thirty-eight of the best mission- girls had worked very hard, had understanding of the meaning of ary stories to tell to primary and experienced many hard, long Christian fellowship that will junior children. Cloth, $1.00; hours that must be put in in any lead them into a more meaning- paper, 50 cents. center, and still were ready and fullife"-this was my prayer. happy to go forward into another Lifting Today Above Its Past, by year. How cheering this was One thing that Dr. Eric Grace McGavran. for me! Thomsen said in one of his talks with us shall always remain with An interesting and challenging Along about the second day a me. "If you suffer without suc- course on life in the country suspicion came into my mind ceeding, then some one after you places of America. This unit of that, perhaps, Miss Lowry was will succeed without suffering work for intermediate groups breaking us into this migrant and if you succeed without suf- contains selected oackground ma- work here at Lisle. We arose at fering, then some one before you terial and can be given without 6: 30 in order to arrive in time has suffered without succeed- additional sources, although use- for breakfast at 7: 30 and were ing." This seems to sum up in ful references are cited. Paper, kept busy each and every minute my mind our work. Will we suc- 35 cents. until 10: 30 at night. During ceed now in our endeavors with these hours, we had the oppor- these people, or will we pave the Ship East-Ship West, by Eliza:- tunity of a varied program way for some one after us to beth Miller Lobingier. which included staff conferences, courses in R u r a I Sociology, succeed? This first volume of a new series Kindergarten Methods, Nursery I cannot stop here without of source books for primary chil- dren introduces them to the sub- saying that I arrived at Whites- ject of world peace through bog, New Jersey, twelve days stories and simple facts. Mrs. ago and have worked as I have Lobingier is a skilled teacher never before for such a long and the author of Stories of stretch of time, seven days every Shepherd Life and other vol- week. I find these people to be umes. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.00; a happy, friendly, courageous, paper, 50 cents. hard-working race who seem as little children in so many ways For Reading List refer to the June number and who need our guidance and of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, understanding. pages 334-335. HARRIET CLOSTER. THE SETTING-UP CON- FERENCE AT LISLE, NEW YORK July 23 to July 27, 1937 After making my decision to devote my summer to working among the Migrants, the feeling came over me many times that I was going into this man-sized job with little knowledge of previous conditions, methods or results and was, therefore, over-
AND SIAM to save that which is lost." In India launched on its first voyage
dedicated for its work of minis- Toward Greater Efficiency Christianity is everything to the De- try. It is chiefly to the workers At Montgomerywala in the pressed Classes, It is with them in in the rice lands that this float- Punjab, a church committee is ing dispensary is sent, and their forming itself into small groups, their work, in their homes, in their need is great indeed, as they are each of which will tackle some entirely without medical help. particular need. For instance, fields. It has "found" them. Then Many of their homes are quite three or four members are to form a hygiene committee to see Christianity has found the criminal inaccessible except by boat, and that the village is kept clean and during the monsoon flood time to teach the people to realize the tribes-men who were regarded as alneed of sufficient light and air in thousands more are cut off; even their houses; another committee most lower than the beasts, men who food must be brought from great i's to find out special cases of pov- distances by boat. During two erty resulting from illness or were guilty of unheard-of evil. I saw months of the monsoon no work some other cause, and to report them to the church committee; these same men giving all their power can be done in the rice fields, and and a third group will teach the people the privilege of giving, to help each other. I heard them sing, which few have learned. and saw men whom I had been told The women are also assuming more responsibility. A Zenana would never work, working for the Committee, some· of them quite illiterate, take care of a weekly sheer joy of doing that which was usemeeting, where one leads the devotionals, another reads the les- ful. – The Chru.stw' n. son, and a third gives a talk. Once a month there is a witness A Practical Experiment meeting, when any who have received special help witness to In the Punjab a different cen- the people of the backwaters are what God has done for them. faced with terrible want. No ter is chosen each month, and all work means no money and no -C. M. S. Outlook. the congregations of the C. M. S. food. They borrow-and pledge Mission, within a radius of eight The Salvation Army away the whole of the next har- miles, assemble. The men and vest to keep themselves alive till Lord Willingdon, former vice- boys form a procession which roy of India, pays tribute to the marches around the village sing- that harvest can be sown. work of the Salvation Army in that part of the Empire. He says ing psalms and hymns. Mean- The voyage of the new boat is he has watched this work for 16 years, and declares there is not while the women and girls gath- carefully planned. There are a public official who would not er in the courtyard and sing. three "ports of call" to be visited express gratitude for such as- Then they are seated in an open each month. The boat is tied up, sistance as the Army is giving in space outside the village, which the stores and medicines are prohumanizing, Christianizing and duced and patients begin to arcivilizing those who are thought is decorated with colored paper rive. A clinic under the trees is to be beyond the reach of good flags, texts and mottoes such as: influence. "Do not get into debt," "Learn held each day for ten days, then Speaking of her visit to India. General Evangeline Booth says': to read," "Be sober." By this the boat is moved to another I never knew until I undertook this time the congregation has been place, not to return for a year. journey the meaning of the words, "The Son of man is come to seek and swelled by a good number of Thousands of people, for whom non-Christians. There is more medical help is available only singing, an opening address ex- from the two floating dispensa- plaining the obj ect of the meet- ries, are ministered to for less ing, and touching on the broth- than a month, then have to erhood of mankind through the be left "as sheep having no Fatherhood of God, addresses by shepherd."
two or three of the manads on -C. M. S. Outlook.
the causes, effects and remedies of debts, illiteracy, poverty, and Festival of Lights a closing address, giving the defi- While there are many unlove- nite Christian message. -C. M. S. Outlook. ly features attached to India's popular festivals, some of them Travancore's Floating _ have beauty and value. At Das- Dispensary ahara time children may be seen· in the evening going about car- Early this year the second rying various colored lights floating dispensary which is to which from a distance have the ply up and down the backwaters appearance of being lanterns so of Travancore, bringing help arranged as throw out light and relief to so many, was through odd openings. An inves- [500 ]
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
tigation discloses the contriv- Bangkok Christian College CHINA ance to be simple enough. A Bangkok Christian College is The Challenge in China small earthen vessel has been looking forward to the day when their plant will be moved to the made wIth openings cut in the new site. Ten years ago new Dr. Charles T. Leber and Dr. property was purchased between side in fanciful designs. Over Bangkok and Paknam at a loca- J. L. Dodds, new secretaries of tion that seemed very remote. this is pasted colored paper and Today, with government high- the Presbyterian Board of For- way improvement, the new site the little oil lamp placed on the is only fifteen minutes distant eign Missions, recently com- from Bangkok, by motor car. inside turns this crude lantern pleted a tour of the mission The staff now includes sixteen into something quite fantastic. Siamese and three foreign teach- fields. Of China, Dr. Leber says: ers on duty, with a few others It is the custom for" children, es- on furlough. "The country is magnificent pecially of the servant class, to When the Educational Com- in its possibilities and presents mittee of the Siam Mission put go with these lights to the houses on a Teachers' Institute at the a tremendous challenge to Chris- beginning of the year, seventy of their masters and others from Christian teachers from mission tianity. The lives of Christian schools of three denominations whom they expect gifts at Das- were in attendance. faith and sacrifice that have ahara time. These children run- Nearly four hundred boys are been put into this land are bear- ning about from house to house ing fruit. The whole nation is in the darkness with these lights progressing but I have been es- make a very striking feature of pecially impressed with the rise the Dasahara festival. The chil- of Christianity. . . . It is in- dren themselves greatly enjoy spiring to see how the Chinese the part which they play, and leaders are re~ching out into the even aside from the gifts which areas of evangelism, Christian they receive, think the occasion education, young people's work one of great importance. Why and social welfare. . .. – not? -Indian Witness. "Mr. Arthur Rugh, formerly Begging for the Gospel in enrolled this year and classes are with the Y. M. C. A., but now Ceylon overcrowded. The government working independently among curriculum for the lower grades the students at Yenching, made does not permit the teaching of A Five-Year Plan of Evan- a survey of student thinking at gelism is being carried out in Bible in the regular schedule, so Yenching. He held personal in- C e y lon, all the Protestant Churches cooperating. Recent- that subject is now taught be- terviews with two hundred of ly, a long closed door unex- the students and is amazed at pectedly opened in Eheliyagoda. fore the opening of the official the thinking they are doing along A man came there from another district, bringing with him a Bi- day in the first six classes. In the lines of religion. They are ble and a very limited knowledge even asking why no greater pOSIof Christianity, but the little he the upper division there has knew he passed on. The people tive Christian approach has been been no need to make this made to them, though most of -Siam Outlook. them are not Christian. A list change. was made of 500 questions which Siam Cares for Lepers of Eheliyagoda are low caste, The Siamese Government has students are asking about reliand were at once attracted to a been watching with interest the gion. A group of educators are religion where all men are equal, chain of 23 leper clinics, laid out considering the possibilities of and were quick to see that Chris- by Dr. J. H. McKean, Presbyte- religious instruction being pertianity would bring them social rian missionary; and now pro- mitted in the schools. At a conuplift as well. So they asked to poses a plan to establish self- ference of' Christian middle be taught. One group of evan- supporting government colonies school principals in Shanghai gelists went from house to in several sections of the coun- the Mayor of Shanghai arose house; another held an open air try, with the same type of organ- and gave testimony as to his meeting. New Testaments were ization as now exists in mission Christian faith. He charged the eagerly bought. At these meet- clinics. The first step will be to principals that their duty as ings, which continued, there train government doctors and Christian principals was to make would be two or three simple assistants at the Chiengmai col- their schools Christian. One addresses, including one to the ony. Then a special leprosy of- trembles to realize what a tragchildren, who are always present ficer and committee will be ap- edy it will be if the Christian in large numbers. Between ad- pointed to make a survey, do forces do not unite and do not dresses the people would ask propaganda work among the move forward to meet the chalquestions or explain their diffi- people, and establish, as the first lenge of this present opportuculties. At the end, the village of the series, a large farm col- nity." headman would select points ony with up-to-date treatment. from the various addresses and If this plan renders mission War Against Opium compare them with Buddhist clinics unnecessary, they will at China seems determined to doctrines, pointing out the ad- least have served to stimulate wipe out the opium curse. On vantages of Christianity. the government to recognize and the eve of the New Year, before -L. M. S. Chronicle. accept its own responsibility. a large crowd at the famous Con-
fucius temple in Nanking, huge ciety," interdenominational, is JAPAN-CHOSEN quantities of opium, and para- putting into operation a plan to phernalia of opium addicts were send forth evangelistic bands of Church Worship burned. Long before this meet- trained men and women to the ing, placards were distributed market towns, let them locate Church service in Japan has and posted on the doors of every there for about two weeks and so me interesting differences house and shop, and slogans from that as a center, visit every from American customs. The written on white streamers home in all the surrounding vil- tray for offerings is always were displayed everywhere an- lages, and freely give the people passed to the minister as well as nouncing: the Word of God. They will also to the congregation. If the ush- do personal work and preach on er fails to do this, the minister 1. Beginning Jan. 1, 1937, hopeless the streets of every village. They will walk from the pulpit and narcotic addicts will be executed. will return to the market towns deposit his money. The sexes arc in the evening, where special separated in all church services: 2. Beginning Jan. 1, 1937, first-time meetings are held in halls, tel!l- men on one side and women on opium smokers will be heavily pun- pIes, schools or homes. the other. This was the custom ished; after being arrested three in America a hundred years ago. times, they will be shot. These bands have already For thirty years Japanese Chris- gone to sixty-four market towns tians have used a common hym- 3. Narcotic addicts who desire to and, as they have worked out nal. Methodists, Presbyterians, escape these penalties should surren- from those centers, 3,482 villages Baptists and Congregationalists der themselves to the city clinics for have been finished. In these vil- all use the same songs of wortreatment on or before Dec. 31, 1936. lages there have been 390,049 ship. -Missionary Herald. homes with a population of near- Parades, depicting opium addicts be- ly two million people. In the Pastors Discuss Religious ing dragged to the g;:tllows with the 3,947 meetings held there have Topics wailing families trailing behind, were been some 691,657 people who also witnessed in the cities. heard the Gospel, besides having The Church of Christ in Ja- received 571,123 tracts and Gos- pan held a Pastors' Conference The regulation, control, pur- pels. As a direct result of this at its theological seminary in chase and sale of narcotic drugs work, 12,906 of those who were Tokyo August 30 to September for legitimate purposes in the dealt and prayed with, sought 4 as a part of the celebration of country were placed in charge Christ as their Saviour. the fiftieth anniversary of the of Division of Narcotics, newly church. Leading pastors and created bureau. Immediately -0. M. S. Standard. teachers lectured on the followthe following measures were put ing subjects: into effect: (1) It restricted the Bible Exhibit issuance of certificates for the The Creed of the Church of Christ importation of narcotic drugs; An exhibition of Bibles in in Japan. (2) it prepared an estimate of Peiping this year evidenced kinds and quantities of narcotic China's interest in the Christian The History of the Church During drugs for the nation's medical Scriptures. There were 300 en- the Meiji Era. and scientific use for 1936; and tries, representing 69 languages (3) it drafted measures for the and dialects, of which 17 were Protestant Credal Views of the Bicontrol of sales of narcotic Chinese. Among the Bibles were ble. drugs. some of a costly character, and others of priceless historical val- The Differences Between Catholi- In order to check recultivation ue. The volumes were lent by cism and Protestantism as a Means of of poppy in areas where poppy libraries, universities, individ- Understanding the Gospel. cultivation existed before but uals and various mission groups. has now been absolutely prohib- The British and Foreign Bible The Main Currents and Problems of ited, the "Measures for General Society lent the famous Morri- Contemporary Theology. Detection and Suppression of son Bible of 1823 and the Morri- Poppy Cultivation" were issued. son New Testament of that same The Thought of the Old Testament date, printed from wooden Prophets. -China Weekly Review. blocks made 10 years earlier. There was also the first Protes- The Church and Culture. Market Town Campaign tant Chinese version to be pub- The Fundamental Principles of the lished. Protestant Reformation. Generally speaking, China's vas t population is grouped No V'olume, however, attracted_ Open discussions were conaround market towns. It is esti- as much attention as the Manda- ducted on The Pulpit and the mated that there are some 40,- rin Bible loaned by Generalis- Church; The Sunday School 000 market towns in China, and simo Chiang Kai-shek-the one and the Church; The Pastor and that an average of about twenty- he used during his imprisonment His Readings, and The Church five surrounding villages are fed at the time of the Sian revolt in and Society. by each market town. On mar- December, 1936. ket days, held every third day, -Translated from Fukuin the people of these villages flock -Monday Morning. Shimpo. to the market towns to do theIr buying, selling and "neighbor- Kagawa Fellowship ing." The Kagawa Fellowship in Ja- The "Oriental Missionary So- pan is an informal organization of about 150 Occidental friends of Dr. Kagawa living in Japan, whose purpose is to share with
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Kagawa in the rich experience missionaries were sent to the Manchuria, and helping to send that God has given him; to study Chinese in East Shantung, them to China and elsewhere. his program for the extension of China. This work has been the Kingdom of God, and as far maintained for 25 years and the The Australian Mission as possible to cooperate with him Korean missionaries there are in achieving this program. The ministering to 25 churches and South Kyengsang, in which fellowship assists Dr. Kagawa in groups in which are enrolled the Australian Presbyterian the translation of his writings 1,500 professing Chinese Chris- Mission has work, is the third into English, gives information tians. smallest of the thirteen provabroad and in Japan about his inces of Korea. It is the most work, and endeavors to get The Korean churches are in- densely populated, the nearest whatever financial support for digenous, self-propagating, self- to Japan and according to stahis program it can. supporting, but need more mis- tistics it consumes per capita sionaries to help in the evangel- the largest amount of beer. Effort is being made to obtain ization of 22,000,000 Koreans in These three circumstances presupport for the promising Medi- Korea, a million in Manchukuo sent their own problems. cal Cooperative Society in To- and 500,000 in Japan proper. kyo, an interesting pro j e c t In 1914, when the mission of started by Kagawa. More than -Korea Mission Field. the Presbyterian Church, U. S. seven thousand people are mem- A., handed over this province to bers of it. The society has a hos- Protestant Christian the Australian mission there pital with fifty-one beds as well were 101 churches, 1887 bapas conducting a clinic, dispen- Membership tized members and 3,816 adhersary and visiting nurse service. ents. Just now money is being raised Of 410,000 enrolled Protesto erect a residence for the tant Christians in Korea, 78 per Comparing these statistics nurses; the building will be cent are Presbyterians, 14 per with those of 1936, we find that called the Nitobe Memorial in cent Methodists and eight per now there are: churches 313, remembrance of Dr. Inazo Ni- cent of other denominations. Of baptized members 7,941, adhertobe. -Christian Observer. the total number 210,000 are ents 26,955. either baptized or members on "God Shelf" for Kitchens probation. The remaining 200,- Each of the five stations has 000 are enrolled as professing some form of institutional work. One of the large department Christians and are regular at- The Harper Memorial High stores of Kyoto is displaying a tendants. School for Girls, near Fusanmod e 1 Japanese kit c hen, chin, trains Christian leaders equipped with electric icebox, With 3,880 churches and for church and school. The Vogas stove, kitchen cabinet, and groups, the average sized con- cational Farm School for Womso on. On the walls hang an gregation numbers about 100. en seeks and saves those in morelectric clock, a thermometer, The largest congregation in Ko- al danger and destitution, and and a small, but complete "god- rea is in the city of Sin Euiju the Paton Memorial Hospital ill shelf" for the spirit of the deity with 4,000 adherents. The Sun- Chinju cares for the sick, espethat presides over kitchens. The day school enrolment of 316,000 cially the sick poor. There are shelf is complete and up-to-date in the Presbyterian and Method- also Men's and Women's Lower with miniature lanterns and ist churches in Korea is about Bible Schools. dishes for the food offerings. the same as the total number of professing Christians. Method- -Korea Mission Field. -Living Church. ist and Presbyterian mission- aries in Korea number a little ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC Korean Christianity more than 400. Many mission lands have a less number of mis- About the Philippines Of the first seven Koreans to sionaries in proportion to the be ordained to the ministry in population, but none h a v e Did you know that there are the Presbyterian Church, one yielded a better return for the three classes of people on the was sent as a home missionary expenditure of time and money. islands, each of a different colto the island of Quelpart. That or? That the Chinese have been church is now supporting 500 -Presbyterian Banner. coming to the island for years, evangelists to unevangelized dis- thus solving the employment tricts in Korea and to Koreans On Their Own problem, since a Filipino will in Manchukuo, Peiping, Shang- not work until the money he has hai and Japan proper. The A Presbyterian church in on hand is all gone? That 10,000 Methodist Church is also carry- Wiju, Korea, has a membership converts were received within ing on an extensive home mis- of 3,000. Not a cent of Ameri- ten years? That there are nine sion work among Koreans in can money has gone into the flourishing mission stations now Manchukuo. When the Korean work of that district for 20 in operation? That there are Presbyterian General Assembly years; no missionary lives witn- 7,000 Americans on the islands? was organized in 1912, three in 20 miles of it. The people That before American occupa- have erected and financed their tion funeral arrangements were own church and are sending mis- always made before calling in a sionaries across the border into physician? That only one and
one-eighth per cent of the popu- ments. In ten years they have and the imminent consummation lation are classed as Frotestant not only banded themselves into of union with the Methodist Christians? effective intelligent groups for Church of France. Nearer home, -Monday Morning. mutual improvement, but they the Alliance welcomed a new have transformed their village member in the Evangelical and Club Women in Polynesia life.-London Chronicle. Reformed Church. The Re- formed Church of the U. S. A., The Polynesians have been NORTH AMERICA recently united with the Evan- evangelized by Samoan Chris- Coordinated Missions gelical Church, was already a tians, who themselves received member.
the Gospel a hundred years ago. The International Foreign The International Women's Mission Association of North Council of Women's Missionary While the men folk have fishing America (composed of inde- Societies was recognized as the for excitement, the women have pendent undenominational mis- women's section of the Alliance, no activities which give interest sions) brings together for coun- with a provision that a certain and variety to island life. Miss E. sel sixteen mission enterprises, quota of del ega t e s shall be A. Downs, principal of the Girls'
School at Puapua, Samoa, sug- under which some 2,231 mis- chosen from the women, with au- sionaries are sent out. They ad- thority to hold sessions during gested that they form Women's the meeting of the council. Sim- Clubs, and that they should work minister over a million dollars ilar action was taken with retogether for the general uplift of annually, and go into many of gard to a youth section of those under 30 years of age, the deletheir village life, for the applica- the out-of-the-way corners of the gates of this group being authortion of simple laws of health and world. The doctrinal basis of hygiene, for mothercraft and in- all these missions is: (1) The fant welfare work, for the pres- plenary inspiration and divine ized to bring to the notice of council matters of deep concern ervation of native arts and authority of the Scripture; (2) to youth. crafts, for social intercourse and the Trinity, including the deity religious expression. They de- of Christ and the personality of -The Christian Century.
cided to call their club "The the Holy Spirit; (3) the fall of Women's Committee," and on man, his moral depravity, and Lutheran Church Leaguers each island the pastor's wife was his need of regeneration; (4) Interest in the education of made the leader. the atonement through the sub- youth tow a r d international Returning to visit the islands, stitutionary death of Christ; peace and continued support of Miss Downs found the women no (5) justification by faith in mission work through a special longer apathetic, but eager to Christ, apart from works; (6) project were the outstanding show what they were trying to the bodily resurrection of Christ, features of the twenty-first bien- do. In Nanumea they had re.- and also of the saved and the un- nial convention of the Luther vived their art of making beauti- saved; (7) the unending life of League of America at Spring- ful fans decorated with seabirds' the saved and the unending pun- field, Ohio, in July. The sessions feathers; in Nui the women were ishment of the unsaved; (8) the brought together between six making mats with patterns of personal, bodily and visible re- and seven hundred young people secret native dyes. In Nanu- turn of Christ. and leaders from the United maga there was a new taro plan- Lutheran churches throughout tation w h i c h their Women's Presbyterians in World the United States and Canada.
Committee had made in the face Council Climaxing the mISSIOnary of a good deal of jeering from Last June Montreal, most project for the past biennium the men; the women had grown Catholic of any large city in this much-valued food product North America, entertained the with a gift of more than $11,000 by dividing the swamp into General Council of the "Re- for a community center building workable sections with walls of formed Churches throughout the at T'ai Tung Chen in the foreign coral from the reef, and in them World Holding the Presbyterian mission field in Chi n a, the making soil from rubbish and System." The central theme Luther League of Arne ric a rotting vegetation; Nanumaga was "The Church in Modern adopted another $10,000 project had in the past been one of the Life." for the coming biennium. This poorest islands,. and liable to time the objective will be the famine, but here was a source of An advance was made in the complete furnishing of a medical prosperity. The women of Niu- unification of Reformed Chris- center established at Konnarock, tao were especially interested in tians. The Reformed Church of Virginia, for southern mounmaking soap from caustic soda. Denmark was admitted to mem- _taineers. bership in the Alliance, now Last year, the triennial church comprehending more than two The Convention of 1939 will conference saw women delegates hundred church groups through- be held at Long Beach, Cali- fornia.
for the first time, eager to ex- out the world. The Reformed Bible Teaching in Kansas change ideas and report achieve- Church of France announced the ments, and to draw up a list of completion of union among all Kansas City, Kansas, has comproposals for future develop- Reformed Churches in France, pleted thirteen years of religious
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
education of its school children. many new people have been seek- sacrifices, without ever obtain- The Council of Religious Educa- ing association with the church ing healing for my poor chiltion, representing all denomina- during recent months that he dren. When my second child betions, sponsors this work. The has been completely "snowed came dangerously ill, I went to Jews are interested but as yet under." Throughout the spring consult a witch doctor and asked not participating. and early summer season every him if he could heal my child. service has been conducted in a He assured me that he could, There are 74 church schools, packed church, and with the provided that I would give him enrolling 91 per cent of public coming of fall the pastor believes thirty dollars. I offered him scholil pupils. The courses are it may become necessary to con- twenty dollars, which he acplanned to correlate with the duct two morning services. cepted. I paid him half the sum work of each grade in public on the spot. But on my way school from October to the end LATIN AMERICA back to get the balance of the of April. Classroom work in- money, a messenger came to tell cludes Bible memorizing, Bible Liquor Ban in Mexico me that the child was dead. I reading, Biblical and character- saw that I was being deceived by building stories and dramatiza- Within ten years statesmen the devil. As a respected antion, notebook and expressional below the Rio Grande, led by cestor of my family was a Chriswork. President Cardenas, hope to tian, I had often heard him speak complete the prohibition of alco- of God, so I told my wife I was -Women's Missionary holic beverages. Governors of going to Port-de-Paix to find out Magazine. all states have helped by order- about Him. ing municipalities to cease issu- Texas Wars on Evil ing licenses for saloons, to cut At a service held by the Hai- down the production of alcohol tian Gospel Mission at Port-de- Texas legislators are out to gradually but none the less Paix I first heard the Gospel. "clean up." In special session surely, and to trim the sales they have outlawed pari-mutuel through higher and higher taxes. After attending services for gambling on horse races, pro- The governor of Coahuila has some time, one Sunday my wife hibited the operation of bookies, gone even farther. He has acted said to me, "Wait for me, I am abolished dog races and insti- to stop the vending of liquor on going also." Since then, not only tuted such an anti-gambling cru- all trains passing through tl}e has God in His mercy saved my sade as has seldom been seen state. The main line of the Na- wife and myself, but He has also anywhere in the whole country. tional Railways of Mexico, healed my child who was para- The Texas supreme court has carrying many passengers be- lyzed from birth. definitely ruled out lotteries. tween Laredo, Tex., and Mexico The Dallas News, the Houston City, is affected, for the route -Haitian Gospel News. Post, and other leading dailies for many miles lies through have ceased the publication of Coahuila, with a stop at Saltillo, Religious Census in Venezuela racing results. In nearly all of the capital of the state. The govthe several counties voting by ernor gives this explanation for The Government of Venezuela local option recently, liquor has his order: vendors from pass- is making a survey and census been outlawed. Anti-vice squads ing trains have sold intoxicants of all religious work and workare also being called into action. to the villagers along the way, ers in the country, collecting full checking the good work that was data regarding the work of both -Christian Century. being accomplished by means of Catholics and Evangelicals. The prohibition in the country towns. purpose is to decide on some "Church of the Lighted Since the government now con- policy regarding the admission Window" trols the railways, this order of foreign religious workers. should be easy to enforce. No disposition to oppose the The Lutheran Church of the work is indicated, but it is pro- Redeemer in Atlanta, Ga., is -Christian Advocate. posed to fix the number of those gaining state-wide recognition who may be admitted, and when as "The Church of the Lighted From Darkness to Light that n u m b e r is established, Window." It is the custom each others will be admitted only night to light up the large color- A convert from heathenism in when some of those at present in ful front window. The effect of Haiti gave the following testi- the country leave for furlough the window is so unusual that it mony on the occasion of his bap- or other reasons. has attracted the attention of tism: "From my earliest life I people throughout that section. put myself under the protection In view of the tremendous A recent monthly publication of of demons. I built a small house, need, it is hoped that new misthe Georgia Power Company, and furnished it expressly for sionaries may be admitted, espewhich lights the window, car- their reception. I had two sick cially those who are accepted ried front-cover pictures of the children one of which had never and waiting to enter. church with particular reference walked from birth. I spent to its beauty and the unique cus- everything I possessed in pay- -Moody Institute Monthly. tom of lighting the window. ment to the witch doctor and in "Voice of the Andes" The pastor reports that so Senor Manuel Aldama was born in the Basque Province of
Spain, trained for the priest- then asked, "Will you read the they can understand, they are hood, became Professor in the University of Santander, was book if I give to to you?" surprised by songs of deliver- converted to evangelical Chris- tianity in 1925, and after in- "Gladly," said the gentleman, as ance, victory and blessed assur- struction in the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow, was accepted he rose to leave the bus. ance ; they are moved by the by the Evangelical Union of South America, for work in When he had gone, the work- words of sympathy expressed by Lima, Peru. Here he took up the ing man said, "It is a funny the pastor, and cannot believe editorial work of the Mission thing, but that text was my their eyes when they see him press and the translation of the mother's favorite, too. I have mourn with the bereaved fam- Sunday school lessons. His gone a long way on the wrong ily. Thus it is that a Protestant mastery of Spanish and his fa- funeral service conducted in a miliarity with Romanism en- road since those days." The Roman Catholic country is a abled him to contribute largely woman gave him a Gospel of St. great opportunity to put the to the development of the Evan- John, which he promised to read, truth of the Gospel before the gelical Church of Peru. and went on her way praying people.
Recently, a call has come to that both might be touched by About 2,000 people assembled him to full-time cooperation in the Word that giveth Light." the only Evangelical broadcast- ing station in South America, La -Life of Faith. for the funeral of a young Voz de los Andes (The Voice of mother, whose last words were, the Andes). This Voice of the Andes operates from Qui t 0, The Gospel in Spain "Whether I die or live, I am the Ecuador, and was established Lord's." The Mayor, the Town some five years ago by an inde- Opinion is divided as to the Council, the teaching staff of the pendent worker from Chicago. religious outlook in Spain. Some high school with their 400 chil- believe that opportunity for Gos- dren, and many notables had The Board of the Evangelical pel teaching will be assured if gathered to pay homage to the Union of South America is set- the government wins, while deceased. The first meeting be- ting Sr. Aldama free for this others are convinced that the gan at the home; another meet- special service. He will combine government is not only anti- ing followed at the Mission Hall, with this ministry some service clerical, but anti-Christian. Rep- and the last one took place in for the British and Foreign resentatives of Anglican and Bible Society throughout the Re- Free Churches of Great Britain the cemetery. At each place the public of Ecuador. went to Spain recently to gain Gospel was listened to by thou- first-hand information. They sands who had followed the pro- -The Christian. were given full liberty of move- ceedings from half-past one till ment, and upon returning to five o'clock in the afternoon. As EUROPE England reported as follows: a result, the evangelist had many requests for interviews. . "The Entrance of Thy Word" We found no evidence of an organ- -Belgian Gospel Mission. A member of the Pocket Tes- ized "Godless" propaganda such as tament League was riding in an exists in Soviet Russia. We were un- Paul's Speech on Mars Hill English bus with two other pas- able on inquiry to hear of any carica- sengers – an elderly business Unlike the ancients, tourists man and a working man. The tures of God, of Christ, or of the who go to Athens are not search- business man leaned across the Virgin and Saints, such as have been ing for "some new thing," but bus and asked the woman, features of "anti-God" propaganda in for things associated with the "Would you like to read my other countries. On the other hand, past. With this in view, one of paper?" "Thank you," she said. members of our party found copies of Mr. Rockefeller's projects has "Would you like to read my the Scriptures offered freely for sale been the restoration of the Par- book," holding out the New Tes- on street bookstalls. The situation in thenon; and because it is fitting tament. He took it, and after regard to religion in Spain was that something far more signifi- glancing at the page said, "Why summed up to us by a very acute cant than the friezes of Praxit- did you give me this?" "Why English observer of dispassionate eles should be remembered, Mrs. did you give me the paper?" she views, one who knows Spain well and Josephine Demas, daughter of countered. "Because the news is is himself a practicing Catholic, in the one of the most famous archi- interesting this morning," he following terms :-"There is a strong said. "My book is interesting anti-clerical movement but no anti- every morning." He looked God movement in Spain." again at the book. "This is my mother's favorite text, John -The Christian. 5: 24. It is years since I have read it." The P. T. L. member Evangelizing at Funerals tects in Athens, has urged upon the municipality the enshrining Great is the astonishment of of Paul's speech in the rock of Catholics in Belgium when they Mars Hill. T~e press an~ a attend their first Protestant number of emment Athemans funeral. They are familiar with – have. backed the proposal ~nd the pomp and ceremonies of the dIrector of.the A~cheologlCal their own funerals, the mo- Bureau has gIven hIS endorse- notonous recital of the Latin ment. He says that £350 to £400 liturgy, the gestures of the offi- is ne.e~ed,. and h.e hopes .that t~e ciating priest and his apparent ~umc}pahtr ~Il~ prOVIde ~~IS indifference to grief. At a Prot- relatIvely mSIgmficant sum.
estant funeral they hear things -Christian Advocate.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Paid Persecutors in Galicia Church has extended its serv- while Pravda laments the inac- ice and the social side of the tivity of the "Godless League." The National Lutheran Coun- Church as a colony center has cil is authority for the report not been neglected. Spiritually, This new life is particularly that agitators in Poland are be- there are the regular services noticeable in the country. Heads ing paid approximately 120 zloty the Church Festival6bservances' of collective farms even conduct per month to persecute members and th?se on national holidays; Church Councils, and other colof the Lutheran Church and MemOrIal Day, Fourth of July lective farms permit Bible readcompel them to return to the Thanksgiving Day and the like: ing, ch?ir singing, and evening Catholic Church from which The names of Ambassador W. entertam~nts. It is also anthey originally came. In a re- E. Dodd and Consul-General nounced that the number of cent legal process it was re- General Jenkins are on the members of the Militant Godless vealed that one such agitator Church Council roll. League has decreased from was offered a bonus of 50 zloty 5,000,000 in 1933 to less than for every person he succeeded in -Lutheran News. 2,000,000. Five anti-religious intimidating to return. But even though there are constant Religious Freedom in Russia museums in the provinces have difficulties and hardships the been closed. A correspondent Ukrainian peasants are firmly The much-heralded religious in another paper notes that the steadfast, and manifest an ever- freedom promised by the new jeering at religion has largely increasing interest in the Gospel constitution of Soviet Russia gone. turns out to be a disappointof Jesus Christ. ment. Four conditions must be AFRICA Christian Convention in Italy a~op:pvrocvleosd~d,be.if~oorepenaendy. Tchheurpcoh~ Student Alliance in Alexandria The Director of Spezia Mis- htIcal rehabIlIty of the petition- as Young Emgaytpetriiaanlissttiucdaenndtsiarrree~ ers "must be above suspicion." a rule, sion writes: "Those who can go The church must be more than 15 minutes' walk from a school ligious; their education is of the freely to Christian conferences the condition of the building must be above criticism, there sort to make them vain, shallow, and share the fellowship of kin- must be no protest from the local organization of the godless. selfish. For this reason Chrisdred minds know little of the tian work among them advances According to official Soviet grave difficulties to be sur- figures, 14,000 churches and slowly. But a young men's club chapels were closed in 1935 and mounted, the severe testing of 3,700 priests, preachers' and known as the "Christian Alliance other servers of the churches of Young Men," reports some faith, the patience, and the condemned, twenty-nine of them to death. prayers involved in accomplish- progress. On the other hand a renewal mg such a gathering in Italy. of spiritual life is appearing. In Two Bible classes and other the province of Swerdlovsk the prayer – meetings are h e I d But God worked what seemed to population have requested that at~eist propaganda be stopped. us miracles indeed, in breaking ThIS movement began in the in- weekly; Copts, Moslems and dustrial districts, where almost Jews sing hymns together and down obstacles." the whole population consisted of factory workers. Collections Representatives cam e from are held among the workers to study God's Word; the numbers restore the churches and rebuild far and near, and the organizers them. A Czech correspondent are increasing. Two young men wr!tes that !Ie found a newly !Iad their hands full, in arrang- bUIlt church m almost every vil- have been converted recently lage in the neighborhood of Mosmg for the accommodation and cow. In some of the collective one a Copt, one a Greek. ' farms, club buildings are being the meals for those to whom they set up to get the church free The members of this Alliance once more. gave so warm a welcome. are asked to sign a basis stating Religious Interest in Russia T~e supreme point of the Con- that they are uniting with other It seems unquestioned that reventIOn was the service in the ligion is reviving in Russia to a young men who know the Lord degree disturhing to commu- Church of Casa Alberto, which nists. W 0 r l d Evangelization as Saviour, and desire to bring mentions a town of 4,500 which was crowded,-a long and won- has 30 religious organizations, others into the Kingdom. Twelve derful service. It included the baptism of groups of those who members have signed. -Life of Faith. at La Spezia and at Leghorn'
had recently tfhoeuncdelCebhrraitsit~nanodf Medical Service to Felahe'en ended with Dr. Harpur of the Church the Lord's Supper. Missionary Society founded a hospital in Old Cairo 48 years -Life of Faith. ago which is still known 'to Egyptians, especially the fela- American Church in Berlin heen, as "Harmel," a corruption of Dr. Harpur's name. The Despite the fact that the felaheen are a lovable and Ame~ICan Colony in Berlin is friendly people, though ignorant and superstitious; it is from growmg. smaller, the American this class that the majority of Church m that city is growing the patients are drawn. They ~tronger both financially and in are almost overcome by the mfluence. Truly American is strangeness of being put into the "Ladies Aid Society" in the form ?f an active Sewing Guild. The hbrary connected with the
beds with sheets and blankets, favor the Westernization of the ing developments, avoiding un- instead of lying in a dark and country. There is a movement necessary risk and exposure of dirty corner, surrounded with in the Egyptian University to missionaries, and at the same noise and clatter, the talking of introduce compulsory Moslem time gradually reducing ex- relatives and neighbors, and the religious equcation and to abol- penditures in view of the uncer- noise of animals and chickens. ish coeducation. The Dean of tainties of the future.
Arabic texts are painted in red Arts in the University thinks The Italian Minister of For- on the white walls, giving a there is nothing in the Koran eign Affairs has informed the touch of brightness t~ the whole; against coeducation, while the American Ambassador at Rome instead of being thought too Rector of EI-Azhar University is that "The Italian Government much bother to be looked after, against it. has decided not to entrust to for- the patients are treated kindly The Westernizing faction ig- eigners whatever may be the re- by the Egyptian staff of nurses. nores the Ramazan Fast, neg- ligion they profess, the work of Biblewomen and evangelists lects the study of the Koran, establishing schools in terri- have prayers for half an hour in seldom prays in the Masjids and tories of Ethiopia." The com- the mornings in the out-patient encourages their women to dis- munication also states: "Should departments; for those in the card the veil. An article in a pro- foreign missionaries wish to con- wards prayers twice each day. Moslem paper declares that tinue their other humanitarian Recently some of the Egyptian "Most Egyptian households, es- and philanthropic activities, out- men nurses have been singing pecially those in high life, have side the field of education, their hymns and giving a talk on Sun- no prayer-carpet, and no copy requests for permission will be day evenings to the patients in of the Koran, and do not know considered in due time and after the men's hospital. what these are." de jure recognition of the Italian -Life of Faith. -World Dominion Press. empire is an accomplished fact."
Missionaries can scarcely see Faith and Freedom Times of Trial how evangelistic and medical The February number of Protestant missions are rapid- work can be carried on success- Faith and Freedom calls atten- fully without at least some type tion to the new constitution of ly disappearing from Ethiopia. of educational institution. the Soviet Union, in which many Mussolini's own paper, the Gior'- nale d' ltalia, has carried a front -United Presbyterian.
have seen the end of the struggle page story predicting the end of Liberia's Hinterland against church and worship; Protestant work. The Swedish for protection of religious con- missionaries and three Ameri- The native population of Liviction is expressly guaranteed can independent mlSSlOnaries beria, divided into many tribes, in the new project. This in no have been expelled, and the prop- is about 1,000,000 of good, virile erty of the Sudan Interior Mis- stock. The Liberians, who are sense means that a change has sion has been requisitioned. the descendants of liberated Necome about in the attitude of offi- groes brought to Africa by the cial circles towards church and The pastor of the Swedish United States and Great Britain religion, or that the time of per- church in Addis Ababa, Kes Ba- about 120 years ago, now numsecution is past. The Soviet at- dima, has grown old and gray ber about 12,000, and are the titude remains the same. The in the service of his Lord, and ruling group of the country. new policy means that those re- knows what it is to be chained sponsible must carryon with the and driven from place to place The Methodist C h u r c h of eradication of church and reli- for his faith. His son was killed America has been active in gious life, though they must not during the riots. He spoke often spreading the Christian mesthereby injure too greatly the of the keeping power of God, sage, and churches now number religious conviction of the peo- and of his longing for the day 102. The great need is to peneple. Stalin has said, "Why when his earthly pilgrimage trate the thick bush country of should one be actively unmerci- would be ended. He told count- the interior, where live most of ful? One must explain the harm- less people how God had judged the natives who have been pracfulness of religion to the young Ethiopia, and warned the-:n tically unreached with the Goswith patience, and supply them against the final judgment. He pel. A pioneer mission penewith propaganda for a material- encouraged those who were trated for 200 miles to Ganta istic outlook as the only scientific weak, gave liberally to the poor, and there organized a station a one !" Communist patience will and not even the great slaughter few years ago, and a road for 80 in future be set against Chris- of February shook his faith in miles of this distance has been tian and religious patience; but the least. -Alliance Weekly. _ made. For three years a doctor the extirpation of church and and his wife have labored here, religion is still the purpose. Ethiopian Situation then sleeping sickness claimed them and forced them back to The V nit e d Presbyterian Modernism in Islam Board has not been willing to the States. A similar effort by abandon established work in another doctor and his wife was A conflict is going on in Egypt made three years ago to reach between those who would revive Ethiopia unless obliged to do so. the tribes in the hinterland of interest in Islam and those who They have been watchfully wait- Barclayville, sit u ate d in the
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
southeastern corner of Liberia. ble and Prayer Circle, a move- 'the blood of martyrs is the seed Sickness again defeated a fine ment which has grown out of of the Church," for not long aftwork, and the workers have been the evangelistic ministry of Mr. er Rasalama's execution church compelled to return to the States. G. A. Gush, a colporteur-evan- membership increased tenfold, gelist who was at one time a and the adherents twentyfold. The Firestone Rubber Com- farmer, and who was converted pany have cleared 70,000 acres during a mission conducted by -The Chronicle. of jungle and planted it with Gipsy Smith in South Africa, rubber trees, 15,000 acres of about thirty-three years ago. Call for Protestant Unity which are now bearing. This has Those who found Christ through greatly increased prosperity in Mr. Gush are to be found all Dr. Daniel A. Poling, inter- Liberia. over South Africa today; and national president of Christian there are hundreds, especially Endeavor, told a group of hear- -World Dominion Press. among the European population ers in Grand Rapids, Mich., re- of the eastern Cape Province, cently that Protestant Christian- Angola Leper Work where the Prayer Circle has been ity, instead of being in a posi- the result of a hunger for deep- tion to conduct a successful of- A large part of the work con- er spiritual life. fensive against the powerful nected with the Camundong~ forces opposing the Church, Leper Colony, Angola, South Af- The Prayer Circle is an unde- might be unable to maintain its rica, is undertaken by the lepers nominational body made up of own position. Among these opthemselves. It was considered many praying bands in cities, posing forces he cited militant impracticable to send nurses or towns and villages. The differ- Shintoism in Japan; a united orderlies from the station to the ent bands meet on different eve- Hinduism in India, Burma and villages; the more intelligent nings~ and each has its own Siam; a united, world Bud- Christian lepers were therefore method and procedure; but dhism; Mohammedanism, shaktaught to use the hypodermic twice a year there is a large ing off its age-old superstitions; syringe, and to administer chaul- gathering in a central place. the German Neo-pagan movemoogra oil treatment. Only ment, and Communism. Christians, and those who can -Life of Faith. read the Bible and preach the Under the slogan "Christ for Gospel, are sent out. Dlalagasy Centenary the Crisis," Christian Endeavor has adopted a program of ob- Christian lepers have also en- Among this year's centenaries jectives that have to do with gaged in evangelistic work. Re- is that of the martyrdom of Ras- world peace, cooperation in the cently a party, many of them alama, Malagasy Christian, in enactment and enforcement of advanced cases, set out on a the reign of Ranavalona I, "ty- law support for Christian mismission of testimony, traveling rant queen of Madagascar." sions at home and abroad, the from village to village, telling During her reign of thirty-three furtherance of economic justice what had been done for them, years from sixty to eighty pro- and racial good will, and the and preaching the Gospel. This fessing Christians were publicly fight against alcohol and narcombined medical and evangel- put to death; s 0 m e were cotics. istic work is meeting with great speared, others burnt, and many response. -Life of Faith. stoned. Later, 500 died from -Presbyterian Tribune. the poison ordeal. Of those who Congo Prayers voluntarily confessed the i r Interesting Documents Christian faith, 400 officers were A missionary has w r itt e n reduced in rank and 2,000 were The Life of Faith reports that down some of the prayers of fined, while an unknown number half a million private journals men and women in the Congo. suffered privation and under- and letters sent home by mis- Here are two of them. mined health as they hid away sionaries in Africa, India, China in mountain fastnesses, or up and the West Indies, during the We have two hands each full of to their necks in rice bogs. last 140 years are to be reclassiseeds, seeds of goodness and seeds of fied by experts and preserved in evil. Day by day we scatter thfs8 Rasalama, 39 years of age, fireproof rooms at Livingstone seeds. Father in lieaven, help us to sang cheerfully most of the way House, Westminster, England. fill both hands with good seeds. Daily to her execution, and when This task will take two years. I seem to scatter evil seeds, and as reaching the spot where she was The documents include letters yet I am not worthy to go and tdi to be martyred, she asked per- from the first missionaries to others of Jesus. mission to kneel in prayer, and reach Tahiti, in 1797; from Dr. in that posture she was speared John Philip, who defended the * ** to death. rights of the Kaffirs in South Africa; Robert Moffat, during As the charcoal burns in the fire of Today, Rasalama's cottage his pioneer days in Southern the village smithy, and is consumed as still stands as she left it. There Rhodesia; David Livingstone; it makes the iron hot, so let me burn is a strong church here under Robert Morrison, the first transout in Thy service, 0 God, my King the London Missionary Society, lator of the Bible in Chinese; and Lord. and Christians can worship W. G. Lawes and James Chal- without fear of consequences. mers, of Papua; and from many -Wonderlands. It has been literally true that others.
Young People's Prayer Circle Between 500 and 600 people attended the fifteenth rally of the United Young People's Bi-
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Our Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information I ~i==============–=-=~ TWENTY-FIVE "BEST BOOKS" IN THE STUDY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS PREPARED BY THE REV. SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, D.D.
Editor of "The Moslem World"; author of "Arabia, the Cradle of Islam," etc., etc.
Shortly after the World War 3. The Origin of Islam in Its signon's Annuaire du Monde a German scholar, Gus t a v Christian Environment. By Musulman. Paris. 1934. Pfannmuller compiled a Hand- Richard Bell. $3.50. Macbook of Literature on Islam and Millan, New York. 1926. 8. Christendom and IrSlam. By missions to Moslems. It com- W. W. Cash. $2.00. Harpprised over four hundred pages The writer gives the back- ers, New York. 1937. and over two thousand titles. ground of the new religion in Since that survey appeared, in- Arabia and indicates the sources A succinct account of the conterest in Islam as a world prob- of its strength and vigor. . tacts between Christendom and lem, and in missions, has not de- Islam and the influence for good creased. For one who has him- 4. Islam: Beliefs and Institu- and ill mutually exerted by Cruself written more than twenty- tions. By H. Lammens. sades and conquests. five books on Islam and Missions 8's. 6d. Methuen, London. to be asked to select twenty-five 1929. 9. An Eastern Palimpsest. By "best" books is therefore some- O. Wyon. 2s. 6d. World what an embarrassing task. A careful analysis of the creed Dominion Press, New York. New books (like new art, new and practice in Islam. Full of 1928. wine, or new violins) are not information and accurate in all always better than the old. Yet its statements. A brief account of missions in the latest view may be the only the Near East with maps and true picture of a scene that has *5. The Legacy of Islam. By statistics. witnessed kaleidoscopic changes. Sir Thomas Arnold and We have therefore selected some Others. Oxford. 1931. *10. Moslem Women Enter a new and some old volumes, while New World. By Ruth scores of others here omitted are A compendium of what the F ran c e s Woodsmall. "best" in their own field. The West owes to Islam in literature, $3.00. R 0 u n d Table titles marked with an asterisk art, architecture, science, phi- Press, New York. 1936. are popular and suitable for losophy and culture. No other younger readers also. book contains such fascinating The most recent book on the material on the "glory of Islam." subject and gives the brighter r. MOHAMMED AND ISLAM: side of the picture. Needs to be 6. The Koran (translated). By supplemented by present-day re- 1. Mohammed the Man and His E. H. Palmer. 80 cents. ports of women – missionaries Faith. By Tor Andrae. Pocket edition. Oxford Uni- who live close to the illiterate Scribners, New Y 0 r k. versity Press, New York. masses. 19.36. 1929. 11. The Moslem World of To- The latest attempt to evaluate The most idiomatic transla- day. Edited by John R. Mohammed's character. It is tion of the Koran with valuable Mott. $2.50. Doran, New fair and discriminating. Shows introduction and good index. York. 1926. how much Mohammed owed to Nestorian Christianity. II. EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF This consists of a series of monographs by missionaries and THE MOSLEM WORLD: orientalists on present-day as- pects of the problem, education, *7. Across the World of Islam. the press, medical work, etc. By S. M. Zwemer. $3.00.
2. Mohammed and the Rise of Revell & Co., New York. III. MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS: Islam. By D. S. Margo- 1929. liouth. $2.50. Putnam, THEIR VALIDITY, HIS- New York. 1905. A statistical and political sur- vey of the Moslem world and its TORY AND CHARACTER. The best brief life story of the missionary opportunity. Lacks Prophet; fully documented from a clJ,apter on the Near East and *12. Henry Martyn, Confessor original sources. should be supplemented by Mas- of the Faith. By Con- stance E. Padwick. S. C. M., London. 1922.
Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the R~IllW publishers on receipt of price.
[510 ]
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
The best life of the first mod- it deserves special mention. Full They teach a lesson without the ern missionary to Islam. of inspiration. necessity of pointing a moral. Children, parents and teachers 13. Modern Movements Among 21. The Arab at Home. By Paul will find these tales delightful Moslems. By S. G. Wil- and helpful. son. $1.50. Revell, New W. H a r r i son. $3.50. York. 1916. Africa and Christianity. By Diedrich Crowell, New York. 1924. Westermann. 221 pp. $2.25. Ox- Excellent, especially on Iran, ford University Press. New York. but not quite up-to-date. One of the best books for the 1937.
*14. The Persian Journey of the study of the Arab mind and soul Dr. Westermann of Berlin, Rev. Ash ley Wishard, the author of "Africa Today," is etc. By Elgin Grosclose. by one who has lived close to this one of the best-informed and $2.50. Bobbs – Merrill, people and loves them. . most interesting writers on Af- Indianapolis. 1937. rica from a Christian point of *22. The Expansion of Islam. view. He is professor of African A novel full of missionary ap- By W. W. Cash. 38.6d. languages at the University of peal and interest. Edinburgh House Press, Berlin and the material here London. 1929. presented was given in the Duff 15. History of the Arabian Mis- Lectures in Scotland in 1935. sion. By Mason & Barney, An excellent, popular general The author dwells on aspects of 25 East 22d Street, New survey. missionary work in Africa and York. the change this work is bringing 23. The Eclipse of Christianity about in the character, culture An account of thirty years' in Asia. By L. E. Browne. and condition of the people. He pioneer effort in the hardest of $3.50. Cambridge Uni- shows the old and new standards Moslem lands. versity Pre s s, London. and ideals in family and commu- 1935. nity life; the influence of Euro- 16. Vital Forces of Christianity pean commerce and control; the and Islam. 3s. 6d. Oli- Here is the history of Islam's changes in religious faith and phant, Anderson & Fer- penetration and spiritual con- practice-from superstition, ig- rier, London. 1915. quest of those lands in Asia norance, fear, to belief in God as where the Crescent has super- presented by missionaries. Dr. Six studies by missionaries to seded the Cross. Scholarly yet Westermann includes a chapter Moslems on Method of approach most interestingly written. on Christianity vs. Competition to the Moslem heart. with sects, with Islam and with 24. The Crescent in Northwest secularism-not c h e e r i n g to 17. Indian Islam. By Murray China. By G. Findley An- read; the growth of the Church; T. Titus. 12s. 6d. Ox- drews. China Inland Mis- and the production of Christian ford Press, New York. sion, London. 1922. literature. He does not hesitate 1930. to criticize missions construc- Sketch of Missions in North- tively as a friend. A scholarly survey of the his- west China. tory, character and peculiarities The information is general of Islam in India, its distribu- 25. A Desert Journal. By Evan- rather than specific for Africa is tion, and its present-day in- geline French & Mildred too large a continent to be sucfluence. Cable. $3.00. China In- cessfully dealt with in one short land Mis s ion, German- volume. For a general view, 18. Temple Gairdner of Cairo. town. 1934. however, this volume is highly By Constance E. Padwick. commended. It shows the prob- $3.00. Macmillan, New This book is a type of many lems and the progress noted in York. 1929. that tell of the daily life of Mos- two centuries of modern mis- lems and their attitude toward sions in Africa; also the forces The life of a versatile, schol- Christians in the great unoccu- for and against Christ and the arly and devoted missionary by pied areas. Church, forces that must largely one who is herself doing work determine the future of this for Moslems in all lands through OTHER RECENT BOOKS great continent. Christian literature. Stocking Tales. A Book of Stories Ablaze for God. By Mary W. Dunn 19. The Reproach of Islam. By for Children. By J. T. Stocking. Pattison. 317 pp. 38. 6d. Japan Temple Gairdner. C. M. Illustrated by Winifred Bromhall. Evangelistic Band, London. 1937. S., London. 119 pp. $1.25. Pilgrim Press. Boston. 1937. This is the biography of Paget There is no better textbook for Wilkes written by his sister. all who desire to know Islam as Dr. Stocking is a prince of Wilkes was born in Suffolk in it is and Christianity as it ought story-tellers, with lit era r y 1871, was educated at Oxford to be in witnessing for Christ. charm, a truly Christlike spirit, with Temple Gairdner, J. H. Not a lukewarm book, but full of imagination and a love for chilfire. dren. He fascinates adults and young people as well. His death *20. Young Islam on Trek. By has brought a great loss as his Basil Mathews. 25 cents. life was a great blessing to Friendship Press, New many. These stories are a mix- York. 1926. ture of fairy tale and parable.
This earlier textbook for mission study is so well written that
Oldham and Stuart Holden and the Plan of Union between Pres- meet are not so ready to be led." went to Japan to work with Bar- byterianism and Congregational- Doubtless Dr. Wilson has also clay Brocton in 1897. Later he ism and the controversy growing met many utterly indifferent to became the leader of the Japan out of it. the Word of God, who needed to Evangelistic Band, an undenom- be a wakened to a sense of sin. inational movement which em- Part Two is made up of docu- This is probably a selection of phasized direct evangelism and ments illustrating the frontier certain experience.'3 that show the "Second blessing." He was work of the Pre s b y t e ria n the great truth to be presented a man of great ability and of churches-an immense wealth of in Bible words to sinners, namepure devotion, whose motto source material. It is of course ly the way of justification and might well have been Henry ·only a fraction of what is avail- peace through the atoning death Martyn's "Now let me burn out able and a vast deal is of neces- of Christ. These true sketches for God." He mastered the Jap- sity omitted, many times as are very informing because they anese language and he inspired much as could be included; one show how thousands of people his associates, both Japanese and would rather have some of the who have gone to church and foreign, with his own zeal, and omitted material than that which have read the Bible for years, his consecration and sacrifice is included, some, for example, have never really understood the were a stimulus to many in the from the records of the old Penn- Gospel that Christ died for the missions of the British and sylvania presbyteries and from remission of sin, and that we American churches. At home, the period and area covered in are not saved by our own goodin England or in Canada or in Waddell's "Annals of Augusta ness, but by faith in Jesus South Africa, he conducted mis- County, Virginia, from 1726 to Christ. That is the one thing sions for the conversion of non- 1871." But we are grateful for that stands out in this book. We Christians and for the deeper the mass of old documents which must add this also that readers life of Christians. He was a Dr. Sweet has presented. They will be convinced that most Church of England evangelical enable us to enter intelligently Christians do not sufficiently and was a notable illustration of into the religious atmosphere of recognize the sinfulness of sin, the great body of British Chris- our country a century, and a cen- and the necessity of the shedding tians who move out on their own tury and a half ago, to realize of Jesus' blood; therefore they lines beyond the bounds of de- the social and cultural conditions do not feel impelled to seek the nominational action. He had the of that early time and, by such salvation of others. Finally, this Keswick mind, with a turn of a term of comparison, to see how book shows that Christians his own, and he served his Mas- far on we have come in true re- ought to know their Bibles and ter with his whole heart and ligion and Christian charity. be able to diagnose a soul's need mind and soul and strength. T9 and offer the remedy. We should read such a life is to have one's ROBERT E. SPEER. definitely study the book with own lethargy and reticence :r:e- this in mind. We may well note buked and to feel the glow of the The Romance of a Doctor's Visits. the Scripture passages used. New Testament discipleship at By Dr. Walter L. Wilson. 128 pp. Dull is the conscience of the work amid the conditions of our Is. Pickering & In~lis. London. Christian, either at home or on own day. 1937. the mission field, that will not be moved to personal work by read- Religion on the American Frontier. This small, easy-reading vol- ing this book. Vol. II, The Presbyterians, 1783- ume is one of the "World-Wide 1840. By William Warren Sweet. Library of Famous G 0 s pel FRANK LUKENS. 939 pp. $3.50. Harper & Brothers, Books." The author is a physi- New York and London. 1936. cian of some years' experience Consider Him. By Vance Havner. who but devotes much of his $1.00. American Bible Conference This volume by Dr. Sweet of time to Christian ministry. For Association. Philadelphia, Pa. 1937. the University of Chicago is the a number of years he regularly broadcast the morning Bible les- For those that like a "stimsecond in a series dealing with son over the radio station of the ulus" in Bible study and meditathe different denominations on Kansas City Star, and was said tion and desire a greater fellow- to have an audience of a million ship with the Spirit of God, this the early American frontier. people. book will be of great help. In it we find one hundred medita- The first volume dealt with the Here are twenty-eight short tions on some of the great pas- Baptists and the third is to deal pen-pictures of different persons sages of the Bible. These mediwit h the Congregationalists. seeking salvation whom he led tations were gathered by a Part One (125 pages of this to assured faith by use of Bible pastor from his everyday "walk volume) deals generally with passages. The cases represent and talk" with the Master and American Presbyterianism at all sorts and conditions of life, with his people in the parish. the close of the Revolution, the but the need and the solution In a book form they will inspire Presbyterians and Westward are practically the same in all. a much greater parish. To min- Expansion, the cultural and edu- The first impression on the read- isters they will serve as seeds of cational influence of the Presby- er is that everyone of these peo- thoughts for sermons. terians in the Early West, re- ple were seekers, conscious of vivalism and Presbyterian con- their sin, and wanting peace. A. H. PERPETUO. troversy, and the operation of Some may say, "The people I
Books Obituary Notes The
Across Africa in a Lorry. W. B. Red- (Concluded from page 449.) A weekly religious newspaper in mayne. 128 pp. $1.40. Zondervan. Grand Rapids. Dr. Edward M. Poteat, prominent its lo6th year of continuous pub- in Baptist work both North and South Books for the Traveler or Sojourner for two generations, died June 26, at Iication under the same name. in China. Harriet Hardison Rob- Raleigh, N. C. After a period of son. 24 pp. 25 cents. American years as preacher, college president, It is conservative and evangel- Council, Institute of Pacific Rela- and denominational worker, he went tions. New York. to China to be a professor in Shang- ical, gets its news by telegraph hai College. His son, Gordon Poteat, is Burmese Brothers. Story Lessons professor in Shanghai College; an- and keeps abreast of the times. for Little Children. Eleanor Mar- other son, Edwin M. Poteat, Jr., is a tin. 42 pp. 6d. S. P. G. London. prominent pastor in Raleigh. It goes into every state of the Union, the District of Columbia, Fun, Fear and Faith. The Story of *** the Church in Burma. Ruth Hen- and U. S. possessions. rich. 91 pp. 18. S. P. G. London. Dr. Danjo Ebina, Professor Emer- itus of Doshisha University, died in It goes to Asia and AFrica, South Cycle of Prayer and Praise, 19'37-38. Tokyo, on May 22. He first learned 100 pp. 68. S. P. G. London. about Christ from Gapt. L. L. Janes, America, Canada and New Zealand and afterwards was a member of the Christ of the Countryside. Malcolm first graduating class of Doshisha in and into twelve countries of Eu- Dana. 128 pp. $1.00. Cokesbury. 1879. He founded the Hongo Congre- Nashville. gational Church in Tokyo, was its rope. pastor until 1920 when he became Communism. John Horsch. 30 pp. university president. He was the Subscription Price, – 15 cents. B. I. C. Assn. Chicago. author of many books on Christianity. Ministerial Rate, The Land of Umbrellas. Lessons on *** the Church in Burma. Ruth Hen- 50c. extra—Canadian postage rich. 92 pp. Is. S. P. G. London. Emile Doumergue, for 66 years the leader of the French conservative $1.00 extra—foreign postage Flaming Milestone. Report of the theological group, died recently in World's Conference of the World France at the age of ninety-three. He THE PRESBYTERIAN Alliance of the Y. M. C. A.'s. 115 was the author of the Life of Calvin pp. World's Committee, Y. M. C. A. in seven volumes, and contributed 1217 Mark..t: Str….t, Philad..lphia, Pa. Geneva. editorially to the leading journal of Protestantism in France. He was not ciety, and president of the Bible Highland Heritage. Edwin E. White. in favor of church union for the sake League of North America. 196 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 cents, of union. His was the phrase: "Fu- paper. Friendship Press. New sion without proper evangelical basis *** York. is nothing but confusion." Sir J. Charles Clegg, president of Is Not This a Brand? Percy Rush. *** the British Temperance League for 96 pp. Is. Pickering & Inglis. sixty-three years, died at Sheffield, London. Mrs. Elizabeth Murdoch Poage England, June 26. His most recent entered into rest at her home in Co- efforts in the cause of temperance was An Introduction to the New Testa- lusa, California, on July 4, at the age the preparation of a booklet, "Out to ment. Edgar J. Goodspeed. 362 of sixty–one. For forty years Mrs. Win." pp. $2.50. University of Chicago Poage had been an officer of the Press. Chicago. Sacramento Presbyterial and for nine *** years was president. The loss of her Little Talks to Little Folks. Charles service is keenly felt for she had been John T. Underwood, founder of the A. Puncker. 92 pp. Is. Pickering faithful in the performance of re- Underwood Typewriter Co., and & Inglis. London. sponsibilities both little and great. brother of Dr. Horace G. Underwood of Korea, died July 2. Mr. Under- Lessons in Soul Winning. Will H. Dr. Frederick H'" . W* ri*ght, who ren- wood was a former member of the Houghton. 23 pp. Free. Moody Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- Bible Institute. Chicago. dered effective service in both the sions, president of the Buckhorn As- heme and foreign work of the Metho- sociation of Kentucky, and a generous Medical Missions at Work. H. P. dit<: Episcopal Church, died June 11 supporter of work in Korea. Thompson. 82 pp. Is. S. P. G. in Ocean Grove, N. J., aged seventy- London. eight. He served as past)!· of the Gifts during his lifetime were con- Methodist Church in Rome from 1899 tinued in numerous bequests, among More Sources of Power in Famous to 1905. Some years later he becama them: $50,000 each to the Buckhorn Lives. Walter C. Erdman. 160 superintendent of the Italian Mission Association and to Chosen Christian pp. $1.00. Cokesbury Press. Nash- Conference under the Board of Home College; $20,000 to the Orphan ville. Missions and Church Extension. Asylum Society of Brooklyn; $10,000 each to the Lafayette Avenue Presby- Work of the Chaplain in the Civilian Mrs. Thomas *E. * Ba*rber, former terian Church of Brooklyn, the Pres- Conversation Corps. Col. Alva J. byterian Board of Foreign Missions, Brasted. 48 pp. Command & Gen- missionary in the Columbia Mission, the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities and eral Staff School Press. Ft. Leaven- Presbvterian, U. S. A., died in the the Brooklyn Museum. worth, Kansas. Pasad"ena Hospital, Pasadena, Cali- fornia on June 2. Most of Mrs. Bar- *** Women of the New Testament. ber's time during her 25 years on the Abraham Kuyper. $1.00, cloth; 65 field was spent in educational and Rev. Wilhelm Zoellner, D.D., for- cents, paper. 95 pp. Zondervan evangelistic work at Barranquilla, Bo- mer head of the Church Affairs De- Pub. Co. Grand Rapids. gota and Medellin. partment of the Nazi government and one-time leader in the ecumenical The West Indies. H. P. Thompson. *** movements of Stockholm and Lau- 70 pp. 18. S. P. G. London. sanne, died at Duesseldorf, July 17. Mr. William Philips Hall, for 26 The World, the Church and You. years president of the American Tract When, in December, 1936, Hitler Outlines for Group Study. 34 pp. Society, died on August 14 at Walling- ,rarned Nazi leaders to cease their at- 3d. Edinburgh House Press. Lon- ford, Conn., in his seventy-third year. tacks upon Christianity, part of the don. Mr. Hall was born at Stamford, credit was given to Dr. Zoellner, who Conn., on February 1, 1864. He was was reported to have warned the gov- Yahrbuch Der Ostasien Mission. 96 the founder and for many years the ernment that its anti-Church program pp. Allgemeiner Evangelische-Pro- president of the Hall Signal Co., vice- had gone too far. tantische Missionsverein. Berlin, president of the American Bible So- Germany.
The Man that Changed the World. Frederick B. Fisher. 208 pp. $2.00. Cokesbury Press. Nashville.
~o Noi MU4 A DAILY USE
THE •.. Cbt lIPPtf Room (America's Leading Devotional Guide) MOSLEM Will Lift the CONTENTS OF THE WORLD Level of the OCTOBER-NOVEMBER- Sfiritual Life A Christian Quarterly Review of o Any Church DECEMBER ISSUE Current Events, Literature and and Its Homes Thought Among Mohammedans Inte,.pretation of COf)er Picture, "Christ amont the Lowl," Editor: SAMUEL M. ZWEMER October 1-9 SOME ARTICLES IN THE The Christian and His Home OCTOBER NUMBER October 10·20 Herbert Udny Weitbrecht Stanton The Christian and His God By Samuel M. Zwemer Octobe,. 21-21 Missionary Adventure in the Sahara The Christian and the Christ By Dugald Campbell Octobe,. 28-31 Northern Nigerian Opportunity The Christian and the Holy Spirit By H. G. Farrant NOf)ember 1-6 Islam in India The Christian and Social Responsi. bility By James W. Sweetman NOf)ember 1-13 Moslem Women of North Africa Foundations for a Stable and Peace. By Frances E. Roberds ful Society The Joy of Preaching to Moslems N of)ember 14-20 By Stephen Khoobyar The Kingdom of God and the So· cial Order The Political Fortunes of Islam By G. L. Schanzlin NOf)embe,. 21-21 The Spirit of Thanksgiving and Hitti's History of the Arabs the Social Order By Nabih A. Faris NOf)ember 28-30 Also Book Reviews, Current Top. Working Together with God ics, Survey· of Periodicals, and the Index for the Year. December 1-11 The Christian and His Attitudes SUBSCRIBE NOW December 12-18 50 Cents a Copy. $2.00 a Year (postpaid) The Christian and His Daily Walk THE MOSLEM WORLD December 19-25 156 Fifth Ave., New York City "Unto Us a Saviour Is Born"
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The Missionary Review of the World — July 1937
1937
, The Murdoch Trail in Kentucky Alvin E. Magary What Rural Churches Are Doing w. H. Thompson Pioneering for Christ in Kwangsi A. C. Snead China and the New Life Movement Generalissimo. Chiang Kai..shek Thinking Yellow vs. Acting Yellow Geoffrey W. Royall The Problem of the Rural Church in Canada J. R. Watt A Brahman Christian……Nehemiah Goreh 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember September 27 – October 1 – Houston, of her service to Japanese women
Texas. Dean, Mrs. A. B. Haynes, the field of education. M>iss Loomis July 5-16-New Jersey Summer 618 Highland Ave., Houstori, Texas. was principal of Doremus High School School for Christian W 0 r k e r s, for girls in Yokohama from 1901 until Blairstown, N. J. October 5-6- Warren, Ohio. Mrs. her retirement last year. She is the George Konold, 314 Scott St., N. E., second missionary in this school to be July 8-13 – International Christian Warren, Ohio. so honored by the Emperor, the first Endeavor Convention, Grand Rap- being Miss Julia N. Crosby, one of ids, Mich. October 21 – Baltimore, Md. Mrs. the founders of the mission, who went David D. Baker, 410 N. Calhoun to Japan in 1871. July 11-16 – Anniversary, First Con- St., Baltimore, Md. ference of American Methodism. *** Old St. George's Church. Phila- Personal Items Dr. Tom Lambie, recently in charge delphia. Dr. E. Stanley Jones expects to be of the work of the Sudan Interior Mis- July 12-26- World Conference on in China for six months from August sion in Ethiopia and a naturalized Life and Work. Oxford, England. 15. He goes at the invitation of the citizen of Ethiopia, has recently re- National Christian Council of China. turned from a visit to Africa to sur- July 14-17-National Council of Fed- He will be asked to give attention vey the Nigerian field with a view to erated Church Women. Lake Ge- primarily to the strengthening of opening new stations to be occupied neva, Wis. church leadership in evangelism, lay by missionaries who will no longer be service and the Christianizing of the welcome in Ethiopia. Dr. Lambie has July 19-30-Religious Education Con- home, with such work for non-Chris- applied to have his American citizen- ference. Northfield, Mass. tians and students as may be carried ship restored. During his trip he and on without diversion from this main Dr. Rowland V. Bingham went up the July 24-31-Conference of the Asso- Nile to Khartoum and later flew from ciation of Christian Youth Move- objective. there to Kano, 1,800 miles across ments of America. Stony Brook, *** Africa to the west.
L. 1. Mrs. Orrin R. Judd, a member of *** the Board of Directors of THE RE- July 31-August 6-General Confer- VIEW, has been elected president of Rev. Hafiz Abood Faris, elected to ence. Northfield, Mass. the Woman's American Baptist Home represent Syria at the Centennial cele- Mission Society at its recent annual brations of the Board of Foreign Mis- July 31-August 7-Annual Interde- meeting in Philadelphia. sions of the Presbyterian Church in nominational Young People's Con- the U. S. A., is pastor of the church ference. Stony Brook, L. I. *** at Horns, Syria; president of the Synod Dr. William J. Reid and Dr. Wil- and moderator of the Syrian Evan- August 3-18 – World Conference on gelical Church. Through his leader- Faith and Order. Edinburgh, Scot- liam J. Reid, Jr., as father and son, ship federation among the Protestants land. in Syria has been effected and included have continuously led the First United the Covenantor churches (Reformed), August 16-23 – Christian .Endeavor the Irish Presbyterian Mission and the Conference. Northfield, Mass. Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh Danish Mission churches.
August 21-29-General Bible Confer- for 75 full years, the father holding As a schoolboy Mr. Faris attended ence. Stony Brook, L. 1. the American Presbyterian Mission the pastorate for 40 years. This School at Sidon and received his the- Sept. 28-30 – Annual Interdenomina- unique anniversary has recently been ological training at Suk-ul-Gharb. He tional Missionary Institute, Wom- is related to the talented Abood fam- an's Interdenominational Union of celebrated in Pittsburgh. In a curious ily which has furnished the Christian Philadelphia and Vicinity. First way the younger man has reproduced Church in Syria and Palestine with Baptist Church, Philadelphia. six pastors, several teachers, and a his father's work. The father was for number of workers along other lines. SUMMER CONFERENCES AND 15 years editor of the United Pres'by- He spent a number of years in Amer- SCHOOLS OF MISSIONS terian; the son has edited the same ica (1903-07), and organized an Arabic-speaking Presbyterian Church Council of Women for Home Mis- paper for 16 years. The weekly Bible among the Syrians of West Hoboken. sions and Affiliated with the Committee on Women's Work, School at the Y. M. C. A., which the *** Foreign Missions Conference elder taught for 30 years, was after- Rev. and Mrs. Phineas B. Kennedy, July 7-15-Northfield, Mass. Miss v.ho have spent forty years in Al- Amy O. Welcher, 796 Prospect Ave., ward led by the son for almost 20 bania and Macedonia as missionaries, Hartford, Conn. years. The U nit e d Presbyterian first under tHe American Board and Handbook, which the father prepared later in the Albanian Evangelical July 10-17 – Mountain Lake Park, Mission, are now in America and are Md. Chairman, Mrs. J. M. Knight, annually for many years, has been available for addresses on conditions 207 Roane St., Charleston, W. Va. and work in Albania. Mr. and Mrs. issued by the son for 22 years. The Kennedy have a fine lot of stereopticon July 17-24–Mt. Hermon, Calif. Mrs. slides and a large fund of interesting N. J. Forsberg, 1144 Eddy St., San father sent a full-page weekly discus- Francisco, Calif. information in regard to this little- sion of the Sunday school lesson to known part of the storm center of July 19-23 – Bethesda, Ohio. Miss Europe. Their address is 718 Ken- Mary 1. Scott, 310 Tomlinson St., his paper; here, too, the son has car- sington Ave., Plainfield, N. J. Moundsville, W. Va. ried on. *** ••• August 15-22 – Chautauqua, N. Y. Chairman, Miss B. Louise Wood- Dr. J. D. Jones, long pastor of one David Griffin, son-in-law of Rev. ford, 930 23d Ave. North, St. of the leading Con g reg a t ion a I Paul Rader, Chicago evangelist, ex- Petersburg, Fla. pects to make a 20,000-mile tour of churches of England, and well known Asiatic and African frontiers in a August 19-25 – Kerrville, T e x a s. three-wheeled motorcycle truck, ac- Chairman, Mrs. T. M. Cunning- in America as well as Great Britain, companied by Hubert Mitchell, of Los ham, 618 West Sydamore, Denton, Angeles. From Singapore their Texas. has been elected to the presidency of route will take them through the Ma- lay States, Burma, Tibet, across September 20-24 – Minnesota (Min- the National Free Church Council. Khyber Pass, through Persia and neapolis-St. Paul). President, Mrs. finally across the mid-section of Charles L. Grant, 610 Aurora Ave., *** Africa. St. Paul, Minn. Prof. Arthur H. Compton, eminent September 20-24–Southern California young physicist and Nobel Prize win- (Los Angeles). Mrs. H. M. Horn, ner, has been installed Chairman of 1955 Carmen Ave., Los Angeles, the Laymen's Missionary Movement, Calif. Chicago. Prof. Compton has served on the Committee for eight years. September 27 – October 1 – Dallas, Texas. Pres., Mrs. E. R. Alderson, *** 561 Goodwin St., Dallas, Texas. Miss Clara Denison Loomis, for thirty-five years a missionary in Japan under the Woman's Union Mis- sionary Society of America, was re- cently honored by the Japanese Gov- ernment by being presented with the Renju Hosho, the highest decoration
MISSIONARY for your magazine as a whole. lt IS Fastest
REVIEW OF THE WORLD well for all of us to keep before us to the DELAVAN L. PIERBON, Editor the general trend in the missionary world, as well as to know some of the ORIENT VOL. LX JULy-AuG., 1937 Nos. 7 & 8 speclllc pieces of work which are be- ing carried on by other churches Japanese Publication and Business Olllce– throughout the world. Your MISSION- Girl Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. ARY KEVIEW helps to keep us informed with at these points." Editorial and Executive Olllce– lantern. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. MABEL NIEDERMEYER, Entered as second-class matter at Director of Children's Work, Go direct fromVancouverand Victoria in 10 days by Em- Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under United Christian Missionary press oj Asia or Empress oj Act of March 3, 1879. Society, Indianapolis. Russia. Only 3 more days via Hawaii by Empress ojJapan 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. *** (fastest ship on the Pacific) Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. or Empress oj Canada. Con- Published monthly, except August. "You are surely issuing a most nect at Honolulu from Cali- All rights reserved. Copyrighted 193 7. splendid magazine. I bind the copies fornia ports. Low round-trip British agents – Marshall, Morgan so as to maKe constant use of them. fares include passage from and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, I have known of interest and contribu- and to Seattle. London. E. C. 1 shilling per copy, tions through people learning of needs 10 shillings a year. as given in THE REVIEW." ~r;4 MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- REV. WILLIAM H. ENSIGN. For rates and sailings, see LISHING CO., INC. Los Angeles, Calif. YOUR TRAVEL AGENT or Cana- dian Pacific: New York, Chi- BOARD OF DIRECTORS "I think ever*y *Ch*ristian ought to ca~o, San Francisco, 38 other ROUERT E. SPEER, President citIes in U. S. and Canada. A. L. WARNSHUlS, Vice-President read THE REVIEW. It is the best thing I have ever seen on missions. Many WALTER MCDOUGALL, ~'rea8urer of my congregation are oecoming en- thUSIastic over it. One night when a DELAVAN L. PIERSON. Secretary speaker disappointed me I talked for an hour on mIssions, giving informa- SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT tion gleaned from THE REVIEW."
WILLIAM I. C'luMBERLoUN PASTOR F. L. SHANNON.
D. J. FANT Beckley, -W.-V-a.- – – – MRS. ORRIN R. JUDO THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS WM. B. LIPPHARD ERIC M. NORTH "Push," said the button. "Take pains," said the window. SAMUEL M. ZWEMER "Never be led," said the pencil. "Be up to date," said the calendar. Editorial Chat "Always keep cool," said the ice. "Do business on tick," said the clock. Our June (Rural America) Num- "Never lose your head," said the ber has already had a large sale and is still in great demand. Order your barrel. extra copies before the supply runs "Do a driving business," said the out. Here is only one of the many favorable comments we have received: hammer. "Aspire to great things," said the nut- "Allow me to congratulate you on the splendid issue of THE REVIEW for meg. June in which you present a fine pic- "Make light of everything," said the ture of rural America. This will be of great help to the rural church fire. movement." "Do nothing off-hand," said the glove: "Look up," said the telescope. THOMAS ALFRED TRIPP, "Make much of little things," said the Associate Director, Town and microscope. Country Dept., The Church Ex- "Look ahead," said the spy-glass. tension Boards of the Congrega.- tional and Christian Churches. Obituary Note.
*** Emma Belle Dougherty Pierson, for forty-two years the beloved and Other articles on "Christ and Rural faithful wife of the Editor of this America" appear in this present issue REVIEW, fell asleep in Christ at her and more will follow later, since the home in Montclair, New Jersey, on subject is to cover a year of Home June 18, after a serious illness, last- Mission study. ing over five months. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December *** 15, 1871, and early gave herself to Christ,., trusting in Him for salvation As usual, in recent years, there will and all her daily needs. For nearly be no August number of THE REVIEW. fifty years she was a remarkably suc- Instead the June and July numbers cessful teacher of little children in the each have a larger number of pages. Sunday school and led many of them Many subscrioers are away in August to Christ. Her personal charm and and the summer months are less (un- many talents were dedicated to His fortunately) active in church circles. service. Mrs. Pierson was deeply in- The omission of the August issue is terested in the work of Christ at home also a help in meeting publication ex- and abroad, was active in the missionpenses. ary work of her own Church, was an officer of the Montclair Missionary *** Union and for some years a mem.:er of the Board of Foreign Missions of Our October number will be looked the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. forward to with great interest as it will be devoted to the very important (Concluded on 3d cQ'/Jer.) topic, "Christ and the Moslem World." [337 ] Other recent *com* m*ents on the RE- VIEW show that God is using it to stimulate interest in the Cause of Christ. The following are some extracts from letters: "I wish to express my appreciation
© International Photo
A RECENT PORTRAIT OF GENERALISSIMO CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND MADAME CHIANG (See article, pages 356 to 362) REVIB ORLD AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS VOLUME LX JULY-AUGUST, 1937 NUMBERS 7 AND 8 Topics of the Times YOUTH – WHITHER? The situation is not wholly new except in the complacency with which many parents, teachers This is ideally the golden age of youth. Never and even professing Christians look upon it. have the young men and young women had such There are many who have high ideals for the opportunities. They are awake to this new day, Church, the school, the home; what are we going with its problems and possibilities in education, to do about it? Boys and girls are capable of in politics, in science and business. Youth is also great things and their interest is not difficult to awake to the new license and opportunities in capture for the best in God's creation and procrime and lust, in war and lawlessness. It is well gram. Left alone or misled they naturally run known that the age of convicted criminals has de- wild. creased by one-half in the past twenty-five years. The widespread use of the automobile for vice and The Christian Church has a responsibility for crime, the pernicious effect of intoxicants and the the guidance of youth because of her commission degrading influence of much that is found in from God and the ideals for which she stands. At movies and theaters and in modern literature; a crime conference held in Albany, former Justice the decrease in the influence of the Church; the Alfred J. Talley said that judges of the bench laxity in parental control, and the new disregard declare the main cause of criminality in Amer- ica is the "indifference of our people to the need for God and His laws fostered in too many schools of the American child for daily religious teachand colleges – all these have not only helped to ing." He continued: further inflame "flaming youth" but now endanger the whole life of the coming generation. Recently Why is it not time to make a fresh start? In the some high schools in Greater New York and else- policy of the State, religion is kept out of the schools, where have been the subject of shocked investi- because, unhappily, one religion was fearful that another gation because of the widespread immorality that religion would get some advantage and the fatal course was reported. Such immorality is not new but was adopted of wiping out religious teaching altogether. modern tendencies have made it more prevalent Pagan divinities and their amours may be glorified in the and open and less disgraceful in the eyes of youth. school- Nero, Cresar, Hannibal, Napoleon, Henry the In one city alone five tons of salacious books and Eighth-with all their human frailties, their wars and pictures, chiefly intended for boys and girls, were devastation, but the Almighty Father, the Divine Archirecently seized, while many tons more have barely tect, the Merciful Creator who holds the destiny of the escaped a similar fate. In New York certain de- American people in the hollow of His hand must not be grading "shows" have been closed but still the mentioned before an American child in an American State refuses to exercise <censorship in behalf of school. Why is it not time to make a fresh start? the youth. While we enact and enforce laws to protect physical health, lawmakers still permit The Hon. John C. Maher, Chairman of the the deadly germs of moral and spiritual diseases Parole Commission of New York, speaking of the to be spread by those who seek to grow rich there- influence of religion in the life of the criminal, said: "To me religion stands preeminently above all the police forces and all the armies that the world has ever conceived. It has an influence on by. Who can wonder at the wave of banditry, an individual that cannot be injected by a prison, murder and increasing sex crimes that have but can be injected by those who are experts in spread alarm all over the United States? the art of reaching the inner man. The aid of the [339 ]
Church and the clergy should be definitely en- Today superstitions are breaking down before listed to help solve the problem of crime." modern education; harmful social and religious customs-such as infanticide, child marriage and A member of the New York Parole Board re- the burning of widows-are outlawed by growing cently called attention to the need for cooperation. public opinion; caste is breaking before the ad- vance of modern progress and the awakening of While it is highly desirable that something be done on a the outcastes; women are coming out of purdah religious basis, practical experience shows that not much and are taking part in public life; Christ and His can be done unless the religious groups actually will be- teachings are coming to be honored by multitudes, come interested in doing something for the criminal. Judg- even of those who are still Hindus. All these ing from my personal experience of five years in New changes have come about by the patient teachings York City, in which we have dealt with now some ten or and influence of Christian missionaries and by twelve thousand cases, I believe that generally speaking the laws and education promoted by the British the individual clergymen of all the different groups are Government. definitely disinterested in the criminal. These and other signs of progress in India are Christians have tremendous opportunities and especially evident to those who have visited the duties of service which have not yet been accepted great peninsular continent at intervals during the adequately. Some of the greatest achievements past half century. Dr. John R. Mott, who has reever accomplished, not only in science and public cently returned from his fifth visit, first went out life but in religion, have been under the energy there in 1895 in the interests of the Student and leadership of youth. Jesus Christ and the Christian Movement. Again he visited India in apostles were young men; General William Booth 1901-02 to conduct an evangelistic campaign, and was a young man when he started the Salvation eleven years later to help organize the Christian Army; the Y. M. C. A. and the Student Volunteer forces of missionaries and Indian leaders. In Movement, the Missionary Education Movement, 1928-29 he went again to help interpret the J eru· and many similar activities were initiated and led salem Conference and to form the National Chrisby young men. Where are those today that will tian Council. Now he has returned from a three organize and carry forward a new Christian cru- months' visit in connection with the International sade to enlist the youth of today in the service of Y. M. C. A. Convention at Mysore. He returns Christ and their fellowmen? with great burdens on his heart for India. The new impressions he has received have brought The responsibility for the proper training of deepened convictions and a sense of wonderful youth is divided between the State, the Church opportuni ty. and the home. In most instances the influence of the State and the school is nonreligious and non- 1. There is the conviction that the work of the Christian, if not positively antireligious and anti- missionary is not yet done in India. It is only be- Christian. The churches today have little oppor- ginning and is of prime importance. With the tunity to train the youth because the breach has new constitution the land is progressing toward been widening between them. It is necessary that independence and is struggling to attain greater the clergy and Christian laity go after the youth unity and power. In view of the new possibilities and win them, rather than expect the youth gen- in material advancement in education, in ecoerally to come to the Church for instruction. But nomic, political and social life and in religious the key to the situation is the home, the funda- attitudes, it is no time for Christians to relax their mental unity of society. If the home is character- efforts. ized by unity, purity, honesty, love, joy, faith and reverence for God, and by a true understanding 2. The present-day opportunities of evangelism of Christ and His Way of Life, then there need offer a greater challenge than ever – especially be no fear as to the way youth, under the guidance among the Depressed Classes and the students. of God, will react so as to build a Christian world The Indian Church is in the midst of a five-year for tomorrow. campaign of evangelism. This calls for a clearer understanding of the needs of India and of the THE MODERN CHALLENGE OF INDIA power of Christ to meet those needs, both indi- vidual and social, temporal and eternal. India It is diffi<;ult for many today to realize the re- needs the whole Gospel adequately presented. markable changes that have come in India in the through united Christian effort. past half century. Things that were considered impossible then have now come to pass and 3. There.is the challenge presented by the Lindchanges that seemed could only be brought about say Commission to unify, extend and improve the in a century of effort are now taking place. This Christian educational work. There are today very is true in regard to religious superstitions, and unusual opportunities to reach the college students social customs, the stranglehold of caste, the low and to train them for Christian service. position of women, the immoralities of Hinduism and the strong antipathy toward Christianity.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
4. There is the challenge presented by the med- the Mexican republic have been unusually strin- gent against the practice of religion, some States ical opportunities in India. The physical needs of having enacted legislation that is a drastic at- tempt to throttle all public worship and religious millions of people are still uncared for, and the teaching.
medical missionaries are now looked up to and Certain states have limited the number of priests to about one for every 80,000 of the poptrusted by all classes. This work is practical ulation. In others, as Chiapas and Chihuahua, only one priest has been permitted for the whole Christianity that opens many closed hearts and state. Such limitation has now been declared il- legal by the supreme court of Mexico. In the case closed doors. of Roman Catholics, who form the greater part of the population, the number of priests allowed 5. The rural probtem in India presents a tre- by law has been far below the needs of the people. In at least two states, Tabasco and Campeche, mendous challenge in a country that is ninety per the law permitted only married priests to officiate in religious worship and to administer the sacracent rural. Here is a basic problem that affects ments, so that no Roman Catholic priest could celebrate mass unless he violated his oaths of the whole work. It calls for "new investigation, celibacy and broke the discipline of his Church. In Tabasco, which is perhaps the state in which agitation, experimentation and demonstration" by antireligious legislation was most extreme, church edifices have been razed, the bricks and stones those who have the best interests of India at used for paving the streets, and the sites converted into public playgrounds. Even children have been heart. obliged to take part in the public burning of cruci- fixes, and rewards have been given to those who 6. There is the challenge of the growing literacy informed against Mexicans who privately prac- ticed religion in their own homes. Now, however, and the need for good literature. With a rapidly the governor of this same state reports that he increasing number of readers, ~nd the influx of proposes to assume an "attitude of conciliation to cheap and harmful literature, Christians must the Church." So far, that conciliation is limited to granting the privilege of private devotion; provide better periodicals and books for the read- there has been no published statement lookina- toward the renewal of permission for public reing public. With a growing Church there must ligious exercises. In other states, as San Luis Potosi and Sonora and in the Federal District, be more funds provided to supply the members masses may be celebrated in most of the churches, and there seems to be a considerable relaxation with wholesome Christian reading. in the stringent enforcement of antireligious laws. In the State of Vera Cruz, some months ago, the 7. There is the challenge for an increase in the people forcibly opened the churches after a young girl had been shot by the police during a religious missionary staff in India. The economic depres- celebration. The President of the Republic sus- tained the people and the churches have remained sion has led to a decrease in workers and a con- open, although still under police surveillance.
sequent increase in the burdens borne by those Although there are indications that the rigor of the antireligious laws of Mexico is being rewho remain. While the Church of Rome is in- laxed, the concessions thus far made are of com- paratively little importance, except so far as they creasing her missionary activity, the Protestant show a desire on the part of some officials to be less strict and unreasonable. This more lenient Church is curtailing hers. There is danger that attitude may pave the way for a more liberal interpretation in the future, or for the abrogation as the older missionaries retire younger men and of legislation that has proved ineffective because obnoxious to the majority of the people. women will not be sent out'to take their places. During the period of antireligious agitation in The result will be an alarming hiatus. . Mexico, the Protestant work has suffered very 8. There is the' challenge of new opportunity for native leadership in India. At the coming Hangchow Conference in 1938 there will be fifty Indian delegates to ten missionaries. The Indian churches are eager for help and the Christians of other lands must stand by them. The National Christian Council of India, Burma and Ceylon has now formed provincial councils that have a most important field for service – but they need help to do effective work.
India, without doubt, offers one of the greatest challenges to Christians of the present day. The progress already made, the great vital needs of the people especially along spiritual lines, the dangers that come from anti-Christian sources, the new attitude of Indians toward Christ and the Gospel, and the readiness of the Indian Church to take up the burden of responsibility-all call on the Christians of Europe and America to in- crease rather than relax prayer and sacrificial effort.
THE .CHANGING SITUATION IN MEXICO In Mexico, as in Soviet Russia, the antireligious movement seems to have lost something of its former strength and vigor. The Federal laws in
_ THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD [J uly-August
little in comparison with that of the Roman Cath- social strife in America, show that it is high time olic Church. This is largely due to the fact that for the Church of Christ to reveal His power to Protestants are a small minority of the popula- transform human society as well as to save indition, their ministers are g.enerally married, they viduals. have been careful to comply with all laws affecting registration and those that regulate public The missionary work of the Church has always worship, so that foreigners have refrained from been greatly affected by the attitude of the govconducting what have been defined as religious ernments in non-Christian lands, by the social services. Recent letters from Mexico indicate conditions and customs, and by the state of relithat there are now unlimited opportunities for re- gion and the influence of religious leaders. At ligious work of all kinds, and that ministers of the same time, missionary work has greatly af- Protestant churches, even foreign missionaries, fected these phases of life. Christ desires to transmay come and go when and where they will, form politics, society and religion in order that preach and otherwise help in conducting services, all life may be brought into harmony with the without restrictions on the part of public officials. will of God. It has always been stated by government officials that the drastic legislation was not aimed at the THE EDINBURGH CONFERENCE on "Faith and Protestant minority, which has always been law- Order" (August 3-18) will emphasize the reasons abiding and in no way has tried to exercise politi- for Christian uni,ty and the beliefs held in comcal power; it was directed against those mem- mon where all followers of Christ may unite. bers of the Roman hierarchy who presumed to consider themselves above the law and refused to The first World Conference on "Faith and submit to the laws, especially that one which de- Order" was held at Lausanne, Switzerland, in manded their registration. The main object of 1927 with 400 delegates present, representing over the lawmakers, it has been asserted, was to oblige 100 churches. The delegates of Edinburgh inthe Church to limit its work to the spiritual realm, clude representatives of Protestant churches in rather than attempt to control the State, and that, many lands and also from the Greek, Armenian in so far as it has obeyed the law, there has been and Assyrian communions. no thought of persecution. Today Christianity is being challenged as never WEBSTER E. BROWNING. before since the days of Constantine. From the fourth to the twentieth centuries a steady advance PROBLEMS AT OXFORD AND EDINBURGH was made in winning the allegiance of mankind to Christ, but now tkere seems to be a renewal of While Christians are told to be "in the world activity in non-Christian and anti-Christian but not of it," that does not relieve them from re- forces. The 1937 Conference 'must be conducted sponsibility for proclaiming truth, lifting stand- in such a way as to face realistically the present ards and righting wrongs. Jesus Christ not only situation of the Church in the world. preached the Gospel but rebuked sin wherever found and helped meet the material and temporal One of the definite achievements of the Conneeds of men, as well as those that were spiritual ference ten years ago was the conviction that and eternal. unity will not come by glossing over differences of belief. Now the churches must go on to the Important conferences of Christian church task of trying to share with one another what it leaders are to be held this summer at Oxford and is that the various confessions mean until we dig Edinburgh to consider how Christians, especially down through the rocks .to the Eternal Rock. of the Protestant churches, can work together more harmoniously and effectively to give Christ The first task is to realize the urgency of the the preeminence in our thinking and in following challenge of the world situation to Christendom His teachings and spirit in every walk of life. as a whole, and in the face of that challenge to discover and accept the underlying unity which At Oxford (July 12-26) about eight hundred binds Christians together through common loyalty delegates from North America and Europe, Af- toone Master, Jesus Christ. The second task will rica, Asia and Latin America, are to gather for be to press forward to help the Christians of all two weeks in a conference on "Life and Work in churches to realize, in things both outward and the Church, the State and Society." The presiding inward, the true unity of the Body of Christ. officer will be the Archbishop of Canterbury. The main lopics to be discussed at Edinburgh The conditions in the world today clearly call are: for more effective Christian testimony. The wars that devastate Spain and the threats of more Jesus Christ and His Grace. widespread and destructive conflicts in Europe, The Church of Christ and the Word of God. Africa and Asia, and the growing industrial and The Ministry of the Church of Christ. Church Unity in Life and Worship-visible and invisible.
A VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN CENTEH AT BUCKHORN
The Girls' Dormitory (Englis Home, accommodating forty students), McKenzie Hall, and the Domestic Science Building The Murdoch Trail in Kentucky By the REV. ALVIN E. MAGARY, D.D., -<t&f Brooklyn, New York Pastor, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church T HERE is a new state road in Kentucky, called Kentucky mountains to investigate conditions for the Murdoch Trail. the Board of Home Missions and, once having Thirty-five years ago a young Presbyterian seen the possibilities around Buckhorn, the life minister arrived at the little mountain hamlet of of an assistant minister in staid old Brooklyn was Buckhorn, Kentucky, with $250 in cash and un- far too tame. He proposed to some of the men of searchable riches in Christian faith. His name the church that they back him in a modest way was Harvey Murdoch. in a missionary adventure. They consented, and Today, Murdoch is gone, but the fruits of his since that day the people of the church have been faith remain. There is a school of 400 pupils, the main financial support of the work. Until more than half of whom are in the high school Harvey Murdoch died, in October, 1935, he came department, there is an orphanage, a hospital, a back to Brooklyn each year to tell the people how large farm on which most of the food for the things had gone in their beloved Buckhorn since school and orphanage is raised, and a church with last they saw him.
800 members. When Harvey Murdoch came to Buckhorn, Murdoch had been, for some years, a member there was no railway station within twenty-4ive of the pastoral staff of the Lafayette Avenue Pres- miles. There were no roads worthy of the name.
byterian Church, in charge of the work at the If you could afford transportation you rode on Cumberland Street Chapel. He had gone into the mule-back up the bed of the creek, realizing the [343 ]
while how much a mtile wouid 'be-impr()ved' if it a rare thing and even fUIieralsweI'EHioinftequeht could be equipped with springs. But most people as to be marked occasions. Usually, the body was walked and a tramp of thirty miles to school was put into the ground without even a prayer and not regarded as anything out of the ordinary. the funeral service was held at any time, from Conditions in that country are still primitive. The one to five years later, when a minister happened railway is still a dozen miles aw.:f1Y and the mule to be in the neighborhood.
Five years after Murdoch's coming the Buck- horn church had been organized and he was for- mally called to be its pastor at a salary of sixty dollars a year. To pay a minister anything was entirely against the traditions and practice of the people in those days. Today there is an entire Presbytery of 37 churches that has grown out of that first work. :.'Since the beginning, more than a church per year, has been organized. The first little log-house structures have been ' supplanted by buildings still extremely inexpensive and simple, but adequate and comfortable. To the eyes of some of the children from distant hamlets, children who have never seen a railway train, nor a building larger than a mountain cabin, they doubtless seem grand enough.
Buckhorn has worked a transformation in the country round about, but there is still much to be done. The old days, when the country was the scene of murderous mountain feuds, have passed, but even now the resort to gun-play is by no THE LATE HARVEY S, MURlDOCK (Grist Miu.. KEY "&Saw Mill Ir Eleeme Pta"… 10. Boys Dormitory.(, StoriQ) has by no means lost his place in the economy of life; but, when the season is not too wet, one can 2.Churth. " . Presidenb HOme . (l3tonea) get in by automobile in these days. Boys and girls still tramp over the mountains, a score of miles 3.6ymtlClsium. 12.. ReseY''Ioir. and more, at the opening of school. Sometimes a dozen of them will be brought in by truck, hav- A..LafClyette School Hell' (.t.1te'*~ 13. H~spitClI. ht St,rie') 10 Sm. ing ridden at least a part of the long way. There 14. G~ "s Home : (~t S"."'5) is often no other way to bring the sick to the hos- 5. M"nuo' Trofni"" H"JJ 15. G,,15 Dormitory. (5 St'Or,,,) pital except to carry them on a litter over the mountain trails. When the writer was there re- 6 . PrimC)1"V Hall. cently, a little procession, with mother and father leading, came in carrying a boy of six from his 7. Ki"d."fJOrt.".. 16. Oin,f't9 ,Hall. ~JL' Sto,let) home eight miles away. While we looked, as the 8. Boy~ Horne. (a 5…..iH) IT. Dome$tlc Sclenc.e. Hcdl (,a S"'lc~ little cortege stopped, we heard the mother utter a cry. Her little boy had died within a hundred e.Vie. Presidenb Home. (2 S't"'_ yards of the hospital. They had not reached it soon enough. THE BUCKHORN · PLANT In the old days freight was brought up the river in little hand-pushed boats, traveling a mile and a half an hour. For many children of the district almost no schooling was available and only one person in seven or eight was able to read or write well enough to be called literate. Harvey Murdoch was the only ordained minister of any denomination along the middle fork of the Kentucky River for 'a distance of sixty miles, from Athol to Hyden. Before his coming a religious service was
JAKE WOODS, THE OUTLAW
means a rare occurrence, particularly when plenty Church, Dr. Dinsmore, proposed that the class of mountain whiskey is mixed with the situation. undertake the support of a boy at Buckhorn. His The people are still desperately poor. The farmer proposal was adopted and the youth selected was may have ten acres, planted in corn. The arable a mountain boy, Elmer E. Gabbard. Through land runs along the creeks and is so steep that school and college and theological seminary they much of it can be cultivated only by hand. Many stood by him. Now, after a successful ministry, of the parents of the young people at Buckhorn he has left the pastorate of the North Side Preshave the best will possible toward the idea of edu- byterian Church of Chattanooga and has gqne cating their boys and girls but it is impossible for back to Buckhorn. He knows the people and them to pay as much as ten dollars a year for tui- they know him, and we may believe that he will tion. Yet the school takes them, so far as its carryon the work to yet more notable achievestraining capacity will permit. They work on the ments. farm, in the kitchen, everywhere; they do the baking, the cleaning, the plowing and harvesting. In these thirty-five years 6,000 persons have They are busy from dawn until night, with neces- professed their faith in Christ and 4,000 young sary time for rest and recreation. No busier, hap- people have been educated in this work started by pier, more attractive lot of young people will you a young man with $250, some good friends, and a see anywhere. They come out of poverty-stricken resolute faith in God. The influence of Buckhorn mountain cabins, knowing as little of the civilized is felt throughout the state of Kentucky and it world as a squirrel and, after a term of years at was a proper tribute to its founder that the state Buckhorn, go back as teachers, doctors, leaders in road passing near by was named "The Murdoch their communities, to change the whole aspect of Trail." It leads to Buckhorn; but the trail of life among their neighbors. Harvey Murdoch leads straight to Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the One Sunday, some years ago, the leader of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Men's Bible Class in the Lafayette Avenue me."
Jake Woods, the Outlaw* By J. S. BURNETT, Chattanooga, Tennessee Superintendent, Tennessee Mountain Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church O NE night high up in the Smoky Mountains other preacher ever had; you must try to save of Tennessee I was lost in a snowstorm. Jake Woods." Though I was frozen into unconsciousness, my horse carried me to a house. When conscious- How should I begin ? Jake was sitting before ness began to dawn again, I heard a fire cracking the wide fireplace as I packed my saddlebags. I and looking up saw a bearded man bending over, walked over to him. Taking a bill from my pocket, swearing because I would not open my mouth to I said, "Mr. Woods, I regret to offer you so little admit the neck of a bottle. In the moment of when you and your good wife have done so much delirium, I thought I was dead. for me, but this is a little expression of my ap- preciation for what you have done. I could not When my senses returned, I recognized the man pay you even if I were rich." asa notorious outlaw, with a price on his head, a man who had vowed that physical violence would He looked me over from head to foot with asfall heavily on any preacher who dared to enter tonishment. his house. "Put up your money, Doc," he said; "what we My rescuer and his wife did everything possible done for you was because we wanted to be clever for me. When bedtime came, he took me in bed to you. If you had come to my house last night with him and held me .against his great warm as a preacher, I would have turned you away in breast all night, never relaxing his vigilance for the storm and been glad if you were frozen to a moment. In the morning, I was little the worse death. Twenty odd years ago, when the Almighty for my experience, but the sun shone and the snow took our little boy, our only child, I swore that no was melting, and I was ready to go. Then it was man representing Him should ever come under that a Voice said, "You have a chance that no my roof. I kept my word till last night, but when your horse brought you I couldn't turn you away. • Condffilsed from The ahri8t~an Advocate. Now, you can go and have it to say that you have stayed all night with Jake Woods."
His last sentence was hissed through clenched I gave him the book and turned away saying, teeth. I never saw a man look so fierce. I had that his ','old woman" might come to hear me failed, so I picked up my saddlebags from the bedside and started toward the door. But some preach when I returned to the Flats School House. Power gripped my conscience like steel. "You Several times before I had preached at the Flats must try it again," the unmistakable order came. to but a few good souls, but when I arrived this I walked the floor, trying to find a ship to time the whole schoolyard seemed to be covered Tarshish, but none was in sight. I was sure that with people. The first man who gripped my hand, Jake guessed what I was suffering but he never until I thought I would fall off my horse, was Jake turned his head. Finally, I walked over to him Woods. "Doc, I fetch 'em," was his greeting. again, and with voice trembling from emotion, I said, "Mr. Woods, I have a little book that I want I walked into the schoolhouse. The women were to read and talk to a Friend of mine before I go, on one side of the aisle. On the end of the second will you let me?" He turned in his chair with his bench from the front there was one who caught back to me. His wife, sitting in the corner, said, my coat sleeve as I passed. It was Nancy Woods, "Doc, it's all right; go ahead." I began reading at church for the first time in more than twenty that wonderful fifteenth chapter of Luke, about the one sheep that had strayed, but was found. years. "Doc," she said, "there is something the matter There was the story of the Prodigal Son, too. When he came home, in tatters within and with- with Jake." out, his father was so happy that he would gladly "What like?" I asked. have killed everything on the place to make merry "I don't know, but he hain't like he used to be because his son had come home; maybe to spend some more. since you were there. He's been real good to me. Doc, please call for mourners today; maybe Just then I looked out of the corner of my eye Jake'll go up." and Jake Woods had turned around and was looking' at me with eager interest, as much as to say, The tears came to my eyes as I walked to the "Why are you talking about me?" He had sneered table and laid my saddlebags down. Jake Woods in the messenger's face who came when his father had beaten that woman almost to death once bewas dying and begged his son to come home. cause she had given a coin to a preacher. Many I dropped on my knees and took hold of God times he had driven her off in the storm. Once, while I tried to reach Jake Woods with one hand, but he was too far away. I held on until I re- in a drunken delirium, he had thrown her in the membered that the sin of lacking hospitality is fire. Now, she had been in heaven for three whole unpardonable with us in the Southern mountains. I said, "0 God; I came here more dead than alive weeks! last night, and this man and his good wife took The men came, with Jake Woods at their head, me in and nursed me back to life, and now they refuse to accept anything for their kindness. But walking like he was on air. Just behind him was Jesus Christ has stood at their door, ever since an old soldier of the Civil War, hopping on a stiff they have had a house, with outstretched hands knee. He hadn't been ih church since the war bleeding, and with thorncrowned brow, and they have slammed the door in His face. Help Jake closed. Woods sat on the end of the front bench Woods to tell Jesus Christ to come in today." and the old soldier by his side.
When I got up, Woods was sitting on the floor, The house was full of the good and the bad. looking at the door. I followed his gaze but saw The sermon that I had prepared would not fit, so nothing except the open door, with sunshine and I took for my text, "The Son of man is come to melting snow. After a minute, he said, to Someone apparently in the door, "Come in." Then seek and to save that which was lost." turning to me, he added: "He came in," as much as to say, "You can't throw it up to me any more." One standing by that·table at my side, preached that day, with convincing power. When I left the cabin Jake followed me to the gate. "Doc," he asked, "have you another of those When I let down the net, Jake Woods sprang to little books like you read out of awhile ago? My his feet and went down the aisle, speaking in a pap used to read about that boy and I guess I've voice that drowned mine: "Men and women come been him. If you'll lend me one and turn down a on! Doc's telling you the truth for I saw that leaf, I might find someone to read, and I think I Man when Doc prayed in my house. When I would like to hear it again." opened my eyes, He was standing in the door, with His hands stretched out and there were holes in them with blood running out. I saw thorns on His head, too. I told Him to come in and He came and I haven't been the same man since." , They came until it seemed that all would come. The result was thirty-five candidates for baptism.
Jake Woods went out to exhort and save the peo- ple of his acquaintance, and he reached more of that class in two years than I could have reached in a lifetime.
Some Rural Churches Are
By W. H. THOMPSON, Columbus, Ohio Field Secretary, Ohio Council of Churches SCATTERED widely over. the land are out- meetings, such as Day of Prayer for Missions, standing examples of what Christ can do for Youth conferences, annual business meetings, and country people through pastors who have social fellowship and creative leisure activities.
been born of His spirit of sacrificial service, and The pastor and his coworkers, the Rev. Rowland who have been endowed with consecrated intelli- Jones and Miss Elizabeth Streid, share their time gence. They have been scientifically trained, and in personal and pastoral parish visitation, each have answered the Divine call to country fields as church sharing in financial support according to foreign missionaries have dedicated their lives to ability. The pastor joins with pastors of other Africa, Asia, or the Islands of the Sea. denominations of the area in community-wide Parish of Templed Hills projects of religious and social welfare. He co- operates with the Agricultural Extension Service, Until eleven years ago when this parish was Farmers Institutes, Four-H Clubs, public school organized, there were in the region near Oak Hill, leadership and the county ministerial association.
southeastern Ohio, from eight to twenty Welsh "As prosperity seems again to be coming upon Presbyterian churches on a circuit served by a us," says Mr. Bicksler, "and the cities are beck- group of ministers, each living on a farm or hav- oning our youth to jobs, we feel we can send them ing some other occupation. with a background of respect for the church, be- Urider the advice and counsel of the late Warren cause locally the church has kept abreast of other H. Wilson, six of these churches and a mission things such as the schools and adequate equip- chapel were brought into a definite cooperative ment. Though we cannot expect to keep all of parish relationship with two pastors and a full- our youth on the farm, we can, with our spirit, time social worker. program and equipment, at least prepare them Five years ago the Rev. Harry E. Bicksler* was as Christians and church leaders." t· .
called as director of the Parish of Templed Hills. Ohristian Fellowship Parish At his coming the churches cooperatively purchased a fourteen-acre tract of land in the open A second example of the transforming power country, including five acres of dense thicket and of Christ in village and rural communities in Ohio a fine piece of clover mea,dow. Under Mr. Bick- through cooperation of a group of churches is sler's direction, a modern manse with every con- found in "The Christian Fellowship Parish" in venience was built, the thicket was transformed the southwestern part of the State. Six Christianinto a picnic grove in which a shelterhouse was Congregational churches entered into a "Parish erected, with table and kitchen equipment, with a Fellowship" two years ago under the joint passeating capacity of 600, for use by local organiza- toral leadership of the Rev. Ralph A. Brandon as tions, and as a meeting place for youth training Minister of Parish Administration, residing at conferences for southeastern Ohio. Hamersville, and the Rev. Theron A. Zimmerman as minister of Christian Education, residing at Each church in the Parish is organized and Pt. Isabel. cares for its own local business. There are three councils-the Elders' Council, Council of Women, The constitution under which these churches and Council of Youth. Parish Trustees are the work includes the following: holders of property which is owned jointly by all the churches. There is also a parish Federated Believing that friendly cooperation between our several churches in their religious, moral and social work would make possible a program of Christian activities that would Flower and Garden Club. The manse and the vitally strengthen the Kingdom of God in our several com- parish grove are used as a central meeting place munities, bring about a more efficient church and i:>etter build into the lives of our people the teachings of Jesus for the councils, and as a center for various group Christ and the principles of the Christian Church, we, the • Mr. Bicksler had completed a term of service in a Home Mis- following churches . . . do hereby pledge our loyal supsion Rural Parish in the far West, had been sent by his Board of port to the following Constitution and By-Laws. . . . National Missions to Europe to visit the great rural parishes of the ~~~~~~~?tt{es~nd had spent a year in graduate work in one of our pa~i~r'Or~:~~r~ 1r7Ils~,~ory is published in his recent book, "The [347 ]
The object of this organization shall be to promote the now joint studies are being made by all the pas- Kingdom of God through systematic and persistent meth- tors of the area, exploring the possibility of enods of Christian education, evangelism, worship, and com- larging the parish group to include churches of munity services; and to bring about a better religious, other denominations. Here again is a case of moral, and social atmosphere in our communities through especially trained pastoral leadership for the pasthe coordination of our efforts. tors are dedicated to town and country work, backed up by their national and state denomina- A Council, consisting of six representatives tional Councils, and have in their hearts the Spirit from each church, six members at large, and one of the Christ who "came not to be ministered unto, representative from each denomination included but to minister." in the Parish, chosen by the State head of that denomination, and the members of the staff, meets Example number three is the Federated Church quarterly and acts as the executive body. in the village of North Jackson, in. northeastern Ohio. More than ten years ago the Spirit of Christ moved the hearts of the denominational leaders and the members of three of the four local churches-Church of Christ (Disciples), Presby- terian, and Reformed in the U. S., to recognize the sin of local competition and division, and to work out a plan of union whereby the three churches united under the leadership of one pastor.
Each church retains its denominational connec- tion and benevolence contributions are divided equally among the three State and national offices. The Presbyterian building was selected ·as the place for united public worship. Sunday school classes use the public school classrooms. The Church of Christ building is used for Women's So- . ciety activities. The Reformed Church building is being razed and materials used to enlarge the Presbyterian building.
The present university trained pastor, the Rev. James D. Wyker, was formerly a member of the staff of Groton Larger Parish, New York. He came five years ago and under his dynamic lead- ership, and that of his unsalaried wife, a varied program of constructive Christian leadership is being developed with the many groups in the com- munity.
Horse-sheds Transformed ELDERS' COUNCIL, PARISH OF THE TEMPLED HILLS Two features of the program at North Jackson are worthy of special attention. A camp has been A program of systematic pastoral visitation, developed in a natural beauty spot, with creek, regulaz: Sunday school and worship services, an- woods and hills, with cabin, mess-hall and craft nual .evangelistic meetings and preaching mis- shop, vesper spot and recreation field. Here local sions, vacation church schools, youth activities, groups, including youth and farm women, asleadership training institutes and mission study, semble during the summer for from two to fiveis provided for each church. day- courses of study of the Bible, personal and community problems, recreational leadership, and A mimeograph machine, owned cooperatively, for social fellowship. The camp is also used for is used to publish a parish paper and by it the community picnics and family reunions. reports of all departments and committees are made available to all members. Was it not the Spirit of Christ who inspired the men of the church and community to dismantle These pastors cooperate with pastors of the the obsolete .horse-sheds of the Disciple's church' other churches in the area so that the program and use the materials in the construction of the for the whole community is coordinated. Even camp mess-hall and craft shop and the bridge leading to vesper hill?
As an expression of the ideal of Christian unity in local community Kingdom building, Mr. Wyker
AWAY WITH SORCERY AND MURDER IN PAPUA
has helped to develop a community coordinating absent in parsonages, and parish travel obligacouncil of character building agencies in North tions ten times greater than that of the average Jackson. Frank study of local problems has been city pa~tor. undertaken and allocation of responsibility for service programs has been made looking toward Through the le:;tdership of these pastors, town wise use of available resources and talent. and country youth are being won to Christ through evangelism and religious teaching, and The pastor also has assisted in developing "folk schools" for the study and practice of the prin- HORSE SHED TRANSFORMIDD INTO MESS HALL ciples of Christian cooperatives in his own and AND CRAFT SHOP neighboring communities. He is one of the vicepresidents of the Ohio Pastors' Convention and a are trained in the Christian use of leisure time member of -the executive committee of the Ohio and in high civic and economic and social ideals. Rural Pastors' Summer School maintained at Neighborhood feuds are being healed by their Camp Ohio by the Extension Service of the Col- ministry; lonely souls are befriended; comfort lege of Agriculture of Ohio State University. and counsel is brought to the sorrowing and the disillusioned. Churches having fallen into dis- The picture would not be complete if recogni- repute are being restored to the respect and contion were not given to scores of high-minded and fidence of their communities. devoted town and country pastors and their wives who, without special technical training of colleges and seminaries, never-the-less by diligent reading and frequent attendance at summer schools, short courses, and rural institutes, have kept abreast of the times in techniques and programs and ideals of religious education, youth activities, community cooperation with public schools, the Grange, Farm Bureau, Four-H Clubs, and Boy and Girl Scouts. They have served wisely and effectively in fields where the odds and handicaps have been terrific, salaries inadequate, modern home conveniences Away With Sorcery and Murder in Papua* A Story of the Work of God Under the Kwato Mission of Papua T HE Bohutu Valley, in Eastern Papua, long grasped him by the wrist, crying, "What are you presented a problem which no Government doing?" forces could solve. Fear of sorcery and spirits had led to the complete depopulation of the It was Lobai, the sorcerer, who was out to do valley, the tribes having fled to live in small the village policeman to death that night. Think- ing Merari was another sorcerer he pleaded for groups in the mountains around. No offers would his life, but Merari explained that he did not want possibly induce them to return to their villages. to harm" him. He told him about God, and ar- Reason is helpless before fear in Papua as in ranged to meet him next day at the village. Be- Europe. . fore the night was out he had surprised two other It was Merari, a tall, athletic Papuan of twenty- sorcerers on similar errands and arranged to meet eight, who first saw how these deep-seated prob-_ them the next day as well. lems could be answered. God told him in his time When they met at the village, two of the sorof listening to go up into the valley and investigate. So he went and lived in one of the villages. cerers immediately produced their ginauri, de- stroyed them, and gave their lives to God. But One evening he was out in the bush, and, as he Lobai held back, the sacrifice being too great. walked, heard some one approaching along the Then Merari did a daring thing. "We'U put it to track from the opposite direction. Stepping off the test," he said. "You say your charms are the track he waited, and as the man passed strong; I say God is stronger. Over there is the • From the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society Quarterly. This platform on which I sleep. You may come tonight Mission, founded by the late Rev. Charles W. Abel, has American headquarters at 156 Fifth Ave., New York. and put any charm on me you like. Then we will
see which is the stronger." Lobai hesitated, then life has been changed the death-blow to adultery answered slowly: "No, you are right. I tried has come because the sexual life of the natives is them all last night. But every time I threw my God-guided and released.
magic at you it came back at me." So he too was Eighteen months ago it became clear that new changed, and is one of the most fearless leaders ground must be found for the activities of the in the valley today. teams already mobilized. The Abels were granted Merari immediately sent an S 0 S to Kwato, permission to take on the mountain district of and a team came up to help him. They stayed a Abau, where the tribes still practice their homi- month, moving from group to group, bringing a cidal customs. Before a man was considered new life to hundreds in personal interviews. Some eligible for marriage he had to have killed or time later thirteen sorcerers and sorceresses came helped to kill some one. "Every male I met,"
to Mr. Cecil Abel of the Kwato Mission, and vol- writes Mr. Abel, "-and I met a great many-had unteered to give themselves up to the Government, served sentences of between two and ten years for sorcery being a punishable offence. The Governor murder."
pardoned them, and none of them have gone back Here the tribes have no background of teaching to their old ways. In the same way those changed whatever. No missionary had ever been into the in the little hamlets in the mountains received area. Everyone predicted the greatest difficul- spontaneous guidance to return to the valleys. ties, but when Cecil Abel went in with a team of Their fear had disappeared. Now they are gath- Papuan leaders the response was immediate. The ering into three large villages. The Government patrol lasted threll1 weeks, and at the end of that Patrol visiting the valley recently said that they time five chiefs came together, said how they could not recognize the place; the people and the agreed with the new way of life, but wanted to distribution of them had changed so utterly. see how it was lived out in the villages of the After four years the new life is increasingly Kwato district. "Only send a messenger," they active. A new corporate life is developing. In said, "and we will come down to you."
some villages the day starts with the blowing of When Abel sent for them, not five but forty a conch-shell in the dark morning stillness. A wanted to make the three days' journey to the sleeping village rouses itself and goes to bathe- coast. Only six could then be accommodated, but a reform which neither Government nor mission- for two months these chiefs mingled in the vilary could ever have enforced. Half an hour later lages and watched the everyday life of the inanother note on the shel.!, followed by complete habitants. When the time came to return home silence for about half an hour, indicates that the they got together for a farewell party, and Bawhole village is having a quiet time of listening ruma, their leader, made this speech: "The Govto God. Twice or thrice a week they meet cor- ernment tried to make friends with us, inviting porately as a community. us to feasts and 'Christmases' at Abau, but we It was in this way that guidance came to one went back unchanged. Then they took us off to previously poverty-stricken village to make one jail, four, five, six years. We didn't mind. Gov- corporate holding of all the land where their crops ernment rice and biscuits are very good. We were produced. Private interests gave way vol- came back unchanged. At last God's children untarily to community guidance, and the village came out of love for us and changed us right flourishes. Another village was guided to give round inside. Your food ·at Kwato is very good, its large surplus of produce in a bumper year to but we have good food too in Dorevaidi. We another village that was hard hit by a local bad haven't come for that. Your schools and works harvest. The men loaded their canoes, and the are very good. We would like to learn too, but we emotions of generosity and gratitude produced haven't come for that. We have only come for more spontaneous delight than the old communal one thing. To learn about God. Our hearts are orgies, for which the appetite has been lost. burning to go back and tell our friends all we In another community a common pool of coco- have learnt."
nuts, the only form of capital the native possesses, The true task has just begun. In Kwato are be- was made to inaugurate a new corporate manage- ing trained leaders adequate to changed the whole ment of the village consequent upon the change in course of Papuan life, while in the district itself the individuals composing it. The damage done the way is clear for a God-directed civilization to'
by civilization has been in some measure repaired. come into being. For the changing of lives is but Adultery, which was unknown under the old tribal the clearing of the undergrowth and the setting morality, became common when these ancient of firm foundations on which God may build a sanctions were removed, and the only penalty was culture of amazing richness, perhaps the pattern a fine. In many villages where the community for the Pacific.
HUNAJj._
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KWANG .TUNG PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PROVINCE OF KWANGSI, SOUTHWEST CHINA The Chcistian and Missionary Alliance has ten centers where 26 missionaries reside; in thirty other towns and cities chapels have been opened, lllanned by Chinese Christian workers.
Nine other societies are at work in the Province: Church Missionary Society (Kweilln); C. of E. Zenana Mission (Kweilln); Bible Churchman's Missionary Society (Nanning, Noming); Southern Baptist (Kweilin, Wuchow); Seventh Day Adventist (Nanning); Assemblies of God (Chungshan and Hohsien- both vacant); Independent (Wuchow, Kwelhsien). These societies report 34 missionaries.
Pioneering for Christ in Kwangsi By the REV. ALFRED C. SNEAD, New York I Foreign Secretary of the Christian and Missionary Alliance 11i- ~==========================~ SOME years ago Old Eagle, a Chwang tribes- but still earnest and active, has been tramping man of the Province of Kwangsi, southern over the mountains and hills as a colporteur of China, came with ten other men from their the British and Foreign Bible Society, visiting the country homes to the city of Liuchow. There they wildest parts, wherever he could find members of heard the Gospel message. As he listened to the his own tribe. The Lord has blessed his efforts Gospel night after night Old Eagle accepted and a number of his people have been converted Christ and the joy of salvation filled his heart. and are now faithful members of the Christian He became eager that his own Chwang people Church. should hear the Good News and later accompanied The large southern Province of Kwangsi was the missionary on many tours of exploration and formerly one of the most backward in China. In preaching trips. There are nearly three million recent years, however, the province has become of these tribesmen in the Province and for the one of the more advanced in education, enlightpast few years Old Eagle, now seventy years old ened government, engineering projects, and the [351 ]
building of roads. The honor of having one of there is now a membership of more than 320 the first resident missionaries in the then hostile Chwang tribesmen in the Alliance Mission in and forbidden Province of Kwangsi fell to the South China. On an 800-mile trip in Western Christian and Missionary Alliance when its mis- Kwangsi, the .missionaries and Chinese found that sionary entered Wuchow in 1896 and resided in a thousands in the country markets could under- "haunted house," the only place then available stand scarcely a sentence of Mandarin, the pre- for residence. vailing language being Chwang. The Yao is one The city of Wuchow was built in A. D. 592, so of the least known and most primitive of the tribes that more than 1,300 years passed before the and there are many subdivisions. The Tung Church of Christ began to fulfil' the Lord's com- tribes, estimated at 300,000, live in the wild moun- mand, so far as Kwangsi was concerned. Today, tain fastnesses of Kwangsi and the neighboring besides the Alliance, the Southern Baptists and Province of Kweichow. These people, among two other American societies, there are four Eng- whom a missionary couple and Chinese workers lish societies, and a few small independent groups have been ministering for six years, listen to the working in the province. The Bible Societies are Gospel eagerly and some have accepted Christ.
Various divisions of the Miao tribes are scattered through the northern and western parts of the Province· and some of these, as well as other less well-known tribes, are being brought to the atten- tion of the Mission through long and often la- borious itinerating trips into hitherto unreached territory. The spirit of those who make these trips is shown in a letter written by the intrepid pioneer, Rev. W. H. Oldfield, the Chairman of the Alliance Mission in South China: "Here we are in the wilds of the west ready to start out with a party of thirteen for a tour among the tribesmen. The whole trip has been a time of blessing. First, we made a tour in the moun- tains of the north, which is commonly called Miao- land. There we came in contact with six differ- ent tribes, two of which we had never seen before.
The Gospel message was given and tracts .were left among them and we trust that this seed will be watered by the Spirit and will bring forth an abundant harvest to the glory of God.
Photo by A. F. Desterhajt "On the entire journey of over 1,000 English TUNG WOMEN OF KiWANGSI miles on foot through all kinds of mountain ter- cooperating with the various missions in circu- ritory, we were led in safety, but the very last lating the Word of God. Today after more than day, when almost within shouting distance of the forty years, there are still millions in the province city of Poseh, we were held up by robbers and two who have not been brought into vital touch with of the three loads we were carrying, containing the Gospel of Christ; and in the northern and bedding and clothing, were taken from us by these western portions of the province, where the Al- evil men. It occurred the day before Christmas. liance is responsible for evangelizing the people, It seems strange that this term of service should wany.tribes are entirely unreached. begin and end with a highway robbery, but I am glad we still have clothing. We do not change our During the past few years, pioneering trips plans, but in spite of somewhat disturbed condihave brought to light many tribespeople in the tions, we plan to leave day after tomorrow for the fastnesses of the mountains and the valleys of the last few weeks among the tribesmen of the west, interior, and these the mission and the Chinese and we trust through the prayers of faithful Church are making earnest efforts to reach. friends that we may be saved from further ·The population of Kwangsi is approximately trouble, though trouble or not we go forward in 12,000,000, according to the latest government His Name to the many peoples of the west that census. There are believed to be at least 5,000,000 have not yet heard the saving message of the tribespeople in the Province. The Chwangs, Gospel."
members of the great Tai race, are the most nu- With the growth of the Chinese Church in merous and easy of access. One hundred mem- Kwangsi, there has been a very encouraging debers of this tribe were baptized last year and velopment along true indigenous principles. Mis-
PIONEERING FOR CHRIST IN KWANGSI
RED-HEADED YAOS OF THE LOH-LI AND SI-LIU DISTRICTS, MR, YUEN, THE' EVANGELIST FROM POSEH, IS STANDING, HOLDING HIS ACCORD'EON siOonaries and Chinese workers are earnestly the church treasurer a sack of pennies amounting laboring to make the Church fully self-supporting, to $5.00, hOoping that other members might be wisely self-governing, and zealously self-propa- stimulated by his example, so that they could have gating under the leadership and by the enabling their own building. Mrs. Tseng, the treasurer, of the Holy Spirit. had a flourishing business and every comfort, yet she gave nothing. She was ashamed as she gazed When a congregation is able to supply six- on the sacrificial offering and a few days later she tenths of all its running expenses, including sal- left her shop and hurried off to see Dr. Moh, a aries, it passes from the oversight of the Joint prosperous man and a member of the church com- Committee (Chinese and Mission Executive Com- mittee. She Ooffered to give a plot Oof land fOor the mittee) to the direction of the Chinese Commit- building and to help buy the brick and lumber, if tees. The goal is to attain full self-support within Dr. Moh would take time to direct the workmen. four years after the church has become sixty per cent self-supporting. Finally a spacious street chapel was completed and furnished. The prosperous members felt a One group of Christians in the inland town of little ashamed of their ragged brother Lan and Kong Cheng rented a building as a chapel but urged him to wear better clothes. He quietly rethey often had to change their place of meeting plied that he had frequently been tempted to buy because the landlords blamed them for any calam- clothes but that he felt he must lay aside his penity that might befall their households. Finally nies for the church. As Dr. MOoh listened and Mr. Lan, one of the poorest of the members of remembered that he himself wore silk and fur the church, declared that they must build their garments while his brother member WOould not ownchapel. Daily he prayed to God to help him even buy a cheap padded gown because he was so think of some plan by which he might save money intent on His Lord's interests, Dr. Moh invited for the building. His fOOod was only such as the the poor man tOo his home where he gave him a poorest of men could affOord even in China, but good hot meal and a new gown. His son also was finally he and his wife decided to eat less and lay given work in the doctOor's office. NOoW a happier aside a few pennies saved from time to time. The man than Brother Lan can scarcely be found in poor man's body was weakened from the lack of all the countryside. He and his fellow church nourishing food and he was often chilled because members have found that giving is the Father's of insufficient clothing, yet he rejoiceq as his sav- way to added blessing. ings grew. After several months he brought to
Eleven organized churches, with a total mem- provided by the converts for continued meetings bership of 993, are now under the direction of the before the Bands have finished their ministry in Chinese committee. The combined membership the section. of all the Alliance churches in Kwangsi is 2,539 and many of these are expected to come into full In recent tours in Kwangsi and Kweichow, seven counties have been traversed, great moun- tain ranges were crossed, where the foot of a white man had never tramped. Thus, the search for new tribes and peoples goes ever onward in the confidence that, when they are discovered, mis- sionary volunteers will not be lacking and through the prayers and assistance of loyal friends at home, earnest efforts will be made to reach these tribes with the Gospel message.
One of the encouraging discoveries of recent trips is that a number of the tribes can be reached through the Chwang dialect, the Chwang workers had no difficulty in being understood by the vil- lagers and people along the pathways to whom they spoke.
During one part of the trip, four tribes were found of which the missionary writes: "The Heh-i, the Loh-Loh, the Ta Pan Yao and the Lan Tien Yao are still practically as much A CHWANG WOMAN AND HER BABY relation with the Chinese Conference within two MR. LAN, FORMER TAOIST PRIEST, NOW or three years. AN EARNEST CHRISTIAN The great unevangelized Yao Mountain terri- He is seated beside; some of the idols that he formerly worshiped. tory in Kwangsi, with its many thousands of unreached tribesmen has been entered by repre- neglected as they were a thousand years ago. It sentatives of the Chinese Church as their field for is true some Gospels and tracts have been distribevangelization. The Church publishes the Al- uted to some of them, but they have not as yet liance Weekly in Chinese, Sunday school papers, had an opportunity to hear and understand the and other helpful literature. Some of these have Gospel. On this tour we determined to get in a circulation reaching into nearly every province of China, as well as into foreign countries where Chinese have emigrated.
The Bible Training School, under Chinese leadership, often has among its student body representatives from many other missionary societies and church groups. It is recognized to be of a high standard and absolutely loyal to the Word of God and the fundamental truths of our Christian faith. Two important phases of work are the Short Term Bible Schools held in various districts and the ministry of the Chinese Evangelistic Bands who labor both among the Chinese and the tribespeople. In one month members of one of these Bands gave a brief Gospel message in 1800 homes and preached in all the towns and villages of the section in which it was laboring. In some places the work of the Bands is so fruitful that several groups of converts are baptized and places
PlWto by A CHWANG TRIBESMAN'S HOME IN THE' MOUNTAINS-HERE A MISSIONARY OFTEN SPENDS THE NIGHT. PIGS AND COWS ARE FREE TO ENTER THE FRONT DOOR ON THIID GROUND FLOOR.
close contact with them. On other trips we have long so as to discourage travelers, especially met them on the mountain pathways and have soldiers or robbers, from going that way. Though found them usually timid and retiring. On this the Miao carrier did not wish to continue the trip, however, we left the main pathways, secured journey, the Commission of the Lord still reads guides to take us back behind the mountain ranges "unto the uttermost part" and so the messengers to where the tribesmen have their homes, lived pressed on. Tribes in these distant places are with them in their huts, ate with them, slept with them, sat with them around their' camp fires, almost 100 % illiterate so the Gospel must be given dressed their sores, bound up their wounds, and told them the story of the Gospel. In a few days them by word of mouth. they became so friendly that they flocked around How do the tribespeople respond to the Gospel us as if we belonged to their tribe; when we left one tribe to pass on to another, there was a hearty message? A Tung tribesman, having been told invitation to call again, and we felt that another that a strange white man who loved his people tribe was ready and waiting to receive the Gospel was living in a distant town, left his mountain when we have men to send and means to support home and came to the city where he cautiously inthem." quired for the missionary. That tribesman is now studying the Word of God and looking forward to The Timber Yao people differ noticeably from the time when he can tell his ownpeople the glad other tribes in their language and in the women's new Story which he has so recently heard. Many dress. Their houses are scattered in groups of who hear the Message are eager to tell it to their two to five, with only an occasional small village. people in the scattered villages, and they find a The women of this tribe, as well as the Miao and hearty welcome as they sit around the camp fire Tung tribes, wear trousers instead of pleated evenings and tell to their friends and neighbors skirt like those worn in other tribes. Their silver the story of God's redeeming love. ornaments include a number of Hongkong coins, beaten plates of silver and earrings. Another young Tung from the hills of Kwangsi, who had studied in the City of Canton, returned to After passing through a valley, far beyond the his mountain home among fellow tribesmen, and contacts of civilization, the party came to a moun- was so oppressed by the dullness of his surroundtain pass where the natives had spiked the road ings that he planned to seek escape through suiwith sharp spikes of bamboo four to six inches cide. Then it was that a Chinese preacher, Mr. Loh, visited the village and gave the young stu- dent some Christian books. Through reading
these, a desire was created to know more of the This answer to prayer made a powerful impres- Gospel and finally the young man expressed his sion, not only on the sick man's household, but purpose to follow Christ and to become a teacher also on many other members of his tribe. They of the Gospel to his own tribesmen. had never seen prayer answered in this fashion and reasoned, "If the Lord can answer prayer in Through the witness of two Chwang converts, this way, surely we ought to trust Him for the Mr. Lan, formerly a Taoist priest, and Mt. Chiu salvation of our souls and our future happin!,!ss." Tak-sun, an earnest Christian farmer, a consider- Before long about forty of the tribespeople asked able number of Chwang tribespeople have been to be enrolled as inquirers and from this number converted, twenty-seven being baptized on one twenty-seven were baptized. occasion. Mr. Chiu constantly urged his tribespeople to accept this Jesus who worked such won- Many similar instances could be given as eviders when on earth and who is still the same dence of the saving grace of God among the tribestoday. people of Kwangsi. Millions of Chinese and tribespeople are yet unreached and the Mission One day a neighbor became very ill and the with its thirty-four missionaries and the 102 sickness increased in severity until the family Chinese wor-kers, 29 of whom are women, have a feared that he was going to die. After tribal large task before them. We commend to the remedies had failed, the family sent for Mr. Chiu, Lord's people for prevailing prayer these earnest who went at once to the sick man's bedside. After missionaries and Chinese workers that, as the exhorting the family to cast away their idols and new-born souls are instructed in the essential trust alone in Christ, the Christian farmer kneeled truths, they may be established in the Christian down and prayed to God for the tribesman's re- life and become effective witnesses to their fellow covery. The next morning he was much better tribesmen. and in a few days he was well.
China and the New Life Movement* CHINA'S present attitude toward religion and nificant Easter message is significant of the atti- toward Christ is somewhat confused. Con- tude some of China's leading spirits take toward fucian ideals, though a factor in the New religion. The country is more widely open to Life Movement, do not function religiously any religious propaganda than ever before. Though more than they ever did. China does not promise there may be some discrimination against gradto be more Buddhist than at any time past, nor uates from unregistered Christian schools there is is it turning Christian. To promote religion in none against qualified Christians for important China is no easier or simpler than in "Christian" governmental and commercial agencies. Furthernations. Nevertheless, the attitude of China to- more, there is apparent a desire for Christian day toward religion is different from what it has and church cooperation in reconstructive projects been in the past. No religious system is receiving that implies recognition of the religious dynamic the special favor of the state, nor is the state at- as one of the essentials to China's rebuilding. In tacking religion. Prominent Chinese, including other words, China has passed from a mood ansome Christians, do not in their attitude distin- tagonistic to religion. guish as sharply between Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism as some Christians Present-day China is more aware of religion might wish. Official courtesies are paid to rep- than once was the case. There is an inarticulate resentatives of all religions when occasion re- feeling that economic, social and political changes quires. One hears little discussion of religious are not enough. Thus for all kinds of aggressive liberty yet it seems to be a fact in China though religious movements the hour is propitious. some deem it infringed upon as regards educational freedom. China is not aggressively anti- Three years is too short a time in which to religious at the moment. judge the New Life Movement which has set itself a stupendous task under unusually difficult cir- There is something to be said of a seeming cumstances. It is not an organization but a movefriendliness on the part of China to religion. ment. It cannot be judged solely in terms of its High officials participated in the platform ad- purpose- and a summary of its achievements bedresses given before a Catholic Action Congress longs to the future. Nevertheless, it has moved a year or so ago. General Chiang Kai-shek's sig- forward as regards the clarification of its purpose and understanding of what it should aim to do in • The first part of this article is freely quoted from an editorial terms of reconstruction. Taken generally it is in The Chinese Recorder. "An attack on the fundamental moral problem in
THE MOVEMENT OFFICIALLY DESCRIBED
China's social life." As a matter of fact insofar as program are already cooperating with the New the Movement tries to reform manners it has both Life Movement. All churches not so engaged to curb the exuberance of modernized Chinese might well consider how they may participate. manners and jar the inertia out of traditional What can Christians add to the New Life Moveones. In some places, however, the Movement ment is a question. But cooperation in any field has disturbed gamblers and those promoting com- can only be worthwhile if it is reciprocal. So the mercialized vice to the point where they have question, What can the New Life Movement conurged that the Movement should show less zeal. tribute to the churches? needs also to be consid- This is an indication of its possibilities as a moral ered. The Movement provides an opening for the force. The program outlined indicates how the manifestation of the religious dynamic hardly Movement is becoming a positive force for re- equalled heretofore in China. It offers to tie up building life as well as an obstruction to evil Christian energy and moral fervor with the life agencies and a reformer of manners. So far it is of China in new ways. As an indigenous movelargely urban but the direction and scope of its ment it is setting out to endeavor to do along sevactivities are turning to rural centers also. eral lines what Christians have been trying to do for many years. Church response to the Move- It has been said that "The New Life Movement ment's appeal for cooperation should aid in keepaims at the revival of the traditional virtues of ing it creative. If in places the Movement is more China." But those responsible for it also feel the sound than success the church should help give need of a religious fervor to energize these tra- the sound a deeper note. If, on the one hand, it ditional virtues and that they seek the aid of those is a revival of traditional virtues it is, on the other motivated by the Christian faith in particular. In- hand, a search for ways of developing and manideed, while his Movement is not set on building festing a modernized and vitalized life. It cannot up a religion or a church as such, Christians are go far in this without the deepening of spirit and to some extent active in directing its activities. consciousness that religious faith can give. Chris- The time has come for the churches to give it tians can help by demonstrating how their faith serious attention as a force in the life of China works in the simple or elaborate forms of reconwith which they can work. struction.
Churches engaged in activities as given in the The Movement Officially Described* By' GENERALISSIMO CHIANG KAI-SHEK President of the Chinese M'litary Affairs Commission THE New Life Movement aims at revolution- such traditional virtues as Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, izing the mode of life of the whole of the they are living today under conditions. which sug- Chinese people. It seeks by the application gest that they have just emerged from savagery. of the simplest and most effective methods possible to eradicate from the people those habits that China has 35,000,000 square liof territory and are no longer suited to the times and to replace abounds in natural resources, which if developed, them with a new mode of living in accord with could easily make this country one of the wealththe spirit of the age in which we live. In other iest nations of the world. Yet there is widespread words, the movement stands for the rationaliza- poverty and misery in the land. This again is due tion of the lives of the people, and is based on the traditional virtues of China as expressed in these to the neglect of the traditional virtues of China, characters, Li, Yi, Lien and Chih. namely, Li, Yi, Lien, and Chih.
The Chinese people used to set great store on China has 400,000,000 people who used to be these traditional virtues, the revival of which is well organized in all the essentials of life. But imperative and essential to the welding of China what spectacle do our people present to the rest into a modern nation. of the world today? They are disorganized, in- dolent, cowardly and torn between conflicting per- With a civilization of more than 5,000 years the verse teachings, leading a life little better than Chinese people attained long ago a high degree of that of savages. This again is due to the neglect refinement in matters of food, clothing, shelter of Li, Yi, Lien, and Chih. and deportment, but owing to their neglect of While it is true that the removal of the existing • From ChAnese Affairs, Shanghai crude and degrading modes of life of the Chinese people in favor of one of refinement depends to a
great extent on the revival of the old virtues of anything else. This work may be described as Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, it is equally true that under the work of the New Life movement. The extenpresent circumstances, when society is in a state sion and progress of the movement depends upon of chaos, when perverse ideas have permeated the the extent to which the people realize its need. It country, and when the great majority of the peo- should begin with individuals and later spread to ple are sunk in pleasure and indolence, immediate families and the community at large. It serves success can hardly be expected to attend the in- as the vanguard of the political authorities, but it troduction of political measures or the inculcation should not depend upon the latter for its success. of teachings of the right sort. If the modes of living of the people are to be improved, a start Objects of the Movement must be made first with the rectification of their bad habits. For this reason, the New Life Move- The attitude of mind of the great majority of ment offers the only road to the salvation of Chinese today is marked by drift and insipidity. China. This expresses itself in acts which do not distin-. guish between good and evil, right and wrong, Our late Chungli, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, said: "Min and private interests and public welfare. Hence, Sheng means the life of people, the existence of our officials are hypocritical, greedy and corrupt; society, the livelihood of the citizens of the country our people are disorganized and indifferent to the and the welfare of the masses." Although the welfare of the nation; our youths are degenerate problem of the livelihood of the people, or Min and irresponsible; and our adults are vicious and Sheng, may be considered from four angles, the ignorant. The rich are given to pleasure and exquestion of life is really the manifestation of the travagance, while the poor are low, filthy and other three aspects of the problem of the people's groping in the dark. All this has led to a complete livelihood. For the continued existence of so- breakdown of authority and discipline, resulting ciety certain guarantees are necessary. As re- in social unrest, which has in turn made us helpgards the problem of the livelihood of the people, less in the face of natural calamity and foreign there must be room for development and expan- aggression. If this state of affairs is allowed to sion. For the continuity of life, propagation is continue any longer, it will be impossible for us necessary. Life is the manifestation of all these even to lead the present kind of existence for very activities. In other words, life is a general term long. . . . . for all human activities. To rebuild the life of the people in accord with All activities arising from the propagation of modern conditions, especially to build a new social the race, from the preservation of life and also order, resort has to be made to political reform, from the development of the livelihood of the peo- particularly education, but in the past education ple assume different forms at different times and and politics in China have suffered from one beunder different conditions. Sometimes the en- setting sin, namely, cant and hypocrisy. This vironment also changes. Not until a man "renews has led to the ineffectiveness of laws, the uselesshimself daily" can he hope to have a rich and ness of technical talent and the impotency of abundant life. The life of a people must accord machines. Where a C.hinese is placed in the post with the time and environment in which it lives. formerly Occupied by a foreigner, it invariably A new life is possible only when there is a com- happens that the Chinese official cannot attain the plete break with the old modes of living. same degree of efficiency .as the foreigner. This is true of machines. Run by a Chinese, a machine Whether the people have a rich and abundant cannot yield the same output as it does when life depends primarily upon the existence of good under foreign· supervision. If we want to make government and on the extension of sound politi- our laws effective, the thing to do is not to imcal institutions, but this has a close connection prove the laws, but to get the right· men to adminwith customs and usages. ister them. The same is true of machines; Struc- turally, there is nothing defective about them: If during the transition from an old social what is needed is the right men to operate them. order to a new one nothing is done to assist the It is true that politics and education have an imintroduction and spread of new political· institu- portant role to play in the formation of character, tions by the introduction of new customs and but at the same time it is equally true that social usages, such new institutions are liable to be stul- customs and usages exercise a more important tified in their development. In other words, they influence over the lives of men. must be assisted by the inculcation of new ideas, preparing the minds of the people for their recep- That the Government will exert itself for potion. For this reason, every country makes the litical reform goes without saying. Unless we are task of changing the customs and usages of the prepared to let the nation go under without a people its first concern during the transition from struggle during the present national crisis, we the old to the new, for this is more important than
must act resolutely to put a stop to the present of food and clothing will not bring about social state of affairs and throw ourselves into the work peace, and if any proof is needed to substantiate of social reform. In short, we must make a clean this statement, it is an unquestioned fact that sweep of the existing social abuses and evils and crime abounds always in cities where there is take prompt measures to foster what is best and plenty and abundance. Moreover, can one serivital in society. This is the mission of the, New ously maintain that many of those who have Life Movement. turned to brigandage or become traitors and greedy officials have done so owing to fear of Contents of the Movement hunger and starvation? . . .
The New Life Movement advocates a mode of Li, Yi, Lien and Chih are general principles in living based on the principles of Li, Yi, Lien, and the establishment of states. This was true of Chih. In other words, it seeks to apply those ancient times and is true of the contemporary age.
time-honored principles to the daily conduct of Of course, each age has its own interpretation of men and women, especially in matters pertaining those principles. Let us explain them in the light to food, clothing, shelter and deportment. Any of modern conditions of life. Briefly, Li means one who fails to order his life in accordance with polite manners, Yi, chivalrous or upright conduct, this code is bound to fail. This is true also of Lien honesty or a moral sense 'of right and wrong, nations. and Chih, decency or an appreciation of moral There are people who are skeptical of this view. values. It is contended that Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, undoubtedly excellent virtues in themselves, may be There are two conditions associated with food, able to produce men of exemplary character, but clothing, shelter and deportment, namely (1) tanif we are backward in technical knowledge, no gible things, such as food, houses, roads, carts, amount of virtue can save China. This line of steamers, etc., and (2) manifestations, such as reasoning is untenable. It is true that knowledge eating and drinking, living, ·walking. is power, but knowledge is liable to be abused in The word Hsing, or deportment, however, has the hands of those who have no moral scruples. two senses. In its narrow sense it means walk- Li, Yi, Lien and Chih are the guiding rules of ing. In its broad sense it means behavior. Inconduct for individuals, society and the state. deed, in this sense Hsing ~ncludes food, clothing, shelter and deportment.
When educated men act contrary to these rules, The "San Min Chu Yi" ("The Three People's both the public and the nation will suffer. In Principles") in the chapter dealing with the short, Li, Yi, Lien and Chih are able not only to questions of food, clothing, shelter and deportsave China but to remake her. ment, emphasizes the material aspect of the prob- There are others who declare that Li, Yi, Lien lem. If there is any doubt on this score, it should and Chih are empty principles and can hardly be be dispelled by a perusal of this passage in "The expected to serve as rules of conduct for those Fundamentals of Reconstruction" which says: who live from hand to mouth and do not know The Government should assist the people in the where their next rice bowls come from or what development of agriculture so that they will have the morrow may bring. This fallacy is due to the enough to eat. It should promote the textile inteachings of Kuan Tze who maintained that be- dustry so that the people will have enough tovvear. fore a man can know decency he must have enough It should help the people to solve their housing to eat and wear, or as the Greek philosopher Aris- and transportation problems by building more totle said, before a man can be expected to be houses and repairing canals and roads. The virtuous he must have a competence. The funda- "Hsing" in the present New Life Movement is mental fact seems to have been overlooked by used in both its narrow and its broad senses. these skeptics that Li, Yi, Lien and Chih are the "foundation" of a man, and that if he does not Methods of the New Life Movement possess these attributes, he cannot have food and clothing. Leadership.-The direction of the whole New Life Movement is vested in the hands of the New In a society based on Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, one Life Movement Promotion Association in Nancan make up the lack of food and clothing by hu- chang. Branches of the association may' be estabman means, whereas in a society where these lished in the various parts of the country, but in principles are not observed, no amount of wrong- order to avoid confusion and to ensure common doing, such as robbery and theft can bring suffi- action, district branches should be subject to the ciency and abundance to the needy: Acts of Li, control of provincial New Life Promotion Asso- Yi, Lien and Chih are correctives to acts of strife, ciations. theft and robbery. In cases where Li, Yi, Lien andChih are flouted, even sufficiency in matters District and provincial branches should be jointly organized by representatives of various
public organizations, such as the Provincial and Chinese should have a decent standard of living, District Kuomintang headquarters, Bureau of which is another term for an artistic mode of liv- Public Safety, Social Welfare and Education, and ing. In ancient times China used to have the somilitary commissions. Subject to the direction called six arts and sciences: Rites, Music, Archof the l~al district New Life Promotion Associa- ery, horsemanship, calligraphy and mathematics. tion, the various guilds, schools, women's organi- These six things today have made the Western zations and rural groups may start separate New powers great and strong, although the Chinese Life groups. people for centuries used them as guiding prin- ciples of action in life. The reason why there is The work of the New Life Movement consists so much suspicion, jealousy and animosity in of investigation, planning and promotion. Chinese society today is that we have forgotten the teachings of our ancients. There is no hope The expenses of the movement should be re- of improvement unless we order our lives in acduced to a minimum and borne by those respon- cordance with the principles of Li, Yi, Lien, and sible or raised by the authorities of the locality in Chih. which there is a branch of the New Life Movement Promotion Association. Solicitation of con- (2) The poverty of China is due to the existtributions from outsiders is forbidden. ence of so many people who cannot produce any- thing of their own and who live on others. The The program of the New Life Movement will be productivity of the people must be increased. We drawn up by the New Life Movement Promotion must develop our immense natural resources and Association in Nanchang. The Movement will avoid waste. Everyone should consider it a first begin with a campaign for cleanliness and shame to depend upon others for his support. In orderliness. other words, everyone must work for his own living. There is no other way to relieve the pov- The formula of the Movement.-The Movement erty. of China and remove the source of civil strife should start with oneself and then extend to than to practise the principles of Li, Yi, Lien and others, with officials first, and then the masses, Chih in our daily lives. from simple things to more important tasks, and from public organizations, schools, etc., to the (3) In advocating Li, Yi, Lien and Chih as the lower classes of society. code of our daily conduct, we are inspired by the How the Movement may be promoted.-Per- or desire to "militarize" the life of our people. When sonal example, oral instruction, illustrated posters, campaign literature, plays and motion pic- a nation cannot fight for the defence its soil tures are some of the means by which the Move- against foreign invasion, it cannot be considered ment may be promoted. The New Life Movement a nation. We must cultivate martial arts if we Promotion Association will send delegates to visit are to overcome the present weakness of our counthe various provinces and districts from time to try. China today is overrun by Communisttime and inspect the work being done by the re- bandits. Civil war has not yet been completely spective New Life groups. In order to promote banished from the land. Our national territory a healthy spirit of rivalry between the various is growing smaller and smaller every day. Imgroups contests will be held. There will be prizes perialists join with traitors and Communists in for the winning groups. oppressing our people and undermining our coun- try. If we wish to deliver China from ,the present No compulsion should be employed in extend- crisis and bring peace and order to the land, we ing the Movement. Persuasion should be the must prepare to "militarize" the whole country. watchword of the "New Life" canvassers. Before this is possible, the people must be trained in habits of orderliness, discipline, cleanliness, Conclusion simplicity and accurate thinking. They must be law-abiding, conscious of their responsibilities and To sum up, the New Life Movement aims at the ready to die for the country. substitution of a rational mode of living for the present irrational mode of living of the people. A rational mode of living is realized when the How can this be effected? My answer is: by principles of Li, Yi, Lien and Chih are applied to making Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, the code of our the daily conduct of the people, especially in matdaily conduct. ters pertaining- to food, shelter, clothing and de-. portment. A great revolution will have been ef- (1) In advocating the revival of our traditional fected and the foundations of new national strucvirtues such as Li, Yi, Lien and Chih, the object ture laid when every Chinese lives in accordance in view is an artistic mode of living for all our with the principles of the New Life Movement, people. Many are apt to think that only a few which are based on the traditional virtues of Li, privileged persons can lead an artistic life. This Yi, Lien and Chih. is a mistake. It is within the reach of all. Every
Chiang Kai–shek's Interpretatiqn
of the New Life Movement in China* T HE New Life Movement was inaugurated medireval into the modern world. Those who have three years ago to quicken and to deepen the failed us are those who have refused to pay the work of reconstruction in China. Since then price of living the New Life. "You cannot serve the nation has progressed farther than we had God and mammon"; you cannot live a regenerated dared to hope, giving us a new faith in the future vitalized life and at the same time maintain a of our race. After these three years of experience selfish attitude toward society. we are more than ever convinced that the most vital force in the reconstruction of our nation is On this our third anniversary it is fitting that the spiritual life of the people. we should review some of the accomplishments of the past and perhaps more important still outline It has been a long and difficult task, and one the most pressing needs of the nation. that has required the cooperation of all the leaders of the nation, to unite China's scattered troops First and foremost let us mention the needs for into one strong national army. It has not been unity and internal peace. easy to improve communications, remodel cities and set forces in motion that will eventually im- The policy of the National Government is enprove the living condItions of farmers and work- tirely one of harmonizing, composing and settling ers. Yet in the long run these are the outward all differences through peaceful means, thus presigns of a new controlling principle, a new law of serving national resources and strengthening the life which we are slowly learning to follow. faith of the people in the ability of the nation to weather any storm. The unification of the armies This energy and courage animating our people, is not sufficient in itself. There must go with it and sometimes referred to as the national renais- that oneness of purpose and broadmindedness that sance, has been at work in China for two decades. enables men of all parties and of every faith to In a very real sense, the New Life Movement is keep in step, regardless of conditions, and while gathering together spiritual forces that are partly keeping in step to work together for the commonindigenous and partly from abroad. The New wealth. Life Movement is slowly winning the confidence of the people, for we are still very conservative, Throughout the country there are still minor and is fast becoming a centre where all agencies, disturbances where hungry men, masquerading both governmental and private, interested in the as bandits, take by force from their neighbors and welfare of the people, may find a common meeting from travelers what society should provide for ground. them in some other way.
Heretofore various organizations shouldering Economic Betterment and Education the burden of building a new social order have not only been scattered but they have oftentimes Benjamin Franklin has well said, "Poverty been perplexed by what seems to be cross-currents within the life of the nation. The river of New often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is Life released three years ago in Nanchang is gradually gathering into one great flood embody- hard for an empty bag to stand upright." ing the currents of life and thought that go to unify and reconstruct the nation. Idleness, intemperance and extravagance are A year ago, on the occasion of the second anni- not the only stones that pave the road to poverty. vers.ary of the New Life Movement, the Generalissimo emphasized three immediate needs of the Corruption, inefficiency, oppression, malnutrition nation: sincerity, efficiency and living of the New Life. During the same year mistakes may have and an unjust social order also help to depress been made but none can question the sincerity of our national leaders. Most Of them have been the economic level. When the New Life Movelending. a hand as the nation emerges from the ment was inaugurated in Kiangsi, one of the first • Radio broadcast speech by Madame Chiang on February 19, 1937, In commemoration of the Third Anniversary of the launching things it did was to establish welfare centers st~::h~tW Life Movement. Reprinted from The Peoples' Tribune, where the economic and social needs of the people might be studied and gradually relieved. Through- out the nation it will continue to focus attention upon the economic factors underlying the needs of the masses. Without this there can be no in- ternal peace. Banditry and rebellion will cease only when nt heex tpteoopt hlee have enough to eat. inte rnal Second, need for unity and peace I should place education.
[361 ]
The growth of the modern school system Almost anyone of us can gather together a few throughout China is phenomenal. Everywhere we see the children with their school books com- friends interested in social service and through ing and going. The fact· remains, however, that the vast majority of the people are not informed pooling resources can bring new life to many a on many matters that concern their every-day life; ignorance and superstition still influence them to community. Incidentally in so doing you will find an alarming extent. great joy and lasting satisfaction. The New Life Movement last summer presented this challenging situation to the college students , A group of well-equipped devoted national leadof East China and received a hearty response. College students, both men and women, spend time ers without your help cannot bring new life to our in their own or neighboring villages teaching summer schools for both children and adults and nation. Such a social revolution calls for the coholding popular lecture courses in the evening. In time our educated people will catch this spirit operation of every intelligent man and woman of service and voluntarily will do 'what they can in their immediate neighborhood so that in a short throughout China. time illiteracy will be greatly reduced. What the national and provincial governments are doing to Many a great movement has slowed down bemeet this gigantic problem is very encouraging but we wish to make this appeal to our educated cause it has failed to grip the imagination and to people everywhere, that they must not rely solely upon the Government but should also carry re- enlist the enthusiasm of the rank and file. This sponsibility for those closest to them. I, myself, have found deep satisfaction in mothering a few is not true of the New Life Movement, and from hundred students in the schools for the children of the revolution and I recommend this form of the bottom of my heart I hope it never will be social service to my friends throughout China. true. You know as well as I do that the great Games and Healthy Sport failure of democracy is that we rely too much We all know that we receive much valuable education outside of the schoolroom. Last summer a upon a fe,w chosen leaders. In democratic China student from a Shanghai college, visiting his home village in Kiangsu, discovered that a large per- you are showing your appreciation of the nation's centage of the people were spending their leisure time gambling; without discoursing on the evils leaders in many ways and we are deeply grateful, of gambling he hastened back to Shanghai where he purchased and borrowed a few outdoor and in- for it makes us doubly sure of the solid foundation door games, including a small radio. He worked with the young men of the village in cleaning and of unity upon which we are building. I beg of whitewashing an old temple and in levelling a playing field. Within a few days he had games you not to take too much for granted and not to and competitions in progress for the younger members of the community and victrola and radio expect too much of a few leaders. If New Life entertainment for those who preferred to be less active. From his knowledge of the outsilje world really comes to all our people throughout the provand from newspapers and magazines he gave a series of evening lectures on subjects of interest inces, it will come because it has been unanimously and value to the community. When the time came for him to return to his studies at college the vil- supported in the heart of the country. lage schoolmaster had already taken charge of these activities and they are doubtless still in The last and most important thing that I have progress. to say to you is something that the President of Through the social-mindedness of another college student in providing a village radio, the peo- the New Life Movement has said over and over ple of his community have just heard the President of the N~w Life Movement speak to them. again. "New Life is something we live, not some- thing that we promote." It is a quality of life within ourselves, a standard of ·values that in- fluences every thought and action. The greatest Teacher that ever lived has told us that "what goes on in a man's heart determines the quality of his life." If New Life implies a change of heart then let us all make that change together on this the third anniversary of our great spiritual move- ment. A change of heart within each of us will soon prOduce the :riew and prosperous nation that we all long to see. .
*** A Missionary Resolve – By the Grace of God: We will "maintain the spiritual glow."
We will depend on spiritual means to achieve results in God's work.
We will not magnify statistics nor glory in mere numbers.
We will be slow to criticize others, but will seek to be our best and look for the best in others.
We will earnestly try to be free from race prejudice.
We will show love to others and devotedly seek their high- est good. _ We will ask God's help to solve our own spiritual problems so as to be more free to help others.
We will not be too impatient for visible results, but will steadfastly trust God to do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think."
We will tarry until we are "endued with Power from on High" and then go forth to witness for Christ.
"He giveth power to the faint." Isaiah 40: 29.
Yellow vs. Acting Yellow*
By GEOFFREY W. ROYALL, Chao-Cheng, Shangtung, China Missionary of the Church of the Nazarene THE eyes of the world are turned to China to- ventions, raising money, holding bazaars in order day more than at any time since the Boxer that the Gospel (!) might be taken to the poor Rebellion, a generation ago. So much has heathen – these slit-eyed, flat-nosed, oily-faced happened in the last five years and so much more Sons of Han included!
seems about to take place. . . that' even the Span- A tragedy! Yes, and one that is enacted too ish situation has not turned the attention of the often in other churches. Can it be true in yours?
people away from the land of Sinim. If we are not vitally interested in the salvation Now, instead of attempting to transport you of the ",heathen" who live on your street, your to the Orient and thrusting you heart first into the neighbors and fellow-citizens, then why try to fool intriguing life of the Chinese, we will stay in the ourselves into believing that we are really con- Occident, and spend a few moments "Thinking cerned in the redemption of heathen ten thousand Yellow." We have "thought white" for so long miles away? If one cannot "think yellow" at that it will be no easy task to suddenly "think home, it is useless to try 'imd stretch one's reli- yellow." gious imagination across the Pacific. It will prob- Having just returned from the Middle King- ably be drowned before it reaches Honolulu!
dom, I was in a store in Toronto purchasing a Cincinnati, the metropolis of Ohio, is a great daily paper. A lady of large dimensions came in centre of religious activity. Some years ago at and asked for one of the popular weekly'maga- the annual district convention of one of the larger zines. As the news agent handed her the maga- denominations, the largest auditorium filled to zine and her change, he pointed in my direction hear a missionary of national repute lecture on and said: "This is the Reverend Geoffrey Royall China. The two front rows were reserved for who has just returned from China." ecclesiastical dignitaries – bishops, superintend- "Why how strange," she replied, responding to ents and the like.
my recognition. "I have just come from the Chi~ A passing Chinese, with a staggering burden of nese laundry. You know, Mr. Royall, I have a laundry, was attracted by the bright lights' and horrid sensation run down my spine every time I paused to read the announcements. When his enter that place. That yellow face that pops up eyes caught the word "China" and noted that this behind the counter when I hand over my husband's evening was to be devoted to an address on his shirts is enough to scare anyone. Slit eyes, flat own country, he passed through the doors and noses, oily face . . . ugh! I'm glad I was not walked down the aisle towards the front, with the born a Chinese. How awful it must be for you to bundle of clothes. The speaker was waxing elo- have to live among such people." quent when his eye caught the face of the Chinese I opened my mouth to reply but the words laundryman beaming celestially into his own.
clogged in my teeth and I was silent. . With a quick gesture he motioned the visitor to a "Well, we have a meeting of the Women~s Mis- seat and the visitor promptly sat down next to a sionary Auxiliary at three, so I'll be running corpulent bishop, at whose feet he unceremoni- along," the woman continued, picking up her ously planted the laundry. A few minutes later magazine. We watched her sail out of the store the good bishop discovered that one end of his with the trail of a Pekinese dog in her wake. frock coat was caught beneath the individual next "Mrs. Jones is one of the best workers in her to him an,d, as he turned to look and he discovered church," remarked the storekeeper. a Chinese, he rose to move to another seat. Near- My mind followed her down to her missionary sightedness prevented him from seeing the bundle meeting. Here was a church woman, busy week at his feet, and he tripped ungracefully over it after week, no doubt, year in and year out, work- with a resounding thud.
ing on garments, preparing boxes, visiting con- Can we doubt that at the moment the bishop moved away from the Chinese, Jesus came and * C()lldensed fram a missionary address given In the First Church sat down in his place? To separate ourselves in ~Is~~oena~:z~~~~':;nk~:, ~~~~~~s'19~~~lfornia, at the annual District pride from our fellowmen because of the color of [363 ]
his skin is to segregate ourselves from the Son of the window display. His hand was on the door- knob, when he looked up and saw a plain notice, Man, the "Friend that sticketh closer than a in English and Chinese, nailed just above the door: "Chinese and dogs not allowed." The suit brother." There is danger that a "paternal" at- in the window was most inviting, but the words above the door were not. titude toward the heathen prevents us from being The same ancient tram took the prospective "fraterna1." . customer back to the Chinese quarters and the next day his customers noticed a new sign tacked In the city of Los Angeles I heard the following above the entrance to his restaurant: "Europeans and dogs not admitted." story. The new Chinese Vice-Consul decided to As we think over these four incidents we are patronize American stores during his residence in forced to admit several things.
California and visited one of the American bar- First, the average American church member does not appreciate the wonderful advancement bers. The shop happened to be without other his cousins of Cathay have made in recent years. There is also a tragic lack of soul passion for their patrons on his arrival, and the head barber was redemption. When we have learned that we are our "brother's keeper" in America, only then can seated on a chair reading a newspaper. Hearing we accept this responsibility for our neighbors in other lands. a customer enter he lowered his paper and looked Second, a spirit of aloofness and feeling of suover his glasses. The Chinese official smiled, but periority is a great barrier to Christian progress in foreign fields. How much of our missionary the proprietor growled: activity is superficial? There is a vast difference between being "interested in foreign missions" "What do you want in here." and in being vitally burdened for those of other races tor whom Christ also died. How often we "Oh, just a hair-cut today," smiled the Chinese foolishly interpret the former for the latter!
Vice-Consul. Third, the influence of Christian civilization that we endeavor to send to the Orient is often "Well, we don't cut Chink's hair here, so get nullified by our pagan attitude of superiority to- ward those who come to our own shores. out," was the reply. Fourth, many representatives of so-called "And may I enquire the reason," asked the Christian business houses that trade in the Far East, are a positive hindrance to the efforts of the Celestial, his smile disappearing. Christian missionary.
"I've got no time to argue," snarled the hair- "Thinking yellow!" does not mean "acting yellow!" It is a fallacy to suppose that Christ dresser. "Suppose our best customers from Holly- was a white man. In the book of Acts we read that when the Apostle Paul was standing on the wood should see me cutting your hair; what would steps of the castle waiting permission to address the Jewish rabble, the chief captain of the Roman they think? Do you suppose they want their hair guard asked: "Art thou not that Egyptian?" Christ and Paul were contemporaries and if the dressed with the same tools as I use on you? The chief captain mistook Paul for an Egyptian, it seems that he might well have mistaken Jesus for trade I have built up through years would be one also!
ruined in a day." The seventy-five thousand Chinese in America today constitute an outstanding challenge to the . "Before I leave I want to ask you a question," Christians of America-a challenge that has never been adequately accepted. said the Vice-Consul as he turned to the door. Christians can-learn to "think yellow" by learn- "Make it snappy then," grumbled the barber. ing to understand and to' sympathize with the Chinese. We need not "act yellow" in a sense of "I'm expecting a customer any moment." doing what is unworthy of a follower of Jesus Christ. The same Gospel that transforms us will "If my country came to you, as it has in the burnish the Chinese into gold fit for the King's crown. past, and gave Uncle Sam an order for five million dollars worth of machine guns and ammunition, seventy-five aeroplanes, two million dollars worth of scrap-iron and half-a-million dollars worth of modern factory equipment, would your people re- fuse the order? Would they say, 'We don't take Chinks as customers?'" Without waiting for the answer the Chinese stalked out of the shop. .
The tragedy was that at the same time he slammed the shop door he also slammed his heart's door on Jesus Christ. Today, that Vice-Consul is a chief executive under Emperor Henry Pu-Yi of Manchukuo. One of his tasks is to interview mis- sion board representatives who come with re- quests for government grants of land for hospitals and for other concessions. We wonder if he ever says to himself: ". . . We don't serve white for- eign devils."
Now let us take a boat to a foreign port in the "Dragon Kingdom," "thinking yellow" in Hong- kong. A young Chinese restaurant owner needed a new suit, and noticing a special sale advertised by a prominent down-town tailor, he planned to investigate. An antiquated street car took him to the foreign concession where he eagerly viewed
of the Rural Church in
~-.. I By REV. J. R. WATT, D.D., Kingston, Ontario I Registrar in Queen's Theological College EXCLUDING Greenland, Alaska and New- gave the ratio of urban to rural population as 53.7 foundland (a separate British Dominion), to 46.29 (urban, in Canadian census terminology, Canada comprises the entire northern part includes any separately organized municipality of the North American Continent. It has an area regardless of population). Since 1881 there has of 3,729,665 square miles as compared with the been a steady decline in the ratio of the rural pop- 3,776,700 square miles of the United States and ulation. In many of the older townships the rural . its dependencies and is slightly smaller than the population has declined as much as 50 per cent.
Continent of Europe. The estimated potential Even so two-thirds of Canadian congregations are agricultural land is 2,218,747,200 acres. rural or semirural in character. For this reason Occupying this vast area are 10,376,786 people, alone the welfare of rural congregations is a an average of 2.99 per square mile, but because major concen of the Canadian Church.
large areas are unoccupied this figure may be mis- It seemed necessary to state the foregoing facts leading. Prince Edward Island, with little unoc- that non-Canadian readers, unfamiliar with con- cupied land, has an average density of 40.3 while ditions here, might have some background against Ontario, with great areas unsettled in the North, which to look at the problem. In many respects has 9.45. East of the Great Lakes most of the the problem of the rural church is the same in population is found south of the 50th parallel and China, India, Canada or the United States. But in the West south of the 55th. the approach to and the solution of it must always Of this population 5,381,071 are of British take into account the local background with its origin, 2,927,990 of French, 2,067,725 of other unique local characteristics. Climate, density of races. The largest non-Anglo-Saxon groups are population, religious complexion, racial traditions, German 473,544, Ukrainian 225,113, Dutch 148,- are all factors of prime importance to workers in 962, Polish 145,503. The largest infiltration of this field, and must be taken into account in any non-Anglo-Saxon population is in the West. efforts at betterment. Some of these factors are Prince Edward Island is almost solidly Anglo- permanent, others are modifiable, and the problem Saxon while of the people of Manitoba, Saskatche- will change as they change.
wan and Alberta half are of non-Anglo-Saxon In a contribution as brief as this must neces- origin. sarily be, many significant elements must be In religion the population is 4,285,388 Roman passed by without reference. For example, there Catholic (of whom 2,853,117 are in Quebec and are in not a few communities the changing racial the Maritime Provinces), Jews 155,614, Greek complexion. Areas that once were solidly British Orthodox 102,389. The United Church is the and populous enough to maintain adequate reli- largest Protestant group with 2,017,375 persons, gious services are by steady infiltration becoming and the Anglicans second with 1,635,615. French or Ukrainian or some other racial color.
The climate varies with the latitude and other Then follows inevitably the ethical confusion and factors. Compared with Europe, except in the uncertainty that accompanies the clash of cultures territory on or near the Pacific coast influence by and the, difficulty that a thinning Protestantism the warm waters of the ocean, Canadian winters has to support its own religious usages.
are colder and longer with shorter, warmer and Since this and many other problems of the same drier summers. The temperature of the Pacific order are local to certain communities, they must Coast is identical with that of the British Isles in yield place here to other handicaps much wider in the same latitude. Of Canada as a whole it may their influence which effect all rural work. Of be said that the climate is healthful and invig- these denominationalism must be given first place.
orating, favorable to hardy bodies and vigorous Denominationalism is an inheritance. Histori- minds. cally Christianity was propogated and maintained Agriculture is the chief industry. In a single in the Dominion on a denominational basis. It year the value of the total agricultural production would serve no good purpose to quarrel with a has reached $2,000,000,000. The Census of 1931 fact that was, perhaps, in the evolution of Prot- [365 ]
estantism inevitable. But inevitable or not de- In these overchurched communities the work nominationalism in spite of much that was ad- suffers in several directions. Ministers are undermirable and praiseworthy must be debited with paid. If three men have to be supported where some things inimical to the rural church. When only one is needed stipends are inadequate and a pioneer community found itself, because of de- home mission funds that ought to go to new nominational zeal and prejudice, supplied with all pioneer work are expended in communities that the branches of Presbyterianism, Methodism, the might and ought to be self-supporting. Because Baptists and Anglicanism, it was not well of competitive denominationalism ministers have churched but shamefully overchurched. The con- to minister to areas too large for efficient work. sequence was a burden of maintenance that over- Serving, as many must, three, four and five points taxed the financial resources of the community, there is not a full program of religious work at inadequate buildings, and ,a conception of religion any place. Sunday school and Young People's that would be difficult to justify from the New work suffers because the groups are too small Testament. This condition has been improved for effective work and the minister's time is too greatly by the various unions that have taken much dissipated. Buildings once adequate when place. In 1876 the Presbyterian churches united preaching was the only function of the church to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In Gan scarcely be maintained and seldom are re- . 1883 the various Methodist bodies came together placed with modern buildings in keeping with in the Canadian Methodist Church. Then in 1925 present-day conceptions of church function. the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church and the Congregational Churches merged their A second handicap that adversely affects all identity to make the United Church of Canada. rural work is the measure of disesteem with which The Methodist Church as a whole entered this society and the Church regards the country and union, practically all the Congregational Churches country life. As a generation we are urbanand two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church in minded. The proof and causes of this fact cannot Canada. be here examined. It must stand biuntly while the consequences are set forth. The consequences of this latter Union for the rural work affected by it were far-reaching. The Very few men voluntarily and deliberately degreatest single incentive in achieving Union was vote themselves to country work. In too many the religious needs of the rapidly expanding fron- cases it is accepted as a second best because nothtier. In anticipation of Union hundreds of con- ing else offers. It is accepted with the hope that solidations took place and in the three years fol- a few years apprenticeship will open the way to lowing Union 560 amalgamations, rearrangement an urban appointment which carries with it the of fields, or uniting of charges were affected, in- hall mark of success. When this ambition is not volving 2,000 congregations. One Presbytery, realized there is a measure of secret disappoint- Kamloops, B. C., reported a saving of $2,750 per ment and a restlessness which most men strive year in Home Mission Funds. Within the area of heroically to conceal. But concealed or admitted the former Presbyterian Synod of Toronto there it reacts on the work and robs men of the joy in was a saving in money of $50,000 while 126 men service without which no man gives his best. required on a competitive basis were released for work elsewhere. In part society is to blame for this deprecation of rural life and service. The stage farmer with In spite of this improvement there still remains hayseeds in his uncombed hair is a libel that gets in the older parts of the Dominion much over- raucous laughter from cr'owds who appreciate churching in rural areas. The Union of 1925 af- very little the farmer's part in national economy. fected only three of the national churches at work "Who's Who" is a roster of city names – even in Canada. But within the United Church itself though many are farmers' sons. It is difficult to there is a natural enough reluctance on the part imagine any farm achievement that would earn a of many people to close unneeded churches, hal- man a place beside those who have achieved prolowed by'memory and long association, in the in- fessional distinction or made money. Urban newsterest of an efficiency that was not demanded in papers frequently publicize city pulpits while earlier days or encouraged by older conditions. rural utterances of equal merit go unnoticed. For this reason it is not impossible to find many hamlets of six or seven hundred people striving In part our Theological Colleges are to blame. to maintain four or five churches where only one They graduate students hopeful that they will add is needed. Eventually this anachronism will cor- lustre to the school by winning tall city pulpits. rect itself, but when it comes it must be without Among the courses they offer there is little serious too much overhead compulsion and so it will be effort at instruction in rural background or rural slow. psychology; and as little to impress students with the contribution that the farm makes to national character, culture and stability. Little pains are
PROBLEMiS OF THE RURAL CHURCH IN CANADA
taken to correct the silly heresy that country pas- Church at large. Today the average urban church torate,is a proof of mediocrity. has at its command much more adequate and In larger part than either society or the theo- steady resources than its rural neighbor.
logical college the Church itself is to blame for Today the farmer is not prosperous in Canada.
accepting these standards without vigorous pro- When taxes are paid and necessary living expenses test or effective resistance. Whatever it may have are provided for there is little left over for the held in theory in practice it has consented to such Church or any other community enterprise. Why a judgment. This is to be seen first in the scale agriculture should remain the Cinderella among of salaries in town and country. The average in industries is a question that clamantly calls for an the city has been always very much higher than answer. Of its truth there can be little doubt and anything attempted in the country. This, doubt- neither the Church nor the nation will be steadily less, is justifiable in a measure but the spread is prosperous until such adjustments are made as greater than can be justified. Because of the will secure for the farmer a fair return for his larger stipends and other advantages that urban investment risk and labor.
life offers the city exercises a selective power that It is obvious, then, that this problem cannot be tends to bring the ablest men to its pulpits. This solved by Church action alone. The economist and happens not because city posts are more difficult statesman must lend their aid before this handi- or more important but because of very definite cap can be removed. When it is corrected, as it financial and social advantages. The rural min- must be in the national interest, a new day will ister, frequently isolated, serving a community dawn for the country church. For the farmer is with a declining population of three or four small essentially religious. He is too close to the vital discouraged groups, who provide little effective processes of the world to be much impressed by a local leadership has a task far more difficult than godless humanism. His religion may be touched the average urban minister and needs, if he is to with fatalism but he knows that it is only the fool carryon, courage of the highest order. Yet the that says in his heart there is no God. If his Church is content to send its weakest men to the Church is meagerly supported it is by necessity most demanding tasks and remunerate them on and not by choice.
the lowest scale in the Church. That rural pas- Three conditions that enter into the rural torates are brief, too brief to face and solve the church problem have been briefly noted. What problems they present, is not to be wondered at. of the future? It is pleasant to be able to state in It is the direct consequence of the factors we have closing that definite progress is being made. The been considering and will not be corrected until outlook is promising. Overchurching is on the de- the Church wins back a true perspective and cline. The generation that takes up our work is creates sufficient spiritual dynamic to remove going to see some changes that the boldest prophet these abuses and inspire men to choose as Oberlin did not dare to anticipate a generation ago. The did more than a century ago. Church is slowly opening its eyes to the need and A third major handicap which touches the pros- profit of strengthening the rural base. More men perity of the rural church is the depressed status are hearing and responding to the call of the coun- of agriculture as an industry. The Church as an try without apology or the old sense of inferiority.
institution cannot carryon without suitable build- And governments are slowly learning that pros- ings, equipment and trained leadership and for perity and national greatness are not products of these a sufficient measure of financial support mass production in city factories but have their must be found in the community served or in the roots much deeper in the life of the soil.
FOLLY OF BEING POWERLESS If an electric car stands motionless on the tracks, it is nothing against the power of electricity. If an invalid has no appetite, and cannot go out of doors at night, it is no argument against things good to eat and the joy of starlit air. If a man does not know a flower by name nor a poem by heart, it is no indictment of the beauty of a rose or the charm of some poem. If we bear the name of Christ, but give no other sign of Him; if we go through the forms of Godliness, but live powerless lives, it is a thousand reproaches to us. To be powerless when Christ has all power, and we can have all we want, is an arraignment to which we can make no answer that is not self-incriminating.-Selecfed.
Service for Rural
~-.. I By the REV. LOUIS C. HARNISH, Standish, Maine IPJ…- W HERE shall we spend our honeymoon? Why should so much outside help be needed in This was one of the questions that two carrying on the work of the rural church? young people discussed as they made plans This question involves two other questions: for their wedding. One was a recent graduate of "Why not depend on local leadership?" "What a well-known college who was serving as Dean of are the special or unusual needs that ought to be Women in her Alma Mater. The other had pre- met?"
pared in a midwestern college for teaching. The In other words, what are the conditions which answer to their question came from the American make the revival of the rural churches so difficult, Friends Service Committee to whom the Sebago and why is there need of such a large amount of Lake Regional Parish of Maine had applied for volunteer work that can be done only with the help vounteer summer workers. Arrangements were of leaders from outside the community?
completed and the young bride and groom arrived The task of the Christian Church might be deon the scene. They found themselves in a colony fined as "ministering to the abundant life." Chris- of eight volunteer summer workers, housed in the tianity is a religion of culture. Ministering to hu- large parsonage at Standish. man needs in the spirit of Christ makes religion The Sebago Lake Regional Parish was one of vital. It was in this way that Jesus began the a number of so-called "Larger Parishes" founded work of the Kingdom in His day. People are led largely through the vision and energy of the Rev. from the needs they recognize to the needs that Hilda L. Ives who, in this case, served as one of are more fundamental, that is, spiritual needs. the volunteers. Other members of the colony In spite of all the advances and facilities of were a mother and daughter, two young women college graduates, and a young Harvard student. modern civilization, there are multitudes who need the ministry of health, of sympathetic understand- The mother was a woman of culture and of ex- ing, of encouragement, of wholesome recreation, perience in higher education, who served as house of social satisfactions, of culture, including music, mother. Her daughter was a teacher in the pub- beauty, literary appreciation, etc. Homes need to lic schools of a large city. be made more livable, more attractive, more com- The group lived together as a family, each par- fortable, more sanitary, and in many cases, more ticipating in the household duties. Daily confer- commodious. Parents need assistance and guid- ences were held at which reports of the preceding ance in the care of their children and in habit day were received and plans for the day discussed. training of their children from infancy. They With the aid of cars in various degrees of senility need cooperation in dealing with youth and in the group scattered over the field. Every home in family problems along many lines.
the entire region was visited and studies were This is a spiritual ministry and can never be made of the needs and problems which were re- made fully effective by any other ministry than vealed as a result of the home or individual con- that of Christ-directed lives prepared for the spe- tacts. cific task to which their energies are to be de- Partly as a result of the summer's experiment voted. It is this phase of Christian service that the Church must meet if its ministry is to be efa call for student volunteer Christian service was fective. This is true especially of underprivileged sent out through various channels. An article in sections. Nowhere is this service more needed the Boston Transcript brought many responses. than in many rural regions. More than thirty-five young people have served on the Regional Parish staff, mostly on a non-salary The lack of competent local leadership in many basis. For the past three years the whole staff rural sections..is obvious. The reasons for this. has been serving without salaries. Ordinary liv- lack are also obvious. ing expenses are provided and the staff live as a family in the Standish parsonage. Each person First: The membership of the rural churches is allowed ten dollars a month for strictly per- is for the most part pitiably small. Those who sonal use, but it is understood that no one will be constitute the membership are as a rule older peoallowed to suffer in case of emergency. ple. Many have lost their vital touch with the younger generation. There is also, to a large ex- [368 ] tent, a spirit of pessimism that weakens the in- sick. This is one of the greatest opportunities fluence of the group. for devoted service in the rural field. One member Second: At least one generation has lost out of our present staff is a registered nurse and has both in religious and cultural training. The demonstrated clearly the demand for such servyounger generation, including the young married ice and its practicability as a means of spiritual people, are not even connected with the church, service. except in a few of the more progressive parishes in very recent years. Even those who are mem- There is great need for people with home ecobers often do not take their religion very seri· nomic training, especially fitted to deal sympathetously. ically with families. Here is an opportunity to really transform homes and to instill in them the Third: Those who have the qualities and capac- religious atmosphere. Another line of service is ity for leadership have left their homes to find em- for people with nursery school and kindergarten ployment in other places. Some of these have training. The Regional Parish was instrumental become religious leaders in other churches. in securing Federal Aid for a nursery school which has been carried on for over two years in very Fourth: In rural communities people are scat- close and sympathetic relation to the leaders of tered, many living at a distance from any center, the Parish. It seems almost impossible to overmaking it inconvenient or impossible to attend estimate its value. Elementary Christian educagroup meeting with any regularity. tion must be closely related to the home and Fifth: The demands for Christian service in should begin in the earliest stages of the child's thinly populated regions of Maine and other parts life.
of New England are especially great. Facilities We recognize the value of music in the church that are available in cities and more advanced and in the home and in almost every phase of neighborhoods through schools and clinics, and neighborhood life. Whole generations have lost visiting nurse associations, through settlements out in music training. The schools have made a and civic centers are almost entirely lacking in beginning. Here is a great opportunity for the many country districts. Some "homes" are even Church. Every child that has the capacity ought worse off than those in the congested districts of to have the opportunity to learn to playa musical cities. instrument and to sing. We have done something Sixth: In most country districts there is a lack along this line, but very inadequately. There is need of, and in fact, a demand for many other of social responsibility on the part of the more lines of cultural service. A Harvard graduate privileged people. There is a tendency to regard interested in oriental pottery spent a summer in the people of lower standards of living as "no our parish teaching "coil and pat" method of good" and incapable of rehabilitation. These conditions are, in a way, similar to the making pottery. The response was astonishing. conditions that gave rise to the settlement move- There is demand for all lines of manual work ment in the cities fifty years ago; They give the' for both boys and girls. Recently our boys' Church its opportunity for the revival of the rural worker became very popular teaching the boys to church. Here is a situation that calls for the same make airplane models which could really fly.
heroic service as the foreign field. It is a service The call for volunteer service on the part of that demands the very highest qualifications of younger (and older) Christians is a reasonable character, consecration, spiritual development, one and is certainly in keeping with our Christian and technical training. It calls for the "mission- traditions. It has saved the Church in more than ary spirit" in the highest sense. But it is espe- one crisis. Why should not our young Christian cially in these sections that money is not available students and graduates give one or two years of for the employment of trained workers. How, free service in recognition of the privileges they then, can the situation be met? have enjoyed? Has the Christian Church less The experiment of the Sebago Lake Regional claim on its youth than the Mormons whose young Parish suggests one way of meeting the situation men are called upon to go out without scrip or which is, perhaps, worthy of consideration. It purse or remuneration to serve for a year or two involves, in the first place, sending out to our col- as missionaries? Has the Christian Church less leges and technical schools a call for volunteer right to such service than the State that drafts its service on the part of men and women of excep- young men for military service and training? tionally fine Christian character, technically Moreover, there are many educated Christian peotrained for some specific task. There is need for ple who are economically independent who might nurses with public health training to do educa- well practice their profession without salary.
tional work, serve as visiting nurses, and in case But how are these people to be maintained who of emergency to care temporarily for the very have not the means of their own? This leads to
370· THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD [July-August
the second suggestion which has been tried out on is a project that ought to appeal to many people of a small scale in our Sebago Lake Regional Parish. larger means.
A staff of workers can live as a group or colony, The life of a group living as a family is an inunder good leadership, on a very small allowance. teresting experiment in many ways. It calls for The funds usually provided for two salaries will the exercise of. the finest Christian virtues. It maintain a staff of four or five. There is the pos- also provides the very maximum of social and culsibility, also, in rural regions of doing a little subsistance "farming." People in the country can tural satisfactions.* often give produce where they cannot give money. Evep so, funds are likely to be needed from be- • The Director of the Sebago Lake Regional Parish will be glad nevolent minded people outside the region. This to correspond with people who wish to consider giving themselves for volunteer rural service. It Is hoped that the Parish may become a training field for those who enter such service. .
Saving ~ Whole Rural Community* The Life and Work of John Frederic Oberlin T HE biographer says: "The story of Oberlin The soil was poor, the roads were bad, th€ peo- is that of a man who stayed in a remote valley ple were sick and ignorant – the only school- and did his work so well that the world made teacher was a man whose job had been pig herda path to his door. ing but he had become too old and weak for that so they sent him to care for the children. "John Frederic Oberlin was Franco-German. He never came to America; but an American col- Oberlin took a census which showed five villege was named for him. lages, 100 families, and 400 inhabitants.
"His salary was less than that of a teacher in Service. Oberlin said in his first sermon that our grade school; put, more than a hundred years "minister" meant "-servant" and he had come to after his death, the New Standard Dictionary lists serve. He told the congregation that men serve him as a 'philanthropist.' God by doing good to their neighbors. "Dear friends, one especially please-s God by good works. "He founded the first 'infant schools' on record. To do good works one does not need to have "He was a pioneer in scientific 'agricultural ex- money. Everything that is done for the public tension.' good or to ease the burdens of man or beast, when "In an age of intense religious animositie-s both it is done for love of God, is a good work which Protestants and Catholics worshipped together in rejoices his heart." his church. "He shielded Jews from persecution, and per- Road building. "Such a work, especially," sonally indemnified them for injuries -suffered in Oberlin continued in that fi:r:st sermon, "is the rehis parish. pair and good upkeep of roads." "Although in peril of his life during the French Revolution, he was given 'honorable mention' by He raised money in the city to buy gunpowder the National Convention for his work as an edu- to blast the rocks; he asked villagers to work with cator. him and when only two or three came, he started "He was nominated for the Legion of Honor the job alone. before the fall of Napoleon, and was given this decoration by Louis XVIII. Others joined him; a good road was made; a "He was awarded a gold medal for his work in bridge built and the Valley of Stone was connected agriculture and community betterment. He re- with the outside world. ceived messages of endearment from the Tzar of Russia." The other villages asked Oberlin to help them build roads. Work in a Country Church Schoolhouses. Oberlin bought a lot for a new Oberlin went from a city to live in a small vil- school building; raised the money to buy the malage and work in a rural community. He planned terials. to remain there 30 years. He worked as a carpenter and finished the job • From "Good News-Well Told," a pamphlet published by the in two and a half months. National Christian Council of the Philippine Islands. The facts are taken from Dawson's book entitled, "John Frederic Oberlln-A Prot- Next he built schoolhouses in the other four estant Saint." villages.
SAVING A WHOLE RURAL
Sanitation. Oberlin concluded one of his ser- the villagers, continued to dig. When the trenches mons thus: were four or five feet deep he lowered young trees "My friends, remember what I have told you. into them, mixing and pressing lightly around The pestilences which from time to time have car- their roots the kinds of soil believed to be best ried half the people of this valley to their graves suited to their rapid growth. He alsO" procured are not caused by witches. They are caused by slips of a few pears, plums, cherries, and some filth. Some of you, showing love to God by a re- nuts, and turned one of his gardens into a large gard for the common welfare, have heeded what nursery. Then he waited. The mountaineers had I have asked everyone to do and are keeping your never seen trees grow so fast. At last their premises free from filth that is a public nuisance. curiosity got the better of them. Of their own Others, showing an obstinacy that fills Satan with accord, they came to express their astonishment joy, have continued in their old and detestable and to ask him how they could raise such trees ways. What shall I say, then? Shall I leave them ' for themselves."
to start another pestilence, and let them learn Next Oberlin gradually introduced scientific from the Angel of Death when that messenger agriculture. comes to their door? Indeed, they well deserve "He was interested primarily in the character such teaching; but alas, when calamity comes the of the inhabitants of the Valley of Stone. He had good must suffer with the bad. No-I must try seen a vision of perfected humanity' in the char- again to save you. I cannot command you. But acter of Jesus unfolded in the Gospels. His con- see, dear friends and compatriots, what I hold in suming passion was the desii'e to lift all men to my hand ! Yes it is money – money that came that level. But it did not take long for a man who through the sale of grain from my fields. I offer had trained himself both in medicine and theology it as prizes to our countrymen whose yards, upon to see that bodies enfeebled by a degrading desti- inspection, are found to be free from filth." tution cannot go far on the road to spiritual per- An educational system. Oberlin changed office fection. Oberlin heard a voice that said: 'I was of teacher from standard of a pig herder to that hungry, and you fed me.' He must feed these peoof highest honor in the village. He wrote new ple. 'God is immensely rich!' It is not necessary textbooks; he organized "infant schools," the first for any child of his to go hungry. Wherever there kindergartens in the world. Thus he established is a need, there is also a supply. Apply the Golden in his rural parish the best school system in Rule and the scientific method, and everyone will Europe. have enough and to spare."
A demonstration in farming. When the people Then Oberlin's wife taught the people how to saw these things, they began to believe that their spin. In one year the small Valley sold to one manufacturer about 12,000 pesos worth. leader knew what he was doing. "The mountaineers were ready to admit that "Visitors to the Valley of Stone discovered that the inhabitants were more intelligent, honest, and Oberlin could lay a stone wall, clear a road, build polite than were any other peasants they had ever a bridge, construct a school, and teach them to seen. The schools and the church had done their read and write. But there was one thing a peas- work! A distinguished Swiss patriot, who had ant, living in the eighteenth century, would not founded a ribbon factory at Basle, was attracted believe that a city man could do. He could not to the Valley of Stone by the fame of its minister. teach them anything about farming. He urged his two sons to move their ribbon fac- tory to this place. . . . "Oberlin knew this feeling on the part of the peasants. He was wise enough to respect their prejudices, where these were deeply rooted. He "The factory was located in the Valley of Stone would not start by telling them about new meth- without further ado. (In 1812, Legand's entire ods and undreamed-of possibilities. But there establishment was removed to the Valley of was nothing to prevent his setting out some trees Stone.) The prosperity of the region was then as- and plants in his own gardens and fields. sured."
"One day there was much merriment in the vil- Called to America, Oberlin decided to remain lage of Waldsbach. Two fields, noted for the bar- in his Valley. He lived there sixty years (1767- renness of their soil, belonged to the parsonage. 1826) and won the whole Valley to Christ. Prot- These fields were crossed by paths much fre- estants and Catholics worshipped together in his quented by the peasants. The passers-by noticed, church. .
on the day in question, that the minister, with the This remarkable life of a Christian preacher help of a servant, was digging deep trenches shows how effective witness may be borne to through the barren fields. What did he expect to Christ through service that helps to elevate men grow in that place? . . . intellectually, economically and socially as well "Oberlin, disregarding the sly amusement of as spiritually.
BELLINGHAM PREACHING AND PRACTICING AMONG BEDOUINS OF
Medical Work Among Arabs in Iraq* -·of/ifJ.!,;;;1====B=Y=W=.=B=EL=L=IN=G=HAM=====~lll>o- -THE vast expanse of the Shamiyah Desert, gists, geologists, also search and journey with .. which lies west of the River Euphrates in high hopes of adding a little more to our knowl- Central Mesopotamia (the Kingdom of Iraq) edge of the almost unknown.
extends far into the Nejd (in Arabia). It is There are a very few who are called and sent bordered by the Syrian Desert to the north and to heal the sick and to preach the Gospel among by all the mystery of Arabia to the south. the widely scattered tribes of Nomad Arabs.
A trip into that supposedly empty desert would Nothing can turn them aside from their objective seem rather reckless to the ordinary individual; once the "call" is upon them and so long as their a sojourn over a period of years~whatever one's trust is in the Risen Lord. To them the way is objective-would appear nothing short of mad- old yet ever new with new and exciting dangers ness. Yet people do travel there, though one often and difficulties. There are the unpleasant sensawonders what attractions those great arid wastes tions in the burning sun at midday; terrible footh.ave to offer, and why people endure untold hard- soreness, thirst, fevers, loneliness-all new with a grim unexpectedness. The aches and pains, the ships, wandering about its vast empty spaces. sufferings and anxieties experienced along the Some travelers seek something new by way of wayside in the journeyings of a missionary are adventure: they experience queer itchings in the never fully told. Nor need they ever be told, for blood known to many as wanderlust. Organized they are forgotten mid blessings derived from parties of explorers, anthropologists, archreolo- ministering to the greater sufferings of those to * Condensed from 'The EvnngeHcal Ohristian, Toronto. whom they are sent. For those sick bodies and [372 ]
MEDICAL WORK AMONG ARABS IN IRAQ
sicker souls to whom they journey know not the women; they are moving off at the sight of uscomforts and love of the Risen Saviour. single file, along a well-worn track, carrying skins of water. The water in the water-hole is dirty But come with me-or rather with us, Christ and stagnant, but oh, how precious – water is and myself-if you would know something of the Life !.How sweet on the desert! "Let us hurry desert. We will take you into its unquenchable and tell them of the sweet water of Eternal Life." life as we live it, and as it really is. It is only a thought and cannot be done, for sud- denly we think of the. unwritten laws of the desert The journey requires a little over three hours and content ourselves and follow on, not daring by either camel or horse and is just as uncom- to mention them more than once to our Arab comfortable on either. Leaving our little home of dried mud, dwarfing itself in the distance, we THE MISSIONARY IN ARAB DRE.SS sway off into the wilderness, soon to lose sight of everything one connects with mankind. There is panion, who in the roughest voice he can muster, not a structure, mechanical contrivance or human is bidding them ,move from our path.. "It's easy being within sight. On every side is sun-scorched for us to go aroun~," we protest with a feeling of desert, dry, empty, silent, uncanny and bare but pity. .But t~y h~ve scrambled aside. One has for the presence of a few clumps of camel-thorn fallen over, and we pass on trying hard not to and ourselves. The sun beats down with a pitiless hear the oaths muttered by the Arab at our side. glare, and the surface of the desert becomes so hot that it will fry an egg. 'Perspiration oozes from The tents of the other Arabs are not to be seen. every pore; a gentle breeze from the south lifts The path winds and, twists through the thorns for up particles of sand that adhere to every inch of another four miles and we cross a rift in the desour uncovered skin. Even the thought of water ert, and there, to our relief, are the tents, black as makes us thirsty, but we refrain from drinking– the lean goats moving around. Our thoughts we shall only perspire more freely if we do. Our Arab companion comforts us with an Arab prov- flash to Genesis, arid we think of Jabal, Abraham erb: "Don't drink-less thirst; don't eat-less hunger?" So we sway along to the rhythm of the and Jacob, who were plainsmen dwelling in tents. gurgling water in our waterskin. To talk is a Surely they must have used tents like these even fatigue, so we rock and think, think and sway, Oh, why were camels made to walk so oddly? It's such an uncomfortable ache we feel across the belt. The glare hurts our eyes. We wish we could talk; we wish we could drink. Oh, if only there were one shady tree where we could rest. If only we could see something new or other nomads in the distance. Why, oh why, do people waste so much water over the simple washing of hands? A thousand and one thoughts flash on through the mind-we straighten up-relax, close our eyesmeditate-. We shall not get lost, Christ is at our side and even if there is no track we are comforted somewhat for our Arab companion is with us. On and on! .
Over a ridge and dpwn into an indentation. There is more thorn now:, and there-away in the distance-camels-"El Hamdu lillah"-unto God be praise. Further ~n are flocks of sheep and goats that 'appear to be grazing on sand for we see no grass. We begin to wonder what the black hundles are that move, for from where'we sit they appear to be framed between the camels' ears. It's a water-hole-no need for the Arab to tell us. The camels smeUed it long before we crossed the ridge and had we been unconscious from thirst the camels would have taken us there even if they themselves did not want to drink. They are wonderful, in spite of being awkward at times.
But there! we see that the black bundles are
in those long ages past. There they stand in all is in God. "God is great," they mutter, and now the stark loneliness of the desert. is the time to tell them of God's greatness. They love a good story and will listen with patience; Someone is running to meet us; a shout goes but in like manner we have to listen to their up, others follow. Several barking dogs race to stories, with patience equally as great, or they will show their teeth, but the first to greet us are the not listen to our next. Usually their stories are flies. We attempt to speak. Several flies are in about the prophet Mohammed and Jimree, and our mouth, but we soon get used to it. what they lack in propriety they soon gain in amusement. The Arab has perfected the art of The Arab at our side mutters: "Allah Wakeil" telling a story; much gesticulation, gasping and (God our Trustee), and touches the camel's neck. repetition goes with everyone. The following is With a series of grunts it kneels at an alarming typical of the kind that tickle their imaginations, angle, head down and forelegs first; we hold tight and this, by the way, is believed by them to be until we get a jolt from behind and know then she true. is properly settled. We alight with relief and have the feeling that it is good to he on mother One mullah, such a good mullah he was, never was there earth. But before the feeling has rushed around a mullah like him. Never! our aching limbs we must give our greetings with "Peace," which is answered by "And on you be He was always most careful in his ablutions, and always peace." washed his hands before going to pray. And as was his ha0it he always held out his hands, always held out his A dozen or more dirty palms are thrust into hands he did. But the sparrows belonging to the mosque ours and in our pockets with impunity. The bag knew, and at prayer time always flew down to rest on his with the medicines is in the safe-keeping of the hands and cling to his fingers to drink the drops of water Arab, who freely clouts one and then another of that gathered at his finger ends, until not even a drop rethe besieging crowd. A score of questions are mained and his hands became dry. asked in as many seconds about our health and welfare, and what we have brought. We are then At the end everyone gasps, and the teller, to led to the Sheikh's tent where some measure of confirm it, will swear by his Prophet that it is not peace is assured. Greetings and questions are re- false. peated and a dusty rug is placed at our disposal. So we relax. A new dung fire is lighted right at Finally we tell our story, a guest's, privilege. our feet; coffee beans are roasted and pounded. Then comes our time for medical treatment and We ask someone to bring our water but sour milk more Gospel. These Arab nomads suffer from alis brought in a filthy container instead, with flies most every ailment it is possible to imagine-sore swimming on its surface and every inch of its ex- eyes, open sores, the only covering of which are terior covered. To brush them off would send the flies; infected wounds; cuts, burns, skin dismore diving into the beverage, so instead we blow eases and internal complaints too numerous to them to the far side and take sucking drafts of mention. Very seldom do they wash and never the milk until our thirst is quenched. If we should with soap. They are so poor that one cannot be weak in the stomach and complain about the imagine how poor until they are seen-no money, flies, we may hear comments to the effect that we no stores. They live mostly on dates and the have been given both food and drink and that meagre supply of milk from their flocks. Perhaps they were sent by' Allah. twice a year they take wool, hair and skins to the town, which may be a handred miles away, and But we have come to preach the Gospel, but preaching, in the ordinary sense of the word, there they exchange their pJoduce for clothes and cannot be done, so we shall have to win them by cheap luxuries. tact. If we can first attend to their sadly-neglected bodies they will then listen with eagerness Those diseases for which we have no cure we to the wonderful healing power of the Great Phy- commend to God in prayer and He honors the sician, for they never forget a kindness. faith of His servants. The men and boys are treated first; then we go to the women and girls. First we must have coffee and discuss the latest It is pitiful. But a half can never be told. We news; then follows a general talk. They know leave messages of comfort and promise to come why we are here but it's beyond them to know again, if God so wills. "Inshallah" they repeat why we are not afraid. Government officials visit from their hearts. them on rare occasions, but always with an escort of several armed police. After giving our treatments we return to the Sheikh and ask permission to go. He presses us "Are you not afraid of being stabbed and to stay the night, but we have had the experience robbed," they often ask, for they love talking of before. We pick off a few lice that are visible on such subjects. We tell them briefly that our trust our dress and make excuses. We return home as the. coming night chases another passing day to
HANS EGEDE-MISSIONARY TO GREENLAND
the west, to bathe in four gallons of water. If Their trust is in a dead prophet while ours is in that is not available-be patient, Brother! Christ the Risen Lord. bore our sufferings on Calvary and made one sacrifice once and for all; therefore no sacrifice is too When next we visit the spot we find the water great for us to make for Him. We think of the hole dry and the desert empty and bare. All is Arabs we have left behind, and our hearts ache. quiet. They have gone, Gone! GONE! BUT WHERE???
Hans Egede – Missionary to Greenland Last year was the 250th anniversary of Hans Egede's birth. We are indebted to Dr. O. M. Norlie of Luther College, and to the News Bulletin of the National Lutheran Church for the following sketch of this interesting and inspiring Lutheran missionary of long ago.
H ANS EGEDE, the Apostle to Greenland, Gardar, Greenland. Then, for a long and dreary was born January 31, 1686, at Senjen, stretch of over three hundred years, nothing is Northern Norway, 250 years ago. This said about Greenland.
busy world will do well to pause a moment to It was Hans Egede who brought the question up listen to a brief tale about his life and labors. He again. A graduate of the University of Copenwas a hero and saint whose monument is the hagen at 21, he at once married and accepted a ChuroCh of Greenland, of which every person in pastorate in the fishing town of Vaagan, Lofoten Greenland, except two, is a baptized member. Next to Australia, Greenland is the largest island Islands, Norway. While there he read about the in the world. It is more than one-fourth as large Greenland settlements and the Church that had as the United States. It is the most northern once been planted on that remote island. He beland in the world, and perhaps the coldest, for its gan to think about it and to talk about it, and, interior is covered with an immense shield of ice after much careful and prayerful consideration rising from 4,000 feet to 11,000 feet. Its mon- concluded that he ought to go there as a missionstrous fjords discharge numberless icebergs, some ary to his countrymen. He laid the matter beof them ten miles long and a mile or more deep. fore the bishops of Trondheim and of Bergen, but The habitable portion is a thin fringe along the their replies, which were delayed a whole year, southwestern and the southeastern coasts, an area were just honeyed words. His parishioners at first thought his views interesting, then they proof 46,740 miles, or 5% of the total island. tested, later became angry and finally regarded him as deranged. His wife, Gertrude Rask of The first settlers in Greenland were the ancient Bergen, at first did not share with him his desire Norsemen. GunnbjflSrn, Ulf Krage's son, the sages to go to such a desolate and unknown field, but say, was driven by a storm to the coast of Green- through prayer she became convinced that God land in 876 and wintered there. Erik the Red willed it and never afterwards wavered in het made a settlement there in 983, and called the support of him. To this day she is reckoned as land Greenland, hoping to attract settlers. At one of the noblest missionaries in all the annals one time there were six thousand Norsemen liv- of nineteen hundred years of mission work.
ing there. In 1715, Egede wrote a pamphlet defending his In 999, King Olaf Trygvasson of Norway sent idea as to the need of mission work in Greenland and resigned from his pastorate in order to arouse Leif Erikson to Greenland to Christianize it. In- interest for the mission cause. People regarded cidentally he made a voyage of discovery and him as a madman. Church people would not listen found Vinland, and his name is best known as the to him anymore. He turned to the merchants. discoverer of America in 1000. In the Norse He went to Bergen to enlist the merchants in an sagas and the Vatican archives are found occa- expedition of trade with Greenland. It was all sional notices of the Church which Leif established in vain for they dared not make the venture. in Greenland. Thus, in 1112, Pope Paschal II ap- Now, fortunately, the King of Denmark-Norway, pointed Eric Knutsson Bishop of Greenland. In Frederick IV, had started a mission college and 1121, Bishop Eric left Iceland for Vinland. The had sent two missionaries, the German Pi~tists bishops after him are mentioned in the Icelandic Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau, to be missionaries vellums by name in regular succession down to among the Tamils around the Danish trading set- 1409. In a letter of Pope Alexander VI, dated tlement at Tranquebar, South India. The sending 1492, the year of Columbus' discovery of America, of these two to India is considered as the beginthe sad condition of neglected Greenland is reviewed and Matthias is appointed Bishop of
ning of modern Protestant missions. Egede be- ing venture rather than a missionary enter,prise, took himself to the King, who at first refused to and for a year they had not been able to do any consider the Greenland project, but later prom- trading with the natives. In fact, they could not ised to give an annual amount of money to it and even buy provisions and as their supplies were gave Egede public endorsement. With this back- .getting dangerously low, were firmly determined ing, Egede began to get a more respectful hear- to leave for home on a certain day. But, on the ing and by 1721, after thirteen years of agitation, day set for leaving Greenland, three Norwegian he had a trading-colonizing company organized boats came into sight. They brought supplies and and a ship purchased for the voyage. With his reinforcements, and took home such of the colfamily and forty men on board he set sail from onists as were discontented. And so the work Bergen on May 3, 1721, and arrived off the south- went on. At length through the children Egede west coast of Greenland on July 3, 1721, two was permitted to do some small acts of kindness months later. As the natives seemed fearful and among the Eskimos. Fear of him waned and he fled at the approach of the newcomers, he occupied became a welcome guest. He was a hard student a little island off the coast, which he called and made good progress in their language and HaabetsjiS (Island of Hope). This island was to began to understand their ways. At last, on Janbe his headquarters for seven years. uary 10, 1724, he gathered some seventy of them in one of the larger houses and for the first time The Greenlanders, Egede found to be, I).ot de- preached to them in their own language. scendants of the old Norsemen, but an Indian tribe called Innuits or Eskimos. The Norsemen Four years later Egede moved his colony from had disappeared, and their sixteen large churches the little island to the mainland and named the and their houses were all gone. As stated, the new station Godthaab (Good Hope). It is still natives were timid and afraid and unapproach- one of the chief towns of Greenland and the seat able. They had had experience with strange of the Greenland Lutheran Theological Seminary, ships, with whalers and merchantmen who had which trains the native ministry of today. Other often come to rob and kill as well as to barter. stations were added as time went on: one at On one occasion, according to Egede's "Dagbog" Christianshaab in 1734 by Hans Egede, several (Daybook) a whaler came and set fire to an by his son, Paul, later on, as at Frederikshaab in Eskimo village, came again the next year and re- 1742, at J akobshavn in 1749, at Claushavn in peated the crime. No wonder they were afraid 1752. The king gave Hans Egede the title of of Egede and fled to the hillsides when he came Bishop of Greenland, later applied to his son, Paul ashore. In fact, the first year he was on the Island Egeqe, and other successors. of Hope the village on the mainland near by was emptied of its inhabitants. It was mainly through But though Egede had won the confidence of his children, Paul and Nils and the two daughters, the Eskimos, there were many hardships. Buildwho played with the Eskimo children, that ing material and many kinds of food had to be imfriendly relations were gradually established. ported from Europe. There was often danger of starvation and real famine. There was sickness Egede set to work to learn the language, which and even plague. The opposition from the native was not then written. He started to translate the priesthood was deep-rooted. Some of the colonists catechism and portions of the Bible into their and traders that had come over were not morally tongue. It was a difficult undertaking, for their what they should be. In 1727 the trading comvocabulary was very meager. How, for example, pany which Egede had organized dissolved, as it could he render "Lamb of God" to a people who was not a paying venture. This was a hard blow, had never seen a lamb and had no word for it in but Egede asked his king in· faith to send him their language? There were other obstacles too. more workers, and he sent him two new mission- The native priests did not welcome the new re- aries, Ole Lange and Heinrich Milzong. In 1731 ligion. The people, like ignorant heathen else- a ship came to port with the sad news that Fredwhere in the world, were prone to superstitious erick IV, the friend of missions, both in "Greenbeliefs and practices. One superstition was that land's icy mountains" and· on "India's coral sickness was due to witchcraft. So, when some strands," was dead. Egede got orders to return one got sick, the thing to do was to find the witch to Norway. The royal support was withdrawn. that was causing the trouble. Usually some poor, But the Greenlanders urged him to stay, and Gerhelpless old woman was seized, tortured to death, trude, his wife, agreed with him that it was their her heart taken out, her body sawed to bits and duty. So they stayed on. The new king, Christhrown into the waves of the sea. There was tian VI, joined the Pietist movement and became no hope of curing a sickness until this had been friendly to the mission cause. Count Zinzendorf done. Such superstitions died hard. was present at his coronation and witnessed the baptism of two Greenland boys that Egede had Again, the expedition had been at base a trad-
HANS EGEDE-MISSIONARY 1'0 GREENLAND
sent to Denmark to be trained. This gave Zin- and enlightened people, due to the solid foundazendorf an idea, which his Church, the Moravian Brethren, then and there began to .put into action. tions laid by Hans Egede and his son, Paul. The idea was to bring the Gospel to the heathen. Zinzendorf pleaded with King Christian VI to When Hans Egede came back to Norway he was support Egede, and from then on Christian was a staunch friend of the Greenland mission. Zinzen- engaged in speaking about the work of his misdorf went a step further. He himself would send missionaries to Greenland to help out. He sent sion. The University of Copenhagen established three good men to start with who made their first station and headquarters at a place they called a Greenland Seminary and made" him the director New Herrnhut, some distance north of Godthaab. Strange to say, their coming was in many ways a of it, a position he held until 1747, when he asked hindrance to Egede's work, for they opposed him, notwithstanding that he was always kindly and to be relieved. In his retirement he lived at Stubhelpful towards them. The worst hardship that befell the mission during Hans Egede's stay was bekj~bing on the little island of Falster, Denmark. the smallpox plague in 1735. A boy came down with this dread disease, which spread rapidly from There he died on November 5, 1758, at seventyhut to hut and laid waste whole villages so that there was not a man left to bury the dead. Some two and was buried beside his dear wife in the three thousand died of the scourge, including Gertrude Rask Egede, the beloved and faithful Nikolai Cemetery. The Eskimos to this day call wife of Hans. Then, at her death, broken down by untiring labors and sorrow, he asked that he him the "Unforgettable Father." " might return to his homeland for a season of rest. He preached his farewell sermon on July 28, 1736, A DOCTOR'S NIGHT AT FATEHPUR* vona.mth.e. s.a.d"text Isaiah 40: 4-"1 have labored in (By one who sleeps on the Hospital roof) But had he labored in vain? Although after The birds have hushed their sweetest bedtime songs, fifteen years of work he had baptized only twenty For dusk has quickly faded into night. people, he had prepared the soil and had /'lown much good seed that was to bear abundant fruit. The monkeys, crooning, moaning in the trees, Said one native to him: "You have done for us Are soon to hush, until the break of light. what none of our own would have done. You have stayed by us in our sickness and fed us out of A traveler on his way to cheer of home, your store. You have buried our dead who other- Goes singing down the now-deserted road. wise would not have received burial and would have been devoured by dogs and ravens and foxes. Anon come jingling bells and trotting hoofs- But above all you have told us about God and the An ekka driver clicking-on his load. Saviour and Heaven, so that we can die in joy and have a sure hope of a better life in the world When time has come for sleep, a jackal howls, to come." And then the pack let out blood-curdling cries His work was continued by his son Paul Egede, 'Til all the dogs awake and start to bark; who spoke the Eskimo like a native and was a It seems as though they echo round the skies. truly great linguist and administrator. He wrote in the Eskimo language a dictionary, a grammar, And from the distance comes the rhythmic drum Luther's Catechism, the New Testament, the Of tom-toms, of some Hindu wedding feast. Church Book. He extended the missions along the whole west coast of Greenland over one thou- And long into the night their frenzied beats sand miles. The Church in Greenland has ever Grow faster, when all else from sound has ceased. since been a living Church, although like the churches in the homeland it was at low ebb dur- Then wearied from their play, 'tis silent night ing the period of Rationalism. The first heathen And all sleep on, but those who guard the townin Greenland to be baptized, a Protestant, was in 1725, the last was in 1856. Heathenism has been The chaukidars, who call abruptly out, driven from the land. They are a God-fearing While others answer, walking up and down.
And then-sometimes-that sleep disturbing cry: "Oh, chaukidar, oh, come unlock the gate,"
And heavy wheels come crunching down the path. The prodded oxen stop, and then I wait.
And muffled voices soon are heard below, The lights flash out, with tasks soon under way, Inevitable footsteps to my roof Of nurse who calls, "A patient's come to stay."
And then below, the night becomes as day, And we all work to save that woman's life, The baby's too, if haply it still lives 'Spite villagers with ignorance so rife.
And just before the dawn there comes a lull, The woman resting, sleeping after pain; Before the birds their morning chatter start, There's stillness and some peaceful sleep again.
Upon my sleep there breaks a glorious hymn; It is the nurses at their start of day.
"So soon, another day in which to live?" Oh yes, to praise and pray, and work and play. GERTRUDE J. SMITH, M.D.
• From The Missionary lAnk, New York.
Martyrs of
1- 1Ilf By the REV. MURDOCH MacKINNON, D.D. Il~- THREE generations ago Erromanga, a large tions of war. Now we have built a vessel to carry island in the South Seas, was in the grip of the Word of Life, a more excellent thing, and no heathenism. Domestic life was practically vessel has ever been built in this historic dockyard unknown; the tribes were at war, and victories with more pleasure than John Williams V."
were celebrated by public feasts at which the The report of this happy event stated that as bodies of captives were served as a delicacy. But the vessel struck the water the Scottish pipers, the cries of little children and the groans of without direction beforehand, struck up the Scot-'
strangled widows were wafted hither by the warm tish air, "Off to the Isles," amid a hearty burst of breezes from the South, and found response from cheers.
the heart of Christendom. Eighty years ago Mr. and Mrs. George Gordon "I am received with the utmost respect," writes arrived at Erromanga on the mission vessel, the Dr. H. A. Robertson, in one of his recent reports. John Williams, and for upwards of four years "Peace and goodwill prevail all over this fair they lived and worked there. Three months later, isle." he had translated the Ten Commandments. Mrs.
The secret of this change may be deciphered Gordon began by teaching two small boys, who from a tablet erected within "The Martyrs' Me- afterwards became faithful Christian teachers. morial Church," Erromanga. A part of the in- Kindness and unselfishness never yet failed to scription reads thus: disclose hidden worth in the human heart. The younger people listened to the story of Jesus and SACRED TO THE MEMORY the love of God; the old people heard of the cross of the Missionaries who died on this Island of Calvary and the Home of "many mansions." They were intensely interested, and the work GEORGE N. GORDON seemed to prosper. ELLEN C. GORDON But heathenism dies hard, especiaiIy when the Killed by the people of Unepang greed of civilized men allies itself with it. The May 20th, 1861 cruelties and falsehoods of the sandalwood traders JAMES D. GORDON. outstripped anything that benighted Erromanga Killed at Potnuma, March 7th, 1872 could produce. The influence of the missionary tended to make the dishonesty of the trading more difficult. Hence the trader prejudiced the people George N. Gordon and his devoted wife were against Mr. Gordon, saying, "He brought the the first European missionaries to live on Erro- measles to you for did he not tell you that God's manga and to John Williams belongs the honor judgment was coming? He also caused the earth- of having been the first to suffer martyrdom quake and your other misfortunes."
there. He had carried on successful work for The poison had the desired effect. A plot was over twenty years in other islands of the South laid and speedily executed by nine savages, Lovo, Pacific, but no sooner had he and his friend Harris a chief, being party to it. What are one unsus- landed on Erromanga than the murderous people pecting couple against Erromangans with toma- fell on them. Thus they consecrated the island hawks. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon sleep on the banks with their blood, and the little streamlet flowing of the Williams River but no heathen celebration, red that day spoke of peace to the dusky sons of no cannibal feast disturb their dreams. The the South. Christian young men who laid them to rest vowed The launching of John Williams V at Grange- that they would win Erromanga for Christ or mouth, England, a few years ago, forms a sig- perish with their missionaries in the attempt. .
nificant commentary on the saying that "the blood The mother of George Gordon, of Alberton, of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." A rep- Prince Edward Island, had still another son, and resentative of the shipbuilding company said: the heroic spirit which she communicated to her "We have built vessels for commerce, for pleas- children was not crushed. By the grace of God ure, and, I regret to say, vessels to carry muni- she was ready to give this other son to Christ in [378 ]
SIXTY YEARS IN THE CONGO BELGE
so great a cause. J ames Gordon was preparing to them and the Spirit of God worked directly ort for the ministry, and when he heard of his broth- their hearts. He who called Williams called his er's death, he said, "Now it is my turn, I must successors. The Gordon brothers were nature's go." He sailed from Halifax on the famous Mis- noblemen, tall, handsome, athletic. They were sion ship, Dayspring, and in 1864 arrived at the men of intellectual power, with a genius for lanscene of his brother's labors and martyrdom. He guages. They were eloquent, persistent, fervent. gave himself to the work with enthusiasm, pre- They were men of prayer. senting the Gospel to the people in its simplicity and power. Progress was evident on every hand, The Church lives by spiritual conquest, and the and the Word that was sown in weakness was be- Gordons were bent on conquest in the name of the ing raised in power. But the spirit of heathenism Christ and in the power of the Cross. Their death was not yet appeased. It called for another vic- seemed premature and the sacrifice great, but tim. Disease broke out and the missionary was Erromanga is now a Christian island and today again blamed. Nerimpaw's two children died sends out missionaries. The heart of our people after Gordon had given them medicine. (The was stirred and the church at home was wakened hundreds of other children whom he treated, re- out of sleep. covered.) Enough! While he was translating the Acts, and had reached the account of Ste- The foreign missionary not only extends the phen's martyrdom, Nerimpaw's tom a haw k Church abroad, but also is used to save the Church plunged deep into his head, and he too "fell at home. In an age when the world is too much asleep." in evidence, it is inspiriting to hear of these brothers, who gave themselves to the service of There is nothing that calls forth the heroic Christ for the sake of redeeming men. The one spirit like a manifestation of heroism. The Gor- was the first missionary to live, and the other the dons had heard of Williams and as growing boys last martyr to die, on Erromanga. The Church had listened to the voice of John Geddie. The re- that gave the Gordons has other heroes awaiting ports of his work in Aneityum appealed strongly the call of the Master. The Christ who has saved Erromanga can save the world.
Sixty Years in the Congo BeIge By the REV. THOMAS MOODY Missionary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society AFTER Henry M. Stanley crossed equatorial Congo, with one thousand mISSIOnaries superin- tending the work. The church members in all .L'. Africa and came out at Bauana in August, Belgian Congo number over 250,000, in addition 1877, the English Baptist missionaries to Christians under instruction who number 275,- started for the Congo in 1878. The missionaries 035. More than ten thousand village schools enof many other societies have also entered until roll over 350,000 boys and girls. they have practically occupied the Belgian Congo Many of the mission stations have had very for Christ. great blessings. Sona Bata, of the American Bap- From that day to this the progress of the work tist Foreign Mission Society, where I spent the last few years, was opened in 1890. After several has been wonderfully blessed of God. The mission- revivals we had an exceptional turning to God of aries have gone in with the idea of preaching the the natives in 1921 in which for ten years in suc- Gospel of Christ to the natives and giving them cession over a thousand people were baptized each the Word of God in their own tongue as soon as year and were received into the church on confesit was possible. As a result today the Christian sion of faith. At present there are 10',309 memchurches are in every part of the Belgian Congo, bers connected with this station, with 303 village a large number being self-supporting, self-propa- schools and 7,874 pupils. Besides the church gating, self-sustaining, indigenous churches and boarding school there is a school for medical aswith schools, from the common bush school to the sistants and nurses. The Sona Bata field covers schools for the preparation of teachers and 10,000 square miles with 100,000 people and 2,000 preachers to carry on the work. A large amount villages. We have preached the Gospel in one of the work is done entirely by the African teach- half of their villages but the other 1,000 we have ers and preachers, the oversight of the mission- not entered. When I went out in 1890, there were aries, often being limited to one or two visits a less than 5,000 church members in all the Belgian year to the churches in charge of the natives. Congo and now they number 250,000.
At present there are some forty different Protestant missionary societies working in Belgian
GIFT REVEALS THE GIVER-A
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 16.
This verse tells of the greatest Gift the world has ever known. Other passages from God's Word march in procession before the mind : "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, b.ecause that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 1 John 4: 9.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15: 13.
"Without shedding of blood is no remission." Hebrews 9: 22. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him."
Hebrews 7: 25. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, . . . he hath declared him."
John 1: 18.
The mind clings to the thought, God's Gift, even Jesus, reveals God to me; then is it not true that my gifts reveal me to God?
Jesus, God's Gift, reveals to the human heart far more of God than mere paper and ink can ever convey. Four characteristics of God the Father are definitely revealed in His Gift and are all suggested in the words of John 3: 16.
1. GOD'S GIFT REVEALS GOD'S LOVE "GOD SO LOVED . • . that he gave his only begotten Son." "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
2. GOD'S GIFT REVEALS GOD'S VISION "God so loved THE WORLD that he gave his only begotten Son." "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
3. GOD'S GIFT REVEALS GOD'S WISDOM "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him SHOULD NOT PERISH." "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
4. GOD'S GIFT REVEALS GOD'S POWER "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in hi1n should not perish, but HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."
If Jesus, the Gift of God, reveals to us God's love for us, God's vision of the needy world, God's wisdom in providing a way of escape from sin, and God's power to save, surely our gifts also reveal us to God.
Take a. backward look at your gifts of the past year, to test yourself by them. Center your thoughts on the gifts which you plan to bring in the coming year as gifts to Him, week by week and month by month. Ask yourself: What do my gifts reveal of my love for Him who gave all for me, of my vision of this sin-stained world, of my knowledge of the way of salvation, and of my faith in God's power through Christ to save all men everywhere. If you are not sure that the revelation made through your gifts is in line with what you feel in your heart, will you sacrifice even more, until you are confident that, seeing the gifts, God will know the depth of your love. Then you will know the secret which Jesus sought to disclose, but which has been kept from many of us: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." -Adapted from Janie McCutchen, in "The Presbyterian Survey."
[380 ]
A Brahman Christian-Nehemiah
The Father of the Author of Uln the Secret of His Presence"
I T WAS a great victory for the Christian mis- the fame of Pandit Goreh, had an interview with sions when Nilakanta Sastri, the Indian pandit him at Benares and took him to Europe as his and scholar, abandoned the Brahmanic reli- tutor in 1854. ,In England, the Goreh was allowed gion of his forefathers and accepted Jesus Christ. an audience with Queen Victoria along with the Nilakanta was born on February 8, 1825, in a Maharajah. He also attended theological lectures village near Jhansi. He belonged to a high class at Islington. This stay brought him into contact konkan family and his father, though born in with some of the great men of the Church of Eng- Poona, migrated early to the north. Soon after land and he had the privilege of meeting with Prof.
Nilakanta's birth the family moved on to Benares, Max Muller at Oxford.
the citadel of Hinduism. Here Goreh was brought For thirteen years Goreh worked as Headmas- up in the lap of luxury as an uncle became Dewan ter of a school under the Church Missionary So- of a State and he was given the best of education ciety., In 1861 he was ordained a Deacon and at that time. He studied Sanscrit under learned sent to start a mission at Mhow in Central India Shastris, specializing in the Vedas, the Nyaya and and later to Chanda in Central Provinces. At grammar. He had a strong prejudice against Cawnpore he came in touch with the Brahmo Christianity as he thought it a "religion fitted for leader, Keshub Chandra Sen, and in the course ignorant Mlechchas only." But Goreh began an of discussion discovered to his surprise that earnest study of the Bible to pick holes in it and Keshub had not read books on the evidences of strengthen his position as a st,aunch advocate of Christian faith. This interview made Goreh Hinduism. The Sermon on the Mount captivated take a special interest in Brahmo Movement and him and drew him near to Christ. His interest write pamphlets to win them over to the Christian steadily grew and contact with missionaries con- faith. He criticized Brahmo Movement as a com- vinced him that Christ's religion is the only satis- promise between Hinduism and Christianity.
fying faith. His father and uncle implored him In 1883 Goreh wrote his important work in not to desert them and their religion, but Nila- Marathi entitled, Is there any proof that Chris- kanta stood firm in his conviction. He challenged tianity is a divl~nely given religion? to meet cer- the pandits of Benares to debate the truth of the tain religious difficulty of Pandita Ramabai who Gospel of Christ. Though his deep affection for was not then a Christian. Later he published a his father made him hesitate to embrace Chris- series of his lectures entitled, Christianity not of tian religion, he finally was baptized on March man but of God. Among his many other publica- 14, 1848, by the Rev. Robert Hawes at Jaunpur tions, and one of the most useful to missionaries, and was given the Christian name of Nehemiah. was-The genuineness of the Holy Gospels. His It was not easy to bring his wife to the new health gradually failed and he passed on to his faith. After his baptism she was supposed to be Rest on October 29, 1895, at the age of 70. It widowed and was kept in privacy. Later, by great has been remarked of him, "The intensed devotion efforts, the husband and wife were brought to- and self-denial of the Brahman missionary, his gether though she remained Hindu for some time. genuine humility and modesty, as well as his pro- Finally, she saw the light revealed in Christ and found erudition, set off the eternal mode of his was baptized with their only daughter, Ellen life, his poverty, his emaciated look, his plain Lakshmi, shortly after joining the Goreh Church. mendicant-like attire-made him to be regarded Unfortunately the mother died soon, leaving the by the people generally, European and Indian, as orphan girl who was the father's pride and joy. a Sadhu, the beau ideal of a Christian missionary."
This daughter has immortalized her name through By his example, and the vigor and persistency her great hymn, "In the Secret of His Presence." of his advocacy of the Christian Gospel, he was She passed away recently at Cawnpore, after a able to convert several men who afterwards be- long period of distinguished service in the cause came his colleagues in the great task. Christian of Christ. evangelism to be truly effective and fruitful in Nehemiah Goreh was an excellent writer and our present day calls for Christian Indians of a used his profound knowledge in Sanscrit in trans- rare type like Nehemiah Goreh with intense de- lating some work to justify the ways of Christ to votion, deep conviction and self-denial.
his fellow-countrymen. Maharaj Duleep Singh, By T. D., in "The National Missionary himself a convert to the Christian faith, heard of Intelligencer."
[ 381 ]
Ways of
'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO The Place of Missionary Edu- ary interest and motivations that outlook. Circulation of the right sort cation in Church Enterprise will withstand winds of criticism of books will help. and droughts of spiritual aspira- Shall missionary education be tion. There is a lack of qualified teachers integrated into religious educa- of missionary education. Three things tion? "This," says Bulletin Dr. T. H. P. Sailer and a com- are needed by these teachers: Mis- No. 5 of the Professional Ad- mittee consisting of Leila Bag- sionary information, knowledge of visory Section on Missionary ley, Genevieve Brown, S. F. missions, and contagious missionary Education of the International Mack and J. L. Lobingier (chair- interest. A s'U!bje'ct like missions Council of Religious Education, man) have gathered together the needs not only the material that can "is a perennial subject." Among results of the discussion of the be found in the teacher's quarterly, the bulletins of this Section, topic at a meeting of the Profes- but a broad background. Few teachprevious issues of which dealing sional Advisory Section, in Chi- ers have this. Methods other than with specific, interdenomina- cago, and supplemented them those in Sunday school classes and tional methods have been re- with suitable new material for group meetings will be needed. . . . viewed in this Department, the the pamphlet. Here are a few present one is far and away the high lights indicative of the Without leaders of this type missionmost comprehensive and schol- motif, method, trend and sub- ary education will be integrated only arly and deserves careful study ject matter: in name but not in fact. The most on the part of pastors, Sunday ideal curriculum on paper will be deschool superintendents and de- The principal aim of education is vitalized if presented in a perfuncpartmental heads, as well as tory way. Therefore the first move leaders in men's and women's to expand our interests and help us should be to concentrate on securing organizations in the local church leaders and improving their quality. and denominational executive to see things in a broader perspective. boards. It goes deeper than any Has missionary education a real mere "ways of working"-down Missionary education should not seem contribution to make to work that is to the undergirding religious already being done in religious eduand educational principles which to be a competitor with issues that cation? Let us not seek to introduce render mere patterns secondary are more immediately important, but missionary applications, illustrations and relatively inconsequential in and talks because missions must be that the trained person can work an aid in broadening our vision so gotten in somehow, but because it out his own methods on any really enriches experience. Chrisgiven subject – whether it be that we shall see thin~s more as God tianity is essentially a world religion "Rural Missions" or "The Mos- sees them. The essential thing that . . . and is needed by the whole lem World." world. . . . The material should not missionary education contributes to be lugged in by the ears but help to The claims of this new Bul- add significance. . . . The five min-' letin to citation in a methods religious education is a sense of uni- utes a Sunday or 20 minutes a month department are valid in that talks to a whole department or school very fact and also that in its versality, with a knowledge of the should not seek merely to add variety latter portion it dips deeply into or furnish information, but to make specifics for every department needs of all mankind and a growing religious education more vital by supof church endeavor. It is a plying the elements that are needed large-sized, twenty -three – page participation in the meeting of those but too frequently omitted. pamphlet that will challenge the understanding of simple folk as needs. . . . Missionary education The new courses of study for the well as the most intellectual church school are inserting specifically workers who desire to dig more rests on the assumption that Chris- missionary lessons or short units. deeply and discriminatingly into tianity has something of supreme . . . The present arrangement offers the human soil of all age inter- a great opportunity. Well qualified ests in order to implant mission- value for all mankind, and that this teachers can arouse such interest in the subject that outside work will be will not be transmitted without spe- undertaken. This may lead to church schools of missions, independent dis- cial effort. It holds that Christianity cussion groups on missions, campaigns of missionary reading and special is a universal and not merely a na- projects. The only way to secure time is to make the subject so attractive tional or racial religion, that what- that people will give time.
ever efforts are worth making to pro- The best way to deal with such a situation (where the atmosphere of vide religious education for ourselves local churches is depressing to the missionary spirit) may be to trans- and our communities are equally de- plant individuals temporarily to other climates such as summer conferences sirable for other groups throughout where they mary catch the heOJ1Jenly the world. . . . Without the knowl- edge of Christ for personal guidance or social cooperation, their (the ma- jority of needy mankind) welfare be- comes a major concern of a Kingdom- centered curriculum. – The attitude of the pastor and other church leaders will be very important (in securing an adequate ideal of a basis for this new curriculum). The issue may be faced in meetings and discussion groups. Delegates may be sent to summer conferences and in- stitutions where they will get a larger [382 ]
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
VtstOn. Where this is not possible it 3. Do I carry these brotherly Methods Briefs for Primary may be best to concentrate on a small, ideals into my daily rela- Teaching select group. Under these conditions tionships with people of the temperature may be raised as it other racial, national and Mexico: On table covered would not be for the staid majority. social groups? with serape or other colorful Manifestly, missionary education 4. Am I adding an intimate woven scarf, arrange pottery, will never be effectively integrated knowledge of a race or unless people will bestow brains and people to my intellectual plain or painted gourds, clay pains on the process. At the founda- assets each year? tion of the whole matter must be the hats used as pin trays, cans of effort to bring people to care deeply 5. Do I feel that other people string beans, Mexican pictures for the thorough integration of mis- have a contribution to cut from magazines, etc. Make sionary education. Churches which make to my life, or do I posters of cut-out pictures to iltry to operate machinery without suffi- feel that missions implies lustrate talks. Tell how the rovcient steam will surely be disap- a one-way relationship? ing vegetable pickers live in povpointed. erty and squalor, children- 6. Does my conception of home working hard like their elders- Then follow "Practical appli- missions inc 1u d e the do not even know the meaning cations of integration for church Christian solution of such of "home." Adapt stories from organizations"; some "Practical problems of our national "The Laughingest Lady," by questions for discussion" such life as social and economic Elinor Cowan Stone; "From as: the use of costumes, curios, justice, race relations and Every Tribe and Nation," by stunts, etc., for entertainment or the alcohol problem? Belle M. Brain (using the story, decorative purposes, employ- "Dona Carmen, a Living Episment of conventional methods, 7. Am I endeavoring to secure tle") and denominational leaflets outlining a year's programs for for missionary education on the subject. Have the chila women's association so as to its normal, integral place dren cut small adobe houses integrate their work into the in the worship, the in- from bogus paper and make a whole program, best plans for struction, the offerings Mexican village on sand table or linking up the Sunday school, and the activities of all in window, adding trees, a donetc. ; "factors essential to in- departments of the local key, chickens and children. Posttegration"; some practical cur- church life? ers may be made of children riculum suggestions as to form, feeding donkeys or chickens, material and methods; "Over- 8. Am I increasingly seeing picking beans or carrying hamhead counsel and cooperation"; and using opportunities pers of them, and donkeys bear- "Integration from the viewpoint for the disseminating of ing panniers loaded with beans. of the denominational program" ; missionary knowledge and Women may be making pottery. questions proposed to executive interest through the loan- Have offering taken up by darkboards of the Presbyterian, the ing of missionary books haired boy in white suit with Congregational and Christian, and magazines, the choice wide, bright sash tied over the United Lutheran and the of hymns at meetings shoulder and under arm, the Methodist Episcopal churches where I preside, the em- gifts being received in highare given with summaries of the phasis in my pub lie crowned beach hat with little replies; and a very concrete prayers, the collecting and balls on edge of wide brim. He specific section devoted to plans sharing of pictures, sto- may be assisted by girl with for children's, young people's ries, pageants, p I a y s, straight black hair, wearing red and adults' programs in mission- curios and costumes? or yellow dress and bright scarf ary education. This last is well tied over hair. Chicken sandworth the price of the pamphlet, 9. Have I read at least one wiches, small servings of string which is only 25 cents. Send book the past year in the beans with oil dressing, sliced orders to Miss Leila Bagley, 810 general field of missions? hard-cooked eggs or sman bowls Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. of chile con carne, both of the 10. If I work with children or latter served with crackers, may Measuring Myself-A Mission- young people have I read be used as refreshments. "Jesus ary Efficiency Test at least one book on mis- Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the sions in my specific field? Little Children of the World" 1. Do I have thoroughly Chris- are appropriate songs. tian motives for my mis- 11. Am I sharing my resources sionary activities? Are with the missionary cause Indians: Give local color with they definitely based on in a systematic manner? pottery, baskets, beads, mocca- love for God and love for sins, tiny totem poles, etc., ar- man? 12. Have I made any actual con- ranged on table covered with tribution to the cause of Indian blanket, and with bright 2. Am I cherishing more broth- missions during the past posters made from cut-out pic- erly ide a I s concerning year other than my finan- tures. Feathered headdresses other peoples each year? cial contribution? may be made by the children Can I see the worth of the from craft paper or even com- individual regardless of -United Christian Mission- his race or culture? ary Society Leaflet.
mon brown wrapping paper, from "The World's Children for for Indian and South American Jesus." Refreshments of pop- studies (which were used in the ornamenting with feathers and corn balls or plain popcorn, United Study Course last year) drawings with colored crayons. candy in shape of pumpkins or may be had from denominational Large or small wigwams can be grains of corn. One may some- missionary literature headquarmade from the same paper. times find little candy turkeys. ters or the Missionary Education Color long strips of paper first Movement, 150 Fifth Ave., yellow, then orange, then brown South America: Keynote, a N. Y., at 75 cents each. "Stories (several children working on large map of country with inter- South of the Equator" will be same strip), making all strokes found very helpful. lacing letters, A, B, C, for Arin same direction. Soak paper gentina, Bra z i I and Chili, Groups not adhering to the mounted down front. Leader current United Study courses two or three minutes in water, may form their plans from such open carefully over bucket, drain points out location and tells suggestions as the foregoing; off water and crumple between something about each of three while workers using the new fingers as fine as possible. countries, then says she has a Spread flat on folded news- bag of gifts from South Amer- topics of "Rural America" and papers, coat with orange shellac, ica from which the children, "The Moslem World," noting the coming up one at a time, may principles involved, may be aided using large, flat bristle brushes select something. For this a in working out their presentawhich may be cleaned in alcohol, going-away bag has previously tions to little folks at the age the shellac being diluted with been paeked with a bone button, when eye-gate, ear-gate and a-lcohol if too thick. When dried bone-handled toothbrush, leather hand must be made teammates. coin purse, little red shoe, billthis paper looks and feels like fold, band from sewing machine, The suggestions are from skin and makes a fine wigwam. leather-covered boo k, jacket, Annye L. Allison's work among Large one very effective made chipped dried bee f, gelatin, juniors. over framework of poles, tied together at top and fastened to coffee, chocolate, cocoa, Chili The outlines raise the quesfloor. Fasten paper securely to pepper, mixed spices, orange, tions of the Church's responsipoles at bottom and lace together bility in relation to social condiwith raffia or twine, using large lemon, grapefruit, Brazil nuts, tions, to what extent such re- silver spoon, glass set in lieu of sponsibility can be formulated raffia needle not too sharp. Have a diamond, ostrich feather, into a universally applicable sys- monkey fur, rubber bands, children draw on 9'xI2' paper eraser, comb, phonograph rec- tem of Christian social prinfigures of Indians, wigwams, ciples, what our personal and shocks of corn, fish, pumpkins, ord, bright feathers, sea beans, group responsibility is, where toy snake and other appropriate we obtain our criteria and data deer, bears, turkeys, ponies and objects wrapped in tissue paper in arriving at judgments, and large Indian heads. They may to look like gifts. Have each how we can implement these string popcorn or macaroni principles in terms of social ac- gift opened, laid on table and tion. The programs are inbroken into small pieces, with explained. When bag is empty, tended primarily for the monthly disks of construction paper in meetings of the women's or- give talk on the country, discuss- ganization, but have additional lieu of beads, to be worn with ing the things it needs from us suggestions for their more exthe headdresses. They also en- – Bibles, religious literature, tensive use in general group joy making posters of wigwams churches, Sunday schools, hos- meetings. Pastors would find pitals, etc. English books not them heJpful for the midweek or cliff dwellings, trees, corn, church services. pottery, rugs, baskets, etc., these available because the language to be drawn, painted or done in is mostly Spanish. Names of *** paper-cutting. Let them bring missionaries may be given, prayer offered for their work "Prayer in the land of the fir such things as arrowheads, bas- and Bible verses found begin- tree and pine. kets, beads, shells, etc., from home. Indian nature writing ning with A, Band C. Prayer in the land of the fig always interests them and they tree and vine. like to learn the signs. Have The results of an imaginary dark-haired boy wearing head- trip to South America were vis- Prayer where the waves dash loudly and cold. dress and blanket collect offer- ualized by the writer in an iming in basket or jar. A box for provised moving picture – pic- Prayer where the lion stalks fearless and bold. some Indian mission may be tures pasted on strip of paper packed. If a victrola is avail- with explanatory cap t ion s, Prayer in cathedrals whose able, play such selections as names of missionaries written spires tower high. the "Love Call," "Marcellina," etc. Use selections from "Hia- and verses chosen for each Prayer in kirks and cabins watha," "Lady Yea r dIe y' s country, the ends of this long close by. strip being fastened to two Guest," "Joc's Coals of Fire" broomsticks turned by boys to Prayer where two are gathered (from "The Rules of the Game" show the entire reel. The leader to pray. by Lambertson), and various read all script aloud for the benstories of mission work among efit of the little folks unable to Everywhere, eve r y w her e, prayer today." Indians. Close devotional part read for themselves. Textbooks of meeting with Indian stanza The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK "I Was a Stranger" the curt 'Move on, you!' of the transient bureaus and camps in sheriff at the county line, or ac- operation-295 bureaus and 190 "For I was hungry, and ye tual arrest and sentence to the camps. With the reduction in gave me to eat; I was thirsty, workhouse or the chain gang, relief spending in 1934-1935 and ye gave me drink; I was a have been and still are the pen- came the order to the states "to stranger, and ye took me in; alties too frequently exacted close intake at the transient cennaked, and ye clothed me; I was from the victim of unguided mi- ters and camps and to liquidate sick, and ye visited me; I was in gration. Having no responsible the entire program as of Novemprison, and ye came unto me. agency to direct him to oppor- ber 1, 1935. Then shall the righteous answer tunity for personal employment, him, saying, Lord, when saw we he drifts or is shoved in this di- "During the 20 months of life thee hungry, and fed thee? or rection or that. ' of the transient program, state athirst, and gave thee drink? and local authorities had been And when saw we thee a "Not all those who move from completely absorbed in adminisstranger, and took thee in? or place to place are mentally or tering ERA, CWA, and various naked, and clothed thee? And physically competent to under- other related activities under when saw we thee sick, or in take to fend for themselves in a 'emergency' legislation. No prison, and came unto thee ?" new field. But men are not al- thought had been given to an Matthew 25: 35-40. ways at fault for having no adjustment of the old poor laws money saved on which to sup- to meet new conditions." "Move On, You!" * port themselves after months in the lumber camp, or on railroad "By March, 1936, many states "Traditionally the American construction, or following the had become thoroughly alive to people have regarded the stran- crops. Often enough the wages the fact that it was not enough ger who asked for alms as a for which they work are grossly to ask for federal funds with ne'er-do-well whose own fault it inadequate to meet their needs. which to meet the needs of tranwas that he found himself in Compelled as they are to take sient relief, but that there must such sorry straits. Let him help the only jobs they can get, there be a sharing of responsibility himself ! Was there not oppor- are times when they need help between national and state govtunityand success for every man from the society which tolerates ernments and that the states to take care of himself if he these conditions." must face the fact that their 'had it in him'? own laws of legal settlement The depression years of 1930 were, by their rigidity and lack "The man who takes to the and 1931 saw a tremendous in- of uniformity, creating some of road' today in quest of work crease in the numbers in those the very problems of which all carries with him, unaware, the illegally "riding the rods." Still states complained." ball and chain of the settlement more were "thumbing a ride." laws of Old England. If work is The budgets of private agencies Three interstate conferences not found and, need develops, he which had been aiding these have been held. suddenly finds himself in an transients were steadily declinalien community, unwelcome, ing and the numbers needing "In all these conferences the with no legal claim for aid, with help were steadily increasing. Committee on Care of Transient limited private charitable re- A National Committee on Care and Homelesst kept up a drumsources available to him, and of Transient and Homeless was fire on the objective of federal, with suspicion directed toward composed of individuals from state, and local responsibility in him as a dangerous character. national agencies concerned with this field, together with em- The hospitality of the police some phase of the problem of phasis on the basic remedies of station, the 'two meals and a transiency and homelessness. 'surer direction and guidance' flop' in a municipal lodging Through the efforts of this com- for men in search of employhouse or second-rate mission, mittee the Federal Transient ment. Unification of the laws Program was formulated. of legal settlement throughout • Excerpts from "After Five Years," pub- the United States was urged, as lished by the Committee on Care of Tran- By 1934, forty-four states and was the vesting of responsibility sient and Homeless, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New the District of Columbia had York, price 10 cents, t The Council of Women for Home Mis- [385 ] sions Is represented on this Committee. in the state governments to de- was a desire to express the spirit Kingdom of God under the captermine settlement. The federal of the Preaching Mission-unity tion, "Thy Kingdom Come." Dr. and state authorities were asked of effort for the Kingdom of Lyman said that to Jesus the to prov'ide the necessary funds God. Kingdom meant living the will with which to meet the relief of God and that His was one life needs of the unsettled person. The four organizations, The lived in harmony with God. An Council of Women for Home ideal was held before this great "Each of these conferences Missions, the Women's Commit- group of city women to leave the appointed a continuing commit- tee of the Foreign Missions Con- distracting small things and live tee charged with carrying out ference, the National Council of lives in harmony with God, decertain recommendations of the Federated Church Women and voted to the interests of His conference and with bringing the Women's Cooperating Com- Kingdom. What could not be the resolutions of the conference mission of the Federal Council accomplished by this challenge to the attention of the proper of Churches, combined to bring to seven hundred women put authorities. together the church women of into action? metropolitan New York. Nearly "The Council of State Govern- 700 sat down in fellowship. The second speaker of the day, ments, meeting in its Third Gen- While the greater number were Rev. Joseph R. Sizoo, D.D., lately eral Assembly in Washington in from metropolitan New York, come to New York from Wash- January, 1937, with representa- including cities and towns in ington, D. C., brought rich extion from 45 states, adopted a New Jersey, We s t c he s t e r periences from his contacts with series of resolutions favoring County, New York, and Long varying groups. All he found 'uniform and reciprocal state Island, there were guests from going back for satisfaction of laws to iron out some of the con- Poughkeepsie, New York; Stam- heart-hunger to the Christian flicts in the field of social se- ford and Norwalk, Connecticut; faith. Dr. Sizoo had as his topic curity.' It recommended a stand- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; "For Such a Day as This," and ard requirement of one year to Washington, D. C. ; the Bay pointed out how Christian womgain settlement; a provision for region and Southern California; anhood in such a time must meet retaining the old settlement un- Atlanta, Georgia, and Toronto, the heart-hunger of the world til a new settlement was ac- Canada. for the Gospel. He said we quired; relief and service dur- have got to develop a new kind ing any period of inquiry as to The luncheon was planned of heroism. settlement; authority vested in the state public welfare depart- under the chairmanship Of Mrs. Dr. Robert M. Searle, as secment to determine settlement; retary of the New York Federafunds available to the state for Augustus Trowbridge, who was tion of Churches, offered the inreimbursement of local commu- vocation, and the benediction nities for service rendered to also the charming presiding was pronounced by Rev. William transients; and approval of the officer. By her long-range plan- Adams Brown, D.D., Chairman 'Uniform Transfer of Depend- ning Mrs. Trowbridge was able of the Committee on Universal ents Act.' These resolutions, to bring to the luncheon group a Life and Work. bearing as they do the stamp of cable message from India from approval of the official delegates Dr. E. Stanley Jones as follows: In closing we quote from a from 45 states,constitute the "Personal gratitude your signifi- letter of Dr. Brown's received crystallization in government of cant move toward unity. Light after the luncheon, for it exa sense of social responsibility in that direction. Follow it." presses what so many feel: for the non-resident." Another cable message of bless- ing on the undertaking from I do not know when I have attended May Luncheon for Church Maude Royden and a third mes- a meeting which seemed to me more sage from across seas, from vibrant· with thrilling possibilities. Women Lady Astor, "All we who profess It was not merely the fact that the the Christian faith will unite large company assembled was an ir:.- On May 10 at the Hotel Bilt- when we understand and apply dication of the resources of far-reachmore, New York City, a really Jesus' message, 'Now are we the ing and intelligent service which the significant luncheon took place. Sons of God,' and follow His Church possesses in her consecrated There had been several May Day command." President Mary E. womanhood, but still more the fact luncheons sponsored by one Woolley was prevented by the that your meeting together, instead interdenominational organiza- one hundredth anniversary of of separately, was an indication of tion for the missionary women Mount Holyoke College from be- your recognition that whatever difof metropolitan New York but ing present. In her place at the ferentiation of function may prove this luncheon sponsored by the guest table was Mrs. William wise from the point of view of effecfour interdenominational or- Adams Brown. tive administration, the cause is at ganizations . t h r 0 ugh which heart one. Dr. Mary Ely Lyman, just rechurch women have been work- turned from receiving an hon- May this cause which is one ing, symbolized a new epoch. orary degree from Mount Hol- be served whole-heartedly by The thought back of this effort yoke, brought a strong message every woman who has taken the on what church women can con- name of Jesus Christ upon her, tribute toward bringing in the and may she give herself entirely to Him in "Such a Day as This."
EMMA JESSIE OGG.
~ Our World–wide
I A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO EUROPE the influence of a book by the restore the crucifixes to their original headmaster of a Jewish girls' places on the walls. The Bible in Spain secondary school whose study of anti-Semitism has led him to In his May Day speech Hitler In the latest report of the realize that the only solution to is reported to have declared: "I British and Foreign Bible So- the Jewish problem is to be will not tolerate that the German ciety, reference is made to the found in Christ. Two hundred people's authority shall be mentriumphs of the Bible in Spain Jewish families in Bucharest are aced from any quarter. . . . during the present conflict and prepared to become Christians, That holds good above all for distress. Although the civil war but the State church refuses to the churches." was raging in Spain for half the encourage the movement. . year with which the report As to the children of Chrisdeals, a circulation of 211,000 -Watchman-Examiner. tian people he said: volumes was achieved. The Bible Society's depot in Madrid Religious Education in Sweden We will take their children and was kept open during the siege will educate them to become new Gerand the Society's agent remained The Lutheran Church is the mans. We will not permit them to at his post. State Church in Sweden and in lapse into the old ways of thinking. all high schools and colleges re- We will take them when they are ten Evangelism in Belgium ligion is a required subject. It years old and bring them up in the includes Bible study, church spirit of the community until they are Within the past few months, history, comparative religion eighteen. They shall not escape us! the Belgian Gospel Mission, and missions. School work befounded by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph gins every day with a religious -New York Times. Norton, has opened seven new service lasting about fifteen mincenters, making a total of sixty- utes, with a view to training What of the Waldenses? six in which the Gospel is reg- pupils to do serious thinking on ularly preached. M. Vansteen- religious and ethical questions. This oldest evangelical church berghe, one of the directors of in the world, a church that has the Mission, was converted from Teachers of religion are re- withstood more than 30 organatheism in England during the quired to be members of the ized persecutions, today has 250 war, through the reading of the State Church. Great demands churches and missions in Italy. Bible while in a hospital. are made as to the teacher's per- Because of retrenchment in sonality; he must preach by his other churches, the Waldenses M. Vansteenberghe tells how character the same ideals that are carrying more responsibility one center was opened as typical he teaches. for Christian witnessing in Italy of all the others: A brushmaker, than ever before. Last year living near Ypres, heard the -The Christian Advocate. they provided over 88 per cent Gospel at a meeting last June, of the money spent upon their was converted, and straightway The Cross in German Schools Missions throughout Italy, their asked if a hall could be opened H 0 s pit a 1s, their Children's in his village. With his small An order to replace the cruci- Homes, their Homes for the life savings, he enlarged a brick fix in classrooms in Germany Aged, their College at Torre Pelshed attached to his house, so with pictures of Adolph Hitler lice and their Theological Semthat it is capable of seating forty has resulted in great excitement inary at Rome. Their congregapeople. On the opening day, and open resistance. The Liv- tions are larger than ever, and sixty crowded in, and others ing Church says: Italians in increasing numbers stood outside the door listening. are joining their churches. The unyielding attitude of Roman -Life of Faith. Catholic parents forced the authori- It is clear that an evangelical ties at Konnersreuth to restore the agency, such as the Waldensian Jews Turn to Christ crucifixes to the classrooms in that Church, is more needed in Italy city. Upward of 100 irate townsmen than ever before. The Barbican Mission to the marched to the home of the school Jews, London, reports that sev- superintendent and chanted in unison AFRICA eral hundred Jewish families in their demand for restitution of the Rumania are prepared to accept Christian symbols. The intervention 11 Duce and the Moslems Christ. This is largely due to of the police, with drawn revolvers, failed to intimidate the townspeople. A New York Times corre- The upshot of this demonstration was spondent in Egypt declares the an order from the local authorities to majority of Moslems are unal- [387 ]
terably opposed to Mussolini's Protestants Not Wanted Tea With Tracts claim to be "defender of the in Tripoli Moslem faith." Sheikh Musta- Dr. Burkitt of Nairobi in pha el Maraghi, rector of the The medical mission for Mos- Kenya Colony, Africa, is a dithousand-year-old Azhar Uni- lems and Jews in Tripoli has rector of a tea plantation and at versity in Cairo, and recognized been closed by Italian authori- the same time carries on Chrisas the ecclesiastical head of Mos- ties, and the missionary doctor tian work. He is promoting an lems throughout the world, says: was ordered to leave the terri- East Africa Colportage Society "Only a Moslem who believes in tory. For half a century the for the distribution of Scripture the religion of Mohammed and North Africa Mission has main- portions and evangelical booklets lives up to the laws of the Koran tained this healing and preach- among the blacks from many can be the defender or protector ing center, the only evangelical tribes who pass through on their of Islam. No other person, no witness in the whole of Libya. way to mines and plantations. matter of what race or religion Complying with Government re- They eagerly read anything they or nationality, can be our de- quirements, the purpose of the can get in their own dialects. fender." mission was described as: "Ex- Dr. Burkitt has an attractive plaining the way of salvation depot in Nairobi which he hopes Their religion forbids Moham- through the Lord Jesus Christ to duplicate in other centers of medans from being ruled by non- in obedience to His commands, East Africa. -So S. Times. Moslems, and those of that faith and also endeavoring to show the in the Near East are not at all love of God in our medical con- WESTERN ASIA interested in Mussolini's pro- sultations." nouncement. After Fifty Years A' government ordinance of Cairo's College for Girls Two reports from North Syria August 26 authorized the mis- prove that progress may appear The American College for sion to continue under three con- over a stretch of half a century, Girls at Cairo, administered by ditions: (a) No religious prop- which cannot be seen from year the American Mission in Egypt aganda. (b) Nurses to have to year. The first is that of for the United Presbyterian Italian diplomas. (c) Premises Rev. D. M. Wilson in regard to Church of North America, is the to conform to Hygiene Inspec- Tripoli, written in 1853; the lineal descendant of the first tor's regulations. The doctor other, written fifty years later girls' school in all Egypt. The was unaware of this Ordinance by Rev. F. W. March, who died cornerstone of the first building until it was read to him at the last year after 60 years in Syria. was laid February 25, 1908. The police station; after which, original college building fund charged with disregarding its "We mention schools not bewas raised through the personal terms, he was ordered to leave cause we have any, but to state efforts of its founder and first and the Mission was closed. the reason why we have none. president, Miss Ella O. Kyle, Near the close of the last year supported by a committee in -Moslem World. our school in Tripoli was broken Pittsburgh and individuals in up by the Greeks…. At none both Egypt and America. The Good News from Nigeria of the villages is there any proslargest single contribution was pect that a school would open the $30,000, a gift from Mr. John D. H. G. Farrant, field secretary way for a preaching station; and Rockefeller, Sr. It is the most of the Sudan United Mission, to sustain a school for the sake advanced Protestant missionary gives an encouraging account of of the influence of the school school for girls in North Africa, present conditions in northern alone, under any native teacher occupying a strategic position in Nigeria. Although a few years we can. employ, we regard as a a city that is the largest in the ago a missionary would be able waste of missionary funds. . . . continent, and that is, at the to give the names and histories Since last spring the Christians same time, the intellectual and of all the converts, today that have lived in constant fear of spiritual center of the Arabic- would be impossible. By far the their Moslem neighbors, indeed speaking Moslem world. greater number of converts of a large part of the Christian recent years have been won, not population fled in midsummer The student body numbers by Europeans, but by Africans. to the mountains where many of mor~ than 400; courses include It is the aim of the Mission to them still remain. . . . If asked the whole gamut of a girl's edu- "blacken" the work as much as whether there be signs of a cation, from the Beginners' De- possible. Thirty men with their brighter dawn our answer would partment through the equivalent wives and families are being be very unsatisfactory." of an American Junior College trained at Gindiri for evangeliscourse. Among graduates are tic work. Two centers in the "The Tripoli field has eight found doctors, nurses, lawyers, heart of one Moslem district, organized churches, most of musicians, teachers, office work- which had not been available for which include groups of villages, ers, an artist of note, Egypt's missionary effort during thirty so that the eight churches take sole aviatrix, and a host of effi- years, are now occupied. The in all the church members of the cient wives and mothers. opening of a new leper colony at whole field. Each church has a Maiduguri means the possibility native preacher. There are 23 of reaching 1,000,000 people. outstations including 25 schools -The Christian.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
which are visited regularly. In suggested that since the mission- threw herself on the body of her the eight churches are 767 mem- aries had discovered the source dead husband prepared for crebers. . . . During the year, 31 of disease, doubtless they would mation. God knows what else persons have been received on provide a new and safe fountain. she did in the name of Christ the profession of faith. The eight "Unfortunately," said the mis- Great Physician." churches working together as a sionary, "our mission has no Presbytery have established a money for such projects, nor Physical Training for Women Home Mission work; a commit- have we as individuals." tee composed wholly of Syrians The Physical Education Colhaving been appointed to receive Finally it was agreed that if lege for Women in Bengal is an and disburse funds and direct the missionary could provide the experiment financed in Canada. the work. They have raised cement for a sealed fountain, the It has made a beginning with 9,000 ps." headman would provide the 16 pupils, Europeans and In- labor. Now the 2,000 people of dians, from various parts of In- -Syria News Quarterly. the Moslem village get clean dia, women of good educational water and the Christians are standing who think it worth American Mission Press welcomed as friends. while spending time and money to obtain this extra qualification. The year 1934 marked the -Monday Morning. Even for girls, education is no centenary of the American Mis- longer confined to books; they sion Press in Beirut, Syria. The INDIA AND SIAM are the healthier and happier Press was founded in 1822 on for the change. Calcutta has the Island of Malta for service Seeing Below the Surface had a physical education college in the Near East, but it was not for men for a few years, and its until 1834 that it was actually "World travelers who visit influence is already felt throughmoved to Beirut, where it has port cities, stay in good hotels out the province. The girls' colnow completed over one hundred and follow guides may have an lege will soon be as well known. years of missionary publication interesting time, but they learn and printing for Arabic-speak- little of human suffering and its A recent demonstration of the ing lands. Its literature now amelioration," writes a corre- College was largely attended by goes to some twenty-five differ- spondent of the Christian Evan- prominent people of Calcutta. ent countries. gelist. -Indian Witness. Many missionaries and in- "My saddest experience has digenous workers have aided in been to note the look of fear, as New Methods in Rural Work various ways. A zealous young well as suffering, in the faces of Swiss has recently printed at the teeming thousands-a look born Evangelistic work in rural Press a useful leaflet, "How to of ignorance, disease and under- areas seems to be taking a new Read the Bible." Dr. N. Nucho, nourished bodies; a ghastly look turn, and promises well for Director of Hamlin Memorial of futility because there is no building up the Church. In gen- Sanatorium, has distributed in physician, no hospital, nurse or eral, the emphasis is: the past several years thousands medicine; and worse yet, no of copies of a tract on "Tuber- courage that comes from the (1) Seek to concentrate evangelistic culosis and Its Prevention," Spirit of Christ. In most orien- effort in villages and seek to build largely at his own expense. tal countries, as well as in Cen- up the old Christian communities; tral Africa, there is probably no (2) oDtain a mediating leadership; -Syria News Quarterly. more than one trained physician (3) make a decisive and deep im- to every 200,000 people. pression on chaudhri leaders by liv- Disturbing the Village ing with them; (4) aim to make them "A few years ago I spent sev- the firebrands that will set the villages When a missionary came to a eral hours with a medical mis- aflame, and (5) get them to take re- Moslem village in Syria, it did sionary in India. This delicate sponsibility for follow-up work. not take his trained-nurse wife woman gave herself and her long to tell him that much of the service to people in their filth, It is a new experience for old disease rampant in the town was ignorance and abysmal super- converts from the sweeper class due to the public fountain, where stition and suffering, packed in to live in the same tents with the women dipped hands and poverty like rabbits in a warren. city folks, and "break caste" by jars to draw the family water She dressed wounds many times eating with them. It is also a supply. after having taken out the mag- new experience for them to work gots. She cleansed the fly larvae to schedule and obey the call of "It is the will of Allah that from the festering eyes of little the bell, and in the evenings to there should be sickness," said children and bound them with get the exer_cise afforded by the village headman when it was healing lotions. She gave con- games of football. urged that he take steps to rem- solation and sedative to a dying edy this condition. "You stran- man who had hold of the tail of -Indian Witness. gers are disturbing our village. the sacred cow which had been Please go away and do not come brought into the house to help Andhra Christian College back." in his dying moments. She com- forted a wailing widow as she The United Lutheran Church On second thought he shrewdly of America and the Church Mis- sionary Society of Great Britain have worked out a plan of coop-
eration in Andhra Christian Fruit of Leper Work and shot them. Their bodies College. The first C. M. S. pro- were dumped in a lime-filled fessor will join the staff on Dr. and Mrs. J. W. McKean, trench, and the village was looted July 1. Lutherans will provide now living in retirement at and burned. A smaller group a dormitory for C. M. S. stu- Claremont, California, were mis- was slain near Canton, and Candents. sionaries in Siam for thirty ton authorities are also said to years, establishing the first or- be engaged in making a round- It is hoped that the American ganized work for lepers in that up of all lepers. Lutheran Church Mission, the kingdom. About 2,000 lepers American Baptist Mission, the have since entered the asylum at Military authorities had long English Methodist Mission, the Chiengmai. There are 450 there threatened to end the little Canadian Baptist Mission and now and nearly all have become Happy Valley colony in their efthe American Methodist Epis- active, praying Christians, mak- forts to wipe out the disease. copal Mission will also coop- ing regular contributions to the work out of their very limited Mission to Chinese Buddhists erate. allowance for food money. The Christian Mission to Bud- Women Elders in Siam A recent letter from Chieng- dhists is now fifteen years old. mai Leper Asylum includes this Its first headquarters were in The Leper Asylum, Chieng- statement: "Mr. Pia begs to Nanking, but in 1926 the center mai, Siam, has the distinction of hand to Dr. McKean two ticals was moved to Shatin, near Honghaving the first women elders in and to Mrs. McKean two ticals kong. The influence of this work the Presbyterian Church. Nang to be used in God's work." (A extends to every large monastery La and .Nang Kan Gao were tical is worth about 50 cents.) in China and even reaches elected to eldership in April, Japan, Malaya and Formosa. 1925. At that time Siam formed -Monday Morning. Since the beginning of the mistwo presbyteries of the synod of sion over eighty Buddhist and New York. These two saintly CHINA Taoist monks of "lay-devotees" old women went about the duties have been baptized as Christians of their high office with a hu- "The Bread of Life" and some have become pastors mility and joy touching to be- of churches. In addition, there hold. A cracker manufacturer of are several thousand "Tao Yu" Hongkong encloses in each tin -interested men and women. There had been good reason of his wares, shipped throughout for their election. Many leper China and the Netherlands In- Until recently this work has women were so crippled they dies, a small paper on which is been supported by funds from could not come to the chapel, and printed in four languages- Norway, Sweden and Denmark, missed the comfort of the weekly Chinese, Javanese, Malay and but it is expected that the Anservice. These women therefore English-the text, "Jesus said, glican Church will help next asked that two of their number I am the Bread of Life." year. The plan is to form a be made elders to comfort, teach brotherhood of converted Budand administer sacrament to When a representative of the dhist monks, already accustomed helpless shut-ins. The two most British and Foreign Bible So- to celibacy, who will live together loved were Nang La and Nang ciety called on this man recently and be available for special evan- Kan Gao. Nang La had been a he showed him a drawer full of gelistic· work among educated wretched beggar. Her near letters which he had received, Buddhist lay folk in the cities, relatives did not care for her asking for more information and among the hills of Yunnan. and at the progressive signs of about this Jesus, "the Bread of leprosy drove her away from Life." In reply, he always sends .-Chinese Recorder. her home. Her only recourse a copy of St. John's Gospel, with was holding out her twisted a personal testimony to its in- Results from Small Efforts hands for alms. Then she found fluence on his own life. Christ and began to "serve the During her stay in China, Lord with gladness." -Alliance Weekly. Muriel Lester says the most re- markable piece of work she saw Nang Kan Gao lived in He~then 'Cruelty was the transformation of a vil- Chiengmai where her husband lage in twelve months. Two was an elder in the church and Presbyterian missionaries re- missionaries lived so close to the she herself was a great Bible port the execution of 80 mem- Chinese in fellowship and so student and ardent Christian. bers of a leper colony in Yeung- close to our Lord in spirit, that Her husband died and Nang kong, Kwangtung Pro v inc e, by using only their spare time· Kan Gao carried on alone. China, by civil and military au-_ and spending almost no money When it was discovered that she thorities. These lepers lived in they were able to evoke from the had leprosy, still in its early a little cluster of huts known as peasants of a neighboring village stage, she immediately started Happy Valley, and existed by sufficient confidence, communal on foot to Chiengmai. Because their own efforts, aided by the ambition and initiative to set up the disease was caught in its missionaries. A lone survivor three schools, a library and early stage, it was arrested. told of hiding in a sewer of the reading room, a daily clinic, a village while soldiers bound his -Siam Outlook. associates, carried them to a hill
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
public exhibition of agricultural Better Conditions for Women "I told her that the baby produce in which five or six other villages cooperated, and a A Woman's Life Improvement seemed well and strong, a finegroup of voluntary actors, stilt Association is being sponsored looking little fellow-I thought walkers, conjurors, to enliven by the Kiangsi provincial gov- she was doing a good job. She the long days of the New Year ernment. For six months the holiday. Association will investigate the said no, he was spoiled. She living conditions of women in couldn't feed him properly, she A leading medical man had Kiangsi. Then plans will be couldn't train him properlybeen helping the peasants near the grandparents wouldn't allow his hospital set up a credit and worked out for the promotion of it. Every time she tried to cormarketing cooperative. Amazed the welfare of women. From rect him, they interfered and at the resourcefulness and re- July, 1937, to June, 1942, is to scolded her! I tried to sympaliability that was forthcoming be the period of enforcement. thize with her, but I told her it In the first year a home econom- was her job, and a tough one. he summed up his whole ex- If only there were any hopes of perience of China: ics' school will be established. training the grandparents !" The second year will see the ex- "There is no country like it. tension of the program to ten JAPAN-CHOSEN Here one gets such big results more districts: the third year to 20 more districts; the fourth from such small efforts." year to 25 more districts; and Intensive Rural Campaign -The Christian Advocate. the fifth year to 27 more dis- In experimenting with ways Mui Tsai Slavery tricts, thus finally covering the and means to carryon its cam- whole province. Special stress paign for "100,000 new men and boys for Christ in ten years," For some years the British will be laid on needs of farming the Brotherhood of St. Andrew Government has been trying to and working women. Physical is giving a full half of its energy education, civic training, indus- this year to stirring up activity end the practice called Mui Tsai, trial and farming production, whereby young girls are sold useful social activities and set- in rural evangelism. An Insti- ting up of good habits will all tute for training rural workers into service – to work for the receive attention. will be held in Tokyo, August purchasing household without pay and without the right to -China Critic. 16-21, when a well-planned, leave. Yet in spite of legal en- practical demonstration course actments, ways and means have How Would You Answer This? will be conducted by rural workbeen found to continue the prac- ers in such problems as evantice, which cannot be considered What is the proper way to de- gelism, woman's work, young anything but a mild form of cline taking a baby to bring up? slavery. The recent findings of This is what a missionary in men's work, church school meththe Royal Commission appointed Hainan would like to know, and ods, and health and occupational to investigate this matter make here is why. schemes. Only three rural work- ers, lay or clerical, from each of clear such a conclusion to any A young Christian mother the ten dioceses, will be invited has been much interested in the to participate in the first instiimpartial investigator. feeding and care of her baby, and came to the Mission at in- tute. The Onabake Mission was The Manchester Guardian gets tervals with questions. She had chosen as being best suited for to the heart of the problem when asked for a book on "Care and demonstration purposes, being it says: Training of Children." Let the missionary finish the story: located five miles from the rail- If it were possible to discover what way station, in the midst of a girls are Mui Tsai, the present legis- "She was the fi'rst mother I countryside completely population in Hongkong and Malaya, properly enforced, would be sufficient to lated by small farmers. This abolish the practice. The difficulty, had known to intimate that she little mission was made possible as the Commission and all other in- was not fully qualified to bring through a gift of $1,000 secured vestigators have realized, is that the up any number of children. But by Bishop Dallas, following his possessors of a Mui Tsai naturally claim that the child is something else I had not seen her for several visit to Japan last year.
-an illegitimate daughter, a child left weeks, when she came up one -The Living Church. in their care by relations, or, gen- Sunday after church. When I erally, "an adopted daughter-in-law" went downstairs to greet her, More Japanese Deities -that is, a girl child adopted until she said, 'I've brought my baby she is old enough to marry a son of to hand over to you, so you can To Japan's national pantheon, the house. The only practical meas- bring him up properly,' and she which is said to include "eighty ure that has ever been suggested to myriads of gods," 1,148 new stop this is to register. all adopted pushed him into my hands, con- deities were added in solemn daughters-in-law and, if necessary, all tinuing, 'I don't know how. I ceremonies last April. They children transferred from their par- want you to teach him and feed were soldiers of the empire who ents' care. The Governments in Hong- him and train him-it wouldn't had died during the past year. kong and Malaya have always resisted be hard for you. It's hard for this on the ground that such measures me. I'm not equal to it. Oh, The ceremonies in form and would logically lead to the registration and supervision of every girl in meaning have no Occidental the colony. I'll pay you,' she added.
counterparts. The rites were Even before the tent meetings ISLANDS OF THE PAOIFIO carried out in darkness. Against the local congregation had felt the black background of the the old church building inade- Demon Possession in shrine the white-robed Shinto quate, and had taken up a sub- South Seas priests and military officers who scription, at great sacrifice, of assisted made striking, ghost- one hundred yen. A wealthy A missionary in the South Sea like figures. Three thousand Christian woman in Taiku Evangelical Mission, working in members of the families of the who had grown up in that village the Solomon Islands, thinks that dead and the highest officers of gave another hundred. Follow- those who scoff at the reality of the army and navy were present. ing the Sunday service all joined Satan and demons, would revise in a parade. "A couple of hun- their theology if they could be First, the chief priest of the dred strong we marched a half in a heathen village for a few shrine invited the spirits of the mile to the river-bed," writes days. He tells of a notorious departed to enter the sanctuary. Mr. Adams, "We each, men, old witch doctor whose mind was Rites were held to felicitate the women and children picked up a incapable of grasping spiritual new deities on their elevation. stone according to our strength. ideas. When he was convicted In solemn procession, with a mil- We marched back to town, while of sin and he accepted Christ his itary band playing a funeral an- non-Christians lined the streets mind cleared, and his joy was them, a small portable shrine, to see the strange parade. We unbounded. But Satan did not conceived to contain the spirits deposited the stones in the easily release him. Next day a of the new deities, was carried church courtyard, and then held man hurried to the mission, crythrough the courtyard to the a brief service dedicating these ing: main temple. All lanterns and first offerings to the future place other lights were extinguished of worship to the one and only "Come quick! Old Mae-hui during its passage. When the true God and His Son. It was shake-shake too much; old fell a ark was placed in its proper a witness of solidarity among devil come back." niche the shrine lights were relit Christians." and offerings of fruit, vegetables The old man was found graspand wine were placed before the Stages of Growth in Korea ing the rafters of his low dwellnew spirits. ing, shaking the building with The figures tracing Presby- great power, and crying out in Those deified in the recent terian Church growth in Korea an unearthly way. Prayer was ceremony brought the total so since 1900 are significant. The offered and soon Mae-hui called worshipped to 130,967. first decade of this century saw out, "Lord Jesus, save me from a growth of 1,1000/0 in adher- this devil's power." Immediately -New York Times. ents, but in the second decade he fell exhausted to the floor and slept heavily for a few hours. A Witness of Solidarity the increase was only 3 %. Dur- He soon recovered and has gone on since a happy Christian. Edward Adams writes from ing the third, the figure advanced Taiku, Korea, of results that fol- to 26%, while in the six years of NORTH AMERIOA lowed a week of tent meetings this fourth decade there has ten miles from Taiku, where a been the almost unbelievable in- Oommission on Unity church had been established ten crease of 75.5%. years ago, but they were ten Largely as an outgrowth of years of struggle for bare exist- Baptized membership has not the National Preaching Mission, ence. A little farther into the kept pace with this. While it a new "Commission for the mountains are two more groups was 1,000% between 1900 and Study of Christian Unity" will -about three miles apart-very 1910, the next decade shows carryon. "a continuous educamuch in the same condition. Too 76%, the third 33%, and the six tional program," both as to the far from the main currents of "conditions that create the de- Christian activities, and with the years of the fourth 24 %. There mand for a greater unity" and strong and overwhelming back- as to the various proposals by ward pull of a hostile society, it were no native pastors in 1900; which unity may be achieved. has been a discouraging strug- there were 40 in 1920; then an The educational program would gle. A native pastor, four lay increase of 3500/0 in 1920, of strive to produce attitudes favorworkers, two women and two 127% in 1930 and 29% in 1936. able to an advance in unity, and men made up the Gospel team. readiness to give open-minded For three days the tent was filled These figures reflect the great consideration to whatever plans (500-800 people) morning, noon revival that followed loss of in- seem most promising. and night. Workers took turns dependence; the period of conin addressing the multitudes solidation that followed, a period Some of the conditions behind· with time out only at meals. By that has now passed and the the demand for greater unity Sunday night 140 decided to ac- Church seems to be entering an– are: cept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. other forward movement. Mis- Two evangelists ~tayed to do fol- sionary work in Korea began in Overchurching in local areas. low-up work, and the next week 1884; Christians now number Inefficient use of resources. 20 more decisions were made. 520,000. Since the total popula- The meaninglessness of our divisions tion is 20,500,000, each Chris- tian must win 40 others! when transplanted to the mission fields, where new churches are -Christianity Today. being created.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
The lack of moral authority in a British Army by a man named been studied very little, if at all. Church which appeals for unity Jackson at the time of the Amer- The results of their research is in the world at large, when it ican Revolution. Today one can then compiled, and used by gov- find albinos, mulattoes, as well ernment agencies, universities, has such insufficient unity within itself.
Progress in Kentucky's as combinations of these, and Bible translation societies and negroid and Indian features. scientific research societies. Mountains Little was done concerning This offers opportunity for their physical, mental or spir- Rapid changes are being made itual needs until the Episcopal service and discovery seldom in the Kentucky mountain com- Church began work there sev- surpassed in the realm of scienmunities. Many county seats eral years ago. Two years ago, are connected by good roads; tific research, as there are hunrivers once crossed only by fords Rev. Albert Chillson took hold dreds of extremely interesting have been bridged. Many good of the work. He found malnu- languages about which very schools have been erected. trition was widespread, high mortality among children and little is known, and long-sought 'rhe College at Berea operates destitution in general. Mr. Chill- secrets about the relationships a "book car." One who travels son gained their confidence by of people and streams of migrain it writes: tion. The Institute's headquar- repeated visits, and when he ters are at 506 Commonwealth During my almost six years of trav- proposed a religious service in Building, Philadelphia, Pa.
eling I have seen six new school build- the near-by schoolhouse on Sun- The Mormon Program ings replace old ones. In three in- day afternoons they responded of Today stances a two-room building has taken amazingly, both in numbers and the place of a one-room school. With It is well to know just what the new buildings, conditions have im- in their participation in the serv- the Mormons are up to in these proved. The better light and freshly ices. So far, only a beginning United States: painted walls seem conducive to clean- has been made. liness. In one school a small kitchen 1. Nearly 2,000 emissaries at work, has oeen equipped for serving hot -The Living Church. without salary. lunches.
Transportation of pupils to Saving the "Shreds" 2. Using deceptive radio talks mis- leading many.
county high schools is becoming Said Horace Mann in a lecture 3. Using millions of copies of perimore common. For the Cumber- on education: "The ash e s, odicals and tracts, all craftily written land National Forest the govern- to lead people to believe things utterly shreds and wrecks of everything contrary to the Bible. ment has already purchased are of some value." A California 300,000 acres, and plans even- reformatory is acting on this 4. Having a great building era; theory, and results are in sharp while it has already seven so-called tually to buy a total of 1,338,000 "temples" costing an average of acres, in seventeen counties of contrast to most misnamed "re- Kentucky. formatories" from which youtps $770,000, it is building soon a $525,000 plant in Los Angeles, another in Idaho, a new meeting-house in Chi- There are still very many commonly come out worse than cago costing half a million, besides its regions in which "the roads run when they entered. two $100,000 ones there; has another planned in Philadelphia; owns Manup the creeks, and the creeks run At the Preston School of In- hattan Congregational Church, New down the roads," many regions dustry, as this institution is York.
in which one must abandon all called, the boys are "cadets" in- 5. Has doubled its numbers twice thought of a car, and travel on stead of "inmates." Its cluster and one-third since the census of 1890 mule back or in jolt wagon to of buildings, with campus and and teaches that it is to rule the one's destination at some settle- world. ment or schoolhouse. athletic field, resembles a pleas- ant little college. Bars and 6. Has nearly all its Senior high- WILLIAM J. HUTCHINS. school students in its "Theological armed guards are only for a few Seminaries" one hour daily. "Jackson Whites" in sullen and vicious ones. The 7. Has millions of yearly income, rest have classes and military from tithing and large secular busi- ness interests, with which to do all New Jersey drills, learn trades, and are made this. 8. Has enough control over its peo- An isolated, backward group to feel that society is not against known as "Jackson Whites," liv- them, but on their side to aid ple to keep its proselyting force filled; ing in New Jersey, a few miles them to b e com e physically~ every young man expected to serve from the most heavily populated morally and mentally fit for use- two years or more. section of the United States, pre- ful citizenship. sent an ethnological puzzle. To -Light on Mormonism. -Evangelical-Messenger. Economic Freedom for Indians the original Indian settlers were Linguistic Research Hundreds of Navajo Indians added at least two other strains; met early in April in the Navajo Hessian deserters who in fleeing Each summer there is held an capital, Window Rock, Arizona, from their British masters had Institute of Linguistics, for the to draw up a new constitution.
settled in the hills and a part of purpose of training practical They desire a Legislature instead the 3,500 women, some white, linguistic investigators, and to of the old Tribal Council, which some black, imported under con- locate them among indigenous is claimed not to be representa- tract as camp-followers for the tribes whose languages have tive of all the people. Some of
the delegates were draped in torial officials, as well as mis- Fellowship will take part. The blankets, and some, college edu- sionaries, are deeply concerned campaign, lasting five or six cated, appeared as business men. over the situation. years, is designed to reach the All discussions were in the The Alaskan Native Brother- entire population of 16,000,000, Navajo tongue. hood, a Christian organization, which includes 3,000,000 of non- Seventy years ago this tribe has appealed to the missionaries Spanish – speaking Indians. A numbered 8,000; today there are for help in applying such restric- large circulation of the Scrip- 50,000 members. Their reser- tions to the traffic in intoxicants tures will be a feature of this vation includes 16,000 acres in as would afford the native people great effort.
Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. some measure of protection, and -Christianity Today.
Their land is rich in coal and save them from the moral de- oil. They own a million sheep, struction with which they are In the West Indies threatened. Victories over tempand their blanket business is ap- tation are being won by Alaskan The Presbyteries of Puerto proaching a million dollar indus- Rico and Cuba have been contry. Their constitution will be church members, who are sub- ducting evangelistic campaigns j ected almost daily to the sever- far more extensive than ever besubmitted to the "white fathers" est tests of the genuineness of fore. It is estimated that about at Washington. their Christian profession. 2,000 new members will be re- -Alliance Weekly.
Canadians Plan Federation Point Barrow Hospital Burns ceived as a result. These mem- bers have been trained for the Plans for a Canadian Federa- The hospital at Bar row, most part in the Sabbath schools. tion of Churches, fashioned Alaska, erected in 1921 by the The campaign has been carried somewhat after the Federal Presbyterian Board of National Council of Churches in the Missions, has been totally de- on by the pastors after weeks of United States, have been sent to stroyed by fire. The patients preparation. the heads of the Anglican, Bap- were removed safely, but meditist, Presbyterian and United cines and surgical equipment The Presbytery of Cuba or- Churches, the Salvation Army were destroyed. The loss is cov- dained two new ministers this and the Disciples. This proposed ered by insurance. Until July 1, year. They were members of federation would provide for 1936, when the operation of this the Sabbath school years ago, "the setting up of some coordi- hospital was transferred to the received their training from the nating council, so that in mat- Office of Indian Affairs of the ters of common interest we may U. S. Government, it provided mission schools of Cuba, and have the means of expressing the only health service available their seminary training in the ourselves, through one voice, to some 2,000 Eskimos. which could speak for the Prot- Evangelical Seminary in Puerto estant Church of our country." Emergency quarters h a v e Rico. One of them has estab- been fitted up, and medical sup- It is hoped thus to formulate plies and surgical equipment lished a church in what was fora united front of all Protestant have been shipped by dog team merly a garage, the only buildbodies on social questions, such from the Kotzebue Hospital. ing available when he was comas war and temperance, and for Mrs. Fred S. Klerekoper, wife pelled to move from a rented national evangelical work. of the missionary at Barrow, building, because of the annoy- who is a fully trained, registered -Advance. ance of a public cafe. The gar- age has been transformed into a nurse, will respond to emergency very attractive church audi- calls. Encouraging reports. have torium. The young minister and been received from the Klere- kopers regarding the progress his wife represent the new gen- Liquor Evils in Alaska of church work in the Barrow eration of Cubans, well prepared area. With characteristic devo- intellectllalIy, thoroughly identi- "The repeal of the Prohibition tion, the congregation continues fied with their own people, and Amendment was a major calam- definitely committed to the ideals ity for Alaska," says Dr. John of the Kingdom of Christ. M. Somerndike, Secretary for Alaska under the Presbyterian -The Presbyterian.
Board. "Ketchikan, for example, to carry forward the local pro- New Deal in Dominican with a population of less than gram of community worship and Republic 4,000, has 65 saloons where service. -Monday Morning. liquor is dispensed. Similar conditions prevail in every Alaskan LATIN AMERICA Long before the present gov- ernment used the term "New town and city. It is claimed that Evangelism in Mexico nearly two-thirds of the ship- Deal" it was a reality in the ments of Alaska steamship lines A cooperative effort in wideconsist of liquor. Its devastat- spread evangelism is being ar- Dominican mission field, and sixing effects are seen especially ranged, in which, among others, teen years of united action on among the native population. the National Bible Society of the part of United Brethren, Methodist and Presbyterian forces have proved its value. Immorality and every form of Scotland, the Scripture Gift Mis- Operating under four departvice follow in the wake of this sion, the Evangelical Churches ments – evangelistic, medical, evil. Government and terri- and the Latin America Prayer educational and social, the Board
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
for Christian Work in Santo Do- Need for Nationals in its annual feast and bull-fight. mingo has moved forward in a The constant noise and din of unified program w h i c h has The general situation in Cen- the drunken band all night long reached every stratum of Do- tral America directs attention to made sleep well-nigh impossible. minican life, and has become a the need for national Christian With the governor's permission vital factor for improvement. workers. Efforts are being made I was able to preach in the pub- There has been a substantial in- to send Christian workers into lic plaza as well as sell books, crease in the number of evan- several new Departments in before the bull-fight began. We gelicals. English Wesleyans are Guatemala, EI Salvador, Nic- had a good congregation and the now incorporated in this union aragua and Honduras. Foreign people were quite keen to listen church, and this year there was missionaries will take part in the to our message. held in Samafia the centennial advance, but the importance of celebration of the founding of the Bible Institutes at Pana- "The governor is a slave to the Wesleyan Methodist Church jachel for Indians, and that at drink. His wife asked if we had in that district among the Eng- Guatemala City and at San Jose a cure for this curse, and turnlish-speaking colored people, who in Costa Rica for Spanish-speak- ing to the two boys with me, I had migrated there from Penn- ing students, is increasingly ap- said, 'Senora, there are two of sylvania, New Jersey and the parent. Moreover, travel be- them. Ask them,' and Matias Carolinas in 1824. In 1837, tween the republics becomes Arela warmed my heart with his England sent a pastor who more difficult by the application splendid testimony. He was a founded a church with 60 char- of measures chiefly designed to known drunkard, but is now a ter members. The oldest mem- exclude foreign competitive im- free man through Christ. ber is 96 years old. Hanging on migration. News from Costa Rica the wall of her home is this indicates that the Government is "A seven hours' horseback motto, painted by her husband: taking drastic measures to limit journey took us to Copapata, "Childron United you stand de- the number of incoming mission- and here we saw the nucleus for vied you faull. Childron when aries; and the Minister of For- a growing work. We visited this you see remember me-E. eign Relations of Colombia has other small towns and made con- Anderson." Thus the idea of also announced that no more tacts with some who are really unity is foretold. -Advance. missionaries are wanted in Co- keen to know the way of salva- lombia. His veto is particularly tion. I always think of the town Woman's World severe against any further in- of Santa Rosa as the place where crease of single women workers. Satan's seat is. The ]ileople are The Presbyterian Board re- exceedingly bitter against us ports great progress in the West -World Dominion Press. and are very fanatical Catholics. Indies during the last few years In 1931 we held meetings there, in the organization of women's Belated Eft'orts in Guatemala but owing to continued persecu- tion the Indians stopped roming. societies in the churches. There Roman Catholics are making However, on this visit we had are now 18 church societies in every effort to regain lost ground the joy of baptizing five from Cuba, with 491 members, re- in Guatemala. Their efforts are the town itself, who professed porting more than 700 meetings commendable in many ways: a faith in Christ as Saviour. So during the past year. On their better type of clergymen; more keen were they that we hold a own initiative they have con- active rural work; better educa- convention there, that we did so. ducted seven Sunday schools and tion for children; certain im- Some fanatical women turned distributed 7,000 pieces of litera- provements in the quality of up, hoping to disturb the meetture. Each society has estab- their press; and even a strong ing; but we sang hymns until lished a "wardrobe," collecting party within the church, work- they went off in disgust. They and distributing used clothing to ing to purify the church, or at repeated the experiment the folthe community. Miss Edith M. least to remove the objections lowing day, but a terrible hail- Houston, worker at large, re- that laid it open to'complaint and storm drenched them and they ports that while visiting in the favored the advance of the made a hasty retreat. Not once home of one of the members of Evangelicals. Meanwhile, the were we disturbed again. Later, the societies, she found the evangelical cause continues to a son of one of these fanatical woman of the house examining grow by leaps and bounds. women who had attended the her coat and murmuring, "It meetings for the first time exwould make three little pairs of -Guatemala News. pressed the desire to know the pants." She lost no time in res- Lord. cuing her coat from the modern In Southern Peru Dorcas. Afro-Cuban Cult Alex. Jardine, writing for The Many of the societies have Neglected Continent, tells of a According to the Literary Diprayer groups, meeting once a new Christian group at Macu- gest there is in Cuba a cult month with the sole purpose of sani, southern Peru, who had whose rites sound like a page praying for the evangelization sent a special reque>st for an from pagan Africa. Kidnapof Cuba. -Monday Morning. evangelist to visit them. Mr. ping white children and human Jardine responded and says: sacrifice are a part of the cere- "We found the viUage occupied
monia!. Forty of their witch (66.79 %) are of the opinion aries in fourteen different fordoctors were arrested last De- that religion is losing ground. eign countries. Of the 2,728 cember and twenty others are churches in these foreign counalready serving long terms in World Religions tries, 2,000 are self-supporting. the Government prison. The total membership is 204,894. World Dominion has recently Rumania reported 6,050 bap- This cult originated at Sabee, published tables as authentic as capital of the West African slave are available of the percentages tisms, which was the largest coast kingdom of Whydah. It and numbers of the religions of number reported for the year. claims 500,000 votaries in Cuba, the world: of whom 100,000 are whites. – Watchman-Examiner. Catholic …….. 350,000,000-17% Gospel Bus in Chile Orthodox ……. 150,000,000- 7% Asia's Children in Sunday Protestant …… 230,000,000-11% School For the past three or four years the Presbyterian mission Of the non-Christian religions India has the largest Sunday in Chile has taken an active part school enrolment in Asia, with in the work of distributing the the Confucianists form 17 %, Korea a close second. There are Scriptures throughout r u r a I Hindus and Moslems 12 % each, 285,000,000 children in Asia areas by means of a gospel bus. under fourteen years of age They have made long trips with Buddhists, Animists, Shin- (excluding Asiatic Russia), out through the country whenever toists, Jews and others making of which number 2,800,000 beweather permitted traffic away up the remainder of the 2,040,- long to Protestant communities from the central highways. 000,000 in that class. -that is one in a hundred. Only Hundreds of New Testaments about one-quarter of these chilhave been left in the homes of Lutherans Go Forward dren have been touched by the country people, many of whom Sunday school. Some have been never leave their thatched huts. The American L u the ran receiving religious instruction in In each place the missionaries Board of Foreign Missions in day schools, but such privileges take the opportunity of telling adopting its budget on April 22, in day schools are rapidly disthe story of Christ, reading from removed a 10ro cut in mission- appearing. -Alliance Weekly. the Bible itself, training new ary salaries, and voted to send Christians, and opening new during the year one new or re- Women's Missionary Magazine avenues of interest. placement missionary to each foreign field, and also to make After years of discussion and -Presbyterian Banner. to each field a special contribu- planning, the Women's Mission- tion of $1,000 during the year ary Magazine of the United MISCELLANEOUS ($500 for British Guiana) for Presbyterian Church issued its buildings or general work. Ar- first number in August, 1887, Is Religion Losing Ground? gentina gets $1,500 because of with 2,300 advance subscrip- special needs at Eldorado. The. tions. Mrs. Sarah Foster Hanna In the January Fortune ap- total financial advance for the had the honor of first advocating peared the results of a survey on year is $30,000. such a magazine. Mrs. W. the status of religion in the Clark Hutchison, of Xenia, Ohio, Other indications of renewed was its first editor, and served United States today, based on progress are the building of a for 27 years. She was followed 4,500 interviews secured by For- church in Kobe, Japan, and three by Mrs. George Moore, who tune's investigators. new buildings at Zorzor, Liberia. served for 21 years. A fund The erection of new buildings at raised as a memorial to her sup- An equal number of men and Tsingtao, China, will proceed as plies illustrations for the magawomen were interviewed in all soon as the Luther League of zine. It is now under the capable major geographical areas, in America has attained its objec- editorship of Mrs. J. P. White, both rural and urban communi- tive of $10,000. formerly a missionary in Egypt.
ties. The various economic A special effort to cancel the o Lord our God, thy mighty hand levels were represented as fol- Board's debt is making headway. Hath made our country free; lows: prosperous, 10%; upper The treasurer was able to report that indebtedness had been re- From all her broad and happy land middle class, 27 %; lower middle duced to $80,000 by last March. The regular budget of the Board May worship rise to thee; class, 38%, and poor, 25%. is $471,727. The question: "Is religion in Fulfill the promise of her youth, Baptist Gains Her liberty defend; , America today gaining or losing .More than 17,000 persons, the By law and order, love and truth, ground?" The consensus of largest number in one year in judgment: the history of the Foreign Mis- America befriend! sion Society of the Southern Religion gaining……….. 24.8% Baptist Convention, were bap- The strength of every state increase Losing……………….. 49.90/0 tized by the Society's mission- Same ………………… 17. 20/0 aries and native workers last In Union's golden chain; Has no influence ………. year. The Society has mission- Don't know…………… 1. 3% Her thousand cities fill with peace, 6.8% Her million fields with grain- The virtues of her mingled blood Of those definitely believing In one new people blend; that religion is either gaining or losing, more than two-thirds By unity and brotherhood, America befriend! AMElN. -Henry van Dyke.
Missionary
Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts. Eastward. The Story of Adoniram tions and achievements of the A Study of Christianity, National- Judson. Portrait. 8vo. 240 pp. next thirty-seven years fill the ism, and Communism in Asia. By Round Table Press. New York. volume. Judson's first wife died William Paton. 224 pp. $1.50. 1937. after fourteen years in Burma Chicago, Willett Clark and Co. and he later married Sarah 1937. There is no more fascinating Boardman. After a few years she too entered into rest and This is a very timely book. or more stimulating reading Judson married a third time. Mr. Paton is a secretary of the The dangers and the difficulties International Missionary Coun- than good missionary biog- overcom~ in pioneer mission cil. Last year he made a trip work for Christ present a very which took him through the Far raphies. They contain stories different story from that of East, India, and the Near East. most modern missions. Those The letters which record his im- of adventure in new fields, sac- were the days of giants and of pressions are among the most heroes and heroines. informing documents of their rificial service, love and rokind that this reviewer has seen. mance, information about new The biographer is a graduate At the insistence of his friends, of Brown University and now Mr. Paton put the substance of peoples and strange lands and professor of missions in Berkthose letters into book form. eley Divinity School, California. Here, then, is a record of what customs, and the study of char- He naturally sympathizes with a thoughtful observer has seen acter development under many Judson's change to Baptist of present conditions in the adverse conditions and toward views, which was the immediate most populous parts of Asia. high ideals. The life of Adon- reason for the founding of the Mr. Paton's concerns are pri- iram Judson, pioneer mission- American Baptist Missionary marily missionary. He is, how- ary to Burma, is such a treas- Union. The biography is vivid ever, interested also in the set- ure house. He has furnished and sympathetic, revealing the ting in which missions must material for many biographies, way God works to build up His work. These chapters contain, histories and historical novels Kingdom "in spite of dungeon, therefore, pictures of trends in in the past eighty-five years. fire and sword." politics, economics, and thought This is a well written life his- tory, documented, with clear The Israel Promises and Their Fulwhich affect the life of the purpose and abundant human filment. By Samuel Hinds Wilkin- Church. interest. While not a spiritual son. 195 pp. 88. 6d. John Bale, interpretation, it is a sympa- Sons, and Danielson. London. 1936. The book does not end with a thetic record. travelogue. The author has What is the teaching of the properly added an interpreta- The subject is too well-known Bible regarding the future of tion. The second half of the to require extended comment. the Jews? The answer would book he terms "Reflections." Going out with his young bride, seem to be simple enough. It is Mr. Paton states what he be- in 1812, as one of the first in fact far otherwise. There are lieves to be the Christian mes- American foreign missionaries, in general two main views held sage. He discusses the relation he found they were not wanted by Christians. One follows the of Church, community, and state by the British East India Com- Jewish interpretation of the in the Far East. He describes pany that controlled foreign re- ancient prophecies concerning the present condition of the lations with India. Moreover, Israel that there will be a recon..; younger churches as he has seen Judson and his wife decided stitution of the Jewish nation in them. He also gives space to that they could not work as Con- Palestine under the Messiah the relation of the Church to the gregational missionaries but when the Jews will reach the changing social order. Mr. must work as Baptists. This highest pinnacle of earthly do- Paton is always soundly evan- cut them off from home support minion and glory. Some Chrisgelical and always sees below for a time. Forbidden to work tians maintain that this will be the surface to the significance in India, after they had come realized at the second coming of of the transient scene. 12,000 miles and were five months away from home, finally K. S. LATOURETTE. after trying Mauritius and Pen- ang, the J udsons found a "crazy old vessel" to take them to Ran- goon. The trials, horrors, hero- ism, joys and sorrows, priva- Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the Rl!VIIlW publishers on receipt of price.
[ 397]
Christ. The other view holds that have taken place. Arabia, terest. Dr. Corey is one of the Syria and Palestine, Egypt and recognized leaders of the foreign that the old covenant was abol- Africa, Turkey, Iran, India and m iss ion a r y enterprise, and the Farther East are then con- writes out of long and rich exished by Christ and under the sidered specifically in illumi- perience, first as secretary and nating chapters. While Islam is now as president of the. United new covenant the Church is the still considered an almost impos- Christian Missionary Society of sible field for Christian advance, the Disciples of Christ. His legitimate heir of the promises this book gives an encouraging knowledge of missions is wide record of the progress made. and accurate. He shows the made to Israel. Instead of an The Moslem attitude to Christ is wider range of world missions, changing but Mohammed's fol- "beyond statistics." His clarity earthly dominion and glory, the lowers are becoming more ma- of literary style, wealth of facts terialistic. The weakness and and illustrations, and cogency Church has come into possession strength of Islam are clearly of argument make delightful shown. The absolute necessity reading. So good a book should of a spiritual Zion and a richer of life through Christ might be have an index. more positively stressed. Mosspiritual inheritance. lems who become Christians ARTHUR J. BROWN. know that there is no hope in One of the ablest exponents of Mohammed. The Young Moslem Looks at Life. By Murray T. Titus. 8vo. 181 pp. the latter view is Philip Mauro, Christ and the W orId Today. By $1.00, cloth; 60 cents, paper. Wm. E. Doughty. 12mo. 126 pp. Friendship Press. New York. 1937. whose volume, "The Hope of Methodist Book Concern. New York. 1937. Moslems are an interesting Israel: What Is It?" has had a people. They follow one of the Dr. Doughty was for some most positive religious systems wide circulation and a potent in- time a secretary of the Laymen's in the world and are exceedingly Missionary Movement and later missionary-minded. Many Mosfluence. It is because of this in- of the Near East Relief. He is lem youth are wide-awake and a man of missionary vision and are in training for leadership. fluence that Samuel Wilkinson a clear and convincing speaker In the first chapter of this study and writer. This little volume book for young people in Amerhas written his book to counter- describes the "New Age" in ica, the author introduces Mo- which we live – with its good hammed Bey, a young Moslem act its effect which he regards and evil; "The Changing World" of Kashgar, who desires to see that offers a challenge to Chris- the world by making a pilas harmful and misleading. tians; the "New Destiny" that grimage to Mecca. The book is faced by the Church and the describes his experiences and As director of the Mildmay various nations and races; the reactions and shows that while "World Mission" of Japan, India his eyes were opened to many Mission to the Jews, of London, and other lands; "America in weaknesses in Moslems, his ex- the New Age" and its vast op- perience at Mecca overwhelmed Mr. Wilkinson brings to bear on portunity; the "New World So- him with Islam's greatness. ciety" seen as the Kingdom of the problem a deep interest in God and "Christ's Summons" to Dr. Titus then goes on to show a new departure, calling for a clearly the main facts about Mothe Jewish people and the re- new crusade. hammed and his religion, the practiC'es of Islam and the results of a life-long study of the It is a book of facts, carefully sults seen in the family, in poli- selected and interpreted to show tics and religion. He closes with Scriptures concerning the m. the author's views as to why and a Moslem view of Christianity how the world should be made and Islam's challenge to the He undertakes to establish on over to conform to the spirit and world. Young people will do purpose of Christ. The facts well to read it. They will then impregnable foundations the in- are impressive but we believe have deeper appreciation of that the Bible leads us to expect Christ and Christianity. violability of the promises con- the complete fulfilment of Christ's purposes only when lie What Is the Moslem World? By cerning Israel and the certainty returns to reign. Charles R. Watson. 8vo. 207 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 cents, paplr. of their plenary fulfilment. His Beyond Statistics. By Stephen J. Friendship Press. New York. 1937. Corey. 188 pp. $1.00. Bethany book is a very valuable contri- Press. St. Louis. Mo. 1937. Few men know the Near East Moslem world better than Dr. bution to the study of the sub- Here is one of the best of re- Watson. He was born in Egypt cent missionary books, small in of missionary parents and has ject, but we wish that its mes- size, but large in value and in- been a missionary there for twenty years. In this adult missage had been less controversial and less limited in its scope by the arguments which he seeks to meet. These books by Philip Mauro and Samuel Wilkinson are keen and interesting ex- amples of diverse Biblical inter- pretation. J. S. CONNING.
Mecca and Beyond. By Edward M. Dodd and Rose Wilson Dodd. IlIus. 12mo. 222 pp. $1.00, cloth; 50 cents, paper. Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. Boston. 1937.
Mecca, the "Forbidden City" to Christians, is a name to conjure with for Moslems. Dr. and Mrs. Dodd have both lived among followers of Mohammed in the Near East and have been in touch with them ever since they left Persia (Iran). This popular and well-written study book is good reading for it deals, not with abstract, but with concrete facts and incidents. First the authors view "the Moslem and his world" as a whole and show the remarkable changes
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
sion study book he has given the the churches and missions are well told, always attract children main facts about the lands and included, with 2,298 mission- and at the same time educate peoples where Islam holds sway. aries. The information is un- them and develop their human He points out many peculiarities avoidably and unfortunately in- sympathies. A child naturally of the Moslems and the "grip- complete. has no racial prej udices and can ping power of Islam." He also Bust., Until Seventy Times Seven. By be deeply interested in the way May Wyburn. Illus. 12mo. 192 presents the main facts as to the children of other lands live and contact of Christians with Mos- pp. $1.25. Loizeaux Bros. New talk, work and play. Here, by lems. Where Dr. Watson fails, York. 1936. means of captivating pictures we think, is in dealing with the The Water Street Mission, on every page, with attractive New York City, has long been verses and stories, the reader is weakness of Islam, its increased introduced to children from antagonism to Christ as known known as a place where modern Greenland, China, Japan, India, to Christians, and its supreme miracles are wrought. The story Africa, the Philippines and from of lives and natures transformed Palestine. Here are friendly, need for the Gospel. In looking and regenerated there have a attractive stories for very young to the future he calls on Chris- perpetual thrill and will never children, suitable for use in the grow old. Here the widow of home and Sunday school, as well tians to make better use of their as by teachers of young children resources, to understand the the former superintendent, a in day school. true man of God, gives some of task and its difficulties, to use these wonder tales of city mis- Kill or Cure. By Muriel Lester. 135 more strategy with a united ap- sion work, under the subtitle of pp. $1.00. Gokesbury Press. Nashproach to the problem. Mission- three Biblical names of three ville, Tennessee. 1937. aries to Moslems know that un- superintendents – J ere m i a h failing faith and prayer and lov- This is an avowedly "peace (McAuley), Samuel (Hadley) tract," by the woman who has ing sacrifice are required, but and John (Wyburn). These men been called "the Jane Addams" that the fruit must come from of England and who had become the Spirit of God opening blind are worth knowing and the eyes and bringing new life to dead souls. stories of their lives and the In the Jungles of New Guinea. By harvest that resulted from their internationally known not only Missionary R. Hanselmann. lllus. seed-sowing and watering fur- for her remarkable Christian Pamphlet. Lutheran Book Concern. nish good illustrations for ser- Columbus, Ohio. mons as well as excellent read- service in the tenement district ing. Here is a place where men New Guinea is still unknown were truly converted. They of London but for her eloquent to most Americans, in spite of knew it and others knew it by the fact that it is an immense the way their light shone before advocacy of world peace. In island and has great wealth and men and glorified God. Read interest for explorers, anthro- these "wonder tales" and pass this little book she convincingly pologists, scientists, exploiters them on to others as a witness and especially for missionary- of the redemptive power of shows the utter futility of war minded Christians. Christ. and the urgent need of develop- Mr. Hanselmann, a Lutheran Just Like You Stories. For Boys and missionary in the Mandated Ter- Girls. By Mrs. Henry W. Peabody. ing attitudes and methods for ritory, gives here his impres- Illus. 186 pp. $1.50. M. H. Leavis. sions of the flora, the fauna and Boston,. Mass. 1937. preventing it. Some readers the natives. A little is told about his experiences with them Eyegate is one of the most ef- may feel that she carries her and the effective work of the fective means of entrance into Lutherans. the mind and heart and soul. pacifism to extremes, but they will respect her sincerity. Dr.
Stanley Hunter adds an inter- esting biographical sketch of the author. ARTHUR J. BROWN.
About the Old Faith. By Henry W.
Frost. 12mo. 128 pp. $1.25.
Fleming H. Revell Co. New York. 1937.
The Evangelical Handbook of Latin Wise guidance in a child's read- In these days of new man- America. Paper. Quarto. 119 pp. ing is therefore one of the most made cults and of militant un- 48. Committee on Cooperation in belief there is need for short, Latin America, New York and the important avenues of learning. clear studies in revealed truth. World Dominion Press, London. And yet multitudes of children 1937. today, even in Christian homes, Those who are experimenting in With excellent maps, statisti- are having their tastes vitiated, new creeds need to avoid the cal tables, general information, their standards lowered, and toadstool variety of philosophy and directory of missionaries in their future endangered by the that carries death. each of the Latin American silly, distorted and often degrad- For half a century Dr. Frost countries, this volume gives val- ing reading they find in news- has tested the brand of faith uable up-to-date information. papers and books. Dr. May which he presents here in simple Everyone interested in the Lazar, research assistant of the outline. It has, m 0 reo v e r, progress of missions in these Board of Education, New York proved its value for two thoutwenty-one countries (including City, warns against many fairy- sand years and continues to islands in the West Indies) tales and "series books" that bring life and strength today to should have this Handbook for distort their ideas about life. those who follow it. Here is an study and reference. Most of True stories of children, when elementary volume for students,
rather than an advanced treatise Immensity. God's Greatness Seen in With Christ in Africa. By Rev. D. A. Creation. By Clarence H. Benson. McDonald. Illus. 158 pp. 28. 6d. on the Christian faith. Dr. Frost Illus. 8vo. 140 pp. $1.50. The Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd., bases everything on the Bible, Scripture Press. Chicago. 1937. London, Edinburgh. Obtainable in though in many cases the refer- America from Zondervan Publishences are lacking. His general The wonders of God's uni- ing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. verse can be grasped only faintly $1.00. 1937. topics are: The Godhead, Christ, Man, Sin, The Scriptures, Fun- -its magnificence, its order, its "The persons who say, 'Let design, its harmony in immen- the Africans alone; they are damental Doctrines, The Church, sity and in minuteness. There quite happy,' have never lived Christian Experience, Christian is fine opportunity for unending close to African life." For Privileges, Christian Services, forty years (1892-1931), Rev. Vital Topics, The Unseen World, study for it is a study of the D. A. McDonald lived among the works of God. Mr. Benson here people of South Africa, daily Prophecy and the Final State. gives glimpses of the wonders adding to his evidence that "The For most purposes the studies of astronomy and the lessons we dark places of the earth are full learn as to God's character and of the habitations of cruelty." are too analytical. There is no purpose. The author is director The story of his life and work argument but rather a series of among the peoples of Kafraria numbered statements to set forth of Christian Education Courses and North East Transvaal rethe author's interpretations of in Moody Bible Institute, Chi- veals a genuine understanding and appreciation of the Zulus the Bible teaching. There are cago, and is author of "The and Vendas among whom he almost no extra Biblical illustra- Earth, the Theater of the Uni- faithfully and victoriously contions or examples of the way verse" and other volumes. Here ducted his business of "life- is a book that makes infidelity changing." these truths work out in life. impossible to an honest, intel- Young people who wish to know From the point of general in- ligent thinker. It is also fasci- terest the effectiveness of the what the Word of God says will nating reading and furnishes an book is somewhat hampered by find Dr. Frost's studies illumi- immense amount of material for nating. Missionaries will also sermons. Every chapter is linked up to Bible passages and find them of real value to clarify the closing chapter is on the their own thinking and as a text- book for use with converts.
Except Ye Repent. By Harry A. "Star of Bethlehem" – not yet a too exact emphasis on the Ironside. 8vo. 191 pp. $1.50. clearly identified. names of obscure places and American Tract Society. New York. people. But the genuineness, the 1937. Pioneering in Kwangsi. By W. H. Oldfield. Illus. 8vo. 208 pp. whimsical naIvete and the splen- The number of strong and Christian Publications, Inc. Har- did Christian vitality of the man convincing evangelical preach- risburg, Pa. 1936. make his narrative a real testi- ers seems to be diminishing Kwangsi is one of the larger mony to the joy of courageous rather than increasing, so that and generally unevangelized Christian living.
volumes of sermons, like this, provinces in southwest China. FLORENCE LERRIGO.
are prizes worth having. Dr. Here The Christian and Mission- Ironsides, pastor of the Moody ary Alliance has done and is do- Cross of Christ. By George P. Pier- Memorial Church, Chicago, is a ing a remarkable work among son, D.D. $1.50. 173 pp. Amer- ican Tract Society. New York. powerful evangelical and pop- Chinese and aboriginal tribes. 1937. ular preacher and a clear ex- The courage, sacrifice, and perpositor. This series of sermons severence of these missionaries This timely little volume is , on Repentance won the $1,000 have produced some remarkable well worth a young Christian's prize offered by the American results. (See the article by Rev. examination and p ray e r f u I Tract Society. They are worth A. C. Snead in this issue of THE study. Dr. Pierson, for forty years a missionary in Japan, it – short, evangelical, Biblical, REVIEW.) practical, arresting, adapted for The Rev. W. H. Oldfield, one places the Cross where it should present-day needs. This series of the pioneers, describes vividly be, at the center, and he focuses takes up the meaning of repent- the land and people, the material the divine light of God's Word ance, Christ's call to repent, the progress in recent years and the upon it from all angles-"from teaching of various apostles and work of the Alliance in its vari- above, from the background, Biblical writers on the subject ous stations and outstations. It from its very self, from either and the results of preaching re- is a story of faith, of courage, of side, from the foreground, from pentance today. Ministers and adventure and of achievement. below, and from the ensuing missionaries will do well to study There are still millions who are centuries." In doing so he brings this volume carefully and to unevangelized and one can travel forward the essentials of the preach on the same subject hundreds of miles without see- Christian faith that need emoften. It is too much neglected ing a Christian chapel. Some phasis and restatement at the and too superficially treated. of the best work is being done present hour.
"Except ye repent, ye shall all by Chinese Gospel Bands that Dr. Pierson is well qualified likewise perish," are the words are trained and then go out to for this work not only from a of Christ to religious leaders of evangelize their fellow country- scholastic standpoint but also His day. men. from personal experience. After
from Princeton Uni- The Deeper Life. Max I. Reich. 115 of this Course
versity and S e min a r y, he pp. $1.00. Wm. B. Eerdmans. Young People's Society may preached these truths in Japan Grand Rapids, Mich. , converted into a School for and America. A. H. P'ERPE1'UO. Bible Training. Four Point Project Program. Based New Book. on Missionary Heroes Course No.1. 1936 STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE Theodore L. Conklin. 30 pp. Board But, Until Seventy Times Seven. S. of Education, American Baptist Four Parts-52 Lessons. Part I, The Bible-The May Wyburn. 192 pp. $1.25. Asso. New York. God of the Bible. Part II, The Christ of the Bible Loizeaux Bros. New York. -The Holy Spirit. Part III, Man-Sin and Redemp- God's Methods for Holy Living. tion. Part IV. The Church-Future Events. Christ and the World Today. Wm. Donald Grey Barnhouse. 93 pp. E. Doughty. 126 pp. Methodist 50 cents. Revelation. Philadelphia. Send 15c in stamps for current issue. Book Concern. New York. The History of Sin. Happy Though HRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS.IN(; My Servant Moses. E. Ray Cameron. Poor. History of Temptation. Men 187 pp. $1.50. Revell. New York. Whom God Struck Dead. The 1502 N. Third St., Hlrrisburg, PI. Marks of, Sonship. When Winter Then and Now in Kenya Colony. Comes. Donald Grey Barnhouse. Bishop Lauress J. Birney, retired, Willis R. Hotchkiss. 160 pp. $1.50. 16 page leaflets. 10 cents each. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Revell. New York. Revelation. Philadelphia. died in Pasadena, California, on May 10 at the age of 65. He was born in James Hudson Taylor. James J. Living in the Ministry of Song. Tom Dennison, Ohio, and after graduation Ellis. 96 pp. 18. Pickering & Jones. 180 pp. 2s. 6d. Pickering from Boston University School of Inglis. London. & Inglis. London. Theology, served several pastorates. He was elected Dean of Boston Uni- Pioneering in Kwangsi. W. H. Old- Obituary Notes versity in 1911 and in 1920 was ele- field. 208 pp. Christian Publica- vated to the Bishopric, with China as tions. Harrisburg, Pa. (Concluded from page 337.) his special mission field. Mr. Frederic F. Helmer, editorIal Christendom and Islam. Their Con- secretary for North America for the tacts and Cultures Down the Cen- China Inland Mission, died in Toronto, turies. W. Wilson Cash. 205 pp. Canada, March 19. Mr. Helmer had $2.00. Harpers. New York. filled various positions in the C. I. M., among others Publication and Prayer Church Unity. F. H. Knubel. 86 pp. Union Secretary. He remodeled 75 cents. United Lutheran Pub. China's Millions and founded Young House. Philadelphia.· China.
OBJEOTIVES AND PRINOIPLES FOR YOUTH We earnestly commend the following personal and social objectives for. the enlistment of youth: .
I surrender my life to Jesus Christ and His way of living and I enlist in His service.
I believe that it is the purpose of God to make Christ known in all the world so that all human relationships will be controlled by God's law of love. I propose to live, so far as He enables me, as if His Kingdom were now recognized.
I will faithfully observe a "quiet time" each day for meditation and prayer and the study of God's Word.
I will regard my lifework as my share in extending God's Kingdom. I will choose my life- work in accordance with what I can discover to be God's will, and not for personal selfish gain. I will practice restraint and self-denial in all my personal nabits.
I will keep my friendships on a high level, not conforming to lower standards of the world, but helping to lift the standards of my group to the best that I know, as God has revealed His way of life.
I will serve Christ through the Christian Church, doing all that I can to make it the effec- tive instrument that it must be if God's world is to be truly Christian.
I will oppose the war system as murderous and selfish, and will work ceaselessly for the establishment of peace based on righteousness and love.
I will refrain from the use of alcoholic liquors, and will work to rid the world of the degrading liquor traffic.
I will treat those of all races as my brothers and sisters made in the spiritual image of God.
I will give myself to the creation of better economic and social conditions wherein every member of society shall have opportunity to earn a livelIhood for himself and those dependent upon him and wherein every member of society shall have sufficient to meet his economic needs.
I will use my leisure time only for such recreation as is wholesome and will enrich and uplift personality, and will refrain from amusements which injure or degrade myself or others.
I will give of my time, as far as possible, to working for the building of a Christian world -in personal work, public speaking, writing, and circulating literature, and in every possible way evangelizing for Christ.
I will give sacrificially of my earnings and other possessions to support the enterprises which are working to build a Christian world.
I will conscientiously seek to obey the Will of God as revealed in His written Word and will put Him first in all things-that Christ may have the preeminence. -Adapted from "The Evangelical-Messenger."
THE SPECIAL uMOSLEM NUMBER"
OF THE MISSIONARY ~'WORID This October Issue will contain articles on CHRIST AND THE MOSLEM WORLD Why Take Christ to Moslems? Samuel M. Zwemer The Gospel for Mohammedans W. Wilson Cash Present.day Trends in Islam Edward C. Dodd Moslem Reactions to Christ • James Haldane My Experience with Moslems Frank C. Laubach Christ and Moslem Homes . Eleanor Calverley What Christ Has Done for Me • S. Khoobyar A Sermon by a Former Moslem Saee'd Kurdistani and others—with maps and illustrations ORDER COPIES IN ADVANCE FOR YOURSELF AND MISSION STUDY CLASSES 25 cents a copy $20 a hundred $2.50 a year THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD Third and Reily Streel:s, Harrisburg, Pa.
ROBERT E. SPEER, President DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor READ THE MOSLEM WORLD SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, Editor SOME ARTICLES IN THE JULY NUMBER Patience (Editorial) George Swan The Arabic Version of the Bible Paul Erdman The Bible and Moslems • J. Christy Wilson The Bible in the Balkans • James Oscar Boyd The Koran as Magic Bess Allen Donaldson Moslem Chronology in China Isaac Mason Shi'a Standards of Hyderabad • • Kate Greenfield A Statistical Survey Carlo Gasbarri Why Not Canonize Mohammed? Mounir R. Sa'adeh Egypt Tastes Independence Pierre Crabites Book Reviews ••• Current Topics••• Survey of Periodicals __-+)0 SUBSCRIBE NOW ~~-._ 50 Cents a Copy. $2.00 a Year (postpaid) In combination with THE MOSLEM WORLD THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City $3.50 a Year. (Foreign Postage, 50 Cents.) British Agents: MARSHA!.!., MORGAN & SCOTT, 12 Paternoster Buildings, !.ondon, E. C. Price in Great Britain, Eight Shillings a Year, net
The Missionary Review of the World — October 1936
1936
THE AFRICA NUMBER Progress and Challenge in Africa Alexander Mcleish An African View of Indigenous African Religions Donald G. S. M'Timkulu The Gospel Among Primitive Peoples John S. Hall Revival in Central Africa Andrew MacBeath The Gospel and the Women of West Africa Jewel H. Schwab The Church of Christ in Uganda J. J. Willis Material Progress and the Africans John M. Springer The PrintedWord Among the Bantu Robert H. W. Shepherd A Medical Missionary on Tour Albert D. Helser The Unoccupied Fields John Steytler Africans on the Witness Stand Various Authors 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember executive secretary of promotion. He International Dollar
will serve as chairman of the joint October 12-18–International Con- staff of the missions council and pro- Approved by Women's Boards of For- vention of the Disciples of Christ. motional units of the American Board eign Missions to meet the Grave Emer- Kansas City, Mo. and the Home Boards in the Congre- gency caused by decreased appropriations gational Church. for Vellore Missionary Medical College October 14-15 – Annual Meeting, for Women. Unless friends will help American Mission to Lepers, New The Rev. Gr*ant* K*. Lewis, Secre- quickly through the York City. tary of the Home Department of the Good Samaritan Dollar Bonds October 21-24–National Council of United Christian Missionary Society Young Men's Christian Associa- of the Disciples Church, has resigned. Dr. Scudder must close some of the work tions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. G. Orissa*Ta*ylo*r, born in India, and turn away eager Indian Christian stu- November 17-19 – National Confer- dents who long for training as doctors. ence on the Rural Church, Ames, has been appointed deputation travel- Already one Roadside Clinic is closed. Iowa. ing secretary of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. Dr. Taylor worked One Hundred Million Indian November 23-24 – United Steward- at Chittagong Hill, India, as a B. M. Women ship Council Meeting, Dayton, Ohio. S. medical missionary, was invalided ho~e, and for twenty years was su- will die without medical or spiritual aid CONFEREI'TCES AND SCHOOLS permtendent of the Islington Medical unless we meet the need quickly. Send OF MISSIONS Mission. Then, five years ago, he and for free literature and Bonds to Mrs. Mrs. Taylor went back to India again Henry W. Peabody, Chairman, Beverly, Affiliated with the Council of Women to work with the Nilgiri Medical Mis- Massachusetts. She will also send Prize for Home Missions and the Com- sion. Offer for those who will sell Bonds. mittee on Women's Work, For- eign Missions Conference Dr. Harold A*. M* oo*dy, of London, A Superior Education Houston, Te~a8 – September 28 – Oc- a Jamaican Negro, took office last Offered by Calvert Courses tober 2. month as president of the British Dean – Mrs. A. B. Hynes, 618 Christian Endeavor Un ion. Dr. FOR CHILDREN Highland, Houston, Texas. Moody is a practicing physician and founder and president of tbe League More than 50,000 children have ac- Warren, Okio–October 6-7. for Colored People of England. quired a superior elementary education Mrs. George Konold, 814 Scott . . . in their own homes • . . in this St., N. E., Warren, Ohio. Obituary Note. interesting and simple way. Recommended by Mission Boards, Edu- Baltimore, Md.-October 19-21. Fred B. Smith, author and former cators, State Department, and Army Mrs. David D. Baker, 410 N. Cal- moderator of the National Council of and Navy Officials. houn St., Baltimore, Md. Congregational Churches, died at his Daily lessons, selected books, stationery, home in White Plains, New York, on special materials and personal guidance Personal Items September 3d, at the age of seventy … by mail … from our prominent years. He was born in Lone Tree, and successful private day school in Dr. C. T. Wang, former Foreign Iowa, and spent one year at the State Baltimore. Minister, has been named Ambas- University of Iowa. After his con- Write today for illustrated catalog. sador to Washington to succeed Dr. version at the age of twenty-five he Sao-Ke Alfred Sze. Mr. Wang is a entered Y. M. C. A. work. He was M~!.~~~~~.!i~~~~~me , graduate of Yale, and was at one chairman of the World Alliance for Instruction time a Y. M. C. A. secretary. He is International Friendship and chair- 1810Tuscany Road, Baltimore, Md. now a member of the ruling Kuomin- man of the religious committee of the tang party's central executive commit- Y. M. C. A. during the World War. Planned along ad. tee. He is fifty-four years old. He is survived by his wife, two sons vanced peda;ogical Unes and three daughters. to provide both Home and Cia.. *** for the pupil. Varied (Continued on page 449.) such as Quizzes, Reading Tests, True Mr. John H. Reisner is spending False Test.. and Completion Tests, eight months in Africa under the LET YOUR GIFT the pupil to work out each lesson from auspices of the Agricultural Missions PAY YOU Bible for himself. Foundation and the Rural Missions Cooperating Committee. His itinerary A LIFE INCOME Interesting -:- Inspirational -:- In.hu"H",. includes Gold Coast, Nigeria, French Cameroons, Belgian Congo, Angola, I YOAUNR~UGJITfTY OPLNANTHE ~ SeM 8c in .bmp' lor curr_t in". Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rho- – will provide b you Sample. oj Oour S,.II'1d..y School pubhc.Uon••nd desia, Nyasaland, Portuguese East lind your dependeab Africa, Union of South Africa, Kenya Bible CO&rae.lor YCNRV People', Societi.. and Uganda. He expects to reach I.~' UlIChAanSau{unr8e aInd~ Mnt ft.. Oon ,,,,,,,••t. New York about January first. fully guaranteed by ~ serve funds required by EST.ISBS The Rev. W.*Y.*Ch*en has been ap- – New anYnourikt·ie"sjiIta.p.teromlaWptllloy All CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS.lN<! pointed General Secretary of the Na- paid "Inee 1876. tional Christian Council of China, By your CIft 700 Wlll 1502 N. Third St., Harrisburg, Pa. succeeding Dr. Cheng Ching-yi, who stiare tn world-wide resigned in 1984 to become General Christian work of the Secretary of the Church of Christ in ChurCh•. China. I'Dr ",,1 ialDriuIloII fWIu *** ~….:t~1~~ The Rev. Leonard M. Outerbridge, formerly a missionary of the American Board in North China and recently Associate Secretary of the American Board, has been appointed
MISSIONARY How African Evangelists are
REVIEW OF THE WORLD Trained, by L. Paul Moore, Jr. High Speed DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor What Christ Has Done for Afri- at Low Cost cans, by Bernard Molaba. VOL. LIX OCT., 1936 No. 10 Speed is often so important when Pioneering for Christ in Africa, crossing to the Orient. That's why Publication and Business Office– by Herbert Smith. busy travellers go by Empress. You Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. go faster … in maximum comfort The Greatest Need of Africa To- . .. and at surprisingly low cost. Editorial and Executive Office– day, by S. S. Tema. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Only lQ days to Yokohama by Entered as second-class matter at We deeply appreciate the general Empress of Asia or Empress of cooperation of missionaries and other Russia. Or via Honolulu in just 3 Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., unde, friends of Africa in the preparation days more by Empress of Japan Act of March 3, 1879. of this special number. Busy workers (largest, fastest liner on the Pa<:ific) have freely given of their valuable or Empress of Canada. 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. time to record the progress and prob- Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. lems of missions in Africa as they Low round-trip fares . . . First, Published monthly. except AUghst. have seen them. They throw much Tourist and Third Class. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1935. light on the Africans themselves, both British agents – Marshall, Morgan Christian and non-Christian and de- Regular sailings from Vancouver scribe the methods and difficulties met and Victoria in Canada's Evergreen t~~d~~~t~. 1~. p~te~~~~~~~ ~~;ld~~;:: in the work. Weare especially glad Playground. Orient fares include to have a large number of African passage from and to Seattle. If you 10 shillings a year. Christians contribute articles on what sail from California, connect with an Christ has done for them and for Empress at Honolulu. Orient ports- MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Africa. This is a most fascinating of-call: Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, LISHING CO" INC. field, immense and varied in its ex- Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila. BOARD OF DIRECTORS tent but very fruitful in the results • World Tours . .. $579.90 up, that have followed the faithful wit- Combination of Classes. Write for ROUERT E. SPEER. l'r" .•ident nessing for Christ. folder of six most popular routes. A. L. WARNBHUIB. Vi06-Pre8ident Vv· ALTl<~R MCDOUGALL, '1'rew.;urer Obituary Notes Booklets, information from YOUR DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary AGENT or Canadian Pacific: New (Continued from second cover.) York, 344 Madison Ave.; Chicago, SAMUEl. MCCREA CAVERT 71 E. Jackson Blvd.; San Francisco, Mrs. Calvin Mateer, who, fifty- 152 Geary St.; and 38 other cities WILLIAM I. CHAMBERLAIN seven years ago, as Miss Haven, vol- in the United States and Canada. D. J. FANT unteered for missionary service in MRS, OHI<lN R. JUDD China, died in Peiping on August by WM. B. LIPPHARD first. She was born in Brookline, Mass., in 1850, and later married Dr. ~(fa4c ERIC M. NOR'fH Calvin Mateer, a missionary of the SAMUEL M. ZWEMER Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- EMPRESSES sions. Mrs. Mateer taught in mission Editorial Chat high schools, prepared textbooks, and translated a numoer of volumes into We would express our sincere grati- Chinese. Later she taught in the tude to Mr. Robert M. Kurtz for Women's Bible Training School in kindly undertaking to put through the Peiping, and after her honorary relast of the September number and for tirement in 1924 continued teaching his effective editorial work on the and writing. present issue of THE REVIEW. This is especially important as it is the mis- *** sion study number on Africa and will be widely used in mission study Missionary Muller, of the Hercircles. Already our extra edition of mannsburg Mission in Gallaland, the June American Negro Number West Abyssinia, lost his life at the has been entirely sold out. It will be hands of rioters and robbers who inwell for those who desire extra copies fest that section. He thus becomes the of the October REVIEW to send in their first martyr of this mission in that orders immediately so that they will area, which, because of its remoteness not be disappointed. from the capital, has not yet been placed under military law. *** *** Owing to limited space and to the failure of some promised articles to Miss Grace Stephens, Anglo-Indian reach us on time, a number of articles missionary, who began work among planned for the October number must the women and girls of India fifty be held over until later. Some of these years ago, passed away May 30, in the are very important and we expect to Ellen Thoburn COWen Hospital, Kolar, print them in November and Decem- India, at the age of eighty-five. At ber. They include the following: one of her zenana parties in 1892, where four hundred women had gath- Roman Catholic Activity in Pa- ered and were seated about on the gan Africa, by Kenneth G. floor, she stealthily sent for Bishop Grubb. Thoburn. When he appeared, many of them, purdah women and Brah- Hindrances to Christianity in mans, looked askance, but after a Africa, by C. S. Jenkins. time more than a dozen women pushed through the crowd at Miss Stephens' The Influence of White Men in invitation and shook hands with the Africa, by Oscar Emil Eman- bishop. It was a considered a great uelson. triumph and no unhappy results fol- lowed. The Progress of Islam in Africa, by Samuel M. Zwemer. (Concluded on page 512.) Missionary Work as Seen by an [449 ] African, by John L. Dube.
Achievements in West Africa, by R. S. Roseberry.
Some Results in Central Africa, by Virginia M. Clarke.
Missions in the Congo BeIge, by Thomas Moody.
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T&Il&,ie ..R.ut:i.j..a Or ~~ ..f '" s asta ane"tt& -.— usa f' ' ,. Casablan 0 SF.. '~A Con&ta"oBiskra I UNI _,,. eo <f A • M.kirl!l • L G E R I A. l.'T Sf" .~"..•'.'-''.y ", ._.thardaia,.. 0 MOROCCO Gabes • Morocro .r;' .. .' Agadlr – – -) Colomb • • ___ – Bechar ~:hadames ,._.J RlODEOJ !' . LIB Y A , . o Murzuk I Kh"gaO ) , .J. ,'— ~ ~. "' . , L'.-._.-.A-sw.a~,.. W.dyH,lfa ( " Oongof,o Port Sudan FRENCH WE S T AFRICA < "("'> Dakar Timbuklu O JI..::U "Kayes °Sinder • ."- "'."……–..~ ~< EIObel Kuka aBamako I i oW.gadugu 0 Abeshr. SUDAN Ko . " ,. _ . ,• J.:.. I. anD .Yakuba ( ..: 1 Kon~o i !? ,,' N I G E R I A " 0:: ·1-..I. JS ,.)' r I /GOLD . 🙁 IOHesha @B K l a . ~ …… /Kumassi Q • "'fbada" '.. '. (ETEI1 J'IA) • Cd'AST • oAsaba , "'sagmo _ _ _'!"'oo&..;A;;;k",k~~~~ ; ; Bangui . ___~ ~ ·(Bra~n·o~'~.~r<?~!¥' ~ .' 0 Upolo ~~.. ir '"– ._., .-) '·…. :~4J Ynd 0' ~ au ~~DA) " (.:.' ._. ~nteb~{>"~BRITISH ~" ,! StanleyvilleO * – Vir/orio ~ 4. J'/ BELGIAN . 'E'A0~ °l am, oKindu '
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Principal Cities Map of *KEY TO POPULATION NOTICE Over 100,000 nlth ……¥~h.od_… n.. …. ~"" …. AFRICA S 20,000 to 100,000 ;::-:::::::::'COZ'"::t.":i.i;!;~ o Less than 20,000 MAP No. 966 Capitals of Countries (underscored) Scale of Miles COfJ)Tialu 200 Amuican Mao Company. '"e.• N .Y ..- 8392. . ORLD VOLUME LIX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 10 OCTOBER, 1936 Topics of the Times WHY STUDY AFRICA One answer, or rectification rather, to that question is that no great human agency is any There appears to be a special opportunity and longer justified in attempting to maintain bounduty before the Christian Church to study Africa. daries between "home" and "foreign" needs. What is done about American race relations will In a sense, not true of any other great world profoundly affect Africa. What is done about unit, human or geographical, there is no one, any- African economic questions will continue greatly where, effectively to think and plan for Africa as to influence American living. And so throughout a whole. Africans cannot do it yet. Eight hun- the earth. dred languages, as many tribes, a millennium of almost complete tribal isolations prevent. The six But the basic reply to that question is that the European powers governing in Africa, and the problems in many of their aspects are universal, one striving to return there, will not do it. One and that Christianity has the answers to them need only name them-Britain, France, Italy, wherever they occur. They are by no means con- Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany-to make fined to America or to Africa and those nations clear the improbability of their presently agree- which have given themselves burdens in Africa. ing on anything, much less on the future of the They are universal. And the Church, by its very Africa which is so rich in raw materials and claim to universality, or better, by its very unihuman power as nearly to have precipitated an- versality, finds itself sharing those burdens. other great war this past year, when the world was crying out against all war. The "gratuitousness" of the Church's continued and increased intervention in African affairs is No, there is no prospect of unity of thinking thus also answered, with the added observation about Africa-unless it be that the Church shall that, in practical human relations, mere political do it. Therein lies a great challenge and oppor- control of a territory has seldom operated to pretunity, not only for performing a beneficent serv- vent ideas and pressures from nations other than ice for Africa and the world, but for exercising the one in authority entering and influencing the and strengthening within the Church those quali- country, sometimes very deeply indeed. ties of spiritual and moral leadership which remain so often latent and are. yet so sorely needed In the case of Africa, for example, where the in the world. United States has not a mile of territory and but relatively small financial investment, American Many American Christians may feel that it is education, American philanthropy, American gratuitous, even impossible for the Church, of medicine and methods of public sanitation, Amerwhich they are a part, to project its thinking and ican agricultural experience, American transporideals concerning a future Africa into those quar- tation material, American accounting devices, ters within and without Africa where that future American mineralogical engineering, Americanwill be determined. the list could be continued in a well-nigh exhaus- tive enumeration of human experience-have al- How can a church, some will ask, which has not ready affected fundamentally nearly every part yet achieved a common front on such "domestic" of Africa. The precedent is abundantly fixed for fields as race relations, cooperatives, public own- American participation in African matters. As ership, economic security, armaments, class ex- for the Christian Church, probably no single inploitations, hope to attain such on a "foreign" field?
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fluence has thus far been greater in transforming strengthened. And, beyond the slightest doubt, the internal life of Africa. the animistic Africa of today can be transformed into the Christian Africa of tomorrow. What is now needed, besides the continuance of that internal transformation, and what is posted EMORY Ross. as a great challenge to the Christian international, is the forming and directing of world policy THE GODLESS MOVEMENT concerning Africa, and in Africa, so as best to aid Africa and the African to develop in both in- In this country until lately many remembered ternal and external relationships. World policy the atheist as one of the local "characters" of their is certainly not so directed now. Correctly speak- home town. He might make a professed convert ing, there is no world policy regarding Africa, now and then, but he seldom greatly disturbed the unless indeed it be expressed as universal white religious life of the community. But now atheism, domination. like all sorts of propaganda, has become an or- ganized and aggressive foree, not only national, In some respects it would be ruinous for Afri- but international, in scope, another of the world's ca, and in other respects it might well prove dis- great evil forces that challenge the right of the astrous in world relationships, for the sum of Church of Christ to live. One wonders at the present policies toward Africa to continue. singular mentality that can become so hostile to the preaching of the Gospel-which no one is Within Africa, they have already set up in many obliged to accept or even to consider-as to make places such strains, racially, economically, social- of him a monomaniac. Indeed, whether one bely and in some cases religiously, that the structure lieves in a personal devil or not, when he exbeing creakingly reared threatens even now to amines the activities and sacrifices of organized fall. anti-Christianity and hears or reads its blasphe- mous utterances, it seems as if the idea of Satanic Outside Africa, the world's attitude and actions leadership is the simplest and most logical. extouching Africa have on at least four occasions planation of these manifestations. The Presbybetween 1897 and 1935 nearly resulted in armed terian has republished this item, credited to I. C. European clash, plus the tragic African events of P. I. S., Geneva, which gives some idea of the zeal 1936 which appear to have resulted in the post- that is going into international atheistic work: ponement and increased preparation for war, rather than in averting it – just as in 1911 the The periodical, Antircligio'snik, published in the U. S. Agadir crisis was adjourned to 1914. . . . S. R. by the Central Council of the League of the Fight- ing Godless, includes in a recent issue an article on the There is in all this need the possibility of an then impending international congress held in Prague. unique and inestimable service to be rendered by In this article, the task of the Free Thinkers' Internathe Christian Church to Africa and the world. tional is put forward as that of fighting for democratic To render that service, or even intelligently to rights and freedom of conscience, for economic and culargue against the possibility of its being rendered, tural progress against clerical reaction, and for the cothe Church must study Africa. ordination of the godless all over the world. The article further states that in regard to the colla'Joration of the In America not without reason is Africa various Free Thinkers' Associations with the Godless thought of, more than any other continent, as Movement, and in relation to the struggle against Fascism, "mysterious," "darkest," "remotest," "unknown." war and clericalism, fundamental agreement has already It is unknown in many of its elements. We are been reached. Similar views have been expressed by the generally quite unaware of how profoundly Africa League of the Fighting Godless, in the A'pril issue (page already affects our life. Still less are we conscious 2) of Bcsbcschnik, published by the Soviet Union. In the of the inevitability with which it will continue meantime, the fusion of the Brussels Free Thinkers' Inand increase its influence in the whole range of ternational with the Proletarian Free Thinkers' Internahuman affairs. How widely is it realized, for ex- tional has taken place, thanks, not least (according to ample, that in certain important and real senses, "International Correspondence" of May), to the active Africa is the richest continent, the most produc- collaboration of the Soviet delegation, which was composed tive continent, the coming continent? of Professor Lutaschewsky, representing the League of the Fighting Godless in the U. S. S. R., and Professor Let us study this continent, not only during the Savadowsky, President of the Ukrainian Godless League. months just ahead of what we call mission study, The reports of these members of the congress "made an but in the days beyond that when Africa and its essential contribution to the clarifying of the basic quesneeds will continue to grow and its influence con- tions of the Free Thinkers' Movement." Professor Savatinue to mount, voluntarily and involuntarily, for dowsky, it is further stated, declared in his address that good or for evil in world relationships. "it is only today that it is possible, with the union of the two Internationals of Free Thinkers, to estimate the whole If we study, and are convinced, and act, the value of the assistance rendered by the liberated science "African problem" can be solved, and with it will of the U. S. S. R., to the ideological struggle of the Free be solved many other problems, now fearfully con- Thinkers against Fascism and clericalism." The merging fronting individuals, nations and the world. Our of the two Internationals of Free Thinkers is not to be own Christianity can thus be expanded and regarded as an aim in itself, but as a means of coordinat-
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
ing "the best forces Qf progress and of science in the after commenting on harvest conditions as he had noticed them when crossing the country: struggle for Socialism." R. M. K.
MILLIONS OF SHEPHERDLESS SHEEP May r remind you of another kind of harvest which seems to have been shunted into the background? r am The anxious demand for economic security is speaking to you as a fellow American who during the at the bottom of the prevailing social unrest. This social conflict differs notably from the age-old last two decades has spent most of his time outside the struggle for political freedom. The latter was the concern of citizens within a nation. In one coun- borders of our country on duty in Europe and the Far try they might enjoy a high degree of political liberty, while those of a neighboring state were East. Each return to America reveals marked changes greatly oppressed. But now the world has been so brought into communication that the strife not only in the physical appearance of the country but over social and economic theories has overflowed boundaries between nations, and great interna- in the mental and moral climate which show now and tional groups are beginning to overshadow the old national parties. When the masses come to think, again a spiritual drought of wide areas of American life. and act, internationally the world has reached a critical point in its history, and one which the r find myself especially impressed by the fact that you Church cannot ignore. and others, who are my countrymen, are placing undue But the Christian Church will not meet its op- portunity and accomplish its appointed work by emphasis upon the lifting of the standards of economic entering any heated secular debate. It can fulfill its Great Commission only by bringing men to life. Weare being told on every hand that we need to realize that they live not by bread alone. It is quite evident, from the present emphasis upon the seek economic security and that when that is achieved all "social gospel," that the central Christian message . of redemption through the Cross is not very popu- will be well. I find myself definitely calling in question lar, but that is no reason for neglecting to press it upon men's attention. Rev. Dr. D: E. Hart- that conclusion. Davies, of Edinburgh, Scotland, in a sermon re- cently delivered in New York, put the situation in We have lifted the standard of economic security very these words: much in the last few decades, but we definitely lack ·that something which can bring peace, prosperity and happi- ness. There is need for much further planting of spiritual seed in the hearts of men so that along with the harvest in the fields there may be likewise the harvest of cultural and spiritual gifts and graces. This, and this only, will lead the people of America intQ that quest of real life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. R. M. K.
The world of humanity may be likened to a vast Oriental THE CHURCH AND THE YOUTH wilderness upon which millions of shepherdless sheep are MOVEMENT grazing. One of the phenomena-perhaps, rather, one of the symptoms-of our times is the prominence of I never go into a big city like London, Glasgow, Bir- youth, to the extent of almost making them a dis- tinct social class. This is very naturally leading mingham, Chicago or New York without feeling my own youth to take itself with exceptional seriousness, so that in its mass expression it is inclined to put helplessness as I look upon the masses of the people close in "a very large order." An instance is this stateup. Though their aims are manifold, there is an intensive ment from a declaration of rights adopted at the passion for leadership. Meanwhile, the Son of God has third American Youth Congress, held last July in Cleveland: appeared and made the great claim of the ages, "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk "Our generation is rightfully entitled to a use- ful, creative, and happy life, the guarantees of in the darkness but shall have the light of life." which are full educational opportunities, steady employment at adequate wages, security in time Your eternal salvation and mine depend ultimately upon of need, civil rights, and peace."
this one simple thing: the personal appropriation of the Excepting infants, people of any age are right- fully entitled to much the same things. The sad Son of God as the shepherd of the soul. R. M. K. thing about this rather complacent claim upon life is, that it is stained with the blood and tears of OVEREMPHASIS ON ECONOMIC many generations of men who have demanded of STANDARDS life just such benefits, only to find that, taken to- gether, these boons spell Utopia, the undiscovered One who visits a country at intervals of years country. What life really gives is discipline, now has unusual opportunities to observe and appreci- more severe, now less, but discipline always. Beate various changes. They are presented to him cause youth is proverbially hopeful and the dewith a vividness that the citizen who has seen the pression has so blighted youthful hopes and gradual progress of things fails to sense. Such thwarted youthful ambition they need all the an observer is Bishop Edwin F. Lee, of the Meth- sympathy and help that their elders can offer. odist Episcopal Church, who has charge of its However, that does not mean that sound judgment work in Malaysia and the Philippines. In a ser- should give way to an emotional attitude that may mon delivered in New York last August he said, mislead considerable numbers of young people into thinking that somehow the working of eco-
nomic laws can be modified to suit their very real everywhere else, it will seek to win the youth, we needs. Of course, this is a weakness not confined to the young, but marks people of all ages who have an added incentive to bring young people the have never become mature enough mentally to save themselves from social and political dream- world over, as well as at home, to know their ers and false prophets. The truth is, that unnumbered thousands of youth, unknown and unsung, Lord and to see human life in all its interest as have always had to face such difficulties in their individual lives as trouble millions today who find He would have them see it. R. M. K. a bond in their common sorrows and their united efforts for betterment. NO MERE ACADEMIC MATTER The problems of these millions will be met much There is a disheartening amount of adverse as those of the thousands before them have been. Faith in God, patience, perseverance and the criticism of the present condition of the Churcn, other virtues can win comfort and peace-though some hopes will fade. But unsound theories, even from within, and it is to be feared that much radical mass movements and ill-advised revolutions are not going to change human nature or the of it is well founded. How can things be made underlying principles of things. Of course, we must recognize the evidence of a changing social right? They say that one of the best ways to order, apparent at home and abroad. To natures that are well-balanced this means a time for cau- learn is to teach, and that one of the best ways to tion and careful study. But it also means the great opportunity for the social and political ex- keep one's body in trim is to engage in active tremist, who finds valuable allies in discontent, discouragement, and despair. work. Teach and work. So, then, how can the But another serious factor is beginning to be Church renew her life and power in any better noticed among the more than six million unemployed Americans under twenty-five years of age, ways than by teaching-and so relearning-the and that is a disposition to refuse the responsibility for improving things. More than this, much basic truths of her faith, and by energetically radical propaganda that appeals powerfully to young people of unfavorable background, does not working to put them within reach of all men seriously seek real improvement of the economic order. Instead, it proposes the appropriation of everywhere who have never heard them? the best material advantages in the present order for the less fortunate. Hence the demands for In our generation there is an appalling lack the confiscation and redistribution of wealth. These disturbing tendencies are becoming more of knowledge, or else only the vaguest knowledge, and more evident in America, but they are present the world over wherever youth finds it~ way of the meaning of such mighty terms as "incarnablocked by general conditions. tKiionn~daotmonoefmGeondt,." redemption, regeneration and The Church cannot settle the economic prob': But knowledge of thel'le things lems the times present for youth. But it can and must boldly urge the high moral claims of Chris- will never come by sermons and study cOurses tianity which include the cultivation of that very sense of responsibility just referred to. It was and programs that deal with everything save the intended in the moral economy of God that men should regard themselves as their brothers' keep- Church's supreme concerns. If the Church has ~rs. It is this moral responsibility that is to be laid upon the hearts of youth. But the particular any great service to render to the world it is to political or social systems or methods or schemes by which this obligation is to manifest itself is deliver to all men everywhere the good news not the burden of the Church. the Lord has given her for them. What is more Now, since we are finding that such anti- Christian agencies as communism are invading necessary for the Church than to be made to realeven the great mission field of Africa, where, as ize her responsibility for obeying Him in this matter? How men can be lifted out of the selfish- ness that is threatening civilization is shown by contributions to this issue of THE REVIEW.
But the Church's lessened vitality, serious though it be, does not reveal how critical the situ- ation really is. Weare not experiencing merely an ecclesiastical depression; the Church is ap- proaching a great religious crisis, of profound im- portance to civilization itself. Dr. Samuel Henry Prince, Professor of Sociology at King Univer- sity, Halifax, N. S., while preaching in this coun- try last summer, observed that religion had "con- tributed mightily to the survival of the individual and the human race, and a failing Christianity will presage a decline of the West." And he con- tinued: "The decline of the West is no longer a matter of mere academic consideration, of interest to the followers of a Spengler. It raises the whole question of the factor of religion in social con- tinuity. Whether Christianity shall be allowed to collapse or shall reconquer the Western mind and redeem it of its secularism, megalomania and self- complacency is a greater issue than an American labor schism or a Spanish civil war." R. M. K.
and Challenge in
By REV. ALEXANDER McLEISH, London, England Survey Editor, World Dominion Movement T HE hope of the Church in Africa lies in its and medical work missions have also pioneered becoming a truly indigenous African Church. the way for governments which are rapidly tak- Let us glance at the Protestant occupation ing over these responsibilities. Evangelistic work of Africa in its main geographical divisions. carried on for more than fifty years has resulted Ohristians in the creation of the largest Christian community Mission- Per in any mission land, now numbering, according Population aries Ohristians Million 676 48,150 1,528 to the latest computation, 7,904,514.3 North Africa .. 31,503,298 East Africa … 25,935,548 824 172,302 6,643 The Moslem infiltration from the north con- West Africa .. , 44,463,884 1,140 1,130,529' 25,425 tinues, but has been held up by the Coptic Church Central or Equa- of Abyssinia, by the great progress of missions in 24,439,048 1,479 739,379 30,254 Uganda, and by the chain of mission stations torial Africa. 20,460,759 3,473 4,000,000' 173,408 stretching across the Sudan. Along the old slave South Africa ..
146,802,537 7,592 6,090,3612 38,448 route in Tanganyika, however, Islam is extending The slow progress in Moslem North Africa is its influence again as well as along the coast as far south as Lourenco Marques. at once apparent, and becomes more striking when Roman Catholicism has launched a new and it is remembered the Christians are drawn mainly vigorous campaign for the conquest of Equatorial Africa. The ambition of Cardinal Lavigerie has from the Copts of Egypt. been largely realized and one of the greatest con- solidated spheres of Catholic missions has been If this occupation be distributed under the vari- built up, stretching south from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Northern Rhodesia, and west from ous governments it appears as follows: Tanganyika through the Belgian Congo to French West Africa. Rome claims over four million Cath- Ohristians olics in Africa, more than half of whom are in Equatorial Africa. Mission- Per aries Christians Million Africa, however, has proved the most respon- Population sive to Protestant missions of the great world British …….. 4,820 4,564,602 ' 73,347 French …….. 56,225,671 720 933,930 24,359 38,351,128 Portuguese …. 342 285,000 33,290 Belgian ……. 8,561,545 Spanish …… . 13,328,601 1,012 221,000 16,582 .. Italian …….. 1,678,846 22 1,399 834 2,534,814 International 33 3,110 1,226 51,000 Independent … 26,070,932 16 20 392 627 81,300 3,310 fields. David Livingstone, dying upon his knees, 146,802,537 7,592 6,090,361 2 38,448 is forever the symbol of a church sustained in The impact of the European powers has had many an hour of persecution and difficulty by tremendous repercussions in Africa. The recent divine power. Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda and centenary (1933) of the abolition of slavery in South Africa show the most remarkable progress. the British dominions is a reminder of a hundred The tragedy of North Africa is its vanished years of steady transformation. Native opinion Church. That Church was without an equal in in the south has been profoundly stirred over the Christendom from the second century to the fifth.
color bar legislation. In other parts of the conti- Even in the fifth century, though already in denent the years since the War have seen an increas- cline, it still numbered over 500 dioceses. Its decay ing sense of trusteeship among foreign govern- was due to three significant things: The Scrip- ments, which, however, has received a severe blow tures were never given to the great Berber nation in recent days. Governments have dealt more ade- in their own tongue, the missionary spirit graduquately with educational and social problems. ally faded away, and the Church itself ceased to Four-fifths, however, of the education of the Afri- be truly indigenous and became dominated by can is still in the hlmds of missions. In social Greek and Latin theologians. Therefore it de- clined, and the Moslem invasion of the seventh 1 The British (and the Dutch) have been the only Protestant colo- century completely destroyed it. The Coptic nizing powers in the continent, and it may be seen how predominantly the Protestant Church is established in those territories where 3 This does not include the Coptic Church of Abyssinia and Egypt they have held or still hold sway. Comment is needless. or European Christians scattered over Africa.
2 This number (1936) is now 7,904,514.
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Church of Egypt, however, which had given the does the evangelization of the land of Simon of people the Bible, survives to this day. Cyrene hang!
Throughout the Dark Ages and until today the A few years ago, out of the population of thir- Moslem has been the religious dictator of North teen million in Egypt there were nearly a million Africa. The Crusades did not shake him, and Coptic Christians, 66,000 Protestants, and 117,000 almost the only missionary was the lonely but un- Roman Catholic and Uniat Christians. The daunted Raymond Lull, martyred in Algeria in Christian population chiefly resides in upper 1315, and who ever was true to his own motto, Egypt. Between Cairo and the Mediterranean, "He who loves not, lives not." The millions of among six million people, there are only one-quarthese regions still unevangelized remain a per- ter of the Protestant Christians. The Coptic petual challenge to the Christian Church. If to Church is one of the ancient Christian churches, this be added the other Moslem populations of very similar to the Greek Orthodox. Since the Africa, we are faced with almost half the total British occupation of Egypt (1914) the Copts population for the most part still unreached by have mingled much more freely with the Mosthe Evangel. lems, and not a few have gone over to Islam. The Coptic Church does not view with favor the work The partition of North Africa 4 began in 1830, of Protestant missionaries. The Moslems number when Algiers fell to the French, who today govern ninety-one per cent of the population of Egypt. Tunis and the Protectorate of Morocco also. Spanish Morocco is relatively small. Italian Trip- There are about 440 missionaires and 20 misoli and Cyrenaica are vast, but sparsely populated. sionary societies in the country. Forty per cent French administration has been enlightened and of the missionary force is in Cairo, and there are thorough, but it has not helped to solve the reli- 33 other missionary residential centers. Much gious problem. Illiteracy throughout North Africa evangelism' has been carried on among the Copts amounts to about ninety per cent among the men, since 1859, and a very large part of the Protestant and is almost universal among the women. Church has been built up from among them. Progress among Moslems' has been exceedingly Roman Catholic Christianity in North Africa slow, but the present situation is viewed hopefully. does not really assist the Moslem to accept Christ; Many social and educational reforms are being its ceremonies and images are foreign to him. carried out in the country today, but there are Protestant missions, most of which are interde- powerful elements which view with apprehension nominational, were started about fifty years ago. any weakening of the traditional Moslem position Their work is threefold: that among the Jews, and prestige. of whom in Tunis and Algiers alone there are over 200,000; that among the European colonists, Turning to East Africa,5 let us consider the French, Spanish and Italian, in some cases also situation in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.6 The numerous; and, finally, that among Moslems. River Nile is the unifying highway of the Sudan. The tribes have no affinity, either racially or tem- Work among Moslems has been, and is extraor- peramentally, with the peoples of Egypt. The dinarily difficult. The number of missionaries country is today experiencing a new development. considerably outnumber the number of converts. The future, in the material sense, would seem In Morocco, for example, out of six and one-half promising for the Sudanese. As for the Christian million persons, five and one-quarter million live Church, there are about 100 missionaries and sevoutside the centers of missionary occupation. eral thousand communicants. Six provinces with Evangelization does not really depend upon more a population of over 1,200,000 are practically unforeign missionaries, but upon the sacrificial touched. There has recently been considerable prayer of Christians everywhere and the emer- progress in numbers and influence, and in Bible gence of Spirit-filled indigenous evangelists. The translation, and in the pagan parts of the south work must be largely that of men, but at present many have been pressing into the Kingdom. Conwomen workers predominate. Of the total work- siderably more than half the population is pagan, ers in Morocco, three-quarters are women. For and only the few mission stations oppose the onthose who know the constitution of Moslem society ward march of Islam. The southern Sudan may this needs no comment. well be one of the desperate battlegrounds of the future between Christianity and Islam. The occupation of the field, too, is unequal. In all Tripoli and Cyrenaica there is only one medi- Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, has a population of from cal missionary-in Tripoli city. The Italian gov- eight to ten millions, of which probably one-half ernment had put severe restrictions on religious are pagan and the remainder equally divided beliberty. Two very small groups of Italian believers have been organized. On such small threads 6 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, Somaliland, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanganyika (area, 2,267,708 square miles; population, 25,727,684; 4 Modern Populations: Tangier, 51,000; Spanish Morocco, 720,273 ; density, 11.3). French Morocco, 4,500,000; Algeria, 6,553,451; Tunis, 2,410,692; Lybia, 719,663; E'gypt, 14,217,864. • Area, 1,008,100 square miles; population, 5,728,551.
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
tween Islam and the Abyssinian Church. The over two million Moslems, but many think that the last few years saw a great advance in the work number of real disciples is not more than 300,000. of Protestant missions. A new spirit among the What is certain, however, is the rapid superficial priesthood, a general readiness to hear the Gos- increase. Roman Catholicism is represented by pel, and the printing and publishing of the New about 700 workers and 200,000 Catholics. It is Testament by the government press were out- pursuing an active and aggressive policy, greatly standing facts. This progress has been arrested hampering the work of Protestant missions. meanwhile, and it is not known what the future of Protestant missions will be. Missionary work There are 13 Protestant missions and a Chrisdates from 1830, and before the recent war there tian community of 125,826. The German miswere eight societies, with a staff of about 200 sions, excluded in the Great War, were permitted missionaries. to return in 1925. Probably the areas of least progress are in the Eastern and Western prov- This will remain for long a very needy area and inces. The former borders the Indian Ocean, must be included in the unevangelized area of and among its half million people there are under Africa. Missions may be able to continue their 1,500 Protestant Christians. The latter lies along work in cooperation with the Waldensian Prot- Lake Tanganyika. The Lake Province, the most estant Church of Italy, which views with sym- populous, contains a large number of unevangelpathy and concern the condition of the Evangeli- ized tribes. It is important to note that no defical Christian communities in Ethiopia today. nite steps have yet been taken for the evangeliza- tion of the Moslem populations. Eritrea (Italian) and the SomaIilands (British, French, and Italian) are grouped around Abys- The history of West Africa 10 has been marred sinia in the "horn" of Africa. The population, by slavery. Slavery is still said to survive in which is Moslem, is small.7 Moslem bigotry pre- Liberia. Missions and governments are now desents special difficulties in the way of missionary voting all their energies to native interests. Islam work. Only in Italian territory has evangelism has made great inroads from the North. In many actually been carried on by the National Evan- villages, formerly pagan, the call of the muezzin gelical Missionary Society of Sweden. This work floats from the minaret. Yet the Church has has now been suspended. made much progress, particularly in British ter- ritory. In British West African colonies there are Kenya 8 is a young country. Thirty years ago some 252,000 Christians, and in Nigeria nearly a Nairobi, the capital, was an experiment in tin million. All this ground has been won at great shacks; today it is an up-to-date city. Its high- sacrifice, in the loss of missionaries by sickness lands are suitable for white settlers. The difficul- and in the sufferings and persecutions of the naties between them and the natives have been tive Christians in the past. greatly exaggerated, and even the trouble with the natives over the discovery of gold in 1932-33 has The task of Africa's evangelization is not only been satisfactorily settled. There are eleven mis- that of the foreign missionary. The Church has sionary societies in the colony, and much progress not been without its own leaders, and in more rehas been made. The territory is fairly divided cent times "prophets" have arisen here and there. between these bodies, and the unoccupied fields Some of these have been men of little worth, but are to be found mainly in the north where, how- one deserves more than a passing reference. The ever, the population is not dense. Work has re- "prophet" Harris was a Liberian of the Grebo cently been begun in these regions. The unhealthy tribe. As a young man of twenty-one he felt the regions of the coast have still many neglected call of the Holy Spirit. Of his early years of groups. In the west the influence of the great ministry little is known; but in 1913, when he work that has been done among the tribes of was about sixty, he came to the Ivory Coast, and Uganda has been strongly felt. God began then to use him in a remarkable way. His message was simple, his life apostolic, and he Since 1920 Tanganyika Territory 9 has been ad- was undoubtedly taught of God. A Bible and a ministered by Great Britain under a mandate of bamboo cross were the insignia of his mission. the League. The administrative reconstruction of His converts on the Ivory Coast are variously the region has been carried out with special ref- reckoned up to a 100,000. Persecution fell on the erence to the welfare of the native peoples, and Christians, but the majority refused to comproseeks to stimulate native authority. A living issue mise. Harris himself was deported in 1915 to in the religious field is the progress of Islam. Liberia, where he later died. Zanzibar and the East African coast are almost completely Islamized. The last census records Nothing was known of this to the missionaries at this time. Strange stories came to them of a 7 Eritrea, 621,776; Somalilands: British, 344,70'0; French, 68,965; Italian, 1,010,815; Island of Socotra (British), 12,000, 10 French, British (InclUding Nigeria), Spanish and Portuguese territory and Liberia: Area, 2,458,745 square miles; population, 8 Area, 224,960 square miles; population, 3,091,064; density, 13,5. 42,432,017; density, 17.3.
o Area, 366,632 square miles; population, 5,022,640; density, 13.7.
work in the interior which passed human analysis, are only one or two stations. Most of the mission- of fetishes destroyed by thousands, of churches ary effort in the vast stretches of the interior is which had never seen a missionary. When in- very recent. The Christian and Missionary Alli- quiry was made it became clear "that right along ance has taken a considerable share in pioneering, the Ivory Coast, and up into the interior, there but the six societies in this large region today had been such a mass movement as had never been have only 30 stations. French West Africa is, to heard of in the history of modern missions." a large extent, still spiritually destitute.
With all its inadequacies-and they were many- Of the population of the interior fully forty per here was a stirring in the African soul which cent are Moslems. The most important tribes are came from God. In recent years the Methodist probably the Fulani and the Mosai, numbering Missionary Society has taken over the care of about two million. In the past the Fulani influ- large numbers of the "Harris Christians." ence has been the stronger, and they were the A few figures must suffice to describe the situa- chief bearers of Islamic culture. On the great tion in West Africa today. Let us take British bend of the Niger stands Timbuktu, long since territory first.ll Nigeria ranks third in popula- shorn of her former glories. West and north in tion in the Empire, after India and Great Britain. the desert live the Veiled Folk, the Tuaregs, once Of the 899,000 12 Christians of Nigeria, 188,000 perhaps a Christian people. Wide indeed is the are Roman Catholics. The enormous majority of field here and vast the task to be undertaken!
the Christian community is in the Southern prov- In Spanish 14 and Portuguese15 territory in inces, nearly 700,000 coming from the lbo, West Africa there is a small work on the Cape Yoruba, and Ibibio groups alone. The north is Verde Islands and a station is projected in Portu- less occupied, and here Islam is strong. Christian guese Guinea.
schools in the south enroll 176,886 scholars and The independent state of Liberia is about the in the north, 5,969. Moslem school enrollment in size of England, and is a member of the League the north is 183,374, and in the south nil. of Nations. It was founded in 1822 by liberated The Northern provinces are of great interest. slaves from the United States, who were assisted Roughly seven and one-half millions are Moslems by American philanthropists. Today there are and about four millions pagans. Up to 1901 there about 10,000 Americo-Liberians, 60,000 others was only one mission station established; now who are civilized and also use English, and about ten societies are at work, reaching over 160 tribes, 200,000 who are partly civilized. The remainder totaling some 3,000,000 souls. What is needed is of the estimated population of a million are il- not so much the advent of new bodies, but the ex- literate. Many missions, mostly American, have tension of existing work. The unreached popula- worked in the republic, and the Christian commu- tion is mostly in the Mohammedan emirates. For nity is over 30,000. This is practically confined a long time, evangelization was prohibited in these to the English-speaking population. Very little is areas by the government, but this prohibition is being done to reach the population of the interior, now removed. On the whole the outlook is en- and the state of many of the existing churches is couraging; in 1932 the whole Bible was published very low. One authority writes: "There is no in Hausa, one of the most widely spoken languages vision, no discipline, no authority in the churches."
of West Africa. Four stations have recently been opened in the As for other British territories: In Gambia hinterland, and the churches are being encour- there are some 2,000 Christians; in Sierra Leone, aged to support themselves and to evangelize their about 40,000; in the Gold Coast, 200,000; and in fellow countrymen.
British Togoland, about 10,000. The hinterlands The Union of South Africa presents many prob- of all these territories are still largely unoccupied lems. In the provisional census of 1936 there by missions. were over 6,529,784 Bantu, 755,282 "colored," and French West Africa 13 is an immense territory, 215,529 Asiatics. Europeans numbered 1,979,390.
equal in area to India. Of the 60,000 Christians, The native population has increased by thirty-nine 45,000 are in the Ivory Coast, the fruits of the per cent since 1921. Afrikaans has become the long unknown labors of the "prophet" Harris. common language.
Nearly all the remainder are in the coastal ter- The Bantu are unquestionably a people with a ritory of French Togoland and Dahomey. In great future, and today they are combining with.
Mauretania there is no work, and in Senegal there the "colored" folk in defense of their rights.
About 2,000,000 are still living the tribal life. The 11 Nigeria, 91,928,171; Gambia, 20'0,000; Sierra Leone, 1,768,479; present land policy, as seen in the allocation of re- Gold Coast, 3,040,446; Togoland, 293,714. 12 Census, 1931. serves to the natives, has not given very satisfac- 13 Population: Mauretania, 323,819; Senegal, 1,584,273; French 14 Rio de Oro and Adrar, 495,000; Ifni, 20,000. Sudan, 2,853,655; Upper Volta, 3,000,243; Niger Territory 15 Portuguese Guinea, 364,929; Cape Verde Islands, 153,70'0. 1.542,714; French Guinea, 2,236,968; Ivory Coast, 1,866,316: Togoland, 750,065; Dahomey, 1,112,000.
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
tory results. Of the acute race problem and the of missions followed, and today there is a Protescolor bar legislation all that can be said here is, tant Christian community of over 120,000. The that nothing would so much contribute to its solu- Presbyterian work has grown steadily and has retion as a deep and widespread revival movement. sulted in the formation of a Central African Na- tive Presbyterian Synod. It is interesting to note The leading church among the whites is the that, in contrast with Rhodesia, Islam has spread Dutch Reformed, with nearly a million adherents. widely in Nyasaland, the Moslem population being A very large number of denominations and mis- reckoned at 73,000. sions work among the Bantu and colored peoples; and this "fragmentation" from abroad is outdone Portuguese East Africa 20 lies adjacent to by native enthusiasm. "Separatist" movements Nyasaland and South Africa. There are large are many and frequent. In Johannesburg alone stretches of entirely unoccupied territory in the there are said to be 121 denominations among North, for the missions are almost all in the South. African Christians, and in 1932 Professor Brookes Special conditions attend missionary work in these compiled a list of 326 native sects. Notwithstand- Portuguese colonies which need careful study being this, there has been much real progress. About fore new work is begun. There are about 20,000 2,500,000 Bantus are Christians, and there are Protestant Christians in the colony. some 40,000 Bantu workers. In some churches Bantus have a large share in church government.16 In the history of African missions few stories are so stirring as that of Madagascar. The Lon- A,r,eain Popula- Density Protes- don Missionary Society founded a station there in tion 1818, and the witness rapidly spread. By 1834 Sq. Miles 48.8 tants there were 30,000 pupils in its schools. Then ter- 571,600 0.5 rible persecutions fell upon the Christians. Mis- Basutoland ….. 11,716 160,000 140,000 sionaries were driven out. Men and women were Bechuanaland … 275,000 123,320 18.3 16,000 slain by the spear, hurled over precipices, sawn Swaziland …… 6,704 27,000 asunder, burned in the fire, or sold to slavery. And yet persecution stimulated the growth in Basutoland and Swaziland are, relatively speak- numbers, so that by 1861, on the death of the cruel ing, the most occupied regions of Africa, while queen, the Christians had increased tenfold. At substantial progress has been made in Bechuana- last in that year freedom was proclaimed.
land. The reconstruction began in 1861, and the work Southwest Africa 11 is administered by the has continued ever since. Difficulties have been many, but the triumphs have been an abundant Union under a mandate of the League of Nations. reward. Widespread and rapid church building Of vast size, but very sparsely populated, it is one has been a keynote of the work. In one period of of the most fully occupied mission fields of Africa. ten years since the war over a thousand new Christians number 85,000, of whom about 10,000 churches were organized. Today there are some are Roman Catholics. There are 381 missionaries 720,000 Protestant Christians.21 More than oneper million people, or 910 when Roman Catholics third of the total number of churches in Africa are found in this island. are included. Rhodesia 18 is a vast territory, as yet thinly Any reference to Central Africa may well begin with Uganda.22 A long line of remarkable names populated. The pacification and evangelization of marks the progress of the Gospel there. H. M. the natives, together with the colonization of the Stanley, the explorer; Alexander Mackay, the country, forms one of the romances of African pioneer; Hannington, the martyred bishop; Pildevelopment. Today the administration faces kington, the brilliant linguist; and many others questions of land, color, and industrialization, but are among them. When King M'tesa heard from it has the experiences of South Africa from which the first Church Missionary Society missionaries to learn. The number of African Christians in the name of Jesus, of whom Stanley had previ- Southern Rhodesia is only 86,000, of whom nearly ously spoken to him, he caused a salute to be fired 30,000 are Roman Catholics. In N·orthern Rhodesia the total is 142,000, and of these somewhat .0 Portuguese East Africa: Area, 297,657 square miles; populamore than half adhere to the Roman communion. As there are 14 missionary societies in the North tion, 3,995,831. and 15 in the South, there is no call for additional organizations. The evangelization of the country ., Roman Catholic adherents number 460,000. It is worth noting awaits the extension of the e~isting work and the that the Comoro Islands (population, 130,253), adjacent to Madagasgrowth of the missionary spirit among the Afri- car, are unoccupied.
can Christians. Reunion (French): Population, 197,933. The population Is Roman The land around Lake Nyasa 19 :was first ex- Catholic. There is no Protestant work.
plored by David Livingstone. The establishment Seychelles (British): Population, 27,786. Two missions are at work. 16 Basutoland, Bechuanaland and .swaziland are native protectorates. Mauritius (British): Population, 400,904. Christians number 122,836, of whom only 5,345 are Protestant. 11 Area, 322,394 square miles; population, 273,876; density, 0.8. 22 Uganda: Area, 94,204 square miles; population, 3,584,758. 18 Northern and Southern Rhodesia: Area, 438,744 square miles; 1.population, 2,502,340; denSity, 5.6. Nyasaland: Area, 37,596 square miles; population, 1,609,915.
for joy. Under M'wanga, his son, the Church was spiritual desert, and around them a thirsty land baptized with fire, but stood firm. The threat of where many tribes know nothing of the Light.26 Islam and tbe strife with Roman Catholicism were challenges she was called on increasingly to meet. Remarkable progress has been made in Angola27 But today the Church of Uganda is a mighty (Portuguese West Africa) jn the face of many Church. There are well over half a million Chris- difficulties. One mission alone witnessed 900 tians today, and, although there is some discrep- church members increase to 9,000 between 1921 ancy in statistics from different sources, they seem and 1931, and there are today eleven missions to be about equally divided between Evangelicals with 240 missionaries at work in 51 centers. and Roman Catholics. Catholics in the same decade increased from 77,000 to nearly 300,000. Yet both in the North- Belgian Congo23 is a vast territory, nearly east and South of the colony there are populous eighty times the area of the home country, but tribes and large areas still untouched. The Protwith a relatively small population. Its past has estant Christian community numbers 240,000, of been melancholy, but today roads traverse its ter- whom nearly 3,000 are Christian workers. ritory, mines penetrate its ground, and the government is making increasing provision for the The whole situation today in Africa may be welfare of its native peoples. The jubilee of Prot- summed up briefly. The Roman Catholic populaestant missions in the Congo was celebrated in tion of Africa amounts to about 4,304,222, in the 1928, and the picture was a very different one proportion of 4 to North Africa, 22 to Central from that of the days when George Grenfell con- and West, 8 to East, and 9 to South. The Protstructed his little steamer, the Peace, with his own estant population is 5,638,252, in the proportion hands, the two Scotch engineers having died be- of 0.5 to the North, 18 to Central and West, 2.5 fore reaching Kinshasa. Today there are some to East, and 35 to South Africa. From this it 43 societies with about 900 missionaires in this will be seen that the Catholics are strongest in the field, and between 1920 and 1930 church members Central, East and West, and the Protestants in increased from 55,000 to over 200,000. Many un- the South. The Christians number 10,000,000 or evangelized regions still remain, but they consti- about 7 per cent of the total population. This is tute a challenge to existing bodies rather than a 1 to every 14 people, which may be compared with call for new missions. Catholics are variously China proper, where there is 1 to 500 people, or estimated from half a million to two million, and India, where there is 1 to every 56 people. There the sudden growth and influence of Catholic mis- are over three times as many missionaries to every sions is seriously embarrassing the evangelization million people in Africa as compared with India, of the colony. but, owing to its large area, only one-seventh the number to each 1,000 square miles. Out of Ruanda Urundi/4 with its small area and dense Africa's 65 territories, 42 are inadequately occupopulation, became a mandated territory of Bel- pied, 23 are adequately occupied, but 15 of these gium after the War. A Belgian mission has taken are excessively occupied if 1 missionary to 20,000 up part of the former work of the German mis- people per 1,000 square miles be taken as the sions, and the Church Missionary Society has been standard. extending its work southwards from Uganda. With the addition of two or three small Protestant Whereas there are 15 missionaries to the milmissions this is the extent of Protestant effort in lion people north of 10° N., there are 148 south one of the least occupied areas of Africa. The of 10° S., and between 10° N. and 10° S. there Roman Catholic missions are making great prog- are 50. The missionary occupation is, therefore, ress and aim to capture the whole area. very unequal, being three times more in the South than in Equatorial Africa, about 10 times more in French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon 25 to- the South than in the North. gether comprise an enormous area of over a million square miles with a scattered population. It The same is true of the distribution of the stretches from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Lake Christians, who are in the proportion of 146 in the Chad, from Libya to the Belgian Congo. Only South to 28 in equatorial regions and 1 in North in the south (Gabon and Cameroon) are missions Africa. at all well established, and even there much remains to be done. For the rest a few lonely pio- These facts reveal at a glance the regions of neer stations appear on the map as oases in the greatest need, and should determine all plans for the evangelizafion of Africa. 23 Belgian Congo: Area, 918;000 square miles; population, 9,485,091. 2. Rio Muni and F'ernando Po are Spanish colonies. Rio Muni: Area, 10,036 square miles; population, 140,000; 2< Ruanda Urundi: Area, 20,550 square miles; population, density, 13.9. 3,500,000. Fernando Po: Area, 795 square miles; population, 23,846; density, 29.9. 2r. Area, 1,078,538 square miles; population, 5,477,236. The Methodist mission works in Fernando Po and a live develop- ing work exists in Rio Muni under the American Presbyterians.
27 Angola: Area, 323,295 square miles; population, 4,141,730,
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
South Africa is fully occupied, and for our pur- Sudan call for reinforcements, and on the West, pose has ceased to be a foreign mission field. The Belgian Congo and French West Africa, owing to activities of its 3,547,892 Christians should cover their large areas, are still very needy. the unreached sections of the population, which should be regarded as their home mission field. The great Moslem countries of North Africa must still be considered as the most needy part Basutoland and Swaziland, which fall within of Africa. this area, are excessively occupied as mission fields. The first has 67 missionaries to 571,600 British territory, owing to greater facilities people, of whom 136,332 are Christians; the sec- available, is now probably adequately occupied, ond has 80 missionaries to 123,320, of whom and attention should increasingly be given to the 25,818 are Christians. Southwest Africa is in territories of the French, Portuguese and Belgian much the same position with 105 missionaries to colonies till these also are evangelized. 267,905 people, of whom 73,412 are Christians. Bechuanaland, with 17 missionaries to 160,000, This in a word is a bird's-eye view of that great and 15,200 Christians is too well provided for. continent which only sixty years ago was indeed the Dark Continent, but which today is well on A move northwards of a large number of the its way to becoming the most enlightened of all. foreign missionaries to the unoccupied regions of The great cleavage at the heart of the enterprise Portuguese territory, East and West, to Ruanda between Roman Catholics and Protestants casts a Urundi seems called for. The Rhodesias, Mada- dark shadow over the landscape, but the virility gascar, and Nyasaland are probably as well occu- of African Christianity and its power to organize pied as the situatian calls for. On the East, itself along its own indigenous lines promises well Tanganyika, Abyssinia, and the Anglo-Egyptian for the future when Africa shall have become, as it certainly will, a Christian continent.
ST. PAUL'S CATHE'DRAL. MENGO, UGANDA, LOOKING EAST (See page 478)
African View of Indigenous
Religions * By DONALD G. S. M'TIMKULU New Haven, Conn.
To THE ordinary man who has heard about same way as I would behave to my own brothers . Africa the phrase, "African religions," con- and sisters. In this way the family circle is ex- jures up a confused mass of superstitions and ceedingly increased, and the kindred are bound curious beliefs which seem to him very childish, together in a very close and intimate way. In if not entirely foolish. To some it might even most African societies, however, preference is seem like straining the connotation of the term given to one set of kin at the expense of another; unduly to call this hotchpotch religion. It is not L e., either to the mother's people or to the fa- necessary here to prove that suclJ. opinions are ther's people. This is the basis of the clan, or sib, the results of generalizations based on very inade- which is a strong group of people claiming to be quate data. Those who have tried to understand intimately related either on the mother's side or the Africans and to see life as they see it have on the father's side.
found that they possess not only well developed The clan is not only the most important group religious systems, but a religion which enters far in the African kinship system, but also the pri- more into their day by day conduct than is the mary religious group. Since all members of the case among the peoples of the West. clan are linked together through their ancestors, In spite of the vast expanse of Africa and the the ancestors come to take a most important place variation in cultural features presented by its peo- in the life of the group. They founded the clan, pIes, it is still possible to speak of the country as gave it life and made it what it is. The present a whole, on account of a number of fundamental generation, therefore, owes all that it has to those principles which underlie the social structure of who have gone beyond. The ancestors are thus the whole of tribal Africa. This is particularly as much a part of the clan as the living; they. are true of the Bantu tribes, and it is with the religion as interested in its welfare as those who still walk of these peoples that I mean to concern myself in thIs earth. For, according to African belief, "the this paper. dead are not lost to society, they are merely in- A great part of the religious life of the African itiated into another part of the society, the spir- centers round the worship of ancestors, but such itual unseen part." Thus the clan with its begin- a statement needs some elucidation. To under- nings far in the dim past can only make secure stand truly what the cult of ancestors means to provision for the future by consulting and work- the African we must probe deeper into his social ing in harmony with those whose wisdom is un- background. The social and economic unit in doubted, and who now can tap sources of power Africa is the individual family. To bind the fami- which are not available to mortal man. The es- lies together in a larger social unit, the intimate sence of ancestor worship lies in the effort on the and binding family ties are extended outside the part of the living, by various acts of remem- immediate family. .For instance, my father's brance, to maintain friendly relations with those brothers are my fathers; I call them so, and I, who are now of the spirit world, and thus to se- behave to them in the same general way that I dq cure their help and guidance.
to my own father. Similarly, my mother's sisters True enough, fear enters into the worship of are my mothers, and their children are my sisters ancestors, the fear of consequences that will fol- and brothers; I behave to them in exactly tlie low any failure_ on the part of the living to per- • Donald G. S. M'Timkulu Is the son of a well-known Methodl'st form their pious duties. But we would be greatly' in error if we assumed that the religious motive in pastor in Durban, South Africa. He received his high school education at Adams Mission and at Lovedale before proceeding to Fort faenacre.stoTrhewoArfsrhicipanisreaallll ysupmutm' s ehdIS up in the word Hare College, where he received his B.A. in 1927, securing a "double trust in the anfirst" In English and ethics. On the strength of this he was awarded cest ors, and h"IS f al"th I"S a 1IV""lng everyday fal"th" a university scholarship (the first of his race) to read for his M.A. The Afr"Ican a1so be1 lev"es"In a great "Sp"lrItua1 (English), which he received in 1931. Since then he has been power, a Supreme Being, more or less personified, teaching at the Healdtown Missionary Institution in the Cape Province and at Adams College in Natal, where he is now head of the high school department. He was editor of the (Jape African Teach– e,rs' Association Journal until his resignation to come over to Yale University, where he now holds a FellOWShip in Race Relations.
[462 ] who made the world and created all living things, illness by manipulating the all pervasive "Pobut has since had no direct dealings with man. tence" against him. For the African believes that Now and again one may hear his angry mutter- some people are able by long training to make use ings in the roar of the thunderstorm, as he hurls of this spiritual power in the universe either for forth his thunderbolts at some individual who has good or for evil. This is the basis of the Afriangered him. can's belief in witchcraft and the efficacy of charms. For to protect myself against the machi- Among some of the southeastern tribes, how- nations of the wizard, I must have some object in ever, he is regarded as a great chief of the spirit which is concentrated a stronger power than that world, Unkulunkulu (the greatest of the great), which the wizard can direct against me. Without who is so great that ordinary men cannot ap- this I am at the mercy of my enemies. Thus the proach him for any favors. Amongst these tribes African has ever haunting him this fear of unseen the ancestral spirits have come to be regarded as powers working around him, and perhaps against mediators at the court of the Great Chief. Those him; for this reason he clings tenaciously to his who were great in this life, the chiefs, are much witch doctor, who is the only man who can give more likely to be in the inner circles of the Great him sufficient protection to make life worth living. One, and thus can do more for the people by pleading with the Great One in the traditional manner Let us next consider how far these beliefs and that marks the successful and polished councillor. practices are influencing the lives of native Chris- In times of calamity, therefore, the spirits of the tians in Africa. While it is no doubt true that the greatest chiefs of the tribe are invoked to help form that the Christian Church in Africa will ultheir children and save them from disaster. These timately take depends, in the last analysis, on ceremonies are always conducted by the para- what the Africans themselves make of it, it is mount chief of the tribe, in whom, by reason of none the less also true that Christian Africans his birth, is concentrated the highest spiritual must accept the fundamentals of Christianity unpower man can have, and who is the recognized diluted, as it were, if they are going to live Christintermediary between the people and their most like lives. As Archbishop Temple says, it is futile powerful spirits. The power of the chief, there- to consider whether the message of the Gospel fore, is based ultimately on religious sanctions. suits the African or not. If the Gospel is true, He is not merely the political head but the high then it is true for all men, be they black or white. priest of the tribe, and thus the dependence of the If one, however, is thinking of Christianity mere- African on his chief is a very real one. ly as a drug for the curing of social diseases, then one might well ask if it suits the African. If, on Apart, however, from this belief in a first cause, the other hand, Christianity is a Way of Life for the Africans believe in a Potence, an Energy, that all men, then we must recognize the fact that is imminent in all things, intangible and yet all- there are certain fundamental beliefs and points pervasive. While drawing itself into a focus in of view in African religion which are incompatible certain objects, it is, at the same time, sensitive with the Christian spirit. These must be shed, if to human conduct, so that irregularities in the Christianity is to mean anything for the African. world of men react immediately on the world of nature. In African societies, as Mrs. Hoernle While thousands of true and fervent Christians says, "events in the world of nature are inter- are to be found in most parts of Africa, it is neverpreted entirely from the point of view of their in- theless a fact that for many other thousands fluence on the life of the society; the world of Christianity is no more than a veneer, a top dressnature and the world of man are one, changes in ing, which peals off just when it is most needed. the world of man are inevitably accompanied by In the real crises of life they turn to their beloved changes in the world of nature, and vice versa, ancestors in whom they still have the utmost faith, and the laws governing the one world are con- although outwardly adopting the forms of the ceived of as being the same in the other." If, for Christian religion. Many a Christian family when instance, the harvest is poor, it is because the in trouble will secretly sacrifice a beast to appease proper rites have not been performed, or because the injured spirits, so that they may remove the someone has sinned or done wrong, and his wrong curse and establish friendly relations once more actions are somehow preventing things from tak- between the dead and the living. ing their proper course. There are other Christians, however, who have Because of this firm belief the African can definitely set their faces against the old tribal rites hardly conceive of anything happening naturally, and ceremonies; but this is about all they have i. e., uninfluenced by the actions of men, either liv- done. In these lives Christianity has only replaced ing or dead. If a man gets sick, for instance, his one set of taboos by another. This attitude has sickness is either the result of his neglect of some not been a little encouraged by the numerous customary ritual or some duty to the ancestors, "don'ts" which have formed the greater part of or else some evilly disposed person has caused the the "Christian message" of some missionaries.
The Christian in Africa has thus become a man the machinery of Western civilization, whose ex- who does not do a great number of things. The ponents are out to get as much as they can from African can understand such a religion, for it is the dark races.
just his old religion with the dire consequences On this account they have dubbed Christianity made a little less immediate. "the white man's religion," and they will have But the real persistent evil in the African Chris- none of it. This conviction is not lessened by the tian Church is that old belief in the powerful fact that many white missionaries identify their mystic forces of the universe which are ever ready strait-laced Christianity with Western civilization.
to do men harm at every turn. Accusations of The African is continually being told how lovely witchcraft and sorcery are not uncommon even in and beautiful everything is in the white man's our oldest mission stations. Venerable old preach- garden, and how weedy and ugly his own is in ers or deacons will tell you of one of their number comparison. The disillusionment that follows, of who keeps a baboon on which he rides out every course, is not very pleasant either for the mission- night to do his nefarious work. Many a fond ary or the African.
mother, for instance, will not dare to bring her The criticism of the unbrotherly attitude of the child to church for baptism, unless he has been white Christian gains more point when it is lev- thoroughly "doctored," lest the influence of some elled against the missionary himself. It is no other child who has been "doctored" cause a fis- doubt true that the spirit of Christian brother- sure in her child's skull which inevitably brings hood which characterized the life of the early mis- about his death. sionaries is slowly dying out. Social snobbery The old beliefs in witchcraft, therefore, are not and a certain irritating aloofness is not uncom- only still with us, but the practice of witchcraft mon among modern missionaries. In traveling is thriving under new forms showing an excellent round the mission stations one hears such signifi- adaptability to new conditions. Witch doctors cant remarks as this from the old people: "Oh, are doing a better trade today in the towns than we do not knock at the front door of the mission they ever did before. The old technique of try- house now, we have to go to the kitchen door."
ing to pooh-pooh these ideas and laugh them out One hears also of missionary teachers who fail to of court is futile. These beliefs are deep rooted recognize their fellow African teachers as soon as in the African, and now he not only feels he has they are outside the bounds of the mission station.
Biblical authority to support him, but also a fund These may seem like trivial considerations, but of anecdotes in which Christian ministers have they are just full of meaning for the African- been worsted in the fight against the wizard. The they are the straws in the wind. Is it any sur-, missionary, therefore, must concentrate on chang- prise, then, to find that the African in the older ing the African's unscientific view of the world. missionary fields is gradually losing his confidence "Nothing less will do than the gradual revelation in the white missionary?
of the complexity of the universe. Let the Afri- And yet all thinking Africans deplore this can once realize that the universe runs its course tendency; first, because it does not take into ac- by immutable laws which he cannot alter, and he count the great contribution that missionaries will be relieved of an incalculable burden of the have made and are making to African welfare.
spirit." Without this changed outlook the Chris- Second, and perhaps more important, is the fact tian missionary will be building his house on sand. that there is a danger that, with this loss of con- There is a new threat to the life of the Christian fidence in the white missionary, the African may Church in Africa, to which we now turn. In those also lose his hold on Christianity. For, as we parts of Africa where the natives come into very have sought to show, Christianity is still very close contact with the whites there is growing up, much of an exotic plant in Africa.
among some of the leaders of the people, a spirit The present tendency, therefore, among some of revolt against the Church. These men feel that missions to root Christianity in true native soil the Church is not living up to the spirit of Christ's has great possibilities for the future. For, it teaching in its attitude towards the race question. seems to me, the very highest ideal that missions They declare that color bars are rigidly enforced can hold for the future of Christianity in Africa even within the very precincts of God's house; in is the creation of a truly native church, "whose many churches the African clergy are merely the motivation will be emotional rather than mainly "boys" of their fellow white clergymen; some of intellectual, which will take cognizance of native the white men who stand high in the Church are psychic and mystic experience, whose forms and in no way different in their treatment of Afri- functions will be rooted in native life, background cans than any other white man. In these and in and environment, and whose leaders will be true many other ways, they declare, the Church has natives, integrally a part of the community and shown that even within its fold there is no broth- not mere preachers cut in the image of white mis- erhood for the black man. It is merely part of sionaries."
Gospel Among Primitive
By REV. JOHN S. HALL, I Sudan Interior Mission, Kaltungo, Nigeria 1)1- ~==========================~ THE country of the 40,000 Tangale-speaking to another man, that we may feast upon another people is in Nigeria, West Africa, inland one goat." Farthest reaching of baneful practices thousand miles northeast of Lagos, chief sea- was that of the parents, who threw the children of port of Nigeria, which is an important Protector- both sexes together for immoral purposes, all with ate of Great Britain and boasts a population of a view to enlisting the boys for labor on the farms twenty millions. The Tangales had their first of the girls' parents.
sight of the white man only thirty years ago, and A corresponding situation was to be found in their first contact with the Christian missionary the religious sphere. The Tangales' spiritual ten years later. The white ruler's advent ended heritage is cumbrous. Recognition is made of the a strange age-long cycle of seven years of inter- Supreme Being, Yamba, but no worship offered to tribal war alternating with seven years of peace, him. All shrines and altars are dedicated to other and ensured the gradual extirpation of cannibal- spiritual beings-demons, ancestors and haunting ism. Cloth was rare. Leaves sufficed for cover- human spirits. The primitives may not be so ing for the women, while the men used little cov- lacking in many things as superficial observers ering beyond occasionally wearing tanned hides say, claiming that they are without this, that and of animals hung by forelegs from the neck. the other, but omitting to observe that they have Their story is interesting, especially regarding powers that with us are dormant or dead. They Christian missions, and the fact that the condi- are, however, without the most satisfying and en- tions obtaining among them are typical of those nobling of human wants. For they have no hope among all primitive peoples. Illiteracy prevailed, and are "without God in the world." With no with the absence of books and the arts of reading books, they have not the Book, with its Messianic and writing. Their difficult and wonderful lan- light and life in prophecy and history. They are guage had only oral use. The world for them did without the dynamic of the preaching of the cross not exist beyond the extremities ofa fifty-mile and of the Spirit. The emotional reactions to the line, where heaven met earth and was upborne by spiritual environment are those of uncertainty strange, conveniently dwarfed beings around the and dread.
meeting line, holding sky-supporting sticks aloft. Sent by the Sudan Interior Mission, C. G.
With limited horizons of knowledge, the tribe Beacham and the writer settled among the Tan- moved as one man in a narrow orbit, unprogres- gales in February, 1917, and began to learn their sive, static. language. Three years later the Gospel of Luke There was that in their "moral" codes which, in Tangale was in print, published by the British without elevating or quickening the tribe, pre- and Foreign Bible Society. Successively, till served it as a unity, with a sturdy sense of iden- 1930, ten more books of the Old and New Testa- tity and independence. Marriage by uniform pur- ments were translated and in use in print, to- chase was recognized and was made honorable gether with the complete New Testament in by laws of legitimacy and inheritance. Laws ap- Tangale in manuscript. The British and Foreign plying to consanguinity and incest assisted in up- Bible Society undertook the cost of an edition of holding marriage and maintaining purity of tribal 2,000, so that the complete printed New Testa- stock. Over against these helpful things lay many ment in Tangale was in circulation in 1932. To antisocial habits. The bonds of marriage were date half of the edition has been sold, and as only uncertain, owing to the polygamous tendencies of readers, professing Christians, buy the book the men and women, and from easy temporary unions reading public in that once totally illiterate tribe and prevalent promiscuity. Illuminating is the amounts to a thousand, and the Lord's following prayer always made when the large goat from the reaches the same number.
bride-price payment was being eaten by the men School work, simply the teaching of reading of the maiden's hamlet in the sacred grove: "We and writing in the vernacular and of the Scrip- have just begun to eat her [i. e., the woman was tures, was begun only after two years. The en- an occasion of feasting]. Incline her soon to run rollment for a year thereafter was two. The next [465 ]
year it increased to three, and the following year by the young people themselves, who follow them. to eight. The enrollment now is 2,000. The first The Gospel was made for that kind of situation, seven years passed before any girls of the tribe where it can be trusted to be God's power unto came to school. Now the enrolled women and salvation. Moreover, the Africans can be trusted, girls nearly in number equal the men and boys. having "received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk Of necessity at the first the teachers were the mis- in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished sionaries. Now the teaching of reading and writ- in the faith, as … taught." To withhold from ing is left to the Christian natives, of whom one them that confidence or to make concessions to . hundred are 'under regular appointment to super- supposed weakness or peculiar wants injures and vise, in thirty-eight "schools," without remunera- slanders them and dishonors Christ and His Gos- tion. With a speeded-up farming schedule and a pel. The privilege and duty rather are, to uphold great saving of time formerly given to growing the New Testament demand and standard as re- much grain for beer, they follow their accus- gards purity and spirituality, together with an in- tomed farming, devote certain time to systematic tensive New Testament indoctrination. It is a Bible study and, with regulated substituting ar- senseless, heartless procedure to ask monogamy rangements, see to the manning of these teaching or one-until-death unions from people whose codes posts. . To evangelize farther outposts, ten mar- never included these conceptions, unless New ried couples in fellowship standing in the churches Testament doctrine and dynamic are intensively gave up home and farm and went where taking imparted and fully conveyed. Hence the Bible root afresh would be slow and toilsome, where schools, with their whole-church enrollment and privation would sometimes be their lot, and where systematic opening of the Scriptures. Hence the their only, but most glorious, reward would be magnifying of the church, the local assembly, as souls won for Christ. the school, the home of the saved community as a community, the sphere of mighty movings of God R. J. Campbell, in his Life of David Living- and the birthplace of saving outward movements stone, mentions the attraction his lantern lecture of wide reach. Hence, too, the simple and ex- was to the Africans, and adds that that was the clusive character of the mission's principles re- only Christian propaganda Livingstone was ever specting "education," with a nonsecular program asked to repeat. The Tangales have not yet seen and curriculum best fitting and generally lantern views. God's Word has been put into strengthening the believers for every spiritual their hands, and they have built two Bible schools and secular contact. where they gather to study the Scriptures. When we saw these buildings rise and asked, "What To an extent not always realized social pressure time will you give to the study?" the whole read- and safeguarding rules assist straight living any- ing, godly community of men and women enrolled where. In Tangale teaching is shaped and rules for regular attendance through nine months of framed to induce the right social pressure in the the year, every Monday and Tuesday mornings Christian society. Some of these rules are, that from 9 to 11, with daily sessions through a period boys may not meet with girls anywhere at night of four weeks twice a year. or in enclosed places, as huts, through the day; and that every Christian is responsible for rebuk- This spring we had the third of these four-week ing and reporting breaches of that rule and will periods in the two Bible schools, the average daily be held by the church as culpable as the offenders attendance being 525. The Epistle to the Hebrews if he does not meet this duty. Sense of personal was taught, with analytical outline, careful exe- and mutual responsibility and keenness of pergesis and application. Blackboard and notebooks sonal and social conscience are developed in this were used, and examinations given. The enthu- way. siasm and the mental and spiritual growth accom- panying that daily work within the cool, spacious In Tangale, as has been mentioned, the girls did grass-roofed buildings, with the high sun's heat not come to services or school until the seventh outside, cannot be computed or verbally conveyed. year of the work. The young men who came, Under what a spell the mystical Melchizedek held besides adjuring the practice of early sexual rela- these black students until, as they gave earnest tions, were taught to wait for domestic partners heed to argument, warning and entreaty, he to until they and the partners-to-be were baptized. their view dissolved into the Divine Prophet- Some did not wait; others did, and gave a noble Priest and they were strengthened and rejoiced lead. One of these first ones waited seven years to follow Him! "The Word to us is mother's from his first confessing Christ to gain a girl nurse," they cried. "Give us more; you stop too baptized one week before their marriage. An- soon! Hurry back!" other, a big muscular fellow who had waited five years from his first testimony, was similarly I have already alluded to the moral situation united then to a baptized Christian maiden. These created by parents in their handling of youth and
THE GOSPEL AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
weddings had profound effects; as from that time tian lives and their own Heaven-blessed home. the marrying age among believers advanced con- Then there is Shebu, who was living with an siderably, and the stability, security and satisfaction of marriages of baptized to baptized became unmarried woman and had a child by her. Both manifest. began to confess Christ through the testimony of a volunteer teacher. We said they should sepa- The case of one Shombo is interesting. He had rate and prove Christ singly, looking forward to two wives. They all heard the Gospel from an their Christian marriage duly. They stayed apart early convert. Shombo and his second wife, whom twenty months, were instructed and grew in grace he liked the better, came under conviction and and knowledge of Christ, then were baptized and began to confess Christ. They rightly reasoned came together through a Christian marriage. Shombo should have just one wife, and she the one first wedded, no matter that she seemed the THREE COUPLES IN CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE ON THEIR least attractive and had no heart for Christ. It WEDDING DAY. LAYUNGDUNG AND HER HUSBAND took a struggle, but they parted, and the young AT LEFT woman, Layungdung, went to live with her "problem" and her testimony at her brother's. After Glorious results followed in the domestic sphere. some days, finding her brother's wife vexatious, Shebu's mother, sister, two brothers, an aunt and she quarrelled with her, and she, her brother and a cousin all sought the Lord and were baptized. sister-in-law came together to us with their trou- The cousin and the sister have married Christian ble. We were from 7 p. m. till 1 a. m. smoothing men; the two brothers remain unmarried until it out. We counselled forbearance and forgive- they can be suited with baptized wives; Shebu's ness, which Layungdung thought too hard, but at boy, happily named Paul, is choosing wisdom's 12 : 45 a. m. we knelt together and praised God ways; a considerable group in Shebu's hamlet, for victorious grace. Layungdung returned and old and young, and among them an old blind lived with her brother and sister-in-law, till she woman, have been baptized. And Shebu and his saw them confessing Christ and, with herself, wife also serve Christ freely now in a needy out- post. baptized. Pagan men, who could not endure seeing a young woman unattached, pestered her for Christ's Gospel has given to a multitude in marriage, until all attempts ceased because it was Tangale newness of life, a new orientation of publicly known that they had failed. She was mind, soul, spirit and social life and habit. waiting God's time and for a baptized companion. God's time-though after two years-came, and also the companion, a young widower faithful in witness. And these two are one of the couples who, with their family, have sacrificially migrated with the Gospel to an outpost.
Shombo himself now loves his first little wife, who has received salvation and baptism. Both his mother, a former spiritist medium, and his influential seventy-five-year-old father are baptized and in the Church, as is also his younger brother. His children, also, two dear girls, are readers of the Word and happy confessors of Jesus. And in Shombo and his wife we have another couple who have given up all and have gone to an outpost, 20 miles distant, to serve souls with their Chris- A NATIVE EVANGELIST'S APPRECIATION "There are many things that tempt a servant have good chairs to sit on, not just boxes. As a of the Lord," said a native evangelist one Sunday rule they have good looking wives and children. in his preaching to the other evangelists. "For Often they have a horse or a bicycle, too, and yet us black people the spirit of pride is a great dan- with all this you cannot find any pride among ger. However, when I look at the white mission- them on this account. They are just as pleasant aries, then I can't help but thank God for them. and friendly. Yes, I have noticed that the more They may have two or three coats to put on and they have of such things, the more kind they are more than one pair of shoes. Sometimes they to share with us black natives."-Reported by L. have both a sun hat and an ordinary hat. They A. Tweiten, in The Missionary Broadcaster.
in Central
By REV. ANDREW MacBEATH, B.D. I Ii- Baptist Missionary Society, Bolobo, Belgian Congo THEY say that the darkest hour is just before locusts. We turned once again to the Book of the dawn. When things are at their very Joel and read of the locust hordes, and our read- worst we have the more reason to expect a ing took us on to the promise of the outpoured change for the better. January, 1935, certainly Spirit. Little did we realize how near the fulfilwas a dreary, almost a desperate, month in Bo- ment of the latter promise was. The floodtide of lobo, Belgian Congo. Our deacons had sought to blessing began to come in February. resign in a body, and the monthly communion service was suspended until some better under- A young carpenter in mission employ read a standing and confidence was established between little booklet, in the middle of 1934, which told of Sammy Morris, a Kru boy from Liberia, who the church members and their missionaries. Sus- traveled to America with a hungry, overmastering picion and bitter criticism were rife. How was desire to taste the full life that God offers in the it that things had reached this point of strain? Holy Spirit. The story of that boy's hunger for For several years our hearts were burdened the living God, and the brief but glorious course with the low spiritual level of our church fellow- he ran as a fervent evangelist to others, fired our ship. There were twelve hundred communicants, young carpenter's heart. He saw that God does but we felt that very little of sterling quality could not need to wait for worldly advantages of breedbe claimed for their Christian faith. Every ing, wealth or education. Wherever He finds a month a saddening list of names was read out, man ready to concentrate on God and give Him a the names of church members being suspended highway through his life, God has His chance. from fellowship because of some serious moral Our young carpenter brooded over giving God lapse. The white missionary who sought to know such a chance in his life.
the inner side of village life came to feel that there At Christmas a missionary pageant was prewas an impenetrable wall of secrecy which dea- pared by the school children, showing the condicons and deaconesses made it their business to tion of children in many lands. The lads from maintain in front of their white missionaries. At the Pastoral Traini:ng School represented scenes last, in October, 1934, a conference with native from the life of William Carey, showing his paschurch leaders was arranged. It was hoped that sion to take the Gospel to India. The theme song the frank interchange of opinion about the exist- around which the action was grouped was the ing state of things in the church would arouse missionary hymn, "Far, far away, in heathen them to a sense of their responsibility and fur- darkness dwelling." The effect of this missionary ther the cause of cooperation. From the very pageant on the soul of the young artisan dreaming beginning of that conference, the indigenous lead- dreams of serving God with all his powers was to ers met their missionaries in a spirit of antago- bring him to the point of crisis. During the weeks nism. A questionnaire had been prepared to of January an intense inward conflict developed.
stimulate their reflection on some of the unsatis- He dreamed of making Christ known to the farfactory elements in our church life, elements of off heathen, but God told him first to be reconciled evil which quite paralyzed the effectiveness of our to his own father. The struggle robbed him of witness among the heathen. Instead of giving sleep, but he could get no peace until, down on his calm or prayerful thought to the questions at face with tears he promised to buy his father a issue, church leaders and church members turned blanket as a reconciliation present as soon as dayround and told their missionaries some of their light came. The flood of joy that burst over the outstanding failings. young man's heart, once he had given up his con- After that conference three more months troversy with God, knew no bounds. passed, the road winding "uphill all the way." Meanwhile the situation in the church had been Then in January came the ultimatum of resignation from the deacons in a body. And in the end growing almost desperate. To make confusion worse confounded, swarms of locusts were all of January our district was invaded by hordes of around us, wearing us out with the effort to keep [468 ] them from alighting on our gardens. And then The preacher, exhibiting the dinner knives and the young carpenter asked permission to speak in later showing the absurdity of toiling away with public. He was given permission, but the experi- a mere ax head in the hands, showing too the long ence of which he tried to tell was too great for wooden handle inserted in the ax head that enhim. He could not articulate the story. At his sures swift and powerful strokes, was that mornsecond telling of it, he began an exposure of the ing convincing the reason and firing the imaginasecret sins that were destroying the church's life tion of his audience. They saw the truth. And and sapping the vitality of the community. the climax came when he used a pictorial phrase which put his closing appeal in a nutshell. "God A few young men gathered round him in pri- gave each of us two legs," he said, "but we have vate to learn more of what had happened to him. been stupid enough to suppose that with two legs Older men were skeptical and superior. They de- we could travel at the same time on two roads. rided him, especially because his new walk with We church members have had one leg on the way God made it necessary for him to do his daily Heavenward, and with the other leg we have been work conscientiously. Many declared that his traveling the world's way." brain was decaying or that sleeping sickness had him in its grip. Long ingrained habits of secrecy One could almost hear the strokes of a scythe and deceit made our people construe as madness that was gathering in golden sheaves for God's any willingness to admit a fault and confess it. granary. There were over thirty young people One deacon thought he had effectively vanquished who went forward at the close to occupy these the young man's crusade when he showed, as a empty forms on the platform, to signify that they stalwart Protestant, that confession of sin was a were out for the consecrated life that has given peculiarly Roman error! up half-measures and hypocrisy.
But the ferment had been thrown into Bolobo's From that moment we knew that harvest time life. The unheard of began to happen. People had come. We had heard the sound of a going in were disturbed in their dreams or kept from the tops of the mulberry trees, and we knew to sleep by the accusing voices of their sins. Young bestir ourselves. When the men gathered in large men, gathering round our splendid native pastor, numbers in their afternoon service, the appeal were looking up in the New Testament what God was made to the older men and deacons to range had to say about their sins, and the way of release themselves alongside the eager young men who that He offers. On February 24, the church was were pressing forward, and the question was put packed when the morning service began, and we in this form: "Shall the Isaacs offer themselves noticed that the native pastor had arranged some willingly and go up the Moriah road, but shall forms behind him on the platform. These forms Abraham hold back?" The older men explain that remained vacant during the service, and we real- the putting of that question roused them from ized that they were not placed there simply for sleep. At first it puzzled them. What more reuse in case of overcrowding. We had never dared mained for them to do? Were they not church to try an upstanding appeal amid an African members? Had they not been baptized? audience, nor had they ever seen a penitent form. Yet the pastor's inner ear had been prepared to They remained to an aftermeeting, and after hear, and he had come to preach that morning that the group went to the preacher's house, resure of results. Had he himself not come through questing that it be made plain to them what furthe Holy Spirit's searching scrutiny, and found ther gift God was offering them and what further how He burns up all our refuges of lies? Never claim He was making on them. At last hearts did anyone wield more effectively the rapier of were open and ready to take in the truth. God's the Spirit than he did that day. It pierced to the gift of fulness of life in the Holy Spirit was set dividing asunder of joints and marrow. It dis- forth. From that time onward never a day passed cerned the thoughts and intents of many hearts. but souls were coming through crises and conflict to freedom and fulness of joy. Their faces told Showing in one hand a rust-corroded knife and the story before they reached the missionary's' in the other a shining knife of stainless make, the presence. Going to the hospital that night, one pastor asked his audience what kind of Christians heard the sound of weeping in the doctor's private they wanted to be. Bringing out an ax head from room. One of the native male nurses had come under his table, he asked the woodcutters present to confess that he had pilfered medicines from the if, when they felled giants of the forest, they dispensary, and he had brought 25 francs in paywent at their work merely clutching the iron ax ment. People who had been living in enmity were head between their hands; "Hasn't God in His humbling themselves in seeking reconciliation and Holy Spirit offered us a helve for our ax head forgiveness. Stolen articles began to come back which will put force into all our labor in the in a stream. tangled forest of sin that we are to clear away?" A testimony meeting was held Monda.y evening,
and there the thoughts of many hearts were re- transformed by the love of Christ and sitting bevealed. The truth was out, told by black people fore His table to partake of their first communion, themselves. Their sins were finding them out. was to feel that Heaven had come down to earth, Meanwhile prayer and supplication became a and that grace had swallowed up sin and death mighty stream. All who had realized the ending in victory. One could not but think of the aged of life's discord began to pour out their hearts in Simeon and his satisfied request for removal; he intercession for their friends. One knew at last could depart in peace, for his eyes had seen God's what God-inspired prayer is, and how irresistible salvation. With a score of such new-born souls in its sweep. Two missionaries had met with the before us, we realized anew what it means to "denative pastor every morning for two years to pray part in peace." For them Jesus has robbed death for revival, but they were amazed to see how, of its darkness and robbed it of its sting. when revival came, they themselves were carried along as on a mighty stream of prayer. Much more remains to be told. Other mission- aries would learn much if one told of the prob- The evangelistic and missionary passion of the lems and difficulties that the revival created, as young carpenter's heart was communicated to all well as of the marvelous doors it opened and the who tasted the Heavenly gift, and folks in the opportunities it brought. Yet mention must be villages of the hinterland became aware that made of one result which will prove of far-reachsomething had happened because, as they them- ing importance. The revival brought out the censelves put it, young fellows who had formerly trality of the cross as the core of our message. been chiefly interested in swaggering about town It made prayer and Bible study the very breath on a Sunday afternoon in showy clothes and were and daily nourishment of Christians. It brought quite incapacitated for'life by their own conceit, the promise of the Holy Spirit out of the dim and suddenly seemed to feel concern for other people hazy background of truth right into the center of and took the trouble to walk through the forest life as a throbbing reality. And, quite decisively, to other villages to proclaim the good tidings..The it made the triumph of the Resurrection stand out impression was immediate and widespread. There as the corner stone of a Christian message that is was a common impulse to relieve the burdened to win Africa. conscience and the uneasy mind by public confession, and the crowds frequenting the services In the early days of the revival a Christian made it necessary everywhere to enlarge the vil- died, and the way in which the Christians made lage chapels. that funeral a triumph will never be effaced from memory. The problem had hitherto been to per- One of the most wonderful events of all has just suade church members to cut adrift the old had its sequel, a year later. Once the church heathen mourning customs, and we had failed. members cleared their lives of deceit and sham, Wailing and noise and confusion seemed inevitathe heathen became uneasy and stirred in their ble, till on one glorious day the Christians rose sleep, and awoke. The old people, the people most as one man and said, "Never again." That tristeeped in heathenism, began to "ask the way to umphant funeral of a believer has set its seal on Zion with their faces thitherward." Once they the community's life. Now the women gather in had seen fellow villagers who had been reputed to their, brightest clothes, sit in rows around the be Christians really making a clean break with house and sing hymns. Some stay to uphold the witchcraft by bringing out and casting away their chief mourner when the corpse is removed, and secret fetishes, the heathen opened their eyes and all the others follow to the place of burial singing opened their hearts. The story of their awaken- hymns. Who told them to do this? "They shall ing is a constant source of wonder to us. It was be all taught of God." Things we had labored marvelous to see great-grandfathers and great- to .instill into public opinion by preaching and grandmothers in inquirers' classes where the teaching became a public possession overnight. story of Jesus was told to them "simply as to a We who had formerly felt so conscious of labor little child." and sorrow, who had called ourselves workers for God, realized that we were but spectators. "What On Sunday, March 1, the first of these aged hath God wrought!" folks from the town of Bolobo itself were baptized and received into the fellowship of the Into Africa went the Christ twenty centuries ago, when' Church. They numbered twenty. A great crowd gathered on the beach when they were baptized, his own folk sought to slay him. for it was a wonder of wonders to the natives. To see the women who had been most prominent Out of Africa came the Christ, sheltered and safe, to at all heathen funerals and the most adept in all mourning orgies and dances, and well acquainted live his mission and die his death, that the world might with palm wine or sugar cane beer drinking, be saved.
Into Africa may he go again, proclaimed by eager and impelling disciples.
Out of Africa-may Christ come, with a continent fol- lowing after. EMORY Ross.
on the Witness
WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR ME are set forth on a new path of righteousness and By REV. JAMES J. R. JOLOBE, B.A., devotion to higher things.
A survey of the influence of Christ in Africa Presbyterian Church of South Africa cannot, however, be complete without mentioning PERHAPS to one born in a Christian home it education. We owe a debt of gratitude to the may be a little difficult to appreciate fully missionary enterprise for the enlightenment what Christ has done for one; but the life which is rapidly helping us adjust ourselves to from which the Christian religion has helped us modern conditions and to civilized standards of to emerge may help one to realize in some meas- living. It is true there are some who would have us develop along our own lines. If this means ure the gains brought to Africans by embracing preserving all that is good in our past we welcome the Gospel. In the primitive stage of our exist- it. But if it means that we should be content with ence, neutralizing the good things which were a the old primitive life, in other words to be misfits blessing and should be preserved, were attendant in an advancing world, inefficient in an efficient evils ingrained in the social system which, though in a way supporting it, threatened to undermine the vitality of the race mentally and morally.
Among these was superstition. It is only when one actually comes into contact with those en- thralled by this evil that he can appreciate fully what Christ has done and is doing for our people in connection with superstition. The constant fear of imaginary harm, the suspicion engendered against innocent people, and the unwarranted hate against supposed agents of witchcraftthese and many others were the things which were not conducive to the growth of personality.
Christ has liberated us from this bondage and set Africa free to develop to the highest degree with- in her reach.
Again, Christianity has enhanced the value of human personality. On the whole, among our peo- ple life was sacred and the individual had a cer- tain amount of value as a member of a tribe, but REV. JAMES J. R. JOLOBE, B.A. this new religion intensified and widened this conception. In a practical way this was achieved by denouncing polygamy and proclaiming in no un- society-if it means this, we emphatically refuse certain voice that a man should have only one to accept the idea of developing on our own lines. wife. With us, in some cases, several women We feel we have benefited by the assistance of were permitted to one man. This new teaching Christianity, which has helped us, through edu- not only raised the status of woman, but it was cation, to emerge from primitive ideas to a civi- also a blessing to a people who were soon to be lized outlook. We are told, and we see it for ourlaunched into a whirl of economic conditions selves, that it is the fittest that survive under under which a man with a very large family, as modern conditions, and to be fit our race must in polygamous society, would succumb. avail itself of all the best, materially, mentally Africans are human, and being so have their and morally, which mankind has gained down the full quota of the frailties which bring guilt to the ages. Education is doing this for the African, soul, which guilt can only be removed by the for- and we thank the missionaries upon whom this giveness offered man by God, in giving His Son duty devolved for many years past. Even if the to be a propitiation for our sins. Christ has met idea of developing in our own lines were taken in the supreme need of Africa-a Saviour. By the its best sense, we claim that we have a right to cross many are being raised from a low life and know first the universal standards in order that [471 ]
even what is distinctly African may be governed ences, and most unfortunately Africa has im. by them in order to be recognized by the world. proved upon the original. This has resulted in arresting the real work of evangelization, while a I believe the summary of the influence of Christ great deal of energy is being wasted in petty camin Africa is after all a summary of individual ex- paigns of mutual proselyting. Church loyalties periences. If there is an indigenous church grow- are taking the place of loyalty to the Founder of ing up in Africa it is because individual souls the Church. A united church would, I believe, have been touched by the healing hand of Christ. eliminate this, and besides would have greater May I give this witness? I recognize Christ as power and prestige in the eyes of the still nonmy Saviour. He has given me a purpose in life Christian Africa. Moreover, by pooling its reand strength to struggle towards the attainment sources it would be better able to meet the extenof that purpose. Moreover, I am of that class of sion of the rule of Christ. our people which is in the transition stage. These people have inevitably severed their connection But, great as is the need for extensive work, I with many of the old customs and traditions and think the need is greatest for intensive cultivation consequently have lost the salutary restraints de- in church work. The victories won must be solidirived from these, because they were upheld by fied. It grieves one to find that sometimes in old unconvincing sanctions. It was therefore oppor- mission stations, after the second or third gentune that, when these restraints were beginning eration of Christians, a reaction to the old life to be shaken, Christ came and furnished us with sets in. This seems to point to the need of more restraints supported by higher and better sanc- intensive work. To gain this end I think Sunday tions. This saved us from drifting aimlessly. school facilities must be exploited to the full in The best of our people realize more than ever to- Africa. The preparation of candidates for the day that our only salvation as a race and our only full membership of the Church must be long and condition of progress lies in accepting the new thorough, and in the services the preaching must restraint-Christ. In one word, therefore, Christ be more instructive in tone. When people have is my anchor, and not only that, but also my been converted their question naturally is, "What haven, and the wind to help me sail toward that must we do?" The preaching in the churches haven. must seek to answer these questions intelligently and convincingly. From this we can see that, But when we have mentioned all that Christ though it is true that Africa must be evangelized has done for Africa, we find that a great deal still by Africans, she needs a fully trained and well remains to be done. It is true that in Africa educated ministry. Christianity has produced some men of sterling Christian character and women of outstanding In closing may I say that the period we are witness, but the gains registered must be multi- passing through as a people is a difficult one, and plied throughout the whole race. Vast numbers it will take a strong and efficient church to tide of our people live and die without Christ, and this us over it. Our people are rapidly leaving behind points to the need of more extensive evangeliza- the old primitive life. Christianity, education, tion. As the result of missionary activities in- and contact with civilized races are responsible digenous churches are rising up in Africa, but the for this change, and we welcome it. We, however, work still to be done is greater than these bodies regret that with the old order go also the recan accomplish without outside assistance. I be- straints which were furnished by old customs and lieve there is still room for the mother churches traditions. Under these circumstances, therefore, to work among us by guiding the infant churches our hope lies with the Church of Christ. The and by continuing financial help to maintain full- task is big, but we believe that if she addresses time workers in heathen areas. It is just here that herself to it with faith, courage and intelligence our indigenous churches fail. Their funds are she can cope with it. Christ, the Redeemer of the sufficient only to keep going what has already world, is equal to any situation, in any race, and been done, and that with difficulty. They lack the in any age, as He is the same yesterday, today surplus funds for launching aggressive campaigns and forever. of evangelization. Whatever work of this nature is done by them is only on the fringes of their WHAT CHRIST MEANS TO ME pastoral charges. – By BOKARI SABA, However, even with sufficient funds, I believe that the task of evangelizing Africa is beyond a Sangha pres Bandiagara, French Sudan, divided church. The need for union is urgent in French West Africa this country. Europe has rendered us great service by bringing us the Gospel, and we are thankful I AM a fisherman. For years I walked in darkfor this; but with this she has bequeathed to us ness, offering sacrifices to the Water God and a bitter legacy in the form of religious differ- praying Mohammedan prayers, but that did not help me to get rid of my load of sin. One day
AFRICANS ON THE WITNESS STAND
I heard the Word of God-one cannot accept Saviour of the world. Whosoever believeth in God's Word until he hears. I believed that Jesus Him shall not be destroyed, but whosoever does Christ was my Saviour. My load of sin fell off, not believe Him the wrath of God abideth upon and I entered into light. During the first year, him." however, I did not have much strength and still continued to fight with people. Because of this I The commander asked me who was my witness. fasted and prayed. God filled me with the Holy I did not have anyone with me, so I replied, "Com- Spirit and gave me power in my life. mander, I am doing the will of God. I have no witness here, but God is my witness. He sees my I returned to my father's house, and my people work." The commander bowed his head for a wanted me to join in sacrificing a black goat to time and then replied: "I do not see any lie in the Water God as is their custom. I told them you, but I cannot let you go as you have two witthat Jesus gave His life for the world and we nesses against you. I will give you five days in should not offer sacrifices any more. They said I prison." I prayed to God that He might give me would not gain any fish. I replied that I knew wisdom to look to Jesus, and He helped me in a that He whom I follow would help me. However, wonderful way. Good food was sent in for me, my heart was burdened as I had been away from and He caused the guard to trust me, putting me my country for some time and was no longer over several other men during the working hours. skilled in spearing fish and drawing in the net. But best of all I was able to preach to the other We began to fish. I fell into the water three times, prisoners, and two accepted Christ. I was reand they all laughed. I prayed to God and asked leased after five days, but returned once more to Him to give me sense. I did not fall into the the prison to further testify about Jesus to those water again, and before morning my boat was full who had accepted Him. of fish. Everybody was astonished, as I had gained more than they all. I went back to my father's house during the rice harvesting season, and while there received a My arm became swollen, and everybody said it letter asking me to come to Sangha. From the was because I had not made a sacrifice. I said, beginning of my life I had always been near the "Jesus, Thou art my doctor. Here is my arm." water and now I was asked to go away from the It healed quickly and did not hinder me from river, to the rocks of Sangha. I said, "God, let working at all. Thus God strengthened my faith Thy will be done," but Satan tempted me, saying, in Him. "How will you, a fisherman, live if you do not get any fresh fish." When I prayed, God said to me, One day I received a letter requesting me to go "Look at the cross of Jesus, how He died for you." to the San district to tell others about Jesus. I At that time I worshiped God for thus showing prayed for three days and God showed me that me the love of Jesus, and my heart was at rest. He had work for me there. With my wife, Pali, Here at Sangha I do not get any fresh fish, but and two children I went to San, about 250 miles joy is in my heart always. God has blessed me from my home. There my little boy, Mousa, be- among the rocks and in the plains. In numbers came very ill. I prayed and said, "Lord, let Thy of villages there are those who have now heard will be done, not mine." We took the child to the the message of salvation and have repented, burndoctor and he treated him, but the third day the ing their Mohammedan and fetish charms. I child died. The tears flowed, but God lifted the thank God that He helped me, in the Name of the burden so that I could say, "Thank God, Thou Lord Jesus. who has given hast taken away. Bernde am woyi konno bernde am dyalli." (My heart cried, but At Sangha, too, we have had our testings, but my heart laughed). I knew that my Lord had God has given deliverance time after time. One given His life for me. My heart was sweet for I day a Mohammedan teacher from Mecca, and knew God was the rewarder. To this day the greatly revered, passed by our house. When he Lord is blessing mightily in that district, and saw that my wife was pregnant he said, "Take s,cores of souls have found Christ as their Sav- out a sacrifice and give it to me or your wife will iour. I know it was not by my power or thought, 'die." I replied, "I will never take out a sacrifice but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before I again, for the Lord Jesus is my sacrifice." Anleft this place God had given me another child. other Mohammedan teacher came, and in my ab- sence gave a charm and holy water to PalL When Later I was sent to the Dedougou Circle to I came home she showed them to me and I said, testify. Here Satan caused two men to tell lies "This is Satan's work." I tore the writing and about me to the French commander. One Sunday broke the bottle. I prayed to God to give me while I was preaching a guard came and seized power over Satan. I called the Mohammedan and me. I did not know what I had done and was talked with him, and the next day he left the coundeeply burdened, but I was conscious that Jesus try. One Sunday morning while I was preaching was with me. The commander asked me what I I asked the people to pray for PalL Before the was teaching, and I said: "Jesus is the Lord, the
service closed a Christian woman came with the At the time of my birth my father and mother news, "Praise God, Pali is delivered." All were were in the Catholic religion. I was also baptized surprised, saying, "Even before we finished in that faith and received the name Augustine.
speaking God worked." All the town who knew When I grew up and saw their works I perceived about the prophecy of the big Mohammedan that they had very many objects of worship, teacher marveled and came to greet Pali. Thank Jesus, Mary, Peter and many like them. They do God, I know that His blessing is with me at not give God's Word to men. And also, I was Sangha, and this increased our faith in Him. taught that one can give money to "the father,"
The Habbe people of Sangha as a tribe are who is able to grant him a period of time in fetish worshipers, and they too tempt us. Last which he may commit any sin he likes and he will month, as their big yearly celebration drew near, pray for him. A religion like that does not save their representative, Antando, met me on the one. I forsook that forever.
path. He said, "Bokari Saba, I have come to ask After that I entered Mohammedanism and re- you something hard, but something easy." mained in it for seven years. I saw in that also I said, "Is it peace?" that one could commit any sin he liked, just as He replied: "Peace. We have inquired from long as he was faithful in doing the salaams five the sacred fox, and he says that a fisherman is times a day, facing the East. Why? Because to open our celebration this year. If you will kill there is a stone in Mecca which is the big Moham- the chicken as a sacrifice and walk around our medan object of worship, and Mohammed's grave.
idol three times we will give you grain and They give one a charm called lisimoun, to put on chickens. " for a protection. When I heard the Word of Light I said: "Antando, if I could I would break and took account of my ways, I saw that we wor- down your idol to say nothing of worshiping it. shiped nothing less than Satan and idols, and bur- Do not talk to me again about this matter. I am dened ourselves with much we could not carry.
a fisherman, you a Habbe. Weare sister tribes. Mohammedan teachers also say that we must not Anything in my house that you want you can observe their works, but believe the word of the come and take, but do not speak to me about hon- Koran only. Why? Because their works are evil.
oring your idol. If I have my way, I will destroy There is no end to secret matters with them in it." such a religion of deception. I forsook that for- Praise God, I will not approach a fetish again ever. It does not save one.
with a sacrifice, for I know that Jesus Christ, I saw truth and love in Jesus, which are not in whom I love, is my sacrifice. I need chickens any other road. What is God's will? "And this and grain, but God gave me strength to refuse is the will of my Father, that everyone that be- them when offered in this manner. holdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should Pray much for me that I may not look at the have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the things of the world. I do not have any strength last day" (John 6: 40). I also saw that trouble of myself, but I know God will give it to me as I and persecution were with Jesus on earth.
pray to Him. He has given me His promise that "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep whatsoever I ask in the Name of the Lord Jesus and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye I shall gain. The promise stands true. God has shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be given me the witness in my heart. Praise God turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail because of the blood of Jesus, for the blood of hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when Jesus took off the old garment of sin from my she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no neck and gave me a new garment of righteous- more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born ness. I want to go forward doing His will till into the world" (John 16: 20-21).
He come. Amen. I saw another thing on the Jesus road which is not in any other road. If a person says to you, WHY I ACCEPTED CHRIST "Throwaway your coat," but does not give you By JEAN KEITA, a new one, will you not take the old one again? But if he gives you a new one, you will have no Siguiri, French West Africa use for the old one. Praise the Lord because He THE first thing I saw in Jesus was a revela- gives His own a new spirit and helps him to con- tion of myself. I saw that Jesus is the light, quer himself, Satan and the world, and enables· myself a sinner. The works of darkness him to walk with God. Otherwise none of us filled my heart; I did not know that I was so could walk God's road. "But ye are not in the wicked until Jesus showed me myself. After I flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of saw His love and goodness I earnestly desired God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not Him, but I could not have Him until I forsook my the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans own will and the love of the world. 8: 9). SOME TYPES OF WEST AFRICAN WOMEN The Gospel and the Women of West Africa By JEWEL H. SCHWAB Presbyterian Mission, Cameroun, West Africa I N ORDER to appreciate the changes the Gos- fear of malignant spirits always hovering about pel has wrought in the lives of the women of at the stream or in the forest at sundown, or at that part of West Africa with which we are midnight in the hamlet, waiting to seize her or familiar, a brief survey of their state before the her children; fear of childlessness, that she be "Words of God" came to them is essential. without anyone to care for her in her advancing years-fear might be said to have been the Zeit Significant are these words spoken by the at- motif of their lives. Also significant is the sobritendants when a girl child is born, U tan u tora, quet applied to a girl child in contrast to that of ba koba we u hemle, which translated means, a boy. The latter is known kek Ii njok, the molar "Deny, deceive, but if they catch you in the act, confess." A woman must always be on the de- tooth of an elephant-a prized possession; a girl, fensive, and so as one of her weapons she is ad- kop ba sem-a fowl to be sold or sacrificed.
vised by her sex from birth to admit nothing un- Thus was bred in Basa womankind an inferior- less actually found out. Fear of what might fol- ity complex, a secretiveness and a suspicion mak- Iowa confession of being the host of a witch, thus ing for a conservatism that has in the past acted unwittingly causing the sickness or death of hus- as a barrier to their acceptance of the Gospel. It band, relative or child; fear of consequences, such was youth, their sons, those prized possessions as wounds inflicted, being hung over the fire by who attended mission schools, who first success- the thumbs, if angering her husband; fear of be- fully broke down the barriers and won them to ing killed or buried alive if her husband died; the hearing of the Gospel and later the surrender- [475 ] ing of their hearts. A Basa boy's best friend is stretched, preventing them from going on. Her his mother; as the Basa proverb has it, "A son husband said to the apparition, "Are you blocking does not exchange his mother for the most beauti- the path because of my sins? If so, then let my ful girl," and so he wishes to share his "pearl of wife pass; her heart is cleaner." She went on, great price" with her particularly. As the "Good and the beauty of that better life was unfolded to News of the Words of God" became more widely her and the time when she would inherit it was known and accepted, women of their own volition revealed. Some time later Ngo Tjomp's husband began to follow the "path of God," making their died and was given a Christian burial, but the choice deliberately, confessing their sins openly fact that both she and her husband had been and fearlessly that they might begin their jour- Christians for many years did not prevent some ney with a clean heart, putting their trust in God of his relatives and friends from taunting her. that He would sustain them. A friend came to sit with her one day, as is cus- One such woman was cruelly beaten by her hus- tom during the nine-day period immediately folband. "Are you sorry you confessed?" she was lowing death, but instead of speaking words of asked. She replied, "My body is sorry because it comfort she accused Ngo Tjomp of desiring the is full of pain, but my heart is glad because for death of her husband, and even of being the cause the first time I have found peace." Her husband of it. Ngo Tjomp sat with bowed head, silent continued for a month or more to beat her each under the abuse, missing her husband, who altime she returned from attending service in the ways had been her helpmeet on the farm, and little chapel built on the outskirts of their village. shared the burden of carrying firewood and food over the long narrow path back to their hamlet. AFRICAN WOMEN ON THEIR WAY TO MARKET Months passed; then late one afternoon Ngo Tjomp appeared, her face radiating a new-found Daily he picked up the earthen pot containing tid- peace. "0 mother," she said, addressing her misbits she had prepared for him and smashed it to sionary friend, "Christ says, 'Bless those who perbits on the floor. He expected her to become secute you'; He has given me strength to follow angry, to refuse to bring him his daily food, but this teaching. Ngo Ngaga [the one who had she was silent and respectful always, each day taunted her] has an ulcer on her foot. She canbringing another pot or dish of well cooked food not leave her house. I gave her a copper to buy for him. Finally he succumbed. If her Christ medicine for it and prayed with her that God was able to· inspire such endurance and love in would bless and heal her." His disciples He must be worth knowing. Today this man may be seen coming out from under the Tjega stood tall beside his buxom little wife at overhanging eaves of his little brown hut, when the altar, each with a child in arm, a boy and a the call drum's clipped tones break the hushed girl, to consecrate the twins to the Lord. "We silence of grey dawn, together with his wife and have named the boy Moses," beamed the mother, children, to join the line of worshipers filing along "for we are giving him to God that he may lead the path on their way to morning prayers. Woman his people on the path that goes to our Father's is not only becoming emancipated from her fears town." Eight years previously Ngo MbOt had and developing a will and ideas of her own, but mothered another little lad, not her own, but a in this new freedom that is hers the heart of the weazened six-month-old starveling that had been Christian woman, bathed in the warm sunshine nourished on palm wine since the death of its of Divine love, is slowly unfolding, developing into mother. When he was brought to the mission staa sweet scented flower of wondrous beauty. tion a wet nurse was sought for the child in vain. Noone was willing to risk illness or death for her- Ngo Tjomp had a dream. She and her husband self or children, which is believed to be meted out were walking along a lovely level, grassy clearing to the foster mother by the angered spirit of the in the forest when suddenly an arm appeared, out- dead mother. Finally Ngo MbOt was approached. She replied, "I am in the Lord's hands. I do not fear. With His help I will care for the child as my own," and she took the child. A few months after this she became quite ill. Her neighbors predicted her death, and it was ,suggested that she return the child or refuse to nurse it. To all this. advice she merely said with unshaken faith, "God has put this child in my care. He will take care of all of us." And He did.
"I am going down to my son's town to die," as she hobbled along the forest path under giant trees, meaning she would stay for the rest of her
THE GOSPEL AND THE WOMEN OF WEST AFRICA
life. Her only child, a boy, she had left many girls sell food they have raised and prepare and years ago in the town to which she was now so carry palm oil and palm kernels to trading cen- eagerly hastening, when she ran off with another ters. man to his hamlet. So many years had rolled by since then that she had forgotten her misdeed and This new found freedom for women is a bless- thought only of the fact that she had a son, flesh ing only in so far as it is a controlled freedom, of her flesh and bone of her bone, who would care consecrated to the Lord. Only those whose lives for her in her last years. How her heart sang as have been given direction and an ideal for which she thought of the greeting awaiting her after to strive are going to be benefited by it. A girl this long separation! In anticipation she was from one of our Eastern colleges remarked that warming her stiffening joints at the comfortable she would like to go to Africa to do welfare work fire under the roof of her boy's home. How she among the women and girls, but it must be solely strained her eyes as she neared the town for a welfare work entirely divorced from religion. possible glimpse of him! At last she saw him in There has been a tendency to consider social servthe court of his hamlet. "0 my heart, my son, my son, your mother has come! Your own Courtesy of The Missionary Herald. mother who bore you, she has come! Myself, it is she !" Her son, grown to manhood, made sure he ice as sufficient to raise a people to a higher level had heard aright and then turned his back on the of living; but it has been our experience, and the approaching woman and entered his palaver experience of others who have lived and worked house. She had deserted him when he needed with African women, that it is the woman who her, now let her suffer. has been won for Christ first who is susceptible to suggestions and willing to improve her living Heartbroken, she threw her old wrinkled body conditions. Without the stimulation which comes on the ground and sobbed forth her disappoint- from a changed and purified inner spiritual life ment and humiliation. Soon a crowd gathered. she is not willing to defy age old customs and The son forbade anyone to take her home to care habits, be they ever so unhygienic. The African for her, threatening them with a heavy fine if they woman must first be led to the feet of the Master, did so. The Christian women in the community who alone can set all captives free, before she can tried to intercede for her. He was deaf to all en- help to win Africa for Christ. treaties. Finally they told him that, if he refused to care for her, they as Christians could not let her suffer. Suiting action to word they built a little house for her, carried firewood and food to her daily, succeeding at length in lighting the fires of another love, a greater love, in this African woman's heart.
Economically there have also been great changes. Laws governing marriage and divorce, the opening up of roads giving free communication and the establishing of courts with the final appeal to the European officer, who tries to decide cases justly, has made for a measure of freedom for womankind. But this freedom, unless controlled by inner promptings of the heart, is not entirely beneficial, as is indicated by the flocking of girls and young women to trade centers to become "company women"-prostitutes now licensed and inspected by the government. The young woman running away from home and husband, who greeted Miss Mackenize on the path one day with, "Mornin' Matches, I am flee!" was one of the many who are turning this freedom into license-freedom to flee from home and responsibilities. As women must pay a government tax as well as men, those whose husbands do not provide for them-and they are manymust earn money to pay it, as well as buy the clothes necessary for themselves and sometimes for their children. To do this the women and
Church of Christ in
By RT. REV. J. J. WILLIS Recently Bishop of Uganda; Assistant Bishop of Leicester THE story of Christian missions in Uganda is It was through the influence of Stanley that one of the best known of all the romances of Mutesa's famous appeal to Christian England the mission field. Few missions have, in their came to be written. The appeal, published in the early days, come nearer to disastrous failure; few Daily Telegraph in 1876, led to the sending out by have, in so short a time, achieved a more con- the Church Missionary Society, in 1877, of the spicuous success; few have exhibited on so large first missionary party, to be followed two years a scale the perils of an easy triumph; and none, later by the first representatives of the Roman perhaps, have shown more clearly the hand of God Catholic White Fathers' Mission. Himself guiding, preserving, and out of weakness making strong. The early effort came perilously near to dis- aster. Of the eight men who formed the original To Krapf and the pioneer German missionaries party at one time only one was left in Uganda. in East Africa, in the early half of last century, Under pressure from the Arab traders and his must betraced the impetus which led to the dis- own pagan and Moslem chiefs, Mutesa again and covery of the Victoria Nyanza, and, on its north- again wavered in his loyalty to the mission which western shores, the kingdom of Buganda. The had come to the country on his invitation and as first European traveler to enter Buganda was his guests; he remained on the whole friendly, Speke, in 1861. He was followed in 1875 by H. but never himself joined the Christian Church. M. Stanley. Both men were impressed with the When he died, and his son, Mwanga, reversed his outstanding qualities of the people of Buganda father's policy, and turned savagely on the deand the possibilities of their country. Brave, in- fenseless infant Church, when the missionaries telligent, highly organized and disciplined, they were expelled from the country, and the Chrishad long since passed from the patriarchal stage tians scattered and in hiding, it looked as if the to the monarchical. Clothed from head to foot, Christian effort were doomed to failure. If the clean, and with perfect manners, they presented hand of God may be seen in the discovery of a striking contrast to the surrounding tribes. Uganda and in the visit, at the critical moment Speke saw at once the possibilities of such a peo- of Stanley, it is seen even more clearly in the surple from the point of view of civilization; but vival of the Church, when, without European Stanley realized the possibilities of this dominant leaders, and with nothing more than a single Gosrace, led by a progressive and all-powerful king, pel, St. Matthew, to inspire, it passed through the from the point of view of the Kingdom of God. fires of persecution, and emerged a larger and a Such a people, brought under the obedience of stronger Church than at the beginning. "The Christ, would, he saw, be an incalculable influence bush burned with fire, and the bush was not conthroughout central Africa. sumed," because God Himself was in it.
Buganda, or in its Anglicized form, Uganda, Since those early days of persecution the was at heart pagan. But at the time of Stanley's Church in Uganda has passed through many vavisit a thin veneer of Mohammedanism had been ried experiences. Three religions have struggled, laid :<,)Ver the country. Arab traders had influenced as in so many parts of Africa, for supremacy, and the King, or Kabaka, Mutesa, and under his the victory of Christianity over its rivals has, to orders chiefs and people had hastened to declare all appearances, been complete. In Buganda today themselves Moslem. But all was as yet superficial; paganism is almost out of sight, and Moham- Uganda was still malleable, and had not yet hard- medans are a small minority. Christianity has ened into the bigoted hostility of a Moslem state; been divided as-a house against itself; Protestants but had Stanley come later, or had he been a man and Roman Catholics have fought one another in of a different type, the whole future of the coun- a war which was at least as much political as retry would have been strangely different. Stanley ligious. Again the "French" party, the Roman arrived at the right psychological moment, and, Catholics, have combined with the "English" by sheer personal influence turned the tide and set party, the Protestants, in common hostility to the it in the direction of Christianity. Mohammedan and pagan parties. At one time a [478 ] Moslem king, at another a pagan and at another missions are working independently over the same a Christian, has sat on the throne. ground. There are three strong Roman Catholic But steadily and increasingly Christianity has missions, a French mission, an English mission, won its way, and no one could question the domi- and an Italian mission. These divide up the coun- nant position it now occupies in the thought and try between them; but the native Anglican life of the people, not only of Buganda but of all Church organization covers the whole area, and the surrounding tribes, for a radius of hundreds the Synod of the Church is representative of every of miles. The first two bishops of Eastern Equa- part of the Protectorate.
torial Africa died before reaching Uganda. Bishop Hannington was murdered, in the time of the per- secution, in 1885, within sight of Uganda; Bishop Parker died of fever on his way to the country.
When the third bishop, Tucker, reached Uganda, in 1890, the adherents of the Church Missionary Society mission numbered a bare 200; when he retired in 1911 they numbered 70,000.
For years the work was confined to the imme- diate vicinity of the capital, Mengo (or Kam- pala) ; today the furthest occupied stations lie 600 miles away, in Belgian Ruanda and Urundi, and the whole intervening country is covered with a network of churches, schools, hospitals, dispen- saries and welfare centers. Great cathedrals, Anglican and Roman Catholic, crown the hill tops in the capital; Christian teaching permeates the thousands of schools which have brought educa- tion within the reach of practically every child in the country; Christian homes are beginning to make their influence felt in the new world which has been created. It is difficult to realize that Christianity is still such a new thing in Uganda and that men and women are still living who themselves passed through the furnace of perse- cution in the days of Mwanga.
It is worth while considering what it is to which, under God, this very remarkable change is due, for to Uganda has been given a success out- ward and visible not ordinarily given to missions.
1. The Kingdom of Uganda occupies a strategic position in Africa. Its people are a people of out- standing natural intelligence, a dominant race.
The seed was sown on fertile ground. TEACHING CHILDREN IN AFRICA 2. Christianity in Uganda was first in the field.
Western civilization, with its more materialistic 5. British rule, again, has created conditions al- outlook, followed later. European and African most ideally favorable to missionary work. Doubt- first met on the higher spiritual plane, a fact less Christians missions would have survived and which has colored all their subsequent relation- in the end would have won their way, but it would ships. have been impossible for the Gospel to advance 3. The Christian appeal was first made, as in with anything like the same rapidity had there England, to the king and chiefs. Missions en- been no British administration in the country.
tered Uganda on the invitation of Mutesa, and the Law and order, communications with the outside missionaries were there as his guests. Christian world by railway, internal communications by chiefs have been from the first the acknowledged road, active cooperation in education, the sympa- leaders and whole-hearted supporters of the thetic attitude of officials, general prosperity and Church in Uganda. Their influence among their industrial development have all contributed to- people has been a decisive factor in evangeliza- wards the progress of the Gospel. What the Ro- tion, in education and in medical development. man government meant to Christianity in the first 4. Uganda has been kept from those difficult century, as it swept along the highways of com- problems which arise when a variety of different merce and captured the strategic centers of civi-
lization, that, and much more, has British admin- of the Church. Indeed the whole history of that istration meant to the Church in Uganda. Church might be written around the names of its 6. The Bible has from the first held a pre-emi- leaders, some of them men of outstanding ability, nent place in the life of the native Church. It some men of no obvious importance, yet made was Stanley who first brought before Mutesa the great by the Spirit who dwelt in and inspired Book on which his own faith rested. Mutesa's them. And in that succession of leaders not the first question to the first missionary party to ar- least have been those saints and humble men of rive was, "Have you brought the Book?" Chris- God, as Apolo Kivebulaya, of the Pygmy Forest, tian converts have always been known in Uganda whose simple faith and utter devotion have been as "readers." From the time of Pilkington, in the very life blood of the Church.
1897, the Baganda have had the whole Bible in The natural advantages of the country, the con- their own vernacular. It has been translated in ditions created by a strong and sympathetic gov- whole or in part into at least ten languages in the ernment, the personality of the leaders, the policy Protectorate. No adult convert may be baptized adopted, all these have had their place in the prog- (unless manifestly too old to learn) unless he is ress of the Gospel in Uganda, but above all there able to read the Gospels in his own language. The has been the hand of God Himself, and few mis- Bible, read in the homes and taught in all the sions in the world have called forth more interest schools, is molding the character of the rising and sympathy and prayer than has Uganda; to generation. The voluntary abolition of slavery, that prayer is due whatever of the seeming suc- the social uplift of the women, the eager evangel- cess proves to be real and permanent.
ization of hitherto hostile tribes, the devotion and But rapid success carries with it inevitably its self-sacrifice shown in medical service, have all own dangers. An East African Bishop, visiting been inspired directly by the study of the Book. Uganda, summed up his impressions in the words The place given to the Bible goes far to explain of the Queen of Sheba: "'The half was not told the decisive influence of the Church Missionary me'; the best and the worst exceed all that I had Society in Uganda. heard." It is fatally easy, in our appreciation of 7. The Church in Uganda is essentially a native the success, to lose sight of the other side of the church. Very early in its history, when it was account. But when Christianity has become popu- still in its infancy, European leadership was per- lar, when a mass movement, led by Christian force withdrawn, and all through the dark days chiefs, is sweeping over the country like a prairie of persecution the Church had to depend, under fire, when a Christian name is almost necessary to God, on itself. Church councils have played a con- any social status; and Christian education is the spicuous part all through its history-parochial highway to promotion, it would be strange indeed councils, diocesan councils, synods, in all of which if Christianity kept pure. Like weeds, springing natives form an overwhelming majority. The al- up with the first rains, old superstitions and old ready existing native political organization, with immoral practices that had seemed dead spring its system of native courts and native chiefs, made again to life. Converts who have endured without the organization of a self-governing church a com- flinching the ordeal of persecution fail and dis- paratively easy matter; and Bishop Tucker's,,·su- appoint under the harder test of popularity and preme contribution was the organization of a prosperity. Familiarity with holy things may Church which was entrusted with real responsi- easily breed contempt, and a generation arises bility and was, to a marked degree, "self-sup- which is Christian not by conviction but by birth.
porting, self-governing, and self-extending." The further the boundaries of the Church are 8. The Uganda Mission has been blessed with a extended the more difficult becomes the task of succession of missionary leaders whose names effective shepherding. And, with the introduction have become household words; Bishop Hanning- of Western civilization, counter attractions mul- ton, the martyr bishop, who by his tragic death tiply, and temptations become inevitably greater.
on the threshold of his life work accomplished A church in its adolescent stage needs perhaps more perhaps than might have been effected in a not less, but more, care than a church in its early long life; Alexander Mackay, the Scottish mis- childhood; it is less interesting, but its position sionary, who was the life and inspiration of the is more dangerous.
Church in the days of its martyrdom, who worked A great work has been done in Uganda. The for fourteen years without once returning home Gospel has proyed its power in the face of bitter and died at his post; George Pilkington, who in opposition; it is left to us, in our day and genera-'
seven short years gave the Baganda the Bible in tion, to see that the ground so hardly won is not their own language, and when his life work was lost, and that the Church in Uganda is so trained done was killed in his thirty-third year; and many and equipped that it may fulfill in Africa the great another lesser known man and woman whose per- task that now lies before it, that the purpose of sonalities inspired and molded the growing life God in it and through it may be realized.
Progress and the
By REV. JOHN M. SPRINGER, D.D.
Bishop for Africa of the Methodist Episcopal Church I s MODERN material progress a bane or a into cloth, and molded clay into pots for cooking blessing to the African? Like so many other and for containers. The more skilful blacksmiths questions, the answer cannot be a mere un- attained the making of razors, needles and other qualified yes or no. Losses of one sort are bal- fine tools. Cotton was quite widely found and was anced by gains of another, and gains are balanced spun into thread, and here and there looms were by losses. A brief consideration of the typical vil- fashioned to make cotton cloth. Many different lage and economic life of the African is necessary musical instruments were made to express the inin order to come to a right judgment of the ques- nate melody of African souls to while away the tedium of the journey or of idle hours and to give tion. rhythm to the dance. But, nevertheless, the life The African maintained a fairly uniform and of the African was simple in the extreme. He sat on the ground, he slept on the ground, he ate from unchanged status of existence for undetermined the ground. His cattle, when he had any, were of generations. His was a self-contained economic little or no industrial use. They supplied meat for order; he needed no intercontinental or international commerce to supply his few necessities; they were obtained locally. The neighboring tribe in most cases was as far as he needed to go to barter for things he required. If no trader from outside his own community came his way, it usually did not matter much. His necessary tools were few, a hoe, an axe, a knife, the latter length- ened to a spear. His ancestors had come to a continent where iron ore is found in nearly all parts and in high and low grades. If some tribe chanced to settle where not even the low grade iron was to be found, necessity for tools would drive them to a tribe more fortunately situated. Or members of that more fortunate tribe or else professional traders would be stirred by the commercial in- stinct to wander afield with their wares. In the NATIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS village spaces. or at the recognized market centers Three primitive "pianGs" – marimbas with wooden keys and or by the wayside there would be dickering and gourds of various sizes bargaining, and the trader in due time would depart with a few goats or chickens, or with mats, his feasts and constituted units of value for marpots, and so on, made by local artisans. But to riage portions, to pay fines or to purchase articles. affect this exchange it was necessary as a rule to contact only a neighboring tribe. Was the African content with his mode of Africa is widely and, as a whole, abundantly existence? To many a passing visitor who saw supplied with raw materials, thus constituting a him in his casual, lighter moods and chanting in rich prize that Europe covets, has sought for and his moonlight dances he has seemed to be happy. is still haggling over. The African, though more But to those that have penetrated below the sur- or less belated in industrial development, has the face and have seen his response to a fuller life, rudiments of all the arts and industries in his ele- it has been revealed that deep down there was a mentary life. With his primitive tools, hoe, axe great restlessness and discontent. As a result, and knife, he has gotten his food from the ground with the early trader who penetrated Africa, bear- -not forgetting that in Africa it is the woman ing articles of trade – cloth, blankets, beads for with the hoe-his meat from the veldt, his honey ornament, mirrors, soaps, scents, modern hoes and from the hollow tree; he constructed his home, guns of wonderful power – there came to the vil- • prepared grass and other fibers and wove them lagers an urge to possess these things that started [481 ]
a procession of youths out from the villages. This grass or harsh bark cloth, and wanting clothing, change has come to be so widespread that it is the not only for comfort and utility, but for ornament rare village that has not contributed its quota to as well. The supporters of the second thesis of the modern army of industrial workers in Africa. the old time debate as to whether man first wore And it was not merely to secure these new articles clothing for utility or for ornament would in that Africans left the old life. In the cases of Africa find much to sustain his contention that very many there was an attraction and a holding the vanity of man has more than a little to do with power in the employment he found with the Euro- determining his attire. pean, in kitchen, on trek, on farm, in shop, that So there has been an enlarging number and held him through years of service. The dull and variety of articles of foreign manufacture de- nonprogressive round of village life had no fur- manded by the African, and notably by his wife, ther fascination for him. until today they are customers, not only in the Has the new day brought with it more of bane "Kaffir Store," the store for natives, but also in or of blessing? We need to consider this subject the stores kept primarily for Europeans, and the as it concerns not only the stay-at-home villager range, quality and extent of their purchases of arand the village life, but also the natives, including ticles of world production are limited only by the the women, that join the urban mining and indus- amount of cash in hand or by the credit they can obtain. As to tools, from using almost exclusively crude homemade ones, today in many villages it is hard to find any homemade tools, and the sub- stitution of imported ones is extending across the continent.
The sons of the Lomani blacksmiths who used to win their iron from bog deposits, transform it into steel in their crude furnaces and turn out from their very simply equipped smithies well wrought tools and implements are mainly the ones who are tending the blast furnaces at Lubumbashi and Panda. They are skilled in handling daily hundreds of tons of ore, instead of making the few simple articles that rewarded their labor of many OLD POTTERY, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE BASIN, days as they toiled with their fathers. The clay IN WHICH THE DAMP POT RESTS cooking pot has given way to the aluminum one, the earthen water jar is superseded by the enamel trial group. The two cannot be wholly separated bucket or pitcher, the grass basket is being rebecause of the constant movement back and forth placed by the wide enamel basin. And so has disof the individuals and of groups. appeared the demand for one native article after another. A missionary living close to the people Consider the village life first of all. The articles and who was keenly alive to what was happening of daily use have changed almost completely with- in village life stated that one art and industry in a generation. Europe not only wants raw ma- after another was rapidly being dropped and disterials for the factories manned by her teeming appearing entirely from the life of the people. populations, but she wants markets, and she seeks these markets keenly. To have these markets dis- Dame Fashion also steps in and holds sway in turbed and lost brings consternation, and some- Africa as among all other humans. When one times decisive action. For decades Italy supplied woman in a village becomes possessed of one of the larger portion of the fabrics purchased by these new and more desirable articles, a spirit of Abyssinians. A few years ago Japan invaded that envy is at once awakened in that community and market and largely captured it, as she has done continues until everyone has the same article. in other parts of Africa, to go no farther afield. Blue beads of a certain sort once ruled the day. Who will say to what extent the loss of this There was a change of style, and we not only market may have been a factor leading to Italy's found our stock useless for barter, but the dames recent decision and policy and the course she pur- and damsels of those interior villages, so remote sued? Think of a market such as Africa offers, that they were-"back of beyond," disdained to do' a hundred million and more people scantily more than glance at them and refused to accept clothed at best, many not clothed at all, but all them even as gifts. wanting clothing and blankets, and a goodly supply of all, and preferring to purchase the imported Not only in the industrial realm has life changed, but also in the tribal and social. The article as against the homemade fabric of coarse old primitive life was not wholly bad by a good
MATERIAL PROGRESS AND THE AFRICANS
deal. It is the rare tribe that has not had some edge and by the experiential mastery of forces good traditions and customs which were definitely and causes, will not do it. The instance is known taught to the youth, male and female. There was of a native who, unchanged as many are from an initiation which took place usually no later their old animistic beliefs, but skilled in detecting than during the age of puberty. Some features faults and frictions in very complicated machinof it were good, some decidedly bad. During re- ery and used to applying scientific tests all day cent decades it has been the rare youth who was to locate the trouble, returned to his hut one night in his village during this period, so, on his return to find his wife ill. What was causing her sickfrom industrial centers, he has been in no small ness? Not having accepted the Christian faith sense a stranger, unrelated to the community life he was stilI gripped by the old idea of spirit posand interests. So he has often made light of the session and, disregarding the medical service proold ways and customs and displayed his knowl- vided by his company, he sought out a witch docedge of the new ways of the town to advertise his tor, practicing secretly now, to smell out the witch own self-importance. In the old life there were that was causing the trouble. That is but a typirestraints generated by the fear of evil spirits, it cal case. is true. With those fears lessened or eliminated by new associations the individuals violated old The native woman joining the industrial group customs and codes. So was lost, in measure, re- is placed in particular temptation through the spect for elders, devotion to tribal affairs and in- transition from an economic order, in which she terest in tradition. Formerly thieving from strangers was approved, particularly if done so OLD S TAMPING MORTARS AND BASKETS. NOTE BICYCLE cleverly that the thief was not caught; but fear AND MODERN CLOTHES of known charms of alleged potency used by neighbors and the desire to live at peace in the was the main tiller of the soil, needing to grow home village largely worked for the protection of food for herself, for her children, and more or less property in the community. for her husband according to the number of wives he had, to the conditions obtaining in the Euro- As regards material blessings of this new age pean centers. Here, if married, she needs only to of industrial penetration of Africa, until the de- cook the meal, meat and other food rationed out . pression took away so largely, at least for a time, for her husband and his family. The firewood, the markets for labor and for produce, the Afri- formerly gathered mostly by herself, is generally cans were moving steadily toward a more abun- provided. Water is piped to near-by faucets, and dant life. The people, even the children, were she has a minimum of general work to do. "Satan being clothed quite generally, some of them elabo- still finds mischief for idle hands to do." And rately. There was developed a sense of ability mischief aplenty abounds in these centers. As for to do things, as the rawest villagers became with- the unmarried girl or woman, tired of the monotin a few years chauffeurs and machinists, clerks ony of village life, especially with so many of and telegraphers, engineers and medical assist- the men gone, and attracted to the garish centers, ants. That Divine discontent that drives men on where she becomes the concubine of a white man, to better and greater things has taken hold on with usually every want supplied, or plies her Africa. There is a growing and intense desire trade among men of her own color, she is a sad for education, and, on the part of many, for the object, at best, especially after a few short years highest. The educational value of work, of learn- when her charms are gone and venereal diseases ing to do skilled and more highly paid work, is have left their marks on her body. The natural seen to be a stimulus to general education. heart of the African man, and woman, as of un- The dead level of native life is being broken up and individuals no longer need fear to go ahead, to emerge above the crowd. The intermingling, through industrial life and wider travel, of the different cultures developed in the various tribes is producing new standards. Evil, too, travels and spreads as well as good and creates new problems. While lessening the old tribal control, the total process is .gradually cementing the different tribes into a new oneness and into a consciousness of being a common African people.
What will eliminate the gripping fear that controls so generally in native life? The scientific factor alone, as represented by the greater knowl-
regenerated man generally, is desperately wicked, control of enlightened, well disposed government, whether in the isolated village of the backwoods as in most parts of Africa today, and accompanied or in the pulsing industrial centers. Changes of by a presentation of the Gospel of God's love and geography do not effect changes of heart and life salvation from sin, it can be and actually is a great in Africa any more than elsewhere. benefit to the African.
What modern industry does to the African de- But it is not a case now whether modern induspends not a little on what sort of African is in- try shall invade Africa. That decision, whether volved, whether he is still gripped by the fears for good or for bad, was taken decades ago, and that have ruled society there for generations, or such a development was inevitable in a rapidly whether, having been delivered from that thrall- shrinking world. The entire continent of Africa dom by the new birth, he has now gained a knowl- is in the process of industrial transformation. edge of the Great Good Spirit that made the world Governmental activities control well nigh the full as being love, a faith in Jesus Christ and a heart one hundred per cent of the peoples of the contiso filled with love that fear has been cast out. If nent, all but the one million people of Liberia behe has had this new spiritual experience he faces ing under European governments. Industry dithe world and life with confidence and with a rectly or indirectly reaches on toward approxikeener outreach for increased knowledge. Indus- mating the same percentage. The Christian try in and of itself is not a spiritually transform- Church has enrolled approximately five per cent ing agency. It never was the Divine intent that only of the population and constantly or occasionit should operate alone. It is but one of the three ally contacts perhaps up to twenty-five per cent. major factors of religion, government and indus- When we shall discharge our obligation in reachtry found in every group of people the world ing effectively anywhere near the total group we around. Conducted alone, modern industry may believe that the modern industrial penetration of be and undoubtedly would be more a bane than a Africa, instead of being a bane, may and will be blessing to the African. Carried on under the a real blessing to the Africans.
The Printed Word Among the Bantu By ROBERT H. W. SHEPHERD Director of Publications, Lovedale, South Africa JUST over one hundred years ago the eastern nothing could be done, and after a stay of a little portion of Cape Colony in South Africa was in more than a year he withdrew. Some fifteen years a ferment. The Bantu tribes had pushed down later there arrived, as Vanderkemp's successor, from Central Africa, had ousted the original in- Joseph Williams, who is notable as the first man habitants of the south, the Bushmen and Hotten- to give his life for the evangelization of the native tots, and had advanced as far as the southern sea- peoples of South Africa. Following two brief board of the continent on its eastern side. Being years of labor Williams died through ill-health stopped by the sea they turned to go west, but and disheartenment. When, however, some five soon found their progress blocked by the advance years after, the first converts among the Bantu guard of European civilization spreading over were baptized it was found that they had been from the Cape. War succeeded war. It'is inter- won for God through the instrumentality of Wilesting now to note that the two races faced each liams. Few pieces of Bantu literature existing other in territory which includes the land on today are more noteworthy than a hymn composed which the Lovedale Missionary Institution now by one of Williams' converts. It is perhaps the stands. noblest of all Xosa (Kaffir) hymns and has been sung for more than a century by Bantu congre- . Early Missionaries gations. A translation may be of interest: Toward the close of the eighteenth century Dr. He is the great God in heaven. John Vanderkemp, a Hollander, acting as a mis- Thou alone art the Shield of truth. sionary of the London Missionary Society, came Thou alone art the Refuge of truth. as the first bearer of the Gospel to the Bantu. So Thou alone art the Hiding-place of truth. unsettled were the tribes, however, that he felt Thou alone dwellest in the highest.
THE PRINTED WORD AMONG THE BANTU
THE BOOK STORE', LOVEDALE INSTITUTION He is the Creator of life, He created above. few days after Ross' arrival, December 16, 1823, This is the Creator Who created, He created the Heaven. "On the 17th we got our press together; on the This is the Maker of the stars and of the Pleiades. 18th the alphabet was set up; and yesterday The star shot forth. It spoke to us. (19th) we threw off fifty copies." It was inevita- This is the Maker of the blind also; He did it of purpose. ble that the missionaries should begin with the The trumpet spoke, it summoned us. alphabet, for the Amaxosa tribe of the Bantu, He is the Hunter, hunting for souls. among whom they had settled, although speaking He gathers together the flocks that do not agree. a wonderfully flexible and expressive language, He is the Leader; He led us. had absolutely no knowledge of writing. He is the great robe which covers us. Thy hands are wounded. This early determination to provide the printed Thy feet are wounded. Word has been a marked feature of South African Why didst Thy blood gush out? history. Soon after the setting up of the press at Thy blood wast shed for us. Gwali, later known as the Lovedale Press, the This great price have we called for it? Methodists were operating a press at Mount Coke, This village here have we summoned it? about fifty miles to the east. The Paris Evan- gelical Society, which entered Basutoland in 1833, The Fi'rst Printing Press has made a special feature of its publication work. Other societies, such as the American Board, have In the early twenties of last century the London shown similar diligence. Dr. Westermann has de- Missionary Society, the Engli-sh Methodist clared that the literature of many African tribes Church, and the Glasgow Missionary Society of can be carried in a lady's pocket handkerchief! Scotland almost simultaneously placed mission- The charge cannot be levelled at South African aries in the field. The coming of the third of the missions. In the valuable "Bibliography of Chris- Scottish band is one of the romances of modern tian African Literature," published in 1923, with missionary work on the literary side. The Rev. its supplement of 1927, something like one hun- John Ross brought with him a printing press dred publications each are listed in the Xosa, which, after the voyage of 6,000 miles by sea, he Zulu and Suto languages, and about fifty in conveyed by ox wagon a journey of 600 miles Chuana. These are the principal languages of the more from Cape Town to Gwali, ten miles from southern end of the continent. . the present site of Lovedale. John Bennie, a catechist, who had arrived two years before, wrote a
The Bible Translated ants; wherever they lead he must follow. If my son is willing to go, I make no objection, for no The aim of the pioneers was not merely to pro- harm can befall him even across the sea; he is as vide as soon as possible some printed word, but much in God's keeping there as near to me." Tiyo the printed Word. Rev. J. W. Appleyard, a Soga, one of thirty-nine children of a polygamist Methodist minister, early translated the Bible headman, afterwards became the earliest ordained single-handed into Xosa, and his translation is missionary to his own race and did magnificent popular even today. A board composed chiefly of work. His translation of the first part of "Pil- Scottish and German missionaries produced a grim's Progress" is acknowledged to be a masterscholarly version in the same language. As to the piece of Xosa prose. The second part of the same other South African languages a similar story can book was translated into Xosa a few years ago be told. The work of the American and British by one of Tiyo Soga's sons, who has followed in Bible Societies deserves hearty acknowledgment. his father's footsteps by devoting a large part of Largely because of this determination to put first his missionary service to the production of literathings first the Bible remains the best seller in ture for the Bantu. the various South African vernacular tongues. The Position Today It is also the best evangelist, for it carries within its covers the very Gospel message and brings Today the tide of literacy is rising among the Christ to men and men to Christ. The British Bantu, and with it have come increased opportuand Foreign Bible Society and the Scottish Na- nities for the ministry of the printed page. Untional Bible Society have in recent years made it fortunately literacy is bringing also increased oppossible for a book caravan to itinerate through- portunities for appeals of a different kind, so that out the district which was formerly the scene of the situation is becoming critical. For example, the wars between the Bantu and colonists. The to the writer's desk there comes every month the driver-colporteur is not content merely to sell magazine of the Communist party directed to the books, but conducts services in three languages. educated classes among the Bantu, a pUblication The Scripture Gift Mission of London and the altogether true to type. While the Christian Lovedale Press have also been publishing tracts agencies are teaching vast numbers to read, it is in South African vernaculars, solely in the words our duty also to see that it is not left to the nonof Scripture. Christian and even anti-Christian elements to sup- ply the reading matter. We must supply more Religious Classics and better books.
As in many other parts of Africa, Bunyan's Thousands of Christians would find their faith "Pilgrim's Progress" was early translated, and deepened, love increased, and service made more the spiritual life of multitudes of Bantu Chris- effective if wholesome reading became part of tians has been nourished on this book. The Xosa their daily life. And beyond these stand hundreds version was admirably rendered by the Rev. Tiyo of thousands still unwon. The day has dawned Soga, the first ordained minister among the Bantu, for a forward movement in good literature whose history has more than usual interest. In throughout southern Africa. The situation calls 1846 war once more broke out between the Bantu for action and not merely resolutions. The Jeand the colonists. The missions lost heavily in rusalem meeting of 1928 said of the production, property, and Lovedale Institution, which had publication and circulation of Christian literabeen opened five years before, was turned into a ture : "It is generally recognized and admitted fort. Among the Christian refugees at another that this is the most neglected part of the missionfort was a godly native woman named Nosutu, ary enterprise. There is possibly no other miswho came with her son, Tiyo Soga, a pupil at sionary subject on which so many resolutions have Lovedale when the war broke out. In the dreary been passed and so few put into effect." The prosurroundings of the fort the lad contrived to pur- duction and distribution of books must have an sue his studies. Since he had no means of pur- increasing place in the thought and work of the chasing even a taper his mother daily collected missionary forces, especially in view of the rising sneezewood splinters to burn so that her boy tide of education and the anti-Christian propamight see to read his books during the long win- ganda being c!irected towards the Bantu. ter nights. This fact has been realized in recent years and Later it was proposed to Nosutu that Tiyo ac- some steps taken to meet the new situation. Those company Rev. Williams Govan, the first principal leading in the movement have been greatly heartof Lovedale, to Scotland and there complete his ened by the visit of Dr. John R. Mott, under education. To this the mother replied, "My son whose leadership the subject received considerable is the property of God; wherever he goes God attention. A South African Christian Council is goes with him. He is the property of God's serv-
being brought into being, one of the secretaries and in the day of his extremity this man was forof which will have this matter as his special saken by kindred and friends. By means of a charge. Missionary societies, American, British trick he was finally cast into prison, but through and Continental, will be urged to cooperate and all his faith 'remained undimmed and his deterto make arrangements to assure the production of mination unshaken. Today, some ten years later, the best literary work. Meantime several presses he remains a flaming evangelist among his people, are seeking to cope with the situation. One mis- adorning the doctrine of God, his Saviour, by his sion press last year published and sold 70,000 daily life. The significant fact is, that when encopies of vernacular books, besides innumerable quiry was made as to what led him to be at the pamphlets and books in English. church door on that first Sabbath morning it was learned that it was the Book. At school a brother Pressing Needs had been presented with a Bible as a prize. The reading aloud of the sacred page in the dark, mud- Some of the most pressing needs of today are walled hut at home became for the elder brother vernacular commentaries, Bible dictionaries, daily a life-giving ministry of the Word. readings, and other helps to the study of the Scriptures, including helps for preachers, Sunday In the press we have one of the most powerful school teachers and other Christian workers, at- of Christian agencies; and as education spreads tractive Biblical literature for the young, tracts that agency will become mightier. The missionary and pamphlets for evangelistic work, translations as a personal factor, the living voice, must always of religious classics, the wider use of newspaper be a dominant influence, but the printed word has evangelism, good recreational literature, such as its peculiar power and function. As Dr. J. H. inspiring stories, high class pictures, literature Ritson has declared: "It can be read and reread suitable for youth movements and a Christian and pondered over; it can reach a vastly greater newspaper. congregation than is to be found within the sanc- tuary; it can accompany the hospital patient to One of the encouraging present-day features is his home; … it can travel forth as the pioneer that many Africans are offering manuscripts for where the climate is deadly and the population is publication. These deserve encouragement, and sparse and conditions are unfriendly and hostile. advantage should be taken of their efforts to pro- The printed page alone is the ubiquitous missionvide facilities whereby they may influence their ary." fellow Africans for God. A BLACK FISHER OF MEN The Supreme Need In one of our conferences a young man stood But in all efforts to carry out a more masterly up to testify to the saving grace of God, saying, and united plan we must never lose sight of the "I am not as well educated as some of the rest of fact that our dependence is on the Holy Spirit you, but I can read that Jesus Christ died for my working in the individual heart. The Saviour's sins. I can also read that Jesus said, 'If you folhope for a redeemed world is through individual low me, I will make you fishers of men.' By God's men and women. A printing office becomes trans- grace I will be a fisher of men." figured only when we see its products owned and used by the Spirit of God. One Lord's Day morn- One March evening in 1927, I stood before a ing the writer went to deClare the Word of God group of people with this young man by my side. at an outstation in a remote part of Tembuland. The spokesman for the group said, "We believe Sometimes it was difficult to prevail on two or the words you have spoken to us, but where shall three to enter the little church building in that we find Christ? Show us the way and we will district. On the morning iIi question a man, clad follow." only in a blanket, the badge of heathenism, was lying at the church door waiting for it to be Turning to the fisher of men I said, "This is to opened. As the service proceeded no listener be your work. Can you lead these people to could have been more eager than this man on Christ?" whose countenance was stamped generations of paganism. Within a few weeks he confessed a "By God's grace I can try," was the simple desire to follow Christ, and thereafter every Sun- reply. day morning, and on many week days, he could be seen coming down the valley and entering the Five years later, March, 1932, I was back in little church that he might, sometimes all alone, this same village and with me again was this same converse with God. black son of God. He had called me to dedicate their first church, only a thatched roof mud-build- So complete a break with the customs of a ing, but nevertheless a house built for God by grossly heathen district could not pass unnoticed. those that he had led to Christ.-Clarence E. Carl- Persecution sprang up as if out of the ground, son, in Gems of Cheer.
A Medical Missionary
By REV. ALBERT D. HELSER, Ph.D. Kano, Nigeria, British West Africa, Missionary in West Africa Since 1922 W E ARE just back from a medical preach- rotting flesh and dead bone she groaned and called ing tour, on which Mrs. Helser and David, on God to help her bear the pain. Several men aged four, accompanied me. We went by who had followed me urged me to leave her and Ford, horseback and on foot. A man named said repeatedly, "Save us from the curse of a liv- Dankandi had invited us to visit him and to sleep ing death." As I told of Christ's love for her and in his house. The way was longer than we had of His power to help, a smile softened her tight thought, and it was dark when we reached the mouth and she said, "Will He not help me?" As home of this seeker after God. We had never I was on my knees dressing the foot the mother seen him, but the Eternal Spirit had been working knelt by me and said, "If you will be patient and in his heart and he wanted to be in his house with help my child, I will give her to you that where God's messenger. Before the camp beds and our you go she may go so that she may be like you." few belongings were put away, he whispered to Each week I go to this area some twenty miles his new friend, "Come with me into the stable, I away and as the great open sore heals her little have something to tell you." At first I was tempted heart thrills to the story of Christ's love for helpto say that we could talk the next day, but when less children.
I thought of the great first work of the Church We would like to enlist prayer helpers in the and saw Dankandi's eager face, I went with him. battle for souls here in North Central Africa. We saluted one another, and then ever so· tenderly Hundreds of men, women and young people are this bearded African told me of his love for Jesus, dying every day who have never had a chance to his Saviour. All he knew was that Jesus died for hear the glorious message of redeeming love. They him, and his face was aglow even in that dark have never had a chance to hear how God's own stable as he pressed closer to me and told of how Son went to Calvary's cruel tree in their stead. a great peace had surged through him every day Somehow more and more we feel that God would since he surrendered his all to Christ. This simple have more prayer power brought to bear on sinblack man was not only himself at the gate of ners who have no consciousness of sin. We need Heaven, but he took me with him. prayer helpers who will pray that a consciousness of sin may come into these pagan hearts and make As I sat on the seat provided for the chief's them cry out for mercy. We need some friends guest in Gun Dutse, a child's voice kept calling, who know what Christ has done for them to give "Let me in, let me in." Friends were being greeted and medicines were being prepared for themselves to prayer. various ailments, and no one had time to pay any Kussari is a young man about seventeen. He attention to the slip of a girl though she was sick was desperately sick some weeks ago. Nobody unto death. Then as she was being ordered to be knew what was wrong with him. Some said that quiet and to hide herself, I caught these words, he had an evil spirit. Others said one thing and "Will he not help me?" My first thought was, another. We went to our knees for Kussari. As another beggar or another insane child, but I prayed a pagan nearby cursed and scoffed. Just Christ's love would not let it rest at that. The as surely as God brought down fire on Carmel He least of these need Him most. I left the impor- heard our prayer, and those wild eyes became tant men about me and went out and found a little steady, and that twitching body found rest and girl about eleven who needed loving care for her peace under God's mighty power. Praise God broken body, and especially as a great ulcer was with us for Kussari. rotting away her left ankle. She trembled as I examined her, and my mind went to our own little Take the case of a leper family. The father's girl, who is now eleven, and I loved this helpless hands are both off at the wrists, and his feet off one all the more. Her eyes kept asking, Will God's at the ankles. Leprosy has actually eaten them messenger help me? The mother said, "She is as away. The mother's hands and feet are partly gone already. The little girl, about seven years good as dead." When I began to pull away the old, seems well, but two leper spots show already.
[488 ] courtesy of Missions A BELGIAN CONGO BABY CLINIC AT LEOPOLDVILLE When she was born she was perfect, for leprosy noon and night. The Spirit of God moved on the is not inherited, but by living with her leprous people of Shapa. A man named Audu was saved, parents she has contracted this awful disease. A and the miracle God wrought on his body brought little girl about two and a half, with pearly teeth, others to their Saviour. Audu was left to die; is almost sure, unless we can do something soon, his body was swollen and his eyes would not close to get this same disease. Pray that some way may even when he seemed to sleep. The first four to be found to heal the father's painful, open sores, confess Christ, and other interested friends, went and not only help him to find Christ but also ren- with me to his lone hut. All other friends had der him noninfectious. Pray that some way may deserted him. As we prayed and administered be found to save what the mother has left of her medicine we felt Heaven's power in answer to our hands and feet before they slough off. (I can prayer-helpers' earnest intercession on our behalf. hardly bear to see those filthy hands taking up A prayer-helper had provided for the medicine that precious child.) Pray that some way may be and had backed each tablet and each drop of medifound to treat the seven-year-old girl, who some- cine with prayer. Each morning we went to the how tells me by her eager eyes that she expects us sick one for prayer, and many times during the to save her from the fate of her parents, who have day medicines were sent. Some of the believers given way to despair. Pray that some way may made chicken soup for the forsaken one. He said be found to rear the tiny tot for Jesus and away on the fourth day, after declaring each day that from the danger of contamination. he could not live another day, that he had found a new world with new pe.ople in it. What a change Our hearts overflow as we write. A policeman Christ makes when He saves a lost sinner. When by the name of Ali, who gladly testified both in we left Shapa he came to say good-bye. Several public and private and was baptized some time villagers said, "Under the power of Christ and ago, has since been dismissed from the service be- His servants' medicine the hopeless are given new cause of his stand for Christ. He goes on rejoic- hope, new bodies, new minds and new souls." ing. He laughs and says: "Christ is enough for "Born again" is what Christ says about such as me. Since He has taken possession of me I lack these. God has now given us a new post in Kano, nothing. He is my all in all." in the midst of 3,000,000 souls. Less than a hun- dred natives have accepted Christ. What a par- During a recent village preaching campaign we ish? By His grace and your help many of these held fifty-four services in fifteen days. God honored your prayers by saving twenty-seven souls. shall experience the power of the blood. We lived in their midst and preached morning,
Unoccupied
-<!III By JOHN STEYTLER* IIll- HISTORY tells us that the Christian Church, trade and the practices of the witch doctors. He established in North Africa during the first was followed later by Stanley, who also opened century, flourished until the sixth century, up fresh trails to the interior. Missionaries rewhen disaster overtook it, and it was destroyed by sponded to their appeal and followed them. Pio- Islam. These North African churches have lost neer missionaries moved into Nyasaland, Uganda, their vitality, some think, because they were more Congo, Kenya and Rhodesia. Gradually the mis- concerned with theological discussions than evan- sion movement gained momentum, and numerous gelizing the pagans. Whatever the reason may other mission stations were opened in the interior.
have been, the natural expansion of Christianity, These missions can be compared to shafts of radiating from its source, Palestine, through light penetrating far into the domain of darkness, North Africa southward, was cut short before it superstition and fear as they penetrated deeper penetrated far inland. and deeper, ever expanding and spreading their Afterward nothing was done for evangelizing influence over wider and wider areas, building Africa till the time of Henry the Navigator, when churches, schools, hospitals and trying to bind up the early Portuguese explorers began to feel their the terrible wounds of Africa. Today it is esti- way south along the African coasts. They car- mated that there are nearly 11,000 organized ried with them the cross, the emblem of Christian- Protestant churches and about 2,000,000 profess- ity, and planted it at various points on Africa's ing Christians. The achievement has been im- inhospitable shores, but no attempt at mission mense, considering the time in which it has been work was made. The Dutch colonists were the accomplished; and on the face of it, it would first to try to introduce the Gospel to the natives seem as if Africa has been occupied.
of southern Africa (1665). They were followed But if achievement be appraised from the by the Moravians (1737) and the London Mission- standpoint of the numbers of profes;ing Chris- ary Society (1789). In central Africa the Roman tians, it is very insignificant, for the Christian Catholics opened a mission near Tete on the communicants only form two per cent of the total Zambesi River (1750), but for the rest the in- population of the whole continent. It would there- digenous peoples of equatorial and southern fore appear that missions are only in their youth, Africa remained untouched by Christian influence. and have taken only a step, the first step. Though With the opening years of the nineteenth cen- millions live in the areas that can be considered tury there was a great awakening of missionary virtually occupied, there are still millions that are zeal in European countries, many mission societies as yet untouched by the Christian message. If were established, and pioneer missionaries were Christian missions and their spheres of influence sent in increasing numbers to all parts of the could be thought of as points of light, then view- globe, including Africa, but for half a century ing the map of Africa, it would resemble the pat- little beyond the coastline on the west and south tern of light and shade, which a leafy tree, stand- was reached. The unexplored hinterland, tribal ing in bright sunshine, might throw on the wars, the gloomy forests, the malarial swamps ground. The darker areas would represent those and the sun-scorched plains discouraged attempts areas where populations are still held in the thrall at occupation. of witchcraft and superstition, where disease is In 1852 the intrepid explorer, David Living- rampant and Jesus Christ is not known.
stone, braved the dangers of Africa and laid bare Even in the areas which are considered occu- the wounds of the Dark Continent. What he saw pied, the Christian influence is often very limited.
filled him with profound pity, especially the ter- In the northern parts of Nigeria there is one rible suffering and iniquity caused by the slave Christian to 20,000 people; in the southern dis- • Mr. John G. Steytler graduated from the University of Stellen- tricts of the same country, one Christian to 31,000 people; in French West Africa there are less than bosch, South Africa, in 1917. After teaching in the Cape Province a thousand Christians to 14,000,000 people; in for five years, he joined the staff of the Dutch Reformed Church the Provl·nce of Khartoum there are less than Mission in Nyasaland, East Africa., where he has been head of the twenty missionaries to 1,000,000 inhabitants; in yDeeapras.rtmTenhte ogfenEedruocsiattyionof wtihtheinCathrneegMieissCioonrpfoorratitohne hlaasst mthaidrteeeint ~f:~!b~~/~~llh~'r 1t~3~:Udy at the Graduate School, Yale University, [490 ] Tripoli one missionary to 1,000,000 people. These In the Tete district of Portuguese East Africa were the estimates in 1926, but the position would which adjoins Nyasaland, till 1907 no Christian be more or less the same today. work was done among the 150,000 people living in that area. There was one Roman Catholic mis- Leaving out of account these areas where there sion, which had been established on the Zambesi is definitely some Christian work being carried River about 300 years ago, but it did not try to on, however inadequate, there are others where extend its work beyond the borders of the mission nothi.ng is done at all. Mr. W. J. W. Roome, that station. The Dutch Reformed Church, which had indefatigable traveler, who has on behalf of the a mission in Nyasaland, just across the border, British and Foreign Bible Society traveled tens was repeatedly asked by the natives to extend its of thousands of miles in Africa, gives a list of work among them too, and attempts were made to these fields in his book, "Can Africa Be Won?" secure the permission of the Portuguese officials. From this I select the largest areas mentioned: Permission was consistently refused for several years, but constant dropping can wear away even 1. Abyssinia, which is largely an unreached land with the stony hardness of a Portuguese official, and eight to ten millions of people. permission was eventually given. While these ne- gotiations were proceeding, the government urged 2. Tanganyika, west of longitude 32 east to the shores the Roman Catholics to forestall the Dutch misof Lake Tanganyika, a distance of about 300 miles. sion, and survey parties were sent out to choose a site for a mission in the area where the Dutch 3. A very large area confined between the following mission intended going. The latter managed to boundaries: From the River Tana in Kenya to the Abys- secure from the Roman missionaires a written sinian border, west to Mount Eglon and then north as far agreement as to the boundaries of the spheres of as the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile, the field influence, and for a time all went well. lying between Abyssinia and the Nile. Then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, all the 4. West of Uganda between Lake Albert and Lake Ed- teacher-evangelists of the Dutch mission, totaling ward and stretching 400 miles into the Congo. sixty-five, were arrested by the authorities on the grounds that they did not know Portuguese. Of 5. Another is to be found from the point where the three these teachers seventeen were already in possescQuntries, French Congo, Belgian Congo and Anglo-Sudan sion of Portuguese certificates, and all the others meet, northwards into the Umbangi Province in French were studying the language. Protests were of no territory. This area lies between 20° and 25° east longi- avail, and all were deported to Mozambique and tude and approximately 5° to 10° north latitude. This part were forced to work on sugar plantations. Some is aptly called the "heart of Africa." Its situation justi- managed to escape, others died of hardship, it is fies the title. said, and a few were deported to the Portuguese islands of Panjim and Timor in the West Indies. 6. The middle part of eastern Congo between 20° and After many years some returned to their waiting 24 ° east longitude and 1° to 4 ° south latitude. families, but in 1925 four were still missing, and in 1934 one returned from Panjim Island. 7. From the Lualaba River in the southeast corner of Belgian Congo northward and west of Lake Mweru to the It seemed as if the promising work was ruined shores of Lake Tanganyika. because churches, schools and dwelling houses were left to fall into ruins, but the natives who 8. Portuguese West Africa, especially the southern and had accepted Christianity during the short time northeastern regions. the mission operated, carried on the work of Christianizing their fellow tribesmen in secret. 9. All Portuguese East Africa excepting near the coast. Meetings were held, and are still being held, in 10. The Cameroons, all east of 12° longitude. secret in the leaders' huts at night, or during the 11. The northern territories of the Gold Coast, Togo- day in the bush. One leader was discovered, arland, Dahomey, including the bend of the Niger River. rested and jailed. His Bible and hymn book were 12. The northern section of Liberia, Portuguese Guinea destroyed and he was threatened with more severe and all the French territories of the Ivory Coast, French punishment if he continued his work as Christian Guinea, Senegal and south of that river and the Niger. teacher. This has had the effect of stimulating Christian endeavor, as is evidenced by the fact Within these areas there are 30,000,000 people that every few months scores of Portuguese naabsolutely beyond the reach of the effort of exist- tives who have been taught as described above, ing mission societies. The question arises, Why come across the border into Nyasaland to be exhave these areas not yet been occupied? There amined and taken up into the churches there. are to my mind four main reasons: A more or less similar experience has been the 1. Governments often restrain missions from entering certain fields. In northern Nigeria, for instance, missions have not been allowed to enter the emirates of Kano and Sokoto on the ground that the Mohammedan emirs were told that, when their countries were brought under administration, there would be no interference with their religion by the government. Such restrictions, probably for political reasons, apply with added force to the Portuguese territories. The writer has personal knowledge of the extreme and unreasonable lengths to which such restrictions have been pushed in Portuguese East Africa. The following bit of history will serve to illustrate this.
lot of the mission of the Church of Scotland work- formed which holds regular meetings, and plans ing among the Lomwe tribe in the Quelimane are being discussed for the occupation of Portudistrict further north. Since the European mis- guese East Africa through African evangelists. sionary· has been made to suffer all manner of Two Africans who have offered themselves for hardships and indignities and his work has been "foreign" service are at present studying Portuhampered as much as was possible within the law, guese at Lourenco Marques. One of them, Paulo the mission has been withdrawn temporarily. MiIoto, is a chief in Portuguese East Africa, and There are other missions working near the coast, he has voluntarily given up his chieftianship and and they seem to be less harried, but always they is going to devote his life to the evangelization of are confronted with a hostile government. The his fellow tribesmen in the present unoccupied result of all this has been that Portuguese Africa field of the Tete District. is today still a virtually unoccoupied field. The population is about 3,500,000. The writer does not know whether or not this has already been done in other parts of Africa. 2. Another reason why fields are often unoccu- He, however, feels convinced that that is the evenpied is malarial climate or the prevalence of sleep- tual solution of the problem of spreading the ing sickness. The European missionary is not as Gospel of Christ into areas which are today out resistant to these diseases as the native African. of reach of existing societies. If the history of Thousands of graves remind us of men and wom- the Church in Africa has a lesson to teach, it is en who have, in spite of the danger to which that the church that has no missionary zeal is they exposed themselves, consistently put service doomed to unfertility and eventual stagnation. before self and have given their lives for the The churches in the home lands have to be on Cause. This difficulty is being gradually overcome their guard against this danger, so have the inby the enormous advances made by medical sci- digenous churches in Africa. The ideal of all the ence. The medical missionary more than anybody churches of Christ, in America, Europe and in else has opened up Africa and has made it pos- Africa, is to spend themselves for the cause of sible for the white man to live where it would have making Christ known and regnant in the hearts, been impossible twenty to twenty-five years ago. not only of civilized peoples, but also of the mil- lions of Africa in the occupied as well as the un- 3. Opposition from the natives themselves has occupied fields. until recently kept missions from certain areas. This opposition is still active where Mohammedan CHANGING RACE DIRECTIONS influence is predominant. But this, too, is breaking down. Missionaries from all territories testify Once the missionary to Africa faced chiefly that the doors are open wider today than they pure native problems-superstition, sin, disease, have ever been before. ignorance. The coming of modern industry is so changing great regions that he faces a different 4. Lack of funds is increasingly becoming the race, struggling with the old adverse influences main reason why missions cannot extend their in- still and many new and complicated ones. Rose fluence in the areas where they already exist and Henderson, writing upon the subject, "Modern over the borders into the unoccupied fields. The Industry Changes Africa," in The Southern W orkserious reduction in the budgets of the home boards is endangering the mission enterprise in man, gives this glimpse of new conditions in the field after field. One wonders what the reason for this may be. To the writer it seems like an great copper mining region: act of Providence for bringing the missions to the situation where they will be forced to look more Lying 2,300 miles north of the Cape of Good Hope and to Africa than to Europe and America for help. at about equal distance uetween the Atlantic and Pacific The time has not yet come when the Africans can Oceans, the copper mines employ some 35,000 native workcarryon the work alone, and they will need th~ men and supply a third of the world's copper. Here in help and advice of the white missionary for many the midst of the bush jungle which, two 'or three decades many years. Yet the center of gravity must grad- ago, was hardly inhabited, millions of dollars have been ually shift to the indigenous church, and missions expended by white capitalists and thousands of Negroes will increasingly have to follow the policy of dev- have stepped from primitive jungle huts to modern mines olution. and machinery. Native villages have sprung up, along with hospitals, schools and recreation centers of the mine An encouraging beginning has been made by owners. Black men from ninety different tribes, speaking the Presbytery of Mkhoma, Nyasaland, where the ninety different languages and representing as many difindigenous church has begun its own foreign mis- ferent cultures have been brought together in the employ sion, which is organized, controlled and financed of white capitalists. The result of this industrial developby the Africans, with the help and advice of the ment, as complete as any of its kind in Europe or Amerwhite missionaries. A "home" board has been ica, is a realignment of peoples, a transformation of the continent. The balance of native life has been upset. The direction of human races has been changed. Roads and villages have shifted, customs and beliefs have been up- rooted, ancient cultures and ideals are being destroyed.
CALL
The Drums of Congo and the Gospel By VIRGINIA M. CLARKE, Bolenge, Africa A MONG the Bantu people living in theequa- In many mission stations a special house has .r.. torial forest of the Belgian Congo the been erected to hold a number of these drums signal drum is now being used as an aid which are used regularly to call the people to the to the spread of the Gospel. In a land where it Sunday school, the church services, elders' meetis impossible to see for long distances the only ings and mission school classes. Often it is the way to send a message without a messenger is by special pride and joy of the young boys in the sound. Formerly the chief purpose of the drum boys' boarding schools to beat the message on the was to call people together for fighting. What a big drums which will start old and young hurry- triumph for Christ is this new, peaceful use of ing along the village paths leading to God's the drum! house.
When a missionary is itinerating through the Among the Bankundo, who are found along the tropical forest his heart is gladdened as he wearily equator where the Congo River crosses it for the approaches a village to meet a band of villagers second time, a particular group of phrases is used singing Christian hymns. They come joyfully to to call people to a Protestant church service. In . greet him and to make him welcome. Usually the their language (Lonkundo) it is: "Ikongo ifonge evangelist is in the lead, followed by the Chris- kukola baseka enganbe ea njambola, lotakana, tians and inquirers seeking baptism. On asking lotakana. Tokende bonteke bolosambo bole nda the evangelist how he knew of his coming, the ikongo ifonge kukola." Translated rather freely missionary is told that the drum in the village this means: "Protestants, come together, come which he visited the preceding night had boomed together. Let us go to the church service which through several miles of jungle and swamp to ap- is where the white man is found." prise them of the arrival of the "man of God." Perhaps in the near future the Christian lead- While the missionary is resting before his hut the ers of Congo will find new ways to use their won- evangelist is beating out the call to all the Chris- derful drum language in telling the story of tians to gather for the evening service. Christ's love for all men.
[493 ]
Ways of
'rested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'=I======================~==~ A CLIMBING RACE of missionary interest and en- nominational headquarters. The deavor. value of united, sequential study Slow moves the pageant of a climb- need hardly be dwelt upon, with ing race; Toward this end your Depart- the abundance of helps and sug- ment Editor has striven earnest- gestions available in magazines Their footsteps drag far, far below ly to assemble worthful material in correlation with the themes. the height, from· many sources to supply If the world is ever to be won leaders of the several group in- for Christ it will be by united, And, unprevailing by their utmost terests with plans and sugges- synchronized effort, not random, might, tions for shaping up programs, individualistic attempts to obey studies, discussions and projects. the Great Commission. Seem faltering downward from each Space will admit of little more hard won place. than citations for these; but it INFORMATIVE MATERIAL may be taken for granted that No strange, swift-sprung exception although a number of different The volume of this is almost we; we trace denominations are involved, unlimited. Your Department nothing is mentioned herein Editor can mention only such A devious way thro' dim, uncertain which is specifically denomina- helps as have been sent in for light. tional. Such details as do appear her personal inspection, as fol- in a few may easily be elimi- lows: Our hope through the long vistaed nated or replaced with the de- years, a sight sired data. As classification ac- "A Course on Africa for Young cording to type of subject matter People" (P), 25c. Of that our Captain's soul sees face is most efficient and saves space, to face. please note that (B) stands for "West Africa Mission" (P), lOco Baptist, (C) for United Chris- "The Road to God's Town" (P), lOco Who, faithless, faltering that the road tian, (L) for Lutheran, (LE) "Africa Journey" (P), lOco is steep, for Miss Leavis, who is litera- "To Africa! To Africa" (for chil- ture secretary for the Central dren) (P), lOco Now raiseth up his drear, insistent Committee on the study of For- "The Pageant of a Climbing Race" cry? eign Missions, (M) for Meth- (C)-yearbook of Home and Foreign odist Episcopal, (P) for Pres- Programs, 5c; packet of activating Who stoppeth here to spend awhile in byterian, and (M.E.M) for material. 50c for either, or 75c for set. sleep Missionary Education Move- Not ready until January. The studies ment, all of whose headquarters for young people alone have been Or curseth that the storm obscures addresses appear at the close of changed to include only the foreign the sky? this article. Nearly all publica- theme. Packets covel' not only infor- tions from nondenominational mative material but dramatizations, Heed not the darkness round you, dull sources may be obtained from poetrv, discussions, etc. and deep; your denominational literature "Missionary Facts on Africa" (B) headquarters, as the "tools in -story material for use in opening The clouds grow thickest when the type" are in reciprocal, neigh- and closinl; exercises of S. S., 15c. summit's nigh. Ready in December. -Paul Laurence Dunbar. borly use. Booklet of Leader's Helps accom- panying each textbook, 15c. The current year's study of THE STUDY BOOKS "Africa View"-book by Julian "the climbing race," particularly Huxley, $2.50. in its foreign aspects, affords an It will not be necessary to take "Education of Primitive People," unusual opportunity to attract space to enumerate these, as by Albert D. Helser, $3.00. the uninterested and enlist the they have been mentioned many "The Remaking of Man in Africa," indifferent. The subject matter times in this and other mission- by J. H. Oldham and B. D. Gibson, is rarely colorful with its appeal ary magazines, and free cata- $1.25. to the exploring impulse; the logues inclusive of descriptive Other auxiliary material will qe universal use of the narrative material are available at de- listed later. form which is indigenous to the African whether in argument, [494 ] PROGRAMS description or instruction-the story is always dominant; the "African Palavers" – a program vivid settings and background plan book (M.), 20c. For young peomaterial; the warm human in- ple but easily adaptable for women's terest; the profound problems organizations. A complete year's outpertaining to development of lines beginning with "The Assembling primitive minds and native leadership, the raising of standards; and most of all the adj ustment of races in a perfect maze of conflicting interests, temperaments and political manipulations. Every wideawake church has its paramount chance to use Africa as a lure into the realm
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
of the Tribes" in September, continu- "Consider Africa" (M.E.M.), 25c. "How to Make an African Village" ing through chapter-by-chapter stud- ies of Margaret Wrong's "~he L~nd A course on Africa by Mrs. Margaret -patterns and directions for making and Life of Africa" and mcludI!lg and setting up; to be used by leaders "The Tribute Festival"-a specIal Holly Tuck. , of boys' and girls' groups (M.E.M.), thank offering program, "Jungle Jam- 25c. boree" for a missionary party, rally "'the Story of the American Negro' or banquet a special "June Palaver," "Pattern Sheets"-African wood an "Intern'ational Program" in July (M.E.M.), 25c. Young People's course carvings; flags of African prote~tor and an "Outdoor Safari" (expedition and mealie roast) for August. The by Ina C. Brown. ates; map of Africa for enlargmg; colorful programs are reple~e with African call drum sketch; nut or native nomenClature and storIes, cos- "A Preface to Racial Understand- tumes, rituals in African fashion, of- candy holders like African hl:1ts; ficial titles such as "keepers of the ing" (B), 15c. Programs by Mrs. wooden articles received from AfrIca; fires," "story tellers," etc., use of util- elephant; hibiscus; dance drum, etc. ities such as the call drum, games, Augusta Comstock. demonstrations, dramatizations etc. (M) 10c. Has the true African atmosphere. Other program s.eries, as s~nt in~o "The Healer"–colored poster, 21 x this Department, wIll ,oe mentIOned m "Six Missionary Programs and 28, showing doctor working with s0l!le Eight Teaching Outlines" (Anna Can- later numoers. native Africans with a shadowy PICada Swain) (B), 15c. Based on ture of Christ standing in the back- "Omwa? Are You Awake?" Pro- DRAMATICS ground. Very beautiful and impresgrams excellently adapted for both sive. (St. Philip's Society, 1664 Glenyounger and older folk and c.over the "Africa Gives Thanks" (L), 10c. worship period, abundant mforma- Pageant for thank offering meeting or mount Ave., Akron, Ohio), 85c, but a tional matter, visualization~ and oth~r study class; 11 characters;. simple work of art. entertaining features, natIve musIC, setting and costumes; symbohc. Very special set of 10 English postdiscussion topics, poetry etc. Topics "Robert and Mary" (M.E.M.), 25c. are: "A Treasure Hunt," "Listening Thirteen characters; true story of ers of African life in choice, natural Ears" "Bridges," "Call a Doctor," Moffats; one hour. colors size 15 x 20. These rc'l'ltarkable "Buiiders " and "Studies in Black and pictu';es are used in the schools in the White." 'The study outlines are for "Through the Dark" (M.E.M.), 15c. Congo and 'Were seen by Miss Marlocal church groups using the text- One-act play; 4 characters; medical garet Wong, who had them printedJri mission setting. book. They analyze the subject mat- quantity in England. .An expl.anattqn ter comprehensively. "Ordered South" (M.E.M.), 15c. written by Dr. Cathertne Mabte (mw- Project for enlistment for African sionary) will accompany the set. En- Six Programs on "Congo Crosses," mission work; 3 scenes; 6 adults-4 tire set $1.00, or 5 (not selected but by the same author (B), 15c. For men and 2 women. taken by rote) for 50c. Counting women's missionary societies, business postage, this is actual cost, as all and professional women's groups and "Kanjunda" (M.E.M.), 25c. Shows orders requiring more than 15c postsenior young women's societies. Titles: waning of witch doctor's power; 15 age will be sent at a loss. (LE) "Stop Look, Listen"; "Always Prob- characters; one hour. lems—-'-Even in Primitive Congo"; Attention is called again to the long "Do You Care?"; "Here Comes the "Livingstone Hero Plays" (M.E.M.), Bride"· "Fact Finders of 1937"; 15c. Four dramatizations of Living- list of African program materials aI?-d "On Their Knees." The discussion stone stories which may be used sepa- novelties given in this Department m topics are particularly suggestive and rately or consecutively; for juniors; heart-searching. 40-50 minutes. the July issue of THE REVIEw.a!ld ob- tainaule from LE. In addItIOn to "Lights Aglow in Congo"–outline "Alexander Mackay's Han d s" those mentioned previously, Miss for young people's programs (ready (M.E.M), 10c. Leavis adds a choice leaflet, "The in January) (C) . Titles: "ABo, Glowing Ember of Prayer," by Jea,n Congo!" – showing the importance, "In Our Land It Is Very Dark" position and potentialities of Africa Kenyon Mackenzie, priced at 2c. ThIS in the world today; "Paths in the (L")A,2ncn.a InspI.res a M"IssIOnary C·Irc1e" is a wonderful devotional reading. Dark"-presenting problems crea~ed (Powell and White, 528 Walnut St., by the industrial conquest of AfrIca Cincinnati, Ohio), 15c. Maps and charts, particularly the and the need for education; "Sinister picture maps of Africa with shee~s of Shadows" – social problems which "In Congo Land" (B), 15c. cut-outs to be pasted on progressIvely grow out of impact of Western civi- "Livingstone and Stanley Meet and as different features and regions are lization upon age-old customs; shows Part" 15c. that there must be a give-and-take or "Robert Moffat Returns with Afri- studied, may be purchased at pracsharing as a new world is built; caner," 10c. tically all the denominational head- "Lamplighters"-picture of mission- quarters. The usual price is 50c f.or ary work in Congo, showi~g. ~h~t the "The Teeth That Did Not Drop the map and 10c for the separate PIC- African has all the posslblhtles of Out" (L), 2c. tures. other human beings as well as a passion for developing them; "Around "Our Husband" (C), 25c. Don't try to teach with words only. the Camp Fire"-intended to create a "An African Village Trial" (P), 5c. Visualizations and project work are bond of fellowship between young peo- Sketch presenting the African Chr~s particularly fitted to elucidate African ple here and in Africa who have had tian Church and the problems of ItS studies. like experiences through summer con- young members. Six principals and ferences and "akitelos," and to im- 10 or 15 secondary characters. press others as to what that experience can mean to them; "Lights STORIES ADDRESSES FOR MATERIALS Aglow"-to help the young people see "Peter, the Chief's Son"; "A Li?,u Baptist: Baptist Board of Educatheir responsibility in industrial and Hunt"· "Captain John's Mother ; social relationships with their own "Malin'da"; "The Lamp in the Des- tioLn~t1h5e2raMn:adiWsoonmAenv'es.,MNiesswioYnaorryk.Soand other races and countries; to cast ert"; "Just Like Women"; "The Boy ciety, 723 Muhlenberg Bldg., Philadelout greed and prejudice and to pat- Who Won a Town"; "The House of tern their actions after Christ's. Their Hands"; "The Verses That phia, Pa. , Made Livingstone Brave" (L)-2c Methodist Episcopal: Women s For- each. eign Missionary Society, 420 Plum "Even Unto Death" (P), free. "The Congo Woman's Way" (B), 2c. St., Cincinnati, Ohio. .. A wealth of other narrative mate- rial may be obtained from denomina- Christian: The United ChrIstIan tional literature headquarters, some of which will be listed in our later Missionary Society, Missions Bldg., issues. Indianapolis, Ind. . VISUALIZATIONS AND Missionary EducatIOn M~vement: PROJECTS 150 Fifth Ave., New York CIty.
Picture Sheet of Africa, for use in Miss M. H. Leavis (designated scrap books, posters, and to paste on maps of Africa (M.E.M.), 25c. previously as LE) : 186 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, Mass. . Presbyterian: Board ?f ForeIgn Missions of the PresbyterIan Church, 156 Fifth Ave., New York.
Gleanings from the Editor's "Costumes – How to Make and New York, has been experiment- Notebook Wear Them" is a cover-all pamphlet ing with a new program which inclusive of detail from many foreign has some most attractive fea- Spending the entire summer fields, obtainable at the BaptIst Board tures. It is designed for chap- at Lakeside, Ohio, with its of Education at 25c. ters who wish to meet weekly wealth of summer conferences, instead of monthly. It extends the Department Editor's note- This board also handles a "Catalog the Hero Courses into projects book overflowed with sugges- of Plays and Pageants," which is a and is built on a Four Point tions for making current studies selected, classified list according to Project basis. The following ex- attractive and forcible. These country and subject, with names of ample using Livingstone as a will be doled out from issue to authors and publIshers. Its 24 pages subject is illustrative: issue during the year, but a few cover more than 400 plays and pagitems of miscellaneous but help- eants, lOco 1st week (Skill Meeting): ful character may be given here- Map-making project. with. Look these over, for you The play listed previously as "An may find just the methods African Village TrIal" illustrates the 2d week (Study Meeting): "gadget" that you need. way in whiCh an ordinary Sunday Hero Program – Life story of school class may change itself in a one whose success depended on Mrs. Kellersberger, author of moment into an African village by ability in map-making. "Congo Crosses," is giving her ~nt,ire shift of furnishings and play of honorarium to the Protestant MIssIon imagination, with no properties or cos- 3d week (Service Meeting): Council with headquarters at Leopold- tUming. Making map of Paul's journeys, ville, Africa, for work among the of missionary fields, of local women and children. She keeps not a Poetry and Music: Both ~re invalu- community, etc. single cent for herself. Isn't this an able in presenting essentIal Negro object lesson in devotion? character both in our land and Africa. 4th week (Inspirational Meet- While more expensive song books may ing): Ceremony of Maps, us- Incidents easy to dramatize are not be practical for the average ing Livingstone and Africa; found in abundance in the study group, "Southland Spirituals," ar- Paul and the Inland Sea; Chris- books "Consider Africa," "Christ in ranged by the Rodeheaver Co., and tianity and world map. the Great Forest," "We Sing Amer- sold by all denominational literature ica " and other Friendship Press books headquarters at 25c will serve the pur- With each missionary hero a on 'current studies. You may get help pose admirably. An abundance of in making your dramatizations in Negro poetry-mostly concerning th,e different project is introduced. "Meet Your United States," by Mary American Negro but true to the UnI- For example: Chalmers-Proj- J ennes (cloth, $1.00; pa~er,. 60c ~ ; versal type – may be found in, pal- ect in swimming and life-saving. and in "Informal DramatIzatIOn III verton's "Anthology of AmerIcan (He was a swimmer and saved Missionary Education," by Elizabeth Negro Literature," 95c; "Singers in boys from drowning); Grenfell Miller Lobingier (paper, 10c)-both the Dawn," compiled by R. E. Eleazor, – Boating and shipbuilding. from the Friendship Press. Scribner'S and sold at the Conference on Educa- (He was a builder); Ian Keith have a more ambitious work entitled tion and Race Relations, Atlanta, Ga., Falconer – Cycling. Paton- "Ventures in Dramatization," by for lOCi James Weldon Johnson's Farming. Whitman-First aid. Hulda Neibuhr ($1.75). "Book of American Negro Poetry," Morrison-Woodworking. $2.00; and "Caroling Dusk," edited Bear in mind a few pointers in pre- by Countee Cullen and sold at $2.5.0. -Missions Magazine. senting Negro dramatizations, how- Your own publishing company WIll ever. usually secure for you standard, books A Circulating Library like the expensive ones above CIted. Rigidly avoid caricature in costume, For a number of years the manner or "blacking up." Negroes Manner and Motivation of Negro Women's Department of the may be brown, their impersonatio~s Presentations: A leaflet by the M.E.M. Baptist State Convention has being taken by brunettes, or the skm of the United States and Canada says: operated a circulating library. may be left white rather than to elicit The work of circulating the the merriment caused by the "black- A program on the Negro should be books has been under the direct face." what any program should be. It supervision of the State Reading should tell something that is worth Contest Secretary. A definite Is it fair to show only the illiterate, passing on; something that one group amount is allowed each year for superstitious, ignorant types, the wants other people to know; some- the purchase of new books and "savages," as representative of Afri- thing that makes them think and feel postage incurred in mailing can population when picturing com- the way they wish them to feel. If them to the various churches. munities that have educational and the members of any group have The rule is that the church using intelligent industrial types also? drawn inspiration from Negro poetry the books should pay return and music, and have come to respect postage. There is no time limit While Negro spirituals are invalua- and admire Negroes as a race and as for keeping the books, as it has ble for atmosphere both with Ameri- indivduals, then it will be easy to pass been found by experience th~t can and African Negro studies, should on those facts and inspirations and at- it is better to allow each church they not be sung with true devotional titudes. . . . You may decide that the privilege of keeping the spirit, as they were originally sung, Negroes will fill Negro roles more ef- books as long as they are being rather than to create laughter by fectively than white persons made up. read. When no longer in cir~ "acting up"? And you will be right about this. , , . culation they are returned to the If your group has no Negro members State Secretary. An attempt at Negro dialect may but has Negro friends who would like lead to the same serious error. Never to help out, it would be wise to invite -Missions Magazine. betray your programs into the hands them to do so. But do not ask any of the "Amos and Andy" type of per- Negro to participate unless .you a!"e formers. If you do you will lose all sure that he will be treated WIth courmissionary effect. tesy and respect not only by the mem- bers of the group but also by the Dramatic Helps: Reasonable brown audience. skin effects may be obtained from Steain's Preparation for Theatrical ANew Educational Program Work available at drug stores or in mail order houses. Rev. Theodore L. Conklin, High Counsellor for Eastern
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BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions ANNE SEESHOLTZ, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK "WHERE MY POOR LIVE"
"Once, a long, long time ago, God feelin' tired, went to sleep an' had a nice wee nap on His throne. His head was in His han's an' a wee white cloud came down and covered Him up.'
Purty soon He wakes up an' says He: "'Where's Michael?'
"'Here 1 am, Father!' said Michael.
" 'Michael, me boy,' says God, '1 want a chariot and a chariot- eer!'
" 'Right ye are!' says he, and up comes the purtiest chariot in By courtesy of Art Exten&ion Press, Inc., Westport, Conn. the city of Heaven an' the finest charioteer. CRElATION OF FLOWERS – DRAWN BY AN AUST R I AN CHILD " 'Me boy,' says God, 'take a Prayer for Slum Clearance* the special strains and irritations, and million tons of th' choicest seeds the moral exposures of crowded quar- of th' flowers of Heaven an' take Father of all mankind, who hast ters; by our pleasure in the joyous signally blessed the human family as play of our happy children in God's a trip around th' world wi' them. the cradle of divinity, and hast out-of-doors, do Thou lay upon our Scatther them,' says He, 'be th' granted to us the security and conscience the plight of countless roadsides an' th' wild places of strength, the joy and comfort, and the families whose lives are cramped and th' earth where my poor live.' supporting goodness of our homes, do thwarted for lack of space and air in Thou forgive us that we have been which to live, and play, and grow in " 'Aye,' says the charioteer, content to accept these precious gifts stature and in favor with God and of life but have taken little thought man. 'that's just like ye, Father. It's th' purtiest job of m' afther life of those whose lot confines them to the By the anguish of our prayers for slums of our cities. our own children, that they may be an' I'll do it finely.' saved from sin and may grow in grace "'It's just come t' me in a Give us, we pray Thee, a vivid sense and goodness, do Thou make us ashamed of our toleration of the dream,' says th' Father, 'that of the little children condemned to live slums, which in disproportionate in crowded tenements and to play measure continue to make criminals th' rich have all th' flowers down amidst the traffic of the streets, de- and prostitutes of many boys and there and th' poor have none at prived of the simplest elements of girls who never had a chance. 0 God all. If a million tons isn't human health and happiness, rojbed of love and justice, we acknowledge even of the common heritage of pure before Thee our personal and !orpoenough, take a billion tons!' " air and sunshine. Make us conscious rate responsibility for the sins of At this point I got in some of the preventable disease which such perverted lives. breeds in the narrow alleys, and in questions about God's language the dark inner rooms where sunlight Grant us grace at this time to gird and the kind of flowers. never comes. "Well, dear," she said, "He ourselves for action. May our city spakes Irish t' Irish people. . . . By our hope of Thy mercy as we sit and the nation put their hand to the "Th' flowers," she said, "were concerned by the sickbeds of our own clearance of the slums and to the little ones, may we be willing in love building of homes more fit for the primroses, buttercups an'daisies, to share the anxiety, the anguish, and children of God. Vouchsafe to us in . . . an' from that day to this the grief of the parents of the poor this task of Thy kingdom a special there's been flowers a-plenty for as they watch by their sick or mourn sense of Thy nearness and Thy love, the death of those who need not have inasmuch as we would do it unto Thee. us all everywhere." sickened or died but for the conditions For Jesus' sake, Amen. Thus, "My Lady of the Chim- in which they are oJliged to live. • F rom "Prayers for Self a nd Societ y, " by ney Corner" told her ninth child, In the measure of our longing for James Myers ; As sociation Press, N. Y.; 15c. Alexander Irvine, of the crea- a happy home for our dear ones, with space for gracious living, free from tion of the flowers.
[497 ]
ARE YOU PRAYING? "A LIFE TO GIVE" Missions, on the theme, "The Negro in America." Even the For the observance of the In "God's Candlelights," writ- catalogue is good reading.
World Day of Prayer on the first ten by Miss Mabel Shaw, and "Glimpses of Negro Ameri- Friday in Lent, February 12, available for one dollar in cloth, cans" is a 24-page illustrated 1937, the program was written Friendship Press, New York, booklet giving in concise form by Miss Mabel Shaw, founder of the Livingstone Memorial Girls' the author relates: facts about eight areas of Negro Boarding School at Mbereshi, Kawamba, Northern Rhodesia, One clear evening I went life today: Where Are They? Africa. down to the leper camp at the Who Are They? Where Do end of our village. There were They Live? How Do They Sup- very few of them there. It was port Themselves? Where Do In accepting the invitation to not a pleasant place. . . . And They Get Their Education? prepare the world program, yet they gave me a glad wel- What About Their Health? Do Miss Shaw wrote, "You will be come. They had many needs to They Go to Church? Are They interested to hear that Mbereshi make known: not enough fire- Citizens? The booklet closes 'kept' the Day of Prayer this wood, no salt had been given with a section asking, "Where year. There was prayer in the with last week's rations, they Do You and I Come In?" in school chapel, unceasing from were naked, could I not see? . .. which the interracial movement dawn till set of sun. The girls were there in small groups; even They told me a lion had been is described and the opportunity the little children took their part. At sunset there was a about. . . . before the churches is pointed gathering of all the Christian women in the village church." At last I rose to go. I gave a • out. 6 cents a copy.. $4.00 a When it is ten o'clock, morn- last word and greeting, promised hundred.
ing, in New York, the .tiI?e of I'd remember all their needs, The Department of Race Relations, day in Northern RhodeSIa IS five and was just about to mount my Federal Council of Churches, has colo'clock in the afternoon. bicycle, when out of one of the lected pamphlets from various sources. There are two packets. Packet No. 1 A CALL TO PRAYER little houses came, the old leper contains the pamphlet described above, head-man. He held a spear be- "Amer ica's Tenth Man," and "School tween the stumps that once were Money in Black and White." 15 cents hands, and he went h0bblI' ng a single packet. along the path in front of me. I called to him, and he stopped and Packet No.2 is supplementary ma- looked round. terial for leaders of groups; for ex- Together let us "Where are you going?" ample, a 43-page booklet on cotton- growing communities in rural Amer- Thank God and praise Him for the ica. 30 cents a single pack et. manifestation of Himself in Jesus Christ, and in the abundant life; "I am going to escort you to ……;==::::;] Thank God and praise Him for fol- Mbereshi Village, you can't go alone with lions about/' lowers of Jesus Christ who have made Him known; I smiled at him. "But on my Thank God and praise Him for the world f ellowship of prayer-and bicycle I'll be there in a minute." let each seek a new consecration to Jesus Christ. He would not have it, it was not fitting for me to go alone. I Together let us pray looked at him, a feeble old man, That the church be strong and cou- rageous; handless, feet half-eaten, his whole body covered with marks That the missionary zeal of Chris- of disease, and his face most tians be purified and spread pitiful. through all the world; That the community in which we I said to him half-banteringly, live be recreated through the con- secrated service of God's children; and with a smile, "Now what That our nation measure all activi- could you do if a lion came?"
ties by Christ's law of love and He drew himself up, and with universal brotherhood; a quiet dignity said, "Have I not That the whole earth be filled even a life to give?" in this our day with the knowl- I was silent, seeing a Cross. I edge of the living God, and of His followed him to the village, Son, Jesus Christ.
The World Day of Prayer is thanked him and came home, sponsored by the Council of having met with God face to Women for Home Missions, 105 face. . ..
East Twenty-second St., New ARE YOU STUDYING? York, and the Foreign Missions Conference, 156 Fifth Ave., New Good reading, as well as edu- J. R . S oo tlord York. The Day is observed in cational in content, are the new DOR CH EST E:R AC AD E MY SCHOOLGIRL. more than fifty countries. books published by the Mission- ary Education Movement and McI NTOSH, GEORGIA The program material for F ebruary 12, 1937, is ready. the Council of Women for Home
i OuJM!:~r~~~:~feCu~~~?Ok I '~II=.======================================
.it EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO "
~11=========~==========I$ii)§i AFRICA back to Ethiopia after furlough ment. Twice follow-up meet- in America, have been able to ings have been held with the re- One By One Work in Egypt continue their interrupted jour- sult that hundreds of the rather Missionaries in Egypt deplore ney. -The Life of Faith. wild mountain Bakiga are flock- ing to the churches. Large the lack of desire to win "other Christian Police Association bands are going out teaching. sheep," even on the part of born- One outcome has been that na- About a thousand new mem- tive church collections increased again Christians. Words flow bers joined the International by about half during the last easily, but there is little definite Christian Police Association in three months of the year. It is praying for the conversion of South Africa last year. About expected that the Diamond J ubisouls. A few years ago a coun- ninety police stations and depots lee may be celebrated in 1937. terpart of the English "One By at different places in the Union were visited by the Traveling -C. M. S. Outlook. One Band" was started, and the call to individual work was p:r:e- sented. It was urged that it Secretary, and the most encour- The March of Progress would be a help to be definite in aging feature is that so many prayer if answers were recorded men have accepted Christ as A significant evidence of in the little book "Throne of their Saviour. change in West Africa is seen Grace"; many have now joined The membership of the I. C. in the attendance of the native the Band and some have had an- P. A. in South Africa is now King of Oyo at the reunion of swers to prayer for individuals. about 3,800. During the year old students of St. Andrew's 1,000 New Testaments have been College, Oyo. In all the years of A little group of Egyptian' circulated, besides thousands of the college's history it has never "One by One" members now ex- tracts and leaflets, and many let- been visited by a king. He is ists at almost all the stations of ters of thanks have been re- regarded as too sacred to be the Egypt General Mission, com- ceived from those who have re- looked upon by the common peoposed of teachers, Biblewomen ceived blessing through these. ple, and always when giving auand a few Christian women in The strength of the European the districts. At a testimony force of the South African police dience his face would be hidden meeting of members among the is between 7,000 and 8,000, plus by a veil of coral beads suswomen in Zeitoun last October, the native police, which is be- pended from his crown or coral one told how she had long prayed tween 3,000 and 4,000. headgear. But even the most for a brother who had been ter- strongly entrenched customs of ribly opposed to even the men- -The Life of Faith. the old days are giving way betion of Christ or religion, and fore the march of progress. To- how her prayer had been an- The C. M. S. in Uganda day the theory is gaining ground swered by the brother's conver- that as a king is supported from sion. Dr. J. E. Church of the C. M. the taxes paid by his people, the S. tells how one and another of people should both see and know -Egypt General Mission News. the Christians in Uganda and the man whom they support as Missionaries May Remain in Ruanda have been led during their ruler. Ethiopia the past six years into a new and -C. M. S. Outlook. deeper knowledge of Christ, and Dr. T. A. Lambie, Director of have a keen desire to bring oth- Open Doors in Nigeria the Sudan Interior Mission in ers to Him. "Those who had The Northern Provinces of Addis Ababa, writes that he has this new experience returned to Nigeria-Kano, Sokoto, Katsina obtained permission from Gen- their homes or to visit friends and Bornu, with some other Mo- eral Graziani, the Viceroy, for at other stations, and caused a hammedan sections-have been the missionaries of the Society stir by their obvious joy and en- strictly closed against the misto remain and carryon their thusiasm. Following a conven- sionary and his message. Ef- work. As a result of this news, tion at Kabale last year a move- forts have been made to secure Mr. Eric Horn, a New Zealand- ment of individual conviction religious toleration, and in 1933 er, and his wife and three-year- and repentance began, and in and 1934 sites were given the old son, who were held up in the 250 out-schools this became Sudan Interior Mission in Kano London last April on their way in some places a mass move- and at Garko, thirty-six miles [499 ]
from Kano City. This year the Cameroun Churches WESTERN ASIA Mission has been granted further openings into the once There has been a gain of about Keith-Falconer Mission Jubilee closed areas, and sites are prom- 1,000 in the communicant memised in each of the provinces bership of Pre s by t e ria n The Keith-Falconer Mission above named. One site has been churches in the Cameroun, in South Arabia completed 50 selected at Roni, seventy miles bringing the number to 37,935, years of service in 1935. Today, northwest of Kano City. with a gain of nearly 2,000 in the mission station at Sheikh the number of catechumens, who Othman is many times the size Recently, one of Northern number 52,782. The average of the small grass hut in which Nigeria's leading Emirs said; Sunday attendance for the sixty- Ion Keith-Falconer started his "I would welcome missionaries four churches with their 1,230 work; but it has approximately anywhere in my territory, even outposts is 115,000. Christian the same site. The medical staff in this town where I live, and work is harder than in earlier comprises two male doctors and any of my people who wish to days, due partly to the contact one woman doctor, two nursing become followers of your faith with a civilization shot through sisters, and an Arab staff of sixwill not be hindered in so do- with evil, the deplorable fact teen. The boys' school has fifty ing." Negotiations are under that second generation Chris- boys and four teachers; and way for missions to take over tians are in general less depend- there is a small girls' school. the provincial leper camps, now able than first and the large The influence of the mission is under government supervision, number who make a start then felt throughout the Aden Prowhich will mean a further open- leave the Christian way. tectorate and beyond; patients ing of the Moslem areas to mis- come by the hundred for treatsions. Nearly 7,000,000 people But over against this is the ment from the mountainous and are now brought within the pos- splendid force of native Chris- fertile Yemen. They carry back sible hearing of the Gospel. tian assistants, many of whom to their homes the example of are as earnest and as loyal to the Christian service and the seeds -The Christian. cause as the missionaries them- of Christian truth. There are at selves. These native workers least three small dispensaries Sleeping Sickness Problem are not confined to the evangel- staffed by mission-trained boys. istic force, but are in the educa- The Nlong River with its tional, the medical, the indus- Literacy is rare in South Arabranches is literally the valley of trial, and all lines of missionary bia, so that as yet Gospel distrithe shadow of death because it work, w h i I e throughout the bution cannot be a hopeful way is thickly infested with the tset- churches are many men and of Christ's entry. The simplest se fly-carrier of trypanosomi- women giving much time and possible primary schools are a asis, or sleeping sickness. Be- effort to Christian work. Mis- crying need. fore treatment by Europeans sionary societies organized by began, every infected person the Africans themselves send Arabia Goes Modern succumbed. The French medical catechists to unoccupied fields, service has many doctors in the carryon their support, and in Arabia, in company with all field giving their whole time to some cases have built chapels to Near East countries, is being diagnosis and treatment of this care for the groups thus col- rapidly modernized, and harddisease; they have healed many. lected. ship is resulting to many who have not yet reacted to the There are three large centers Medical Work in Tripoli change. Usages of almost sacwhere the principle part of their rosanct significance are being work is to care for and treat the The medical mission in Tripo. put aside. In the sacred sanctupatients. In some of the camps li, of the North Africa Mission, ary electric light has been inas many as 500 patients take a which has been running for stalled, and the men who tended three months course of treat- nearly fifty years, was in dan- the hundreds of olive oil lamps ment. Several remedies are ger of being closed by the Italian are no longer needed. Motor cars used, nearly all forms of arsenic, authorities. Dr. James Liley, now carry the pilgrims to the which seems to be most effec- who is in charge, has, however, holy cities of Mecca and Medina, tive. These are injected at in- been duly recognized and regis- and the thousands of camels and tervals of from five to ten days. tered in Rome, which carries their attendant army of camel- The treatment sometimes causes permission to practice in Italian men, formerly employed, are not blindness, but it is either blind- colonies. A hampering regula- now required. The Hejaz Govness or·death, for without treat- tion is one which does not per- ernment is reported to have 300 ment there is only one outcome. mit a doctor to compound medi- cars in use, and King Ibn Evangelists throughout this re- cines even for his own patients. Saoud's own procession of cars gion live with, and minister to This must be done by a chemist, may be anything up to 150. the people. Missions have a and consequently adds to the share in combatting the disease, cost of treating the crowds of Diminution of the number of but government forces are well indigent sufferers who come for pilgrims is so great that the organized, so that no place is help. thousands of Arabs in sacred uncared for. cities who lived by serving them -World Survey Service. are now destitute. Medina -The Drum Call.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
which before the War may have ic institutions, such as schools agricultural impleme~ts and other rural acceSSOrIes. Mr. had a population of 80,000 is and hospitals." Such in brief is Case led the group in prayer and the cavalcade moved on. The now estimated to have 8,000. the summary of a significant band came early into action and we dashed through the town to Such is the etfect of electricity statement made to Bishop Moore the unexpected but inspiring strains of 'Marching Through and motor cars. of the C. M. S., by some of the Georgia.' Citizens said: 'There -The Indian Witness. leaders of the Ezhavas, a com- goes Padre Case to build a new Burma.' When the band tired munity numbering well over two playing, it took to singing, 'Counting Its Blessings" and Situation in Palestine million who reside in Travan- 'Gathering at the River,' in hopeful mood. Arriving at the There appears to be no appre- core and the surrounding dis- village the group resolved itself tricts. They are described as a into Boy Scouts, Sunday school ciable improvement in the sit- virile people, with a strong com- teachers, Passion players and uation in .t'alestine. More troops . munal consciousness, and a de- friends of everybody. Games have been brought in and thus termination to rise. Many have were organized and the village tar authorities have been un- education, good houses and children entered in shoals. Mr. able to establish order. The fear lands; and there have been Case busied himself visiting continues among Jews that Brit- among them lawyers, poets, doc- school gardens, where some ain may yield to the Arab de- amazing triumphs of agriculturmand for the setting aside of tors and religious leaders. al ingenuity were on view, inthe Balfouy declaration which specting his 'Christian pigs,' promises to facilitate "the es- Early in the year their execu- giving a blessing here and a tives, by a vote of twenty-six out warning there. The day ended Lablishment in Palestine of a of thirty resolved on the Ezha- with a religious play, very well National Home for the Jewish vas embracing Christianity. A done by the members of the People" (this being followed by band, in which the foes of rural the words, "it being clearly un- referendum reveals that in most progress and the way to overderstood that nothing shall be localities from 60 to 90 per cent come them were depicted in favor the proposal. ways familiar alike to the resi- dent peasant and the wandering done which may prejudice the If the decisive step of adopt- secretary." ing Christianity is taken, the civil and religious rights of ex- task of imparting adequate in- Significant Event isting non-Jewish communities struction to multitudes of conin Palestine"). The Arabs de- verts will tax to the uttermost The Watchman-Examiner reclare that they will die rather ports an event of extraordinary than give up the battle. The the resources of the missions significance for India. A young which are carrying on work Brahman, a graduate of Madras Government recently decided to there. The Christian congrega- Christian College, was stationed appoint a royal commission for tions in those parts are small at J anumpet as the new postthe study of the whole situation master. After watching and in Palestine as soon as order is and weak, and not well fitted to talking with the Christians of cope with such a situation. Hap- that section he came forward established. The Arabs declare pily some help is available from for baptism. This was adminthat they have· already had istered by one of the pastors, a the stronger Christian commu- Mr. Paul who is an outcaste. enough of commissions and will nity in the Tamil country far- Then this young man became indo nothing to cooperate in sus- terested in Mr. Sunkiah's daughpending the "strike" in order ther south; and parties of vol- ter, a young widow living with that the proposed commission untary workers, such as school her parents. The marriage ceremay look into things. Wide- teachers on holiday, have been money was performed by Mr. spread anti-Semitism partly ex- already coming at their own ex- Paul :-a convert from the high- pense to render assistance for a est caste baptized by a convert plains the deadlock. from the outcastes and married short period in this great work. to an outcaste, and a widow! B ish 0 p Freeman, of the -Original Secession Magazine. American Episcopal Church, Argument for Unity and others have petitioned the Rural Reconstruction Recent events in India have British Government to stand brought into sharp relief the fact that the attractiveness of firm in its policy respecting Pal- In 1917 American Baptist estine and the Jews. Christian missionaries took to farming Arabs, with a representation of and acquired five acres of land Roman Catholics, have sent a for demonstration. The venture protest urging more accurate ac- prospered and in 1922 the govquaintance with Arab griev- ernment leased 180 acres to the ances. -United Presbyterian. Mission, enabling them to open INDIA-BURMA a school which has proved a hap- py instance of cooperation. In the Baptist Missionary Review, The Ezhavas Look Toward J. Z. Hodge describes a weekly Christ rural pilgr1image in which he "Weare dissatisfied with Hin- joined.
duism; we admire Jesus Christ; "We started early, and in we appreciate the lives of the state. A trailer attached to the Christian missionaries; we ad- car contained the school brass mire the Christian philanthrop- band, distributed among various
Christ and His Gospel depend ing murder sentences. The one chow, for up to about three very largely upon the conduct who at first was chief objector years ago it was forbidden by and character of the Christian to Christian teaching is now the the Government. Today there Church. When, eight months most diligent learner. She can is an up-to-date broadcasting ago, Dr. Ambedkar called upon repeat from memory the fif- station in Foochow itself, and the 60,000,000 untouchables of teenth Psalm, the Lord's Prayer practically every other house in India to give up Hinduism and and other Bible verses given her. this crowded city has its own embrace some other religion that In addition, she has assumed the wireless. The programs include will give them opportunities for responsibility of teaching the educational lectures, top i c a I a fuller life, a leader of the de- other women who cannot read. talks, Chi n e s e music, the pressed classes said that his peo- When one of the prisoners was weather and news. Mission ple hesitated to adopt the Chris- released, she took with her schools are asked from time to tian religion, because, whereas copies of hymns, verses. and time to put on a musical pro- they were one solid, united com- tracts, promising to carry the gram, and no obj ection to sacred munity under Hinduism, they light to others. . music is raised. Last Christmas feared they would be divided and – Watchman-Examiner. a sermon was put on.
scattered among numerous sects -C. M. S. Outlook.
when they became Christians. Siamese Church Progresses Poverty Increases Opium The force of this argument must Consumption The two years' history of the be admitted when one sees the Church of Christ in Siam is The secretary for Chinese af- Christian Church split into 163 proving it capable of self-gov- fairs in Straits Settlements in units in India, in America 250 ernment and self-support. In reporting on the opium situation most of the ten stations, new to the International Labor Office or more, some serious rivals, fields have been opened, or new at Geneva, maintains that the others claiming exclusive pos- church buildings erected to care harder and more killing the la- for growing congregations. In session of the truth. -The Living Church.
Gandhi's Son Embraces Islam Kiulungkiang Station, Dr. Cur- bor, and the more beastly the tis Galt lists himself as "straw conditions in which the laborer Mahatma Gandhi seems to boss," with the work of the hos- lives, the greater the temptation sense no religious conviction be- pital and the responsibility for to become an addict. A similar hind his son Harilal's conversion the local church on the shoulders report was made for workmen to Islam, and says that "those of his associate, Dr. Kateya, and t h r 0 ugh 0 u t the Far East.
responsible for his acceptance of Siamese-trained colleagues. The "There can indeed be little doubt Islam did not take the most or- dedication of the new Cantonese that the opium problem would dinary precautions as to the Church in Bangkok took place lose much of its intensity," the genuineness of his profession. during the winter, and Chieng- committee declared, "if the con- Surely conversion is a matter mai reports four new chapels ditions of work and life of the between man and his Maker who dedicated and four others under workers affected were improved alone knows His creatures' construction. Most of these are by such means as the adj ustment hearts; and conversion without permanent buildings. The Pet- of hours of work to the normal a clean heart is, in my opinion, chaburi Churches collaborated physical possibilities of human a denial of God and religion." with the government in holding labor, a medical organization He asks his Moslem friends to an agricultural fair which drew capable of insuring adequate examine Harilal in the light of some 20,000 people. In only one treatment of illness, the adjusthis immediate past, and if they town has there been any definite ment of wages to a level suffind that his conversion is a soul- persecution of Christians. In ficient to allow a standard of livless matter, to tell him so plainly six of the stations there are ing consistent wit h normal and disown him, and if they dis- either groups of lepers, or sep- health and comfort, the estabcover sincerity in him, to see arate leper churches. In Srita- lishment of facilities for lathat he is protected against marat, fully half of the lepers borers to be accompanied by temptations so that his sincerity are not Siamese, but Mohamme- their wives and families when results in his becoming a God- dan Malays, who have a vigor- employment involves protracted fearing member of society. For ous prejudice against Christian- absence from their homes, the many years the son has led a ity; or Chinese who do not settlement wherever possible of profligate, dissipated life. understand Siamese, so that op- such laborers on land in which -Dnyanodaya. portunities·:.for evangelism are they would cultivate food sup- Women Prisoners in Assam limited, tho ugh persistently nlies, and the provision of in- used. -Foreign Missions. creased facilities for the utiliza- A group of Bible women have CHINA tion of spare time." been going regularly to the Gau- -Christian Advocate.
hati jail in Assam to carry the Broadcasts from Foochow Rural Projects Christian message to women prisoners, numbering from five Broadcasting is a compara- In a letter from the field to to eight, some of whom are serv- tively recent innovation in Foo- World Call is reported some of
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
the work being done by Mr. To Teachers: of the pupils were such little Wang Chi-tien who was sent The disciplinary influence of a girls that the Religious Educato Hofei to undertake a work of teacher is great, but seldom of value tion secretary said: "How can reconstruction from the Chris- if exerted through corporal punish- these children get anything? tian point of view. He has se- ment. Sympathetic guidance will do This is a class to train leaders, far more to mold a child's character lected one village near enough to than force can ever hope to do. not a children's meeting!" But Luchowfu to make pos3ible the Tactful cultivatio_n of good habits there they were, apparently abuse of the various institutional sorbing very little. Later, a resources and specialists of the will greatly strengthen a developing school was asked for by the peo- character.
Children whose mentality is below city, and some of the steps al- normal need special understanding ple in Wang Family Village and ready taken are: and sympathy. Every effort should be made to develop in them the will the "too little" girls scrubbed 1. An improved school for the boys to study and persevere. and made ready a room. They and girls of the village has been began by having a daily Bible A good teacher's pride is in the started with a Christian teacher in mental development of his pupils class, to learn how to be Christcharge. The school is practically self- rather than in their scholastic success. like. supporting. To Socia·l Workers: -Woman's Missionary Friend. 2. For the many poor children who cannot pay even the small fees of this The social worker's first aim should Baptist Centennial school, two hour classes are taught by be to provide for children who are the pupils of the regular classes, thus homeless or whose homes do not offer Canton extends a special welmaking education possible for even the necessities for their moral and come Oct. 13-18, 1936, to all visthe poorest child in the village. physical development. itors for the Centennial pro- gram, commemorating the first 3. Medical service, medicine and There is ample scope for the estab- hundred years of American, health education are provided at a cost lishment of welfare centers, children's British and Swedish Baptist within the reach of all at the clinic refuges and hospitals, healthy play- Mission work. In Canton one established by the Luchowfu Christian ground and recreation centers, etc. may see the fruits of the labors Hospital. of I. J. Roberts of Tennessee, In many places effective measures who was the first foreigner to 4. The young men of the village are are not yet in force for prevention of live outside of the restricted organized into a class in the evening. the ill-treatment or neglect, kidnap- area. One of the strongest ping or selling of children. churches in Canton, the begin- 5. Women's classes are held twice nings of the printing of Chriseach week to teach better home-mak- The task of caring for and educat- tian literature and indigenous ing. ing the thousands of underprivileged medical work eventually de- children in this country, training them 6. Means are provided for economic to loyal and useful citizenship, is a improvement through the service of tremendous one, but on it depends the the government reconstruction unit. future strength and vitality of China. Improved seed and improved stock may be obtained by the simple means -China Bookman. of exchanging their poor seed for the Radiating Knowledge improved, and breeding their own One of China's outstanding veloped from his labors. stock to the improved stock without educationalists, T'ao H sin g – Watchman-Examiner. cost. Many hundreds of new trees are made available for the village, Chih, started the idea of pupils Opium Slaves Set Free and will be planted at Arbor Day festivities. in school teaching other people. The Salvation Army main- As a teacher your success he Sequel to "Children's Year" thinks, is measured not by what tains a refuge for opium addicts you have taught your pupil but in China. Since last September "Children's Year" began in by what he has taught another twenty-four men have passed August, 1935, but political un- and what that second has taught through the refuge, and twelve rest and illiteracy have ham- a third and what the third has have been perfectly cured. The pered the movement. Never be- taught the fourth; in short by War Cry tells of one who had fore has such a campaign been the number of generations of traveled many miles to take the launched. The government, in pupils that you have to your cure. Returning entirely free giving its support to this phys- from the curse he showed hi3 ical, intellectual and moral up- credit. Five years ago Old friends the copy of the Scriplift movement, enumerates some Grandfather Yang helped his tures which had been given him, essential points: daughter to teach a class of and had become well marked To Parents: thirty-five in their own front through use. This was his testi- room, till fifteen had finished the mony: "On arriving home, my The influence of home and environ- advanced course. They had paid ment is stronger than that of educa- no fees, the teacher received no friends and neighbors all retion. salary. Then these fifteen were marked about the great change, ready to be teachers for others. commenting on my healthy color Hygienic and healthy surroundings aid the growth of sound minds as well W hen Religious Education and fat face. They were asking Training Institutes were held in what had happened to me, as not· as strong bodies. Changli, Grandfather Ya n g on'lywas my appearance changed, Control of a child's will and guid- hitched up the family donkey but my nature and disposition- ance in the formation of his moral conceptions are among a parent's first duties. and brought these teacher-girls in fact I appeared a new man. A child's personal observation of his along with his daughter to the Then I told them that it was Je- institute. One of them started a sus who had wrought the parents' words and conduct influences class in her home village and two change." his sense of moral values more than any amount of teaching can do.
JAPAN-CHOSEN courses in literature, philosophy The Overseas Evangelistic theology, pedagogy and other Association, an indigenous so- Christian Prospects subjects, according to need and ciety working among Japanese circumstances. emigrants, has fixed a budget of Dr. E. E. Helms gives this Y4300 for its work in 1936. estimate of the prospects Chris- -International Christian Press. tianity has in the Sunrise King- -International Review of dom: Nation-Wide Evangelistic Missions. Movement Because there are but 350,000 Chris- Nationalism, or Loyalty tians in Japan out of a population of Practically all denominations to God? 65,000,000, many count the work of have decided to participate in Christianity in the Empire a failure. the nation-wide evangelistic St. Paul's University, Tokyo, One of Japan's leading dailies recent- movement and to provide the is the most recent target for the ly said editorially: "The question is funds tentatively apportioned Nationalist marksmen. It is remoral rather than numerical. Chris- among them for financing it. ported that the dean of the tianity is giving to the nation a new university read the imperial reconscience." A high official said The committee planning the script on education with some- Christianity has rendered a service movement has issued a state- thing less than the decorum far out of proportion to the number ment to the nation, which, after desired by certain reactionary of its adherents. sketching the present situation students and alumni, and a pro~ in Japan, states: test strike from classrooms wa~ In 1873 there were signs on the the result. That the strike came roads running out of Tokio, "Death "In this crisis we firmly be- just before the term examinatQ All Christians," "Death to Christ lieve that only the Gospel of tions and that the students in Himself If He Comes This Way." Christ can be the safe guiding addition to asking the dean's Now Christianity, by Imperial edict, star for the people's thinking resignation are expecting to be is one of the three official religions of and bring eternal welfare to the excused from the exams until Japan- Shintoism, Buddhism and fatherland. autumn indicates that patriot- Christianity. Last year a Christian ism may not be the only element daily was launched at Tokio, named, "Zealously therefore we bestir in the situation. It definitely ourselves, and. emphasizing the shows also the levels to which The Christ Religion Newspaper. love of God and the grace of nationalism will stoop to win its Christ we proclaim this Gospel point. A compromise will prob- The Christmas story is told each to our fellow-nationals. In so ably be effected to save face all Christmas Eve over a national hQok- doing we would correct the pres- around, but this will only postup, and last year this was climaxed by ent perilous thought – currents pone the head-on collision bethe singing of the "Hallelujah Chorus" and provide a basis for foster- tween loyalty to God and duty by a trained choir of 1,000. The ing a devout and unalloyed senti- to national policy which Chris- Mikado is a total abstainer, and each ment among the people." tians are anticipating and which of his personal bodyguard of 300 will probably occur first in the picked soldiers mnst take a total ab- The movement 0 pen e d on Christian and private schools of stinence pledge. Thomas Carlyle said: April 28 with a mass evangel- the land. "Christianity cannot be counted, it istic meeting in Tokyo. must be weighed." This is the leaven -The Christian Century. that will leaven the whole Japanese In connection with the movelump. ment, a conference for educators Islam in Favor was held in May in Osaka, to -Evangelical-Messenger. consider the place of religion in A writer in The Indian Re- the training of youth, and the view thinks that the conquest of Proposed Union Christian means of inculcating religious China is not the only goal that University truth and developing the reli- Japan has in mind. He says: gious life in schools and colleges. Last April the presidents and In June a special conference for "One of the things that struck representatives of the various factory owners and managers me when I was in Japan at the Christian schools of higher edu- was held, to study the question beginning of this year was the cation in Japan met at Atami of evangelism among factory great interest that the Japanese for a two days' conference under workers. A union Christian were taking in Mohammedanthe auspices of the Executive of training conference is planned ism and building mosques in difthe Christian Educational Asso- for October and a union service ferent parts of their Empire. In ciation of Japan. Considerable of worship for November. pre-war days when I was there time was devoted to the often I came across hardly any J apadiscussed question of the need The Kingdom of God Weekly nese Moslems, but this time I to form a Union Christian Uni- is still sponsored by a committe~ met quite a good number of versity. A proposal was made chosen by the National Chris- them. A fine Moslem seminary for the establishment of a tian Council, the Kyo Bun Kwan has been established in Tokyo, Scholastic Center for the whole and the Kagawa Group. In under the guidance of Imam Christian Movement in Japan, order, however, to cut down Khurbangali, who enjoys the to be devoted to the investiga- overhead expenses and avoid tion and study of subjects per- deficits, the National Christian taining to man's spiritual, moral Council office has assumed the and social welfare. The plans entire work of pUblication. for the development of such a scheme would include the institution in Japan's capital city of a one department University of Literature and graduate
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
confidence of both the Moslem be put out; it is an original then village, he is overpowered and non-Moslem Japanese offi- work, not a translation and with the prevailing filth. His cials. From this center Islamic therefore closer to Japanese life first act, then, is to line up all literature is circulated all over and thought. the children and march them off the world. In pre-war days it to a clear mountain stream was difficult to come across any -Japan Christian Quarterly. where he scrubs them thorough- Japanese who knew Arabic, Per- ly with a coconut brush. Next sian or Turkish, and there were ISLANDS OF THE SEA he puts the men through a simhardly any chairs for these Is- ilar laundering. The women are lamic languages in Japanese Visiting the New Hebrides doubtless advised to a like universities. But now one meets course. Then his audience being quite a number of Japanese who Rev. Fred Paton of the John outwardly clean he proceeds to are intimate with those lan- G. Paton Mission, New He- preach a cleansing Gospel for guages, and chairs for them brides, writes in The Life of the inner man. Villages thus have been founded in a great Faith: transformed outwardly and inmany J a pan e s e universities. wardly are "living epistles." Why?" A contingent of natives came from Not uncommonly a stranger will Southwest Bay, and when I told them come to a missionary home in "Dry" Experiments a new missionary had been appointed Papua with the remark: "I have their faces lit up with happiness. heard that you live a Christian The number of "bone dry" They have had a hard, lonely time, life. I want to stay with you a villages has reached twenty. and it is a great relief, as they need few days to witness it." A strik- Tomi Oka village in Miyagi pre- help. Once a quarter I see little, ing contrast was afforded those fecture put the scheme to test for lonely villages for a few hours, and present at the mission's Christone year. So good were the re- the people welcome me. mas celebration, when a group sults that the villagers voted to of heathen were asked by some go dry for five years. Nagoya When the seas are rough, it is im- thoughtless person to give the village in Saga completed its first possible to land, but the teacher and Keveri war cry. It was a bloodperiod of three years and has a few natives scramble aboard. We curdling yell which rose in clivoted to extend the dry regime try to give a little bit of tea and sugar max and then· passed into the for another three years. This is and a few matches, and perhaps a few distance. A moment of silence a fishing village, and in spite of sweets and a ball to the children; then and then the Kwato Mission great poverty used to spend yen we back out and they are left three choir, which happened to be 20,000 a year on alcohol. Miho months alone. near, burst out with Gounod's, village in Nagano has completed "Send out thy light and thy three years of a dry experiment The teachers and their wives do not truth, let them lead me." and has extended the period for think they are heroic. They have another five years. heard of Jesus, and some of them vol- -Sunday School Times. unteer to go to the training institute -The Chronicle. for four years, then to return-not to Some Impressions of Australia their homes, but in many cases to an Spread of Christian Literature out-station and occasionally to die Mr. J. Edwin Orr, evangelist there. We have medicines, but if in New Zealand and Australia, General prosperity has caused there is an epidemic the supply runs gives some of his impressions in a rise in the sales of Christian out. The Christian. literature. During 1935, the Christian Literature Society New Christian Oollege in The twin sins of Australia are gampublished 1,046,100 books and Manila bling and pleasure-craze. Australians periodicals. Over 12,500,000 gamble all the time-it is heartbreakpages of Christian literature It is announced from Manila ing. Gambling pervades the air, and went out. Magazines carry the that the Christian college in taints even churches. Well-known Gospel into nearly a million that city has now been organ- church leaders are seen at the races. homes. They go into every cor- ized under Filipino auspices. Many ministers ignore the gambling ner of Japan, to the South Seas, All the boards concerned have menace: in some churches raffles are to the Malay Peninsula, to advised against the organizing a form of church support. America, to Europe, taking the of the college, and have intiword of God to Japanese scat- mated that they will not be pre- The average Australian is not retered all over the world and link- pared to make appropriations ligious: he is not antireligious either: ing all together. Christians are for it. The mission has granted he is just indifferent. The Commonbeginning to use Bible notes and to the college the use of the wealth of Australia seems to be far commentaries. rooms in the Theological Sem- behind New Zealand in religious in- inary building which have been terest. The worst condition of all is Daily Strength for Children heretofore used by the seminary displayed by the outback-isolated has texts for every day in the for its college work. The new communities growing up without the year with a simple, charmingly institution is now under way Gospel. The Gospel is preached by written talk upon each one. This with Dr. Enrique Sobrepena as some societies to the aborigines: but is the first book of this type to its president. their problem is nothing compared to -Presbyterian Board News. the scattered settlements. The atti- tude of denominational leaders to A Preface to Preaching evangelism is encouraging. There is remarkably good feeling between Bap- A recent report of the Kwato tist, Presbyterian, Churches of Christ, Mission describes evangelist Methodists and the rest. All over Davida's preliminaries to his preaching. Going into a hea-
Australia are found prayer groups for The church is on the eve of its home of the medicine man. revival. The Evangelicals know their greatest period of prosperity." What a difference in the recepneed. The subject of revival is dis- This prediction is based upon tion! "Come in," invited the cussed everywhere, and there is in- Mr. Babson's studies of both man cordially. As they entered creasing desire for blessing. economic and religious move- the home, the woman placed ments of the.past three centuries chairs for them and listened at- The younger generation is making of American life. tentively while the missionaries its influence felt. Several of my best sang two gospel hymns in the campaigns were run by younger – Watchman-Examiner. Indian tongue, then to the Christians. The generation born since prayer, and later to a sermon by 1900 means business; a hunger and Forward Step for-Chinese each missionary. The evangelthirst for revival is evident. Christian Community istic meetings were attended by Endeavor is encouragingly progres- such crowds that each evening sive in most states. Campaigners for The Presbyterian Board of many could not get into the Christ are beginning to make their National Missions has approved church. In all, forty conversions weight felt. the sale of the property of Ming were reported. Other villages Quong Home, Oakland, Calif., wanted the evangelists to hold NORTH AMERICA to Mills College for a sum suffi- services there, but time and cient to provide for the reestab- funds would not permit. To Promote Paganism lishment of the home in two -Presbyterian Board News. units, one for the older girls in The Moody Institute Monthly the Chinese section of Oakland, Alaskans Make Progress wonders whether the evident at- and another for the younger tempt of the office of Commis- girls at Los Gatos, a rural com- As already noted, the Presbysioner of Indian Affairs to pre- munity where the home's special terian Hospital at Point Barrow, serve, and even revive, the health work for the children who Alaska, was turned over to the heathen religious beliefs and are under par physically is now government on July 1. Plans practices of our Indian popula- carried on. provide for an enlarged medical tion, particularly in the western program: a resident physician and southern states, means that Ming Quong, or "Home of Ra- and nursing staff at the hospital; the United States government:.is diant Light," came into being in a field nurse who will travel by . going to violate the first amend- 1925, on a site given for the pur- dog team with an Eskimo guide ment to the Constitution by em- pose by Captain Robert Dollar. to the coast villages east of barking upon a program involv- A suburban white community Point Barrow; rehabilitation of ing the teaching of religion, and has grown up around the home, the hospital building and addia debased heathen religion at the inmates are the only Chinese tion of modern surgical equipthat. children in the public schools, ment. The transfer of the medi- while the Chinese church is six cal work makes possible the ex- It appears that certain gov- miles away. The new set-up, tension of the Board's evangelernment officials profess a deep providing an Oakland and a Los istic program, with a full-time interest in the quaint customs Gatos unit, will remedy this service of itinerant evangelism and practices of primitive peo- handicap to the development of among the Eskimos in the negples, and evince a concern to an effective program. The Oak- lected area east of Point Barrow cater to the curiosity of the rap- land unit will be located in the to Barter Island and Demarcaidly increasing army of tourists Chinese community, wit hi n tion Point at the Canadian borwho desire to see Indian life in walking distance of the Chinese der, in addition to regular its original state and setting, church. preaching and pastoral service and witness snake dances, war -Presbyterian Publicity Sheet. at Barrow and Wainwright. The dances, etc., with all the paint entire evangelistic program will and feathers. To carry out such The Scene Changes be under the supervision of Rev. aprogram would involve the em- Fred Klerekoper, who succeeds ployment of government schools, A year ago a missionary called Dr. Henry W. Greist, recently as agents in reviving and per- at a Papago medicine man's retired on account of broken petuating the old tribal life, with home in San Miguel, Arizona, health. the use of federal money. On on the Mexican border, and the whole, the government's con- asked to be allowed to tell the Rev. Russell Pederson says tribution toward making the In- Gospel story. The Indian's wife that Alaskans have made mardian an intelligent and decent went into the house and brought velous progress in the past deccitizen has been nothing to boast out a gun. "Now, go away!" ade. Most communities now of. she said. And the missionary have up-to-date libraries and went, but not without stopping reading rooms. Radios are con- Is A Revival Coming? at the gate for a word of prayer stantly being installed, and pro- for the man and his wife. grams in English help to edu- Roger Babson, noted statis- cate and entertain. The day is tician, makes a confident predic- Some months later a series of practically past when an intertion in his recent book, "A Re- evangelistic meetings were held preter must be used in giving vival Is Coming," that a great for the Papago Indians scattered spiritual awakening is jus t all over that vast desert. The ahead. He says: "All signs in- missionaries again called at the dicate that America will soon again be swept by a spiritual revival. Nothing can stop it. . . .
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
the Gospel in Alaska. Seldom paintings depicting the history too small already. A lot has been does one find an Alaskan who of the English Bible from the given in a good location and does not understand English. time of Caedmon. plans for a building are under Alaskans are also seeking to end way. Work is progressing at the sale of intoxicating liquor to -The Christian. several branch stations; at most their people. of them plans are going forward -Presbyterian Board News. Better Movie Campaign for enlarged, or additional build- ings. , Invite Government Employees Dr. Fred Eastman, one of the to Church editors of the Christian Cen- Hopeful Signs in Mexico tury, is still campaigning to im- The Committee on Religious prove American movies. Film The Presbyterian Board re- Life in the nation's capital an- producers consider him their ports that its Mexican Mission nounces that, in cooperation "Public Enemy No. 1." Motion is reduced to the smallest terms with the United States Civil picture magnates have insisted in numbers, but is undiminished Service Commission, welcoming they are entertainers, not edu- in activity. While tension on re- letters will be sent to all new cators, but Dr. Eastman has con- ligious questions has relaxed un- employees in the classified serv- fronted them with the fact that der the more liberal attitude of ices of the government. This they are educators whether they President Cardenas, the Mission will mean about 8,000 letters a know it or not; and that in this has been obliged to spend many year. country we are maintaining two months of anxiety and parleying educational system in conflict- over property questions. It is expected to develop this the public school system and the service of making strangers in motion picture industry. In reorganizing to meet pres- Washington feel at home in some ent conditions, the mission has place of worship of their own "Roman Catholics, it will be followed two general principles: denomination or preference and remembered, took the initiative All work is to be considered as of supplying information re- in cleaning up the movies about a project, with definite aims and garding the location of churches, five years ago; Protestants and goals; and no missionary is to church schools, Bible classes, and Jews joined them, so that in one assume responsibility which can other religious activities; and year the film industry lost $10,- be carried by a Mexican col- to extend it to include employees 000,000. The result is that much league. These principles have in the larger nongovernmental debasing stuff has been elimi- worked out, thus far, not only agencies, such as the American nated from films shown in to the extension of established Federati~n of Labor, the Na- America. But the producers work, but even to the opening of tional Educational Association, have not had a change of heart. some new fields. Two years ago, the United States Chamber of They have only been spanked." the progress of missions in Mex- Commerce, and any other new- Meanwhile the problem is being ico seemed blocked at every turn. comers to Washington. approached from another angle. Today, "mission" as an organ- Some hundreds of high schools ized and foreign-controlled en- -The Living Church. in America now have classes in terprise is still blocked, but the motion pictures appreciation, Christians have found their way Texas Bible Exhibit and this idea will probably de- to the hearts of others. velop. The American Bible Society Work among young people in is showing a remarkable collec- LATIN AMERICA Mexico is taking on increasing tion of Texas pioneer Bibles at importance, from babies on the Dallas Centennial Exposi- The Brethren Mission in through college age. Group tion. Copies of a "Breeches" Bi- Argentina training in music, especially ble, published in 1615, and a hymns, has been the service of Czech Bible, published in 1613, The Foreign Mission Society one missionary as she has con- are of particular interest. The of the Brethren Church assumes ducted these classes for young latter was buried in a field for responsibility for evangelizing a people in churches within reach safety during the persecutions strip of Argentina about 200 of the capital. Another new ven- in BoHemia, and was later miles in width and between ture is a church camp for girls brought to Texas by Moravian three and four hundred miles in and still another is student evan- settlers. Other exhibits of note length. Of the hundreds of gelism among young men at- include old photographs and thousands only a few hundred tending colleges in Mexico City. documents which tell the story have a saving knowledge of of the Society's work in Texas Christ. Rio Cuarto is the logical Christianapolis-Model during the last 102 years, por- and geographical center of this Village traits of the first agents and field. It is a growing city, with workers, colored slides showing a promising future. At Hernan- Mr. F. C. Glass recently made the processes of translation, do is the largest congregation. a long trip alone through a sec- publication, and distribution of Some remarkable conversions tion of Brazil, several hundred the Scriptures, more than 7,000,- have taken place, the testimony miles northeast of Garanhuns, 000 volumes of which are sent given is genuine, and the work and found a large and wide- out annually, and a frieze of is growing rapidly. The hall is spread community of Christians
living under conditions that re- made a grant of 18,000 marks the Church Mission to Jews in mind one of the life of the early toward the building. Upon the Poland. A writer in The Chris- Puritan fathers. He says that site a "dignified place of wor- tian tells of seeing this work, a happier, healthier or cleaner ship" will be erected by the State and of being deeply impressed lot of folk would be difficult to building administration aided by the sane methods used by the find. by church members, the Reich missionaries. Their English Government of Prussia, and the class, ostensibly for teaching In another state in the distant National Trades Union. It ap- English, is also used as a means south is a large village called pears that the Prussian Ministry of preaching the Gospel. Those Christianopolis, built in a forest of State recently conferred upon who come are all told very plainclearing and laid out as Faith the Russian Orthodox diocese ly that the missionaries are not Street, Joy Lane, Con cor d the legal rights of a constitution- taking this class only to teach Square, etc., and where only al body in which the Orthodox English, but to introduce to Christians may dwell. They churches in Germany "retain a them the claims of Christ, and have their own shops and little state-recognized and state-pro- the response is gratifying. trades, and possess a church tected form in which the followseating 500 people which is al- ers of this faith can live in close "In personal talks with one ready far too small for their re- communion with their fellow be- and another," says this writer, quirements. They do not smoke, lievers from other countries, es- "I could see how the Spirit of drink, dance, nor is a cinema pecially from the Balkan coun- God was working – breaking allowed to corrupt their morals tries, now living in Germany." down prejudice, and awakening and lure them back to the world. a desire for Christ as their Sav- They hold an annual convention Church Union in France iour, as well as their Messiah. of a Keswick character, when There is no doubt that among huge crowds gather for °a week, French Protestant Churches, their number there are some to study God's Word. chiefly represented by the Re- who are secret believers, and formed and the Reformed Evan- who are weighing up the conse- -The Christian. gelical bodies, have practically quences of baptism. Mr. Par- agreed to unite. By-gone causes sons ought to have fifty aggres- Tent Campaign in Puerto Rico of division are no longer under- sive evangelists and colporteurs stood or appreciated. It is ex- A Sunday school missionary pected that National Synods among the millions of Jews in Puerto Rico tells this story in will shortly reach a definite there." the Presbyterian Banner: agreement. Jews Going to Spain Near Bartolo a Christian brother A financial forward movement began to hold meetings in a large is in progress, and French gen- The legend of "The Wandering farmhouse. Many people gathered, so erosity is open handed. Before Jew" is no myth. From many a a request was sent for the Sunday the fiscal year of the Society of land Jews have had to flee from school missionary to come with his bus Missions closed in March, a mil- persecution. Strangely enough, and gospel tent equipment. We lion francs were received, which one of the lands that is opening packed our bus to the very top with closed the year without a deficit its doors to persecuted Jews is canvas, poles, boards for seats, baby -an experience known only once the land where four and a half organ, literature, stereoptican ma- before in thirty years. Mission- centuries ago their forefathers chine, military cots, gasoline lanterns, aries are returning to their sta- endured the indescribable crueland the hundred and one things neces- tions and no fields are to be ties of the Spanish Inquisition. sary for a fifteen-day campaign. abandoned. The 800,000 francs It is said that government of- accumulated deficits of the Soci- ficials and the people of influ- Those sturdy-headed, reckless peo- ety of Missions will, it is con- ence in general regret the part ple came in crowds to the tent; they fidently hoped, soon be cleared were respectful and interested, they off. The Reformed Evangelical taken by their country in the exwere stirred to the depths, and 103 Churches have launched an ap- pulsion of Jews in the fifteenth confessed Christ as their Saviour. A peal for 3,000,000 francs and in century, and in every way are desire for a chapel grew in their three months have received seeking to convey the impreshearts. A prominent man gave the nearly one-third of it. site and a group of young people from sion that today there exists no the Marina church in Mayaquez -World Survey Service. prejudice against the Jews or helped launch the campaign for rais- any other race. Within the past ing money. Enthusiasm grew, and Poland and the Jewish two years a considerable numout of their great poverty, with plan- Problem ber of Jews from Nazi Germany ning and sacrifice, the Bartolo people are finding their way into Spain, are building a house of worship. A The largest number of Jews large class of candidates is being pre- in the world is found in Poland, a perhaps the largest groups gopared for church membership. which is largely the fountain head of world Jewry. Jews ing to the south. Seville has EUROPE form one-seventh of the popula- growing Jewish population, with tion in Poland. Rev. Martin scattered communities through- A German-Russian Church Parsons is directing the work of out Andalusia.
The Living Church reports As a people, Jews are not that the Nazi ~overnment on identified wit h communism. July 3d placed a building site at Their traditions are all to the the disposal of the Russian Or- contrary. thodox diocese of Berlin for the reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox cathedral, and has Our· Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information BOOKS WORTH READING Omwa? Are You Awake? By P. H. Black and White in East Africa. ON AFRICA J. Lerrigo. 175 pp. $1.25. Revell. By Richard C. Thurnwald, with New York. 1936. chapter on "Women" by Hilde By REV. EMORY Ross Thurnwald. 218. Geo. Routledge Intimate, human and discern- & Sons. London. Western Civilization and the Natives ing sketches of the life of Afri- of South Africa: Studies in Cul- cans and foreigners in Congo- Detailed study of perplexing ture Contact. By I. Schapera. 158. industry, government, religion, problems emerging from the Routledge. London. 1934. medicine, education, folk-tales- contact between black and white by a man who has both knowl- in Africa. An important reference work. edge and insight. Some conception of the cultural The School in the Bush. By Victor shock now being experienced by The Golden Stool. By Edwin W. Murray. $5.00. Longmans Green Africa is necessary for proper Smith. $1.50. Harpers. New & Co. New York. 1929. understanding of that continent. York. 1928. A qualified outsider's view of Christ in the Great Forest. Felix Not to be missed by one who African education. Comprehen- Faure. 181 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 would have, in a very readable sive. Provocative. cents, paper. Friendship Press. form, an introduction to the New York. 1936. African of today against the The Gospel and the African. By background of yesterday. Alexander Hetherwick. 176 pp. Fifteen case histories that 48. 6d. T. & T. Clark. Edinburgh. show Christianity's impact upon God's Candlelights. By Mable Shaw. 1932. Africans in the Gabun. M. 197 pp. 28. 6d. Edinburgh House Faure has been for thirty years Press. London. Friendship Press, Half a century of missionary a French Protestant missionary New York. $1.00. 1936. experience was the preparation in West Africa. for this study of African reli- A discerning teacher's story gious life and the changes African Bridge Builders. William C. of how Christ helped the African brought by Christianity. Bell. 168 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 girls build God's village – the cents, paper. Friendship Press. girls' boarding school at Mbere- Literature for the South African New York. 1936. shi, Northern Rhodesia. Bantu. By R. H. W. Shepherd. 81 pp. 18. The Carnegie Corporation A collection, skilfully and The Life of Dr. Donald Fraser. By Visitors' Grants Committee. Precompactly edited, of stories by Agnes R. Fraser. 326 pp. 78. 6d. toria, South Africa. 1936. and about Africans, taken from Hodder and Stoughton. London. that splendid series, "Little 1934. A comparative study of Negro Book for Africa." literary achievements – in Af- rica and the United States.
Modern Industry and the African. The life story of one great Apolo of the Pygmy Forest. New By J. Merle Davis. $2.50. Inter- African missionary written by and Enlarged Edition. 82 pp. national Missionary Council, New another-his wife. C. M. S. London. 1936. York. 1932. Sons of Africa. By Georgina A. Gol- The fascinating story of an The most comprehensive study lock. 241 pp. Map. 75 cents, African missionary to Africans. yet made of that baffling tri- boards; 50 cents, paper. Friendangle: Church – industry – ship Press. New York. 1928. Among Congo Pygmies. By P. Sche- Africa. Relates particularly to bester. 188. Hutchinson. London. the world's largest mines – of Life stories of great Africans, 1933. diamonds, gold and copper, in more than a score of them, from Africa. the Askia (Usurper) of the 15th About the only full-length century, who founded a great book yet written dealing scien- tifically with those shy people, The African Today. By Diedrich dynasty, to Aggrey of the 20th, among the world's most primi- Westermann. $3.00. 343 pp. Ox- 'Yho did more. tive, the pygmies of the Ituri ford University Press. New York. forest. Aggrey of Africa. By Edwin W. 1934.
Able survey of African condi- Smith. $1.00. Friendship Press. Liberia Old and New. J. L. Sibley tions by one of the directors of New York. 1929. the International Institute of and D. Westermann. $3.00. Smith.
Best modern biography of an New York. 1928.
African Languages and Cul- African. Aggrey was remark- Good short treatment of the tures. able; the book is excellent. Negro Republic. Mr. Sibley Any of the books noted in these columns wi11 be sent by the ReVIew publishers on receipt of price.
[509 ] died in service as the govern- portunity. Mr. Ross, for twenty ciety describes in popular form ment's educational adviser. years a missionary in Africa and recently secretary of the Congo the romance and reality of pro- Forest Hospital at Lambarene. By Protestant Mission Council, here Albert Schweitzer. 191 pp. $2.00. describes the land, its people, ducing Christian literature and Holt & Co. New York. 1931. problems, mission work and fu- Bible translations in new lan- A medical mission to Africans ture – not by a recital of dry discussed by a well-known medi- statements but by picturesque guages that have never been re- cal missionary philosopher. facts, descriptions and incidents. The colored map and reading duced to writing. This is one of Surveys Made by World Dominion list add to its value as the senior Movement. London and New York. study book for the year. the most important parts of the A valuable series of books on D. L. P. missionaries' task. Mr. Smith various African areas, dealing with missionary occupation, sta- tells how men who have gone to tistics, government problems, education, medicine, the Church. Central Africa, the Islands of Africa View. By J. Huxley. $3.50. the Sea and elsewhere, without Harpers. New York. 1931. any knowledge of the language A leading British scientist ex- amines Africa. Stimulating. of the people, have patiently and The Partition and Colonization of Congo Crosses. By Julia Lake KeI'- with ingenuity learned to speak Africa. By C. P. Lucas. $4.20. Oxford University Press. New lersbergeT. $1.00, cloth; 50 cents, with the natives, have reduced York. 1932. paper. Friendship Press. New the languages to writing and A well told story of the Euro- pean grab of Africa. York. 1936. have finally translated the Bible.
Boomba Lives in Africa. By Caro- Mrs. Kellersberger is already Many humorous experiences are line Singer and Cyrus LeRoy Bald- ridge. Holiday House, London. widely known in America for recorded due to mistakes in pro- 1935. her stirring addresess on the nunciation or to misunderstand- Story of a ten-year-old West African boy. For children. Congo, her missionary field. ings. In Uganda the word for Full page drawings by Mr. Bald- ridge. Here she describes the land on "wizard" (forbidden in the Bi- Haile Selassie Emperor of Ethiopia. which s hi n e s the Southern ble) was used for medical mis- By The Princess Asfa Yilma. 305 pp. $4.00. Illus. and maps. D. Cross; the trails and landscapes sionary and added to the diffi- Appleton-Century Co. New York. 1936. of the Africans – heathen cus- culties. Among the Shans of An excellent volume on Ethio- toms, slavery, climate, wars, Burma the same word, with dif- pia, with all its aspects discern- ingly discussed up to early part witchcrafts, hard labor, and pov- ferent tones, means man y of 1936. The writer is a half- British Ethiopian p r inc e s s, erty, which constitute their in- things. "Ma rna rna rna rna" European educated. dividual and tribal crosses, and may be translated, "Help the The Golden Legend of Ethiopia. By Post Wheeler. 183 pp. $2.00. D. finally the Cross of Christ by horse, a mad dog comes." Appleton-Century Co. New York. 1936. which Africans are being re- The book is exceedingly inter- The traditional romantic story deemed for time and eternity. esting and shows the great im- of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, and King Solomon, told by an Amer- This book, especially for women, portance of accurate language ican career diplomat, recently minister to Albania. How the is unique, well illustrated and work in order to get at a peo- ark came to Ethiopia, and other . Ethiopic traditions which have informIng. D. L. P. ple's soul and to give them the greatly helped to mold the Ethiopian nation. The Land and Life of Africa. By Gospel so that they will under- Margaret Wrong. IlIus. Map. Out of Africa. By Emory Ross. 12mo. 144 pp. 28. The Living- stand. D. L. P. $1.00, cloth; 60 cents, paper. 216 stone Press. London. 1935. pp.; map. Friendship Press. New Consider Africa. By Basil Mathews. York. 1936. Here is an excellent introduc- Maps. 12 mo. 181 pp. $1.00 cloth, tion to the study of Africa. Miss 60 cents paper. Friendship Press. Noone will wish to miss this Wrong is a well-informed, a New York. 1936. graphically written volume on clear, illuminating writer. She Africa, the continent of adven- pictures vividly the town and Weare debtors to Africa for ture, romance, tragedy and op- village life, not by an array of the gold, the ivory, the dia- impersonal facts, but by describ- monds, the copper, coffee and ing the experiences of individual cotton, palm oil and cocoa, and Africans. She tells also of the skins of all kinds that have journeys through the bush on come from that rich continent; foot, by rail and motor car and we are debtors to the Africans, airplane. African races and even more because of past ex- history, governments and edu- ploitation of these primitive peo- cation are treated in separate ples – an exploitation and op- chapters. It is not a report of pression that is still going on. missionary w 0 r k but gives It is a country of romance and graphic glimpses of the influence adventure of vast variety and of Christianity and reveals the far-reaching possibilities. The background in which missiQn African is a deeply interesting character, of many tribes and work is conducted. D. L. P. races, of varied characteristics, customs and beliefs. But Africa The Shrine of a People's Soul. By and the Africans are changing. Edwin W. Smith. 208 pp. 28. As a rule they are still primitive Edinburgh House Press. London. and childlike but multitudes are 1929. seeing new light and hope and are becoming leaders of their The Editorial Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible So-
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
people. This is the country and of the interesting stations vis- terial, including African games, people, south of the Sudan, that ited was that of Dan Crawford, stories, proverbs, music, sugges- form the foreign mission study so that we have an independent tions for dramatization, refresh- topic for the coming year. Basil view of the work of this mighty ments, etc.
Mathews has given us a most missionary. The whole diary Thinking with Africa. Edited by interesting introduction to the and the photographs enable us Milton Stauffer. Boards, 50 cents; subject. It is less a study book to travel with Miss Dunkel- paper, 25 cents. New York. 1927.
than a popular description of the berger, to see with her eyes, feel African thought interpretea African, his country and char- with her heart and sympathize by Christian nationals and misacteristics. Here we see him with her spiritual reactions. sionaries. with his shining body and ready D. L. P. The Moffats. By Ethel Daniels Hublaugh, his expressive dance and BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEO- bard. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 75 cents. PLE AND CHILDREN New York. drum; his bondage to supersti- Camp Fires in the Congo. By Mrs. Popular life of Robert and tion and fear. We read of the John M. Springer. 128 pp. 75 Mary Moffat, pioneer mission- cents, cloth; 50 cents, paper. The aries in South Africa. African labor problem-so dif- Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. Bos- Livingstone the Pathfinder. By Basil ferent from American and Eu- ton. 1936. Mathews. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 75 cents. rope – the native moral weak- This is one of those books, os- tensibly written for children The most popular biography nesses and imported white man's which their elders will not read- of Livingstone. ily lay aside, if they once begin vices; the cruelty and oppres- it. But a narrative skillfully Uganda's White Man of Work. By told is one of the best ways to Sophia Lyon Fahs. Cloth, 50 cents; sion of European. conquerors carry important truth. Mrs. paper, 25 cents. Springer's style is direct and and the changes that are taking vivid. Few words are wasted The life of Mackay of Uganda. in abstractions or generalities. place. Finally we read of the That is, it is the style most at- In the African Bush. By Jewel tractive to young people. The Huelster Schwab. coming of the Christian mission- six chapters cover a great num- ber of incidents, which give one Stories of African life for ary and the results of the Gos- juniors.
pel. It is a book worth reading FOR PRIMARY CHILDREN AND BEGINNERS -one that whets the appetite for a better acquaintance with marvelous Africa and the fas- cinating people. A valuable bib- liography and index,· and a good colored map are included. . D. L. P.
Crossing Africa. By Stella C. Dunkelberger. Illus. 8vo. 105 pp. an intimate view of the thoughts Children of the Chief. By Mary $1.00. Mission Office. 147 W. and customs of the Congo peo- School Lane, Germantown, Pa. Entwistle. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, ple. In fact the book contains a 25 cents.
The D. M. Stearn's Fund has surprising amount of informa- The Red Friendly Book. By Muriel ministered to missionaries all tion on the people of the Congo. R. Wray. Boards, 40 cents. over the world for some forty years. After serving for twenty- There are many excellent illus- Kembo: A Little Girl of Africa. five years as home secretary, trations, printed on paper best By Winifred E. Barnard. Boards, Miss Dunkelberger decided to adapted to bring them out. This 50 cents.
visit some of the African mis- book is a fine addition to mis- Efiong: A Little Boy of Africa. By sionary literature, and, indeed, Ella B. Floyer. Boards, 40 <'ents.
sions she had helped, and trav- to popular literature u p 0 n SUPPLEMENTARY eled across Africa by way of the Africa. Congo River and Elizabethville R. M. K. MATERIAL to Portuguese East Africa. These diary letters, with over OTHER FRIENDSHIP Africa Picture Sheet. 25 cents. one hundred pictures, tell the PRESS BOOKS story. It is very enlightening A folder of pictures for class- The Land and Life of Africa. By to share her many interesting room use. experiences, by boat and car- Margaret Wrong. 138 pp. 50 riers of various kinds, as she cents, paper. 1936. Africa Picture Stories. Spedal price, visited the missions in out-ofthe-way stations, saw the na- An accurate account of daily 25 cents the set. tives in the raw and as trans- life and thought, religion and formed by the power of Christ. work in Africa. Recommended Five pictures and a story Some of the photographs are especially for young people and clear and instructive. It is a adults, including leaders of all about each picture. personal narrative, in which age groups. many unimportant items are in- Boys and Girls of Africa. 15 cents. Fun and Festival from Africa. By Catherine Miller Balm. 25 cents, Six sheets of African pictures paper. New York. to be colored.
Directions for Making an African Village. 25 cents.
A set of drawings to be cut out and assembled.
Loose-Leaf Series No. i-Africa. 15 cents. .
cluded and some details of value Pamphlet, by the author of An illustrated pamphlet of are omitted – including the ex- Chinese Ginger and Joy from games, songs, handcraft sugges- act names of workers met. One Jap(m, contains a wealth of ma- tions and folk tales from Africa.
New Books Obituary Notes Mrs. Carrie Ballah Harrell, writer and missionary, said to have been the Lights and Shades of Christendom to (Concluded from page 449.) first white child born in Japan, died A. D. 1000. H. Pakenham-Walsh. July 13th, in Baltimore, Maryland, at Maps. 368 pp. $4.00. Oxford Uni- Miss Jean Kenyon Mackenzie, for the home of her daughter, Mrs. H. versity Press. New York. Donovan Swann at the age of seventy- twelve years a missionary of the Pres- four. The History of the Universities' byterian Church to the Bantu tribes Mission to Central Africa. G. Her- of southern Cameroun, Africa, died Mrs. Harrell was the daughter of bert Wilson. Illus. 278 pp. 2s. 6d. the Rev. James H. Harrell, who es· U. M. C. A. London. September 2d in New York. A native tablished the first Protestant church in Japan, on the treaty ground es- Christian Materialism: Inquiries In- of Elgin, Ohio, and the daughter of ta',Jlished by Admiral Matthew C. to the Getting and Spending and Perry, at Yokohama. Giving of Money. F. J. McConnell. Scottish parents, Miss Mackenzie at- 167 pp. $1.25. Friendship Press. tended school in San Francisco and Mrs. Harrell's introduction of the New York. Braille system into Japan, and her later studied at the Sorbonne, in Par- work among blind and deaf mutes The Social System of the Zulus. E. is. When her father became pastor won her the honor of being received J. Krige. Illus. 420 pp. 25s. Long- by the late Emperor. mans. London. of the Rutgers church, she volun- teered for missionary work and in PROMISE Papuan Wonderland. J. G. Hides. 204 pp. 8s. 6d. Blackie. London. 1904 was sent to what was then the To Read German colony of Kamerun. During The History of Jewish Christianity: and Keep From the First to the Twentieth the next ten years Miss Mackenzie Century. H. J. Schonfeld. Illus. Circulating 256 pp. 7s. 6d. Duckworth. Lon- saw service in four outposts, all but don. one of them ",.lush" towns in the in- Dr. R. A. Torrey's "HOW TO The Way of the Witnesses: A New terior. An internal injury-suffered PRAY," a notable 128-page Testament Study in Missionary Motive. Edward Shillito. 158 pp. one day while riding in a one-wheeled book, and receive copy for 2s. Edinburgh House Press. Lon- African cart-compelled her retire- don. this purpose FREE. ment in 1916. Interpreters: A Study in Contempo- In 1923 Miss Mackenzie attended • rary Evangelism. Max Warren. 142 pp. 2s. 6d. Highway Press. Lon- the Le Zoute Conference to discuss BIBLE INSTITUTE COLPORTAGE don. the future of mission work in Africa. ASSOCIATION Report on the Religious Life in the Here her long friendship with French, 849m N. Wells St., Chicago, Illinois Christian Colleges in China. 45 pp. China Christian Educational Swiss and German mission forces was Assn. Shanghai. brought into play to help the confer- Christian Union in South India: An ence avoid misunderstandings at a Adventure in Fellowship. W. J. Noble. 94 pp. 2s. Student Chris- time when the World War was still tian Movement Press. London. only five years past.
The Encyclopredia of Islam. Edited Miss Mackenzie wrote many books by M. Th. Houtsma, A. J. Wen- sinck, H. A. R. Gi',Jb, W. Heffening about Africa. Among them are, and E. Levi-Provencal. No. 53: Panguli-Rabb. 1025-1088 pp. Sup- "Black Sheep," "The Trader's Wife," plement No.2: Djughrafiya-Kas- sala. Plates. 65-112 pp. Each "An African Trail," "African Adven- 7s. 6d. Luzac. London. tures" "Friends of wAasfraic~ae"mb"eErxi0l1e Is Christianity Unique? A Compara- and Postman." She tive Study of the Religions. Nicol the editorial staff of Listen which M'acmicol. 222 pp. 6s. S. C. M. Press. London. provides news and interpretation of Apollo of the Pigmy Forest. New and international affairs in simplified Enlarged Edition. A. B. Lloyd. Is. 82 pp. C. M. S. London. English for children and those un- African Bridge Builders. Edited by familiar with the language. Wm. C. Bell. 168 pp. Friendship Press. New York. Surviving are her mother, Mrs. Robert Mackenzie, and two sisters. Across the Years-An Autobiog- raphy. Chas. Stedman Macfarland. gorging the (!]hain of 367 pp. $2.75. Macmillan. New York. CHRISTIAN LOVE The Bible Triumphant. C. Urquhart. encircling the C@orld 144 pp. 2s. 6d. Pickering & In- glis. London. Consecrated Missionaries of the Congregational and Chris- Jacob Burkhard. Mary Yoder Burk- tian Churches serving in home and foreign fields are hard. 214 pp. $1.00 cloth, 60 cents paper. Published by author. Gosh- golden links in the chain of International Friendship. So en, Ind. are the thousands who read the MISSIONARY HERALD at Home and Ahroad — the magazine that has worked ceaselessly for 132 years in hehalf of greater tolerance, more kindly understanding, and for the spirit of true hrotherhood inspired hy Jesus Christ. , We earnestly solicit your subscription, believing that it is your desire to be well-informed concerning world conditions.
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OMWA? AN IRISHMAN IN THE (ARE YOU AWAKE 1) JUNGLES OF AFRICA P. H. J. LERRIGO, M.D. Edited by RUTH BURNS MAGUIRE ttOmwa ? Are you awake?" is a native The wonderful career of Gabriel Reid salutation used in Central Africa. The author has utilized this expression as a Maguire, who was a missionary, preacher thread to bind together thIs study deal- ing with the major problems, religious, and pastor, for nearly forty years. "A political, social and mdustrial, confront- mg the great emerging continent today. great and unusual contributIon to the Human interest stories and folk tales illuminate the themes. Illustrated $1.25 missionary literature in which our churches are interested just at this time."-Watchman-Examiner. With an introduction by President Austen K.
deBlois. Illustrated $1.25 OTHER IMPORTANT WORKS ON MISSION LANDS REBECCA PARRISH, M.D. HERBERT H. GOWEN, D.D. GEORGE P. and IDA G. PIERSON ORIENT SEAS AND FIVE FOREIGNERS FORTY HAPPY YEARS LANDS AFAR IN JAPAN IN JAPAN Dr. Parrish is an experienced travel· The Western influences that have This stirring recital of successful ler who has the unique ability of get- brought about Japan's rise is told in missionary work is written with pas- ting behind the scenes and interpreting these historical biographies of five sionate enthusiasm by two mission- the ways of the peoples. It includes men who, more than any others, had aries. Their evangelistic activities Palestine, India, Africa, China, Japan., much to do with her growth in strat- brought them into contact with all Arabia, Philippines, and Egypt, Persia, etc. $1.50 egic power. $2.00 classes of people in Japan. $1.25 At All Booksellers FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 158 Fifth Ave., New York Exalted Partnership with Assured Income You may enter into Permanent Partnership with the missionaries of this Society in the United States and Latin America.
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'('But What Am I to Do?"
~ (EW YEAR'S DAY. The gateway of the Metet Leper Colony, Cameroun, Africa· '-a'l9 Clustered about it a pitiful crowd. Some sit, some lie down, some crouch.
Those nearest the gate take an attitude of supplication–dumb, passive, resigned, enduring. Suppliant—but only as a dog is suppliant when he has been beaten and begs, with his eyes open, for the passing of your anger.
The gate opens. A stir among those who wait, like a very faint puff of wind over dead leaves. An American man and woman and an African come out. Very gently, as if trying to say by their motions what they could not speak.
The African stops near one, then another, then another, of the waiting forms. He touches them, speaks a word. They rise with hardly a change of expression and pass inside the gate. Too dazed even to be happy! Six, eight, twelve, fifteen go in like that.
"That is enough, Mfe'e," says the doctor. "There is no more room. We are sorry, Mfe'e. Oh, tell them we are sorry!"
Mfe'e, his hand on the shoulder of an old, old woman, stops and turns toward the gate. Slowly the missionaries walk down the road.
Suddenly there is a cry. They turn.
It is the old woman. She is half standing, half crouching. Her hands are stretched out.
"But what am 1 to do? What am I to do?"
So long as they live, the missionaries can never forget that cry.
CAN YOU?
—————————————– THE AMERICAN MISSION TO LEPERS, Inc. Room 1119-R, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York o Because I too do not forget, I enclose $40 for the admission and one year's care of the old woman at Metet or some one like her o o $15 for a small house for four lepers $10 for medicines for two years–some- o $1 for a month's food times enough for a cure o Name _____________________________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________________________ City________________________________________________ Staw__________________
The Missionary Review of the World — March 1936
1936
This Enlarging World Arthur J. Brown Kil Sunju-Korean Evangelist c. F. Bemheisel Religious Destitution in Maine Charles W. Squires The Divine Constraint of Missions The Archbishop of Yark The Christianity the World Needs Frank C. Laubach From ~ondage to Liberty in Chile Laura Jorguera Foreign Missions Marching On Fred Field Goodsell 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year April 29-May 5-National Convention, Passages to Memorize Y. W. C. A., Colorado Springs, Colo. To encourage the committing to memo!)' of choice passages of Scripture, three serie. May I-General Conference, Meth- of four.page folders, six folders to a sertes~ have been prepared under the direction of odist Episcopal Church, Columbus, Helen Gould Shepard. Those who memonze these Scripture verse. store away spiro itual riches and those who scatter them will plant IiVlng seed. These folders are Ohio. envelope size and contain from thirty to forty verses. centering around one theme. May 12-15-National Council of Fed- The first series comprises the following titles. erated Church Women. Dayton, First captions only are given below. Ohio. 1. The Ten Commandments. Z. The Lord is my Shepherd. 3. God'. Glory and May 20-24-Northern Baptist Conven- Man's Dignity. 4. Prophecy of the MenIah's Su1ferings and Death. 5. A Saviour from Sin. 6. The Beatitudes. tion. St. Louis, Mo. Available in English, Arabic, Armeuia~ Armeno-Turkish" Bohemiau. Chinese (Man- May 27-General Assembly, United darin and Cantonese), Dutch, Finnish, >erman, Modern week, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Roumaman, Russian, Mbdern Russian, Ruthe- Presbyterian Church of North nian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Danish, Hindi, Bengali, Japanese. Latvian and French. America. Pittsburg, Kansas. May 28-General Assembly, Presby- The second series: terian Church in U. S. A. Syra- cuse, N. Y. 1. God Desires to Help Those with the Right Spirit. 2. A Prayer of Mosca. 3. July 6-12 – Twelfth World's Sunday Four Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven. … All Thinp Work Together. 5. God's School Convention. Oslo, Norway. Word in the Heart. 6. Ten Commandments.
••• Available in English, Bohemian, German, Italian. Modern Russian, Polish, Por- tuguese, Russian. Rutbenian, Spanish, Yiddish. Hungarian. Arabic, French. Japanese Personal Items and Hebrew.
Rev. Lewis B. Chamberlain, D.D., The third series consists entirely of Messianic Prophecies. has retired as Recording Secretary of the American Bible Society. He was 1. The First and All-Comprehensive Prophecy. 2. The Betrayer. 3. The Messiah born in India, the son of Dr. Jacob from the Family of Jesse. … The Sulferings and Triumph of the Messiah. 5. The Chamberlain, and after his education Seventy Weeks (i. e., Sevens). 6. The Lord King Over All the ~rth. in the United States returned to India as a missionary for 25 years. Available in English, Bohemian. German, Hungarian, Italian. Polish. Hebrew. Span- ish and Yiddish. ••* The following miscellaneous pamphlets are also available. Rev. William Paton, Secretary of the International Missionary Ct oouunr c0il11 1>a….e. to Memorize. Series One. Caption lea1Iets for memorizing. has been making an extended Available in English, Arabic, Japanese, Cantonese. Spanis!Jt Yiddisb, Bohemian. North China, and is now spending Greek, French, Russian, PoIis!'J Ijutcb, German. Hungarian" Lithuanian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, ukranian, and Italian. three months in India. Passage. to Memorize. Series Two, is availshle in English, Polish, Yiddish, Ger- man, French, Old Russian, Russian, Italian and Arabic. Dr. Graham *Sc•rog*gie, formerly a Old Testament Selectioa., particularly Messianic Prophecies is available in Eng. pastor in Edinburgh and recently in Iish. Bohemian, Greek. French, Ruaaian, Polish, Dutch, German. Hungarian. Lithuanian. New Zealand, is now established in Portuguese, Norwegian. Italian, Ukraman, Finnish and Swedish. London as Director of the Mildmay Atheism i. Folly. Available in English, Finnish, French. German, Italian, Russian. Polish, Spanish, Yiddish, Hungarian. Portuguese. Japanese, CantoDese, Modern Rna- School of Sacred Instruction. sian and Old Russian. A Duty to Warn. Available in Polish and English. Mah Nyein *Th*a, *headmistress of Morton Lane Girls' School, a Baptist How to Test Teachers. In English, Japanese. Portuguese, Hungarian, Old Rusinstitution in Moulmein, Burma, is in sian and Modern Russian. America under the auspices of the Oxford Group. She is a third genera- All the leaflets are sold at 1 cent each, 75 cents per hundred. tion Christian, her grandmother and However, to secure wider distribution, special consideration will be grandfather having been baptized by given to accredited Christian workers.
Adoniram Judson. Bible Ver.. to Memorize. This very attractive cloth book contaiu. all the Bible verses in Series One and Two and Messianic Prophecies together with the miscel· Dr. J. Wasko*m *Pic*kett was elected laneous leaflets. This book is an ideal gift to encour~e the memorizing of choice passages. A wealth of Biblical material ia at your dtsposal. A practical minded pastor or lay worker will find many uses for this Iiook. Pnce, 50 cents, postpaid.
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY Church by the Central Conference of Southern Asia on December 30, 1935. 7 WEST 45th STREET Dept. M.R. NEW YORK, N. Y. He shares this office with the Indian Bishop J. W. Chitambar. and will then assume his office duties Miss Jenny *de•Ma*yer, the Evan- at the time of the retirement of Dr. gelical Russian Christian, who has Cleland B. McAfee next October. been in prison and exile in Russia (without trial or known accusation) The Rev. Ha*rol*d S*treet, American for over thirteen years, has at last been released and has taken refuge member of the Sudan Interior Mission in Switzerland. The only reason for and the Rev. John Trewin of Canada, Planned along ad- Miss deMayer's arrest seems to have were reported as having been impris- vanced ped.~ogical linea been that she was engaged in Chris- oned recently in Chencha, the capital to provide both Home and ClasS tian mission work, had translated the of the Province of Gamo, Ethiopia. lor the pupil. Varied Gospel into the Sart language and such as Quizzes, Reading Tests, True had received money from her sisters Mr. Street and Mr. Trewin were False Tests, and Completion Tests, living in other countries of Europe. stationed at Shamo, about two hun- the pupil to work out each lesson from The Rev. C•har*les* Tudor Leber, dred and fifty miles southwest of Ad- Bible lor hi..-U. pastor of the Green Ridge Presby- dis Ababa. It is said that the misterian Church, Scranton, Pa., has sionaries were arrested by an over- Interesting -:- Inspirational -:- Inlltrllctlive been elected to secretary in the Board zealous local chieftain because they of Foreign Missions of the Presby- were unwilling to leave the war dan- SHe! 8c 1ft Ib",,. Cor cuneft~ ttl~ terian Church, to take office about ger zone. They were immediately or- April 1st. He plans to make a tour dered released by Crown Prince As- SImples eI ou, Sund_, School pubHalton. and of some of the foreign mission fields faou Wassen who has permitted them Bible (:01,." lor YOIU''!! People', Sociflie' to return to their miSSIon station. Mftt tr. . on teqUPl.
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REVIEW OF THE WORLD ice if you persuade others to become BMPRBSS regular readers of THE REVIEW. Here DELAVAN L. PIERRON, ]feUtor is what one of the leading preachers Real Comfort in North America has to say in a re- VOL. LIX MARCH,1936 No.3 cent letter: "The February number of by the THE MISSIONARY REVIEW is a gem. Publication and Business Oftlce– There are so many things in it which Fast Short Route Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. are helpful and inspiring. I do not know when I have enjoyed a number Reach Yokohama in 10 days. It's the Editorial and Executive Oftlce– more. You are doing a great work fastest, shortest Pacific crossing. Go 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. with that magazine. It reviews the on the sister-ships, Empress of Asia Entered as second-class matter at world field and inspires us all with or Empress of Russia, Or take the far distances of faith." Paradise route via Honolulu. Only Post Oftlce, Harrisburg, Pa., under 3 days longer. Go on the Empress of Act of March 3, 1879. REV. JOHN TIMOTHY STONE, D.D. CMcago, Ill. I apan (largest, fastest liner on the 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. *** Pacific) or the Empress of Canada. Published monthly, except August. Very low round-trip fares. Lux- All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1935. "This is just a little word of appre- British agents – Marshall, Morgan ciation of your wonderful magazine. urious First Class. Popular Tourist and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, My copies are passed on each month Class. Also, low·cost Third Class. London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, to one of our National Mission work- 10 shillings a year. ers in a miner's camp. The articles Frequent sailings from Vancouver by Mrs. Stan~ey Jones and Dr. Frank (trains to ship.side) and Victoria. MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- C. Laubach fitted in very well with Orient fares include passage to and LISHING CO., INC. our 'Youth Problem' meeting." from Seattle. California sailings con- nect with Empresses at Honolulu. BOARD OF DIRECTORS . MISS STELLA A. MINNEMEYER. Orient ports-of-calI: Yokohama, ROBERT E. SPEER, Pre8ident Pittsburuh, Pa. Kobe, Nag:;lsaki, Shanghai, Hong WM. I. CHAMBE'RLAIN, Vice-President Kong, and Manila. WALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer Obituary Notes • Also, Independent World Tours DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary as low as $583.80. II' SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT Secure booklets and information MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD Mr. Dwight H. Day, who was for from YOUR OWN AGENT, or any 18 years (1906-1924) the efficient Canadian Pacific office: New York, WM. B. LIPPHARD treasurer of the Board of Foreign Chicago, San Francisco, and 38 other Missions of the Presbyterian Church, cities in the U. S. and Canada. ERIC M. NORTH died in New York on February 9th. JESSE R. WILSON Mr. Day was born in Chicago fifty- ~@~ nine years ago, the son of Mr. and A. L. WARNSHUIS Mrs. Thomas C. Day. He was grad- TO THB uated from Yale University in 1899 SAMUEL M. ZWEMER and since he left the Board of Foreign ORIBNT Missions he has been an independent Editorial Chat broker. Mr. Day traveled widely, visiting the mission fields in Asia and Look on the back cover of THE RE- Latin America. He was greately be- VIEW if you wou:d like to see some of loved by a wide circle of friends. the interesting topics we plan to pub- Surviving him are his wife, Clara lish in our special numbers of THE Bradford Day, two sons and two REVIEW (June and Qctober). Both daughters. white and Negro writers will make these colorful and valuable numbers. *** *** The Rev. Roderick M. Gillies, D.D., honorably retired missionary under Does your pastor subscribe for or the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. read THE REVIEW regularly? If not, A., died at Wooster, Ohio, on Febwhy not? It will stimulate his inter- ruary 2d. In the 32 years which Dr. est in missions and will keep him in- Gillies spent in Siam, much of his formed on present world conditions time was devoted to itinerating in the and the progress of Christ's work in northern section of the country, all lands. (Concluded on third cover.) *** Is the missionary society of your church subscribing for and reading THE REVIEW? If not, they are overlooking valuable information and are missing much practical help in the preparation of missionary programs. Read "Effective Ways of Working."
WINONA LAKE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY WINONA LAKE, INDIANA BVANGELICAL SCHOLARLY INTERDENOMINATIONAL COURSES Almost a score of states (besides foreign countries) and an equal number of denominations represented each year. New Testament, Old Testament, The 1935 session had a oD% increase in registrations over 1934. The Holy Spirit, Greek New Testament, Psychology and Religion. Administration: Dr. W. E. Biederwolf, PreSident; Dr. Origin of Religion, Beginners' New J. A. Huffman. Dean. Testament Greek, and Critical Ser… man Delivery. Faculty: Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, Dr. J. A. Huffman, Two semesters of 15 days each, Prof. Gea. H. Bast. Dr. Leslie Ray Marston, Dr. Howard T. July 9 to August 12. Work leading Kuist, Prof. Mable McQueen Weir. to regular theological degrees. For Ministers, 'Teachers, Missionaries and Send for 12…page prospectus at once to Laymen. DR. J. A. HUFFMAN, Dean, Marion, Indiana.
[113 ]
MOROS TO READ IN A MARKET PLACE IN
This chart method has now been discarded in favor of Individua l instruction of beginners by more a dvanced learners.
DR. FRANK LAUBACH AND SOME OF HIS MORO HELPERS IN THE PHILIPPINES (See pages 122 to 125) TEACHING MORO MOSLEMS TO READ BY A PHONETIC METHOD
NARY
REVIB ORLD VOLUME LIX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 3 MARCH,1936 Topics of the Times THE JAPANESE SHRINE PROBLEM peror and their readiness to take part in any cere- mony showing respect for him as their supreme Communism is supplanting religion in certain earthly ruler, and to honor deceased statesmen minds, as in Russia; nationalism is dominating and heroes. The Japanese Imperial Diet in 1932 religion in Germany, Italy and Turkey; even so appointed a committee to consider whether the the demands of patriotism and reverence for the required ceremonies involve religious worship and Emperor seem to threaten to raise the issue be- whether they could be revised to meet the con- tween loyalty to God and obedience to govern- scientious objections of Christian subjects. After mental edicts in Japan and Chosen. This should two years' consideration the committee failed to not be necessary. Loyalty to rulers is enjoined agree on any plan. Another committee has now in the Christian Scriptures and true patriotism is been appointed, with Dr. Tagawa, an eminent accounted a high virtue, in full harmony with the Christian, as chairman, to attempt changes in the supreme claims of God as the object of human language used so as to make the ceremonies clearly worship and obedience. nonreligious, as the Government declares them The Japanese constitution (article XXVIII) to be.
guarantees religious liberty "within limits not In the meantime, there is a serious issue and prejudicial to peace and order, and not antag- problem, especially in the minds of Korean Chrisonistic to their duties as subjects." For many tjans. While some secondary schools conducted years the Japanese have rendered to their Em- by Christians have obeyed the Government edict, peror what is regarded as practically worship. practically all the church officers and missionaries As late as 1934, when a Japanese Christian pastor look upon the ceremonies as worship at a nonexpressed doubt as to descent of the Emperor Christian shrine and say that the Government from the Queen G~ddess Amerarasu Omi-Kami, declaration does not change their nature. They he was imprisoned and fined. More recently feel that they cannot compromise by performing when a missionary referred to the Emperor as "a acts that should be connected only with the worman" he was warned by officials not to repeat the ship of the supreme God. Because of this refusal offence. one of the most eminent missionaries and Chris- The Japanese Government has issued a decree thin educators in Chosen has been deprived of his status in secondary school work. If some satisfacrequiring school children and other students to tory solution of the problem is not found there visit certain shrines at stated times, there to pay seems danger that the teaching qualifications of homage to the Emperor and to recognize the spirits of deceased Japanese heroes. The cere- all nonconforming Christian teachers will be canmonies at these shrines (Jingu) include offerings celled; in that case the Japanese Government may made to these spirits, bowing to them, and as- either close the Christian schools or take them suming an attitude of reverence before a picture over entirely.
of the Emperor. In the meantime the missionaries, Chosen Chris- Christians in Chosen (Korea), where this edict tian leaders and Japanese are seeking a solution of the difficulty, either by persuading the Governhas recently been enforced, look upon some fea- ment to make some change in the ceremonies, or tures connected with these ceremonies as con- through a recognized interpretation of their sigstituting worship such as should be rendered only nificance such as will satisfy the Christian conto God. They declare their loyalty to the Em- [115 ]
science, or by securing permission for conscien- them to come without clouds in their eyes. Tell tious objectors to omit taking part in some features of the ceremonies. Evidently the question, them to come looking at the light that is on the Diana or Christ that faced the early Church, has not wholly disappeared. The missionaries and face of Jesus Christ and knowing how to laugh at other Christian leaders in Japan and Chosen need our prayers for wisdom and courage, with the impossibilities in His name." clear guidance of the Spirit of God. This is the voice of the world today, crying out OUR MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITY for help. Young men and young women are ready The Christian Church has today the greatest opportunity it has had in generations. The world and anxious to go upon the great adventure of over people are disturbed and restless. Many are seeking earnestly for the stabilization of life's sharing love and salvation with the needy world. purposes and look for an anchor which will hold them to definite moral moorings, without knowing The only disturbing thing in the present situation where they may find this anchor. is that the great churches of America seem hesi- On a recent journey to Africa and the Far East I found the missionaries fully aware of their op- tant and uncertain. The world is lost and knows portunities. Despite the reduction of missionary appropriations, the withdrawals of missionaries not the way out. Wherever the Gospel is preached and the recession of missionary activity in the United States and Canada, they were forging people hear gladly and many believe, but how can ahead, undaunted, and unafraid. They are creative and courageous, preaching the Christian gos- they hear without a preacher and how can he pel of love and reconstruction, fully cognizant of its social implications. They are extending their preach except he be sent? W. G. CRAM. missionary ministry and activities into the broad areas of human aspirations and are coming to CONFERENCE ON THE RURAL CHURCH grips with human needs and human living. Many are obliged to "make bricks without straw." During the past eight years the Home Missions Council, with the cooperation of the Council of The resourcefulness of the missionaries, during Women for Home Missions and the Federal Counthe period when the missionary passion and sup- cil of Churches of Christ in America, has held port in the home-base churches have been in re- three national conferences; the Comity Confercession, is gratifying in the extreme. The mo~t ence in Cleveland (January, 1928), the Home Mishopeful thing I saw in the whole range of mission- sions Congress in Washington (December, 1930), ary activities was the enthusiasm and conquering and the recent Conference on the Rural Church, faith of the missionaries. It will be to the ever- in Washington (January 15-17, 1936). lasting shame of the churches, that sent them to the world's frontier and have promised to support Each of these conferences was made up of delethem, if Christians at the home base persist in the gates from all par.ts of the United States and from spirit of defeatism, with respect to the "world Canada. Each had its special emphasis and obenterprise." jective. The Comity Conference was concerned with principles of better cooperation between de- No backward pull is evident among mission- nominations to meet the need of our American aries. The national Christians in these lands are communities. The outcome of that conference was awake and alert, and are bearing constant and "The Five Year Program of Survey and Adjustconvincing testimony. There is no lack of appeal ment in the Field of Interdenominational Comity from the younger churches to the strong Christian and Cooperation in Home Missions." The report centers of the world for help in this critical time. is contained in the volume entitled "Home Mis- sions Today and Tomorrow." An African woman of the Batatela tribe in the Congo-BeIge sent a message to the young people The Home Missions Congress was by far the of America, saying: "Tell the young people of largest and most inclusive of the three national America that they came in the past and awakened assemblies. It considered the whole range of the our sleeping souls. Tell them we have peace but home missionary enterprises, and produced a we also have unrest-unrest because multitudes of body of data and missionary information which our people are lost. Tell the young people of has been distributed throughout the Church. It America to come, not cringing and hopeless. Tell has been generally regarded as the most signifi- cant home missionary meeting ever held in Amer- ica, and is frequently referred to as the authorita- tive deliverance on home missions.
The recent conference in the national capital was more restricted and specialized. It was con- cerned only with the rural church and was held in connection with the annual meetings of the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Missions. The total attendance was about four hundred, including 257 registered dele- gates, representing eighteen denominations, and coming from thirty states and Canada.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
As was pointed out by a discerning delegate, in Rev. Tertius Van Dyke related illuminating stories both the Comity Conference and the Home Missions Congress the rural church was considered of his own pastorate in Washington, Connecticut. as a problem, while'in this recent conference the rural church was considered as an .opportunity. The Fellowship Luncheon was a special feature In the prior conferences, the question was: What can be done to save the rural church? In this of the conference. Dr. Warren H. Wilson, the third conference it was: What can the rural church do to save the communities? dean of rural life specialists, presided and was The program was characterized by what it did mentioned as one of the six outstanding pioneers not discuss, as well as by what it did consider. A number of things were taken for granted. For of country church work. Dr. C. J. Galpin, for example, it did not discuss evangelism but included in its program a presentation of the Na- many years connected with the agricultural detional Preaching Mission to be held next autumn in twenty-five centers over the United States, and partment of the Government and an active laystated its conviction that evangelism is the first and basic responsibility of the Christian Church men in a country chur:ch, spoke on the layman in and must undergird all activities of the rural church. the country church; and Mr. Brooks Hays of the At the recent conference there was also noted Resettlement Administration of the Government the absence of special deliverances upon matters of general interest in our national life. The program answered the question: What shall we do about held strictly to the consideration of the rural church as a religious agency in the total life of tenancy? . the rural community. One big objective was to disclose the importance of religion to the rural On the general theme of Planning and Strategy life of America, and the unique opportunity and responsibility of the rural church as a guiding, in the Rural Church Advance, Dr. Malcolm Dana, serving and saving agency. a special champion of the Larger Parish Plan, The general impression was that the rural church of today is set in a combination of circum- read a striking paper on the elements of a satisstances and conditions that are both its despair and hope. It was made most evident that the factory national plan for the improvement of the church will either be crowded out by the factors and forces of modern rural life or it will find its rural church. life and power by meeting these factors and turning them into assets for the Kingdom of God. Findings* of the conference present a challenge . An illuminating scientific analysis of recent important population trends in rural America was to the Church, and definite recommendations to presented by Dr. O. E. Baker of the Bureau of Economics of the U. S. Department of Agricul- mission boards and rural churches. This confer- ,ture; and a discussion of recent social and economic trends which influence the church, by Dr. ence should result in a new advance in country Carl C. Taylor, of the Government's Resettlement Administration. The consideration in broad out- church life and work. One of the older leaders of line of how the church in town and country is relating itself to the present rural situa,tion, was the church said, "This conference could not have opened by Rev. Mark A. Dawber of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the been held ten years ago. We have come a long Methodist Episcopal Church, who gave a penetrating analysis of the rural church, pointing out way." Some of the younger rural ministers exboth its defects, and its possibilities. The study of the program of "The Rural Church of Tomor- pressed themselves as having had a new vision of row" was a most interesting and profitable discussion of how to reach the people of the rural the country church. One said, "I am going back community. Rev. Perry Smith of Southwest Harbor, Maine, spoke for the Larger Parish Plan and to my church a new man." WILLIAM R. KING.
FURTHERING THE GOSPEL IN MEXICO Gonzalo Baez Camargo, of the National Council of Evangelical Churches of Mexico, calls atten- tion to some benefits of the present agitation of the State against the Church in Mexico. While many officials are opposed to the activities of the Roman Catholic clergy in political matters and are determined to take education out of the hands of the church; still they have not succeeded in turning the Mexican people against religion. The following benefits may be noted as having resulted in evangelical work from the taking over of edu- cation by the State, from making church property communal property and from limiting the number and functions of the clergy.
1. The Protestant churches are beginning to ex- perience a spiritual revival, which is quiet but steady.
2. There is developing greater unity and closer cooperation under present restrictions. This is not organized union but the spirit of closer har- mony and fellowship.
3. There is a growing emphasis on united • These findings, with the papers presented at the conference, will be presented in a volume to be published about March 1.
prayer in the church. Each week day all the lives in the French Embassy and mingles with Protestant pastors of Mexico City meet for prayer Americans. It is commonly believed that this at 6: 30. A national convention of Evangelicals priest serves as a kind of agent of the Papacy.
for conference and prayer was recently held in The only Protestant service in the English lan- Pueblo. guage that is held in Moscow, so far as we are in- 4. Religion has become less formal and outward formed, is held about once a month by a chaplain and more personal and inward. In church groups of the Anglican Church who lives in Helsingfors.
less time is spent in organization business, giv- He comes to Moscow and holds a service in the ing more time for prayer. British Embassy for British officials and a few 5. Christian life and work are becoming more Americans.
spiritual as Christians face' difficulties and are led It seems time that American Protestants take to depend more on God. Less emphasis is placed the initiative in starting an English service in ·on numbers and financial strength. Church Moscow. The Soviet Government could not ob- schools cannot undertake secular training, but they ject if it were run as an American church because can devote themselves to Christian training in the the Soviets expressly stated that all Americans home and church-to character development and are free to worship God according to the dictates spiritual training. Outside organized activities of their conscience. In the Union American are prohibited so that more attention is given to Church in Berlin and in the American Church of personal evangelism. Paris even Jews and Roman Catholics come to 6. Laymen are doing much that was formerly the services occasionally to meet other Americans.
considered only the function of the clergy. This Nearly all come to Thanksgiving services and to is a great means of development. Memorial Day exercises, and Jews come even at 7. The women are coming forward and are en- Christmas time. Children are born in Moscow, tering a new and larger experience in service. tourists sometimes get sick and are compelled to They have union societies and a union paper, and stay a long time, and some American Protestants are becoming a greater force in church life. die on Russian soil. The right kind of minister 8. The Evangelical young people are taking should render great service to Americans on these more responsibility. They have formed "Chris- occasions. Usually, when people are far from tian Patrol" groups for personal work in the their native land they tend to degenerate and the slums; the camps are being conducted to train right kind of service in Moscow might help to hold leaders among Evangelical university students. soOme back from a life of sin. The right kind of man might also win converts from the ungodly. In the early Christian Church and in the days If an English-language service is held in Moscow of the Protestant Reformation, opposition and foreigners from other nations who understand hardship strengthened rather than weakened the English would, no doubt, come. Such a church Christian Church. With spiritual life and em- might never have a very large congregation and phasis on things of the spirit may we not expect would probably not be able to pay its expenses. the same results in Mexico? It should be backed by some Protestant organiza- AMERICAN CHRISTIANS IN RUSSIA tion in America. Although the number of British in Moscow is smaller than the number of Amer- There are at present about 2,.000 American icims, the entire British colony can be counted on citizens in Russia. The majority of them live in for sympathetic cooperation.
or near Moscow and in the other large cities. The minister sent to start the work should be Among them are Jews, Roman Catholics and some young enough to have a flexible mind but should who have no interest in religion, but there are be a man of experience. Any man serving as also many Protestants who would appreciate hav- pastor of such a church for a few years would be ing church services in English. It is estimated able to learn the Russian language and could ad- that about 15,000 tourists go to Russia every sum- vise Protestant Christians with reference to con- mer, a large percentage of them being Americans. dWons and opportunities.
A European correspondent who has recently been in Moscow made careful inquiries to find out God might send His angels to fly in the midst whether there might be the possibility of estab- of the heavens and proclaim the everlasting Goslishing there a Protestant church service in Eng- pel, but what would become of the believer? He lish for American and British people. When would be a dwarf and a cripple. The reflex in- America recognized the Soviet, President Roose- fluence of evangelistic effort upon the Church itvelt insisted that all Americans have full religious self is scarcely less important and valuable than liberty in Russia. The Roman Catholic Church the direct influence upon unsaved souls. has in Moscow a young priest, Father Braun, who ARTHUR T. PIERSON.
Divine Constraint of
Missions* By the VERY REVEREND WILLIAM TEMPLE, D.D.
Archbishop of York ZACHARIAH'S song, which we call the Bene- the question whether anyone of these is true. dictus, begins: "Blessed be the Lord God of That is the first question. Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His If the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is people !" true, it is true in the ordinary everyday sense of The first element in the divine constraint of the word, not in some remote rhetorical and emo- Christian missions is the sheer truth of the Gos- tional sense. Many have the habit of thinking of pel. We have the responsibility of making up religion as a kind of drug for the curing of the our minds whether or not we accept it as the truth. world's disease; we ask whether the Gospel suits But if we accept it as the truth, we have no longer the African or the Arabian, the Indian or the any real option in the matter of being or failing Chinese or Japanese. If we adopt this point of to be missionaries. If it is ,the truth, it lays upon view, we assume quite wrongly that the Gospel is us its missionary obligations. European. But it is not. Geographically it is "All authority is given unto Me in heaven and Asiatic in its origin, though at the point where in earth," said our Lord. "Go ye, therefore, and Asia is in contact with both Europe and Africa.
teach all nations." Therefore, because the author- If ,the Gospel of Christ is true, then the question ity is His, and because the only right and wise is not whether it suits us, but whether we suit it.
way for men to order life is under His authority, It is not the question whether it is adapted to the if they order it otherwise they are ordering it Arabians, but whether they are adapted to it. If foolishly and wrongly. not, and if it is the truth then we had better sub- The world is what God sees it to be. So far as mit ourselves to Christ and ask Him to alter us; our vision of it is different from His, it is a false we can't change ourselves. If you treat the Gospel vision, blurred and distorted by the impurities of as a drug, you are apt to say: "The diseases of our organs of spiritual perception. The truth con- the Western world are so-and-so and we think sists of the realities in the mind of God, and it is Christianity is the remedy for them; and the dis- only when we act according to the mind of God eases of India are so-and-so; and Hinduism is the that we act in accordance with the truth. Every- remedy for them." It would be rather odd if the thing else is making a mistake. culture which produced the disease also supplied The claim that all authority is given unto the remedy. Sounds like feeding the dog on its Christ, is either true or false. The power of the own tail!
Gospel depends upon its truth. In these days Truth is truth wherever you are. If an Ameri- there is much to confuse our perception on that can man of business should conduct negotiations point, particularly what is badly described as the with a skilled merchant in China who insisted on "science of comparative religion." Never use that adding up two and two to make five when he was expression, because there is no such thing as going to charge an account and to make three "comparative religion." Many people are com- when he was going to pay a bill, you would say: paratively religious, but it is not their beliefs and "Nonsense! Two and two always make four."
practice that are studied in this science-it is a You wouldn't be at all impressed if he were to comparative study of religions. reply tha,t such a rigid rule does not suit the mer- While this study may be interesting and very curial temperament of the Oriental. You would valuable and may help us to present the Gospel say, "Temperament be blowed! Two and two to the people of these traditional religions with a make four."
sympathetic understanding of their own outlook, If a thing is true at all, it is true always and this study is liable to take our minds away from everywhere. It is impossible that the Gospel –;;-C-;;-ndensed from an address delivered at the S. V. M. Conven- should be true for us without being true for everytion, IndianapoliS. Not corrected by the ~uthur. The full address body else If it is not true it is a delusion everywill appear in the Convention Report. Price $2.00. • , [ 119 ]
where. Its power to help us depends upon its has made His will and purpose known. Our claim truth and if it is true then things incompatible is that the Christ reveals this Father of all manwith it cannot also be true. Then everyone who kind and that in the Gospel is disclosed His charconducts life on any principle other than that of acter and purpose. It is possible that here is the Gospel is making a fundamental mistake. He the truth that the whole world wants; and we do is building his house upon the sand. not believe that there is not even the possibility of it anywhere else. Thus our first element in the The Obligation to Impart constraint of foreign missions is that the Gospel is true and is the one standard by which it is con- The Gospel is true for all, if it is true at all. ceivable that all men should be willing to be If so, then whoever receives it is under the in- judged. We may fail to live in harmony with that escapable obligation to impart it to others. Here standard but our failures will be failures either alone is the foundation on which to build a world of understanding or of weakness of character; civilization. On what principles is it to be built? they will be not failures due to divergence in the Are we going to discover these principles by mak- direction in which men wish to walk. ing a complex calculation of the various desires and aspirations of the different countries of the "I am the way," says Christ. We must claim world? We must not ignore them, but could there that He means it not only for individuals but for be any more shifting sand than that on which to all men, for nations and for races. He is the one build any great structure? A world civilization and only Way. must be built upon truth which affects basic human life. As Christians we believe that the Gospel The world vitally needs what Christ through of Christ is that truth. It is the one possible the Gospel can give. Is this only a claim; do the foundation on which a world civilization can be facts substantiate it? There is already the bereared. A great deal of the difficulty in bringing ginning of an acceptance of this claim in that about adjustments of claims between the nations process of redirecting the other religions under a and the races of the world arises from the fact Christian influence. Moreover there is the evithat .there is no agreement among them with re- dence of it in the fact reported from every quarter gard to the standard by which they agree that of the globe that as people come to understand their conduct should be judged. As long as they Jesus of Nazareth, they come to regard Him as admire different kinds of things mutual agree- their own fellow countryman. It is most astoundment on the things required for the progress of ing that from the villages of Africa, and the great mankind becomes impossible. plains of India, out of the civilizations of China and Japan, men fashion to themselves a likeness The truth that is most vitally needed to bring of Christ to make him as their own fellow countrytogether in one spiritual fellowship nations, now man. There is no other figure in the world about forced into communities by the abolition of dis- whom that is true. That it should be possible tance through the triumphs of science, is a simple when all this impression is based upon the brief standard by which all are to be judged. Until record contained in the four Gospels is utterly that happens there will be, strictly speaking, no amazing. solution at all to a great variety of problems. Until we have a common ground to start from The Fulfillment of All Hopes irresistible arguments can be advanced to support incompatible claims. What does this mean? I.t means that here in- deed is He whom the nations recognize as the ful- Some people have proposed that we abolish all fillment of all their own hopes and longings. our divisive beliefs, and gather together a con- Christ is in truth the "desire of all nations." As ference representing all the religions and moral the missionary enterprise goes forward, it peraspira,tions of mankind. Try to picture them, petually vindicates the principles on which it rests, with all the divergent traditions from which they because those things happen which ought to hapcome; shut them up together and tell them they pen if it is true. He claims all authority is given will not be let out until they agree upon their to Him and the nations of the world as they come common formula. They would probably not get to recognize Him, see in Him their own Lord. beyond saying it is very desirable that everyone He is not looked upon as an alien potentate imshould be good, while they would mean quite dif- posed lJPon them, but as their own to whom they ferent things by the word "good." naturally turn. When they depict Him in pictures for their children they make Him with the fea- There is no prospect of finding any standard tures and in the garments of their own people. which all men can rightly accept unless there is a God, who is Father of all mankind, whose love Again, if we are Christians, we believe that the embraces all mankind, so that in His purpose all gift that we have received from God through the will find their welfare secure, and unless that God Gospel is our greatest treasure. We may not al-
THE DIVINE CONSTRAINT OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
ways think that, because our feelings are still so it, by life at least, and by word when opportunity unruly and undisciplined; but with our minds, at comes. There is another term, greater than these, least, we believe this if we are Christians. in the real divine constraint; that is the hunger in the heart of God. If you rejoice in His love, Next we ask: What is the gift of God through how can you dare rejoice in His love when that the Gospel? The answer is that what God gives love is longing for an answer from those to whom through the Gospel of Christ is Himself. God is you might be declaring i,t, and you do not do so? love and if love is come into my heart it means That is the real divine constraint. Since our Lord that I become loving. Salvation means that a hung on His cross we have tried to see in that man is changed from being selfish into being lov- picture, drawn once for all by God himself, the ing as God is love. "We know that we have passed revelation of the love which is eternal in His heart out of death into life because we love the breth- -and still He waits. ren." Incidentally, this means that we are also delivered from the pains and penalties of being Our own response in our lives is poor enough, selfish and ungodly. but there are those multitudes to whom we might be turning, and still He waits. He honors us by If we have received the salvation of God, making us His agents, His ambassadors. It is through Christ, that means that our hearts are His will that the Gospel of His love should now be full of something which they cannot keep but made known through us, who have received it, or must give out. Your Christian experience is it will not be known at all so far as we can tell. something that you cannot possibly hold to your- He could, no doubt, do quite well without us, but self; you feel constrained to impart it to other because of His love for us and all men, He has people. Otherwise it is not God's best gift in the made it the priceless reward of those who receive Gospel; it is not salvation. But if what you have and obey His Gospel that they shall have the honor received is the gift that God offers, then you can- of being His ambassadors. not keep it to yourself. To receive it and to share it are parts of one experience; the two sides of We cannot penetrate far into the secrets of the the one precious coin, by which we may purchase Eternal mind and heart of God, but we do know ,that fellowship with God, which is Eternal Life. a little of what love means, and we know that the One side is His love given to us; the other side is divine love must be far more than any that is that love reflected in us toward other men. There known on earth, and we know that He is waiting is the Gospel of Life, so that wherever it is re- and that He invites us to be His fellow-workers, ceived, there of its own force it is passing out "That He may see of the travail of His soul and again to others. Those who receive it are nat- be satisfied." When we look out over this beurally and inevitably missionaries. wildered world, so sorely needing to know the Way of God and the power to follow it, let us not Every Ohristian a Missionary only remember that Christ is the Word that calls us to walk that Way, but that, after the passing We have often heard it said that anyone who of 2,000 years, there is the divine constraint to goes from a Christian country, so-called, to one give the Gospel to others. The uppermost thought of the other countries, has not to choose whether in every mind and the uppermost longing in every he will be a missionary or not, because he will be heart should be to witness for Christ. taken as a representative of Christianity. What he has to choose is only whether he shall be a good God, who has called us to be witnesses, knows missionary or a bad one, but missionary he will every limitation of ours, and yet He has called us be. In our day we must go further, because we -and think what it is to which He calls. recognize that the Christian nations are only half Christian, and wherever a Christian lives he must I began by quoting the opening words of the be a missionary, a good one or a bad one, but by Benedictus. Let me end by quoting its closing his life, by his influence, he is either drawing men words. "Thou, child,"-not only John the Baptist, to Christ, or sending them away from Him. but every child that has heard the Gospel of God's love-"Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of But if to be a Christian is to be a missionary, the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of then think what our calling means. Think of the the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge honor; think of the glory that can be if only we of salvation unto His people for the remission of are faithful as we bring the world to Christ by their sins" – not through any wisdom of yours – bringing Christ to the world. but "through the tender mercy of our God, where- by the dayspring from on high visited us, to give We have thought of the world's need and how light to them that sit in darkness and in the the Gospel of Christ and the Gospel alone, can shadow of death, to guide our feet" – where the meet it, even in this world, to say nothing of the whole world most needs guidance – into the way Life Beyond. We have thought of the nature of of peace. the Gospel itself and that to believe it is to preach
Christianity the World
By REV. FRANK C. LAUBACH, Ph.D., Mindanao, Philippine Islands ~- Portions of an Address Given at the Student Volunteer Con- vention, Indianapolis, Indiana, December, 1935* T HE Christianity the world needs is the kind others, but he cannot save himself," they uttered that Christ was. How did He differ from the one of the truest things ever spoken. rest of us and from other religions? In the That word spoken before the cross, still rings quality of His love. It was so hot and so far-reach- down the centuries: Choose, every man; you ing and so self-denying. cannot save others if you save yourself. Men who Contrast him with the world's best. Some peo- would save themselves have cursed the world, but ple say that Abdul Baha has combined all the best men who would not save themselves have helped and made the final religion. Listen to one of his to save the world.
prayers. "0 God, 0 God . . . open before my face the doors of prosperity. Give me my bread." No one knows what he is capable of until Imagine Jesus praying for his own prosperity! Christ's love sets him on fire. Nobody suspected Christians often do; Jesus never. that a young fisherman, named John, would catch on fire and write the world's sublimest book. No- Most men seek for those who can help them. body suspected that a little Jew, named Paul, Jesus gravitated toward need. From the moment would catch fire and try to capture the Roman He awoke in the morning until He closed his eyes Empire for Christ. Fascinating books have been at night He gazed right and left, asking: written of men and women who stood amazed at what they found they could do through His help. "Father, whom can I help and help. Whom can "I can do all things" they say in glad surprise, I heal, or teach, or encourage, or save, or defend? "through Christ." Who needs me next, and next?"
Every moment of his waking life was spent in this way until the people said: "The love in that Man's heart is hotter than the Why then has the world not been transformed? sun and wider than the world." For two reasons: If everyone spent his time like that, asking First, it is a bigger task than we realized. The only: "Whom can I help? Who needs me next?" world is very large, and we have a new generation we would have Heaven on earth. to deal with every thirty years. Though we may evangelize the world in this generation, it will God himself must be as good as the best; so need resaving at least three times a century. . . . the Apostle John wrote: "God is love." This is one of the highest tributes ever paid to God. The second reason the Kingdom seems slow in When Jesus fell under the Cross on His way coming is that the word "Christian" is being used to Calvary, the soldiers compelled Simon of Cy- as a label for a very cheap substitute for the rerene to take it up and carry it. Then His friends ligion of Christ. His demands are so terrific, so saw something of the meaning of His words: mind-stretching, that to become a real Christian Unless you take a cross and follow Me, you are means a funeral. The old self must die and be not my disciple. buried. But men have found a way to hang a sym- bol of the cross over their hearts instead of put- That terrible, final act on the cross made His ting it inside, where the old self remains very words and deeds real. Kind words and acts do much alive. not convince unless they cost something. When the Roman captain saw him hanging on the cross, The most tragic thing oJesus ever said, and the moaning: "Father, forgive them," he said, "Sure- thing He has had to repeat frequently since, is: ly this man was a son of God." The way Jesus died was too noble for human nature. "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, but do not the things which I command you?" When those who mocked Him said: "He saved "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," He said, vol•umThee, sfouolln rteopobret poufbltihsihsedadbdyrestshewSiltludaepnpteaVroliunntteheer cMoonvveemnteinotn. and Yet millions have accustomed themselves to [122 ] living compartmentalized lives, until they develop This thirtieth day of December has been the into well-meaning, sincere, self-deceived hypo- greatest day in the Philippine year. In every crites. town and village throngs have gathered reverently I think that the greatest hindrance to Christ in about the statue of a young man, which stands at non-Christian lands is that so many of us talk the center of every plaza in every town in the like Christians and act like heathens in business Islands. They have been commemorating the or social relations. death day of Jose Rizal, their martyred hero. He Michelangelo used to wear a light on his fore- is one of the most beautiful illustrations of sacri- head so that his own shadow would not fall across fice since Christ. As a mere boy Rizal saw his the picture he was painting. Today, the ugly self- mother thrown into prison for petty spite, his ish shadow of our pagan life stands like a dark neighbors robbed and beaten and exiled and. mur- cloud between Christ and the non-Christian world. dered. The pain struck into his young heart.
. . . It was because Russia saw so much of that "What can I do," he asked God, "what can I do kind of Christianity .that she now spurns the word for my family and my country?"
Christianity, or even the word God. It is bitter He had to flee from the Philippines at the age irony that she has adopted more of the economic of nineteen. Over Europe he went, seeking in principles of Jesus than have nations called Chris- every university and every book for the answer tian. It is this misuse of the word Christian that to his question. He found it at last in "Uncle led Mr. Gandhi to decide not to call himself a Tom's Cabin."
Christian, though in many respects his life is "I will write a book," he said, "which will re- equalled by few Christians. . . . Christian na- veal the truth about the Philippines as Harriet tions and Christian civilization-there are none. Beecher Stowe revealed the truth about slavery."
They have stolen the best Name in the world and When the book appeared his countrymen wept stretched it as a cloak over a wretched social or- and his enemies gnashed their teeth. Unable to der. . . . We have taken sacrifice out of the reach him, they chased his parents from their word Christian and have made it huge and pudgy. home and burned it, threw the bones of his rela- "Not by might nor by power" saith the Lord, "but tives out of their graves, drove all his brothers by my Spirit." and sisters into exile, began to destroy the very If we eould purify the word Christian so that town in which he had lived.
it contained Jesus' passion to serve and give life, Rizal, working on the sequel to his book, was there would be another Pentecost. driven nearly frantic at the news, but he finished his work. Then he said "They will never be satis- If the Christianity which we are offering to fied until I give them my life." He wrote two the non-Christian world seems unreal and false, letters, one to his relatives and the other to his Gandhi and Kagawa tell us to look in upon our- country. On the envelope of each he wrote: "To be opened after my death," and sailed to Manila selves and ask: and death. As they led him out to be shot he said: "Am I real? Do I live as I talk?" If reality is important in America, it is far more "My Saviour's sufferings on the cross were long exacting on the foreign field. Being a missionary and terrible. Mine will last but a moment. Fa- ther, I forgive every man from the bottom of my is much harder than I had supposed. We carry a Bible with us and say: "Read this wonderful heart." .
book." At thirty-five he died as nobly as he had lived.
But they cannot read it-they do not even try. His life of service, crowned with the supreme They keep staring at us. We are white, and sacrifice, has done more for the Filipino nation strange, and speak a dreadful accent. They can't than all the speeches made in four centuries. It has put a passion in noble Filipino hearts that will read books but they can read human nature. If we say: "Listen to the story of Jesus," they never die. But if you were to separate Rizal from do not hear the story; they are so interested in . his sacrifice, he would be just another man. He gazing at us. The Bible they read is our faces. has saved others from oppression and death be- The Christ they see is the missionary. If they fail cause he would not save himself.
to see Christ in us they have no interest in our Book or in our stories of Christ. This is a terri- If you would serve Christ with a burning heart, fying responsibility. This is why many mission- go into the slums, as Jane Addams or Kagawa aries I know have gone through a period of acute did, and let misery break your heart. Then people suffering, until they have given themselves up to will listen to you for they will know you are real.
Christ and to serve other'S in a new and more com- Young ministers who are juggling for a high sal- plete surrender. ary will never find a burning message. You can- not save others if you save yourself. Forget about
salary and go where the need is greatest. And if Books of Moses; Jabur-the Psalms of David; you cannot marry a girl who will go there with Kitab Injil-the Gospel of Jesus; the Koran! you, do not marry at all. "Friends," I cried, "you know the Koran, and I have been an unworthy man, with my past I know your first three holy books. We will share strewn with sins and mistakes, but there is one what we have." decision I made, thanks to a book written by Robert E. Speer. There I saw that Jesus gravitated Two punditas sat beside me as we translated toward the hardest place and the neediest people many of the Old Testament stories which we and and took the consequences. I made up my mind they believe, and the entire Gospel of Luke. that I would put my one life in the spot where I foun4 the most acute need. In the slums of New Then from Signal Hill came the thought of York I saw the great burning heart of Roswell teaching the Moros their own language with our Bates beating out his life against sins and pov- Roman letters. Not a word had been printed in erty until he died. their language, so we bought a printing press, adopted an alphabet, prepared lessons and began One day I heard that the neediest place on earth to teach. just then seemed to be the Moro field in the southern Philippines. I decided to go there. But when They have but sixteen sounds, and we thought we reached that country the government officials we ought to teach that small alphabet quickly. were having war with the Moros and would not With enthusiasm my Moslem friends experihear of our staying among them. I waited ten mented with me, trying a new plan weekly, until years, working in other parts of the Philippines at the end of a year they and I together evolved and then, in 1929, leaving my wife and son in the easiest method of teaching illiterates. We Luzon, I went to Lanao. I wrote to my father that can teach some people to read their own language, day: slowly but intelligently, in one day; our usual time is four or five days. Thousands thronged "I have at last arrived to undertake the most our school, and went out to teach other thousands, difficult task under the American flag and one of until two-thirds of the province were studying or the most difficult in the world." reading. Hadjis wearing turbans went about selling the Bible portions we had printed. We It was. Government officials opposed my com- discovered that to sit down beside a man and teach ing because they were having a hard task keeping him to read with your heart full of love is a wonthe peace. Most of the Moros did not know that derful way to win his friendship so that he will I was a missionary, and those who knew it disap- listen to anything you have to say. Positively I proved. My first year was the lonesomest, hardest believe many of those Moros would die for us. of my life. I thought I was facing disastrous fail- Last year one fierce old man I had taught put his ure. I climbed Signal Hill back of my cottage and arm around me and whispered in my ear: told God he had called me to a task beyond my powers. My dog Tip, under my arm, looked up in "You and I are the greatest friends in the my face and wondered at the tears. Night after world, and if there is anybody you want me to night I talked aloud from that lonely hilltop. One put out of the way, tell me who he is." night my lips began to talk, but they spoke to me: I often go to their mosques, and they return the "My child," they said, "You are suffering be- visit by attending in deep reverence our Christian cause I am not yet satisfied with you. I am in service. Last January, as I was leaving, four travail to set you a flame with Christ. How fully truck loads of Moro priests and datos and sultans can you surrender and not be afraid." followed us to the seacoast. They crowded the deck of the steamer. After they had made I flung up my arms and said: speeches, they asked the chief imam to pray. Very "God, if thou art speaking through my lips, reverently they held out their hands as he prayed come and do my thinking for me. Walk through that this American friend whom they had helped my brain, burn up my heart." to make the easiest method of teaching in the That lonely misery on Signal Hill six years' world, should have the blessing of Allah as he ago now seems to me to be the only thing in my started across the world teaching the Moro methwhole life you cannot take away for it drove me od to all the illiterate nations of the world. They into the waiting arms of God. From Signal Hill all wanted to go with me. As they kissed me good came the suggestion that I study the Koran. So bye with their Arab whiskers, many of them wept I told a Moslem priest that I wanted to study his as they said: book. The next day my house was crowded with Mohammedans, trying to make a Moslem out of "We will pray for you in every mosque in me. We discovered from a Moslem book, printed Lanao." in India that one man brought with him, that they believe in four holy books: Torah-the Then they bowed reverently as our Christian church members prayed and sang, "God be with you till we meet again." Hundreds of letters have come from Asia, Af- show me what, and give me power and faith and rica and South America asking about this method a stout heart to see it through." of teaching illiterates to read and write. More than half the people in the world are still illiterate. When the lawyer said: "the greatest command- India alone has 340 millions of illiterates, nearly ment is to love God and to love thy neighbor," Jethree times the total population of the United sus said to him: "Thou has answered right. This States, and China has even more. Most of the do." The soldier who laughed at Jesus and said: people of Latin America are illiterate, and Africa "He saved others, himself he cannot save" also is more than ninety per cent illiterate. Mission- spoke the truth. But truth not backed with life aries in many countries are baffled by the stupen- is a lie. The crucial question is not whether we dous fact that over a billion people cannot read the know the truth, but whether we make any act of Bible or any other book in any language. will in the face of a million years of instincts! A will to do in myself what I see all others must When I showed these letters to my Moro friends, they said "God wills it." You must go. The Mos- MORO BOYS IN THE MISSION LIBRARY lems have helped me never to ask whether I have ability, but only whether God calls me. There do, before the world will rise to the Kingdom of is a great map on the wall of our school, and God! A clear-cut act of choice. these Moros are drawing a broad red line on it to show where their method has followed me I see that the life of Jesus was real and I will through the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Egypt, loathe myself if I am a fraud. Action must click Palestine, Syria, Turkey, across Europe to the with truth in me. United States. Every week new doors open to larger ventures in such swift succession that they A tremendous corporate resolve to turn our make me catch my breath. I feel that the billion backs upon self and go with Christ to meet human illiterate half of the world, these forgotten men, need, that alone will satisfy God and it would rock lie heavy on the heart of God, and that He seems the world. eager to use anybody who will meet that titanic need. EVERY CHRISTIAN A SERVANT Six years ago I thought I was facing disaster. In the Christian the instinct to rescue-not less auto- Now I know that suffering drove me to act my matic than the instinct to self-preservation-is brought up love before I talked about Christ, forced me to out of the earth where self-interest has buried it. That enter this great needy field of illiteracy. When dynamic impulse-so ungovernable in its initial movement we understand more will we see that human suf- that a man will follow his fellow into fire and flood and fering is necessary to drive us out of stupid con- every visible danger before self-interest has checked itceit and prepare us for service? is not to be checked in the Christian. It is to be stabilized and shaped to the eternal uses of Love. That spark from The great need in our pseudo-Christian age is God is like the ray from the star Arcturus, which ani. for men and women who will serve daringly. We mated the persistent brilliance of a city where the beam do not need more good books so much as more fell. For all the lights in all the windows of all the houses good men and women sharing the sufferings of of rescue in the world are but the obedient children of the West Virginia coal fields, or South African gold Father of Lights. And all the burning in the servant's mines, or the slums of Kobe. One illustration l1ke heart, of compassionate feeling and of the will to serve, Kagawa is worth a million brilliant sermons. is the charge and care of that One who is in the midst of Thank God anybody can live sacrificially. Most the cand:esticks, to save them from extinction and to light of the people who are doing it are not wise or with such candles, large and small, the present darkness. famous; they are unknown saints who are changing the world. There are no "Christian" nations, There is not a one of us, speaking to a neighbor or a but thank God there are glorious Christians in most unsuspected places. wanderer at the lighted door of the kitchen, or of the The acute problem that most young people face school, or of the hospital, or of the church, but may be a is, "What is God's will for me? Where does He want me to put my life?" lantern in that Hand. JEAN KENYON MACKENZIE.
Need is God calling from without. Love is God calling from within. The Christianity the world needs is the kind that plunges into need. I will be a traitor to this planet on which I happen to be unless I face God and say: "Show me where and
Pioneers for Seventy~Five
By JULIA H. BRONSON, New York )D.- Editorial Secretary of the Woman's Union Missionary Society SEVENTY-FIVE years ago last November inces of India and in China and Japan. Through . (1860) nine courageous women met in Bos- its Philadelphia Branch the Society sought out the ton to form a society to send single women first woman medical missionary to go from Amerto evangelize women and children of the Orient. ica, but acceded to the request of the Board of her Early in the following year, the general society own Methodist Church, that she be transferred to under the leadership of Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus their mission in India. Undaunted, the Society was incorporated in New York City, the smaller .found two more medical women and sent them to Boston group offering to become a branch organ- India. Women's medical missions are still an ization. Thus the Woman's Union Missionary'So- important part of the work of the Society which' ciety of America, pioneer woman's foreign mission has hospitals in India and cooperates in the new agency in this country, has just entered upon its Woman's Christian Medical College of Shanghai, seventy-sixth year. established upon the Margaret Williamson Hos- Almost immediately a second branch was pital foundation.
formed in Philadelphia by that versatile person- The Society's anniversary was celebrated in age of the '60's, champion of woman's rights, New York in the First Presbyterian Church on the woman's homes and woman's privileges, Mrs. Sara fifteenth of January. It has maintained its evan- Josepha Hale. Her pen had indited that children's gelical and undenominational character and is supclassic, "Mary had a little Lamb," and she was ported by those who approve this form of union editing the forerunner of women's magazines, work. The organization does not incur debt and Godey's Lady's Book. Mrs. Hale, by pen and last November rejoiced in a record of seventy-five voice enthusiastically espoused the cause of the years' service with all obligations met. infant Society, and became the first president of the Philadelphia Branch, devoting regular space in her magazine to its interests.
Obstacles to be overcome by the new and in- A PRAYER FOR MISSIONARIES experienced Society were not few. The departure from established procedure was radical; officers Lord, remember in love the dear servants of of existing general Mission Boards deemed such a Thy truth who have gone to the distant parts of step by women premature; independent organ- the earth that Thy name may be glorified. Pre- izations of women of any nature were rare; public serve in them a triumphant faith that they may confidence must be created if financial help was see the end of their labors achieved even amid to be obtained, especially as the country was in the defeat and failure. Sustain them in their sor- throes of the Civil War, and there was prejudice rowing for others and, sowing tears, may they to be overcome. Nevertheless these intrepid come again reJOIcmg. Grant them wisdom for women I-aunched their frail bark, freighted with every occasion that the great ones of the earth courage, initiative and hope, and the motto upon may feel the power of Christ in the influence of its ensign was, "0 woman, great is thy faith!" A His servants. We praise thee for living witnesses periodical was issued and during the first year the of Thy power and for the slow dawn that heralds Society undertook work in Burma through native the noonday of Thy presence in the heart of man- Bible women. They also sought, appointed and kind -everywhere. Bless all agencies t1:~at hasten sent forth their first American woman missionary, the victory of the Spirit and turn the evil devices and a second, in the following year, went to Cal- of men to Thy glory. So let the messengers of cutta to establish a new type of work, zenana Thy Gospel hope ever in God, and labor on un- visitation and teaching among purdah women. wearied in the sure confidence that God will honor The enterprise grew until missions had been their gift of consecrated service to generations established in several cities of the United Prov- yet unborn. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
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Missions Are Marching
By the REV. FRED FIELD GOODSELL, D.D., Boston Exemtive Vice-President of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions T IME marches on! Crime marches on! Mis- to talk with their leaders, to listen to their sing- sions too are marching on! If you do not be- ing, to see them at work and at leisure, to sample lieve it, take the time and trouble to look into their food, to examine their handicraft, to become the matter. Leave prejudice aside. Face claimant a part of their world-so far as a foreigner can. human need. Be just plain human and let human It is one thing to listen to missionaries at home on nature around the world speak to your heart. furlough as they try to tell their story, and quite "God so loved the world. . . ." Mingle a little another thing to share their life in their own bailimore love with your living and thinking and see wicks, to see the things they are constantly looking whether it does not give you a at, to feel the pressure of so- better perspective. Act i v e cial forces strangely contradic- goodwill, love, justice, peace tory to the ideals of the Man of are what the world needs most, Galilee. The wonder is and the and the world mission of Chris- wonder grows, not that the in- tianity is marching on deter- digenous churches have made mined to put the thirteenth so little progress relatively, but chapter of First Corinthians that they have been formed and into daily practice. have made any progress. Mis- I have recently returned sions are marching on, because from a thirty-five thousand they are a part of the Divine mile journey that took me out purpose, not because they are a to India, across to South Africa, human undertaking.
northward through the heart of I saw a sight on a street lead- that great continent and home- ing into the heart of Delhi that ward through the Near East lingers in my mind as a symbol and Europe. I traveled in al- of the way in which the non- most every conceivable fashion. Western world is not only The airplane helped to cover adopting but also adapting its the great open spaces. Eleven borrowings from the West. A thousand miles by air saved young man was riding along on about six weeks for work that a bicycle with the carcass of a I could not otherwise have dressed sheep across the han- done. When we were flying dlebars. Sitting on the carcass low over the spot where David was a full-grown live sheep.
Livingstone died, I had a new Coming up alongside was a dig- vision of what his passion for RIVAL TRAlSPORTS IN THE SUDAN nified, black-bearded man in Africa meant. Later, along the flowing white robes and beau- western borders of Ethiopia that vision was al- tiful turban, riding an up-to-date motorcycle. Bi- most completely obscured by the dark Italian cycles were not made to carry dressed or live sheep war clouds. War cancels almost everything to market, motorcycles are not as convenient as worth while. automobiles for men or women with flowing robes, I but the East intends to do what it pleases with the My main interest on these journeys was to study things that come from the West.-~- the growth of the indigenous church. It is one The same thing applies to the Church, and thing to sit in a comfortable study in America, should. · I have the conviction that basically the reading reports and looking at pictures. It is an- Christian Church belongs to no one race or clime other thing to mingle with the multitudes, to or time. It is God's instrument for drawing hu- travel with them, to face them from a platform, manity to His heart. To impose the Western [127 ]
forms of the church upon an awakening East is a veloping these natural resources. Christian peomistake of the first magnitude. Let them adopt ple in Africa ask us to help them solve their social and adapt as they will. A body of indigenous problems. Christians in India, Africa, the Near East or anywhere else has the right to work out their own Or take the new stirrings of conscience among interpretation of the inner spirit of Christianity. the Hindu people on the question of caste. Gandhi One sign that missions are marching on is the fact, said to me in Nagpur that he was out to destroy broadly speaking, that missionaries from the West the caste system. I could hardly believe my ears. are being overwhelmed with evidence that the I have been encouraged to quote him since I have spirit of Christ has put its roots down deep into seen confirmation in Indian papers that such is the human soil of many a non-Western land. Mis- his real intention. He will not succeed. But he sions need not be so much concerned hereafter might succeed if the forces of Christianity in the with the forms of organization, types of church West had conquered the caste systems of the West, architecture, standards of "proper" conduct of the the caste ofrace, and the caste of wealth. indigenous Christian community_ The basic thing -a knowledge of Christ-has been so widely and Missions are marching on because the Christruly shared that indigenous leaders are worthy tians of the West are beginning to realize that a of greater confidence. Let them make their own slum is a bad place even though you do not live in it. A slum anywhere is a threat to physical, moral PREPARING AFRICANS TO PREACH CHRIST and spiritual health everywhere. This is literally H. A. Stick, a missionary of the American Board in Natal; Dr. true in these days when the old physical barriers between nations are being borne away_ How Fred Field GoodseU, Executive Vice-President of the Board, strange it is! Man destroys space and then seeks and nine graduating theological students in Adams, Natal to set up barriers to brotherhood! If we are not interested in the heathen next door, or around the mistakes. They will register their own successes. corner, we cannot long maintain the unrealism of Missions are marching on! "foreign" missions.
II We need well organized, superbly led and com- Missions in the century before us will wrestle prehensive councils for Christian social action in with the new fact of an intimately interrelated America because we need them all around the world. Western invention and manufacture are world. Missions are marching on because the forcing the Christian Churc.h to acknowledge that Christian Church is coming to grips with the sothere really is no such thing as foreign missions. cial implications of the spirit and teaching of We must speak of planetary missions or of "world Jesus. missions" but no longer of "foreign" missions. It is all "home" missions. Take the impact of III Western industry upon social life. What problemsChristian forces face in America! But it is There is only one thing that can halt the progunrealistic to talk about Christianizing the social ress of the world movement of Christianity. The order in America as an isolated task when West- depression has not halted it. It has produced ern industry with all its armory of equipment has some problems, it has accentuated others, but it moved into the heart of Africa. Visit the gold has not halted the movement of the world toward fields in South Africa or the copper fields in Christ. Imperialism, fascism, communism, Hit- Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo. See lerism have not halted it. These are all external for yourself how millions of Bantu people are be- enemies. They are foreign to the spirit of Christ. ing uprooted and overturned in the process of de- They are new forms of ancient evils. The Chris- tian Church has met them before. The thing that can halt and destroy the world movement toward Christ is unchristian Christians. The real ques- tion before us is: Are we determined to take Jesus Christ in earnest? Do we think the world has outgrown Him? Are we becoming blind on moral and spiritual issues in our own lives? I have faith to believe in the signs of a spiritual awakening across America, the like of which the Western world has never seen. Missions are marching on and will march on through the decades before us.
Are we Christians going to follow Him who bids us cross the World to share with all mankind what has been given to us in Christ, or are we· not? Will we give the Gospel or try to keep it-and lose it? R. E. S.
A SCENE AMONG THE NEEDY VILLAGERS OF SOUTH
This picture brings vividly to mind some of the sobering aspects of India's need. These are v ill age people of the poorer sort. Tb ey were camped by the wayside a nd proved to be frien dly but filtby and undernourisbed. They represent millions of Indians wbo need the message of Cbrlst. F. ~'. G.
SOME GIRLS OF THE DORAKAL BOARDING SCHOOL I N I NDIA While not from tbe same dist rict or group in India , tbe pic ture of tbese g il'ls, contras ted with t he group above, shows. tbe cbange tbat Christian tra ining can m ake in the life, the ideals and character and the usefulness of the vill agers in India .
Enlarging
By the REV. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN, D.D., New York Author of "The Foreign Missionary," etc., etc.; Secretary Emeritus of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions I T IS difficult to realize how widely world condi- "Tommies'~.called the "Milk and Honey Express," tions today differ from those of a century ago. makes the trip from Cairo to Jerusalem in one Then, a large part of the world was closed. night. Railways run almost without a break from Americans knew little and cared less about the Cape Town north to Cairo, and in July, 1931, a teeming masses in Asia and Africa. There were line was completed from Beira on the east coast occasional vague rumors about them, but they of Africa to Lobi,to on the west coast, 2,949 miles were. unheeded. In the school geographies, vast distant. Within the memory of living men, Jules regions were marked "unexplored." China was Verne's story, "Around the World in Eighty almost as inaccessible as when the dying Xavier Days," was deemed fantastic; but today aviators cried in 1552: "Oh! Rock, rock, when wilt thou have flown around the world in eight days.
open?" Japan had not emerged from medieval When Hunter Corbett and Calvin Mateer went feudalism. Korea was called the "Hermit Na- to China in 1863, they had to journey six months tion." Mohammedan countries were barred in a sailing vessel, and the discomfort and poor against Christians as "infidel dogs." India was food impaired their health. On our second visit in the clutches of a British trading company. Half to Asia, we not only went around the world in a century was to pass before Stanley was to totter six months, but had 15 days in Japan, 25 days in into a west coast settlement, ragged and sick, to Chosen, 57 days in China, and saw something of declare the secret of the mighty Congo and to ex- Siberia and Russia. The only hardship that lin- press the hope that at least one missionary might gered in my memory was the excessive heat in be sent to central Africa. The Philippine Islands passing through Chicago on the trip from New were so unknown to America that, even in 1898, York to San Francisco. That journey can now be when the news flashed over the cables that Com- made with much greater ease and comfort. In- modore Dewey had taken them from Spain, there deed, it seems that almost the only thing that has was a scurrying for atlases to find out where they not changed is the climate of Chicago. Electricity were, and a member of Congress vouchsafed the and gasoline have abolished distance. Chinese war .opinion that the people were those to whom Paul lords wire their orders to distant generals. Auto- had addressed his Epistle to the Philippians. mobiles and trolley cars are found in hundreds of The change has been amazing. Steamships now Asiatic and South American cities. Air lines link cross the Pacific Ocean in eight days and run 600 Panama and Peru, London and Capetown, Bagh- miles up the Yangtze River. Scores of s.teamers dad and Teheran. The telephone is used in Kyoto ply on the Upper Congo and modern hotels wel- and Tsinanfu, in Beirut and Santiago. December come the traveler to Victoria Falls. The Trans- .12, 1931, the first wireless message was flashed Siberian Railway, begun in 1891~ spans the entire across the Atlantic Ocean. This, with the cable continent of Asia. The traveler to Palestine lands and radio, have turned the world into a whisper- where St. Paul did, but takes a railway train and ing gallery. A message filed at seven o'clock in presently hears ,the brakeman bawl: "Jerusalem the evening in Teheran, Persia, was received in the next stop!" A railway traverses the hoary New York at nine o'clock on the morning of the summits of Lebanon to Damascus, the oldest city same day, ten hours before it was sent, by Ameri- in the world. Railways gridiron Japan, Chosen, can Eastern Standard time; and the reply India, reach many parts of China, and run from reached Teheran at nine-fifteen the next morning Singapore up the Mal.;:ty Peninsula to Bangkok -the planet girdled twice in a single night! More and Chiengmai. The Anatolian Railway has sta- wonderful still, in April, 1929, the editors of The tions at Haran where Abraham tarried, Nineveh New York Times conversed with Commander where Jonah preached, and Babylon where Nebu- Byrd in the icy wastes of the distant Antarctic.
chadnezzar made an image of gold. Through the Thus, in marvelous ways, steam, electricity and wilderness of Sinai where the Hebrews wandered the printing press have made the whole world for forty years, a railway train, which the British accessible. The era of isolation has gone forever.
[130 ] Interests interlace. PDlitically, the American GDV- ernments; and no non-Christian land is free from ernment is concerned not .only with the govern- their influence.
ments .of Europe but with those of Japan, China, And with these changes has come a different Turkey and Mexico. Commercially, business men conception of non-Christian peoples. In practical- are sending the products of our farms and fac- ly all the early accounts of foreign missionary tories to every continent and although American work, they were termed "heathen," sometimes, exports and imports have heavily decreased in re- "the pODr heathen." Dr. James S. Dennis said cent years, they totaled $3,788,000,000 last year. that foreign missions were long regarded as "a Fifty years ago, Dr. Arthur Mitchell spoke .of kind of slum work among sunken, degraded, and foreign missiDns as purely altruistic in that they altogether degenerate races." Wise advocates of were for peoples who did not touch our lives at missions now use the term "non-Christians," not any point. Can that be said today, when influenza, because the original meaning Of the word "heath- starting in Turkestan, causes mDurners to go en" is less true, but because popular usage has about the streets of every town in America; when imparted to it an element of condescension which a Chinese boycott of American cotton throws has made it offensive to intelligent Asiatics.
workmen in Massachusetts out of employment; Contacts with Non-Christian Peoples when the manager of a silk mill in Pennsylvania tells his employees that he cannot pay higher The closer contacts of today are giving us a wages because the mill must compete with silk juster conception of non-Christian peoples. We mills in Japan? have a knowledge of other races that former gen- Western products and inventions are causing erations did not have. BODks and newspapers economic revolution in Asia. Knowledge of other have dissipated the mystery of the Orient. News- foods and articles has created new wants. In papers tell us every morning of important events many parts of Asia, people, who but a decade or that occurred the day before in Seoul and Peiping, two ago were satisfied with the crudest appliances in Bangkok and Teheran. Americans now know of primitive life, have learned the utility of for- that Asiatics are human beings of like passions eign wire, nails, cutlery, paints and chemicals, to with ourselves, capable of development, responsive use steam and electrical machinery and to like to friendship, worthy of respect. Scientists tell Oregon flour, Chicago beef, Pittsburgh pickles and us that there is no scientific warrant for regard- London jam. In the Baldwin Locomotive Works, ing one race as superior to another and that dif- Philadelphia, I saw twelve engines under CDnstruc- ferences in development are the result, not of tion for China, and my imagination kindled as I anything inherent in one race as distinguished thought what a locomotive means amid that huge from another, but of the operation of uplifting mass of humanity; how no village through which forces. The qualities that have given preeminence it runs can continue to be what it was before; to the white man did not characterize him when how its whistle puts to flight a whole brook of he was found by the missionaries of the early hoary superstitions and summons a long slumber- Church. The Anglo-Saxons of the first centuries ing people tD new life. Nor is China the only land of the Christian era were far more barbarous than to which our products are going. In a single the Chinese, Japanese and East Indians of tDday.
month, 45 of our engines were ordered for India. American treatment of the Chinese and the Negro The American locomotive is speeding across the in the United States shows that race prejudice is steppes of Siberia, through the valleys .of Burma, still strong. Nevertheless, the intelligent white and around the mountain sides of South America. man does not look down upon the man of other "Yankee bridge builders have cast up a highway races as his forefathers did. He recognizes more on the desert where the chari0ts of Cambyses clearly the good qualities that non-Christian peo- were swallowed up by the sands. The steel of ples pos,sess. No man today despises the Japanese, Pennsylvania spans the Atbara, makes a road to and he hears more of the industry of the Chinese Meroe," and crosses the rivers of Peru. Trains and the intellect of the Hindu.
from Cairo to the Cape and from the Upper Nile We can no longer go to such peoples in the spirit to the Red Sea are hauled by American engines of condescension. We have come to a truer idea over American bridges, while the "forty cen- of the worth and dignity of man as man, to a real- turies" which look down from the pyramids see ization that back of almond eyes and under yellow not the soldiers .of France but the manufacturers and black skins are souls dear to the heart of God.
of America. Flags have followed trade till large It is true that some Africans and Asiatics are areas of the non-Christian world are now ruled degraded. So are some Americans. We may re- by the so-called "Christian" nations. Half of call Ruskin's illustration of the mud from the Asia, ten-elevenths of Africa and m.ost of the street of a manufacturing town. He pointed out island world are under nominally Ohristian gov- that it is composed of clay, sand, so.ot and water; that the clay may be purified into the radiance of kings and aristocrats. He no longer permits capithe sapphire; that the sand may be developed tal to dictate his wages and hours of labor. into the beauty of the opal; that the soot may be crystallized into the glory of the diamond; and I.t is not surprising that some of the manifestathat the water may be transformed into a star tions of this spirit are extreme and violent. The of snow. So the lowliest of men may be trans- first taste of power is apt to be intoxicating, and formed by the regenerating power of the divine intoxicated men are seldom rational. In a revolu- Spirit. The transition from the first century of tion, the degree of violence is usually proportion- Protestant missions to the second century is at- ate to the degree of injustice against which the tended by no more significant change than this- revolution reacts. Have autocracy and capital that the non-Christian peoples are regarded with never been unj ust ? What is Bolshevism? It is more respect, and that the missionary does not democracy running amuck, the revolt of the mob go out as a superior to an inferior, but as a man against the oppression of an arrogant ruling class. with a message to his brother man who is beset The world is witness to the fact that Communism by the same temptations, bearing the same bur- in control is as autocratic, as cruel and ruthless, dens, and needing the same help and guidance. as the autocracy which it displaced.
When the East Knows the West We are familiar with the effects of this rising spirit in Europe and America, but we need to take An embarrassing fact is that we not only know into account the fact that it has spread to Asia. Asia better, but that Asia knows us better. The Woodrow Wilson's phrase, "The self-determinaprinting press runs day and night in India. Daily tion of peoples," spread around the world like a papers are published in the leading cities of Ja- prairie fire. Everywhere subject classes raised pan. Siam and China have a vernacular press. their heads. Half-educated students and agents The same steamer that brings to non-Christian of the Russian Soviet diligently fanned the flame. nations Western goods also brings Western books British rule in Egypt and India and American in and periodicals. The immoral trader arrives on the Philippines have been of incalculable benefit the same ship with the missionary. Bibles and to these peoples, but they forget the benefit in whiskey cross the Pacific in the same cargo. The their hatred of alien domination. The Moslem Asiatic travels through Europe and America and world is in revolution, its structure changing and goes back to tell his countrymen of their intem- its attitude more defiant than ever. Everywhere perance, their lust for gold, their municipal cur- one notes the impact of revolutionary forces. A ruption. The Asiatic has discovered not only our new spirit is abroad. It is awakening the minds vices but our irreligion. He knows that multitudes of men. It is widening their vision. It is begetin the lands from which the missionaries come ting impatience of oppression and misgovernment. repudiate Christianity and sneer at the effort to It is declaring in trumpet tones that the greatest preach it to others. Brahmans and Mandarins thing in the world is not property but humanity, read infidel books and magazine articles and con- not money but life. front the missionary with the hostile arguments of his own countrymen. The revolutionary forces which operated upon Western nations one at a time are operating si- It is a significant and revolutionary fact that multaneously upon Asia. In Europe, the intellecthe common man has begun to think for himself tual revival began in the thirteenth century, the and to demand the recognition of his real or imag- religious reformation in the fifteenth century, the inary rights. For uncounted centuries he sawall political revolution and the rise of democracy in power vested in a ruling class. He was regarded the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution as having no rights which his superiors were in the nineteenth century. Now the tremendously bound to respect. Then the printing pr~ss and significant fact is that all these revolutionary the common school began to disseminate ideas. forces have been operating at once upon the vast It is hazardous for a dominant class to educate a populations of Asia. No wonder there is tumult. subjugated one. And yet, under modern condi- Japan has so swiftly readjusted her life that she tions, it would be more dangerous not to do so. is now recognized as one of the major powers of the world. India is a seething cauldron of unrest. Now, this erstwhile abject serf and peasant, Changes have taken place in Turkey and Persia this cringing servant, this sweaty toiler, has awak- which would have been deemed incredible a few ened from the torpor of ages, and become con- years ago. In China, the new wine of democracy scious of his power. He sees that his class forms has been poured into the old skins of autocracy, the huge majori,ty of the human race. He asks and of course they have burst. The present chaos himself why he should longer submit to the lot is not surprising. Such a huge mass could not be which his masters have hitherto imposed upon expected to find itself at once. But the old condihim. He refuses to tolerate the divine right of tions can never be restored. For better or for The startling fact is that man's physical power worse China has entered upon a new era. has developed more rapidly than his moral ability to use it wisely. Character has not kept pace with And with the old era in non-Christian lands has knowledge. Modern science has equipped greed gone the old psychology. No longer does the white and passion with deadlier weapons. The World man face cringing, helpless races, but alert, re- War appallingly illustrated this, and it is said that sentful ones with a new consciousness of their another war would mean the extermination of power. Everywhere is the spirit of resistance to whole populations. Asia is getting Western mathe white man's domination. "Asia for the Asi- chinery, railroads, electricity, machine guns, poiatic" is now the cry, and we must reckon with it. son gas, battleships, and airplanes; but to a far Substitute Asiatic for Jew in Shylock's defiance lesser degree it is getting Christian education and if one would know the spirit of Asia today. "Hath principles of conduct. The Imperial University of not an Asiatic hands, organs, dimensions, senses, Tokyo is one of the best equipped educational affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt institutions in the world. But when 5,000 of its with the same weapons, subject to the same dis- students were asked what their religious conviceases, healed by the same means, warmed and tions were, six replied that they were Confuciancooled by the same summer and winter as a West- ists, eight Shintoists, 60 Christian, 300 Buddhists, erner is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If 1,500 atheists, and 3,000 agnostics. Yet the presiyou poison us do we not die? And if you wrong dent of the university said to a missionary: "If us shall we not revenge T' you expect to capture Japan for Christ, you must capture this university." Of 30,000 students en- The opening years of the sixteenth century saw rolled in the government universities of Japan, the struggle for civilization, the seventeenth cen- 27,000 are reported as having no religion. tury for religious liberty, the eighteenth for constitutional government and the nineteenth for Let us have done with the absurd idea that political freedom; so the twentieth century is secular education will correct evils in character. witnessing what one must borrow the majestic There is nothing in arithmetic and chemistry to imagery of Isaiah to describe as "the noise of a purify motives. India is dotted with excellent multitude in the mountains as of a great people! colleges but its temples contain images of the god The noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the na- of lust. Some of the most dangerous men of Amertions gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mus- ica are university graduates. The fact that I can tering the hosts for the battle !" There is fly from New York to Los Angeles in a day does something fascinating, and yet appalling in the not make me a better man than my great grandspectacle. Asia! the birthplace of the human father who would have required two months for race and where a majority of the race still lives, the journey. Knowledge is indeed power; but it where were born civilization and art, science, lit- depends upon the principle that governs it whetherature and philosophy, where all the great reli- er it is power for good or evil. gions of the world arose, where prophets spoke and psalmists sang, where the Son of God visibly What is adequate to these things? Surely not walked before men and where stood the great bigger armies or navies; surely not larger facaltar of the world on which the Lord was crucified tories or more electrical appliances. "There is no -Asia! now awakening from the torpor of ages! political alchemy," said Herbert Spencer, "where- Nothing so vast, so fraught with significance for by you can get golden conduct out of leaden mogood or evil is occurring in our generation. tives." Dwight Moody said the same thing, less elegantly but more forcefully: "If you want to It is a period of intensified moral danger. While get good water, it is not enough to paint the pump; alleged Christian nations are sending the prod- you must clean out the well." Bishop McConnell ucts of their trade, they are also sending the vices says that when he was a boy he read with awe which disgrace their civilization. Scurrilous books about the prehistoric monsters-the pterodactyls and pamphlets in English are sold in India. Mov- and ichthyosauria and gigantosaurs and all the ing pictures made in California, depicting crime rest, that he used ,to wonder what foe was strong and vice, are exhibited in scores of Asiatic cities. enough to exterminate such huge monsters; but In Siam, we saw a sign reading: "Place for that when he was older he learned that no foe ex- Drinking Delightful Juice," which we were told terminated them; that the climate changed and was Scotch whiskey. What pathos in that first they died. The most urgent need of the world letter written in English by an African chief to a today is not an airship or a machine gun, but a former. Archbishop of Canterbury: "Great and change of its moral climate through the Gospel good chief of the tribe of Christ, greeting. The of Christ, and those who contribute to that change humblest of your servants kisses the hem of your are humanity's best benefactors. garment and begs you to send to him and his fellow servants more gospel and less rum."
Sunju, Korean Preacher and
By REV. C. F. BERNHEISEL, D.D., Pyengyang, Korea Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
By THE grace of God, the first half century of mountain and there, in order to establish com- the Protestant Church in Korea was blessed munication with the spirits, continued in prayer with some very remarkable preachers and for two or three days without cessation, keeping evangelists, men who were possessed of intellec- himself awake by pouring water over his body.
tual and spiritual gifts, such as to commend the Perhaps it was an easy step from the study of Gospel of our Lord to the attention of the Korean Taoism to that of medicine as it was known and people. We thank God that so early in the life of practiced by the Koreans, for both were built the Church there were raised up men who not upon the foundation of belief in spirits or demons only possessed the spirit of the Gospel but were that are supposed to exercise an influence over able to champion it before its human health and destiny. Mr.
antagonists. Of these men, the Kil studied medicine from 1893 late Rev. Kil Sunju stands to 1897 and became a druggist, without a peer. He was, with- removing to Pyengyang where out controversy, the greatest he opened a drug store and be- preacher and evangelist the gan a profitable business.
Korean Church has yet pro- By that time Christianity duced. An adequate biography had already begun to move of him should be written but in upon the hearts of the people the meantime it is well to re- of Pyengyang which had the cord some of the facts in the reputation of being one of the life of this great servant of wickedest cities in the country.
God who has so recently and Some earnest evangelists were suddenly been called to higher at work with the missionaries service.* and it was not long until Mr.
Kil Sunju was born in 1869 Kil was sought out by his'
in Anju, an important city friend, Mr. Kim Chonsup, who about half way between Pyeng- proclaimed the Gospel to him yang and the Manchurian bor- and persuaded him to forsake der. There were no modern Taoism and follow Christ.
schools in the country during Thus in the twenty-eighth year his youth and the only educa- of his life, Mr. Kil identified tion he received was that in the REV. KIL SUNJU himself wit h the Christian Chinese c I ass i c s which he Church and was baptized by studied from 1877 to 1885. During that time he the Rev. Graham, Lee of the Presbyterian Mission.
was also employed as a servant to one of the local A year later he was made a "leader" in the East officials in the magistracy, so that along with his Gate Presbyterian Church in the city, thus indi- studies he learned something of the official life of cating that he had already made good progress in the day. The next four years he spent as a mer- his Christian life. A "leader" was at that time chant. That may mean little or much, for nearly the highest office in the local church.
every Korean that has a street frontage exposes In 1902, Mr. Kil was urged by the missionaries some articles for sale and becomes thereby a mer- and church leaders to give up his business and de- chant. From 1890 to 1893 he was engaged in the vote himself to the work of the church. His drug study of Taoism in which he became interested. business was in a prosperous state and he was He used to tell how he once retired to a secluded making from seventy to eighty yen per month • :Many of the historical data here set 'forth were given in a brief (one yen is equal to about 50 cents), a large inbiographical account of Mr. Kil read at his funeral service. His life hcoemweoiunldthsoosoen dbaeycso,maendwethalethpyr.ospTehcetstewmepretatthioant almost parallels the history of the church here in Pyengyang where to continue selll'ng drugs was naturally strong, but he lived. The church had made a good start befo,.e he entered upon cthoentisncuenede, tboutbehe InecarrelaySibnegclaymea apnowimerpournttainl t hfeactwoar s IncaIltlsedlifHeoamned.
[134 ] he heard the call of God and joyfully gave up his in both the local presbytery and the General As- business to become an evangelist at the salary of sembly.
six yen per month-about the average income of Mr. Kil was a man of much prayer and diligent a day laborer then. During the year 1902 he trav- Bible study. Every morning he spent time in eled as an evangelist through the three north- secret prayer, making it a fixed rule to consult western provinces of Korea – North and South God about the work of the day. He made out Pyungan and Whanghai. prayer topics for the daily family devotions.
The next year he entered the theological sem- When meeting people he always tried to have inary at Pyengyang and was graduated in 1907 prayer with them before separating. Whenever as one of the seven members of the first class. He he had any serious problem he fasted and spent was ordained at the first meeting of the newly the whole night in prayer. For twenty years he formed presbytery in Pyengyang in the following prayed for the conversion of his older brother and September, and was installed as sole pastor of the six years for that of a special friend. In both great Central Church, the first Korean to become cases his prayers were answered. In May, 1935, pastor of a church. while holding a revival at Keumchun, he was From that time Mr. Kil took a leading part not deeply concerned about a severe drought and only in the local work but in the whole Presby- prayed earnestly for rain which fell within a few hours. When Mr. Kil and elder Pak Chirok felt terian Church in Korea. The presbytery decided special need of quiet time for prayer they agreed to organize a board of missions and send a Korean to meet in the early morning in the church buildmissionary to preach the Gospel to the people of ing. This proved such a great blessing that they the large island of Quelpart, off the southwest brought the matter before the church session, and coast of Korea. It was to all practical intents a arranged to hold such a meeting in the church foreign mission since the people, while Korean, every morning, open for all. These early mornare yet of a different dialect and have little com- ing prayer meetings have become a feature of munication with the mainland. One of Mr. Kil's Korean church life, especially during Bible classes classmates was chosen for this work and Mr. Kil and evangelistic services. was made president of the board and served in that capacity for five years. The great event of A Great Bible Student the presbytery each year was the presentation of Mr. Kil's report on the work and his eloquent and Mr. Kil wail a great student and spent much forceful presentation of the cause that was so time in reading and memorizing the· Bible. He much on his heart. He rose to heights of true read the entire Old Testament thirty times, and eloquence and his appeals stirred to the depths part of it 540 times. He read the entire New the feelings of all who heard him. The success of Testament more than one hundred times, First the work was very largely due to these annual ad- John 500 times and recited from memory the endresses. tire book of Revelation several hundred times. Much of his reading and memorization was done The Central Presbyterian Church was built in behind prison bars. 1900. It stands on a hill in the central part of Pyengyang overlooking the city and the surround- He was the author of several books in Korean, ing country. When the building was being erected all on Bible themes. He wrote numerous songs Mr. Kil himself labored at carrying wood and and several hundred proverbs of which the folstone like a common coolie. In addition he con- lowing are samples: tributed land for the site. The greater your reputation, the more your enemies; the loftier your virtue, the fewer your friends. After twenty years as pastor of the Central Church, Mr. Kil resigned to give himself to gen- The righteous can find heaven in prison, but the wicked would find hell in heaven.
eral evangelism. His name will ever be associated As rain fertilizes the parched ground, so abundant with that of the Central Church where he was grace waters the thirsty soul. first a "leader" then an elder for several years, then pastor for twenty years and pastor emeritus Harmony brings heaven to the home; discord brings for the rest of his life. hell to society. .
Sin is the poison that destroys human life; prayer is the means for the entrance of the grace of God.
Under his ministry the church became the best There is no hell for the righteous man and no heaven known church in Korea. It has been the scene of for the sinner.
many great meetings and here the first presby- Despite the fact that he had unusual sorrow and tery and the first General Assembly were organ- trouble Mr. Kil was a joyful, happy Christian ized. It accommodates about 1,500 persons, but man. These only served to ripen and deepen his under stress 2,000 often have been accommodated. faith and his dependence on the God whom he so For many years Pastor Kil was a leading figure sincerely worshiped and served.
He was nearly blind during most of his life. later became pastor of the Anju church where he While a young man he possessed unusually good did a great work for many years. eyesight, but when about twenty-one his sight began to fail, and for three years he was in almost During his pastorate Mr. Kil was often called to total darkness. Then a missionary doctor oper- hold evangelistic services and from the time he reated and restored to him partial but imperfect signed his pastorate to the end of his life, he gave sight. By the use of very strong glasses he was himself unreservedly to this work. able to read but for the rest of his life he always had to depend on someone to lead him about wher- For the last eight years he gave more than ever he went. This was a great trial. thirty weeks each year to evangelistic work, trav- eling all over Korea and into Manchuria. He During the so-called Conspiracy Trial of 1912, preached two or three times each day besides when so many Koreans were imprisoned by the teaching the Bible for hours, beginning his meet- Japanese, Mr. Kil's eldest son was one of the vic- ings at six o'clock in the morning. He was a great tims and died as a result of the sufferings endured. preacher and invariably held his audiences in rapt This, too, was a cause of great grief. attention. Sinners broke down in confession of sin as he probed their hearts and held out to them In the Independence Movement the leading men the only way'to peace and salvation. of the country, Christian and non-Christian, drew up a Declaration of Independence which was read He was in great demand as a speaker to stuat many places throughout the country before dents, and at conferences and retreats for the great crowds. The Christians went into the deepening of the spiritual life. In the cold of Movement on the guarantee that it would be a winter or the heat of summer he was always ready peaceful movement, without resort to force. Their to respond to the calls for his services and at the desire was to get a hearing before the Versailles time of his death he was dated up for thirty-five Peace Conference, then in session, and they evangelistic meetings. thought that if they took some action the Collference would be more liable to pay attention to their During the thirty-five years of his pastoral work cause. Mr. Kil was one of the signers of the he preached 13,360 times and through his efforts Declaration, and, along with the other thirty-two more than sixty churches were established, with signers, was sent to prison for three years. It buildings costing over 300,000 yen. He baptized was then that he began to memorize the Scrip- more than 3,000 persons. tures. With his deficient eyesight imd the lack of daylight in his cell it is a marvel that he was able Twenty-five years ago a local daily paper said: to read and memorize so much. A prison sentence "The Christians of all Korea look up to Mr. Kil has never been regarded by the Koreans as a with thirsty minds. Just as there is no one who stigma in the case of those thirty-three immortals. does not know the names of the twelve apostles so there is no one who does not know the name of Like the other Korean pastors who were shar- Kil Sunju." That statement became more true as ing his fate, Mr. Kil used prison life as an oppor- the years passed and he came to be the best known tunity to preach the Gospel to his fellow prisoners. man in the Protestant Church of Korea. Many converts were made and a prison church was organized, and while it was never recognized Mr. Kil once remarked to his family that he by the presbytery, out of the work there came re- wanted to die while holding an evangelistic service sults such as the Apostle Paul witnessed in his in some church. His wish was gratified. The Roman prison. Pyungsuh presbytery, to the west of Pyengyang, asked him to lead in a revival service beginning Once while holding a revival service in Wonsan November 20, 1935. On the morning of the 25th, on the east coast, thirty hoodlums came and beat while preaching at the early morning service he Mr. Kil so that he was severely wounded and un- was attacked by heart trouble and was unable to able to resume his work for some time. Six years finish the service. At the beginning of the hour ago during a series of meetings he was conduct- he told ,the children that he did not know whether ing in Andong, in southern Korea, he was teach- he would die that day or not and exhorted them ing about the sufferings to come on the world at to be very quiet. After the attack he was carried the end of the age. He was arrested by the police to his room, unable to speak, but still able to make and detained in jail for twenty days as a disturber known his wants by writing. He requested of the minds of the people. Before he was re- prayers and songs. The next morning, surrounded leased the jailor was converted. by his- son and many friends, his spirit, took its flight. Immediately after his conversion Kil went back to his old home in Anju and led his parents and At the funeral service, held in the auditorium family and a large number of his old friends to of the Union Christian College in Pyengyang, the Christ. Among them was Kim Changsung who building was packed with several thousand people who came to pay their last tribute to the great servant of God whom they loved so well.
Destitution in
-.~ I By REV. CHARLES W. SQUIRES, Limerick, Maine Ir,;.- T HE well-known dictum, "As Maine goes, so one tenth of the total population of rural Maine goes the nation," may be true in the world of are members of the Protestant Church. As a rule, politics but it is not in the religious and edu- the smaller the town the smaller the average cational spheres. A minute study of the religious church membership.
situation in Maine was carried out as a part of the Over one hundred towns in Maine have no nation-wide Five Year Program of Survey and church whatever and 325 churches have less than Adjustment initiated in 1928 at the National 25 members. Some two hundred small churches Church Comity Conference held in Cleveland. The constitute Maine's great missionary field, and in general purpose was to gain an objective view of some of these fields pastors are obliged to turn to the important problem of providing at least a rea- farming or to some other occupation to earn a livsonable degree of religious privilege for every ing. Here is real sacrifice. I doubt if many miscommunity. sionaries in the foreign fields face worse economic The one year survey in Maine was called an and spiritual difficulties than these men and wom- Every Community Survey but was inadequate be- en encounter in Maine. cause it did not touch the towns of over 5,000 It is a tragedy to find, in some of these places, population and was mainly concerned with aver- religious leaders with little more training than age conditions. Many problems were left out al- that of a boy in high school. They are striving to together-as for instance those of the religious lead a community in religious and moral ideals and moral needs of men in the lumber camps and while their own ideals find their level in a few the effect upon the rural communities of the large doctrines of a particular denomination and these number of summer visitors. Yet enough was doctrines are placed in importance far above the discovered to set people thinking seriously about ideals of moral betterment. It is disheartening to the problem of the lack of religious and educa- view such a situation. One could wish that mintional advantages in the State. As in Vermont, isterial salaries might be pooled so that these the fact that many young people have left the workers might be relieved of the necessity of givfarms to go into industry, has rendered more diffi- ing so much of their time and thought to the probcult the problem of religious interest and support. lem of earning a living. The presence of marginal land and the increased efficiency of agricultural methods and machinery The chairman of a special convention commit- have done much to bring about this situation. tee of the Baptist Church wrote to a Limerick Little is being done to help solve the problem. minister asking for one per cent of his salary -the average salary is about $700-to help raise There was reported a very sharp decline in for- a fund to open churches in 30 or 40 towns that mal religion in the ten years from 1916 to 1926. had enjoyed regular religious services twenty During this period 160 church organizations van- years ago. A sentence from the letter reads: ished into thin air and 105 church edifices were "Many a Maine community right now is a famine sold for barns or school houses or were torn down. area-there is famine in regard to the Word of In general, church debts had approximately dou- God, and more Baptist churches are going to close .bled in the ten years and the average debt for each their doors, unless we are able to send them help." congregation had nearly quadrupled. About twothirds of the population of the State are now Here are a few communities in dire need of outside the membership of the church and the help: number entirely uninterested is increasing. The Case One: A town with a population of about 500; Roman Catholic Church is holding its own far probably 200 children in the Township. High school en- rolment about 50. Mills, upon which the people were de- better than the Protestant, as was very evident in pendent, have closed. Many families on relief. Baptist the years between 1916 and 1926. During this church is the only Protestant church in the town. Six time the increase in Protestant church member- years ago, with some help this church was able to pay a ship was nil. But membership in the Roman pastor a small, living salary. Now they can only raise less than five dollars a week to pay a student's board.
Catholic Church in the same period increased Case Two: Two churches five miles apart, the only seventeen per cent. The larger towns, on the churches in their communities. One community of about whole, have larger church membership but only 800 people has an evening congregation of 100, mostly [ 137]
young people. Desperate need of Christian leadership. visions. In villages of about 1,000 people attached Good church buildings. Need aid. to several denominations there are often fewer than 100 Protestant church members. In a vil- Case Three: Nine churches in an area of twelve miles. lage of 3,000 only about 300 care enough for the Only one strong enough to maintain services. One man has Protestant church to become members. The aver- tried to care for the whole territory, preaching four times age church membership in the rural districts is a Sunday for five years. Another man is needed in this about one-tenth of the population. field. Little hope under present conditions. The children in the neglected areas grow up Case Four: Little coast town near summer colony. Good with no knowledge of God and only know about church building and parsonage. Field needs real mission- Christ as His name is used in profanity by their ary work. Baptist church the only church responsible for elders. In one community I found two families village and outlying districts. Church formerly paid of twelve children each, not one of whom had ever $15.00 weekly. Then paid collections. Now without pastor enjoyed religious instruction or had gone to Sunand have decided they cannot afford pastoral care and day school although there was a church in the vilservices. Real need and opportunity to rebuild a self- lage. Even in privileged communities, Sunday supporting work. school attendance has decreased nearly 20 per cent in ten years. Case Five: A village of 800 people. Good church building. People cannot raise more than $150.00 a year. About Why is it that the Roman Catholic Church has 40 children in village. No service for a long time. No solved the organization problems in many respects religious training for children. better than the Protestants? For instance, there are thirteen communities in northern Aroostook Case Six: Young pastor just out of school, married, County, 100% Roman Catholic and well looked serving two fields-a Baptist church and a Union church. after by that Church. While the Protestant Ought to have a car as the fields are long distances apart. churches have shown decreases all along the line, Receives very little pay. the Roman Catholic churches have shown in ten Case Seven: A man on the field who is supposed to re- years an increase of 23 % in number of churches ceive $600.00 a year but who actually receives $300. This consecrated minister said to Mr. Pendleton, General Sec- and 170/0 in membership. Very significant is the retary: "One of my people received $2.00 that had been fact that the average membership in the Protowed him for two years. He went immediately to the estant churches is 88 and in the Roman Catholic parsonage and gave half of it to the minister." churches 971. These facts tell a story of efficient management which has not yet entered the Prot- Case Eight: A small town with a woman preacher and estant consciousness. several preaching places. One place pays on an average of 75 cents a Sunday but it costs 40 cents to go to the An efficient interdenominational council should appointment. Her leading church pays $2.00 a Sunday. be appointed in the State with a view to the proper adjustment of the resources to meet the present Case Nine: A town of 600 people, all destitute and need. This council could receive funds from varinearly all on relief. Missionary grant of $50. Very in- ous sources and thus be in a position to help needy adequate service. fields and so advance the cause of Christ. May God put it into the hearts of some of His servants There is great need for a determined and con- to do their part both financially and spiritually. secrated effort both within and without the State to see that the neglected communities of Maine have adequate Christian services. One reason for lack of consideration is the fact that in general there is little knowledge of the true situation. This report only touches the fringe of the great need.
The situation in the smaller communities is so desperate that it rises. above denominational di- POEMS WRITTEN BY OHRISTIAN LEPERS To the lepers who live on the island of Oshima in Japan, the Gospel has brought a message of hope and a simple earnest faith, which finds expression in these beautiful poems; written first in Japanese, the poems Were translated by Mrs. Lois Erickson, an American missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South).-The ant/oak Of Missions..
.. I But in my weakness I would go Entrusting all my load of woe Strive though it may, no power in earth or sky To Him who walks with me. Can move the Spirit of the Lord Most High; What reaches Him upon mighty throne IV Is prayer alone. I live in light and love II By God's grace given My Lord in me has found a dwelling-place, Yet is my hungry heart And I in Him. Oh, glorious boon to gain, Homesick for Heaven. To be His temple! Gladly I would face, V In His great strength, all bitterneRs and pain. To the heart aglow for Thee III The Valley of the Shadow I would not change one little jot Is like sunrise on the sea. Of His dear will for me;
Bondage to
-<!III By LAURA JORQUERA, Santiago, Chil, Iljlo- WHAT makes the difference between an dreds of masses must be said for the soul. Noth- Evangelical and a Roman Catholic Chris- ing else can save one from the awful tortures tian? That question I, for one, should experienced in Purgatory. The prayers and fastlike to have every Protestant answer carefully. ings of friends and masses said by priests can Those who have always lived in a Protestant ease a little, perhaps, of the penalty but one must country, who have never had intimate contact stay there until sin is entirely purged away. Look with a staunch Roman Catholic, can not know, up a Roman Catholic Catechism and you will find still less understand, just what makes the dif- this to be true. ference. Protestants who study the Bible know that God In repeating the creed the Protestant says: "I is our Father, that He is Love, and that Christ believe in the Holy Catholic Church" (meaning came to save us, and that such a doctrine of Pur- "universal"). The Roman Catholic says: "I be- gatory to expiate sin by torture is un-Christian. lieve in the Holy Roman Catholic Church," there- Beliefs in Purgatory make many rich Catholics by acknowledging that the Pope of Rome is the head of the Church, and that your will, your in- telligence, your every liberty, is subject to the decrees of the Pope, as these decrees are made known through the local bishops and priests. The Pope claims to be Christ's Vicar on earth, the Visible head in place of the Invisible Head, and thus he and the Church authorities alone have the right to interpret the Scriptures and say what must be obeyed. Roman Catholics believe that the Pope cannot err because he is infallible as the very voice of God. That is why he is called "His Holiness" and receives such homage as is given LEADERS OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR IN SANTIAGO to no other creature on earth. Some friends of mine, well-educated people, recently told me how· leave their fortunes to the Church. This belief they had all gone down on their knees the night also often leads a young man or a lovely girl to before when the Pope's voice came over the radio. eschew the world and its vanities to enter the The "Doctrines of the Holy Mother Church" priesthood or a sisterhood. The priest has a ter- are embodied in the Decrees of the Council of rible hold upon his parishioners, for they teach Trent, which state just what a Roman Catholic that if one dies without absolution that soul may is required to believe. These doctrines include stay in Purgatory forever. the worship of the Virgin Mary as the Holy Nothing in the Bible, especially in the Gospels, Mother of God and the acknowledgment of her is fl. foundation for belief in such a place and such right to be invoked as a mediator between her Son atonement. There is nothing there to warrant and man; the worship of the saints and martyrs the worshiping of Mary and the saints, still less and of the holy relics, found in quantities all over image-worship. It was the doctrines of purgatory the world; of the angels and the images, rel- and indulgences that caused Martin Luther's pro- iquaries, the Holy Host, etc. Instruction is also test and started the Reformation.
given as to the mass and confession, confirmation. One of the most lovely, cultured women of my rites for the dying and the dead, penitence, indul- country, is a steadfast Christian, according to the gences and Papal bulls. Every Catholic is told Roman Catholic interpretation, so that even her positively that he cannot be saved outside of the friendship for me is considered almost a sin. Her Holy Roman Church, having received absolution greatest anxiety is that if she should die, her at the hands of a priest. Even then, Catholics Protestant friends will not pray a single Rosary are told that they cannot be sure of leaving Purga- on her behalf, so she skimps on her food and dress tory. No matter how good a life one lives and and every week gives money to her church so no matter how much good one does, many· hun- that the priest will pray over her remains and re- [139 ]
member her name in those general masses for terpretation of the Council of Trent. Priests and "the souls in Purgatory." We tell her that we are nuns have often been dedicated to the Church bepraying for her now, that she may have a truer cause the mother or both parents took a vow to concept of her God and a better understanding of consecrate a child to the Church so that they Christ's redeeming mission. might have someone to pray for them after death!
It is pitiful to see how frightened Catholics are Only those of us who know about such things of death. Life is made a burden to many, espe- from experience can understand how hard it is cially the uneducated classes, who deprive them- for a Roman Catholic to turn to Evangelical selves of bread so that they may pay the weekly Christianity. Only those who have been freed or monthly sums to their parish priest for at least from this bondage can really understand the one mass to be said for them after death. Many meaning of those precious words of Christ: "Ye are now coming to believe that there is no Purga- shall know the truth and the truth shall make you tory and that we cannot buy our way out of it, so free." This is the greatest contribution that that they discard religion altogether. Purgatory Evangelical Christianity offers to Latin-Amerihas driven from the Roman Church multitudes of cans: freedom. Freedom from the cruel thrallthe more educated and cultured people, and they dom of the fear of death and belief in Purgatory; have entirely rejected the Christian faith. freedom from the human domination and liberty to follow the Way of Christ, trusting in Him We must not blame the priests over much for alone. We pray God that some day all may come they themselves know no better. The Bible is so to know and to accept our Lord Christ! explained that they must, perforce, accept the in- With the Printed Page in Chile By HENRY WAGONER, Temueo, Chile I,N THE last quarter of a century there have His work on Calvary; it also carries monthly been startling changes in every phase of hu- prophetic and doctrinal messages. It has a sec- man life. One hears complaints from all tion for Young Peoples' Societies, as well as a sides of the diminishing attendance at church Narrative Corner, and the last two pages are services, some ascribing this to the radio, others usually devoted to local church news. to the desire for entertainment, fun, and travel. But we believe that one of the principal reasons This Spanish monthly has been the means of is the filling of reading markets with evil litera- blessing to many inquiring souls and countless ture, thus filling the minds of people with aver- testimonials have come showing spiritual help resion to the church. What is needed today is ceived, faith revived, and activity in service pro- Christian literature of a high class, with a positive moted. From Ecuador a backslider wrote, tesmessage as to Christian truth and a direct proc- tifying that he had wandered far from God. lamation of the whole counsel of God. Through reading Salud y Vida he was brought back to the Lord, and is today preaching the Gos- In Chile, where the writer has been privileged pel. From still more distant Philippine Islands to labor for the Master for the past fifteen years, comes the word that Salud y Vida has been the we have been able to guage the value of this class means of deepening the spiritual life of a family of literature. In our own small printing plant, whose home is now a center of propaganda for with only a foot-pedal press and setting tip all the Christ. Missionaries laboring in Spanish-speaktype by hand, we print a monthly Spanish paper ing countries have written expressing their apcalled Salud y Vida, as well as a German monthly, preciation of the paper. called Der Missionsbote. These are distributed at cost among the churches. We have also printed This class of material has also stirred up the thousands of books which have been very well members of our churches who themselves are received, and have been the means of great bless- helped in their spiritual life and are in turn eager ing. But the work which the Lord has principally that others receive the same help. The Young blessed is our Spanish monthly, the Salud y Vida People-s' Societies are eager to spread this class of ("Health and Life"). August of 1931 we were literature. One of the societies is seIiing 265 printing 650 copies of this paper of 16 pages, and copies monthly, another 178, and still another 165 in August, 1935, we printed 3,650 copies of 20 copies. And so the chain of blessing resulting pages. Each edition begins with a positive mes- from evangelization by means of the printed page sage on salvation from sin by faith in Christ and is a long one. Souls are saved, backsliders are re- claimed, and many are led into Christian service.
I Know Myself and Christ?
Many who are in earnest in the matter of seek- 2. Do I want credit for all unselfish acts?
ing a deeper experience of God are blocked by fail- 3. Are my feelings hurt easily?
ure to see clearly within our own souls. Let us 4. Am I vain?
turn the searchlight of His spirit on the shadowy 5. Do I talk a great deal about myself? Am I places by means of these questions that have been a victim of self-pity?
widely used of God to bring help to seeking souls. 6. Do I hesitate to do things that are, I believe, HONESTY to be right for fear of what people will think? 1. Do I always tell the truth? Do I think the 7. Do I unselfishly share my plans with others? truth or do I try to deceive myself? Do I 8. Am I really thoughtful and considerate? always act the truth? 9. Am I too possessive with my own property? 10. Am I unselfish in acknowledging my faults in 2. Do I ever try to evade paying fare or luggage order to help others? charges or custom duties? 11. Am I stubborn? Am I wilful? 12. Am I willing to take responsibility when it is 3. Have I anything in my possession which be- inconvenient? longs to anyone else; anything borrowed 13. Are my thoughts self-centered? Do I want which I have not returned? my own way? 14. Am I inclined to talk a great deal about 4. Am I sincere? myself? 5. Do I ever cheat in games or in examinations 15. Do I crave praise for myself? Do I dislike to have other people praised? or lessons of any kind? 16. Does it hurt me to yield when beaten in an 6. Do I take credit for ideas or achievements agrument?
which I do not deserve? LOVE 7. Do I fail to keep promises or engagements?
Am I punctual? 8. Do I waste my own or other people's time? 9. Do I make proper preparation for my work?
Am I lazy?
10. Have I taken anything which did not belong 1. Do I put God first in my thoughts and plans? to me and for which I have not made proper 2. Have I a grudge against anyone? Is there restitution? Do I appropriate employer's time or things for my own use? anyone to whom I will not speak? Am I unforgiving?
PURITY 3. Am I critical of other people? Is there any- one I don't like to meet? 1. Have I any habits that I would not want any- one to know about? 4. Is my love outgoing and active so that I want for others all that God wants for them? 2. Is my thought-life what God would have it? 3. Are my imaginations pure? 5. Do I harbor any race or class prejudice? 4. Do I avoid pictures and reading matter which 6. Am I patient with those who are provoking? 7. Do I show appreciation? will arouse un c I e a n or unwholesome 8. Do I sincerely want to help everybody? thoughts? 9. Am I willing to share all I have, time, money, 5. Are my actions pure and helpful to others and to my best self? privacy, possessions, in order to help 6. Do I make jokes and talk unnecessarily on others?
sex matters? 10. Do I seek to live out 1 Corinthians 13? 7. Am I seeking the beautiful and pure in every- In your quiet time search your heart prayer- thing? fully through them. You may find it helpful to 8. Do I avoid everything which will create un- think them through with others who are also in earnest about spiritual things. clean thoughts in another? 9. Am I willing to let God change me in this Since these questions are introspective and em- phasize faults they should be balanced by claim- area of thought and life? ing the positive virtues through Christ and by 10. Do I pray God to make me clean now?
UNSELFISHNESS actively demonstrating those virtues.
1. Does it make me dissatisfied to have someone -Adopted from "The Indian more successful than I? Temperance News."
[ 141 ]
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Effective Ways of Working r 'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~"==================I~' J Some Down to Date Plans education, workers among students, names, fields and terms of service, then remain standing. A PANEL VISUALIZATION-ILLI- the state treasurer, the young people's 2. And now with these missionaries NOIS AND A CHRISTIAN WORLD leader, the department leaders for before us let us again see the leader- ship of Illinois Baptists. Will all the Requests are frequently re- men's work, women's work, promotion, former groups return to the platform ceived in this Department for and stand as units so they may sughelps in humanizing a budget or social service, the ministry, the con- gest to us the oneness of their centralother factual presentation at ized efforts to build a Christian world. national or associational gather- vention itself, etc. No speeches were (All remain on platform until after ings. The following unique plan singing of hymn.) arranged by Mrs. B. P. Heubner, made by these individuals and groups of Ottawa, Kansas, and Mrs. R. 1. Probably the largest single con- A. Chandler, of Galesburg, Illi- but merely a bow was taken as the tribution toward the effectiveness of nois, and used at the Illinois Baptists in the state is made by the Baptist State Convention last audience looked them over and ap- leadership of its 457 churches. Will October not only fixed facts as every pastor rise in his place, thus mere figures could not have done plauded. indicating his responsibility and the but made animate the impres- privileges which are his of bringing sions in terms of actual person- (2) To the picture just presented information and new vision daily to alities. Only a skeleton of the flocks which he shepherds. (Pastors service (which occupied an en- should be added that of the work of remain standing throughout auditire session) can be given; but ence.) each denominational group using the Chicago Baptist Association, dethe plan would need to round out 2. The responsibilities of e a c h the anatomy in terms of its own signed to help build a Christian world church are met only as every member facts and figures anyway. While in ready and joyful service does his no actual rehearsal is needed, the in a great city. The superintendent share of the work. Will all the church prime participants would re- members rise and join the leadership quire instructions as to details of this association will show Baptists groups in singing "Lead On, 0 King and considerable writing would Eternal." (All are then seated.) be necessary beforehand to se- in action in his territory. cure the cooperation of the rest. 1. We have in imagination visual- The superintendent goes to the plat- ized Illinois Baptists helping to build Two readers-a man and a woman a Christian world. One more scene -stood on either side of the platform form and introduces individually and will conclude this series of picturesand gave the background matter in a scene in your own church at home. alternation, one being here designated by groups his key men and women. Will you mentally transport yourself as 1 and the other as 2. to your church and assemble your fel- (1) The constitution of the Illinois low members about you. A service for (1) The Baptists of Illinois are vi- the entire church is about to start. tally concerned in "The Christianiza- Baptist State Convention pledges co- You and your pastor have now retion of all life as well as of every turned from this convention. The life." They are helping to build a new operation in every way possible with pastor is coming to the platform. Lisworld. On Oct. 9, 1834, the leaders ten; the meeting is now to begin. met to try to band together the denom- philanthropic institutions of the state. inational forces of the state. (Quota- At this point a minister comes fortions were here made as to the com- The convention is represented on the ward and leads a consecration service. mittees, or organizations, activities, etc., as taken from the records of board of each of the three such enter- The foregoing was termed a "Perthose early endeavors.) Tonight Dr. sonalities Picture" and proved one of P- will help us to see these Baptists prises and we shall now meet workers the most impressive services ever held still in action as he introduces the under similar circumstances. The members of the present official family. from the Old People's Home at May- simplicity of it and the strong appeal to the eye render if worth duplicating Dr. P-, the state's missionary lead- wood, the Huddelson Baptist Home at in many conventional assemblies. er, went to the platform at this point and called up for introduction the Irvington and the Central Baptist A CHOICE YEAR BOOK field workers, directors of Christian Children's Home at Maywood. This labor of love comes to us from the women's society' in the The introductions are made as be- First Baptist Church of Santa Ana, California, and may well fore by an official worker. serve as inspiration, model or suggestion for other missionary (2) Illinois Baptists push on with organizations whose members believe that nothing is too good vigor through institutions of higher education. The representative of Bap- tist schools throughout the state is ready to mention the location and dis- tinctive character of each school.
Here the Divinity School of the Uni- versity of Chicago, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago, Shurtleff and Frances Shimer Junior Colleges also the Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago were ex- ploited.
1. During all its history Illinois has been training young people for service and many have gone into pastorates or administrative and missionary en- deavor; so the state has "a story to tell to the nations."
Here a list of names of all who had gone out into the several lines of work was read. A poster might also be dis- played for better visibility. – 2. The four "Centenary Fields"
celebrating their hundredth anniver- sary this year have also received our workers. (Names read and poster fastened up.) 1. Weare fortunate in having sev- eral missionaries present. Will they please come to the platform, state . [142]
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
for the Church of Jesus Christ.
The booklet is entitled "Into God's Garden" and the beautiful scene pictured on the imitation Spanish leather cover is re- peated in shadow of pale green outlines on every inside page, its open gate inviting wayfarers to enter and enjoy the privileges and opportunities within. Some sort of garden scene-more or less elaborate as the successive chairmen may elect – is ar- ranged on the platform each month, the one in our illustra- tion having been used at the opening meeting in September. Whoever makes a garden Industrial Department has for its motif: It is also the duty of one member Has never worked alone. of the program committee to The rain has always found it, o Master Gardener who dost shape make contact with both the luncheon and the program sub- The sun has always known, aright committees responsible for each The wind has blown across it Each seed of good unfolding 'neath of the monthly meetings in order And helped to scatter seeds- thy hand, Whoever makes a garden o give command Has all the help he needs. To spare each feeble striving toward that the theme may be worked the light, out not only on the stage but in The wind and rain and sunshine, And bid it reach the stature thou the dining room. For ins,tance, And dew and fertile sod; hast planned.
the October theme being "Weed- For he who makes a garden For the Social Department ing the Garden," the dining Works hand in hand with God. there is: room was decorated with sun- (Several stanzas are omitted Where is heaven? Is it not Just a friendly garden plot? flowers (this was in California) due to space limitations.) The World Wide Guild (young and the platform made realistic women's department) has its dewith wild grasses and flowers. The Lord God Planted a Garden tails under: Even the finance plan is harmo- The Lord God planted a garden The blossoms of spring give promise nized with the dominant keynote. In the first white days of the world, of the fruits of autumn.
A tree stands below and to one And he set there an angel warden The Children's World Crusade side of the platform. As differ- In a garment of light enfurled. aptly keys its work to: ent members bring their gifts (Entire poem of four stanzas A sweet new blossom of humanity, quoted from Dorothy Frances fresh fallen from God's own the details of the tree are blocked Gurney.) garden to flower on earth. in so that it grows from month The theme song for the year For the Finance Committee to month. An auxiliary device is called "Our Garden Melody" there is the familiar scripture, is used in connection with the and proves to be th~ familiar "In "And he shall be like a tree," etc. special "gift boxes" whose bear- the Garden," beginning "I come ers go up through the gate on the to the garden alone." For Church Decorating: rostrum and deposit the contents The page on the Executive Make of God's altar a garden fair, Board is headed, That flowers of hope may blossom of the boxes in a water jar that stands by the fountain. This there. symbolism of making gifts for The invitation on an early flythe spreading of the Water of Go make thy garden fair as thou leaf begins: canst, Life in God's Garden is most in- Thou, workest never alone. Travelers on the Road of the Beckspiring. oning Christ, you found at the sum- mit of your journey-the Cross. His The general theme has been The Missionary Department Word tells us that "in the place where elaborately worked out in poetic has for its keynote, "For as the He was crucified there was a garden." motifs and the names of the sev- earth bringeth forth her bud," Following His resurrection Mary met eral departments as well as in etc. (lsa. 61: 11). Him there. This year we are inviting the permanent program fea- you to step aside from the road you tures. The analogies have been At the top of the Missionary have been traveling, enter through the Reading page appears: open gate and meet Him in His Gar- den. (The subsequent paragraphs carefully considered. Thus the Books are gardens in whose bowers work out poetically and devotionally keynote is sounded in two poems We may find the riches, rarest flowers. this line of thought.) at the beginning, based on the Books are paths that upward lead. scripture verse: "And thou Books are friends: come, let us read.
shal,t be like a watered garden Community Service is keyed and like a spring of water, whose to the familiar poem on "Kind waters fail not."-Isaiah 58: 11. hearts are the gardens." The
Then comes the program por- ing the Garden" with a neigh- 8. Topic, "The American Intion of the book. In each meet- boring minister as speaker to dian"; devotional, "Joy and ing the industrial (sewing) por- urge members to use their ut- Praise" ("The Desert Rejoiction is called "Garden Work"; most influence to tear out the un- ing" – Isa. 35: 1-4; "I Will desirable things in local and na- Praise the Lord"-Ps. 118: 19the noonday meal is character- tional civic life and make our 21); figure, "Desert Plants." ized as "Lunch in the Garden," communities better places in This was where the luncheon the subtitles-presumably fitted which to plant the seeds of right- was termed a "Picnic on the in with the days' themes-being eousness. Desert." "Sunflower Lunch," "Friendship 3. Topic, "w 0 rl d Fellow- 9. Topic, "White Cross Work" Lunch (on World Fellowship (sewing, etc., for mission hospi- Day) ," "Dinner by Lantern ship"; devotional, "Fellowship" tals or benevolent objects); de- (with one another-,-l John 1: 3, votional, "Peace and Quiet" Light" (an evening gathering), 4, 7; with Christ-1 Cor. 1: 9) ; ("His Peace" – John 14: 27; figure,"A Mixed Bouquet." "Quietness and Confidence"- "Shore Lunch," "Hospitality Isa. 30: 15); theme, "Gifts Lunch," "Butterfly Dinner," 4. Topic, "Orieritl:.l Gardens" ; from the Garden." "Picnic on the Desert," "Vegeta- devotional, "Meditation" (Ps. 23 : 7; Phil. 4: 8); plan, at a 10. Topic, "Migrants"; devoble Plate Lunch," "Barbecue" "dinner by lantern light" (eve- tional, "Prayer and Communand "Fruit Basket." ning meal), high school seniors ion" ("The Lord Is Nigh"-Ps. and junior college students were 145: 18; "Pray without Ceas- The business session is termed entertained in a room decorated ing"-l Thess. 5: 16-18) ; theme, "Garden Plans," the song serv- as a Japanese garden and pre- "Hardy Annuals." ice preceding the program "Mel- sided over by orientally cos- tumed hostesses and with a 11. Annual Meeting; devoodies in the Garden," and the program on Christian Educa- tional, "Fruitage" ("Know by devotional period "Blessings of tion. The main address was by Fruits"-Matt. 7: 16; "Being the Garden." The subtitles of a young Hawaiian student who Fruitful"-Col. 1: 10, 11); sub- ject for reports, "Fruit of the these "blessings" will be fitted used both stereopticon and mov- Garden." in with the topics which called ing pictures as illustrations of them forth. his educational work in the Each of the foregoing pro- Islands. A Japanese and also a grams had its especial poetical It is noteworthy that as the Chinese solo were given by cos- or scriptural keynote at the head tumed singers. One letter direct of the page. For instance, that luncheon closes the strains of from an oriental college was' on the American Indian was "Beautiful Garden of Prayer" read. headed: call upon the membership to 5. Topic, "Labrador"; devo- In this brown seed so dry and hard hush reverently as the prayer tional, "Shelter and Protection" I see a flower in my dooryard. (Ps. 31: 1-3; 61: 1-4) ; plan, "A chairman conducts a period of The devotional spirit of this supplication for missionary Rock Garden"-description of rare year book in an early poem work in Kodiak, Alaska, and of is as follows: work. At the conclusion of this Grenfell in the Labrador. there is a 15-minute period of Speak to my heart through gardens instrumental and vocal music ap- 6. "Foreign Mission Cente- till I see propriate to a garden or other outdoor setting. It is at this time naries" (dntma based on the The shame of service rendered grudg- book, "Between Two Centuries," ingly; that those who have brought gift boxes deposit them in the water written for Baptist celebration Turn from the selfishness that would jar. of centenaries in Burma, As- forget sam, South India and South Program features beginning China); devotional, "Rest and A lifetime were too short to pay my Restoration" (Ps. 23: 1-3; Matt. debt; with September are as follows: 11 : 28); plan, to develop theme 1. Topic, "Dedicating the Gar- Beholding how from bud to petal-fall under figure of the century Proud poppies flame with joy at giving den"; devotional, "For All Peo- plant. This play will be reviewed ple" (Isa. 60: 11); plan, with in a later issue. all.
the program committee as gar- 7. Topic, "The W. W. G. and And its summation is in andeners, an original play written C. W. C." (youth organiza- other poem occupying the very tions); devotional, "Growth" last page: by one of the members was given ("The Righteous Shall Flourentitled "A Garden Tour" which ish"-Ps. 92: 12-15; "Grow in My GARDEN Grace"-2 Peter 3: 18); theme, aimed to introduce the year's "Spring Blossoms."· This is an A garden is a lovesome thing, God theme, dedicate the workers and evening meeting at which the wot! artfully interweave with the plot younger groups put on the pro- gram for "a happy church fam- Rose plot, ferned grotthe plans for all subsequent ily gathering." The veriest school of peace; and meetings. This play is of a stew- yet the fool ardship character and general Contends that God is not. application. It closes with the Not God, in gardens, when the eve act of dedication and the singing is cool!
of "Thank God for a Garden." Nay, but I have a sign! 2. Topic, "Civics"; devotion- 'Tis very sure God walks in mine.
al, "Work" ("Sowing the Seed" -Luke 8: 5-8; "His Enemy Came"-Mat. 13: 25-30); plan, to develop the figure of "Weed- The Council of Women for Home Missions ANNE SEESHOLTZ, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK ~'=I= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "It is a glorious company we are keeping "
BRIEF REPORT OF MRS. MILLARD L. ROBINSOK like the happy young Christians ANNUAL MEETINGS President. Council of Women for of old we must go out to turn the Home Missions. world upside down. . . . The The Fellowship Supper, on ultimate in personal goodness Monday evening, January 13, is translated into the lives of marked the opening of the an- people." must lead to a divine passion for nual meeting of the Council of the world made good, and con- Women for Home Missions, held "Recently a superintendent versely, no amount of social salin Calvary Baptist C h u I' C h, told us that communist papers Washington, D. C., January 13- were not distributed in the area vation in ethic or law will avail 18, 1936. The Women's Council of the Church of all Nations unless the 'life' is in the indiof the Washington Federation of (Canada). The work in and vidual. . .. It is wonderful to Churches, of which Mrs. B. W. about the center was known as be living in this age when ther·e Meeks is president, helped to being relevant to peace and good- is some acceptance of the social make the occasion a happy and will. In another city where issues of the Gospel! It is a successful one. In the absence crime was rampant, such a of Mrs. Daniel A. Poling, Presi- church was established and the glorious company we are keepdent, who was en route to Aus- daily newspaper printed a re- ing. . . ." The business sestralia and New Zealand, Mrs. port that the mayor had declared Fred S. Bennett, First Vice- crime had decreased fifty per sions followed on Tuesday morn- President, presided and brought cent since the establishment of ing at which Mrs. Millard L. to the group the challenge of the neighborhood house." Robinson was elected President, united effort of the Protestant churches. "The Church in Ac- "If we believe that the Christ- succeeding Mrs. Daniel A. Poltion for Social Ideals" was life cannot be made regnant in ing, whose term of office had exgraphically presented by Mrs. an un-Christ-like world, then pired. The election of the new Kenneth D. Miller, of Madison, New Jersey. She paid special [145 ] Associate Members of whom sevtribute to Elizabeth Fry, "a eral were present, the hearty engreat Christian woman who be- dorsement of the new Joint Comlieved that Christ must reign in mittee on Young People's Work all of life." "The Church in Action on Social Issues" was fur- of the Home Missions Councils, ther illustrated by report of spe- the authorization of a Commiscific programs by Miss Edna B. Beardsley of the Protestant sion on the Liquor Problem, and Episcopal Church, Mrs. C. Max- the participation of c h u r c h well Loveys of the United women in Peace Action were Church of Canada, and Mrs. J. outstanding considerations. W. Downs of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Excerpts The Joint Committee on Infrom the evening's talks: dian Work of the Home Missions Councils had arranged a Fellow- "We find a social conscience ship Supper. Dr. Thomas Jesse has been developed which enables the Church to begin to put Jones, of the Phelps Stokes into practice that which it has Fund, presided. During the taught and for which it has had a program over a period of fifty course of his remarks Dr. Jones years. . . . A program does not spoke of the oft-discussed word, seem of very great value until it missionary: "Some people say, give up the word 'missionary.' At one time I may have said it myself. But since then I have seen missionaries in action on the firing line in all parts of the world and I would no more say give up the word 'missionary' than I would say give up the word, 'mother.''' It was a great joy to have as the principal speaker Reverend Vine Deloria, volunteer agencies, we shall be erages are of real concern to all young now at work on the Pine Ridge laying a foundatio~ which in people within and without the Church. Reservation in South Dakota, years to come will bring us much This is also an important phase of our nearer to the gaining of social the son of the first native min- ideals which are the basis of a task. ister of the Episcopal Church Christian civilization." We realize that we should be doing among the Sioux Indians. He is a graduate of St. Stephen's Col- Three days of the Annual more to help students to relate themlege and of the General The- Meetings were devoted to a Na- selves to the Christian program in ological Seminary. Mr. Deloria tional Conference on the Rural America. Church, planned by the two said that he came to the meeting Home Missions Councils and the We confess our neglect in providing as an example of the product of Federal Council of Churches of helpful Christian contacts with the Christ. The Conference was many foreign students in America and Christian education rather than outstanding in many respects feel that this should have a more imas a speaker, but the intimate and the 257 paid registrations portant emphasis in the home mis- represented eighteen religious sions program. glimpses of the life of an Indian bodies from thirty states and boy in school and college, sur- Canada. The Findings will be Many existing organizations and rounded by boys of another race, available soon upon payment of movements are doing work in fields $1.00 to cover cost of printing. mentioned above and we suggest closer and then of the problems of a cooperation with such agencies. . . . young Indian minister among The next Annual Meetings of the Home Missions Councils will We believe that we as young peohis own people, gave to all who be held January 1937 in Cin- ple's workers should be informed on heard him a new understanding cinnati, Ohio, with emphasis on the activities of the National Youth the Home Missions Task in the Administration, National Youth Conof the deepest needs of the race. city. gress and National Education Associ- His great appreciation of the ation, etc. life and work of Bishop Hare, OUR TASK WITH YOUTH as he brought the knowledge of In the accomplishing of our task as Youth within the Church- a whole, we realize the importance of Christ to the Dakotas, was in- youth without the C h u r c h – adult education and the cooperation of spiring and encouraging to all Christian youth in action-youth the pastors. . . . workers among the Indian who ought to be in Christian ac- tivity. All of these groups were International Relations is the people. considered in discussion by the Committee on Young People's subject for the fourth issue of Dr. G. A. Watermulder, of the Work of the Council of Women Program Props, and will be pub- Reformed Church in America, for Home Missions in North lished during the coming year. spoke of the opportunity among America, in annual mee,ting in Washington, D. C., January 12, Attention was called to the Indian Americans for Commu- publications of the Missionary nity Work centering in the local 1936. After a short review of ac- Education Movement. The wide church. Mr. John Collier, Com- use in the past year of the study missioner of Indian Affairs, ad- complishments of the Committee dressed the audience on the im- during the past year, Miss Sue book "Christian Youth in Acportance of the missionary, say- Weddell, the Chairman, wel- tion" and its accompanying maning in part: "I think you will comed discussion of problems ual "What Will You Do About which are a part of the home It?" is most encouraging. These probably find it true that the missions task with youth. . . . should be used by many more groups. The home mission missionaries have been more Growing out of the discussion books for 1936 and 1937 on the important than the governments of these problems the Committee negro, especially "The Story of expressed itself in these find- the American Negro" by Miss in Indian Affairs." ings: Ina Brown deserves special Miss Katharine F. Lenroot, Conscious of the complexity of our study and promotion. task and the seriousness of the obliga- Chief of the Children's Bureau, tions of young PeQple's leaders today Promotion of the WorId Day was the guest speaker at the Mi- we are convinced that several phases of Prayer among young people grant Work Luncheon, at which of the varied missionary program of Mrs. F. S. Bennett presided. the Church in North America deserve has been assigned as a special our special attention. part of ,the work of this commit- She spoke on the subject, "The Migrant Laborer in the Present We deplore the increasing number tee. It is hoped that next year Rural Situation." The tables of young people who are mere wan- there may be close cooperation derers, separated from home, church, in preparing the program and a were attractively decorated with school and employment. We recognize fruits and vegetables, packed by this as an important home mission wider use of it. In the future migrants. Motion pic t u res task. this work among young people is helped to visualize both the life We recognize that the problems to be the concern of a joint comin migrant camps and the con- arising out of the use of alcoholic bev- mittee of the ,two Home Missions structive educational work of the Councils. In this broader coopchurch. In closing Miss Lenroot eration it is hoped that we may said, "If we can go forward in reach a larger number of the these programs together (public youth in the churches of North and private social welfare programs, local, state, and national) America and that this phase of the home mission task may be and establish a sound working more adequately promoted. cooperation between federal gov- NONA M. DIEHL, ernment and states, official and Chairman of the Joint Com- mittee on Young People's Work.
AMERICA against the slum menace was teachers, she realized that
made public. It reads, in part, problem is far from solved, how- Need for Bible Reading as follows: ever, because up to the present time they have graded these Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, Millions of American families have greatly underprivileged children former minister of Broadway for years been forced to live in build- on the same basis as the normal Tabernacle, New York, chal- ings and neighborhoods that are an child, with the result that in lenges Christian Endeavorers acute menace to the welfare of body, some instances the child never with the following statement: mind and spirit, and cast their blight gets promoted and is dejected upon the lives of men and. women and and discouraged to the point of The majority of Christians are luke- little children. . . . Sociological stud- giving up. warm in their Bible study,and the ies offer conclusive evidence that slums majority of those who are not Chris- breed crime. Health surveys have Problems arise where state or' tians do not read the Bible at all. established the undeniable fact that federal workers are employed in But civilization cannot endure with- slum areas are conducive to a higher relief projects. For one thing, out the ideas and ideals which the infant mortality and a much greater it seems unfair to expect volun- Bible was written to proclaim. The incidence of disease. The experience teers to work side by side with Christian Church is doomed if church of religious workers in underprivi- salaried ones. Again, the type workers cease to search the Scrip- leged communities demonstrates the of worker is entirely different in tures, and non-Christian nations will fact that the slum area aggravates most instances. As a rule, to never find the path that leads to life nearly every physical and spiritual ill the state employee, her work is without the guidance of prophets and to which human life is susceptible. a job and she does not care parapostles and the Prince of glory. . . . ticularly about the people among Large numbers of educated men and Gold Dust Lodge whom she serves. women are absolutely ignorant of the Bible. . . . It still holds first place Gold Dust Lodge, Salvation Many college girls are eager among best sellers, but because a Army hostel in New York City to give their summers to migrant Bible is sold it does not follow that for homeless unemployed men, camp service, which will mean it is read. A Bible which is not read celebrated its fourth anniversary much to them in their preparais no Bible at all. Only a Bible which last December. Since its open- tion for useful life. is read becomes a force in the life of ing in 1931, it has served some the world . . . but we release that 60,000 men; it has provided GRETA P. HINKLE. power only as we read and ponder and seven million meals, and 2,500,- incarnate the great truths that are 000 lodging for a night. In adset forth in its pages. dition to this purely physical -The Bible for China.
Clear Out the Slums! service, it has provided educa- Do Millionaires Give Freely? tional activities to rebuild shat- America's largest city has tered morale. Most of the staff A few of them do; most of made a definite step toward slum for these services have been them do not, says the National clearance. The opening of First drawn from those who sought Committee for Religion and Wel- Houses at Avenue A and East refuge at the hostel. fare Recovery, based upon an Third Street, New York, the analysis of the income tax refirst low-cost housing project EDMUND B. CHAFFEE. port. In terms of percentages, built with government funds, The Migrant Problem 32 millionaires contributed on marks what every intelligent the average about 6 per cent of American must hope may be the In the East the laws do not their total income, and about 71;2 beginning of a movement which make it compulsory to educate a per cent of their net taxable in- will go on until every slum in child no matter where he comes come to religious, charitable, the country is eliminated. On from, and as a result the migrant scientific, literary or educational the day of this dedication a na- is left out of the school picture, projects. It is revealed that the tional campaign for the aboli- because he is not a resident; in average taxpayer with less than tion of slums and for increased the West, the child must be edu- $5,000 taxable income contrib- federal help to promote low-cost cated where he is, and so we find uted about 11;2 per cent of his housing was started at a meet- numerous migrant schools. One total income, or less than 1% ing of the National Public Hous- county in California has 11 such per cent of his net taxable in- ing Conference in New York. migrant schools with 30 teach- come.
Following the opening of these ers. Upon visiting some of the Taking the nation as a whole, hOUl'leR, an interfaith manifesto schools and interviewing the from the smallest taxpayer to [147 ]
the largest, the figures show a devote to it his entire time dur- Church Boards; care of church total income reported by all ing the three months' period. property. These churches loyally classes of $14,708,558,000, which In the manifesto announcing the agreed to strive to reach at least with deductions of $2,252,296,- plan there is no hint of defeat- some of the objectives the first 000 leaves a net declared taxable ism. The opening statement year. They did reach some of income of $12,456,262,000. If shows a realization of the task· them, and surprisingly few ex- the average citizen had contrib- ahead: emptions were asked.
uted to religious, educational, Forasmuch as an authentic Chris- Increased interest of Indians character-building and charita- tianity is a perpetual act of judgment, in school libraries is noted. The it shall be the object of this Mission language barrier is fast disapble agencies the full 15 per cent, to understand and apply that judg- pearing, for among most of the ment in respect of the individual, the there would have been a total church, and contemporary life, with tribes, English is as familiar to contribution of $1,868,429,000, or nearly two billion dollars courage enough to accept it when it the younger Indians as is the comes to our generation as condemnawhich would have done much to- tion, and humility enough to appro- tongue of their grandparents.
wards obviating our present en- priate it when it comes to us as grace.
forced taxation for relief pur- Two Chinese Missionaries poses. C. V. VICKREY. Fifty Years in New York for U. S. A.
Aid for Students The growth of Presbyterian The Presbyterian Mis s ion work in New York is shown in Home in San Francisco reports The National Youth Adminis- the figures compiled in the office that two Chinese Christian mistration, at a monthly cost of $1,- of New York Presbytery. In sionaries have arrived in Amer- 503,795, provides financial as- the year 1885 there were 41 ica to do intensive evangelistic sistance for 100,532 students in churches; in 1935 there were work for a year. Miss Lan and 1,514 colleges and universities in 61. In 1885 there were 127 min- Miss Hu, of the Bethel Mission forty-six states and Puerto Rico. isters; today there are 187. The in China, will work through the The selection of students to re- membership of the churches was Oriental churches on the west ceive aid is from among those 19,969 in 1885; today it is 33,- coast. They are holding Bible who without this help would be 837. However, 50 years ago the classes for the girls in the Presunable to remain in college. The Sunday school children num- byterian Mission Home, a weekly quota from each college is twelve bered 21,050, while today there community Bible class which per cent of the enrolment. A are only 14,424. The gifts to meets at the same place, and student is permitted to earn as church support have increased classes in the Chinese Church much as $20 each month, but the from $442,025 to $877,664, but and the Hip Woh School (interallotment of funds to each col- the gifts to the boards of the denominational). The yare lege is on the basis of $15 a church have dropped from $237,- speaking before community ormonth for each of twelve per 799 to $164,868. The per capita ganizations and groups of Chicent of its enrolment of full- gifts for church support have nese in smaller towns where time students. New York State increased from $22.13 to $25.94 there is no organized Christian leads with 11,869 students in but the per capita gifts to the work. ninety institutions, receiving mission boards have dropped $178,035 in monthly grants. from $11.91 to $4.86. LATIN AMERICA -Watchman-Examiner. Tourists in Mexico National Preaching Mission Indians Measure Up Miss Margaret Shelby, Pres- byterian educational missionary Announcement has been made Two years ago there was set in Chilpancingo, Mexico, asks of a "National Preaching Mis- before Presbyterian I n d ian why so few out of many Amersion" under the direction of the churches ten goals to be accom- ican tourists visit the missionary Federal Council of Churches, to plished in three years, which, work their churches support. carry through the autumn of after careful study and consul- 1936-from September 13 to De- tation with the workers, ap- She ventures a few reasons: cember 9. The project provides peared to be possible of attain- 1. As a rule Protestant misfor a group of at least ten of ment. These goals are: service sions are small; their chapels "the most convincing interpre- of worship every Sunday; Sun- have little or no architectural ters of the Gospel in Christen- day school every Sunday; young merit and are not advertised in dom" to go together to more people's organization meeting tourist's hotels, guides, bureaus than a score of the major cities every Sunday (ages 15-25); and books. of the nation, remaining at least vacation Bible School, at -least 2. Most tourists travel' for four days in each city, bringing two weeks; women's missionary recreation and often the more their message in manifold ways society meeting monthly; week- pagan the recreation the more to the ge n era I public, the day Bible School; payment of romantic. churches and special groups. presbyterial, synodical and Gen- 3. The religious-minded tour- The Mission will be headed by eral Ass e m b I y assessments; ist may argue: "There's so much Dr. E. Stanley Jones, who will monthly payments toward pas- to see and I can't take in every- tor's salary; contribution to the thing. I can read about missions
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
in my church paper when I get ported: "From Cape Gracias to read it until the cover was worn home. I couldn't understand a Bilwaskarma about ninety per off and he had it bound in oil- Spanish service anyway." cent of the houses are down, cloth. As his little farm is off It is a privilege to visit these from Bilwaskarma to Keplapine the beaten trail, the years have centers of missionary endeavor about fifty per cent have been passed without his ever having in Mexico. Some sad conditions destroyed. All the banana trees seen a missionary. It was a joy will startle but some faces of are blown down or washed to kneel with him in prayer. really converted people will glad- away." The workers write His prayer was a series of quoden. When you travel in Aztec bravely that their work "does tations from the Scriptures." Land, bring your Christianity not depend on banana farms but In Trinidad and be real missionaries during on the grace of God, and that your visit. An example of Sab- grace will not fail so long as we The Mission of the United bath observance, of joy in Chris- are faithful to our charge." The Church of Canada specializes in tian living, of interest in the British Mission Board has sent educational work among the Lord's work, of brotherly friend- from its Emergency Fund a sum 125,000 East Indians who live liness, will be of tremendous of £50, to aid in reconstruction. on the island of Trinidad. More value to Mexicans. One Chris- -Moravian Missions. than 20,000 East Indian children tian lady who visited Cuerna- West Indies Mission Center attend the schools of this misvaca and other places felt such , sion, which the colonial govan interest in helping the women of Mexico that she is supporting Santo Domingo's New Prot- ernment cooperates in maintaina Mexican worker." estant Church house and mission ing. The school buildings are headquarters is nearly com- also used for evangelistic work. Bible Reading Increases pleted. The auditorium, the tower, the offices for adminis- An East Indian Church has been Costa Rica celebrates the third trative work and the rooms for established, and teachers and centenary of a little stone Vir- religious education have been preachers are being trained for gin, eight inches long, which the completed. The part of the their respective callings. -United Church Record.
priests say fell down from building that is intended for a Deplorable Conditions book store and university center heaven and was officially elected remains uncompleted. The build- If South America is "The "Patron and Protector of the ing is centrally located and Neglected Continent," Ceara in Nation." Notwithstanding this, splendidly a d apt e d to the northern Brazil should be called churches of the mission. In the neglected state of the negthe three different c h u r c h e s some ways it is the most attrac- lected continent. Morals are of which have been built in its tive church building in the West the lowest, fanaticism and ignohonor, one after another' have Indies. It has cost about $40,- rance most intense, according to 000, all of which was contrib- a worker of the Evangelical been totally destroyed by earth- uted four years ago during the Union of South America, Rev. quakes. Perhaps because of this, campaign following the hurri- E. Haugh. The capital of Ceara increasing numbers of people cane. is Fortaleza, on the Atlantic are procuring Bibles, and going coast, with a population of 180,- Bibles in Ecuador 000. In the city are three Protto hear the Word preached, re- estant churches. Next to the ports the National Bible Society A hundred years ago an Eng- of Scotland. -Alliance Weekly.
Distress in Nicaragua lishman, James Thomson, took a capital the largest center is stock of New Testaments to Sobral, with perhaps 50,000 peo- A second catastrophe has be- Ecuador. During his t h r e e ple. It is also the -center of fallen the work of the American weeks' stay he sold 360 Testa- Roman fanaticism. A Pente- Provinces of the M 0 r a v ian ments, in four days in Guayaquil, costal worker went there two Church on the northern coast of 738. Last year 27,068 Gospels, years ago to preach on the pub- Nicaragua. A few years ago Testaments and Bibles were sold lic square and the persecution this field suffered depredation in Ecuador by the British and was so intense that he preached and partial destruction through Foreign and the American Bible the Gospel surrounded by some the inroads of bandits, and one Societies. Four colporteurs have sixteen armed soldiers who held missionary was foully murdered. worked faithfully with the mis- back the angry mob. Nothing Then the work of reconstruction sionaries in circulating God's was established there. In the was taken in hand and a for- Word. In addition to the 27,068 whole state there is only one misward movement initiated; a books, which is approximately sionary (a Pentecostal) apart well-equipped hospital became a the number sold yearly, 25,000 from the workers of the E. U. center of new activity; lost blue Pocket Testaments have S. A., who have all come reground was more than recov- been distributed, mostly free, cently. There are five of them, ered. during the past five years. also two ordained native work- Recently, a hurricane struck A correspondent tells of meet- ers in Ceara, one a Presbyterian, with an .80-mile per hour veloc- ing an old man who had bought the other a Baptist. ity. An aeroplane survey re- a Bible ten years ago. "He had -The Neglected Continent.
Faithful Brazilian Christians invited Dr. Howard to come and years been finding difficulty in lecture here; he laid aside other carrying on its excellent work in The Sunday School Times plans and came; he also con- India at full strength. The Somentions s eve r a I Brazilian quered. I have never seen any- ciety felt that a substantial part Christians who are Kingdom thing like it in Asunci6n. The of the overhead expenses at builders in their home land. Dr. theater and school auditorium home could be made more avail- P'aul Sarmento directs a school have been packed. He is doing able for work in the field through at Rio Grande do Norte, where a wonderful work, the kind of union with another society, and some 300 young boys are sent to thing that needs to be done just that it ought to contemplate surlearn trades. He is a layman, now." rendering its separate existbut serves the local church of ence for the sake of the larger 250 members and preaches After one of Dr. Howard's ad- interests of the work. The name whenever necessary. He is also dresses on "What Is Success?" proposed is "The Church of superintendent of the Sunday the principal of the Normal England Zenana Missionary Soschool and does evangelistic School said to him: "I have re- ciety." work in open-air meetings. solved henceforth to seek that higher success." The Presi- McAll Mission Program Samuel Falcao is an active dent of Paraguay, Dr. Ayala, minister and editor of adult Sun- after he had listened in on the Of France's 40,000,000 people day school lessons. He has radio talk, said: "We need the only about a million and a half coached six or seven Presby- message that you bring. Come are Protestants. The native terian laymen for preaching, in- back next year and help us Protestant Church has been destructing them in Bible, homi- again." pleted by centuries of perseculetics and Portuguese three tion, and cannot hope to reach times a week, a sort of private EUROPE all the millions of unchurched Bible Institute. and unbelieving working people Children's Missionary Society of France without help, espe- Rev. Aminadab Continho is a cially in the face of communism's Brazilian Baptist w 0 r kin g The Children's Special Serv- rapid spread. among the Parintintin Indians, ice Mission has been called the five hundred miles up the Ma- Children's Missionary Society. From its simple beginning in deira River. Last year he lost Village missions are conducted 1872 the McAll Mission has all he had in a steamer fire. The in twenty-four counties of Eng- grown to a vast religious enter- Parintintin Indians are one of land the year round. Evan- prise. It has eighteen stations, the most savage tribes known, gelists are busily engaged in of which five are in Paris and and much given to cannibalism. bringing children to the Saviour the remainder in the larger In a short time he had a school in India, Ceylon, Australasia, towns, five vacation colonies for started with forty-three pupils, Canada, South Africa, Japan children, and a bookstall and and this year has opened another and elsewhere; it is hoped to dispensary vans in the Paris school on an adj acent island, send workers to the Holy Land, area. The program includes using a tenth from his meager to East and West Africa, to services at all its stations, at salary to pay its teacher. China and other lands. More street corners, fairs, markets than 800,000 C. S. S. M. mem- and on river banks. For adults Senhor Antenorzinho was an bers are reading a daily Bible there are weekly classes and disearnest Catholic who became portion. Membership cards are cussion groups, and for the chilalienated from his church by the issued in about 90 languages. dren Sunday and Thursday gambling and bad conduct of his schools and daily vacation Bible priest. He became an ardent -The Christian. schools. There are clubs for all evangelist and Sunday school ages. Visiting nurse-evangelists superintendent. He is now pas- Two Steps in Cooperation help the sick, and the poor are tor of a church of seventy mem- given food, clothing and underbers. The Religious Tract Society of standing friendship. Colpor- London, whose history dates teurs distribute leaflets and sell New Spirit in Paraguay from the 18th century, has Bibles throughout the country. united with the Christian Litera- The work is carried on by A new spirit that has taken ture Society for India and French leaders, but support is possession of Paraguay is shown Africa. The union has adopted international. by some remarkable meetings the title of "The United Society held by Dr. George P. Howard, for Christian Literature." -The Life of Faith. evangelist of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America to Another step in cooperation Giving Spain the Bible educated classes, who has been has been taken by the Zenana having unusual experiences in Bible and Medical Mission and A Scripture Gift missionary various parts of South America. the Church of England Zenana for 41 years in Spain writes: Dr. Arthur E. Elliott, presi- Missionary Society, who have dent of Colegio Internacional at during the past year been stead- I have never before seen such a de- Asuncion, Paraguay, writes: ily pursuing joint conference sire on the part of the people to hear "The day peace was declared I with a view to incorporation. the Gospel and to read Gospel litera- The former society has for some
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ture. 'l'here are enemies and some are porting from funds freely con- far there are 3,893 Christians. bitter, chiefly the priests and the Communists, who are increasing. But tributed by members. On the Only in the Cape Country can it other hand, the state Protestant be said that the missionary work many are shaking off the yoke of the Church of Rome who have not yet churches and the Cat h 0 1i c is finished. There is already a gone over to atheism; and we feel churches have their buildings native church with 10 congregathe burden of reaching this class during the present liberty, the duration erected and their pastors sup- tions having about 20,000 memof which is very uncertain. ported from government moneys bers.
In one of the villages visited reg- raised through taxation. Baptists in Prague ularly was a lad who five months ago -The Christian Advocate. went inland in search of work, taking The largest Baptist church in with him a Bible and a New Testa- The Rhenish Mission Czechoslovakia is the one at ment and all the portions he had been Prague, which last year celeable to obtain from our workers. He The society was formed more brated its jubilee. It began in has now returned, telling how the than a century ago, in 1828 by people gathered round him every eve- the merger of four similar so- 1855 with a membership of 17; ning to hear him read the Word of cieties. The society sends its during the fifty years, 842 per- God to them, and to explain as best messengers to six different he was able the portion he had read. fields: Africa, the Cape Province sons have been baptized. The When he came away, he left his New and Southwest Africa; Dutch present membership is 313, Testament with them, and they begged East India, the Batak lands of him to leave a Bible also. He says Sumatra, the Island of Nias and under the pastoral care of Rev. they nearly persuaded him to do so, the Mentawei Islands; South J. Tolar. On four occasions the but he felt he really could not give up China: the Canton Province. As his Bible. a result of the war two fields, church has dismissed 1a r g e groups of members to form -Scripture Gift Mission. other churches.
– Watchman-Examiner.
Ohurches in the Home viz. Ovamboland and Borneo, Light in Albania A writer in the Presbyterian were transferred to other Ger- In 1928 Albania, delivered Banner says that one of the man societies and in 1933, New from the Turk, became a kingtouching features in the life of Guinea to the American Luth- dom. This country was the anthe Confessional Church in Ger- eran Church. In 1935 the en- cient Illyricum of which Paul many is the holding of public wrote (Rom. 15: 19). After worship in private houses, when tire number of missionaries was coming under the iron hand of a community has been deprived 228, among whom 79 were or- Islam, illiteracy was forced of its church. An attendant at dained, 22 lay and 43 sisters as upon them and their mother such a place of worship writes: tongue banned. "There was no trace there of they style the women missiondepression on account of the con- aries! As might be expected, when tinuous persecutions; on the suddenly brought in touch with contrary, the people felt very The mission supports 1,000 the modern world, Albania now clearly that it was the divine congregations in 72 stations. In has a bewildering medley of new will that they should return to ideas. Education is no longer the early Christian institution of all there are 546,922 native tabu. Western customs, costhe church in the house." Christians and 20,000 inquirers. tumes, transports invade her There are 762 lower schools, 9 chief centers. Two Scripture high schools and three training schools for teachers and helpers.
There is also an industrial school in Sumatra and two in Africa, in Methodists Not Molested which young people are trained Gift Mission workers have re- in Germany in various industrial pursuits. cently been itinerating from Medically the mission can place to place, courteously pre- The Hitler Government has point to 4 large hospitals with 6 senting a Gospel to everyone not interfered with the work of doctors, 13 secondary hospitals over seventeen who could read. the Methodist Episcopal Church and 3 institutions for lepers and To peasant and official, soldier in Germany, except that its the blind. and priest, prisoner in jail and young people's societies have The mission faces great tasks: busy shopkeeper in the market, had to disband, like all other one half of the 100,000 Colored the Scriptures were freely given young people's organizations. inhabitants of Southwest Africa and immediately read by num- There are 55,000 Methodists in are unchristianized. T h r e e bers of people as they walked the Germany. The Central Confer- fourths of the Batak people have streets. One of the workers ence of Germany is recognized not yet found the way to Christ. wri'tes: "God has enabled us to by the Reich as the church's Of the 170,000 Nias islanders complete this task of spreading highest legislative body, and it there are as yet only 108,000 His Word throughout Albania. enacts legislation in accordance Christians (although even that Two months have been devoted with the accepted Discipline of is a splendid success). In the to this work. We rejoice to Mentawei Islands, 19,000 are know that the Gospel – the Methodism.
The reason for the Govern- still waiting for Christianity. Of words of the Lord Jesus Christ ment's attitude toward Method- the five million Chinese who live – has e n t ere d into homes ism is that its churches are not in the field occupied by the mis- throughout the len g t hand tax-supported, but are self-sup- sion in the Canton province, so breadth of this country. We
have given out 20,100 Albanian tribes in North Nigeria, there Kpata has been left rather badly Scripture booklets, 1,002 Al- are still ninety unreached, while off herself.
banian Gospels, 390 Foreign many of the others are only The man in charge of the work Gospels, 145 Albanian Bible por- touched, and may still be called at Kpata was, in his teens, tions, and 30 New Testaments, "unevangelized tribes." Mr. also about 1,500 Scripture leaf- Playfair has been in the Sudan driven from home by his father lets in foreign I a n g u age s because of his loyalty to Christ. Interior Mission for twenty-four (mainly Greek, A r a b i c and years. Today, the workers num- Now he is beloved and respected by heathen, Moslem and Chris- Turkish) ." ber 270; the stations, about 50. tian. When questioned about Some stations may be called old, his spiritual experience he said AFRICA but in the very oldest, people are that he always seems to see the only beginning to res p 0 n d. Swedish Missionaries Work is now being opened in Cross of Christ before him. Ordered Out several totaIly unreached areas. The Bible has been translated New Life in Angola The Missionstidning fOr Fin- land reports that the mission- into many native dialects of In a small African village aries of the Fosterlandsstiftfel- Nigeria. -The Evangelical about thirty miles from Dondi, Christian. sen, a Swedish missionary asso- in Angola, a week-end confer- ciation, have been ordered out of ence of Christians was held their four stations of the society Protestantism in the Congo under the direction of one of the native pastors. From surroundin Italian Somaliland and Eri- After fifty years of mission- ing villages many came to distrea. The exclusion order was cuss the affairs of the Kingdom issued in November although ary effort there are now forty- and attend the meetings which the missionaries were not guilty three p.rotestant organizations were rich in inspiration. Fortyof any misconduct but always working in the Belgian Congo eight young men and young maintained a strictly loyal atti- women were baptized into the tude toward the Italian Govern- and Ruanda Urundi; with 199 membership of the Christian ment. stations, 900 missionaries, 238,- Church by Pastor Chilulu. The Do:ndi Church (including out- The missionaries were given 807 adult baptized church mem- stations) has a membership of only a week to prepare for the bers, 275,935 adult adherents, over 5,000, and is increasing unexpected trip home. They and 13,058 native Christian pas- year by year. were not allowed, on reaching Rome, to confer with the Swed- tors, evangelists and teachers. -United Church Record. ish embassy. Added to these There are more than 10,000 stadifficulties were the restrictions tion and village s~hool chapels, The Blind in South Africa on taking money out of the coun- with over 330,000 daily pupils in try. At the Brenner Pass they It is said that one in every were relieved of some of their the schools. The total Protestant community exceeds a million.
-London Missionary Herald.
funds on the assertion that they A Christian Center of Power thousand in the South Africa constituted one family and there- Union is blind, yet there is no fore were not allowed to carry The C. M. S. Outlook records governmental provision for the all the funds which they had in that Kpata, in the Basa district, adult blind, as in many other hand. has a remarkable record as a countries. Their care is solely At the station stops in Italy Christian center. It is a small in the hands of private agencies the mob vented its hatred on village where pioneer work was like the South Africa National them as "sanctionists" and started about forty-five years Council for the Blind. This "Abyssinians." The mission au- ago, and the first Christians had Council seeks to be truly nathorities regard this as the to face much persecution. The tional. Considerations of race severest blow that has struck first three converts all became or color do not exist, the Council teachers and are still active to- holding itself ready to serve the their work for many years. day. This little village has sup- interests of all South African The Fosterlandsstiftelsen still blind people. The record of has about twenty missionaries plied no less than thirty teach- work accomplished during the at their posts in Abyssinia; but ers who have gone to other dis- past six years includes many inthe news from the scene of the tricts to witness for Christ. stances in which the Council has war makes their stay there ques- been able to assist Colored and tionable. Three of the four sons of the Bantu blind people as well as the late king of the tribe are Chris- Hans. The eldest volunteered Pioneering in Nigeria for service in the distant Brda European community. There district, the next is a C. M. S. are educational facilities for Rev. Guy W. Playfair, of the teacher in this district, and the every blind child whose parents Sudan Interior Mission, says third is warden of the church in will take advantage of them. that strictly speaking every mis- Kpata. In fact, so many of her The Council is also urging govsion in Northern Nigeria is a sons have gone to spread the ernment legislation to provide "pioneer mission." Of the 240 Gospel in regions beyond that for the welfare of the blind, and
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
to stimulate the employment of tional Hebrew blessing at in- Three Days' JoUTney employable blind. -The South African augural occasions, which means for a Bible Outlook. "blessed art thou who hast pre- served us." Rev. Charles W. Posnett, of WESTERN ASIA Medak, Nizam's Dominions, tells Saloniki Secures Church -Alliance Weekly. of a woman who traveled three days, with her husband and chil- INDIA AND SIAM dren, through the most danger- Building Hinduism Looks at Life ous part of the Tiger Jungle to secure a Bible. About fifty Armenian families The Rev. D. A. Yardi, Indian were living in Saloniki before clergyman at Po 0 n a, says: Years ago she had attended >t the World War. After the evac- "Hinduism has put on Christian Christian school, but when she was uation of Cilicia in 1921, and the spectacles, and is looking at life married she had been taken away to Smyrna catastrophe in 1922, a through them." Regarding the her husband's home in the very heart remnant of the Armenians liv- India of today he writes: of the tiger jungle. Alas, no one had ing in Turkey fled to the hos- given her a Bible, and when our pitable shores of Greece. An India is rapidly changing, politi- pioneer evangelists visited her village, estimated 40,000 crossed the cally, socially and spiritually. . . . it had been like an angel visit, and, lEgean, settling in different What has really taken hold of India in spite of her poverty, she had enterparts of this country; five thou- today is not Mahatma Gandhi, nor tained them most joyfully. When she sand coming as destitute refu- Christianity, but the Lord Jesus heard of my coming, she persuaded gees to this apostolic city. Christ. Even illiterate Hindus are her husband to harness their pair of Among these Armenians are one realizing that their religion has had bulls to the little cart, and with all hundred Evangelical families its day, and that there is a reality, a the family she started out with the from thirty-four different locali- dynamic force in Jesus Christ which evangelists on a three days' journey. ties, mostly from the region of they can no longer ignore. What In- When she met me her first request the Seven Churches of Asia dian Christians need at present is was for a Bible to teach her children, Minor. Besides the Armenian strengthening and consolidation. It and a teacher for her village. She population, it is estimated that is towards this that missionary effort had taught her children the few and finance must in some measure be hymns she remembered, and she gave directed if we wish the banner of a most touching witness before all the Christianity to go forward. We de- crowd of inquirers who had gathered.
-The Life of Faith.
60,000 Jews live in Saloniki; sire to be "strong in the Lord and in A Traveling Ashram and in New Greece, 105,000 the power of His might." Mohammedans. Most of the Camping in bungalows or -C. M. S. Outlook.
refugees are the poorest of the Teachers Needed in tents, carrying cots and some poor. Seeing the urgent need Aurangabad food, the William Hazens, Amerof these Armenian Evangelicals ican Board missionaries, of for a church home, a committee The number of inquirers in Sholapur, India, have what they of the American Board began the Aurangabad dis t ric t of call an "infield" and an "outthree years ago to seek funds Western India is taxing the field" which they cover in their for the purpose. The Board available C. M. S. forces to teach "traveling ashram." The "in- them. In one month over a hun- field" includes 30 villages near gave $2,000 and an additional dred names were sent in from Sholapur and the "outfield" $2,500 was secured by the local four new villages, and at each about 250 at more distant center a worker was needed to points. Between June and N0church and friends far and near. prepare them for baptism. The vember the Hazens traveled over A building was purchased, and only way of responding to these 600 miles working in these vil- lages. Their party consists of some alterations will be needed. calls is by moving teachers from Mr. and Mrs. Hazen, Mr. and The upper story provides a home other villages where they had Mrs. Namdev, an Indian teacher been engaged in similar work. training for the ministry, Lalaji, for the pastor and his family, The people are in desperate blind musician and pr~acher, straits to maintain a bare exist- and Pir Mohammed the cook, while below are rooms, for the ence, and cannot contribute Orthodox Moslem who neverthepresent used for church services, less sings Christian h y m n s Sunday school, and for gather- much toward a church. All chil- lustily. Sometimes there is ings of young people. The dren in the schools are taught to Miss Helen Bjornstad, R.N., learn and repeat verses from the grounds surrounding the build- Bible. One missionary tells of ing are large enough for groups of children, who gather from time to time for games or athletics.
Hebrew Telegraph Service stopping at a village to inspect who in her temporary "hospital" a school, without having given under a tent cures many dis- The first telegram ever sent in previous notice of his coming. eases, and the story of whose Classic Hebrew was dispatched He was astonished to see what "healing hands" spreads far and recently. from Jerusalem, on the knowledge of the Bible and of wide.
occasion of the opening of a He- the Bible story was displayed Bengal Baptist Mission brew telegraph service. The by some dozen boys who were first word sent over the wires baptized only a short time be- The newly formed Bengal was "Shehechianu," the tradi- fore. -The Life of Faith. Baptist Union undertakes all
responsibility for Christian Mission, a German group already of the paper always goes to the work except in the case of one carrying on medical and evan- Dalai Lama at Lhasa. or two institutions; as well as gelistic work there,' and the the financial resources hitherto Kiulungkiang station came again -The Christian. controlled by the Baptist Mis- under the Siam Mission. Siasionary Society. European mis- mese evangelists are at work in CHINA sionaries may of course be mem- the area, and from Chiengmai, bers of the Union, if they hap- in northern Siam, medical and Christianity in Everyday Life pen to be elected by the votes of other trips have been made into their Indian brethren. the new-old field. The following story of Chris- tian courage is worth retelling: This reorientation of policy is Winning the Tibetans the direct outcome of the work A Japanese pastor, a man of great of missionaries of a .'previous Rev. Walter Asboe, Moravian evangelistic gifts, attended some spegeneration, particularly that of missionary to Tibet, is stationed cial meetings for the deepening of the Rev. William Carey. It was at Kyelang on the Tibetan bor- spiritual life, and became conscious the keynote of their policy as der but actually in the Punjab, that there were various things in his missionaries that the Mission as entering Tibet is forbidden. life which were not right in God's should decrease and that the But the people he works among sight. Especially did one "small" sin Church should increase, and in Kyelang are Tibetans. He trouble him. The family had gone to that in course of time all Chris- describes them as friendly – a sale at a department store, and on tian work should b e com e when you get to. know 'them. returning they found that they had church-centric, not mission-cen- "But," he says, "the first thing one article too many. The parents let tric. a foreigner has to do is to prove the children play with it, and it got that he is there for their good, dirty, so they took no steps to restore The Union hopes also to ex- and is not responsible for rough it. The thought of this thing was like tend the principle of union into weather, sickness, disease among a knife in the pastor's conscience, the a wider field, bringing all Bap- their flocks, and every other strongest among a number of things tists in India, America, Aus- trouble. . Medical knowledge is that the Holy Spirit was showing him. tralia and New Zealand into a a great asset, and while I am Next morning he went off to the store Federation. not a doctor, I can extract teeth with the money to pay for the article, less 'painfully than the black- and explained to the girl from whose -International Christian smith, and I have worked what counter it had come. She conducted Press. they consider to be miracles him to the head office on the top story. under amesthetic." Here his name and address were de- An Outpost for Siam manded. He returned home feeling Mr. Asboe has more ways very uncomfortable. Later, a special There are now 78 American than one of presenting the Gos- representative from the store arrived Presbyterian mISSIOnaries in pel message. For example, he at his house with a present done up Siam, and a national staff of 402 has adopted the Buddhist meth- in the usual elaborate Japanese style. working in 11 stations strung od of carving on the rocks by The firm was so delighted with such out through this long, narrow the wayside. The Buddhist an example of honesty that it wished country over a distance as great carvings are prayers which, if a to show appreciation. as from New York to St. Louis. man so much as passes, with This force of 480 workers car- the writing on his right side, During the next few days the pastor ries on medical, evangelistic and are credited to him as said. If, set some other things right, and his educational w 0 r k, not only however, he passes them on his radiant witness to Christ's power thrbugh 21 hospitals and dispen- left side, they become to him started a flood of blessing at the meetsaries and many 0 r g ani zed curses. Mr. Asboe employs ings and in his own church. On the churches and groups now car- Buddhist lamas to do his rock following Sunday he spoke with such ried on under the Church of carving, and to distinguish the power that the whole congregation Christ in Siam, and in 60 schools, Christian texts from the Bud- was greatly stirred, and asked for but through many informal con- dhist prayers, he prefixes each further teaching. One woman of the tacts in the daily round of duties. one with a cross. He also pub- congregation, at great cost to herself, lishes a Christian newspaper- proceeded to set right something in During 1935 the Kiulungkiang on a cyclostyle – and sen d s her own life which was wrong, and station of the Yunnan Mission in copies to the lamaseries. Copies in so doing witnessed to many non- China was returned to the Siam go, too, to the head man of el:!,ch Christians who were greatly impressed Mission, of which it was origi- village, who, perhaps in order to by her earnestness. nally a part. The people in this show off his learning calls the area are racially and geograph- villagers together and reads it -C. M. S. Outlook. ically a part of the Tai people of to them. The newspaper connorthern Siam, although politi- tains news of current events Forum of the Church cally they are Chinese. When and articles on hygiene, as well the Yunnan Mission was dis- as religious articles. One copy The thirteen societies which solved, March 31, 1935, the for- are cooperating with the Church mer Yuankiang s tat ion was of Christ in China are repreturned over to the Vandsburger sented by more than 1,100 mis- sionaries who contribute their services to the promotion of the Church's life and work. The one objective of all is the building up of a vigorous, indigenous Chi- nese Church, self-supporting, self-governing and self-propa- gating. Naturally, many ques- tions arise, such as the relation- ship of the missionary and the
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Church, the administration of its current budget. A number more vaccinations were attended mission grants, the most effec- of new buildings are being to in one afternoon. -Presbyterian News. tive ways· of cooperation. To erected, including a mod ern keep societies and missionaries gymnasium building for the In Chinese Turkestan acquainted with matters and in- University Middle School and a cidents of interest and impor- new library building for which Throughout the Union of So- viet Socialist Republics there is tance, it has been found helpful 2,000 yuan in Government bonds to issue a Bulletin, in which no liberty for the proclamation church and mission leaders have has been received, with the pros- of the Gospel, or for the circulaan opportunity to express their tion of the Christian Scriptures. pect of another 100,000. varied convictions, and to profit That pertains wherever the by the experiences of widely Eleven colleges and universi- Soviet influence is dominant. scattered groups. This Bulletin Outer Mongolia, once open to the is called The Church, and is is- ties of Christian missionary sued occasionally from Peiping Gospel, is now closed. The sit- origin in China have gained in uation in Chinese Turkestan to-' by the Secretarial of the Gen- day is exceedingly delicate. All eral Assembly.-The Church. student enrolment a total of 244 letters of the missionaries are students, in comparison with a year ago. -World Call.
Short-Term Schools Students and Religion A short-term school for wom- censored, and they dare not en is held annually in many write freely. For the same rea- A Chinese speaker, in a meet- parts of China, preferably in son it is not possible to publish ing of the Council of Higher anything about their difficulties. Education last year, said that the fall after rice harvest. Any Christians are imprisoned, and woman' is eligible-':'Christian or the attitude of students toward missionaries are beset with per- Christianity had passed through non-Christian, rich or poor, edu- ils. Their work has to be carried three distinct phases. From cated or uneducated, and there on without publicity. 1922 to 1927 they were opposed is no age limit. There are some- times pupils 70 and 80 years of -China's Millions.
-at times violently opposed- age. The school is in session Many Nationalities in to Christianity. From 1928 to for 12 days, and the women lead 1930 was a period of compara- Manchuria tive indifference. From 1931 to a strenuous life during that pethe present was a period of open- riod; they take their studies At Harbin, there was recently more seriously than the ordinary held a Christian religious servmindedness never before seen in school girl. Even' during the· ice of many nationalities, and China. This openmindedness, in periods assigned for recreation attended by over a thousand his judgment, was due to the one may see groups of women people. Among the attendants busily studying. Many who were Chinese, Japanese, Korfact that in the serious crisis could not previously read a char- eans, Russians, Germans, Poles, which China is facing, the stu- acter are now able to read their English, Americans, Canadians,. Bible. The importance of a French, Lithuanians and Latdents feel helpless, humiliated Christian home is strongly em- vians. Three languages were and desperate. They turn their phasized. used – Chinese, Russian and attention to religion which re- English – for nearly everyone -The Living Church. present could understand one of cently they condemned; and as these. Pastor Liang, of the Chi- . to its type students demand a Medical Cooperation nese Lutheran Church, and Rev. religion that can be emotionally, Chikmaroff, of the Harbin Moli- The C. M. S. and the Presby- kan Church, read Scripture passocially and intellectually ex- terian Mission combined last sages referring to the unity of pressed. Three factors explain year in Hangchow in holding believers in Christ and to the this demand: government cen- clinics in chapels in towns where there is poor medical service. sorship, economic depression and the challenge of communism.
-Presbyterian Tribune.
New High in Enrolment Two such clinics have been held complete building up of the at Lin Bin, and three at Kyien Church in Christ. The Japanese Nanking University has the Gyao. Dr. Goodwin preached to pastor spoke on "The Unity of largest enrolment in its history the waiting patients, after which Christ in All Nations."
-1,806. Of private universi- the Chinese doctor would give a There was a spirit of real fel- ties in China, Nanking stands health talk. The patients, hav- lowship. Those present be- seventh in student enrolment; ing been registered, would then lieved that such a meeting would first in the number of staff and be passed in one at a time to the not only be to the glory of God, faculty; second in the number doctors, and then to the nurses but assist in fostering a broth- of teaching staff; first in the if dressings were needed, and to erly spirit between the peoples number of departments; third the pharmacist to "buy" their of this region, whose political in the number of courses; first medicine at ten coppers for prac- relations have been strained. in equipment and laboratory ap- tically any prescription, this be- Furthermore it deepened the paratus; second in number of ing the only charge made. As faith and fortitude of many.
books in the library; fourth in high as 140 patients and forty or -The Bible for China.
JAPAN -CHOSEN the A mer i can Board from ing, the Bible and Christian among the mIssIOnaries in hymns. The school has already Christianity Growing Japan. This Commission is to proved a success and has a hope- be thought of as a resident rep- ful future. Dr. Kagawa declares that resentative of the Board, to Christianity is on the increase facilitate direct contacts and to -The Missionary Herald. in Japan today, citing as proof advise the Board on matters of the doubling of the Christian policy and administration in Student Pioneers in Chosen community in the past ten years, Jiapan. The missionaries con- the phenomenal growth of the tinue to have a "Fellowship" Members of the Y. M. C. A. demand for Christian literature, which binds them together for of Chosen Christian College last the expansion of Christian work mutual fellowship and confer- May resolved to give the best in the building up of coopera- ence on common problems. they had to the largest possible tives and the conversion of lead- number of needy people by go- ing government officials, includ- -The Missionary Herald. ing where there were either no ing members of the nobility. churches, or very weak ones. Tokyo's Christian Daily After taking stock of their re- He says that Christianity is sources, these boys decided that taught in many public schools Tokyo has a new daily, Kirisu- they could send out only eight along with Buddhism and Shin- tokyo Shim bun, which claims to men, two men each to four places toism; but more significant is be the first Christian daily in for two or three weeks in July. the fact that these indigenous Japan, and perhaps the first of They selected two islands off the religions are increasingly in- its kind in Asia. An Episcopal west coast of Korea and two in- fluenced by Christianity. Bud- clergyman, the Rev. S. ·Murao, land country villages in south dhists have adopted Christian "Y" secretary, is its sponsor. Korea as most nearly fulfilling hymns, frequently use the Bible, The success of newspaper evan. the conditions they had laid celebrate the festival of Christ- gelism has led to this new ven- down for themselves in their mas, and have even introduced ture which is avowedly Chris- work. In order to fulfil the the cross into certain of their tian. As the Christian commu- whole of the Lord's command to temples. He pleads for more nity in Japan is not numerous, "Go, preach, teach, heal," they workers among the rural pop- the paper must extend its cir- persuaded two students of Sev- ulation and for numerous simple, culation among non-Christians erance Union Medical School to inexpensive schools and churches if it is to survive. If it does, join them, with a supply of which could be used seven days and if in its editorials, news and medicines. a week to reeducate and inspire advertisements, it is who II y the common people who compose guided by the principle, "What On both islands ignorance and so large a part of Japan's pop- would Christ do?" it might con- disease abounded. The people ulation.-The Living Church. ceivably be the greatest mission- were at least one hundred years ary force ever released in Nip- behind the times as compared to Administrative Change in pon.-The Christian Advocate. their fellow countrymen on the American Mission mainland. Ignorance and dis- Church Opens Trade School ease were accompanied by the On January 1st the Japan most primitive notions of reli- Mission of the American Board A little church of 130 mem- gion and the most sordid kind of went out of existence "as an or- bers in Tottori has a struggle to moral standards. No organized ganized legislative and adminis- balance its budget, yet feels religion of any kind was to be . trative body of American Board strongly that its social service found on either island. A sum- missionaries." This does not center must not close. Mrs. mary of the season's work shows mean that the American Board Yura, a fine Christian woman the following encouraging facts: withdraws from Japan, but who runs a successful trade Ten students spent a total of rather that the J a pan e s e school in Okayama where 250 168 days in the work. They churches may recognize their girls make foreign style dresses reached an average of seven or responsibility more fully. From for the department stores, of- eight hundred p eo pIe daily. the first, the churches that grew fered to help the church start a They treated more than 200 pa- up have been self-governing. trade school, to send teachers, tients, and distributed, free of While only half the Kumiai train a business manager, assist charge, about $30.00 worth of Churches are entirely self-sup- in buying materials and selling medicine. About a hundred peo- porting, 80 per cent of the entire the finished dresses; the pro- ple expressed a desire to be membership are in these self- ceeds, after paying expenses,_ to Christians and continue in the supporting churches. go towards the social service fellowship of the Church, Sun- work of the Center. day School and Young Peoples' The functions of the "Japan Societies for the further de- Mission" have now been trans- The local Christians raised velopment of their religious life. ferred to a "Japan Commission 1,000 yen and the school was The total cost of the work was Df the American Board," con- opened in April with 35 pupils, less than $75.00. sisting of three members and an who, besides learning a useful .alternate, appointed directly by trade, are taught cooking, read- -Chosen College Bulletin.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Doctor Saves His Face sought to maintain the best Tongan aeroplane as something extraor- customs and traditions, and to blend dinary, after all the translation In the March, 1935, Korea with them what is good and s~i~~ble of the New Tes,tament into an- Mission Field, we read how one for her people in European clvllIza- other language, is actually an missionary doctor saved his tion. The population has increased event of supreme importance. reputation: and public health is improved. At- tention has been given to the educa- The translator, H e i n ric h Druggist Kim and Druggist Yi were tion of the nation's youth, and selected Zahn, for many years was the exchanging opinions concerning mis- students are sent to schools in Aus- head of the school for missionsionary physicians, as they sat in tralia and New Zealand. ary workers in New Guinea,. Kim's store surrounded by his stock published his first translation of of herbs, deerhorn powder, dried frogs Secure in the loyalty and affection the New Testament in 1924. In and centipedes. "These Western phy- of her people, she reigns with ~ign!ty 1935 he published this new sicians are wonderful surgeons," said and wisdom. She takes an actlve In- translation in the Jabem lan- Yi, "but when it comes to giving medi- terest in all the work of the Church, guage and followed it by a cine they do not know Korean insides and is herself a class leader. translation of the Proverbs of as we do." Solomon. -The Christian Advocate. "I used to think as you do," replied New Guinea presents a great Kim, "but I changed my opinion New Field in New Guinea mixture of languages. It is the lately, and tell you why. You remem- second largest island on earth ber I asked the missionary to buy me Arrangements for sending two and many languages are. spoken one of those wooden hens that hatch missionaries into a section of the there. J abem is a coast laneggs by lamplight. When it came I newly~discovered territory in the guage spoken by a native race was so proud of it I put in front room interior of New Guinea are be- along Finchhaven and points where everybody could see, and start ing made by the Bishop of Mela- near by. When the Neuendetit going. After ten days got tired of nesia, Rev. W. H. Baddeley. An telsau Mission began its work on smell of kerosene burning night and exploratory trip has been made the island the effort was made day, so told servants put it in cellar. by air, to esta,blish friendly con- also to introduce Jabem in the So after full time, by directions the tacts with the people. Bishop neighboring regions where a missionary translated to me, I opened Baddeley has a diocese which similar dialect is spoken. Soon hen and not hear a peep. Waited spreads, in a series of island the language was extended to, three days more, not a peep. I began groups, over a distance of 2,000 the mountain tribes whose lanbelieve I bought American fraud, and miles, and includes New Guinea. guage, however, was Kate, a my wife said, 'I told you so.' He spends most of his time on Papuan language. A grammar the mission ship Southern Cross, and a dictionary of J abem are "I complained to one of hospital but in New Guinea itself travels to be published in the near fuassistants. He say he ask the doc- a good deal by air. "The coun- ture. tor's opinion of wooden hens, if try is so mountainous and diffi~ wooden hens really worked in Amer- cult," he said, "that it takes me The translator has made every ica, and if he thought they would seven days to cover on foot a effort to produce a translation work here even if we could not talk distance which I can do in which carries the very heart and English to them. twenty minutes by air. The air- soul of the Gospel into the lives way companies appreciate the of these people. It means some- "The doctor said, 'Of course they work of the missionaries so well thing, when now in the language will if you treat them according to that they allow us to travel free in which fifty years ago the politeness. Bring me three eggs, so of charge." magician still hurled his curses can examine.' I took him the eggs. and the wild warrior yelled his Breaking them, he said, 'These eggs -The Life of Faith.. battlecries through the plains hatched all right for ten days. What and forests, the language of the did you do the tenth day?' A New Bible Translation New Testament resounds to the salvation of these people. "Then I had to admit I had been so The NeuendeUelsau Mission, impolite as to put wooden hen in the operating in New Guinea, de- C. T. BENZE. cellar that very day. So I have con- votes two numbers of its journal, cluded a man who knows that much the Freimund, to the discussion Fijian Methodist Celebration about the insides of Korean eggs, of the revision of their transladown to the exact day, knows more tion of the Bible into J abem, a A large delegation of Ausabout Korean insides than any of our coast language of Northeastern tralian Methodists took part in Korean doctors." New Guinea. In February, 1935, a centenary celebration of Meth- an aeroplane, the first used by a odism on the Fiji Islands, where ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC German missionary soc i e t y, three out of every four persons made its first flight. In April, are Methodists. The event cele- Tonga's Christian Queen 1935, there appeared a fully re- brated was the coming of the vised, entirely new translation British missionaries, William Of the two living queens, one of the New Testament into Cross and David Cargill, to these is Wilhelmina of Holland, and Jabem. cannibal tribes. Their success the other Salote of Tonga. Salote stirred John Hunt and James isa Methodist and the New Zea- The writer thinks that while land Methodist descriibes her as the casual reader might regard follows: the first flight of a missionary She is a woman of commanding presence, cultured and gifted with intellectual capacity, wise in leadership and trusted by her people, and above all, a devout servant of Christ and His Church. Her reign has been marked by a growing spirit of unity in the nation. Old differences between the tribes and within the church have been largely forgotten. She has
Calvert to volunteer. The whole Palestine, is the only solution of The Problem of the nation professed conversion, re- the Jewish problem satisfactory Aborigines nounced its idols, and Wesleyan to the Jews and to anti-Semitic churches and schools were set up regimes in Europe. In every country except Euin every village. rope there is the problem of the Mr. de Haas, who presided in original people such as we have -The Christian Advocate. Vienna recently at the first con- in the United States with the gress of the New Zionist or- Indians. This problem reaches MISCELLANEOUS ganization, said that several large proportions in the tribal European governments were people of southwest China, as Facts to Ponder Over ready to assist Jews within their well as in Mexico, Central and borders in planning mass emi- South America. The problem in Between 27 and 36 million gration. -New York Times. all the Americas is typical of young people under the age of that which is found in Asia and 21 are without any religious in- Bible Distribution to Seamen in Africa among the unreached struction in the United States. tribes who are now experiencing The Bible Society of Scotland the inroads of the white man. The Japanese and Chinese began a work among seamen in The orig,inal inhabitants have have built 73 Buddhist temples 1912. This has developed to the been pushed inland into the less in America, one of them costing point of distributing Scriptures accessible and less habitable $250,000. on board ships in over a hundred parts of the country where they principal ports of the world in carryon the manner of life prac- There are 13,000,000 boys and 120 languages. The work is car- ticed by their fathers through girls under 12 years of age with- ried on by full time, part time, many generations. out religious instruction of any and by volunteer missionaries. kind in the United States. 'No mission halls are maintained Satan has made the barriers on shore; the work is solely on for reaching the unevangelized We are told that most young shipboard. tribes almost insuperable. The people accept Christ before the best provision that has been age of 16. After 16, there is Large numbers of Russian made for the great tribes which only one chance in 29 of win- sailors arrive at Copenhagen on inhabit vast areas of the earth ning an individual for Christ board Russian ships, and return is by means of an occasional and the Church. to their homes in Russia. This missionary who has learned the g,ives a wonderful oPPQrtunity language of some primitive -Presbyterian Banner. of introducing the Scriptures tribe, or by an interpreter. It is into Soviet Russia. As a result, most needful that every tribe Low Overhead Expense several Russian seamen have shall have the Gospel in its own been truly converted. language. Missionaries who are The Church of Scotland is re- doing evangelistic work and are sponsible for 18 mission fields Some Gospels were distrib- loaded with adminisltrative du- (8 in India, 6 in Africa, two in uted on a German ship going to ties do not have time to translate China, one in Jamaica, one in Cape Town via West African the Scriptures. It usually takes Arabia); where there are at ports. After reading the Gos- a man from fifteen to twenty work 741 missionaries, includ- pels, .one of the men requested years to translate the New Tesing 195 wives of missionaries, that the remainder should be tament, unless he can give it his and where there are regular saved from falling into the entire time and thought. members to the number of 157,- hands of a rabid Communist, 000. This Church stands fourth who wished to destroy them, and A Training Camp for linguishighest in its missionary serv- he stowed them away in his tic missionaries has been in opice among missionary churches locker. The ship called at a eration at Sulphur Springs, of the world, and has the excel- West African port, formerly Ark., for the past two summers. lent record .of spending only 5 German territory, and a native The men live under conditions per cent of its foreign mission was given a Gospel. The news as nearly similar as possible to giving on overhe1ad. In fact, in spread that this man had a Book those which they will find among certain areas where expenditure of God which he could read. a primitive people. They are has been cut still more, the Soon boats pulled out to the ship taught phonetics so that they Church has been able to carry at anchor and men stood up and will be able to reduce to writout all the home administration yelled for Gospels. The whole ing the various sounds in the on foreign mission work at a supply, which had been saved language which they will seek to cost of only 3.33 per cent. from the hands .of the Commu- learn, and how to translate the nist, were given to these natives New Testament into a primitive -Marcus Spencer. who rowed ashore with them, language. They are instructed where they began at once to read in the art of making a dictionary Mass Exodus of Jews them, and to carry them to their and grammar, and in the reli- Recommended villages. -London Missionary gious customs and superstitions of these peoples. Jacob de Haas, Zionist leader Herald. and author, told a grQUp of hear- L. L. LETGERS. ers in New YQrk recently that mass emigration, probably to Our Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information ~"===-",,,===—–=~===-=======-~======,~ NINE NEW BOOKS A few weeks behind the vet- ican youth, who had his leg shot eran tramper, came two young- off while defending Porfirio ON MEXICO sters from Princeton University, Diaz, later became director of who tell of their experiences in Colegio Internacional in Guada- People in the United States "Mexican Odyssey." 3 One an lajara and then came to New are being given a real opportu- artist and the other an author York, has given us the life exnity to look at their next door seem over-anxious to emphasize perience of many a Mexican neighbor through opportunities their drinking ability and seldom youthful revolutionist – maybe to visit Mexico offered by travel get below the surface of Mex- his own. The young heroine bureaus, "seminars" and teach- ican life. journeys, spiritually as well as ers' excursions, and by the in- physically, from old-fashioned creasing number of books about The most qelightful and the Mexico to a communistic center Mexican life. most understanding of the recent in Harlem and then back to books on the Revolution is seething social revolt in her na- "Off to Mexico" 1 – just what "Tempest Over Mexico" 4 by tive land. Here are many of the many would like to do – is the Rosa King, an English lady. cross currents that sweep hi,ther title of a travel book by the Here is one of those honest hu- and yon the Mexican youth of to- Moats family – Leone and Alice man documents from which real day-and here also is the happy Leone – who certainly k now history is made. Happily it is ending of a group of young their Mexico. "A guide book" is written in charming style, by one patriots who decide that life's the subtitle, but one would never who comes to interest us as much adventure is most worth while know it, if he has in mind the as do such heroes as Emiliano when it has a truly Christian old-style affair, in small type, Zapata, General Angeles, Presi-. basis. long lists of hotels and advice dent Huerta, the martyred Maabout the weather. The reading dero and other famous char- In the spirited religious conof this book will delightfully pre- acters who became known to the test in Mexico, each side of the pare one for a visit. author while conducting her triangle – Government, Roman famous tearoom and hotel in Catholics and Protestants-have The veteran tramper, Harry Cuernavaca in the midst of the iss u e d statements concerning Franck, has recently yielded to most exciting days of the Revo- their positions. "Conflict Bethe temptation to pursue the lution. Mrs. King may have lost tween the Civil Power and the unique paths South of the Rio her property, but she retained Clergy,"6 by Emilio Portes Gil, Grande, and as a result has given and multiplied her human sym- an important historical and legal us "Trailing Cortes Through pathies, her courage, born of the essay by a former Attorney Gen- Mexico." 2 This excellent volume righteousness of her purpose, eral, gives the Government's helps me to forgive him for his and her real friendship for the viewpoint. "Blood Drenched "Vagabonding Down the Andes." Mexican people. Here is more Altars," by Francis Clement As a young tramp he failed to real insight into the Revolution Kelly,7 a Roman Catholic Bishop, get the subtle humor, home-spun and more true' explanation of gives the Church's interpretaphilosophy and big-heartedness why Mexican soldiers fight than tion of Mexican history and her of the Andean citizen, so poor in can be found in many a solemn reasons for refusing to accept modernity. But he has found it volume purporting to philoso- the Government's position. "Rein Mexico – or did his wife phizeon this great social up- ligion in the Republic of Mex- Rachael, a delightful bit of the heaval. ico," 8 by Gonzalo Baez Camargo book's scenery – discover it for him. Here they have found the In the delightful story "Lu- and Kenneth G. Grubb is a very real Mexican, with his innate pita," 5 Alberto Rembao, a Mex- valuable documented study of friendliness, his native charm, even when far removed from 8 Willett & Clark, Chicago, 1935, pp. 292, • Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico, D. F., what we call civilization. price $2.50. 1935, pp. 135, obtainable at Mexican con- sulates.
• Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1935, price 7 Bruce Pub. Co., Milwaukee, pp. 502, price 1 Scribners, New York, 1935, price $4.50. $3. $3. .
2 Stokes, New York, 1935, pp. 373, price • Friendship Press, New York, 1935, pp. 8 "'orld Dominion Press, London, pp. 166, $3.50. 192, price $1. price $2.
Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the RllvIllw publishers on receipt of price.
r 159 ] the recent revolution and its and are in language that very transpositions and omISSIOns relations to the religious ques- small children will understand. tion, from the Protestant Chris- that seem unwarranted. In realtian standpoint. It contains Church, Community and State – A ity the volume is a careful parachapters on Ancient and Mod- World Issue. By J. H. Oldham. phrase-a rendering of what the ern Mexico, The Achievements Preface by William Adams Brown. translators conceive to be the of the Revolution, The Religious Pamphlet. Harper and Bros. New meaning of the writers-rather Question, The Evangelical Move- York. 1935. ment, The Future, and includes than an accurate translation of maps and charts, a calendar of Great changes have been takreligious events, the number of ing place in religious liberty. the words used. The new mod- Roman Catholic priests and Dr. Oldham has made a deep ern Bible cannot replace' older Protestant workers and much study of the relation of governother interesting and useful in- ments to the Church and to translations but it is well done. formation. Christian progress. He knows the facts and thinks clearly so Off to Panama. By B. H. Pearson. The happier relations between that this pamphlet will repay Pamphlet. 35 cents. Free Tract the governments of the neigh- study for the light it throws on boring countries is illustrated in tFhaesciisnmfluaenndceNaotfionCaol mSomcuianlisims~ Society. 510 No. Main St., Los the publication by the Depart- to the problems of religious life Angeles, Calif. 1935. ment of Education of the United and liberty. . States Government of a delight- Mr. Pearson, who has been fully written booklet of seventythree pages on the rural schools working among Latin Americans of Mexico. In "The House of the People," 9 Mrs. Katherine for eighteen years, here tells the Cook has given an indispensable description and enchanting ex- story of Jose Avila, a former planation of how Mexico is successfully attacking her formid- colonel in the Mexican aJremsuy~ able problem of educating the now a true soldier of rural masses – one of the most remarkable educational develop- Studies in Ephesians and Studies in Christ and a preacher of His ments in the world today. Colossians. By E. Y. Mullins. 12 mo. 144 pp. each. Cloth, 60 cents; Gospel. It is a story of remark- S. G. INMAN. paper, 40 cents.. Sunday School Board, Southern Baptist Convention. able answers to prayer difficul- Bible Stories for Small People. By Nashvill!!, Tenn. 1935. Muriel Chalmers and Mary Ent- ties overcome, danger's faced wistle. Illus. by Elsie Anne Wood Dr. Mullins, formerly presi- and Roberta F. C. Wandby. 12 vol. dent of the Baptist Theological and victories won in Mexico and 16 mo. 60 pages. 25 cents each. Seminary at Louisville, Ken- Thos. Nelson and Sons. New York. tucky, possessed Biblical scholar- California. The incidents are 1935. ship and ability to teach and write. Dr. G. S. Dobbins has stirring and have a definite spir- Small children will like these edited and adopted these studies attractive little volumes of Bible for reading and classroom work. itual message but the colonel's stories-very simply told and at- They will repay careful study for tractively illustrated in oriental the light they throw on the present work in Panama is the style. Each volume relates to Word, and the practical help one character and contains little they give for daily life and subject of the story. more than full titles to the service. twenty-eight colored pictures. The. F!ne Ar~ of Soul Winning. By Three stories (volumes) relate to Jesus' childhood, three to His WIllIam Wlstas Hamilton. 12 mo. parables, three to incidents in His life, and the remaining three 109 pp. 60 cents, cloth; 40 cents, tell of Samuel, Moses and Isaac. Missionary par~nts and others paper. S. S. Board of the Southern will find these very useful in teaching Bible stories to their Baptist Convention, Nashville Tenn . children and they will form a 1935. ' good nucleus to a child's library. They are not in Bible words but The Bible. An Ame rSicmanithTraanndslEadtgioan~ The president of the Baptist are true to its teaching and spirit Edited by J. M. P. Bible Institute in New Orleans • Government Printing Office, Washington, J. Goodspeed. 8 vo. 883 and 247 has given us a very helpful book 1932, pp. 73, price 10 cents. pp. $2.00. University of Chicago on personal work. While ar- ranged for a study course it is Press. Chicago. 1935. readable and stimulating. Every A new translation of the Bible Christian would do well to read is a~w~ys i~teresting and is help- carefully, digest prayerfully and practice diligently.
ful If mtellIgently and faithfully Into All the World. By Dr. Arthur J. Brown and Dr. John D. Freeman. done. The present translation is 12 mo. 105 pp. 60 cents. S. S. Board, Southern Baptist Conven- by a group of scholars of the tion. Nashville, Tenn. 1935.
University of Chicago. The work "The Why and How of For- eign Missions," a very valuable is reverently done in order that and popular presentation of the enterprise, written by Dr. Brown "the religious influence of the s.everal years ago, is here pub- lIshed under a new title, in an Bible may be furthered in our amended form for use in the Southern Baptist churches. It is generation." Bible students will not brought up to date but is worthy of study by any Christian disagree as to the accuracy of group or by anyone who wants to know the basic principles and re- the translation of various pas- sults of foreign missions.
sages and many will not relish the change in some familiar verses. They give new render- ings but do not give their rea- sons. Why do they translate the first verse of the Bible "When God began to create the heavens and the earth"? There are also
Books Obituary Notes urged to accept a place in the
Consider Africa. Basil Mathews. (Concluded from page 118.) • • • Government but refused. 159 pp. 28. Edinburgh House The Rev. Thomas Barclay, D.D., Press. London. of Formosa, formerly a missionary of preaching and teaching the Lao peo- the Presbyterian Church of England, The Crow Indians. Robert H. Lowie. ple. died on October 5, 1935, at the ripe 350 pp. $4.00. Farrar and Rine- age of 86. He was one of the noblest hart. New York. He was born in the Isle of Skye, missionaries of modern times, and an Scotland, Aug. 15, 1869, and received Honorary Vice-President of the Na- The Tarahumara. An Indian Tribe his general education in that country; tional Bible Society of Scotland. He of Northern Mexico. Wendell C. he then went to Canada to engage in sailed for Formosa in 1875. His Bennett and Robert M. Zingg. 412 church work and was graduated from labors in that island and on the China pp. $4.00. University Press. Chi- Manitoba University, at Winnipeg. mainland were astonishing. His cago. After serving in North Dakota under the National Board, in 1902 he was greatest achievement was his transla- South America. Handbook of the appointed by the Board of Foreign tion of the whole Bible into the Amoy Work of the South American Mis- Missions as a missionary to Siam. dialect of Chinese, which, in Roman- sionary Society. Andrew Pride and ised Script, has done so much for the A. J. Cowell. mus. 62 pp. 9d. ••• South American Missionary Society. Frederick N. Charrington, of Lon· London. don, who, at the age of 20 gave up a evangelization of China. His services as a Christian statesman were re- Both Sides of the Buka Passage. An brewing fortune of £1,250,000 for con- warded by his receiving from the Ethnographic Study of Social, Sex- science' sake, died January 2d, after ual and Economic Questions in the 65 years of service in the cause of Emperor of Japan the Order of the Northwestern Solomon Islands. Bea- • • Rising Sun. trice Blackwood. mus. 624 pp. Christianity and temperance. He • 358. Oxford University Press. united philanthropic efforts with di- London. rect Gospel testimony and had the joy Mrs. Hunter Corbett, the widow of a pioneer Presbyterian missionary to The Japan Christian Year Book. of seeing many remarkable conver- China, died on January 28th in Shang- Edited by F. D. Gealy and Akira sions. Ebisawa. 496 pp. Y 2.50 or 78. 6d. ••* hai at the age of 76. Helen Suther- Kyo Bun Kwan, Tokyo; Kegan land was born in Coburg, Ontario, Paul, London. Canada, and after a nurse's training Willis E. Lougee, Congregational course went to China in 1888 as a Cameos from Purulia. L. Margaret layman, formerly connected with the missionary. The next year she mar- Sharpe. mus. 79 pp. 28. Mission Y. M. C. A., died at Billings, Montana, ried Dr. Hunter Corbett of the Pres- to Lepers. London. November 3d. He had served from byterian Church in the U. S. A. He 1907 to 1910 as associate secretary of was at one time moderator of the What Is Shinto? Genchi Kato. Illus. the Congregational Home Missionary Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., and 73 pp. lB. 6d. Kegan Paul. Lon- Society, and from 1910 to 1913 as its died in 1920. Mrs. Corbett is sur- don. treasurer. From 1924 to 1934 he col- vived by one son, a stepson and five lected about $5,000,000 for various re- Popular Hinduism. The Religion of ligious and philanthropic societies. stepdaughters. She and her husband the Masses. L. S. S. O'Malley. 246 gave a total of 112 years to mission- pp. 78. 6d. Cambridge University **• ary work in China. Press. London. The Rev. Arthur J. Smith, D.D., If you use The Encyclopedia of Islam. Edited for seventeen years superintendent of by M. Th. Houtsma, A. J. Wensinck, the Evangelistic Committee of New PRINTING H. A. R. Gibb, W. Heffening and E. York City, died at his home in Kew Levi-Provencal No. 52. 1024 pp. Gardens, N. Y., on January 22d in his YOU will profit from an ac- 78.9d. Luzac. London. 71st year. He was born in Robinson, quaintanceship with us. We Canada, and after graduation from do the job complete in our own Creative Society. A Study of the Re- Eastman College, Poughkeepsie, went plant, whether it be large or lation of Christianity to Commun- into business and then into the Y. M. small. ism. John MacMurray. 196 pp. C. A. Later he served as assistant 58. Student Christian Movement pastor in the Bethany Presbyterian While our specialty is Books, Press. London. Church, Philadelphia, a position which Magatines and Pamphlets, yet he resigned to become associated as we have a variety of modern The Church at Work in the Modern an evangelist with Dwight L. Moody, equipment to meet all the re- World. Edited by William Clayton B. Fay Mills, and J. Wilbur Chapman. quirements of your particular Bower. 304 pp. $2. University job. You will find our service Press. Chicago. *•• prompt, careful and courteous.
Central Africa-News and Views. A Dr. David Z. T. Yui, a prominent Will you allow us to estimate quarterly report of the life and work Chinese Christian leader, formerly on your next printing? We be- of the Blantyre and Livingstonia very active in the Y. M. C. A. of lieve you will be delighted with Missions of the Church of Scotland. China, died in Shanghai on January our product, price and service. Illus. Mission Press, Blantyre, 22d at the age of 54. Dr. Yui was a Nyasaland. Annual sub. 48. 6d. member of the Protestant Episcopal The EVANGELICAL PRESS Vol. 1, No.1, July, 1935. Church and was well known in China and America. He was one of the Printers of By Patience and the Word. The founders of the Institute of Pacific Story of the Moravian Missions. Relations and was the people's dele- The Missionary Review of the World Samuel King Hutton. 262 pp. gate from China to the Conference on Hodder & Stoughton. 58. London. Disarmament in Washington in 1921. PLANT AND MAIN OFFICE He was general secretary of the Na- Third end Reily Strub He"lsbwl, P•• The Story of Fifty Years. Carrie T. tional Committee of the Y. M. C. A. Burritt. 213 pp. $1.00. Light and of China and had been chairman of Life Press. Winona Lake, Indiana. the National Christian Council of China. He prepared for college in Canton and was later graduated from Harvard where he took his master's degree. A leading Chinese magazine named him as one of the twelve great- est living Chinese leaders. He was
THESE SPECIAL
The Missionary Review th~World You will learn in our October number about A/rica from an A/rican Viewpoint The African's View of Africa What Christ Means to Me•••By Africans African Characteristics and Customs What Christian Missions Have Accomplished···By Africans What Africa Needs Most•••By Africans The White Man's Views 0/ A/rica The Results of Fifty Years of Missions Present.Day Hindrances to Christianity What Missions Are Doing Today Heroes of the Cross in Africa The Next Step in African Missions Best Books by Africans and About Africa Negroes Tell About the Negro in America in our June number What American Negroes Are Thinking Negro Views of Negro Problems Some Achievements of American Negroes Ideals for Better Race Relations What Christ Has Done for Negroes Some Outstanding Negro Christians What Negroes Are Doing for Their Race White Contributors Will Write on Helps and Handicaps in Negro Progress Progress in the Past Half Century Some Lessons from Experience in Mission Work The Next Steps in Work for American Negroes Best Books by Negroes and About Negroes Order These Copies Now Eor Yourself and Eor Mission Study Classes 25 cents a copy $20 a hundred $2.50 a year The Missionary Review oJ t:he World Third and Reily Streets, Harrisburg, Pa.
ROBERT E. SPEER, President DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor
The Missionary Review of the World — July 1935
" JULY
NARY RID Hitler and the Jews……A Christian View Conrad Hoffmann, Jr.
Christian Youth and aNew America RoyA. Burkhart The Spiritual Condition .of the Heathen Henry W.Frost Taking the Gospel to the Dyaks .
David Clench TheYounger Men's Missionary Congress Mills J. Taylor Experiences on the Mosquito Coast Kenneth 'Grubb ,Pioneering Work in Madagascar w. Kendall Gale 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Yea,.
WINNETKA Personal
Waenever EXTENSION SCHOOL Bishop J. H. Linton, of Isfahan, the Call comes from FOR CHILDREN Iran (Persia), a missionary bishop of EAST OF SUEZ PROVIDES GUIDANCE AND ALL the Church of England for over fif- MATERIALS FOR TEACHINfil YOUNG teen years, is returning to England, sail by having been appointed by the .l:Sishop CHILDREN AT HOME of BIrmingham to the rectory of p&O Handsworth, in succession to Canon It offers complete instruction for W. J. Lyon. The loss of Bishop Lin- To whatever part of the East the work the tirst six grades of school, using of the Faith may take you ••• Cunard self-instructive, self-correcting ma- ton to Iran will be greatly felt as he White Star and P & 0 combine to terials designed for individual prog- has been a leader in the evangelization make the way easy. You cross to ress. Curriculum, methods and of Moslems and in movements toward England by the largest fleet on the materials have been developed in Atlantic ••• then sail eastward on the the Winnetka Public Schools under • • • uniting evangelical mission work. new s.s. Strathnaver or s. s. Strathaird direction of outstanding educators. Prof. Hachiro Yuasa, of the Imor any other fast luxurious P&O liners. perial University at Kyoto, has been Thus you use throughout the two For details about the special service elected and installed as President of Lines preferred by travelers since for children of foreign missionaries, Doshisha University, Kyoto, founded 1840 ••• on the Indian and Pacific by Joseph Hardy Neesima. The new as well as the Atlantic oceans. Tra- write to president is a graduate of Doshisha ditions of seamanship and service that and has received degrees from three have endured for nearly a century, THE WINNETKA EXTENSION SCHOOL American institutions. He is a third are your assurance of a safe and generation Christian, his grandmother supremely comfortable voyage. HORACE MANN SCHOOL and his father having been baptized by Dr. Neesima. Dr. Yuasa is also PEN INS ULARAN D 0RlENTAL WINNETKA •• ILLINOIS chairman of the Board of Trustees of AND the Kyoto Y. M. C. A. BRITISH INDIA Dates to Remember Rev. Ladislau•s H• ar*sanyi, pastor of STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANIES July 2-7-lnternational Christian En- deavor Convention, Philadelphia, the First Magyar Church, New York P & 0 liners sail regularly from London to Pa. City, has been awarded the service pin Egypt, Sudan and the Persian Gulf, to India, of the Presbyterian Board of National Burma and Ceylon, to the Straits Settle. August 7-12 – World Convention of Missions for 25 years of service it' ments, China and Japan. to Australia and the Disciples of Christ, Leicester, that Board's work in his present field. New Zealand, East and South Africa, England. Mauritius, etc. Convenient through book· *•• ings at attractively low fares can be arranged August H-I8-Foreign Missions Week Mr. Albert Griffith AdaDls, of the by your local travel agent or any office of of the Southern Baptist Convention West Africa Mission of the Presby- Cunard White Star Line. in the Blue Ridge Mountains on terian Church in the Cameroun, has Compkteinformationfrom YourLocalAgentor the Southern Baptist Assembly been honored by the French Govern- Grounds, Ridgcrest. North Carolina. ment with the "Order of the Black CUNARD WHITE STAR Star of Benin." This is the highest August 12-18-World Alliance for In- honor of the Government given in GENERAL AGENTS ternational Friendship Through the Africa, and is conferred because of Churches. Geneva, Switzerland. 25 Broadway New York 638 Fifth Ave. • • Mr. Adams' financial ability. August 18-22 – Universal Christian Council for Life and Work. Geneva, • – – Switzerland. – – – – Dr. John Henry House, for sixty- four years a missionary under the Summer Oonferences and American Board in the Balkan States Schools of Missions of Europe, celebrated his 90th anni- versary on May 28th. Thirty years Bethesda, Ohio. July 29-August 2. ago, Dr. House founded the Thesso- Miss Mary I. Scott, 810 Tomlinson loni~a Agricultural and Industrial In- Ave., Moundsville, W. Va. stitute of which he is president emeritus. This is also known as the Chautauqua, New York. August 18- American Farm School and is located 24. Institute of World Missions, near Salonika, Greece. He still re- Mrs. F. C. Reynolds, 809 Woodlawn sides there and his birthday anniver- Road, Roland Park, Baltimore, Md., sary was celebrated with the aid of Chairman. U. S. Minister McVeigh, the British Consul and representatives of the Eaglesmere, Pa. June 26-July 8. Cor. Greek Government. Sec.-Mrs. Edith C. Ashton, 1989 Grant Ave., Bustleton, Philadelphia, George Walk•er •Bu*ckner, Ji, has Pa. become editor of World Call, to suc- Houston, Teg;as. October 28-Novem- ceed Harold E. Fey. Dr. Buckner is ber 1. Mrs. E. B. Mohle, 2809 Rob- the youngest son of a minister of the inhood, Houston, Texas. Disciples of Christ.
Minnesota (Minneapolis – St. Paul). John Buchan*, an* * in the Pres- September 16-23. Mrs. A. F. Au- guster, 1586 Van Buren St., St. elder Paul, Minn. byterian Church of Scotland, has been appointed Governor-General of Can- Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. July 81-August 6. MrS. B. H. Sin- ada, the first commoner to fill that cell, 108 2d St., Oakland, Md. post. * * "" Nort1r.field, Massachusetts. JUly 5-18. Mra. Virgil B. Sease, Parlin, N. J. Dr. Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze. formerly a professor in the University Warren, Ohio. September 17 and 24. Mrs. Goo. Konold, 814 Scott St., of Berlin, director of the East Berlin N. E., Waqen, Ohio. (Concluded on 3d cOl1er.)
MISSIONARY
REVIEW OF THE WORLD DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor VOL. LVIII JULY, 1935 No.7 PUblication and Business 01llce– .."A Wonderful Help EMPRESS EXPRESS Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. TO THE ORIENT onThe Foreign Field" Editorial and Executive 01llce– YOKOHAMA IN 10 FAST DAYS by 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The School That Comes to You… By Mail! the Direct Express Route. Go on Entered as second-class matter at the sister-ships, Empress of Asia "Your school is a wonderful help here on or Empress of Russia. Ports-of-call: Post 01llce, Harrisburg, Pa., under the foreIgn held and I am so hal?PY to have Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Shang- Act of March 3, 1879. my chIldren so well educated, . Writes a hai, Hong Kong, and Manila. parent whose children are studying Calvert 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. Courses in far off China. Take 3 more days and go by way Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. For 28 years, Calvert School has had a part of Honolulu on the fast Empress Published monthly, except August. in educating the children of famIlies in of Japan or the Empress of Canada. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1935. Missionary work . . . in giving them the INEXPENSIVE ROUND·TRIP FARES. British agents – Marshall, Morgan rich, cultural background of an American Go by distinguished First Class or and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, private school. comfortable Tourist Class. Still London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, No matter where your mission, Calvert lower Summer round-trip fares to 10 shillings a year. School will come to you with complete the Orient. Low-cost Third Class. courses of instruction for your children FREQUENT SAILINGS from Van- MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- from kindergarten to high school age. couver (trains to ship-side) and LISHING CO., INC. All lessons, books, stationery and special Victoria. Orient fares include pas- Calvert educational devices are supplied sage to and from Seattle. California BOARD OF DIRECTORS from our prominent and successful prIvate sailings meet "Empresses" at day school in Baltimore. Honolulu. ROBERT E. SPEER, President These simple, understandable, moderately • Also, •• low-cost World Tours. WM. 1. CHAMBERLAIN, Vice-President priced Home Instruction Courses are a BOOKLETS frOffiYOUROWN AGENT WALTER McDOUGALL, Treasurer unique and satisfactory way of solving your or Canadian Pacific: New York, DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary child's educational problem in the foreign Chicago, San Francisco, and 34 held. other cities in the U. S. and Canada. SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD Lessons Mav Be Started at Anv Time WM. B. LIPPHARD Write today. Get full information about ERIC M. NORTH Calvert-"The School That Comes to JESSE R. W'ILBON You." See what Calvert is doing for A. L. W ARNBHUIB others . • • it will do the same for your SAMUEL M. ZWEMER —– children. ———– Editorial Chat CALVERT SCHOOL The special Home Mission (June) number of THE REVIEW has already Mrs. O. S. Rhoads made a hit. Orders are being filled as Director of Home InstTUCtion promptly as possible as long as the 187 W. Tuscanv Road supply lasts. We cannot reprint a BALTIMORE, MARYLAND new edition. Please order now. Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ *** Address Since we do not issue an August E, Diffendorfer, John Ritichie and REVIEW this July issue is larger and others – missionaroies, executives, contains a rich and varied program. travelers and authors. Why not order Many of our readers will not wish to extra copies now? miss a 'word of it. Will you pass on copies and recommend them to your [321 ] friends? This will make them your debtors and will promote interest in Christ's work in all lands.
*** We deeply appreciate the many kind references to THE REVIEW and editorial commendations that appear from time to time in contemporary magazines at home and abroad. All who are living to exalt Christ and are working to advance His cause, can accomplish this end best by working in close and sympathetic fellowship with Him and with each other. There can be no selfish rivalry among Christians.
*** The September REVIEW will have a rich table of contents with articles on the present situation and progress in Turkey, Africa, China, Japan, Korea and America. Do not miss your copy by a failure to notify us of any change of address.
The Latin Am* er*ica*number of THE REVIEW will be out about October 1st. The articles include very informing and stimulating papers by Latin Americans and by such well-known authorities as John A. Mackay, Webster E. Browning, S. G. Inman, Ralph
by Kenneth Grubb PhotogrOJphy by Kenneth
TRAVELING ON ONE OF THE TYPICAL ROADS IN HONDURAs A GLIMPSE OF THE CAPITAL OF HONDURAS-NOT ON THE RAILWAY REVIB ORLD VOLUME LVIII AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 7 JULY, 1935 Topics of the Times A PEACE MESSAGE FROM JAPAN understand the problems and difficulties confront- Missionaries of Christ are true peacemakers. ing the Oriental peoples, to remove all sources of True Christians are one the world over. They friction and misunderstanding for which our namay not be able immediately to change govern- tion may be responsible, and particularly to cultiment policies or to control moral conditions, to vate attitudes that will spurn any suggestion of correct economic and social evils or to establish seeking solutions of our problems by means other true Christian educational methods, but they seek than the employment of peaceful diplomacy. We to live in harmony with the Will of God and at plead for the will to peace. peace with fellow Christians. A recent letter (April 20th) has come from missionaries in Japan "With a solemn sense of our responsibility as to fellow Christians in America. It is, in part, Christian Americans in Japan, and in the light of as follows: our intimate knowledge of the Japanese people, we declare our conviction that the cause of peace "As Americans living in Japan we find our- and mutual welfare will be served if our fellow selves in a position of peculiar privilege. To the American citizens resolutely and conscientiously rich heritage of our own citizenship, there is added consider the following proposals: the wealth of life and friendship with another (1) To study with care the laws proposed in our legisnation. Our experience has deepened our. appre- lative assemblies, or already on the statute books, that ciation of both peoples and has convinced us that bear upon our relations with foreign countries, and more priceless benefits will continue to flow naturally particularly to remove the aspects of our Immigration Act which offend the self-respect of Oriental peoples; from growing intimacy and cooperation between (2) To condemn the subversive propaganda against forthem. For the historical friendship between eign countries frequently appearing in certain of our Japan and the United States is not a mere phrase; ne(;fa~~r~~ing to bear the force of Christian principles it is a fact which rests upon deep sentiment, mu- upon the foreign policies of our government; tually advantageous commercial interests, and for- (4) To support our government in every effort to avoid tunate geographical positions. This relationship giving offense to friendly nations by such incidents as inhas the additional advantage of being enlivened discreet declarations on the part of public officials, naval by differing but complementary cultures. Ob- manreuvers on the borders of friendly powers, and other provocative gestures of force; viously only a structure of peace should rest upon (5) To encourage our government 00 take the lead in such a foundation. disarmament proposals which, while protecting legitimate . "In saying this we would not ignore differences national interests, shall eventuate in reduction of armain point of view on some vital issues. Such differences are I.neVI·table bet ween st rong andas·pIrm. g ments to police status; nations but they should be made stepping stones (6) To cherish the faith that peace can be won and to mutual respect and cooperation through the workings of enlightened statesmanship and the maintained wherever men of good will unite in sacrificial diplomacy of peace. . . . and intelligent cooperation, and to encourage the round- table method of solving the complex but by no means in- "However, in the presence of forces which, if soluble problems now confronting the nations in East Asia; unchecked, may easily endanger this long record (7) To reenforce our government in every possible way of unbroken peace, we would urge our friends in in a policy of cooperation with other nations through the the United States to redouble their efforts to International Labor Office, the World Court, and all other effective agencies for world regeneration. We believe that the entry of the United States into the League of Nations would greatly contribute to the maintenance of peace in [323 ]
East Asia, removing a serious obstacle to Japan's return partment undertook the enforcement of the revenue act to the League, and encouraging her cooperation 'in all in- of May, 1934, the cases began to come in again under the ternational affairs. revenue procedure. . . . The increase in practically all kinds of crime has carried us beyond the estimate. In "We would stress the need of forbearance and other words, the lag we were expecting to get through the sympathetic understanding of the spiritual aspira- repeal of prohibition did not matlerialize. tions and material needs of all the Oriental peopies; we urge the exercise of a fearless and en- If prohibition does not "prohibit," even more lightened conscience in the discernment and sup- is it true that licensing the manufacture and sale port of the moral principles involved. We believe of alcoholic drinks does not decrease crime or the in facing these problems upon the plane of Chris- cost of law enforcement. The Department of tian love rather than that of materialistic self- Justice also states that there has been no decrease interest. We assure our fellow-Americans of the in the number of prisoners since the repeal and presence of this spirit and point of view among that "appropriations must be increased to provide many of our Japanese friends, both Christian and for more inmates in penal and correctional instinon-Christian, and we pledge ourselves to work to tutions." the end that in the critical issues before us the advocates of reason and peace on both sides of the It is encouraging on the other hand to note the Pacific may speak the final word." number of Christian educational and welfare agencies that are studying the situation and are ALCOHOL AND CRIME endeavoring to cope with the problem through the introduction of scientific instruction and char- The use of intoxicants is not the only or the acter-building programs. The "Allied youth chief cause of crime and immorality. The lack of Movement" and similar organizations are workhigh ideals, defects in modern education, unwhole- ing diligently to enlist the youth of the country some home and family life, a dominating desire in promoting moral and spiritual strength and to to gratify selfish instincts, and above all a disre- increase true patriotism and the observance of gard for God and the supreme claims of Jesus the laws of God and of the State. Christ are the real causes of weakness and deterioration in individuals and in society today. ALL-INDIA CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE At the same time sociological studies reveal the The Christians in any land, because of their fact that increase in the use of intoxicating drinks high ideals, their general intelligence and strength promotes disease, crime and immorality. Alcohol of character, should be able greatly to influence as a beverage lowers resistance, weakens inhibi- legislation and standards of conduct in the country tions, interferes with judgment and takes away of which they are citizens. The difficulty is that self-control. Physicians and police officers declare they cannot unite on a course of action or that that even one drink is enough to incapacitate a many of them fail to stand strongly for Christian man or a woman for safe driving of an automo- principles when the test comes in regard to public bile. There is good reason why locomotive engi- questions. The acceptance of Christian standards neers are forbidden to use intoxicants and yet plus Christian unity may accomplish wonders in their engines run on rails! The number, freedom national and international life, under the guidance and power of the modern motor cars make it es- of God. sential that every driver have all his mental and physical powers under perfect control. Men and The recent All-India Christian Conference is an women do many foolish and hurtful things when example of how Indian Christians are getting tostrong drink has taken away or lessened their gether in an effort to make their united voice felt powers of calm judgment and self-control, giving in Indian life. This conference met at Moradain their place false courage and greater disregard bad, April 19th and 20th, with delegates from for results. United Provinces, Bombay, Panjab,' Behar and Orissa, and Madras. The president was Dewan Advocates of the repeal of prohibition stated Bahadur A. Appadural PiIIari of Madras and the that crime would decrease with the return of general secretary is Mr. Behari Lal Rallia Ram. license. As a matter of fact the Department of Justice states that crime is increasing since the Among the resolutions adopted by the conferrepeal. Jails and prisons are overcrowded-very ence were the following: largely as a result of strong drink. Mr. Sanford Bates, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, stated 1. An appeal to the viceroy to grant amnesty to a subcommittee of the House of Representatives to political prisoners not guilty of violence. . Committee on Appropriations (March 4, 1935) : 2. A resolution urging the substitution of the There was a great decrease in liquor offenses which con- term "Backward Classes" for "Depressed Classes" tinued through the repeal. As soon as the Treasury De- as more in harmony with the Christian spirit. The conference urged that all agencies and or- ganizations make every effort to remove all so-
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
cial, economic and educational disabilities from years ago); the Church of England Zenana Mis- which some Indians suffer on account of their sionary Society, with seven missionaries (opened ancestry, occupation or residence. The United thirty-four years ago); the Christian and Mis- Provinces Association has successfully appealed sionary Alliance of New York withdrew its mis- to the Government to call a conference on the sionaries from Chaman a few years ago.
education of village Christians and to avoid re- There has been practically nothing done for the ferring to converts from "Backward Classes" by people of other districts in Baluchistan, most of their old caste titles in public returns and docu- whom are either Sunni Moslems (735,000) or ments. Hindus (55,000). Christians number about 7,000 3. The conference suggested better cooperation and Sikhs 8,000.
between Roman Catholics and Indian Protestants, No word has yet been received as to the fate of on questions of general public welfare, through the missionaries. It is reported that the city of the appointment of a joint committee of fourteen. Quetta will not be rebuilt.
This committee would deal with civic and other matters affecting the Indian community as a YOUTH CONGRESS IN PHILADELPHIA whole. An "interdenominational youth congress" is 4. The conference expressed its conviction that what Christian Endeavorers call their coming in- ternational convention which is to meet July 2-7. the "Government of India Bill," now being en- In the societies represented in the Philadelphia acted in the British Parliament, fails to give ade- County Christian Endeavor Union are seven thouquate recognition to the Indian Christian com- sand young people and within a radius of five hunmunity and that this bill should contain a declara- dred miles live approximately one-third of the tion in favor of guaranteeing the fundamental Christian Endeavor members of North America. rights to every citizen in the full exercise of his The meetings will be held in the civic Convention religious beliefs and of the rights of minorities. Hall which has thirty or more conference rooms for sections of the day-time program and an audi- 5. The conference also called attention to the torium seating several thousands for evening need for revising the Indian Christian Marriage mass meetings. Among the speakers announced Act of 1872 since under that Act an Indian Chris- for the Philadelphia convention are Dr. Robert tian girl is placed under great disadvantage if E. Speer, missionary statesman; Dr. Norman V. she marries a man whose religion entitles him to Peale, of the Reformed Church in America; Dr. be governed by his own personal laws. Oscar W. Blackwelder, a Lutheran leader from Washington; Dr. Lynn Harold Hough, a Meth- Christians in every land recognize that their odist preacher and educator, Drew Theological true "citizenship is in Heaven" but they cannot Seminary; Dr. Daniel A. Poling, editor of Christherefore escape from the responsibility for tian Herald and president of the World's Chrisunitedly seeking to make the laws of the land in which they live more in harmony with the eternal laws of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
THE EARTHQUAKE IN BALUCHISTAN tian Endeavor Union; Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, a Baptist clergyman from St. Paul, Minnesota; Miss Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, northwest Margaret Slattery, widely known author and a of India, has been completely destroyed by an popular speaker to young people; Hon. Lester H.
earthquake (May 31) with the loss of over 40,000 Clee, D.D., Newark clergyman who is speaker of lives in the earthquake zone – including at least the New Jersey House of Representatives; Dr.
200 Britishers. Louis Evans, Presbyterian minister of Pitts- Baluchistan has an area of 134,638 square burgh; Dr. Abram E. Cory, Director of the Pen- miles and a population of 800,000; the British sion Fund of the Disciples of Christ; Dr. Norman administered territory includes 54,228 square E. Richardson, a leader in religious education; miles with a population of about 425,000. The Dr. William Hiram Foulkes, Newark, leader in city of Quetta, beautifully situated in the moun- international religious projects; Dr. Roy A. Burk- tains, had a population of about 60,000. British hart, Columbus, Ohio, youth leader; Dr. Samuel troops and government officials were stationed at W. Hughes, of London, secretary of the National Quetta, and here the Royal Air Force headquarters Free Church Council of Great Britain; Dr. James were entirely destroyed, as well as practically all Kelly, of Glasgow, general secretary of the World's the houses in the civil area. The cities of Kalat Sunday School Association; Harry N. Holmes, and Mastung were greatly damaged as were all international Christian leader in peace move- the villages between Kalat and Quetta. ments; Bishop M. H. Davis of the African Meth- The only Protestant Christian missionary work odist Episcopal Church; and the Rev. and Mrs.
in Baluchistan is that conducted by the Church Vere W. Abbey, secretaries of the Christian En- Missionary Society in Quetta (opened thirty-five deavor Union of India and Burma. More than
seventy young people and leaders of young people such a thing as personal conviction of sin. Now, for many, will compose the faculty of the daily school of the sin is rather a misfortune than a fault. Conviction of sin, convention, where young people will discuss timely if it comes, seems'to result from a study of the social issues in many phases of church and community wrongs rather than from a sense of personal sin. service. "We Choose Christ" is the general theme of the convention. 4. Forty-three years ago, the Bible was regarded by Christian students as the Word of God. Now it is regarded Several hundred delegates are expected to ac- by some as merely containing the Word of God, and each company President Poling and Mr. and Mrs. undergraduate may decide for himself what parts of it Abbey to the World's Christian Endeavor Con- are the Word of God. The result is that there is a lack of vention in Budapest, Hungary (August 2-7). faith in the absolute trustworthiness of the sacred Scrip- "Thy Kingdom Come" is the theme of the World's tures. Convention, at which a delegation of eight hundred is expected from Great Britain, with large 5. Forty;-three years ago, doubt was regarded with representation from Germany and delegates from alarm, now sometimes there is a danger of placing a pre- Northern Italy and the missions fields. mium on doubt. Our Lord did not congratulate Thomas on being so clever as tp doubt His resurrection. Of course UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TODAY we should not favor credulity; we ought to have a reason for the faith that is in us. Dr. Robert P. Wilder, known and beloved by many as the founder of the Student Volunteer 6. Today the presentation of Christian truth to uni- Movement and a tireless worker for Christ among versity men and women is, much more "highbrow" than it students in India, Europe, America and the Near used to be forty years ago. The appeal in those days was East, has recently visited British universities to the will more than to the intellect. The appeal now under the auspices of the Inter-Varsity Fellow- seems to be largely to the intellect. Jesus said, "If any ship. These conferences have produced effective man willeth to do His (the Father's) will, he shall know results in the deepening of spiritual life and the of the teaching." presentation of the call to Christian missionary services. Many workers among students today need to be re- minded of the words of Christ, "Except ye be converted It was forty-three years ago that Dr. Wilder and become as little children, ye cannot enter the Kingdom first visited the British universities for the pur- of Heaven." Many today join groups to discuss about the pose of helping to enlist students as volunteers for Bible rather than to study the book itself. missions. The changes that have taken place in Christian program in the universities in the past 7. During my first visit to Great Britain, missionary forty-three years are significant. He says in a addresses were usually based on the Bible as giving the recent issue of the Inter-Varsity Magazine: charter for the work. The need of the non-Christian lands was explained. Now speakers frequently appeal to their • 1. When I first visited the British universities, there audiences on the political, industrial and social needs of were in the main only three objects emphasized: humanity. Christ is so presented as the fulfilment of all that is good in non-Christian faiths that some students (1) To win fellow students to a personal faith in Jesus think that while He is the best way to God, He is not the Christ; only way.
(2) To build them up in Christ by prayer and by Bible In my recent tour one was much encouraged by the size study for personal spiritual growth; of the audiences. Thank God there were some conversions and several believers were deepened in their faith in (3) To encourage them to go forth as workers for Christ. In England, Ireland and Scotland it was a joy Christ into needy places at home and abroad. to find liberals present at many of the meetings. At the Guildhall in Cambridge there were 800 to 1,000 students Now the Christian undergraduate is expected to study present and there were some real spiritual results followsocial problems; to align himself with peace movements; ing that meeting. to study economic, racial and international problems, and to work for the unity of the Church. In the pressure of It is a joy to see so many students coming back to the these various interests which compete for his attention, "Morning Watch" and personal evangelism which were so the three primary objects are frequently lost sight of. prominent forty years ago. Undergraduates today have no more time for extra curriculum activities than they had forty-three years ago. Much the same comparison can be drawn be- tween American students-even professing Chris- 2. Forty-three years ago there was a strong belief tians-today and those of forty years ago. They among Christian undergraduates that those who are not are less concerned with their own eternal welfare saved are really lost. There are today a number of stu- and that of others all over the world; they are indents who feel that to mention hell is "bad form." The terested in social, economic and political probfuture destiny of one who lives an evil life had better not lems and methods-almost to the exclusion of the be discussed, is the feeling of many. The power of student religious and spiritual; they are prone to accept leaders like D. L. Moody lay largely in their conviction as their code the prevailing customs, standards that those who are not saved are really lost. St. Paul and philosophy of men even when these contradict "warned men night and day with tears" because he knew the Word of God as revealed in Christ and th~ their real condition. Bible. But there are encouraging signs of a re- turn to Christian faith and practice. Modern 3. Forty-three years ago Christian undergraduates knew materialism and humanism have failed to solve present-day problems and there is a growing con- sciousness of need for superhuman wisdom and power to guide human thought and destinies.
and the Jews-A Christian
By CONRAD HOFFMANN, Jr., New York I Director of the International Missionary Council's Committee }Be- on the Christian Approach to the Jews THE phenomenal rise to power of Adolf Hitler, As a result of this defeat, revolution broke out his anti-Semitism, and most recently, his de- in Germany overthrowing the monarchy and re- cision to rearm, the Versailles Treaty pro- placing it by a republican form of government, hibitions notwithstanding, have made him Eu- for which the German people were not prepared rope's post-war surprise package or Jack-in-the- either by temperament or training. They were Box. Few people ever expected him actually to monarchists and not republicans. Civil war con- become Germany's "Fuehrer." Even those whose tinued more or less well into the spring of 1919, authority and judgment we respected and trusted when the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty predicted as late as January, 1933, that he would were made public. The Germans had anticipated never come to power in Ger- a peace on the basis of Wilson's many. Yet only two months Fourteen Points, but when the later, as a result of an over- Why do Germans dislike terms of Versailles were anwhelming landslide majority the Jews and wish to elim- nounced in May, 1919, complete vote of the German people, the inate them from national disillusionment took place. The Austrian painter and political life? Is there any justifica- treaty placed upon the Ger- fugitive of a few years back tion for such persecution and mans two great burdens: the was officially and enthusiasti- discrimination of the Jews as material burden of impossible cally inaugurated as Germany's they are experiencing; if so, war reparation demands, and leader and heralded by many as the spiritual burden of carry- Germany's saviour. what is it? The Christian ing the whole guilt of respon- viewpoint is very different sibility for the war. Such guilt To understand these unex- and people in many lands they refused to acknowledge; pected developments, we must have been stirred to protest. they could not and would not go back to the war days and Dr. Hoffmann has recently gathered first· hand informatake up Germany's experience tion; read his article if you believe that their six million and history since then. Only as wish to know the inside facts dead on the battlefields of and to learn the probable rewe comprehend the full portent Europe had died without some of the war and post-war experi- sults to the Christian Church justice to their cause. ences for the German people and program. Inflation of the German cur- can we hope to account for rency followed, causing com- Hitler and his anti-Semitism. plete demoralization of the peo- We need to remember that the German people ple by removing the sense of security commonly went into the war believing, rightly or wrongly, placed in a country's money. From being one of that theirs was a righteous cause and that God the most thrifty peoples in the world, in the course was on their side. (Incidentally, every nation of two years the Germans became the greatest that participated in the war went in with much spendthrifts. In times of a rapidly decreasing the same kind of belief and conviction. It seems currency value, such as swept Germany during that the universal God of all mankind had been the inflation, the worst thing to do seems to be to split into petty national gods by the respective na- save money and the wisest thing is to spend it as tional propaganda.) With this strong conviction quickly as possible. The result was that the aver- the German people made every possible sacrifice age German workman, clerk, or professional man, to win the war, and the Allies remember to their on receipt of weekly wage or monthly salary, in- sorrow that as a result Germany, practically stead of depositing a large share in savings bank single-handed, fought the world to a standstill for accountl;l, hurried off to spend as quickly as pos- four long years. The Germans emerged from the sible and translate it into more stable commodities war completely exhausted. All their sacrifices such as food, clothes, furs, jewels, but under no proved in vain, for as we know Germany was circumstances to keep the money. Even the little defeated. children caught the fever and knew that if they [327 ]
did not spend the ten or twenty pfenning they re~ more Germans, intently straining their ears in ceived immediately they would get less and less anticipation of his address. And beyond them the candy the longer they kept the money. A sum of many millions of Germans listening in on the na- German marks which in the early days of the in~ tional hook-up that was to broadcast the inaugural flation {leriod was sufficient to purchase an entire ceremonies. Expectation everywhere. A rebirth city block of houses in Berlin was, by the end of of a nation. What an opportunity and temptation a year, scarcely sufficient to buy a pair of shoe~ for a clever politician to play the "grandstand"!
strings. Hitler, however, displayed real genius; as he Then came political disintegration. The Ger~ stepped forward to address that vast assembly, man people, unaccustomed to the privilege of suf- visible and invisible, he effaced himself and in- frage which came to them with the revolution, stead called upon the venerable General von Hin- transformed that privilege into license. At the denburg. Placing the General between himself peak of this political disintegration there were as and his German audience he remarked simply, "to many as twenty-seven different political parties this man we owe this great hour" and made that in the field, all competing bitterly for the control the theme of his address. Hitler was well aware of the country. This in turn created disunity, that Hindenburg was the idol and hero of the civil strife, chaos, lawlessness, and disorder. German people and by this r1ct of recognition in- Finally, while these experiences were taking volving his own effacement he won for himself the place, the Germans were in the throes, not of an acclaim and confidence of the German people who economic crisis, but of a chronic economic depres- have ever since referred to him as "The Leader,"
sion which still continues, notwithstanding the many of them going further and speaking of him drastic efforts of Hitler to promote an internal as "The Saviour."
boom. That inauguration at Potsdam marked the birth The inevitable consequence of experiences of of a new Germany. By resorting to brutal viothis kind was to reduce the Germans to a state of lence it is true that Hitler has eliminated all oputter despair. On the other hand, as they looked position by completely routing and exterminating to the future there seemed absolutely no hope for the communist party, the social democrats, the them, in view of the unbending rigidity of Allied Centrum, and finally Hugenberg's Stahlhelm, the diplomacy toward Germany ever since the war. group that had helped to put him into power. As a matter of fact it is very doubtful whether With open opposition gone, Germany gained a Hitler ever would have come to power had Allied sense of unity. Moreover, Hitler gave German diplomacy been a little more generous with men youth the prospect of participation and creative like Stresemann and Bruening, or had undertaken activity in the building of the new Germany. in some degree to fulfil the Versailles Treaty terms Finally, thanks to his Spaf'tan idealism, he has with reference to their own disarmament. In this carried through a great moral clean~up of Gerthe Allies helped Hitler's rise to power. many. In no cities of the world perhaps was With the Germans in this state of despair and there such flagrant display of vice as in Berlin hopelessness it was natural for a messianic long~ and other German cities in the post-war period. Obscene art and literature, the nudist cult, the ing to develop. I The people craved something or most vulgar and daring of night clubs and cab- someone to come and change the situation for the better, and so, like a drowning man grasping at a arets flaunted their vice openly and boldly. Hitler straw, they grasped at Adolf Hitler as their only has eliminated all this and one might pray for a hope of salvation and swept him into power on a Hitler to help clean up some of the vulgar dis~ great tidal wave of national yearning. 'They were plays and vice centers of our own cities. convinced that he could not make conditions worse but might greatly improve them. Thus Hitler be~ The Outbreak of Anti-Semitism came possible because of the desperation of the Let us now turn to a consideration of the out- German people. Everything else having failed, break of anti-Semitism. Why did it come to pass? resort to this desperate step was taken. Since the Germans went into the war believing Whatever we may think of Adolf Hitler he is theirs was a righteous cause and that God was not a mere political mountebank. That was best on their side, they could never understand their evidenced at the time of his inauguration in Pots- defeat and post-war suffering. In their search dam. Imagine the scene: A festive and flag- for an explanation they dared not blame God, and draped church in Potsdam of Frederick the Great naturally did not wish to seek the cause within fame. Crowded to the doors and windows with themselves but rather looked about for some scape- an august assembly of leaders of every walk of goat. Under Hitler's leadership the Jews became German life; innumerable representatives of for- this scapegoat and were held responsible for all eign governments. Outside the church 100,000 or the ills that had befallen the Fatherland. Trag~
HITLER AND THE JEWS-A CHRISTIAN VIEW
ically throughout history the Jew has ever been election before he came to power over five million conveniently near at hand to become the scape- communist votes were cast in Germany. At the goat of nations in time of crisis. To justify his time, there were only 650,000 Jews in the country accusation against the Jews, Hitler provided evi- so that even if all these Jews, representing men, dence in many ways. First, he called attention to women, and children, had voted communist, there the fact that the constitution of the Weimar Re- were still eight times as many communist votes public, which followed the overthrow of the mon- cast as there were Jews in the country. Hitler archy was built up on the theories and doctrines himself tells us that not all the Jews voted com- of one Karl Marx who was born a Jew, although munist for simultaneously he accused them of be- later he was baptized as a Christian. Hitler then ing the financiers and in control of the money in- proceeded to rationalize, pointing out that the re- terests of Germany. One has yet to find that com- publican form of government had created political munist and capitalist make good bedfellows!
disintegration, that this in turn had created dis- He next called attention to the demoralizing in- unity and chaos, lawlessness and disorder, and fluence that had been at work in Germany in the that as a result Germany had been unable to pre- post-war period, above all to the anti-God and sent a solid front to the Allies. This meant in- anti-church movement that had been raising its ability to have German demands accepted by the head. Because certain Jews were connected with Allies, and left the future dark and uncertain. these tendencies he held German Jewry as a whole And so the ills of Germany in the post-war period responsible.
were traced back to Jewish influence and the Jews Finally, he pointed to the international connec- as a whole held responsible for all the national tions of the Jews and insinuated that, by virtue misfortunes. of these international connections, Gerrnan Jewry Again, Adolf Hitler called attention to the fact was intriguing against the best interests of the that, as a result of the large number of Jews in Fatherland.
the professional and cultural life of the country, Teutonic Racial Purity Germany was becoming Judaized. He failed, to explain that in the pre-war days non-Jews in- On top of all of these accusations came his racial variably sought the military career, from which purity idealism. Jews were excluded, so that the Jews naturally When a desperate people are fed with this type turned to the professions. The war ended the of propaganda against a disliked minority, the military career, and non-Jews, who had formerly inevitable result is an outbreak of more or less become military officers now turned to the pro- violent discrimination, which in Germany has fessions in which they discovered a dispropor- manifested itself in the present evidences of antitionately large number of Jews. As the economic Semitism. In times of crises it is easy to fan the depression increased, the competition became public opinion of a suffering people into hatred. more intense, with resultant growing bitterness The Germans, as we have seen, were desperate against the Jews who were holding jobs which the and were therefore neither objective nor reason- able; because certain Jews seemed guilty all non-Jews now wanted to fill. Hitler also called attention to the presence of Jewry was held responsible. We have here evicertain Jews as ringleaders in the communist agi- dence of the curse of generalization of which tation that had characterized post-war Germany. Jewry has ever been the victim.
Moreover, he told of the large number of Jews Hitler's anti-Semitism manifests itself not so that had come from Eastern Europe into Germany much in actual physical violence done the Jews since the war. Actually only about 70,000 had as in the commercial, political, social, and cul- entered but reference to Eastern Europe at once tural ostracism and boycott of all Jews. The acts envisaged Soviet Russia, and the "bugaboo" of of violence against individual Jews, and the minia- communism. Thus Hitler propagandized the Ger- ture pogrom in Gundershausen, are as inexcusable mans into believing that the Jews were respon- as are the numerous acts of violence perpetrated sible for the menace of communism in Germany. against many non-Jews who as communists, so- He had forgotten that during the war it was the cialists or pacifists were regarded as opponents German War Ministry which, as a war measure, of the Nazi regime.
had granted permission for Lenin and Trotzky to The average tourist to Germany will see little cross Germany from Switzerland en route to evidence of any Jewish persecution and as a re- Czarist Russia, in the hope that they would stir sult many have returned maintaining that there up the communist revolution in Czarist Russia, is no anti-Semitism, and even expressing admira- break Russia from the Allies, and thus give Ger- tion for the present regime. Owing to extensive many a better chance of winning the war. He press censorship many Germans are ignorant of also neglected to mention that in the last normal actual conditions, and they remain inarticulate or
maintain that the accusations concerning Hitler's lion as compared with the 650,000 Jews in preanti-Semitism are malicious propaganda from Hitler Germany. Fully 500,000 of the so-called abroad. Moreover, all articulate opposition to Hit- non-Aryans are out and out Christians, and have ler involves the risk of position, imprisonment, and been so for several generations, but because, by even of life. the accident of birth or inheritance, they happen to have Jewish blood in their veins they are dealt When one confers with German Jewish leaders, with as Jews and are being increasingly deprived visits Jewish families, and delves beneath the sur- of all possibility of a livelihood within Germany. face, one quickly discovers how insidious and pernicious is the campaign against the Jews. The The net result of all this anti-Semitism is a more vulgar and despicable aspects of the cam- gradual removal of Jews and Jewish influence paign are seen in Streicher's anti-Semitic publica- from the life of Germany, which in some respects tion known as Der StUrmer, and heard in certain reminds one of the elimination of the bourgeoisie public addresses against Jews made by represent- from Soviet Russia. Whereas it is not as drastic atives of the Nazi party. Der Sturmer stoops to as the "blood purge" of June 30, it produces more crude, indecent, and undignified attacks on the spiritual anguish in addition to physical pain. Jew utterly unworthy of the Germany of Goethe Within the last few weeks rumors have been curand Schiller, and of what we commonly und€r- rent that a definite plan of elimination of the Jews stand as German Ritterlichkeit. Newspapers fre- from Germany within the next twenty-five years quently publish the names and addresses of J ew- is being seriously considered. To date not more ish doctors and lawyers, urging the German pub- than 60,000 of the total 650,000 Jews in Germany lic not to patronize these. All Jews are denied have actually been able or willing to flee Germany positions in the civil service, in the teaching pro- to escape this growing wave of ostracism. Many fessions – whether in· the universities or the German Jews are really Germans – Germany is schools – as well as all participation in the cul- their native land and they are loath to leave it tural life of the country as represented by the even in the face of so much antagonism and peropera, theatre, arid music. The small trades are secution. Some 27,000 have gone to Palestine for at present the primary outlet. But when a coun- permanent settlement. The others have gone to try is in the throes of economic depression there France, Switzerland, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, isn't much hope for many new thousands of people where permanent residence for a few, and temto enter the small trades and to earn a livelihood porary residence for the many have been perthere. mitted. On the other hand, even if more desire to leave Germany, they cannot under present world A Campaign of Bitterness conditions. Emigration is practically impossible, for immigration laws everywhere, made more During the early part of last winter one was rigid by universal unemployment crises, render led to believe that a more moderate policy with any large exodus from one country to another imregard to the Jews was being introduced, but in possible. And so we have the tragic experience recent months and notably during March, the of hundreds of German Jews who had fled to campaign against the Jews seems to be $reatly neighboring countries where they have been intensified in scope and bitterness. granted temporary domicile now finding them- selves actually compelled to go back into Germany The whole campaign is most vicious in that it because no other country will have them. Acis not confined to adults but is extended' to the cording to a report widely circulated, many of children as well. A Berlin clergyman recently these returning Jews, on arrival in Germany, sent the writer an anti-Jewish poem which his ten- were at once placed in custody of the police or in year-old son and other Berlin school children were concentration camps. required to learn. Yet Heinrich Heine's "Die Lorelei," though written by a Jew, remains a Can there be any justification for this extensive popular folksong of the Germans. Members of and apparently brutal discriminatiqn and persethe boys' and girls' youth groups are forbidden cution of the Jews in Germany? Even though we to have any social contact with their former J ew- admit that the accusations of Adolf Hitler are ish playmates. The result is a poisoning of the true with reference to certdin individual Jews, minds of innocent German children with race there can, none the less, be no justification for the hatred and the creation of spiritual anguish for punishment of all the Jewish people of Germany the Jewish children. because of the guilt, real or imaginary, of certain German Jews. Having advanced this principle, Nor is the discrimination limited to Jews only. we must apply it to the Germans as well. There In pursuit of the racial purity idealism of Hitler seems also no justification for punishing all the it also includes all who within two generations Germans by the boycott because Hitler and the back have the taint of Jewish blood in their veins. Such persons are known as non-Aryans. Their number in Germany probably exceeds three mil-
Nazis are guilty of an unjustified and brutal anti- necessarily agree with all his policies, as is shown Semitism. by the courageous protests of Protestant clergy- A Christian Viewpoint men against the totalitarian concept of Hitler.
From a Christian point of view we must spe- The fight for the subjection of the Church to the cifically protest against Hitler's anti-Semitism. dictates of the State is not yet won. It is sig- In the first place, it is a violation of human per- nificant that of all the various agencies and groups sonality held sacred by the Christ whom Chris- in Germany the Church has been the only one tians profess to believe in. In the second place, which has dared openly to take issue with Hitler. it is an utter denial of the spirit and teachings of Note also the remarkable stand taken by Cardinal that Christ. In the third place, anti-Semitism, if Faulhaber, Roman Catholic Prelate of Munich, carried to its logical conclusions, must sooner or later become a menace to the continued existence who in five Advent sermons,* preached in 1933, of the Christian faith itself. As a matter of fact, a considerable number of Germans, in their desire openly took issue with Hitler with regard to his to eliminate Jewish influence, are not content to totalitarian state, his attitude toward Jews and eliminate it merely from their economic, profes- non-Aryans, and the neopagan trends in the wake sional, and cultural life, but are also attempting of Naziism. to eliminate Jewish influence from their religious faith. But if one would rid the Christian faith There are Y. M. C. A.'s in Germany which to of all Jewish influence one must do away with date have never hoisted the Hitler flag and anyone Moses and the Ten Commandments, the psalms, who has been in Germany since Hitler came into and the prophets. In addition one must do away power knows how conspicuous a building without with Jesus Christ Himself, as well as the twelve a swastika flag is in present-day Germany. The Apostles and St. Paul. Thus little would be left. marching thousands of young and old to the ac- Incidentally, this analysis reveals how much the companiment of military music and the flying Christian faith owes to Judaism for its own colors of the Hitler flag and the singing of the content. Horst Wessel song, as well as the extensive be- flagging of all buildings and homes, give the im- pression of a continuous Fouth of July celebra- tion. At least one Y. M. C. A., on hearing of the order requiring all youth organizations to enlist Following the shock of the outbreak of Hitler's their members en masse in the Hitler youth moveanti.,Semitism protests against it have been world- ment quietly, and deliberately dissolved its own wide. In some cases these were engineered by membership so that it had no members thus to the Jews themselves. In others Christians took enlist. It takes courage to do such things in Gerthe initiative. But unfortunately mere protests many today. are of little avail and bring no relief to the vic- Finally, I call attention to the experience of tims. The simplest solution would be repatriation one of my intimate friends, a Roman Catholic, and rehabilitation of the Jews of Germany in Fritz Beck by name, who lived in Munich. He other lands. But at present any large exodus of Jews from Germany to other lands is possible. was in charge of all student activities in Bavaria and was director of three student centers in America to date has taken in not more than 3,000 Munich. Ever since the war he had been most and these are very largely scholars, scientists, and active in international student affairs and while a musicians, admitted to help fructify American loyal German was strongly international-minded cultural life. Weare no more desirous of having the rank and file of German Jew than is any other and a very special friend of American students. Soon after Hitler came into power Beck received country in the world. instructions to keep the Jewish students out of Moreover, in America we find a rising tide of the student centers. A decision had to be made. anti-Jewish feeling and in view of our Negro Beck realized that if he refused to obey, the result racial problem and the brutal lynchings that take would be at least loss of position-a very serious place every now and then, the Germans rightly matter. But because Beck believed that the Faretaliate when we protest, with the question, therhood of God implied the brotherhood of man "What right have you to protest against our anti- and that therefore to discriminate against any Semitism? Are we doing anything that is worse people was a direct violation of that fundamental than your lynchings?" conviction, he had the courage to refuse. As a The world has wondered at the apparent ab- result he lost his job, and moreover gained the sence of opposition and protest within Germany enmity of many of the older Nazi students who against Hitler's anti-Semitism. It is therefore swore vengeance. By a miraculous coincidence, significant that not all Germans have acquiesced. Fritz Beck had many years ago befriended Roehm, Whereas most Germans will admit that Hitler is their only hope, that does not mean that they • These sermons have been published by the Macmillan Company under the title "Christianity, Judaism, and Germany."
who at the time of Beck's dismissal, was German Moreover, in view of the extensive oftimes exag- Chief of Staff. Roehm, hearing of Beck's dis- gerated agitation and protest against Germany, missal, and remembering the friendly deed of everything German of which certain American many years ago, used his influence to reinstate Jews and non-Jews have been guilty, American Beck and put him under the wing of his protec- citizens of German ancestry are becoming Gertion. On June 30, 1934, as we all know, Roehm man-conscious and are bitter against the Jews. among others was shot in cold blood by Hitler's Clashes and conflicts between Jews and such Gerorders. The older students took advantage of the man-conscious Americans have been frequent. commotion of the purge to call on Beck in his Most startling, however, is the large number of office. Beck was "taken for a ride," apparently Americans who are inclined to be indifferent, if tortured and then shot in cold blood. Several not actually sympathetic to Hitler's campaign days after his body, riddled with bullets, was against the Jews. As a friend sincerely interested found on a roadside near Munich. Beck paid in solving the problem of the Jew, one could wish with his life for his defense of the Jew. for some recognition by Jews that certain Jews, by their attitudes, actions, and activities help to Fritz Beck's last letter to me, written just six provoke anti-Semitism, and that such undoubtedly weeks before he was killed, gives evidence that was the case in Germany. Hitherto there has been he had a premonition of the fate that awaited him. no such admission of possible guilt by Jews. To None the less he went ahead, not swerving from solve the problem of the Jew, both gentile and his convictions, even in the face of death. In this Jew must cooperate in eliminating causes of antiletter (dated May 15, 1934), he wrote: Jewish feeling. The gentile alone cannot elim- inate anti-Jewish feeling, even though we admit On June 4, God willing, I shall once again be at the old the burden of guilt rests largely on gentiles. job in Munich. And even though it is with a bleeding heart that I view much of that which is now taking place One-third of all the Jews in the world live in in Germany I shall remain at my post as long as God wills. America. One-eighth of all the Jews in the world Indeed, it seems almost like a miracle of God that I have are in New York City. What is the future of been able to continue at my task thus long, in spite of the these Jews? There are evidences of growing antifact that I have in no way changed my opinions. May God Jewish feeling. The serious economic crisis which give me strength ever to bear witness to Him, even if the confronts America contributes to this. There are Powers that be should demand of me torture, imprison- numerous small groups that are openly agitating ment, or life itself. against the Jews and it is here that the real 'chal- lenge to the Christian Church of America comes. Will not you also remember me in prayer-after all, The American Church must be aggressive in the separated as we are, prayer alone availeth. . . . present situation lest through indifference or tol- erance it become guilty, like the German Church, Thus we see that whereas Hitler and the Nazis of actually fostering anti-Jewish feeling. are brutally anti-Semitic, there are many Germans who, at the risk of position, liberty, and life In the past nations have endeavored to solve itself, are taking issue silently as well as openly the Jewish problem by forcible conversion of the in their protest against anti-Semitism. Let us not Jew to the Christian faith, by his exile, by segregeneralize with reference to the Germans any gation in the ghetto, and even by massacre, but more than with reference to the Jews. none of these methods have solved the problem. Anti-Semitism, no matter what form it takes, Other Issues in Germany merely aggravates the problem of the Jew. The only other alternative is that of true Christian If space permitted, one should discuss the im- neighbol'liness, and it is this which the Christian portant German Church issue, as well as the char- churches of America must promote and immeacter, and aims of the Nazi party and finally the diately, if we are to avoid an outbreak of antiimplications for peace or war in Europe, growing Semitism akin to that which has taken place in out of Hitler's recent decision to rearm, the con- Germany. This is the task of the Christian sequent conferences between Hitler, Simon, and churches. It must be more than goodwill, im- Eden, as well as the Stresa meetings. However, portant as that is; it must be, a witnessing to the our primary concern has been the Jewish ques- Jew who is our neighbor of the power that Jesus tion, with which we must limit ourselves for the Christ gives men and women to live as true chilpresent. dren of God and therefore as true brothers to our fellowmen, irrespective of race, color, or creed. To complete our theme, we need a word on the Jesus Christ is the key to the solution of the probimplications of Hitler's anti-Semitism for Amer- lem of the Jew, here as in Germany and elsewhere. ica. It is well to remember that in the wake of Hitler's anti-Semitism there has come a renaissance within Jewry. It is significant that this renaissance is stressing the racial and national aspects of Jewishness rather than the religious.
Youth and a New
~~II~~~BY~R~O~Y~A~.~B~U~R~KH~A~R~T~'~C~Ol~wn~bu~S'~O~h~i~o~~ll~ SOMEONE has well said that if Communism in it far-reaching possibility. For the first time gets the upper hand in America Christianity will be to blame. Someone else has said that in the history of Protestantism all agencies workif we ever have a war again Christianity will be to blame. Someone else might well say that if our ing with youth are actually working together. It economic order, with its muddled and turbulent conditions, finally ends up in chaos, dragging civ- is a challenging movement. Youth and their lead- ilization with it Christianity will be to blame.* ers are responding in a most encouraging way.
In one of the twenty-four youth conferences The Christian Youth Council of North America held in important centers as a part of the united youth program, "Christian youth Building a New met at Lake Geneva last summer and most of the WorId," a boy stood up in a closing commitment service and made this significant statement: camps and conferences last summer built their Mr. Leader, how can you have the conscience to stand program around this united youth movement. there and ask these young people to commit their lives to a religion that is a part of an economic order and a social Many denominational meetings and all agencies system that is pagan to the very heart? You are asking them to give their lives to a religion that has wandered looking into the summer and next fall are planfar from its Founder and that has become a battle cry for a civilization that has long since lost concern for ning their programs in harmony with the major human needs. I am the son of a Methodist minister. I am a graduate of a large university in engineering. I projects of the movement. waited four years for a job-I could not get it. My life had no meaning. Now I am a Communist and my life has Twenty-four large regional youth conferences meaning. We Communists are building a new world. We may starve doing it but we have the satisfaction of work- were held in March and more than 26,000 young ing for a cause that will ultimately give justice to those who live after us. people and their leaders were in attendance, with The reader can well visualize what happened in 1,600 local churches represented. Most encourthat group. There was a deathly silence. Well thinking young people, realizing the devisiveness' aging reports have been received. Young people in our conception of Christianity, the lack of constructive action, the apathy of so-called Christian were challenged to the task to be done by Chrisleaders, knew that this boy was speaking words which were far too true for comfort. They knew tianity and were made aware of their responsithat young people in most churches have no sense of mission. Few have any sense of going any- bility and their privilege in helping to build a where except to church. They feel they want peace but they know of no strategy of action new world. The young people received a great whereby they can get peace. They want social justice but they know that the economic power is sense of fellowship and mission that are of great in the hands of a small group of people. They know that as long as these people have the power value. The young people went forth with a feelthere is little others can do. Consequently they have a sense of futility, spending their days won- ing that they were joining with others in builddering if they will be lucky enough to get jobs. ing a new world and that they did not need to go Because of these facts those who are close to the growing united Christian youth program, see alone because they had fellowship with Christ • These statements are, of course, not endorsed by the Editor of who has the power to make all things new. THE REVIEW. It Is only "denatured Christianity," Christianity The different agencies had not been working :~~hfo~af~~IS~hristm~~~o~e1i;:::':~~I~~R~lamed for failure. Those together but out of these conferences will un- doubtedly emerge a strategy of cooperation in the community which should result in significant prog- ress along many lines. Such cooperation will give young people a sense of mission and of a definite objective because of the fact that they are work- ing with young people from many other groups.
In one city they are planning f¥ large peace parade with a hundred thousand4"0ung people. One church or one denomination dpuld not go very far but all groups' working together can speak and act with' power.
In the past there has never been a distinct na- tion-wide Christian youth movement. There are at present hundreds of small movements of one sort or another, but none that is national in scope.
Now, in the new program, many observers feel that there is a movement which is destined to be- come dtor,uesl ya1N1tohert hCAhrml.setiraicnaynoiunt scope. Includ ing as 'I. t h agencies in b oth the United States and Canada, there is every rea- [333 ]
son to expect great results from it. Not only All over the world there is appalling misery and should the ten or twelve million young people in the churches become active in this united effort, suffering. War clouds hang low. The poor are getbut thousands who are not now in the fold should be won to Christ and His program. ting poorer and the insecurity of the dispossessed Already programs for camps and conferences more intense. Those who have jobs have them at are being shaped into the movement. Various denominations are planning national gatherings to the expense of those who have none. There is build their own programs in harmony with the vision they have glimpsed. The camp conferences fear, hatred, and gloom. But through the blackof the International Council of Religious Education are to be a real part of the movement. The ness and the mist, there is a reassuring ray of biennial convention of the International Society of Christian Endeavor, to be held in Philadelphia hope-Christian youth, working with their elders in July, will have a distinct relationship to this great plan. and with the youth of other faiths can build a new Late in 1935 or during 1936 an enlarged meet- world. It is on that hope that many are bettering of the Christian Youth Council will be held with 2,000 or 2,500 delegates, including key young ing their lives.* people who are holding positions of leadership in national or area groups, present to report prog- * The following material on the United Youth Movement has been ress and to make plans. prepared cooperatively and may be secured from the International Council of Religious Education, 203 North Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IlL: "Forward Together," a promotional leaflet giving information about the movement, (Single copies, one cent; 100 c'oples, 75 cents; .500 copies, $3.50; 1,000 copies, $6.50.) A poster for the above material may be secured for ten cents. "Our Share in Build- ing a New World," a printed pamphlet containing suggestions and resource materials for local groups (ten cents). "The Statement of Christian Conviction of the Christian Youth Council," including a worship service for use in connection with the Signing of this state- ment (single copy, five cents; five or more copies, three cents each; 300 or more, three cents each less twenty per cent discount). A speCial pamphlet entitled "After Conference~What?" was prepared for use as follow up to the conferences mentioned above. This will serve as a splendid guide to youth groups in taking a creative part in this movement. Copies of this can be secured from the Board of Religious Education of the Disciples Church, at three cents per copy.
THE MISSIONARY MESSAGE OF THE CROSS The word "cross" in the Scriptures never occurs in the plural. To Christ the cross meant one thing, and nothing less: His sacrifice of Himself to save others. That is what it must mean to every disciple-self-abnegation. To take up the cross and bear it after Christ is to undertake, like the Master, a life of self-erucifixion for the saving of others. It is to lose the self-life for His sake. It is to be willing to die, if need be, that others may live. When our Lord hung upon the cross His enemies tauntingly said: "He saved others: Himself He cannot save." No sneer ever hid a truth so sublime. In the Christian life, saving self and saving others are utterly incompatible; and the one great difficulty with the whole body of professed disciples is that most of them are trying to save themselves, and yet be saved. And so it comes to pass that thousands go to church, come to the Lord's Table, utter prayers and bear the name of Christ, yet live a life essentially worldly, and are engaged in no truly soul-saving work. They spend many times as much on self-indulgence as they give to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, . or give the Living Bread to dying souls.
Consider what would be the result if every professed child of God could burn with Paul's passion for souls, could know the continual heart burden for the unsaved, that made it possible for him even to wish himself accursed that they might be saved.
That was cross-bearing. The Apostle Paul died daily; he was "crucified with Christ," he bore branded in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Could ten thousand of the millions of professed believers burn with such a Christ-like passion for souls, for one year, the Gospel would be carried round the globe within that year. Arguments and appeals are vain while you argue and appeal to the spiritually dead. Before the church can "convert the world," the members of the Church must be converted. The real difficulty is not in unsanctified purses, or unsanctified cradles, but in sanctified hearts.
A light that does not shine, a spring that does not flow, a germ that does not grow, is not more a contradiction than a life in Christ which does not bear witness to Christ. If there be a spring within, there will flow a stream without. If there is no witness, is there any experience? "He that believeth on me," as the Scripture hath said, "out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." He who has no passion to convert, needs conversion. The saved man is not content to have unsaved men go unwarned, or the -saving power of God to go un-, witnessed. It may well be doubted whether one who bears no part in testimony to Christ has any part in His salvation. Would that everyone might feel the full force of this paradox of missions: "Christ :alone can save this world, But Christ cannot save this world alone."
ARTHUR T. PIERSON.
Spiritual Condition of the
By REV. HENRY W. FROST, D.D., Princeton, N. J.
Home Director Emeritus of the China Inland Mission I F THE heathen-those who have never heard the facts, then indeed it would be worthwhile to the Gospel or received life through Christ- leave homeland, kin and kindred, ease, comfort, are not "lost," one would feel almost warranted physical and educational advantages, all that goes in openly disobeying the command of Christ and to make the home life alluring and profitable, for making no effort to carry the Gospel to them. For the sake of delivering souls from perdition and what use would it be simply to civilize them and bringing them to Christ and, at last, to an eternal give them our western culture? To be sure they and beatific Heaven. In such a case, we should need some things which go with our civilization, understand why Jesus said to go and asked us to such as teachers, schools and colleges, and, par- sacrifice our all. And in such an event, we should ticularly, doctors, nurses and· hospitals. But it not think Him ruthless, but, on the contrary, very would cost too much to give them these at the compassionate, not only to the heathen, but also, sacrifice of separation from loved ones, living in to ourselves, in spite of our heavy loss. And in far-away lands, consorting with such a happening, there would alien and uncouth peoples, en- be those who would desire to go during deep and long drawn- One of the greatest points abroad instead of staying at out loneliness, exposing the of disagreement between those home and would consider it a body to serious climatic dis- . who are and are not vitally high privilege, honor and joy to eases, facing possible attacks interested in evangelizing the obey the commandment of by lawless mobs, and finally, it world with the Gospel of Christ to preach the Gospel to may be, passing through sud- Christ is the question as to every creature. Yes, it would den and terrible death. Life is whether or not all non-Chris- make all the difference in the too precious to trifle with it and tians are Ulost" and in danger world if we knew that the to throw it away by spending Gofode. terMnaalnysewpahroattiaokne fsriodems heathen are really lost. on this question have never its strength in the pursuit of really studied it. Dr. Frost Missionaries of old felt this secondary objectives. It re- to be the case; and they went. quires a strong inducement to presents the view of the This was true of Judson, Carey, warrant our giving up home- ~~Word of God" – the only Livingstone, Morrison, Burns land advantages when the alter- final authority. and Taylor. It has been true of nate is to be, not gain, but large a countless number of others and perpetual loss. For this who have followed in their reason we should be tempted to say, in spite of the train. And it was true of that greatest of all misarrant disloyalty of it, Let us disobey Christ and sionaries, Paul, who became all things to all men stay at home, unless the heathen need the Gospel that he might save some. for the saving of their souls. In such a case, we Now it must be conceded that God is the only should come to. the conclusion that the Master had One, in heaven above or on earth beneath, who dealt ruthlessly with us when He commanded us really knows whether or not the heathen are lost. to go to peoples, not lost but having sufficiently For it is only His eye that sees the true condition good religions of their own to save them. of souls and their eternal state and destiny. This Suppose, however, the heathen are lost; what implies that there is not a man living, however educated, intelligent and spiritual, who, of himthen? Suppose their religions are false, their idol self, has the slightest conception of the heathens' worship is vain, their long pilgrimages are wasted spiritual condition. So far as the natural man is time, their sacrifices are destructive of everything concerned, therefore, the subject is beyond undergood; what then? Suppose they are worshiping .standing and had best be left unconsidered. But, not God, but demons, and suppose, when they in spite of this conclusion, a question may be pass through the portal of death, they go out into an unillumined darkness and into an eternal sep- asked: Has the All-knowing One made any revaration from God and Christ and all that is pure elation to man concerning the spiritual condition and beautiful and holy; what then? If these are of the heathen? If He has not, we must remain [335 ]
in ignorance. If He has, we may rightfully seek and that it was only the man who heard and re- to know what is revealed. This then, is our pres· ceivedit who would be saved.
ent attitude of mind. Feeling that we must know, Christ, when He spoke from heaven and comif possible, the truth of God concerning the missioned Paul to be a missionary to the Gentiles heathen, in order that we may understand what to lifted the veil which hung over the heathen and do in reference to the command of Jesus to preach discovered to the apostle and thus to us their spirthe Gospel to them, we turn to the Scriptures to itual state. He spoke as follows: "To open their discover what their testimony is. eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and The question of the spiritual condition of the from the power of Satan unto God, that they may heathen is discussed even in the Old Testament. receive forgiveness of sins" (Acts 26: 17, 18).
David said, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, Here then, is the revelation of the All-seeing One.
and all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9: 17) ; He affirmed that the heathen are spiritually blind and again, "Confounded be all they that serve and do not see; 'that they walk in darkness and graven images, that boast themselves of idols" need the light; that they are in the possession (Ps. 97: 7). Isaiah wrote, "The idols he shall and under the dominion of Satan and require to utterly abolish" (Isa. 2: 18-21). Joel declared, be delivered from him and brought to God; and "Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the that their sins are so many and great as to call for valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge a divine forgiveness.
the heathen round about . . . for their wicked· Paul is profuse in his statements concerning the ness is great" (Joel 3: 11-13). Micah affirmed, heathen. The following are some of his declara- "I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon tions: '
the heathen" (Mic. 5: 15). "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the New Testament Declarations world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. When we come to the New Testament we find 5: 12). In the light of this verse, we cannot say that it is replete with statements in reference to that the heathen will be lost if they do not hear the heathen and their spiritual condition. We the Gospel and be saved. The proper statement is would review some of these declarations, as that they are lost and will remain in this condifollows: tion if they do not hear the Gospel and are saved.
If we should be asked what verse in the New The spiritual "death," spoken of is the state of Testament most reveals the love and grace of God . being lost and that death, because of man's trans- we should probably reply in these words, "God so gression and universal sin, has fallen upon all.
loved the world that he gave his only begotten In other words, all men, including the heathen, Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not are born in a state of spiritual death and need the perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). redemption of Christ. The only question is, Will But there are things about this verse of compas- they come to know Christ and be delivered from sion and mercy which we do not usually recognize. their lost condition? .
They are these: It says that God loved "the "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven world"; then we must conclude that all the world against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of had need of that love and the gift that followed. men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. . . .
Also, it says that God gave His Son to the world For the invisible things of him from the creation that it might "not perish"; then it follows that of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the world was perishing and that the only way in the things that are made, even his eternal power which it could be kept from perishing ultimately and Godhead; so that they are without excuse"
and utterly was by believing on the Son whom (Rom. 1: 18, 20). There is much talk about the God has given. In other words the verse declares "innocent heathen." But they are not found in that the reason why God manifested His love and experience and the Scripture never describes them grace was because the whole wide world was lost. as such. God, in the last words of our passage, Jesus put at the very heart of the Great Com- definitely and positively affirms that the heathen mission-according to Mark's Gospel-these sol- are "without excuse," He being revealed in the emn and startling words: "He that believeth and physical world by which they are surrounded..
is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth "For as many as have sinned without law shall shall be condemned" (Mark 16: 16 R. V.). The also perish without law" (Rom. 2: 12). The Master here implied that the preaching of the "law" here spoken of is the Mosaic law. The Gospel. was a matter of life and death; that the verse says then, As many as have sinned apart man who did not believe it would remain in his from the Mosaic law shall also perish apart from lost condition and would be divinely condemned, the Mosaic law. This refers to the heathen, and
THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE HEATHEN
the reason of it is, first, though the heathen have alienated from the life of God through the igno- not the Mosaic law, they have the law of con- rance that is in them, because of the blindness of science; and second, no man can be saved by law, their heart" (Eph. 4: 17, 18). There is infinite whether it be that of Moses or conscience, for no distance. between God's thoughts and man's as one can keep the one law or the other (Rom. 2: 11- touching the heathen. We count their ignorance 16). It is thus that God adds, not shall be judged of the way of righteousness an entire and valid without law, but "shall also perish without law." excuse for their not walking in that Way. Igno- "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles rance in some cases is excuse. But this is not the sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God" case with the heathen. For their ignorance is the (1 Cor. 10: 20 R. V.). Let us observe from our direct result of a wilful blindness of heart. God verse, that the One who sees and knows does not does not hold them responsible for not knowing look with complacency upon the sacrifices of the the Gospel. That is the responsibility of the heathen, however earnest and self-denying these Church, and a heavy one it is. What they are remay be. He declares, in effect, that all heathen sponsible for is this, for not seeking to obey the religions are nothing else than demonology. This One who has revealed Himself in sun, moon and is a serious charge, coming from such an One stars, flowers, fruits and waving fields of grain, the rain that falls and the wind that blows, all of as God. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in which are so many sights and sounds of the livtrespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye ing and true God. Their ignorance, therefore, is walked according to the course of this world, ac- self-imposed and it results from the blindness, not cording to the prince of the power of the air, the of their eyes, but of their hearts. It is for this spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- that God will judge them. And as it has meant an obedience: That at that time ye were without alienation from God in this life, so it will mean Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of an alienation in the other.
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of prom- John, the seer, is given a vision of the last ise, having no hope, and without God in the world" things and is permitted to give us to see what he (Eph. 2: 1, 2, 12). Paul had a first-hand knowl- saw, including the last of the last things, namely, edge of the heathen, having been brought up in the final judgment of God. As we look at this rev- their midst. He knew, not only the worst of them, elation, we shrink back appalled, for the view is but also the best of them, having been highly edu- other than we should like and is shocking to every cated and having been associated with those of fiber of our being. And yet, if we believe in God's scholarly minds and cultured lives. Also, he had Word and love truth more than ourselves, we shall in mind, in writing to the Ephesians, the refine- look again and believe what we see through the ment and high-plane living of many of the heathen words which we read. And as we read, we shall who dwelt at Ephesus. And yet, he implies as to remember that it was the beloved apostle who all of the heathen of that city and thus of all the wrote the words, the man of God who loved and heathen everywhere, that, they walk "according to pitied as no other man did. His words are these: the course of this world," and "according to the "The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, prince of the power of the air," namely, the devil; and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, that they are "without Christ," are "aliens from and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part the commonwealth of Israel," are "strangers from in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: the covenants of promise," and are "without hope" which is the second death" (Rev. 21: 8). And and "without God in the world." mark it, the items of sin mentioned describe th'e If these words do not describe the lost state of heathen 'almost more than any other class of huthe heathen, including the best of them, we know man beings, for preeminently it is true of them now what words would. Take, for instance, these that they are "abominable, murderers, whoretwo words, "without hope." We hear much in mongers, sorcerers, idolaters and liars."
these days, especially as related to the heathen, So then, we conclude that the All-knowing One about the "larger hope." But God did not coin has granted to us a revelation and has given us to that phrase. His statement is "No hope," which, see what He sees, namely, a perishing world.
according to the word "no," must refer both to With this sight before us, it is easy to understand this present world and the next. So then the why Jesus, who loved us, said "Go"! He is not heathen at large, in spite of their religions, phi- willing that any should perish, and, as God sacri- losophies, altruisms and negations of self, are in ficed Him, He is constrained to sacrifice us, if a hopeless state. This, as God sees things, is be- only the lost may be saved. All that remains, ing utterly lost. therefore, is for us to decide which we love the "As other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their better, ourselves and our ease, or Christ and the mind, having the understanding darkened, being souls of men.
A. A. Hyde-A Good Steward*
.r-. A T THE ripe age of eighty-six, and less than a Promoters and even friends with schemes for week after teaching his Bible Class and de- profitable investment found Mr. Hyde too busy to livering a message to the staff of his Men- be interviewed, but he always had time to hear the thalatum Company, A. A. Hyde, of Wichita, Kan- appeal in behalf of the most humble Christian sas, U. S. A., passed quietly into the Higher Life, enterprise. He did not give without investigation on January 10, 1935. He was a truly consistent and sound judgment, but he did give without stint Christian business man to whom Christ's in- or condition and he helped to put dozens of worthy j unction to "seek first the Kingdom of God" was causes on their feet. His advice made them stand the central motive of life. Two principles were up and walk. These benefactions he considered his daily concern – the very core of his being: his real investments. They circled the globe and are pushing the frontiers of the Kingdom into the neglected areas of mankind.
But Mr. Hyde did not end his missionary re- sponsibilities by gifts of money and counsel to distant projects. He practiced the Kingdom brotherhood in his home, his church, and his com- munity. His employees were fellowmen and women. His Negro chauffeur was his personal friend and companion. His "servants" were peo- ple-members of the household. His brotherhood did not discriminate against either race, or cast, or nationality. His guests were made members of the family. On Sundays it was the regular thing for young men to be brought home, after church, for a most informal luncheon-in the pantry, on the good solid food stored up on Saturdays in the refrigerators by the cook-who would be off duty for Sunday.
One became acquainted with Mr. Hyde in thirty minutes and could not spend that much time with him without knowing that he was a practicing Christian-vitally interested in the Kingdom of God. Yet there was nothing about his unceasing zeal that bored or alienated others; quite the con- trary. A citizen of his city declared that, although out of sympathy with the Church, he looked up to A. A. Hyde as his ideal of both manhood and religion.
THE LATE A. A. HYDE. OF WICHITA. KANSAS On his seventy-seventh birthday the City of Wichita officially celebrated with a banquet at- first, the putting first of all the Kingdom of God, tended by 1,100 people-many coming from dis- and second, regarding all he possessed-material, tant parts of the United States-with a program physical, and spiritual-as a trust from God, to be and souvenir book which took half a year in prep- administered as a steward rather than as owner. aration by a great committee of the leading citi- Andrew Carnegie's theory that it is "a disgrace zens from all walks of life. Because he sought to die rich" was Mr. Hyde's practice. He began no glory for himself; because he gave everything his business career by pledging one-tenth of his -to such extent that his own family almost was receipts to the building of the Kingdom of God, brought to the point of disrepair; because he but during the past quarter-century when his suc- practiced with unprecedented faithfulness and cess increased, he gave nine-tenths, and finally zeal the principle of Christian stewardshipeverything beyond frugal living expenses. there was not a person in his community who would grudge him the title of First Citizen of * Revised from The Omi Mustard-Seed, Japan. Wichita.
[ 338]
the Gospel to the Dyaks*
By C. DAVID CLENCH, Borneo Missionary of the Christian and Missionary Alliance T HE rivers of Borneo are wide, and of a dirty, in the morning one cannot see any river bed at yellowish gray color. On the mud banks we all, only a great wide sheet of rushing water filling see here and there a crocodile sleeping in the the gorge completely. For this reason boats are sunshine. Hearing us, he jumps and disappears always pulled to the top of the gorge.
in the water. Then we are attracted by a sudden After a long journey we reach the Dyak coun- shaking among the trees and see a monkey spring try, in the center of Borneo, high up in the hills.
from one branch to another. Then suddenly we see a host of them-a whole crowd of monkeys chattering in the woods.
Just ahead is a bend in the river. These bends become so monotonous at times that we wish we would never see another. On both sides of the stream, is the forest as far as eye can see, but no birds and blossoms with gorgeous coloring in Borneo. This flat monotony of land influences the Dyak. If there were more variety, more contrast, more beauty, the people also might benefit by it.
The Dyak is an animist. His gods are in the trees. Rather, they are not gods but devils, for the Dyak's religion is one of fear. A bird conveys a message. The Dyak seems to be one with the nature in which he lives. He considers it a bad omen when a whirlpool swings his canoe around.
He stops, pulls out a match, and burns bark as an offering to appease the evil spirits, before he can proceed. These are taboos and customs which he dare not ignore. In short, the Dyak has a reli- gion, but it is a religion of fear.
As we proceed up the river, we find many rap- ids to push through. The current is swift, and the boatmen have to hug the banks to make any progress. Seizing the branches of the trees, they pull themselves forward with all their great strength. Some Dyaks have developed a very striking physique, wide of shoulder and deep of A TYPICAL DY.AJK OF THE MOEROET TRIBE chest, wonderful specimens of muscular perfec- tion. The Dyaks are difficult to reach. As we approach, After the rapids, the stream becomes smaller we look here and there for dwelling places or and smaller. There is probably not a river in "long-houses," which are great long greenhouses Borneo over 500 miles long, but all are very swift built on poles and make up the Dyak village. They and rise rapidly. Borneo is like a cake, high in are made of bamboo and thatch.
the middle and low at the edges, a natural water- We draw our canoes up to the bank and look for shed. When a rainstorm comes, the water rushes a log that has been thrust down the bank and sedown from these mountains into the gorges. In curely fastened. In this log steps are cut in such a single night the streams rise fifty feet. In the a way as to make a natural ladder. If the water evening one may look down a steep bank and see is high, it is not necessary to use these steps. If a tiny little stream far below. A rain comes, and the water is low, the bank is slippery, and if that • Condensed from The Alliance Weekly. stairway were not there, we would have a hard [339 ]
time climbing up the bank. We tie our canoes to say, "Sir, we should like to invite you into our this log and gingerly step out on it. If we are not long-house as a brother, a friend. In order to do careful, it will turn over, and over we shall go. this, we have a custom, a rite which we wish to We climb to the top of the bank and mayor may perform. We agree, and the chief orders some of not have a reception. his men to get a chicken and cut its neck. They then take the blood of the chicken and bring it The Dyaks may not know there is a white man before us. The old chief may dip his hand or a within a thousand miles. In that case, when we piece of wood, in the blood, and put that blood on appear, the children see us first and immediately our forehead, our hand, and our foot. They bring dash for the log that leads into the long-house. some water and the old chief takes a branch, dips In a mad scramble they rush up the steps and it in the water, and sprinkles us with it. After disappear. The Dyak dogs see us and begin to performing some other rites, he says, "Now you howl. They are small, mangy-looking dogs. As are no longer a stranger, an alien; you are just we draw near the long-house, we wonder if any- like a Dyak. We"believe in you. We trust you. body is around. We see wooden images cut from You can sleep here. You oan have fellowship with wooden logs, and set upright, a grotesque image us. Your skin may be a little whiter, but you are of a man, or a bird, or a beast. The Dyaks cannot one of us, a Dyak." live at peace unless they set up these images. Finally we reach the stairway that leads to the long- We thank him for his wonderful hospitality and house and do not know whether to enter or not. for the honor they have done us. We then begin to tell them how they may have fellowship with TWO CHRISTIAN DYAK BIBLE SCHOOL STUDENTS the great God of heaven. We tell them about the Blood of Christ which speaketh better things, and Sometimes it is very foolish to go in unless we about the water of cleansing. As we preach Jesus are invited. Eyes peer out at us through the walls, and Him crucified, as we tell how Christ's Blood the dark eyes of the children and women. Per- can be applied to them, their own custom makes haps the chief comes to the door and invites us it easier for them to oomprehend. to enter. There is usually a railing on each side of these log step-ladders. The door is low, and Some modern critics may think the Blood too we have to bend down to enter. Most of the long- deep a subject to present to the Dyak, but with houses are very gloomy, and if light is wanted, a the Spirit's help, there is no one who cannot unportion of the roof is raised. derstand. There is nothing we present to the Dyaks they so readily understand as Jesus Christ, A partition extends down the center of the God's Son, giving His life, pouring out His Blood whole length of the long-house. The families live for them. When we tell them that Blood can be on one side, which is further partitioned off. Here applied to them, that they can become God's chilthey sleep, cook, and eat. The other side is left dren, no longer aliens, no longer afar off, no longer open, and here they do all their talking. The floor strangers, but through the Blood brought nigh by is made of bamboo splints, not interlaced, but laid Jesus Christ, the truth lifts their pall of darkacross the poles or beams. Looking down one can ness and breaks their chains of false superstition. see the chickens, dogs, cats, and pigs on the ground It takes away heaviness from their hearts and below. The Dyaks keep their chickens in wicker they receive the light and respond to the love of cages. As we walk across the floor, the whole God revealed in Jesus Christ. building trembles; and if the building is old, it even shakes if a little dog runs across it. Then we begin to question them and sing little hymns in the Malay language. The chief brings a mat to the center of the hall and invites us to sit down. Then the chief may What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
As we sing, we tell the story and as we pray, the Spirit of God works. As we lift up Jesus to the Dyaks, they, too, are made a "habitation of God through the Spirit."
One of our Dyak students became estranged from the rest of his people through his discon- tinuing the observance of Dyak superstitions and religious practices. Then he came and heard the Gospel, going back later among his people to tell them the glad news that Jesus saves. That Dyak boy and I are not aliens. We both speak the same language. Many, many times we have knelt and prayed together.
Younger Men's Missionary
By the REV. MILLS J. TAYLOR, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Associate Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, United Presbyterian Church N EARLY a thousand persons, of whom ap- "World peace and the avoidance of war are secured only proximately two-thirds were laymen, reg- by the spread of vital Christian religion as it should be istered as delegates for the four-day lived in each country and practiced in international trade sessions of this Congress in the Stevens Hotel, and intercourse. The perilous problems of our time pres- Chicago, May 2-5. They came from twenty-seven ent a new sense of the urgency which makes delay in adstates and ten or twelve foreign countries. Among vancing the Christian movement perilous." the men were 299 Protestant ministers and· one Jewish rabbi. Sixty-four women were regularly "The weakness in our present system is not the validity registered and "listened in" from the gallery. of our motives but ignorance of the facts." Twenty-six foreign missionaries took part in the program and thirty-six Foreign Mission Boards "The fundamental difficulty of the present time is the cooperated in the Congress. sense of dire need in the homeland. But the abandonment of help to churches in mission lands would destroy the The place of meeting is about the last word in internationalism of Christianity." accommodation for such a gathering-comfortable and convenient, with commodious rooms for "The Congress finds that the pulpit is the largest single group, committee and mass meetings. In spite of hope of an aroused church. There should be more and the special rates offered by the hotel, many dele- better preaching of missions." gates were under the necessity of seeking accommodations elsewhere at lower rates. "Missions committees should be established in local churches." "JESUS CHRIST AND THE WORLD TODAY" was the Congress theme. Like a shining thread it "Schools of Missions should be encouraged." ran through the program, an ever present thought "Accent needs to be laid on the missionary education of in all meetings and addresses. The song services, men. The Congress commends the plan of men's organizaskillfully conducted, and the Scripture readings tions for missions." and devotional talks, impressively led, kept the Congress in a reverent and worshipful attitude, One of the most interesting moments was when ready to hear what the Spirit might say through a pastor, the Rev. George A. Brown of Elyria, any speaker. Ohio, told the Congress of a "Men's Missionary League" that is growing in popularity and power The conference nature of the Congress had been in his congregation. thoroughly planned by arranging for twenty groups to meet simultaneously in four unhurried At one point during the Congress the executive sessions under the general supervision of Dr. committee of the Laymen's Missionary Movement Cleland B. McAfee, Secretary of the Board of invited the secretaries of the Mission Boards and Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. others to meet for unhurried counsel about the Each group was presided over by a young lay- weakness and strength of this organization and man who, as a rule, had associated with him rt its plans and prospects for the future. This was missionary, a young pastor and a board secretary. a heart-to-heart conference when difficulties were In some instances the presence of a Christian na- frankly faced. The immediate result was that the tional from some mission field added interest and laymen were again assured of the desire of the strength. One of these groups was fortunate in secretaries to have the movement remain a layhaving Dr. C. J. Lin, President of Fukien Uni- men's affair, managed and financed by them, facversity, Foochow, China. Each group appointed a ing living issues with Jesus Christ in the world committee to prepare findings which were sent to today and with the promise that, in the future as a general committee to be studied and prepared in the past, the Mission Boards would offer counfor final approval by the Congress. sel and assist the laymen to secure effective speakers. Certain sentences stand out here and there in these findings: One result of the Congress was that the Lay- men's Missionary Movement was encouraged to seek a sounder basis financially by enrolling thou- sands of laymen for a small fee and in other ways to raise a fund to articulate its program. The Movement's executive committee has the author- ity to prepare a program and to build a suitable organization for carrying it out, but the Mission [341 ]
Boards will not be solicited nor expected to assist sia, India, Africa. The closing address by Dr. in financing the Movement. Its work is "to enlist Robert E. Speer stated graphically what the the interest of men in Christian missions and to Christian missionary enterprise has been and still encourage them to discharge that responsibility is, and challenged the coming generation, into through the missionary boards with which their whose hands "the torch" is being placed, to accept church membership identifies them." the challenge and hold up the Cross of Christ.
As to the program of the Congress, one hesi- Appropriate responses to this challenge were tates to mention particular addresses among the made by an American Student Volunteer and a many that were informing and inspiring. Plans young Christian national from India, among are under way to publish some of them in this whose closing words, and almost the last words magazine. Having been present throughout the of the Congress, were these, ". . . men and National Men's Missionary Congress, held in Chi- women will catch the torch from those splendid cago in 1910, I can say that in missionary pas- Christian personalities who have so remarkably sion, world vision, loyalty to Jesus Christ, scholar- demonstrated the power of Jesus Christ. The ship and experience the messages at Chicago this youth of India are very much impressed by this year lacked nothing that was heard in the Con- devotion and intend to carryon. It is with this gress twenty-five years ago. There was lacking thought that the meaning of Christ becomes persomething of the size and therefore impact upon sonal to me. As one of those who have been loved, the church which the former National Congress led and lifted by the Spirit of Christ and who gained by being the climax to a series of great have given themselves to the great program of state conventions. reconstruction in India, I feel that it is my privi- lege and obligation to walk the Indian road with The opening address was delivered by Dr. Sher- Christ and my fellow workers. I am convinced wood Eddy. Other speakers were Bishop George that the power of Jesus will make us able to bear Craig Stewart, John A. Mackay, Roy A. Burkhart, the responsibilities we must face. In India, as J. Warren Hastings, Ralph C. Hutchison, Fred- everywhere on this bewildered planet, it is Christ erick A. Agar, missionaries from at home and or chaos." a;broad, nationals from China, Japan, Korea, Per- Findings of the Younger Men's Missionary Congress Based on the Reports of the Group Conferences, Dr. Cleland B. McAfee, Chairman Motives for the Missionary Enterprise which disrupts the human family is the restored family of God with right relations among all its T HE Congress sees no weakening of the five members, God seen as its Father and all men as fundamental motives which have become his- brethren in Christ. toric : the commission of Christ; the need of the world for all that Christ brings; the nature (c) Both the historic motives and those peof the Christian faith in its universal truth and its culiar to our time involve a new sense of urgency value for all men; the need of the home church which makes delay in advancing the Christian to fulfil its life in the widest expression of its movement perilous and unchristian. The fullness spirit; and the work already done and now in of life which Christ brings is needed at once. progress in all lands. (d) The weakness in the present situation is (a) These motives must be supplemented for not so much refusal of the validity of these moour own day by the need for Christ as the only tives in the hearts of Christian believers as gensolution to all world problems. World peace and eral ignorance of the facts and needs of missions. the avoidance of war are secured only by the The need is not for more motives but for more spread of a vital religion lived in daily life and in understanding of the world and the power of international relations. International Christian- Christ in caring for its needs. Weare more or ity is an essential part of the program of the less "side-stepping" the real issue when we dis- Church. The impulse to supply an adequate re- cuss motives, whereas the real problem is to get ligion to all people is a natural Christian response the facts of missions known to the people of the to the inner urge of faith in Christ. Church. – (b) These historic motives need constant re- Objections to Mission Work interpretation, always adjusted to the conditions of the world and yet always held in right relation The Congress learns of few new objections to to Christ as the moving force of the Christian missions at home or abroad. They continue to be faith. The only cure for the sin of the world such objections as recurring nationalism, pro- vincialism, sectarianism, and common selfishness.
FINDINGS OF THE YOUNGER MEN'S MISSIONARY CONGRESS
In some quarters there are fears regarding exist- only temporarily to foreign agencies and to pass ing missionary operations either on the field or in the home lands, but these are not against the work in direction and control as rapidly as possible into of missions as a whole. hands of the people of the lands where the work The fundamental difficulty of the present time is the sense of dire need in the home lands, is done. The Congress would express its hearty whether it would not be well to direct attention to the cure of evils which make America so often an fellowship with the brethren of these churches as argument against the principles of Christ, as in race prejudice, exploitation of the weak, selfish full partners with the sending churches in the one attitudes toward other groups in the same nation, etc. The laymen of America can make a great cause of Christ. . contribution to world missions by laboring with greater zeal for a really Christian social order Missions in the Home Churches here. At the same time there seems to the Congress no effective way of distinguishing between The Congress finds that the pulpit is the largest the local ministry of the Gospel of Christ and its single hope of an aroused Church. There should world-wide service. The argument for· world- be more and better missionary preaching throughwide work increases rather than lessens the de- out the Church. However, the pastor is powerless mand for more effective service in the home lands. unless he has at least a nucleus of laymen who The need of the world is not less because the need will take the work seriously and devote to it the of the West presses so heavily on the churches of time required for the spread of effective inforthe West. mation. The training of the Church needs to be- gin with its youth and the Congress renews the The growing strength of the churches in mis- appeal for larger and more effective use of mission lands should not prevent continued concern sions in the Sunday schools and Young People's for their development. They are still far from Societies of the churches. A special missions comadequate to carry the whole burden of evangel- mittee in the local church is urged, formed from izing their own lands while strong Western various groups in the church which will advance churches are able to aid them. Abandonment of the interest of missions in all bodies of the church them at this stage would tend to destroy the inter- life. Accent needs now to be laid on the education nationalism of the Christian Church which is so of men regarding missionary work, for the deepmuch to be desired. ening of their sense of obligation. It is urged that there be a large development of the specific object The Congress realizes the effort so widely made plan of support of missionaries and the Boards to interpret the faith of Christ in undenomina- are reminded that the Church looks to them for tional terms in its presentation to new groups but the statesmanship need for the hour. Local official it feels that one of the weaknesses of the present boards are not agencies for the local work alone situation is the tendency to reproduce on mission but are responsible for making the Church what fields the distinctions and denominations which a Christian Church ought to be as a world factor. obtain in the West. Without passing on the wis- There is needed a clearer assurance of the coopdom of this in certain ways and at certain points eration of forces on the field as an inspiration to the Congress still feels that it should be given churches at home, so that their own programs can greatest consideration by those who are respon- be unified. For this reason the development of sible for future plans. group gatherings for the propagation of the mis~ sionary idea is much desired. Changes to Meet the Present Situation The attention of the home church should be di- The Congress makes few suggestions regarding rected to the enormous areas yet untouched by definite changes that may be possible or desirable. Christian missions as an encouragement to more It simply urges that every effort be made to keep active participation in the work. The existence the work fully sensitive to the current situations of men's organizations for missions is gladly in the world. This will involve a frank recogni- recognized and the Congress commends the plan tion of values now known to exist in present reli- to thoughtful consideration. Schools of Missions gions and cultures, appreciation on the part of should be encouraged. Missionary education missionaries, together with most careful prep- should be made a regular feature of every church aration and selection of missionaries. It involves program and sustained by the men as well as by recognition of needs newly sensed in all lands, the women and young people. The Congress such as that among rural populations and the earnestly desires the unifying of interdenominaelimination Of leprosy. It involves also the treat- tional missions in local churches. It calls for a ment of the work as one enterprise committed more effective offering of Jesus Christ to the young people in terms which show His right to their loyalty and devotion and His winsomeness for their lives. It desires the extension of the present growing movement for week-day religious
instruction during public school hours so that the ship with them in the work which we feel they young people may be informed and instructed in are doing not alone for Christ and for those who missions and in the total Christian program. know him but little, but for us as well. We look upon them as our representatives in a work which The Congress instructs the Executive Commit- is committed to us as well as to them. We have tee of the Laymen's Missionary Movement to issue confidence in them and bid them Godspeed in the and send to the missionaries in foreign lands and work which is both ours and theirs. in America its assurance of affectionate fellow- What Jesus Can Mean to India An Address Delivered at the Younger Men's Missionary Congress, Chicago By KONIGAPOGU JOSEPH DEVADANAM, H yderabad, Deccan O NE of my first memorable experiences after vast improvements in the very conditions we have coming to America taught me something been describing. I have seen these people with- significant about missions. I was walking out any thought of personal reward or advancetoward the university campus one morning when ment bring security to the economically disenfrana small boy ran up to me, looked at my dark com- chised, bring enlightenment to thousands who plexion with a thunderstruck expression, and were groping in the darkness of ignorance, give shouted, "Do you know what my mother told me?" adequate prevention and cure for the diseases which ravaged the cities and villages, give val- "What did she tell you?" I answered. uable help in understanding the faiths and tradi- "She told me not to drink black coffee!" Once tions of others in the light of a Christian view of again he looked at me as if he had made an im- life, and bring courage, hope and high resolve to portant discovery. "I'll bet you drank some!" the lives of many people. I have also seen Chris- Ever since that warning I have been using a tian ethics penetrating into the national life, as great deal of cream in my coffee, with no results illustrated by Gandhi's program of nonviolence. whatsoever! But that small boy set me to think- But most significant of all, I have seen a revoluing. I wonder whether most of us are any less tionary change not only in the attitude toward naIve in our thinking about international ques- castes but in the Hindu system itself. For intions than was that small boy in his knowledge of stance, no sooner is an individual baptized into other races. But I am more particularly inter- the Christian faith, whether he be of a high or ested just now in whether we Christians, either in low caste, than he becomes casteless. This innothe Orient or in the Occident, really understand vation reached such startling proportions that it what Jesus Christ means to our human brothers gave impetus to corollary movements such as the on the other side of the globe. Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj, branches of You may understand more fully than I the Hinduism which are built upon the social teachphilosophical and psychological differences in the ings of Jesus. religious and racial traditions of mankind; but I may at least present the viewpoint of a Chris- Furthermore, this Christian principle of detian from India as to what the religion of Christ mocracy has become so significant in the life of can mean to the bewildered India of today. India that it has far outreached the expectations India is bewildered because of its poverty, its of the relatively few adherents of the Christian illiteracy, its disease problem, its religious con- Church, as in work in behalf of the untouchables fusion, its nationalistic aspirations, and above all, which has shaken the foundations of Indian because of its pernicious caste system and the in- society and resulted in a nation-wide movement. humane effects of that system. Even though I paint a dark picture it is not nearly so dark as it Observing the changes which Christianity has was before Christ started to walk the Indian Road. brought, I understand the meaning of Christ in In my own lifetime I have seen people, both na- a still more personal and intimate way. I have tionals and missionaries, who personified Christ seen Him in my missionary mother, Miss Alice A. in their own lives, and who thereby brought about Evans. I have seen Him as a loving Christ as she walked through the compound of the school and
WHAT JESUS CAN MEAN TO INDIA
spoke to the little ones kindly as they played in by the spirit of the Christ may eventually feed the sand, dirty of hand and face. Moved with the one hundred million people of India who go compassion she took them in her arms and kissed to bed every night having eaten only one meal that the little ones as a mother would do it. Every day. It may save twenty millions who would have morning and evening as we sat on the floor she perished in twenty years by bubonic plague, fifsat with us and told us the beautiful stories from teen million who would have died of malaria, and the New Testament and taught us the Ten Com- the eighteen million who would have died of inmandments and the Lord's Prayer. She always fluenza in one year. The world picture of the concluded this prayer with, "God is our Father, missionary enterprise indicates that there are Jesus Christ is our elder brother and we are 25,000 missionaries shepherding over 8,000,000 brothers and sisters in Him." converts of the Protestant churches; 4,000,000 people are given medical aid, and 2,000,000 boys At that time I did not understand what she and girls are given educational opportunities in meant but now I see the significance of that prayer mission boarding schools. for this socially distorted and internationally bickering world. The reconstruction so urgently needed in India can be brought about only by men and women who Once I was desperately ill and unconscious for seven days. When I came to myself I found that will catch the torch from those splendid Christian I was in a mission hospital being attended by a personalities who have so remarkably demonmissionary nurse. A missionary doctor diagnosed strated the power of Jesus Christ. my case, prescribed medicine and knelt at my bedside in prayer. I began asking myself, "What The youth of India are much impressed by this makes these people so kind?" I came to believe devotion and we intend to carryon the work that then, and now I believe more than ever that it has been started. It is with this thought that the was Christlike love which motivated their service meaning of Christ becomes very personal to me. and sacrifice. Speaking as one of those who have been loved, led and lifted by Christ and who have dedicated them- My experience can be duplicated by thousands selves to the great future program of Christian who have felt the tangible results of Christian reconstruction in India, I feel that it is my privifaith and life as they have become real and active lege and obligation to walk the Indian Road with in the humble lives of men and women all around Christ and my fellow workers. I am convinced the world. Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you have fed that the power of Christ will make us able to bear the hungry, clothed the naked, visited those who the responsibilities we must face. In India, as are socially ostracized, and have healed the sick well as everywhere on this bewildered planet, it you have done it unto Me." Village reconstruc- is Christ or Chaos. tion and the social uplifting program inaugurated By Gourtesy 0/ UMissions/' Amer'l-can liltpt'tst jf'ore't-!Jn M-illsion Society A BAPTISM,AL SERVICE IN BURMA The baptismal service at Inyekyun, Burma, after a great ingathering among the Pwo Karen tribes. Under the canopy in the center 353 were baptized on February 5, 1933. Last year (1934) 284 more were baptized acrO'ss the river, and during a tour of 24 villages 616 others were baptized.
Rev. C. L. Conrad, of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, reports: "Pentecostal history was again wr'itten among our Karens."
Twenty,-five Years of Missionary Progress*
-·. g.{11 By DR. J. H. OLDHAM, London, England 11.- I N THE summer of 1910 the World Missionary steadily increasing income. The events of the Conference met in Edinburgh. It was the post-war years have made clear the fact that a most representative missionary gathering ever return to the conditions prevailing before the war held up to that time. It was also a landmark in cannot be expected, and the great majority of the the history of Christian missions and indeed of missionary societies are having to plan their work the Christian Church as a whole, inasmuch as it afresh on the basis of a considerably reduced in- was not content to pass resolutions in regard to come.
what was desirable in the field of missionary ac- Notwithstanding the interruptions and difficul- tivity, but set up a permanent organization, with ties of the war and the post-war years the work a secretariat, to take practical action. of Christian missions has gone steadily forward, Thus it anticipated, in the sphere of inter- and there have been abundant grounds for encour- national missionary cooperation between the agement in the growth of the indigenous churches, churches, the similar action in the political field in the increase of missionary cooperation, in a taken later by the creation of the League of Na- deepening sense of fellowship, and a clearer light tions. The Edinburgh Conference gave an im- regarding missionary policy.
mense impulse to missionary cooperation every- A comparison of the figures in the World Mis- where, and there are today, in addition to the In- sionary Atlas published in 1925 with those gath- ternational Missionary Council, in the various mis- ered in 1907 indicates that in this period the num- sion fields and in the home countries from which ber of missionaries (not including wives) had in- missionaries are sent out, thirty-six national creased from over 12,000 to over 20,000, while the Christian councils or representative mISSIOnary number of communicants and of the total Chris- organizations, served by a staff of more than tian community had doubled, the former increas- thirty whole-time officers. ing from 1,800,000 to 3,600,000, and the latter The Edinburgh Missionary Conference ad- from over 4,000,000 to over 8,000,000.
dressed to the Christian Church throughout the The most conspicuous advances during the past world a message in which it referred to the mo- twenty-five years have been in South America and mentous character of the present hour, affirmed in Africa. In the latter continent the revolution- that the next ten years would in all probability ary changes in transport facUities have opened the constitute a turning point in human history, and whole continent to missionary work, while they urged that the missionary task demanded from have also brought new problems for the mission- every Christian a change in the existing scale of ary by opening the way to trade and industrial- missionary zeal and service. ism, and the resulting compliications, so that the Four years later the world was involved in the primitive African who had never seen even a World War. Missionary work was everywhere wheeled vehicle has been confronted by the aero- subject to restrictions and arrest, and the work plane, and men from the bush have been brought of the German missions in the territories of the to work in copper mines and to handle elaborate allied and associated powers, and in those which machinery. The central parts of Africa have been passed under mandate, was brought to a complete increasingly penetrated by missionary work, standstill. The provision made at the Edinburgh partly through the expansion of older societies, Conference for international cooperation made it and partly through the entry of new missions.
possible for the missions of other nationalities to The most important development has been the come to the aid of the Christian communities de- growth in numbers, in self-consciousness, and prived of their European teachers, and to mitigate in responsibility of the indigenous Christian the extent of the disaster, until in 1925 the doors churches. There has been an encouraging de- were opened for the return of German mission- velopment of native leadership, and the central aries to their old field$. task which awaits the missionary societies of the Up to the time of the War the missionary so- West today is how they may best use their limited cieties in all countries had been planning their resources to help provide the younger churches in work for the most part on the assumption that the the mission field with spiritual leaders for the needs of an expanding work would be met by a work of evangelization and for an effective Chris- • Condensed from The Life Of Faith, London. tian witness in their own lands.
[346 ]
the Mosquito
By KENNETH G. GRUBB, London, England World Dominion Movement T HOSE who glance at the map of Central teenth century to establish some kind of footing America might think it was an easy matter there. This they did by recognizing a kind of king to get from one coast to another at almost of the Miskito or Mosquito Indians as the paraevery point. In several of the republics such a mount governor of the region, and advising him journey can be made without any grave difficulty. through their consul. Nicaraguan Government But this is not the case in Nicaragua for there are was not effectively established on the coast and it really two Nicaraguas. There is the Nicaragua of was not difficult to maintain the system. Ultithe lake, the volcanoes and the chief cities with mately, however, it came into conflict both with the capital; and there is the Nicaragua of the justifiable national aspirations, and with the Mon- Atlantic coast known as the Mosquito Coast. Be- roe Doctrine, and was abandoned. There is no tween them lies a wild region of dense forest. In doubt that the British claim to the region was these days easy communication untenable, but their protection has been established between was appreciated by the Indians.
the two sides of the country by The author of this article Indeed, the Mosquitos h a v e aeroplane. But it was not al- has recently returned from an claimed that the last words of ways so. Few venture to make extensive tour of Central Queen Victoria were: "Edtheir way straight across the America. He was formerly a ward, never forget my Mosinterior by land and the usual missionary in South America quito Indians." way of communication has been and is unusually well into cross the great lake of Nic- formed on mission'ary prob- The Mosquito coast is for the iledmeasls. anHde iNs enwow Taesssotacmiaetendt most part low-lying, and covaragua (said to be the largest with the World Dominion between the Great Lakes and Movement of London. His ered by forests and savannas, Titicaca), pass by the smoking description of the lit tIe while a series of lagoons and island volcano of Omerepe to known people of the Mos- swamps fringe the immediate the old fort at San Carlos, and seaboard. The climate is damp; enter the San Juan River. This quito Coast of Nicaragua is some years ago a rainfall of river flows into the Caribbean 292 inches was recorded in timely and informing. Greytown. It is not really as Sea at Greytown, a decadent unhealthy as might be supposed and dangerous little port long since the heat is tempered by since closed to foreign shipping, and from Grey- regular and sometimes strong winds from the sea. town launches ply up the coast to Bluefields, the Pines are an interesting feature of the vegetation. capital. The journey occupies eight days. The The last serious hurricane was in 1919; there aeroplane takes less than four hours. was a serious flood in 1929. The epidemics of whooping cough in 1923, and of smallpox in 1931, The Mosquito Coast and the San Juan River both took a toll of the people. were once beloved of pirates. No ambitious and forward-looking pirate felt himself properly es- The population of the coast is estimated at about tablished in his profession unless he had made a 35,000 of whom some 20,000 are Miskito Indians. raid on the coast. Through the San Juan River These Indians live north of Bluefields and are it was possible to attack Granada at the northern found well into the eastern corner of Honduras. end of the lake, and Granada once was the center Other tribes are the Sumus in the interior, supof the Spanish power in the region. The strategic posed to number about 5,000 and a small number position of the river is easy to gauge from the fact of Ramas to the south of Bluefields. In Honduras that it is on the possibilities of this valley that the the Payas are still surviving. As lowland Indians discussions for a Nicaraguan inter-oceanic canal are classed, the Miskitos are a vigorous people and turn. Nelson himself made an unsuccessful raid are increasing in number. They are to some exon the Spanish defences of the river. tent mixed with the other elements of the popula- tion, West Indians and Nicaraguans. The position of the Mosquito Coast made it seem desirable to the British as far back as the seven- The Moravian Mission on the Mosquito CoaR1 [347 ]
was begun in 1849, and is therefore the oldest A statistical review of the mission shows an in- organized work in Central America. In 1914 war crease in total membership between 1915 and 1930 conditions compelled the transfer of the work to from 6,519 to 13,082. Communicants have grown, the Society for Propagating the Gospel, of Bethle- in the same period, from 1,743 to 3,721, day school hem, Pa. The missionaries are German, English pupils from 651 to 1,218, evangelists from 3 to 22.
and North American in nationality. On the field The financial depression, as elsewhere in the the work is under the guidance of Bishop Guido world, has compelled some limitation of activities, Grossmann who has been 34 years in the Mos- and the unsettled condition of the country required quitia. Recently in 1930 a new advance was made the temporary abandonment of a field in the in- into Honduras and the first station among the terior. On the other hand, although the Indians Miskitos of that republic was founded. A sad in- have built their own chapels, no church has yet cident in 1931 was the murder of the Rev. Karl attained self-support; the poverty on the coast is A. Bregenzer. He was killed on an interior sta- very considerable. Medical work has been opened tion by men under the leadership of Sandino, the quite recently on the Wanks River with a fully guerilla general of Nicaragua, who has himself qualified missionary; many of the missionaries since been assassinated. Mrs. Bregenzer and her have sufficient medical training to handle the com- two children were led to safety by local Sumu mon ailments of the people.
Indians. It is a remarkable work built up across the As a result of the nature of the population and years by a series of builders each of whom has the labors of the Moravian Brethren the coast to- added a stone to the temple. It has been marked day has been Christianized. The maj ority of the more by the energy of moral suasion exhibited in people are either Protestant Christians or indif- the lives of the missionaries rather than by any ferent. Roman Catholicism has as yet taken no vastness of organization or extensive institutional firm root, and the customary characteristics of investment. The example of solid and devotional Catholic civilization are wanting. The Catholic piety has been given to the Indians, and the treas- Church is fully aware of this situation and has ures of the Gospel have been placed within the taken steps to alter it. The Capuchins have reach of the poor and the uneducated. The beauty opened a convent and established schools where of holiness speaks more eloquently than the the teaching is excellent. Bluefields became a tongues of men and of angels, and, as a result, of Bishopric in 1915 and a campaign was started to many hundreds of Miskitos it can be said that the work towards "One creed and one language on the radiance of Jesus Christ has become the master- Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua." Yet toleration is, light of all their being.
on the whole, the order of the day, and there has The future holds its special tasks. Evangelizabeen no actual hostility between the various tion has yet to spread among the Miskitos of Hongroups ln the region. duras, and the five or six thousand Sumus of the interior. If the whole population of this region The usual languages on the coast are English can be claimed for the Kingdom of Christ it will and Miskito. The use of Spanish is now becom- mean a bright spot in the midst of the spiritual ing more common and it is the reasonable desire abandon of Central America. A second vital but of the government that it should be the language very difficult task is to develop in the churches the of commerce and daily relations. To the observer spirit of self-support which among a people who accustomed to evangelical work in Latin America neither possess nor use to any extent ordinary it appears unusual to meet missionaries who have worked for long years without any acquaintance of the tongue of Cervantes. In accordance with money, is no easy task. If in Nicaragua there the policy of the government the missionaries are should arise the same spirit of prejudice against now learning Castilian, and are thus demonstrat- the foreign missionary as has been exhibited in ing the disinterestedness of their aims, provided other parts of Central America it is only thus that the Gospel is brought to the people. It is simply the future can be safeguarded. As yet no real the plain fact to say that up to the present there Christian ministry has been trained upon the has been very little scope for the use of Spanish . coast but it is necessary for the property of the on the coast. Today there are one or two Baptist work that this should be taken in hand. For the congregations among the Spanish-speaking peo- rest, perhaps few would look to the Mosquito ple. This is a work that greatly need strengthen- Coast of Nicaragua, the scene of piratry and vio- ing and the missionaries, for their part, are ready lence in the past, in order to find the presence of to welcome workers who have the necessary ex- the Prince of Peace. But a faith that tells us how perience, more particularly in association with God was revealed in a cradle and on a Cross one or another of the missions already established should surely have trained us to watch for Him in Nicaragua. where we might least expect Him.
A RURAL PASTOR VISITS THE HOME OF A BANANA GROWER IN
Some Peacemakers of Cuba By the REV. COE HAYNE, New York Department of Publicity, American Baptist Home Mission Society A BLANKET of terrorism suddenly had set- The general election has been postponed until tIed over Cuba. A revolutionary strike on next autumn, since the principal candidates for the part of white collared government em- presidency declare the futility of any election ployees, including school-teachers and post-office while the Army is in control. Batista is virtual clerks, was in progress. The employees of one dictator, but without portfolio. Mendieta owes railroad went out on a sympathetic strike and it his continued occupancy of the president's chair was feared that bus and taxi drivers would quit. to the very efficient young man who received his Several months before the civil government under early education in a Friends' mission school at President Mendieta apparently had been on the Banes. The political secret societies are not verge of collapse, but forces counteracting the underestimating the power of Batista, who mainspread of disloyalty to the government had be- tains peace at the point of the bayonet.
come operative. The army held steady under the Cuba is the world's most important source of stern discipline of its young commander-in-chief, cane sugar. International agreements control the Colonel Fulgencio Batista, not two years before a quantity of the Cuban CrOP and the present low stenographer with the rank of sergeant. prices and oversupply of sugar in the markets The streets were ordered cl~ared after nine p. m. of tlie world have brought untold suffering to the and large groups were not allowed to gather in laborers in Cuba. Concerning Cuba's dependence cafes; trains, buses and airplanes were subjected in sugar, Jose Marti said in 1883: "A people com- to search by soldiers for arms and explosives. mits suicide the day on Which it bases its existence Teachers were given forty-eight hours to return on a single crop."
to work. Finally order was restored by the troops Cuba lies only about a hundred miles off the apparently loyal to their leader. It was said that coast of Florida and commands the only two the soldiers were receiving their pay but school- Eastern approaches to Panama. Cuba's political, teachers were complaining that they had no sup- social and industrial welfare constantly attract plies-books, pads, pencils-for their classes and the attention of American citizens. Young Amer- the government was in arrears in their salaries. icans from their history books early learn that [349 ]
the United States figured largely in the Cuban ond Baptist Church of Santiago. Many young War for Independence (1895-1898); thousands of people come to his services in Holguin where they tourists annually enjoy the delights of Cuba in meet for worship in his home. He enlists them in winter; American investment and trade in the Christian service. Slowly the church is accumu- lating a fund with which to erect a building. island have reached vast proportions. A recent visit to the Evangelical missions of Another Cuban preacher, Rev. F. Sabas, was Cuba revealed the fact that our churches through- converted under Pastor Barocio, of Santiago, just out the Island are after the Spanish-American War. His father had making genuine ef- been an ardent revolutionist and for a time lived for t s to continue in exile in Santo Domingo. Young Sabas lived their programs in with his mother in the reconcentration camp at spite of many hand- EI Caney and at the close of the war began to icaps. The prin- work for a new and better Cuba. Under the guid- ciples of denomina- ance of his religious teachers he became a worker tional and interde- in missions in Santiago supporting himself as a nominational comity druggist. Now, as pastor of the Second Baptist have been observed Church in Santiago, he is leading his people in from the earliest thrift and sacrificial giving. A substantial old days of evangelical residence was purchased in an unchurched section m iss ion s in the . of the city and, even while alterations are being made, the church holds its services beneath the island. The people wit h scaffolding. The attendance is increasing and who m Protestant we saw the primary department meeting on the missionaries w 0 r k include Cubans of both w hit e and Neg r 0 racial ori- gins. The language is Spanish. When A VETERAN CUBAN BAPTIST LAY- sugar prices we r e MAN OF BARACOA REGION, CUBA high many Haitians entered Cuba to work in the cane fields and built huts out of material furnished by the plantation owners. Pioneer missionaries were early recruited from lands where Spanish was spoken but native Cuban workers were trained in high grade mis- sion schools.
A vivid, interesting personality among the Cuban workers is Joaquin Antunez, a rebel cap- tain, who, after the Spanish-American War, estab- lished himself as a merchant in Yara. In 1903 he became the municipal judge and was serving his community in this responsible position when Rev. Teofilo Barocio, native of Mexico and pastor of the First Baptist Church of Santiago, came to Yara to assist the local pastor in special meetings.
As a result, Antunez was the first convert to be baptized in Yara, and immediately became a zealous evangelist in the country places. As he was expert with saw, hammer and plane he be- came a builder of chapels, but during the erection of a building he devoted what time he could to COLONEL F'ULGENC IO BATI STA, MILITARY DI CTATOR preaching. Then he was asked to forsake the OF CUBA carpenter's bench for the pulpit, and thus began portico because there was no room inside. Two his fruitful missionary service under The Amer-· junior classes met in the church yard. Present- ican Baptist Home Mission Society. He is now day pioneer missionaries in the remote Baracoa seventy-six years old and has helped organize district of Cuba travel on horseback as the pioneer many churches, one of which is the growing Sec- itinerant missionaries in the United States trav-
SOME PEACEMAKERS OF CUBA
eled one hundred years ago, carrying their cloth- farmer gave the Haitian employment and asked to ing, Bible, tracts and sermons in saddlebags. see the book, which turned out to be a Bible. As The only public highways to the mountain homes a result of reading this book the farmer, a Spanof the people are bridle paths worn deep by the iard, was converted. The Haitian and his white toiling pack trains. When a call goes out to the Baracoa district for a general meeting, the delegates must travel across the mountain ranges and over difficult bridle paths which are quite impassable during the rainy season. They must ford the streams and struggle through innumerable mud holes in the coves and valleys and dense jungles. But the conditions of travel and the poverty of the people do not lessen the service rendered by the devoted rural pastors.
The Missionary Spirit in Cuba PRESIDENT ROBERT RANTLEDGE, OF CRISTO COLLEGE, CUBA, The young churches of Cuba display a very commendable missionary spirit. The church at with rural pastor nearing a chapel in the mountainous Banes, when it was without a pastor, sent dele- Baracoa region gates to near-by villages to organize and conduct Sunday schools, one of which is the large mission employer began work together as evangelists and Sunday school at Negritos. This is an example recently Superintendent Robert Routledge was of the evangelistic zeal of Christians in Cuba. called to help organize a new church. The whole One layman in this church at Banes is Dr. J. Salas, community has found a new interest in religion. a veterinary surgeon, who has the oversight of the health of hundreds of horses, mules and oxen THIS IS PIONEERING on a huge sugar plantation. As there was no church in their end of the town, Dr. and Mrs. An increasing number of Bacone College stu- Salas started worship in their own, and other private homes, two in the city and two in the coun- dents, both men and women, after graduation, retry. This layman also visits a group of sixty Haitian Negroes who came from the neighboring turn to the Indian country to teach in rural govisland to work on the plantations. After a few months the group that met with Dr. and Mrs. ernment schools. Because of the poor living con- Salas outgrew the home and a hall had to be rented. Once a month Dr. Salas paid the travel- ditions of the Indian families with whom the ing expenses of a Cuban pastor, and after a number of converts were baptized these were organ- teachers make their homes and the inadequate ized into a church in March, 1934. The Cuban Home Mission Society, which was formed a few equipment of the school buildings the young Inyears ago, is taking this church under its care and a young graduate of Cristo College has been called dian teachers face discomforts that may include to the Banes church. cold and hunger and loneliness for the sake of Many children in Cuba are growing up without public school opportunities. In the country dis- their Master and their people. They went out tricts around Banes the people of the church became interested in the children of the plantation knowing the conditions they would confront. laborers and the Christian young people went out to four communities and opened schools in unused They realized that they were undertaking a task buildings. The administrator of the sugar company has been contributing the use of these build- that only Indians could accomplish-a service that ings and four dollars per month for each school. This is almost the sole income of the teachers. cannot be purchased with money. Four hundred Several months ago a Haitian Christian on a Indian children in a single county were without plantation north of Cristo was driven from the farm by the owner who accused him of being a school facilities before the going out of these Bawitch, having in his possession a black book that evidently had come from the devil. A neighboring cone graduates. And only Indians trained in a Christian school where Christian service is the keynote, will or can, undertake such a task. The Indian young people engaged in this pioneer work as teachers in neglected Indian rural communities have been highly commended by the Oklahoma Department of Education. COE HAYNE.
They "Rethought" Medical Missions*
Why the Laymen's Report on China Failed Adequately to Present the Facts By L. NELSON BELL, M.D., F.A.C.S., Tsingkiangpu, Kansu, China Southern Presbyterian General Hospital, Tsingkiangpu WHEN "Rethinking Missions" was sensa- sumably written by Drs. Houghton and Emerson) tionally released to the press and later was read, the overwhelming majority of mission- published in book form in 1932, evan- ary doctors were distressed and indignant at the gelical Christians throughout the world were unfair presentation of the subject and the warped amazed and distressed that such a book should be idea this report gave of actual work being done.
put out in the name of Christianity and in the Many of us knew that our own hospitals had not guise of a scientifically prepared, factually based yet been visited and we felt, probably subcon- report of a group who had undertaken to ascer- sciously, that our work was not involved.
tain the facts of present-day Christian missions Within three months of the time that "Rethink- and report these facts to the world. ing Missions" was published and copies arrived in Because of the denial, in this book, of the unique China, the writer of this article made an effort position of the Christian religion in that Christ to ascertain how many hospitals had actually been is the one and onlyt Saviour, the onlyt means of visited by some member of the Commission, but salvation from sin, the onlyt hope of eternal life, was unable to do so. Last fall reports came of evangelical Christians have relegated the report the forming of the Modern Missions Movement in to its proper position in the essentially anti-Chris- America as a result of the recommendations of tian literature of the day. "Rethinking Missions." I immediately wrote to Recently the Modern Missions Movement has Drs. Houghton and Emerson and asked them how been started to promote work that is i.n line with many mission hospitals they had actually visited the recommendations of "Rethinking Missions." in China. Dr. Houghton did not reply, probably Recent findings prove that in reporting on med- due to his moving from Iowa back to Peiping ical missions, "Rethinking Missions" was not about that time, although his former secretary scientifically prepared, nor was it factually based. wrote me that she had forwarded my letter to him.
We can prove this statement beyond the perad- Dr. Emerson replied as follows: venture of a doubt. DEAR DR. BELL: On the Laymen's Commission were two doctors In reply to your letter of October 30, I regret that I of medicine: Dr. Henry S. Houghton, at that time have not at hand a list of all the hospitals which our com- dean of the Medical College of the University of mission visited. Nevertheless, either Dr. Lennox, Dr. Houghton or myself visited every American supported hos- Iowa – formerly director of the Peiping Union pital in China, as well as those supported by other missions Medical College, and at the present time again in England and many of the private and national hospitals. connected with that institution; and Dr. Charles Phillips Emerson, professor of Medicine and dean Yours very truly, of the Medical School of the University of Indiana. CHARLES P. EMERSON.
A Fact Finders' group preceded the Commission Upon receipt of this letter I sent a questionto the field and was entrusted with the securing naire to all mission hospitals in China, asking of the data for its use. In this group of Fact whether they had been visited by any of the three Finders was Dr. William G. Lennox, a capable and doctors mentioned. A total of 220 letters were experienced physician and statistician, who under- sent out. To date, a total of 173 hospitals have took to ascertain the facts regarding medical mis- been heard from with the following answers: Visited by one -or more of the three doctors, 34; . sion work in China. When "Rethinking Missions" was published and not visited, 138; declined to state, 1. An analysis the chapter on "Medical Work of Missions" (pre- of the 47 hospitals not heard from shows that, due to their geographical relationship, it can be de- • Slightly condensed from The Presbyterian, May 23, 1935. duced that forty-one certainly were not visited.
t John 14: 6; John 3: 36; Mark 16: 16; Acts 4: 12; 1 Tim. As a result of the above, it is possible to definitely 2: 5.
[352 ] state that a maximum of forty of the 220 hos- ing Shanghai), but after reading their report, as pitals were visited, while 180 were not visited. found in "Rethinking Missions," and then read- ing Dr. Lennox's findings in the Fact Finders re- A further analysis shows that the hospitals port on China (Volume V, Supplementary Series, visited were along the China coast from Canton Part II), based on some thirty visits to mission to Shanghai, a few up the Yangtze as far as Han- hospitals, 120 replies to an extensive questionkow, and a few on the railway from Nanking to naire sent out to 235 mission hospitals, and the Peiping. Scores of outstanding mission hospitals "Prayer Cycle" of the China Medical Association, which were accessible were passed by. which contained statistics for practically every mission hospital in China, one is forced to the While Dr. Emerson thought all of the hospitals conclusion that Drs. Houghton and Emerson prachad been visited, the fact remains that out of the tically ignored the findings of their own repre- 220 hospitals, 180 were not visited. This startling sentative in that group. fact does not add to the confidence one might have in the report of Medical Missions found in "Re- To make the above point clear, let us compare thinking Missions." some of the statements of the two books.
But, the questionnaire sent out has revealed On page 202 of "Rethinking Missions," Drs. another point. Neither Dr. Houghton nor Dr. Houghton and Emerson report: "The story of a Emerson visited all of those forty hospitals. A typical American mission hospital will illustrate number state that Dr. Lennox alone visited them. how quality in medical work is easily lost," and It should be noted that the visits paid by Dr. then they describe the "typical" mission hospital Lennox were generally considered thorough and and doctor as follows: "During the busy seasons, satisfactory by the heads of the hospitals con- aided by his assistant, head nurse, and even his cerned. Such was not always the case where evangelist, he may prescribe for five hundred, or either Dr. Houghton or Dr. Emerson was the even a thousand outpatients in one morning." visitor. Here are quotations from replies: On the other hand, on page 455 in the above- "A mighty superficial visit." mentioned volume, Dr. Lennox gives the average "Dr. – – – called at our hospital for five minutes only, number of out-patients treated daily, per doctor, to call on me personally. . . . He saw my office only." in mission hospitals, at fourteen. This figure is "I may say that while enjoying the visit socially, it arrived at from carefully compiled statistics from seems to me that in spite of all my efforts to state my practically every mission hospital in China. The opinions to Dr. – – , he spent most of the time trying to two statements should be noted, for one finds a make me say things which he had decided I should say." difference between "14" and "500 to 1,000." "Dr. – – – was with us between trains on the same day." The "typical" hospital mentioned by Drs. "They were in this city and asked business firms about Houghton and Emerson does not exist in China, our hospital, but did not visit us." and the exaggerations in that account are too ob- "Dr. – – – was here one Sunday morning, and said, 'I vious to be taken up, were it not for the fact that have only half an hour between trains.''' they have been given such wide publicity. "We were disappointed they did not come, Dr. – – was quoted as saying he knew our situation." But to compare again. On page 203 of "Re- thinking Missions," speaking of the same "typical" General comments by doctors replying to the hospital, this assertion is made: "Correct diagquestionnaire are too numerous and voluminous noses are not attempted; important early disto quote, but the following are given as samples: eases – cancer, tuberculosis, and the like – are overlooked." "I hope you will expose the flagrant, unscientific jumping at conclusions of that Commission." In Dr. Lennox's report, on page 470, we find that the overwhelming majority of all mission "I also was filled with a bit of righteous indignation at hospitals are equipped for routine, laboratory and the prolific employment of exaggerated generalizations." other examinations for patients, and on page 471, regarding the use of this equipment, he says: "In "Many times have I wished someone would challenge comparison with hospitals in America, the pro- portion (in respect to urine examinations) of spethose – – ; to name any single hospital where one man cial examinations, especially serum test for has ever seen 500 patients in a day, to say nothing of see- syphilis, is undoubtedly high." ing that number every day. Once in my lifetime I have seen 120, but never again for their sakes as well as mine. Again, on page 201 of "Rethinking Missions," But 500 every day!!!" it is stated: "The days of the pioneer are past and the professional work of the modern mission med- "The Findings are hardly in the spirit of Christ or His ical centers is too often inferior to the near-by Commission, nor in keeping with the friends in the home- government and other non-missionary hospitals." land who give their money for Christian medical work or medical mission work." Over against this we find on page 476 of Dr.
There might be a possible shadow of an excuse if Drs. Houghton and Emerson had had only their superficial visit to rely on (according to the Foreword of "Rethinking Missions," the Commission spent two weeks for all of mid-China, including the great Yangtze basin, their headquarters be-
Lennox's report, under the head of "Governmental phases of mission work in that Province. On Hospitals": "Such hospitals are under military, page 605 of the same volume already quoted, in the central or provisional government or the mu- speaking of medical work in Szechuen, this laynicipality. One military hospital was visited, that man begins his first paragraph with this sentence: at Nanchang, Kiangsi Province. This contained "It is the impression of the writer that the aver- 1,000 sick and wounded soldiers lying on closely age of skill and knowledge among missionary docpacked board beds in unheated Chinese buildings, tors is distinctly higher than the average in attended by a medical staff of the dresser type, America." and without visible charts, nurses, operating room, X-ray or laboratory. There are a few gov- Drs. Houghton and Emerson are not content ernment hospitals and dispensaries for civilians. with their critical attitude 'to the clinical work in The Central Hospital in Nanking is in every re- mission hospitals; they also strike at the essential spect up to date and modern. The annual cost of missionary purpose of these hospitals. Inferior maintenance is $1,430 (Mex.) per bed. The aver- clinical methods and slovenly diagnosis and treatage cost in mission hospitals, including foreign ment of cases cannot be too severely condemned, salaries, but not including the interest on invest- either in America or China, but the aggressive ment, is $401 (Mex.) per bed. The two National presentation of the Gospel message in mission University hospitals visited were also first class. hospitals, whether by indirect impressions through These three about exhaust the list of good gov- the Christian character of the staff, personal work ernment hospitals." with the patients, or preaching in the wards and chapels, is not incompatible with first-class scien- "Provincial and municipal hospitals, of which tific medicine and surgery. In fact, it is a trenine were visited, were invariably primitive af- mendous asset. fairs, far below the standard of missionary hospitals in the same localities." On page 199 of "Rethinking Missions," we find these words: "The use of medical skill for ulterior Referring to private hospitals, Dr. Lennox says ends has been rightly challenged, in our judgment, (page 477): "We visited a dozen or more. They by social and religious leaders in India and can be called hospitals only by courtesy." China." On page 200 we read: "By many mis- sionaries the use of medical service as an evan- "Rethinking Missions" says mission hospitals gelizing device is earnestly defended. . . . On the are "too often" inferior to near-by government other hand, enlightened non-Christians frequently and other hospitals. Dr. Lennox says there are express their scorn of institutions which proselythree good government hospitals in China that tize the sick and helpless, who are least able to provincial and municipal hospitals are "invar- resist." On page 201 we read further: "But the iably primitive affairs far below the standard of use of medical or other professional service as a missionary hospitals in the same localities," and direct means of making converts, or public servthat private hospitals can be "called hospitals only ices in wards and dispensaries from which by courtesy." The above is interesting. patients cannot escape, is subtly coercive and improper." The picture of the average missionary doctor in "Rethinking Missions" is not very attractive. On Obviously, Drs. Houghton and Emerson have page 201 it is stated: "The impression gained forgotten that the Gospel means "Good News." from our study of the clinical work of American There can be no possible excuse for undue presmissions [i. e., the professional work of the doc- sure, or tactlessness in preaching to patients, but tors] in the Orient was in general one of disap- most of us are not concerned with the opinions of pointment." non-Christians in this matter, nor do we consider it "subtly coercive" or "improper" to use our Over against this we find Dr. Lennox writing hospitals as direct evangelistic agencies. We have as follows on the same subject, page 500: "On the precedent and example of the Saviour Himthe average, the missionary institutions excelled self, while most of the money contributed for medin the quality of professional service, in medical ical missions has come from those who expect the equipment and its use, in the nursing care of the message of spiritual healing to go hand in hand patients, in the housekeeping of the hospital, and with physical healing. Failure in this would be in the human interest in the patients and in sta- a denial of Him and a betrayal of those who supbility of the work." On page 493 of the same re- port us. One regrets, too, the statement regardport, we find: "There is no major surgery being ing the "typical" mission hospital on page 203, done outside of mission and a few other hospitals." where, speaking of the outpatients, it is said: "Too many . . . leave with a good Bible text and In the above connection, it is permissible to the wrong medicine." quote from another member of the Fact Finders' group, a layman, who went to Szechuen Province Compared to the above, we have Dr. Lennox's for the Commission and reported on various
HOW THEY "RETHOUGHT" MEDICAL M,ISSIONS
fair statement of the question on page 472 of his making statements which are directly contrary to report: those made by their Fact Finders.
Medical missionaries enlist with the understanding that In the defense of the parts of the report quoted, they are both to preach the Gospel and to heal the sick. as found in "Rethinking Missions," some may say They expect to win converts to the Christian religion from that as the Inquiry also visited India, this report among patients, nurses and doctors in the hospital, and is for India and China combined. This is true, from students in the medical schools. The patients who but it is utterly unscientific to have done so. Supthrong missionary hospitals number more than a million pose a doctor examined two patients, one with a year, more than twice al!! many as the Protestant Church membership of China. They are receiving a service of pulmonary tuberculosis, the other suffering with recognized value, and they easily recognize the manner acute appendicitis, and then after the examinain which such service is given. The attitude of most mis- tion he renders a composite report and diagnosis sionaries is that of the father of modern surgery, Ambrose on the two cases? Even a missionary doctor in Pare: "I dress the wound, God heals it," or again, "Pity China would not be guilty of this. For the laymen as an emotion passes, pity as a motive remains." in America to have had a clear picture of the sit- uations in the two countries, the reports should Most doctors believe that in their medical service they have been entirely separate. are fulfilling an essential portion of their mission. Of all doctors who answered the question, "In your work as a If a large business corporation had sent out cermedical missionary, which do you regard as the most important, the proper medical care of the patient or efforts towards his evangelization?" the largest number, 67 per tain representatives to secure facts on which to cent, replied that both were equally important and could not be separated. project its future work, and these representatives had made their report as the medical report in The missionary doctors of China had a right to "Rethinking Missions" was made, some of the expect from the doctors on the Laymen's Inquiry officials of that corporation would certainly ask the same quality of scientific purpose and method some very searching questions of their own. The in this Inquiry which was demanded of them in most charitable thing one can say about this med- their medical missionary work. Failure to use ical report is that it is a biased statement, the re- scientific methods, hasty and wrong diagnoses, sult of certain preconceptions and prejudices, plus faulty treatments of patients, all of these and a failure to make use of the facts which were in other things are placed to the discredit of mission hand. In other words, the statement made in the doctors in "Rethinging Missions." And yet we beginning of this article is true – the report on find those who demand such high standards guilty medical missions in "Rethinking Missions" was of making a generalized report on 220 mission not scientifically prepared.
hospitals when they had visited not more than If laymen of America foster and support the forty of these hospitals. In fact, a number of Modern Missions Movement with the aim of carry- these forty visits were made by a third person. ing out the recommendations of "Rethinking Mis- We find also. that one of the two doctors on the sions," they have the right to do so. At the same Inquiry thought all had been visited, only being time there are many hospitals in China which hope eighty-one per cent wrong in this belief. In the to continue doing the very best scientific work pos- third place, we find them ignoring the findings of sible with limited budgets, equipment and staffs, their own representative on the Fact Finders' but at the same time purpose to continue to preach Commission. In the fourth place, we find them and live Jesus Christ as the only Saviour.
"THIRTEEN GREAT MISTAKES"
To set your own standards of right and wrong, and expect others to conform to them. To measure the enjoyment of other people by your own. To expect uniformity of opinion in this world. To look for sound judgment and experience in youth. To endeavor to mold all dispositions after the same pattern. To be unwilling to yield in unimportant matters. To be discouraged because you do not attain perfection. To worry over mistakes and failures that cannot be remedied. To make no earnest effort to alleviate conditions that need alleviation. Failure to make allowances for the weakness of others. To consider anything impossible simply because you cannot perform it. To believe only those things that the finite mind can grasp. To live as if the moment, the day, were so important that it would continue forever.
-A London Jurist.
Oriental Students Return
-~~II~~~B_Y~A_R_T_H_U_R_A~._Y_O_U_N_G_'_N_e_W~Y_O_rk~~~~II~- THE first Japanese student arrived in America mmmg corporations; fourteen have been secre- in 1866. Today there are twelve hundred of taries of the Y. M. C. A. in China; and forty-five them studying in American colleges and uni- are or have been journalists. The number of Chiversities. The remarkable thing about them is that nese students who pursue journalism on their re- they are the picked men and women of J apan- turn to China is significant. A decade ago a news- students who will undoubtedly playa big part in paper in the hands of a coolie in China was rare.
shaping the destiny of their homeland. Today it is one of the arresting sights in every Dr. Inazo Nitobe, who for seven years repre- Chinese city.
sented Japan efficiently at the League of Nations, James Y. C. Yen, a graduate of Yale, succeeded was made a Doctor of Philosophy at Johns Hop- in reducing the number of Chinese characters to kins University; Viscount Sutemi Chinda and Mr. a minimum of accepted and recognized words.
Amaro Sato, two of Japan's foremost diplomats With the cooperation of newspapers and editors, of a generation ago, studied at DePauw Univers- great strides have been made in teaching the Chi- ity. nese peasantry to read and understand the printed Joseph Hardy Neeshima, founder of Doshisha, page.
the first Christian university in Japan, was gradu- The majority of leaders of the New China have ated from Amherst College in 1870. Miss Ume had the opportunity of acquiring a foreign educa- Tsuda, founder of Tsuda College in Tokyo, and tion. T. V. Soong, recently Minister of Finance, Miss Michi Kawai, founder of the Keisen Girls' is a Harvard graduate. Dr. C. T. Wang, former School of Tokyo, are both alumnre of Bryn Mawr Minister of Foreign Affairs, is a Yale graduate.
College. H. H. Kung, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Toyoshiko Kagawa, the noted Christian is an Oberlin man. The Chinese Minister at Wash- leader and social worker, studied at Princeton; ington, Dr. Alfred Sze, is a Cornell graduate; the Dr. Takuma Dan, head of the great business firm acting Minister in London is a Michigan Univer- of Mitsui, was trained at Massachusetts Insti- sity man.
tute of Technology; Viscount Ketaro Kaneko, for Filipino Students and Ot~ers many years head of the American-Japan Society in .Japan, is a graduate of Harvard University; In the Philippines, the dean of the Law School while President Shoshuke Sato of Hokkaido Im- of the University of Manila is a graduate of the perial University is a Doctor of Philosophy of University of Indiana. Judge Santos, of George- Johns Hopkins University. town University, is a cabinet minister, L. T. Ruiz, An example of the good work of returned stu- of Yale, is general secretary of the national Y. M.
dents occurred when racial relationships were C. A. movement.
strained as a result of anti-Japanese legislation in Scores of students from the Near East are California. The returned students in Japan never influential in the New Republic of Turkey and in hesitated to wield their influence in behalf of fair Syria.
play, and good feeling between America and Ja- Many more visitors from abroad have gone pan. about their tasks and served their countries in A recent survey of 238 prominent returned Chi- various ways as the teachers, the preachers, the nese students from America has revealed the fol- business men and others of their kind who have lowing facts: carried on with no publicity.
Forty-one are presidents of colleges; fourteen In America these foreign students not only are officials in the ministries of education; six sought the best in the classrooms, but have also have been premiers; forty-six have held cabinet garnered the worthwhile in American national positions; nine have been members of parliament; life, and this they have taken back to their various seventeen have been appointed ministers of for- countries.
eign countries; there have been four mayors of Young people, regardless of race, face the ques- cities, one governor, ten directors of railways, tion of ultimate truth. Emphasis has been placed thirty-three managers of banks, twenty-one heads on the Christian way of life and on the formation of manufacturing concerns, twelve managers of of personal friendships with Americans.
[356 ]
African Christian Teacher*
By w. SINGLETON FISHER, Elizabethville, Congo BeIge FROM personal experience I am convinced that woman named Nyameji came to his village with the native of the Congo is capable of great a strange message. Manika was away on tour. depths (or heights) of spirituality. He is as She told his wife and the other women that they willing to surrender himself wholly to the claims were accountable to God for their sinful way of of Christ as any European. He rapidly becomes a living, drew for them a vivid picture of a country man of real spiritual power if he wholeheartedly full of never dying fire to which their evil lives were taking them and she told them of God's son follows Christ. who had come into the world to live and die and Everywhere missionary people are discussing live again to save them from their wicked lives and from the punishment to come. Manika's wife to what extent natives should be encouraged to and some other women pulled up their fetishes, carryon the missionary work being done in their threw away their charms and professed to turn to respective countries. Some advocate the complete Christ (they are today church members). withdrawal of missionaries from the field so that the natives can have a free hand to carry the Gos- pel to their own people. On the other extreme Manika returned home accompanied by his fol- are those who fear to leave any responsibility in lower, Patisu, of whom you shall hear more later.
their hands and think that it will be many years They strode into the village with a line of trem- before they can be allowed equality with whites, bling natives following carrying baskets of fowls and then only after much intensive training. which they had levied in the districts they had I am going to try to present a brief sketch of a been patrolling. The women clapped continuously native I know. My object is to enable him to win for about ten minutes while their men settled your affection so that you will pray for him then down by their respective houses without saying a that he shall gain your respect as the man to word. The clapping over, greetings followed, reach his own people. Then I would like to show and a short report was given of what had hap- how necessary the missionary of the right sort pened in their absence. This report included a still is to him. My desire is to stir you up to more description of Nyameji's visit and its conse- real and definite prayer both for the native worker quences. Glancing round the village Manika and and for his missionary helper, and to help you to his friend could, without rising, see that the wom- balance truly this difficult problem. en's fetishes had indeed disappeared and they The people about whom I speak are very real, were worried. They decided however to laugh and are alive today, many having been my friends the matter off.
for many years, but I use ficticious names. "Yayo-o! Enu akwetu-u!" laughed Manika, Manika ten years ago was a kapita, a kind of "what a fine crowd you women are! Like a lot of children !" policeman of a type much used in those days by the Government. He is closely related to the big "Any strange story deceives them," grinned chief or petty king called Kazembi. When the na- Patisu, "but why worry, they'll soon give it up tives in this area were still very wild he was much again ?" feared by the natives over the whole countryside. He used to go off on long trips and arrest whole Nyameji, a woman of great natural native digbatches of men who had not paid tax and bring nity, for she is herself by birth the headwoman of them in to the Poste. Wherever he went he took quite an important little clan, looked at these from a village all the chickens he required for his young men, resplendent in their government uniown personal use. No native, except a fellow forms and their conceit. Smiling contemptuously, kapita, dared call him by his name but all called she quietly said: him Nkaka, which means grandfather or master. About the time of which I am speaking an elderly "Kanchayila! All these things you have will only be like the things Kanchayilat gathers round • Having been born in Central Africa, and having learned to t A kanchayila is a chrysalis that builds its cocoon· by neatly binding together dry sticks which it has cut Into even lengths, when speak the native language before my own tongue and then having the annual bush lires come if it is unfortunate enough to be within range the sticks soon catch a light and the insect Is quickly burnt, spent nearly all my life among natives since I was seventeen, has destroyed by the very things by which it thought it had insured for itself peace and protection. taught me a great respect for the native, his language and his ways of thinking. W. S. FISHER.
[357 ]
him; they will make the fire all the hotter when uable worker for Christ. He is by no means the you get there." most promising of our native fellow workers, there are several more gifted and more deeply She was due to return home and so saw little taught, but he is a good example of the average more of the men before she left the village that African. afternoon. That night Manika and his friend slept little. The story their wives had told them Last year he gave an address on "Consecration" -of God's hatred of sin and of His gift of His to his fellow teachers and other native Christians. son, the warning of sure judgment to come, the He used a telling illustration which is a sample reference'to Kanchayila – all kept recurring to of the way natives teach one another. He said: their minds. Next day they talked it over and to everyone's surprise decided to believe too. They "There was once upon a time a family of ante- pulled up their fetishes, got rid of their charms, lopes, an old cow antelope and several of her chil- and began praying to God. dren. They were discussing the sort of horns they would like. Most of the youngsters agreed When Nyameji next went to the village she that the kind their parents had would suit them found them gathering night by night round a well. Although the possessor could not see them camp fire to pray and to recount to one another as they curved backwards, still they were sharp what they could remember of the Message. and serviceable and would protect them from their enemies. One young buck objected strongly. Manika was not a very promising Christian, 'N0,' he said, 'I want a handsome pair of horns since he was converted mainly through fear of that curve well forward, which I can see, and en- coming judgment. Although he broke with his joy. What's the good of something I can't see!' robbery and his immorality and with many evil ways, he remained worldly and was closely at- "'All right,' said his mother, 'you shall have tached to his worldly friends. A year or two after your wish.' his conversion missionaries came· to settle in the district. They were anxious to encourage this "What a magnificent pair of horns he grew! little group to carryon for themselves and so re- Sweeping well forward in a long graceful curve! sisted the temptation to build a station near them They gave the growing antelope many hours of and went to live about nine miles away. One of enjoyment, and he despised his foolish brothers the missionaries came over one day a week to give and sisters who were content with horns they regular Bible instruction. A native teacher had couldn't even see! After a few years a great also come to live among them and was one who drought came and all the rivers dried up. The had deep knowledge of the Word of God. Manika only water to be had was in a little hole in a rock. began to learn what being a Christian really is The antelope's brothers and sisters came and but the claims of Christ seemed too great. The drank easily, unimpeded, but he could not come man became more and more worldly and in a year near the water for his beautiful horns came be- or two fell into sin. He was suspended from tween him and the life-giving draught." ' church membership and was treated as an outsider by the infant church, though all the time the The story needs no explanation. .members were praying earnestly for his restora- Pray much for these native teachers and ask tion. that the missionaries may be given grace and wis- dom to teach them in such a way that they shall Manika was deeply humbled. He was a well- learn to depend more and more on God's Word. known kapita, and was in the royal line of the old They are surrounded by sin and vice; they have Kazembi chieftainship. He was used to being a background of superstition and fear. Pray that treated with fear and respect, and here he was they may daily walk so near to God that old tempbeing given the cold shoulder by inferior beings tations, that so easily tripped them up and do who used to look up to him – all because he had trip up cold Christians, may be powerless against sinned. If fellow men treated him like that, how them. could he expect a holy God to overlook his evil ways? Over the door of a cabinet-maker's shop in Lon- don there hangs this sign, "LIVING ABOVE." It Finally Manika came back into church member- is a notification to customers that he can be found ship a humbler and wiser man. He had learned above his shop if the door is locked. the value of the cleansing blood of Christ and began to serve Christ in his village. It is a great thing for a worker to be able to say he is "living above" his work; that his dreams The regular visits of the missionaries and the and hopes and real life are above the level of his careful teaching weaned him more and more from day's toil. He may have to work amid the clods his old worldly associations and taught him to and clutter, but at least he can "live above." No walk closer to God. His natural ability soon be- matter how lowly a man's work, his life can be gan to show itself, and he has now become a val- above if his life is hid with Christ in God.
Work in
Missionary Experiences Among an Unknown People By the REV. W. KENDALL GALE, Andriamena, Madagascar Missionary of the London Missionary Society T HE Marofotsy country is unknown to Amer- have heard about the praying and wish to be icans, even to most missionary circles. taught. We also heard that there was a mission- Twenty years ago it was utterly unknown to ary in Anjozorobe so I have been sent by our peo- British mIssIOnaries in Madagascar. We are pIe to beg you to send us a teacher." therefore introducing the readers of THE REVIEW to an unknown people of an unknown land. This wild, lithe, supple savage was in deadly earnest. He presented the missionary's wife with Frequently we had stood on our verandah and a dirty, dog-eared scrap of paper, with a few had wondered what there was behind those far, wobbly crosses on it but not a word of writing. northern mountains, imagining that for hundreds of miles beyond the lofty Ketsa range the land "What is this?" asked the missionary's wife, was quite empty. For some years after our set- scarcely daring to handle such a torn, filthy, tlement in Anjozorobe, as its first missionary, we ragged bit of paper.
"That is our petition asking for a church and a never so much as heard a whisper that there were teacher," he said. people beyond the lofty heights of northern Her eyes filled with tears as the· pathos of it Imerina. We had never heard of people having came over her. Where had those savages obtained explored the country, much less had we ever seen that scrap of paper, and from whom had they got an inhabitant from that wild land. However, the pencil with which to make those few trembling through curiosity we might have set out on an crosses? exploring expedition. The amazing thing is that we did not seek out the Marofotsy people, but the "The missionary will be home in a few days," she said, "I will tell him about your visit and give Marofotsy sought us. The story is sufficiently him this paper. Go back to your people and tell remarkable to be worth telling. them that the vazahalahy (missionary) will set out for Ambakireny and you shall have a teacher." One day a tousled-headed savage, a wild, scared looking creature in a loin-cloth appeared at the When the missionary returned home he and his mission house in Anjozorobe-then our station. enthusiastic wife sat down to consider what to do; The missionary was away on a journey in the she asked him to go to Ambakireny and the Moro- Bezanozano country but the missionary's wife was fotsy country post-haste. at home. He prostrated himself before her, flat "But," we said, "the L. M. S. has a debt of upon his stomach, quite as though he were the £66,000 and we missionaries have received orders Duke of Monmouth pleading for his life before to retrench, or at least not to extend on any King James of England. The missionary's wife account. did not feel frightened at the sight of this weird human-if he could be called human. She told "Bother the debt," said the lady, "you must go. . him to rise and led him within, asking him to take I have promised."
But we did not dare do anything for debts are a seat. This he refused to do, probably never hav- debts and orders are orders, and missionaries are ing seen a chair before, so he squatted on the floor. men under authority-irksome and deplorable as "Now what do you want?" she asked. such orders are when they forbid an advance or "Please, I have come to ask for a teacher." response to such a plea. "A teacher?" she replied. "But who are you and where do you come from ?" The man came again and again and the fifth "My name is Rakotomanga and I come from time he found us at home. We were faly-mala- Ambakireny in the Marofotsy country." helo, as the Malagasy say. We were curious to see this man of unbeatable persistence, a man who "The Marofotsy country, where is that?" had been five times to the mission house and had "It is three and a half days' journey beyond tramped 35 days on foot to beg for the Gospel.
those mountains to the north," he replied. "We "My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living [359 ]
God." We did not see what could be done. We fotsy country was inhabited, for the northern area sat there and talked and talked and talked. In of Imerina was being constantly raided by savage the end we said: "Bother the debt at the mission hordes from that land, village after village going house in London; we are at least going to spy up in flames, and its quiet, pastoral people being out the land." carried away into slavery. With a people of such a character, no wonder that tribes impinging on Having received our assurance that we would its territories were scared to enter, knowing it to visit them, the man shot off back to Ambakireny be a land of bandits and raiders, of lawless savto tell the people. We went and found a very ages and cutthroats. The average Malagasy is large village and saw many others, a few of the not heroic or adventurous and has no stomach for thousand scattered over the wide Marofotsy coun- dangerous and thrilling explorations in a jungle try. Later we founded a church, the first in that where "wild beasts" swarm. It is only within reterrible land, equally terrible both as to people cent years that these raids have ceased in northern and climate, for it gave us bad fever. Imerina. Now raiding has been destroyed by the Gospel of Christ because the missionary invaded European mails had come in during our absence that land and established churches in the raider's and one of the letters caused something of a sensa- villages. Unfortunately, within the Marofotsy tion. It was from an unknown gentleman asking country itself raiding, robbery, murder and the the missionary to select a trustworthy native evan- burning of villages are still prevalent. Two years gelist, place him in a dark spot, and he would foot ago two of our churches-and the villages with the bill. "Before they call I will answer; while them-were burned to the ground. Every few they are yet speaking I will hear." weeks one hears of such raids in the remoter parts of the country, and even in close proximity of our In every missionary's life there are supreme station. The French Government admits that the moments such as someone will experience when Marofotsy country is not being adequately adminhis feet at last stand on the summit of Mt. Everest. istered for the whole wide territory boasts of only That letter gave us one of those moments. We two French officials, one post office, not a single knew just the man for evangelist and he was will- European doctor, and only three very incompetent ing, even eager, to go. He is still at Ambakireny native doctors. For its spiritual needs there are and has helped to bring forty-seven churches into four Roman priests and one Protestant missionexistence in the eastern part of the Marofotsy. ary. Randrianjafy now has charge of this territory covering an area seven days by three, over which The Marofotsy history is extremely interesting. he travels on his donkey. That man is a hero. In They are of Sihanaka stock, from the tribe inthat fearful land he has buried a wife and eight habiting a stretch of country with Lake Alaotra children, but he has never so much as given us a as its centre. In the Central Province of Imerina, hint that he wishes to give up the work and return the land of the Hova, 147 years ago was a mighty to Imerina and a healthier climate. The land is warrior-chief c a II e d Andrianampoinimerina, nOw holy ground to him, consecrated by the something of a military genius, whose ambition sacred remains of his wife and children. it was to subjugate the whole island and make himself king. He was a kind of superraider and Who Are the Marofotsy? lived only to fight. Unhappily in those days Malagasy was only a spoken language so that our But where is the Marofotsy country and who knowledge of his expeditions is scanty. He and are its people? On the map of Madagascar you his braves swept like a tornado north, south, east will see a large, oblong tract of country 250 miles and west. The slaughter must have been ghastly by 150 in the heart of the broadest part of the for most all male captives were assassinated and island, with Lake Alaotra slightly outside the only women and children were spared. centre of its eastern boundary, and Maevatanana and Ankazobe bounding it on the west. It This chief invaded the Taifasy tribe, and realstretches southward to the river Mananara, and izing that they were no match for Andrianamon the north reaches to within a day's journey poinimerina and his army, they accepted the from Marovoay. inevitable and kowtowed. Women and children were segreg~ted in one valley and males in an- Until long after the French occupation of Mada- other. Then the slaughter of the males began, gascar in 1895, it was an unknown country, and only five escaping the butchering. even yet has not been properly surveyed. Missionaries knew of this wide tract of country but Andrianampoinimerina died in 1810 and was they had never visited or explored it. It was be- succeeded by Radama, likewise a great warrior, lieved to be absolutely uninhabited and desert. who set about completing what his predecessor Had the northern part of Imerina had a mission- had begun. Radama invaded the Sihanaka counary long ago (we being still its first and only missionary) he would have known that the Maro-
PIONEERING WORK IN MADAGASCAR
try and subjugated the tribe. With some sem- Within an hour or two every man and woman was blance of mercy he spared the males, but he en- lying sprawling about the village streets dead slaved the whole tribe. A proud, independent drunk in a stupor. The whole village resembled people hitherto, subjugation and slavery were a battlefield after a particularly furious fight.
more than the Sihanaka could endure. They re- For three days and three nights they lay there belled, whereupon Radama swept down into their unconscious, dead to everything; a picture too country again with the fixed purpose of deci- ghastly to contemplate. During those three days mating the whole male population. Thousands and nights, their cattle and pigs were in their fled, making for the wild, mountainous, unknown pens unfed and unwatered.
and unhabited land now called the Marofotsy. In the whole of that village there were only five As far as we have been able to ascertain that was children, three in one home, one in another and about the year 1820, for Radama began to rule in one in another. Except for three women, all were 1810 and died in 1828. For nearly 100 years the sterile. During our first pioneer journey, we dis- Marofotsy remained unknown, undisturbed, but covered a village where there was only one child. alas! they became disturbers. They had neither What was the cause of the sterility of Manakana? money nor cattle nor possessions of any kind so We attribute it to alcohol and immorality. Walkthey took to raiding and with it inevitable slaugh- ing to and fro in Manakana in the evening we ter. From that lawlessness it is not difficult to were surprised to see sixty or seventy huts, quite trace their moral descent from a peaceful, pas- apart from the village itself, though at no great toral people to absolute savagery, with all the distance from it. To our horror we discovered worst implications of that term in morals and that they were brothels, one belonging to pracconduct. tically every woman and even girl in the village.
Criminals who fled from justice came to this Thither boys, married men and old greybeards vast and remote hinterland seeking a place in resorted, at any hour of the day or night, utterly which to hide. They found security from discov- without shame or even thought that it was dis- ery and capture for none dared to hunt for them gusting. We saw old men and mere lads crossing among those lawless hordes. Slaves also joined the open space between the village and these huts them to save their lives or to escape torture, for -a sight that shocked the spirit and lacerated the slavery continued in Madagascar until their lib- heart. We ached to put a match to them and burn eration by the French in 1896. These then com- the lot to the ground, but had we done so we prise the Marofotsy tribe: liberty-loving people should probably have been lynched. We preached who became utter savages, criminals, and escaped Christ instead and within a year those brothels slaves-a pleasant mixture! These were the folks had completely disappeared without our having who were discovered to us when that tousled- said a word about them. One small Christian headed creature appeared at the mission house in church had razed seventy brothels to the ground.
Anjozorobe. Three years after its erection we baptized sixty- The Effect of Strong Drink three people in that church one Sunday morning.
Since then they have built a much larger one. For We made a journey to the Marofotsy country in ten years they have had a trained pastor and sup- 1915-as far as Ambakireny-to spy out the land port him without any financial aid whatever from and preach the Gospel there. Then we went home the London Missionary Society. Since the coming on furlough in 1916. On our return in 1918 we of the Gospel of Christ to Manakana, there has set out alone to explore the Marofotsy country never been another drunken orgy, neither has with a view to its evangelization. We founded anyone dared to reerect another brothel. The nineteen churches as a result of that journey. We entire village has been rebuilt, and no longer resaw debasing things and learned about others that sembles a town devastated by an earthquake or a cannot be related here. We visited Manakana, a tidal wave, but is filled with brick dwellings, village of about one hundred and twenty houses. mostly with upper verandahs.
Three weeks before our arrival there had been a On that same first journey we discovered the disgusting orgy in Manakana. The inhabitants village of Bemavo and came upon the people in had clubbed together and had sent men with $300 the midst of a drunken revel, coupled as all such to Andriamena (where we now live) to buy drink. are (or were) with indecencies which cannot be On their return the entire population sat down to named. In the Marofotsy country there are scores guzzle. Each afraid lest the other should get of sacred mountains. In a four hours' journey more than his share, when once a drinking vessel from Andriamena to Bemavo we had passed three was in his or her hands it was not surrendered such. Bemavo, however, had its own specially until empty. Drinking thus, like swine from a sacred mountain called Analavory, or "The For- trough, the effects of the alcohol were devastating. est of Meeting," situated on the summit of a
plateau 3,500 feet high. Frequently the popula- ination. Such practices were taking place many tion of the district gathered there in thousands. times a year until 1918 and such was our intro- Cattle were sacrificed, together with fowls and duction to this tribe. Bemavo now has had a turkeys. Famous witch-doctors assembled there lovely little church and Analavory, their sacred to practice sorcery, selling fetishes by the hun- mountain, is deserted and its altars have been dred; fetishes to protect or bewitch or kill or to stone cold these dozen years. ensure bumping crops or unlimited children. The witch-doctors have charms for all purposes, some The Gospel of Christ has abolished drinking, supposedly good but mostly decidedly villainous, raiding, murder, filth, lust, polygamy, sorcery, for among other things they dispensed poisons to disease and theft. God has been with us during rid their clients of enemies, real or imaginery. the years and He has enabled us to found more Thus Mount Carmel swarmed with the Madagas- than one hundred churches in the Marofotsy councar priests of Baal. There one might have seen try alone, and more than two hundred and thirty men and women by the hundreds making the hor- in all among the heathen tribes of Madagascar. rible blood convenant at which they gashed their We now reside in the Marofotsy country having breasts and drank each other's blood. After these moved down there in March 1933, the first and terrible scenes the entire mass resorted to a lake, only Protestant missionary. There is work for a and all, male and female, perfectly nude, bathed score of missionaries in the country, but, alas! we together. Then they scattered over the plateau are alone, and the London Missionary Society and gave themselves up to lust· without discrim- quite unable to furnish us with a colleague. Here are fields "ripe to the harvest. Pray ye therefore."
A Great Anniversary It is generally acknowledged that no other book language and literature, their art, their beliefs, has had so profound and world-wide an influence their ideals and customs, their laws and their on individuals and on nations, as has been exerted governments. The Bible and its teachings transby the Bible. In the early days of the Jewish formed England, Scotland and Wales; the innations, the rare old hand-copied Hebrew scrolls fluence of the English translations .sent the Pilwere almost worshiped; later the Septuagint grim fathers to North America, and has reached translation was more widely distributed; then out to Australia, New Zealand and other lands came the addition of New Testament manuscripts colonized by the British. It has had a marvelous and their acceptance by Christians in Europe, effect not only in the formation of strong char- North Africa and Western Asia. The Reformation acter and high ideals but has helped to bind Engand the invention of printing from type led to the lish-speaking people together by ties of brothertranslation and publication of the whole Bible for hood – in spite of differences in theology and popular use, until now it is translated into nearly church polity and places of residence. 1,000 languages and dialects and every year more copies of this book are sold and distributed than A representative National Committee of wellof multitudes of "best sellers" combined. Last known Christian leaders has been formed to sponyear the Bible Societies and private publishers sor the commemoration. This committee includes printed .and sold over 30,000,000; this is no sud- college presidents, clergymen, scientists, editors, den spurt but every year shows a similar record. authors, business men and statesmen. Additional Probably in the past 100 years not less than four state, city and denominational committees will hundred and seventy-five million copies of Bibles carry out plans for celebrating the anniversary in and New Testaments have been sold in many coun- various localities. The purpose of the celebration tries and tongues. This is in spite of the fact that is to call wide attention to the supreme value and a large part of the Christian world (Roman Cath- great influence of the English Bible so as to proolics and Eastern sects) have not been encouraged mote more diligent reading and study of its mesto possess and read the sacred Scriptures. sage and to increase its distribution in all homes. It is proposl2d to have many public celebrations on On October 4, 1935, will be celebrated the four a nation-wide scale between October 4th and Dehundredth anniversary of printing the first com- cember 8th which latter date will be observed as plete Bible in English-Myles Coverdale's translation of 1535. This has had a profound effect, Universal Bible Sunday.* especially on English-speaking people, on their • Printed matter for use in these celebrations may be obtained from the American Bible Society, Astor Place, New York.
Ways of
'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'=I= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = CONCERNING THE kindling the imagination and ments, such as: A penny for each giving occasion and lure for the inch of your waist measure, COLLECTION endeavor. The manner of han- your foot measure, your arm dling them determines whether length, your stature, or even the As an orator, money must be or not they shall become spir- circumference of your cranium. a spell-binder, for volumes have itualized and do their bit toward The woman's society to which been written on the subject of shaping up the stewardship ideal your editor belongs put nearly shrewd ways in which to lure that must always be our goal. $90.00 into an empty treasury funds out of unwilling pockets, Here the benevolence committee last fall by stature measureparticularly since the onset of may do its formative work. ments – and there was not an the depression. It seems a far Among these plans – good and Amazon among us either. A cry from the ideal motivation of indifferent – which have been spiritualizing note may be given stewardship to commercialized sent in for use in this Depart- by quoting the Scripture regardchurch money-raising in the ment, are what may be classed as ing the impossibility of adding a name of missions; but one who cubit to one's stature by "taking is accustomed to fearlessly fac- Culinary Benevolences thought"-and yet one may ining the facts hesitates to sweep definitely extend the mission aside everything but ideal meth- A Gold and Silver Cake: This cause by matching inches with ods until patient education in may be served as the dessert at money, etc. Similar plans are systematic and proportional giv- a banquet or as a climax to a hinged upon one's weight, age ing under the urge of steward- benevolence program. A wooden (and how many Methusalehs ship has had time to do its work. cake is done in silver or gold may be discovered in our midst Out of the sobering experience paint, or a large nan covered in the course of hiding the exact as a pastor's wife, your Editor with similarly tinted paper, with age successfully, although one could tell many a tale of wives wooden or stiff cardboard top woman of the writer's acquaintwhose husbands allowed them no cut to fit snugly. Holes may be ance put in 20 cents, when she spending money of their own made in this top to receive as had grown sons and daughters, (for alas! the marriage cere- many candles as you think the thus breaking the record of mony too often fails to make the audience can replace with dol- early fertility even among the twain "one" in the pocketbook!), lars (or any coin determined Hindus!). Various other parts and whose benevolent impulses upon). Take pledges by lighting of the human anatomy may drove them to hide behind the a candle for each such sum con- doubtless be valuable to hinge grocery or the dry goods bill in tributed. by promise or other- sacrificial giving upon, if the contributing a cake, a dozen rolls wise. It is surprising how the mainspring of stewardship be or an embroidered scarf for the lure of getting all those candles church sale. Such sources of lighted will lead the audience on. weak. generosity must not be tolerated permanently, but shall we ab- Making a Missionary Cake: Opportune Benevolences ruptly dry them up before we State the snecific object and the have done our best to remove the goal in dollars and cents. Pass These owe their captivating cause of the detour? This is a around a big, yellow mixing bowl lure to the capitalizing of occaserious question and applies far to receive the nledges and ready sions, events, circumstances, and more widely than you kindly, cash. Carry this to the kitchen may be made beautiful in humane husbands imagine. . and presently return with a large symbolism and suggestiveness. cake having as many lighted Among them are the love gifts There are, however, Border- candles on it as the returns in at Christmas time, the gratitude line B enevolences-way-stations terms of dollars (or quarters, if gifts of Thanksgiving and the enroute to the higher goal – of <resources are modest) .have war- sacrificial gifts of Easter. Then which some good may be said. ranted. there are Calico Year (or lunch- Among these are many pictur- eons) to utilize depression valesque plans for coaxing pennies, Biological Benevolences ues, the attire of the membership nickels and dimes out of their and the bringing of offerings in hiding which do their work by in which pennies or dimes are calico pockets to intimate that matched with human measure- [363 ]
economy should not begin with tionable way-stations en route to This Grace Also (John E. Simpson), the Christian Stewardship goal. $1.00 and 60 cents. the House of the Lord; Poverty Among the inspirational figures Order from your own denomina- Luncheons, wherein the mem- of thought may be mentioned the tional Board of Education, or from the bership are asked to "cut out Blessing Boxes into which a coin Baptist Department of Missionary what they crave and serve only Education (whose list this is by rea- what they need"; Treasure is dropped with the recognition son of recommendation, not author- ship), 152 Madison Ave., New York Hunts to gather up silver and of each one of life's special benegold ornaments for sale to ac- fits; the Sunshine Boxes receiv- City. Why not have a class in Stewardcumulate missionary funds at ing their coins on all the sunny ship in your annual School of Mis- such times as the Government days; the Silver Offering boxes sions?
advertises to buy the precious during depressing times with the A Benevolence Prescription metals, etc. Birthday offerings, keynote, "Every cloud has its particularly when funds other- silver lining"; Building-the-Wall Are you in low spirits about wise expended upon gifts are di- Blocks hinging upon a devotional the financial condition of your verted at the request of the in- theme concerning Nehemiah's church or your missionary entertended recipients into benevolent great achievement (Neh. 2: 17) ; prise? The Christian Leader, an channels, are of real consecra- the boxes kept in the center of organ of the Universalist denomtional values. An annual birth- the dining table and receiving ination, published not long since day party held by any given theIr sustenance whenever grace a story about Horace Greeley group features a central recep- is said before meals, and all the which it had found in The tacle in which little bags are long line of offering receptacles Watchman -Examiner. It ran dropped (containing pennies patterned after some feature of thus: equal to the age of each giver), the Home or Foreign field being Horace Greeley at the height of his the months being called in con- studied. As a rule, the spiritual power as editor of The New York nection with some program feature characteristic of May immaturity of a Christian may Tribune, received a letter from a flowers, June brides, July pa- be gauged with some accuracy woman who reported that her church by the degree in which it is was in a desperate plight. Its finances were in bad shape. The young people triotism, etc., and the intermit- necessary to loosen his purse were deserting it. The community tent procession formed accord- strings by means of devices. had apparently lost all interest in it. ingly. Second-Mile Donors are But let us frankly face local con- The church members had tried every ditions as they are and do the asked for (and maybe formed device they could think of – fairs, strawberry festivals, oyster suppers, into a league or club) on occa- best we can while setting about turkey dinners, Japanese weddings, sions when apportionments have a vigorous campaign of steward- poverty socials, donkey parties, mock not been met by regular sub- ship education that shall lead to- marriages, concerts and the like, and scriptions so that many must ward the Every-Member Can- all to no effect. Could Mr. Greeley suggest some new device for keeping make an over-and-above offer- vass with consecrated personnel the struggling church from going to ing. This, too, has its spiritual definitely set apart annually in pieces? e c hoe·s. A Gift-of-the-Month some spiritual ceremonial. Us- The great edi,tor's advice was Club has similarly been formed ing the Chest-of-Joash idea and brief but to the point, and most among Ohio Baptists because having the entire membership suggestive: "Why Not Try Remissionary funds fall so far march past a chest at the altar ligion?" short of field needs. Cunning and place subscription cards or devices in the way of Indian funds therein has been a means Capitalizing Birthdays moccasins to receive the offering of grace in many a church. For more than 30 years birth- during a period when the Amer- Stewardship Books day offerings have been a regican Indian is being studied; ular feature in the Sunday Japanese fans or Oriental trin- for use in group or private read- School of the Congregational kets in the course of this year's ing, in pulpit or prayer service, study, and the like have telling are: church of New Hampton, Iowa. effects upon the purse strings of The plan was adopted in resome people, and seem unob- Money-the Acid Test (David Mc- sponse to an appeal for funds to jectionable. Then there is the Conaughey), 35 cents. help in building a mission school great matter of The Sharing Life (Ralph S. Cush- in Africa, sent by a missionary Mite Box Benevolences man), 25 cents. belonging to the church. Her Jesus' Teaching on the Use of Money friends cast about for some way (Ina C. Brown), 50 cents. of complying with the request.
From the pure idealist's stand- Christian Materialism (new in Oc- After discussing various ways and means, the birthday plan point they might be considered tober) (Bishop McConnell). Junior Stewards of the Bible (Helen was adopted. This plan was exstumblingblocks rather than of- K. Wallace), 75 cents. plained to the children – just fering boxes, in the way that Stewardship in the Life of Youth where the money was to go and "The good is often the enemy of (Williamson and Wallace), $1.00 the best," and impulse giving is and 50 cents. what was to be done with it- and they soon became very enallowed to take the place of pay- Stewardship Parables of Jesus (R. C. thusiastic. They not 0 n I y ing on principle. But surely Long), $1.00. they are one of the least objec- Money Power (Chas. A. Cook), $1.00. brought their own pennies but
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
they got after their fathers and narily under this plan the amount con- with the national organization mothers, sisters and brothers tributed is about one-tenth of the total and expanding through the use and insisted that they all cele- church budget. . . . This sum includes of the Study Book, "Orientals in brate their birthdays by making all of their giving to specific objects American Life," into interracial a contribution proportional to as well as their contributions to cur- and international fellowship, their years, to the Sunday rent expenses. The advantages of the thus tying together into one har- School. plan are as follows: monious whole individual, or- ganizational and human inter- These birthday funds were Youth becomes church-conscious and ests. augmented by offerings on spe- missionary-minded through a study of cial days, such as Christmas, the activities supported by the budget. The ship motif made possible Easter, Lincoln's birthday and The educational program provides many interesting innovations in Children's Day. At the end of courses in the history and organiza- program planning and nautical the year it was discovered that tion of the denomination and in the terminology lent itself to a vathe church was able to send $100 practice of stewardship through "My riety of uses. Above is a reproto Africa. Responsibility" and other courses duction of the "Nautical Chart" graded for the various age groups. (Achievement Poster) which The plan worked so well that Wherever possible projects are fol- was used by the local units. The it has been continued. Each lowed out by youth to make the causes chart was displayed at the regyear $100 are sent to missions they support meaningful. The use of ular meetings each month and by the Sunday School alone, so still and moving pictures, dramatics proved not only an attractive dethat in the last 30 years our little and exhibits helps to make clear the vice but a helpful instrument in school-never over 100 pupils- values in the church program. stimulating the local society to has given some $3,000 to mis- attempt certain definite goals. sions. Properly used information and ac- These charts were sent out with tivities generate enthusiasm. This in the regular study course. Many became so interested turn, is a means of solving the p;obthat they continue to send their lem of holding young people in the Accompanying the chart were offerings long after they move church and increasing or maintaining eight gummed red arcs shaped to away. Contributions are being their giving. Experience has shown fit exactly into the numbered received each year from friends that the plan also develops leadership. white spaces below the points of in many states, even as far west the star. As a goal was reached as California. The first of each For information, address The Youth the red arc carrying the number month the names of all whose Budget Plan Committee, General natal days are to occur in that Council, 156 Fifth Ave., New York corresponding to the one in the month are placed on a black- City. white space on the chart was board; and when the contribu- placed in its proper position. tion is made, the amount is re- Fellowship Year When all the goals were achieved corded opposite the appropriate these arcs formed a colorful name. Many of the older pupils "Fellowship," the theme chosen border around the eight-pointed by The Forward Looking Comand adults do not limit their con- mittee of the Woman's Home tributions to the number of their Missionary Society of the Methyears, so the offerings run from odist Episcopal Church for 1934- 1935 had as its objective pro- 25 cents to $1.00. moting fellowship with God, fel- lowship with one another in the The plan has not only enabled local church, a closer fellowship the Sunday School to make its annual contribution to missions but it has been a joy and a delight to all who participate in it.
W. D. SPIKER, Pastor.
The Youth Budget Plan The Presbyterian tells of a way in which youth may become interested in the Church and share in its activities. It says: The Church becomes meaningful to young people as they enjoy its privi- leges and help to meet its problems. Under the Youth Budget Plan those from eight to twenty-three years of age take a definite share in supporting church expenses and benevolences through a pledge of systematic giving and the use of weekly envelopes. In other words, youth "stakes a claim"
and takes a share in the church life through service and giving. Ordi- Courtesy of Woma1l1's Home Mi8$ions
star gIvmg a striking appear- adapted to local conditions and a placard before each appearance) ance to the whole. At the center needs. The theme supplies the and tell their main features. A very the cross and the flag encircled anatomy. taking open meeting. Program leadby a wreath of laurel represents ers as "librarians," and luncheon comthe insignia of the society. It The figure of the journey is mittee serving at a "cafeteria." gives another touch of color as well as a symbolic significance always an attractive one, being 7. Trails through Our Denominato the chart. dynamic with suggested activity. tional Fields. A program devoted to the specific fields of the church, with To keep the year's goals be- Here is a brand new one : map talk, the refreshments being a fore the constituency and to pre- paddyfield luncheon and the leaders vent the auxiliary from being A Year's Journey on the trail-breakers. "at sea" regarding the use of the chart, a cut of the chart ap- King's Highway 8. Journey's End: We Unpack Our peared each month in the so- Baggage. Possibly annual business ciety's official organ, "Woman's An highway shall be there, and meeting with reports harmonized with Home Missions," with a few per- a way, and it shall be called The the dominant figure and the leaders as tinent paragraphs regarding the Way of Holiness. In all thy baggage masters. A station lunch next goal to be achieved. In ad- ways acknowledge Him and He counter may be arranged as at the bedition the editorial page pre- shall direct thy paths. ginning. sented regularly for several months messages under such 1. We Gather for the Journey (au- 9. Travelogues and Curios for Our headings as "C h art i n g the tumn rally, with luncheon or supper). Friends. Exhibit of articles from Course" and "Cruising the C's." Each department head or leader gives mission fields, with informal story- The subject matter of these edi- a forecast of plans for the year, and telling to incorporate the subject mattorials was of a practical and in- an inspirational address incites to ac- ter and describe the various peoples forming nature, which proved tion along whatever lines are to be thus exploited. Leaders as "narrahelpful both to the officers and majored, with Christian social service tors" and refreshments as a "cosmothe constituency. The Study along the Home Mission study theme politan luncheon." Course booklets were titled: prominent. Travelers' songs and spe- cial music. Luncheon or supper com- 10. Gifts for Companions of the The Com pas s (devotional mittee designated as providing "the Road. A shower or summer Christunit) , station lunch counter," and program mas tree or some other plan to gather leaders as tourist agents. Tourist supplies for some definite worker or The Charted Course (educa- tickets with the rest of the year's top- field, or for an outgoing missionary. tional and social unit), ics built in like sections of a folder may be used if desired. Some may If tourist nomenclature is desired, The auxiliary Book of Plans wish to semidramatize with station designate the president as the Eagle published each year as a hand- features. Scout, the first vice-president as Bookbook for local auxiliary officers, ing Agent, the second as Merry Maker committee chairmen and leaders 2. We Explore the Homeland. Use (social leader), the third (if she has of local young people's and ju- the Home Mission theme with which- charge of making hospital supplies, nior groups bore the caption, The ever study book is desired, dramatiz- etc.) as Equipment Officer, the re- Official Log. ing its main points or dividing the cording secretary as the Tourist principal subject matter up into a Scribe, the corresponding secretary as These plans together with the series of short talks after the relay the Lookout, the treasurer as Purser, many original and clever ideas fashion of a race or journey. Ma- the study or reading chairman as that the conference, district and terial on pioneers (see the June RE- Baedeker Guide, the music chairman auxiliary officers projected made VIEW, pp. 266 and 303, also its other as Cheer Leader, the house or kitchen Fellowship Year a voyage of en- Home Mission articles) will furnish chairman as Porter, the civics chairchantment and discovery. sidelights. Luncheon committee as man as S;tfety Agent, the membership commissary agents and program lead- chairman as Advance Agent and the MRS. V. F. DEVINNY, ers as scouts. publicity chairman as Reporter.
National Corresponding Sec- 3. Highways and By-Ways in the Churches having an annual school retary in charge of Pro- Sunny Southland. Similar use of the of missions never can count on any- motion. Foreign Mission theme, Latin-Amer- thing like a· full enrollment from the ica. Spanish music, costuming, etc., various units in the organization; so READY-TO-USE MATERIAL may give color. Luncheon by "tortilla some such bird's-eye view of the lead- vendors" and program by "Spanish ing study books as the foregoing out- Many requests come to this guides." Decorate with Mexican and line affords puts the woman's or the Department for themes for year Cuban curios. young people's society into touch with books, series of programs, com- the themes which are so largely feaplete outlines, etc.; and while it 4. On the Trail of the Wise Men. tured in current missionary magazine is difficult for the Editor to re- Christmas meeting with suitable can- literature. spond individually, the following tata or other dramatic program, posare submitted for adaptation sibly put on by girls' or at least young REASONS FOR TITHING among those who find their own people's organization. Program leadprogram building difficult. A ers as "followers of the Star." 1. The tenth of one's net income is year's outline, with its connect- a fair minimum for proportionate giving vertebrre in place, is easily 5. Fun and Fellowship with Other ing. World Travelers. ' An all-church din- ner sponsored by the missionary or- 2. The tithe is a Scriptural stand- ganization in question, with tables for ard. Love gifts should not be less than fields and real or impersonated mis- the old legal requirement. sionary workers as hosts and host- esses. Short addresses, intermingled 3. The tithe helps the tither keep ac- with wholesome merrymaking. – curate accounts and encourages bud- geting. 6. We Visit the Animated Library. Book review meeting cast in mold of 4. The needs of a large community tourists' exploration of library, a make it imperative that there should selection of standard missionary books be more generous giving by Chris- being made for impersonations; or tians. have the books step out of a frame made to represent the cover of a vol- 5. It makes giving a principle, and ume (its name being hung on door as not a spasmodic expression.
6. It establishes one as a financial steward and a partner with God.
-Epworth Tidings, Rangoon. BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions ANNE SEESHOLTZ, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK THE STUFF THAT PATRI- zen's soul, would be to write out profit our nation if it gain num- OTS ARE MADE OF! in 300 words why he 'knows he bers and riches, and lose the is a patriot, and then grade him- sense of the living God and the Faith, Hope, Love – and the self in the light of the Declara- joy of human brotherhood? greatest of these is Love! tion of Independence. Make us determined to live by Faith of our fathers who How long since each of us has truth and not by lies, to found founded America with toil and read the Declaration of Inde- our common life on the eternal tribulation, dreaming of reli- pendence? How many of us foundations of righteousness and gious liberty and political free- know every word of Lincoln's love, and no longer to prop the dom was good stuff. Like an- Gettysburg speech? How many tottering house of wrong by cient leaders of men, they came of us pray daily that those who legalized cruelty and force. not knowing whither, and they fell in the World War shall not endured because of the vision of have died in vain? How many Help us to make the welfare a new country where men 'and of us pray individually and col- of all the supreme law of our women, young and old, should lectively that the President and land, that so our commonwealth dwell happily and rightly with Congress may be given the wis- may be built strong and secure each other. dom from God in casting their on the love of all its citizens. votes which determine the course The faith and hope of our of the nation? Do we take our Cast down the throne of mamearly patriots were sustained not American citizenship seriously mon who ever grinds the life of by love of adventure and of find- enough? Of such stuff patriots men, and set up thy throne, 0 ing gold but love for family and are made. Christ, for thou didst die that love for God as the Divine Fa- men might live. ther, who is righteous and FOR THE KINGDOM OF would not forsake them but Show thy erring children at dwelt in their midst as they GOD last the way from the City of created the new country-a de- Destruction to the City of Love, mocracy in form, out of the stuff o Christ, thou hast bidden us and fulfill the longings of the of everyday faithfulness to the prophets of humanity. Our best ways of living. The failure to pray for the coming of thy Master, once more we make thy of one person or of a single Father's kingdom, in which his faith our prayer: "Thy kinggroup was to the harm of all. righteous will shall be done on dom come! Thy will be done on And the will to live rightly and earth. We have treasured thy earth !" happily was to the good of all. words; may we not forget their meaning, and may thy great WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH. These early patriots of ours hope never grow dim in thy did not always agree. They were Church. WHY WARS MUST CEASE not alike. There was no one pattern of behavior, but love of We bless Thee for the inspired A Book That Belongs in Every the new country, and hope for souls of all ages who saw afar Thinking Citizen's Library what the new nation might be- the shining City of God, and by come possessed the most of them. faith left the profit of the pres- I. Because If We Do Not Destroy And we love them for their faith, ent to follow their vision. We War Now, War Will Destroy hope and love which gave them rejoice that today the hope of Us-Garrie Ghapman Gatt. the necessary fortitude. Are we these lonely hearts is becoming more' patriotic making great the clear faith of millions. II. Because the War Idea Is Obnoise on July fourth than in solete – Mrs. Franklin D. knowing the price paid by the Help us, 0 Lord, in the cour- Roosevelt. early patriots? age of faith to seize what has now come so near, that the glad III. Because Wars Waste Human It might be well to test our- day of God may dawn at last. Life-Mary E. Woolley. selves today by knowing if we As we have mastered nature that can sing all the stanzas of the we might gain wealth, help us IV. Because Wars Cost Too Much national anthem. A further pa- now to master the social rela- -Mrs. William Brown Metriotic exercise, good for the citi- tions of mankind that we may loney. gain justice and a world of brothers. For what shall it V. Because Wars Produce Eco- nomic C h a 0 s – Florence [367 ] Brewer Boeckel.
VI. Because in War You Never Know What You Are Fight- ing For-Emily Newell Blair. VII. Because Wars Unleash De- nation as a whole. Not only is God, and the means by which the VIII. moralizing Instincts – Judge the contribution made by the Christ-life is imparted to those Florence E. Allen. Church to the nation's life clari- in the nation who have it not." IX. fied but the book furnishes ma- X. Because Every War Breeds terial showing the changed con- A discussion outline is being Another War – Dr. Ali c e ditions which the Church in prepared by Dr. Kenneth Dexter Hamilton. Miller to be used in connection America must face today, and with a study of "Toward a Chris- Because War Handicaps the the unfinished and continuing tian America." It begins with Evolution of Civilization- task of the Church. Some one consideration of the local church –Jane Adda1ns. has defined both the local church and then leads into study of our and "the Church in America" "a national problems and programs In Conclusion – Dorothy Can- school for training Christians in the knowledge and service of of Christian service. field Fisher. "Christian Youth in Action," This book was written for prepared by Dr. Frank W. Herthe National Committee on the riott, should be read by all who Cause and Cure of War com- study "Toward a C h r i s t ian America." The story is based on posed of eleven national women's concrete programs of service alorganizations, of which the ready begun by the young peo- Council of Women for Home Missions is one. ple of the churches. Order texts from above ad- "Toward a Christian America," the home mission study text dress. Do serve your country written by Dr. Hermann N. now "while it is yet day!" Morse is a statesmanlike review of the work of the church in the CHRIST'
POTE NT IN LI FE .TO-DAY Used by permis~on. 01 the Women's Missionary SoCiety of the U1IIited Lutheran. Church in. America
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Our World–wide Outlook A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC noon. The Batangas week-day Student Center Church (Baptist Progress in New Guinea kindergarten had a successful Mission) go out to teach Sunday In 1933 two missionaries rep- year, with 26 enrolled. In Min- schools in nine different districts resenting the American Lutheran Mission and that of Neuen- doro a fine bit of pioneering of LaPaz, Philippine Islands. dettelsau undertook an aeroplane flight to investigate the work is being done by Mr. and The average attendance is 235 territory between the Hagen and the Bismark Mountains, an area Mrs. Hernandes. There are nine pupils, or about 26 in each said to be inhabited by about 200,000 people. In 1934 the churches and groups with the school. In some places where same missionaries undertook a new exploration on foot. They work centering in the capital, the Sunday school has continued were joined by four more missionaries and about one hundred Calapan. Recently the pastor for three or more years, the atnatives who had been sent out by the Christian congregation. opened up work in Abra de Ilog, tendance is very regular and the They reached the area after a march of two weeks, and were a town which has to be reached interest good. In one instance received in a friendly manner. from Batangas by boat, as the during the Christmas vacation In the Gafuka valley they found wild tribes, and had much town is inaccessible over land when the teacher was absent, one to suffer from thievery. In other places they were amazed at find- from Calapan. The pastor, his boy decided to hold a Sunday ing populous settlements, large dwellings scattered in between wife, and a member made the school himself. He called the the cultivated fields. Many kinds of palm trees and other fruit trip in a very small mail boat children together, opened the trees had been planted. In the Ganj Valley they found a popu- which makes the trip once a service with songs that they lation that manufactured beautiful sharp stone axes. On the week. They were 23 hours in knew, and then told them Bible whole this area shows fine progress and beside the Neuendettel- covering about 15 miles. Despite stories which he had learned in sau missionaries, there are 13 former missionaries of the Rhen- the hardship of the trip, the vis- ' his class. -Missions. ish Mission working under the American Lutheran Mission. it of ten days was fruitful, and Progress in Batangas, P. I. 38 people accepted Christ. They Christianity in Java are now planning to erect a The churches in Batangas, P. chapel. From Jidda comes an an- 1., have shown continued prog- nouncement that the number of ress. The 14 churches and five -Philippine Presbyterian. pilgrims to Mecca is not likely to Christian groups make this prov- be above 25,000 this year, a very ince strongly evangelical. In De- Relics of Ancient Faith cember a two-day program of worship and religious education Easter Island is a lonely isle great decrease in the usual numwas given in Batangas City. ber. The number from Java is in the Pacific 2,300 miles west of not expected to be above 1,000. During the year the Batangas Chile and equally remote from Until the past few years one church formed a gospel team and any other land, and is one of the third of all pilgrims to Mecca organized three village Sunday most famous islands on the globe came from Java, whose populaschools which meet in the after- tion is 40,000,000, all Moslems, because of its great stone idols with few exceptions. This de- cut out of a near-by crater and crease of Mecca pilgrims is dragged down to the coast, probably due chiefly to economic conditions. where they are set on pedestals to the number of a hundred or more. They range from small statues to giants 20 feet high, The first Christian converts in and are carved into grotesque Java were made in 1830, through forms. The island now has four the efforts of a Dutch Baptist hundred Pacific islanders and a missionary. After allowing for dozen Europeans, but the origi- the Christians who have come nal inhabitants have long since from elsewhere, such as the vanished and left no trace as to Chinese converts, there are now whence they came and whither in Java over 60,000 Christians they went. The idols are pathet- of Islamic origin. A new sphere ic relics ot an ancient and for- of work has its center at Malang, . gotten faith and worship. -Presbyterian Banner. where ten years ago there were Boy Holds Sunday School no Christians. A h 0 s pit a 1, schools and a theological school were built. The number of Every Sunday morning at C h r i s t ian s there has now seven o'clock, 21 members of the reached 500, and there are about [369 ]
fifty adult baptisms every year. tories, three chapels for the for- in the solution of their problems. The Oxford Group Movement eign-born and underprivileged, In spite of a rainy night, the has been adapted with some suc- three convalescent and fresh-air church was filled. The pastor of cess among theological students. homes, the community center of the church, Rev. R. Walter An- God's Providence House, the derson, preached on the subject, -Baptist Missionary temporary shelter of St. Barna- "Man and Religion." Review. bas' House, and the Goodwill In- dustries, with their workshop The spirit of the service was Two Hundred Years of Service and four stores. In addition, marked by a deep reverence, in- there is work in connection with dicating that the people were Rev. M. K. Gilmour, President the Potters' Field, the immigra- reaching out for God. One of of the New South Wales Confer- tion station at Ellis Island, and the department heads, who is an ence, Methodist Church, on the courts of domestic relations; Episcopalian, attended the serv- March 7th, entertained past and besides the vast amount of field ice, and had much to do with the present members of the Papua work, and relief. On an annual planning of it. He said: "Un- District Mission staff – a group budget of $325,000, it is note- less we get back to God, industry which aggregated 200 years of worthy that last year's deficit is sunk." -The Presbyterian. service among Papuans. The was only a little over $5,000. combined years of Rev. and Mrs. To Win Railway Men Gilmour's service totals 66. Mr. Temperance Foundation Gilmour established a record for The National Christiim Railservice in a malarial district, A Temperance E d u cat ion way Men's Association has been having served over thirty years Foundation has been formed to established by a former railway in Papua. He saw large areas promote education "on all phases employee, with a view to reachreclaimed fro m heathenism, of the alcohol problem, includ- ing some of the 1,000,000 railwork consolidated and institu- ing research and collection of way men of the United States, tions created. data and the dissemination of in- in shop meetings, by tract dis- formation on the nature and ef- tribution and by personal soul NORTH AMERICA fect of, the manufacture of, the winning. Christian Railway use of, and the traffic in, bever- Men's Messenger is the title of a Moral Decadence age alcohol, together with the little paper at 50 cents a year, problems arising therefrom." 20 copies for $1. Those particu- Secretary of State Cor dell larly interested in this move- Hull, is reported in the New The plans for the Foundation ment for Christian work among York Times as saying that there include the pUblication of a new railway men should address Mr. has been more or less of a de- monthly magazine, support of Joseph T. Larson at 3033 Columcline in all the human standards the International Student, for bus Avenue, Minneapolis, Min- -political, social and economic, educational work in colleges and nesota. and occasionally religious. Be- universities, and continuation of sides extreme nationalism, he the Scientific Temperance J our- -Watchman-Examiner. listed as the more serious dan- nal, formerly published by the gers, the "failure to observe Scientific Temperance Federa- Brooklyn's Negro Churches fundamentals," and the "neglect tion, which is expected to act as by our people of the plainest the research department of the Brooklyn, N. Y., has 98 Negro duties of citizenship." Foundation. churches under various denomi- nations, to accommodate the es- It will be remembered that Dr. Ernest H. Cherrington for timated Negro population of Herbert Hoover, in reply to an many years the General Secre- 75,000. About seven in every inquiry as to the cause of the tary of the W 0 rId Lea g u e ten Negroes attending church wave of lawlessness which was Against Alcoholism, interprets are Baptists. Less than 40 per sweeping over the United States, the chief function of the Founda- cent of Brooklyn's entire popuanswered: "It is not a crime tion as influencing leaders of lation are church members, yet wave; it is a subsidence of the thought and action. it has been called "the city of moral foundations of the na- churches." tion." -Federal Council Bulletin. -The Churchman. New York City Mission Industry's Way Out Training for Prison Chaplains The annual report of the New Recently a significant service York City Mission Society shows was held in the First Presby- The Federal Bureau of Pristhe variety and extent of that terian Church of Carlisle, -Pa. ons has made a formal request organization's work. Its activi- The employees of C. H. Masland to the Federal Council SoCial ties cover some seventy centers and Sons, Inc., carpet manufac- Service Secretary, to assume reof human need in three states- turers, desired to have a service sponsibility for the nomination chaplaincies in thirty hospitals, of thanksgiving to God for His and training of chaplains for seven asylums and homes, and kind providence in giving them federal prisons, and for superseventeen prisons and reforma- employment during the depres- vision of their work. Each pris- sion, and looking to Him for help on is to have a staff of special-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ists, including a physician and a ical and one lay, were elected to of the Conference, the theme psychiatrist, appointed by the go along with the white dele- "Christ Our Life" was kept in Federal Public Health Service at gates to the provincial synod to the foreground. -Missions. Washington, a psychologist, a be held next fall at Lexington, supervisor of education, a social Ky. There is no separate Negro The Church in Cuba worker, a librarian and the Episcopal Church, a fact which For more than four years, chaplain. It is the desire of the makes for better relations be- over half the population of Cuba Bureau that religion shall be tween the races. has gone to bed with apprehen- sion of what the morning would made a greater and more com- -Christian Century. bring, but the National Church petent force in the restoration of has set itself to be unmoved by the prisoners. The chaplain will LATIN AMERICA these conditions and the leaderhave responsibility for the con- ship is entirely Cuban. Young Pastors in Mexico people have pushed a forward duct of worship, religious educa- youth movement under the name tion and personal counselling in The Mexican situation places "National Union of Christian the field of religion, and will in- more responsibility upon Mex- Endeavor in Cuba." ican pastors, and their taking terview incoming prisoners on over the missionaries' functions In the University of Havana a their religious background and shuts the mouths of those who group of Christian students attitudes. (Why not do more to insist that Mexican Protestants rented a house during the past are a disloyal advance guard of year and have offered the ineducate the youth in Christian American penetration and con- fluences of a Christian home to principles before they reach the quest. Christians of the City of prisons?) -Federal Council Bulletin.
River Mission Boat Mexico held daily prayer meet- boys from the interior. ings for three weeks in the large There has been no sweeping Rev. E. W. Mellichampe, rec- Presbyterian church, before the evangelistic movement during tor of St. John's Church, Helena, inauguration of the new Presi- the past year, and no place where Arkansas, after a trip into the dent, General Lazaro Cardenas. hundreds of people have been White River country, had a vi- The entire day of the inaugura- brought into the church. But sion of a mission boat that would tion was spent in prayer for him, there has been no let-up in any ply up and down the river and and on that day the agent of the church or mission. There has carry the story of God and His Bible Society, Senor Marroquin, been no Sunday when the Gospel goodness to the neglected people sent him a Bible with a prayer has not been preached by the of that area in the Mississippi that God would bless him as the pastor of the church. River territory. He enlisted the leader of the Mexican people. A distinctly Cuban movement . aid of the local press in explain- That there is sympathy with has been the banding together of ing his plan to the city and the evangelical Christianity is seen national ministers of all denomsurrounding country. He wanted in ex-President Calles' remark: inations. The plan is to carry help, he said, not only from the "The Revolution has turned up the effects of the union through churches and people who were the soil. It is for the Evan- the six provinces of Cuba, and enlisted in Christian work, but gelical Church to sow the seed." unite every Christian influence from all others who believed in for an evangelistic and religious his plan. A boat and pilot were Quest Groups education campaign.
soon supplied. Then Mr. Melli- The last annual Conference of -Women and Missions. champe called together repre- Evangelical Youth of Puerto sentatives of the va rio u s Young Evangelists churches of Helena and formed Rico suffered many handicaps, a working group to take charge one being an influenza epidemic Six lads in Argentina who of planning the work and ex- were led to Christ through the pending the contributions. Mag- which reduced the attendance by instrumentality of their Sunday azines, toys and other things one half: Two of the speakers school teacher, himself converted foreign to the children of the had to be replaced because of ill- in the same school, were desirous lowland country will be distrib- ness; two others had to over- of making known the Gospel to uted. Later, if interest con- come great difficulties to attend. those less privileged than themtinues to grow, it is planned to selves, and arranged to "storm" take a teacher on the boat's voy- However, the Conference touch-: one of the many inland towns ages. -The Living Church. ed 46 young lives from approxi- where no organized Gospel testi- mony exists. Before setting out mately 35 churches of four de- nominations.
A new feature was the organi- Negro Delegates Recognized zation of "Quest Groups." The they assembled for prayer; then, entire student body was divided working two by two, they called History was made at the 1935 into three groups: "Quest for from door to door, delivering convention of the Protestant God," "Quest for Prayer," and their message of truth and love. Episcopal diocese of Mississippi "Quest for Service," and led by In this way they visited every held at Meridian. For the first three professors of the Evan- house in the town. As the shadtime Negro delegates, one cler- gelical Seminary. In every phase ows were lengthening, they met
in the public square, and re- Self-supporting Churches; Scriptures. In recent years counted their several adventures. Lay-workers. there has been a noteworthy in- While they were waiting for Mrs. E. E. Lane, in the Presthe conveyance which was to byterian Survey, discusses these crease in the sales in Ireland; take them back to their city, a in relation to the present day. long train entered the town's EVlfry missionary is a colpor- the circulation in 1930 was 83,- station. The boys recognized in teur. In a remote section a this another opportunity for wit- native said to a believer, "I 654, whereas in each of the last nessing, so they ran along the think I saw your priest going line, and handed Gospels to the through." "How do you know it two years it has been just over passengers at the windows. was my pastor?" replied the be- liever. "Well," was the reply, and just under 100,000 respec- -The Christian. "He had a leather bag tied to his saddle. Only Protestants ride tively. For the year 1933-34 Library for Lepers that way." The Evangelista has four sheets, printed monthly, and more than £3,300 was sent to the Brazil has a new government last year two souls were saved Leper Colony at Pirapitinguy. by that means. During the last British and Foreign Bible So- Christmas funds from the Mis- year Sunday school enrollment sion to Lepers was used to start has gone up by more than a ciety towards translation work a loan library. for the 858 leper thousand, and every Sunday inmates. Rev. W. G. Borchers more than three thousand schol- or for colportage abroad, and the writes: "We used part for New ars study in these schools. Dur- Testaments and Bibles, and the ing 1934 the native churches of Society also supports sixteen colremainder in purchasing other the mission's territory contribvolumes. We raised enough more uted $6,000 for the support of porteurs and Biblewomen – one for a library of 240 books, the their churches, and that out of best we could secure. These 240 deep poverty and want. The in Iraq, six in India, and nine in books have already been bor- Mission's right arm is its lay rowed by the patients a total of force. There are six of these China. -The Christian. 5,000 times, indicating the ap- men who help to cover a vast preciation in which they are A Oommunist's Story held. A former college teacher, are~. a member of the Methodist A disciple of Karl Marx, Church, and another young EUROPE woman patient have had charge steeped in the tenets of the Third of the library. Scores are now Oaring for the Ohildren returning to their homes cured, Internationale, as an official of making room for others to The British Society for the come." Prevention of Curelty to Chil- the British communist party be- dren has passed its jubilee, and came a popular speaker, and "A roof over our heads" in the during fifty years more than four eventually president of the Scotnear future is the hope of the million children have been pro- tish Workers' Party. He served Pirapitinguy leper congregation. tected from ill-treatment. There a 15 months' prison sentence for "At present we preach out in the are 265 inspectors, carefully sedition, after which he became open with no shade and at times chosen and well trained. In one a teacher in the Communist Sunthe sun is very hot for all of us, year the Society interested itself day schools, where children from even in winter." in 74,000 neglected children. It five to fourteen years of age were is not the purpose of the Society taught that there was no God, Taking Stock in Brazil to prosecute offending parents and that all religions were dope. or guardians, but rather to in- Here follows the narrative in his It is now seventy-five years duce them to recognize their re- own words: "One day I attended since the beginning of Presby- sponsibilities. Nevertheless, the the funeral of a young woman, terian Missions in Brazil. It is law punishes callous parents and heard the hymn 'Safe in the interesting to note that the ob- when other influences fail. The Arms of Jesus.' At that mojectives of pioneer missionaries N.S.P.C.C. is supported by vol- ment God spoke to me. My cold, are the same as those of today. untary contributions. logical mind melted in the stream Rev. Asbel Simonton, first Pres- of His love. My conversion canbyterian missionary to Brazil, -The Christian. not be explained in terms of psylisted these objectives as fol- chology; it was a mental revolows: Ireland's Bible Distribution lution, and with it came an overwhelming impulse to tell Strategic Centers; Since its founding in 1806, the others to enter into His service. The Distribution of the Word of God; Hibernian Bible Society, inde- After a year or so of evangelistic Education; pendent auxiliary of the British work, I was appointed mission- Wide Evangelism; and Foreign Bible Society, has ary to the men employed on a .Publication; circulated 7,538,000 copies of the 16-mile tunnel enterprise; no Sunday School Work; light task, for at the peak of the operations I had 2,600 men to minister to, twelve camps over an area of twenty-six miles t6 visit, sick men to call upon and advise, accidents-many of them fatal – to hurry to, helping the doctor in the blackness of' the tunnel, sometimes over our knees in water, but the spiritual re- sponse made it worth while. I well remember a service I held, 1,800 feet above sea-level, at which seven nationalities were
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
represented-Scots, Eng lis h, seeking to conserve the interests 30, 1934. According to this Irish, Welsh, a Frenchman, a German, and a Greek, all bound of Evangelical Christianity in analysis 212 heads "rolled in the together in a common bond of love through Jesus Christ." the country, on a voluntary sand"-the Nazi phrase for be- -The Life of Faith. basis. The only Sunday school headings. More than 13,000 Difficulties in Czechoslovakia in the country is in connection refugees were deprived of their H. Prochazka, head of the with the Mission. Both Greek nationality, and 12,863 persons Baptist Theological Seminary at Prague issues the following Orthodox and Mohammedan were sterilized. Germans served statement: youth attend this school; the at- enough time in prison to aver- The general religious situation in this country is difficult. Our twenty- tendance has now reached 600. age one day for each adult in the seven churches, with 2,800 members have been affected by the economic There are twenty-five classes, country, and prison sentences crisis. They are not supported by the State as so many others are, and they each meeting in a separate room. averaged one for every 203d must fight to live. To show how things are, let me say that the average Owing to the increasing number German. The statistics comprise church is of sixty to one hundred members, made up of working people in the of young people seeking admis- only legal penalties inflicted by town churches and of small farmers in the country. The latter have heavy sion, it is necessary to hold the courts and do not take account of debts on their property – fifty to eighty per cent. They do their best school in two sessions. Since the extra-legal acts of violence, such but they cannot contribute very much. We are happy, however, that there are World's Sunday School Associa- as the killings in the "blood 700 or more young people in our young people's societies. They are effective tion began to cooperate with the purge" and the case of 184 perworkers in the churches and are ready to help. Sunday school work is pro- Mission in 1932, particularly in sons "shot while attempting to gressing. Last year there were over 1,300 children in our Sunday schools. the production of literature for escape." They exclude also the -Watchman-Examiner. scholars and textbooks for teach- .many so-called suicides in con- Mission to Rumania ers, the work has grown in vol- centration camps, and the 49,000 A definite step in the direction ume and influence, and the num- sent to such camps are not inof church unity is seen in the fact that a delegation represent- ber of young people under syste- cluded in the prison figures. ing the Anglican communion is to be sent to Rumania in re- matic teaching increased by fifty As to Soviet Russia, Henri sponse to the invitation of the per cent. -The Christian. Bero, French socialist, reports Patriarch of that country to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The the number executed, so far as invitation grew out of the Lambeth Conference of 1930. Plight of Germany's Christian known, since the Soviet regime came into power: 28 bishops and The Rumanian Church is Non-Aryans probably the largest and strong- higher clergy; 6,778 priests, est of the established state In the German Church conchurches in the Eastern Ortho- troversy and the Nazi persecu- 6,585 school-teachers, 8,800 docdox com m u n ion, having a tion of Jews, the plight of one tors, 51,850 army officers, 200,- strength of some thirteen million large group has been almost 850 policemen and other officials, members. Its theological sem- and 11,488,520 peasants and inary in Bucharest has about 900 overlooked. These are the Chris- artisans. These make the stagstudents and by a church law of tians of Jewish ancestry, whose gering total of 11,726,746 people 1925 every man ordained is re- number is variously estimated at put to death since the Soviet quired to have a university de- regime came into power! Nearly gree. -The Living Church. from one to three millions. To two million more dead than the the world at large this great total killed in the World War. In Albania group are members of the Chris- No mission board has been at tian Church; to the Nazis they work in Albania since the War. The Albania Evangelical Mis- are non-Aryans subject to the Less Anti-Easter Activity sion (Rev. Phineas B. Kennedy), merciless restrictions imposed located at Kortcha, has been upon the Jews. Communist antireligious ac- The plight of this group is tivity in Russia last E as t e r even worse than that of the Jews. showed less vigor than in pre- They have nowhere to turn. The ceding years. Some anti-Easter Nazis have virtually expelled handbills were distributed and a them from the Church. They do few street signs advised the peo- not belong to the synagogue and, ple to keep away from church, unlike the Jews, cannot find in but radio broadcasts ignored the the synagogue or in the Jewish subject. The thirty-five churches communal organizations a haven which are all that remain of the thousand that once dotted Mos- of refuge. -Presbyterian Tribune. cow were filled to overflowing for the Russian Easter, and there Nazi and Soviet Toll of Life were great crowds-some num- bering as high as 2,000-stand- The New York Times recently ing patiently in the churchyards published the results of an anal- in an intermittent drizzle. A ysis made by the Vienna Tele- conservative estimate would be graf of official German figures that 75,000 residents of Moscow showing the toll of life and lib- participated in the Easter cele- erty during one year of Nazi bration. Three-fourths of the rule from June 30, 1933, to June worshipers were women.
So strong is the Easter spirit Survey of the many diverging Sefula, and the foreign missionin Russia that even some good influences and counter attrac- ary work of a native church, communists observed the tradi- tions which follow the inroads of under the teaching and cooperational customs of feasting and civilization in Africa, and their tion of white missionaries, bevisiting, only the Easter cakes effect upon the African's re- gan. This event Europeans and were not blessed by a priest. sponse to the Gospel. He says: natives will commemorate, each -New York Times. There has never been so much zeal in their own way. The Euro- pean memorial will take the form AFRICA manifested on the part of native lead- of a marble tablet at Sefula to ers and teachers for reaching the lost. Land of the Blind Never before have the laymen shown Coillard who labored 43 years in South Africa. The natives wish An Arab paper, EI-Ahram, such a desire to do personal work and to erect an obelisk with their last year stated that Egypt to witness for Christ. Many have might aptly be called "the land been so Spirit-filled that they have own labor on the spot where his of the blind." Figures justify wagon halted. -Life of Faith. gone from house to house and from village to village in groups, holding meetings, talking to individuals and this statement. There is more seeking the unsaved. Hundreds of backsliders have returned to the Lord Glad to Be a Leper blindness in Egypt in proportion and rededicated their lives to him. Among forty-nine dismissed to the size of the population than Last year was the banner year in in any other country in the soul-winning. There were 4,398 bap- as free from leprosy from the world. The above – mentioned tisms reported. A convert is not bap- Elat station last year was Rev. paper gives the following start- Ndenga Pipa, the second oldest ling figures regarding the num- tized immediately upon conversion. native minister in that district. ber of blind persons per thou- Before he is received into the church For many years he served as a sand of the population in several by baptism and admitted to the com- preacher of the Gospel. When important countries: the discovery that he was a leper munion table, the convert must prove sentenced him to live in the leper Egypt…………………. 12.0 himself worthy of the fellowship. colony, he said, "I give God Russia, India, and Japan. . . . . 1.4 Here are some of the requirements: thanks that He has sent this Italy, Spain, Bulgaria …….. 1.1 (1) To be able to explain the plan thing to show me more fields to England, Switzerland, Rumania .7 labor in for Him." After a France, Germany, America … .6 of salvation; (2) faithful attendance Austria, Holland, Belgium …. , .4 upon the catechumen classes and church services; (3) bring at least one soul to Christ; (4) regular con- tributor to the church; (5) memorize the Catechism and pass examination The number of totally blind in same (this is not required of the matchless record of helpfulness persons in Egypt is given as old people); (6) be able to read, if to his fellow leper patients he 148,000, while the number of has now returned to his former those partially blind reaches a only slightly, from the Bible. The ministry in the towns along the much higher figure. For the ma- real test, of course, is the acceptance Cameroun coast. jority there is no recourse ex- of Jesus as Saviour, and the testimony of the believer's life in the village -Without the Camp.
where he lives.
cept charity of relatives or of the A Notable Jubilee In Nyasaland public. Until recently there was In August at the town of Nyasaland, for the small size less public activity on behalf of Sefula, Barotseland, Northern of its population, is well supplied Rhodesia, it is proposed to cele- with an assortment of missions, the blind than in almost any brate the Jubilee of an event the largest being the Protestant other country in the world. For unique in missionary incidents missions of the Church of Scot- of the nineteenth century – the land and of the Dutch Reformed the 74,000 blind in Japan there establishment of a foreign mis- Church of South Africa, and the are 20 schools; for the 72,000 in sion by an indigenous Church, Roman Catholic. The Emmanuel itself little more than half a cen- Medical Mission touches that of America, 100; for the 25,000 in tury delivered from heathenism the Church of Scotland in the England, 45; for the 150,000 in and cannibalism. Rev. Francis south and the north, and in 1926 Egypt, one! Mention should be Coillard, of the Paris Evangel- these two missions effected a ical Missionary Society, had im- union of their native churches made of a few isolated efforts to pressed upon the infant Church and formed the Church of Cenhelp individuals or groups of of Basutoland, where a Mission tral Africa, Presbyterian, which was founded in 1833, that no now has about fifty native pasblind persons which are under- Church could claim to be a liv- tors. The prevailing religion of ing one if it did not carry out the country is pagan, steeped in taken by members of differ- our Lord's last command to– go superstition and fear of evil ent missionary organizations in into all the world and preach the spirits, but there are many Egypt. The government has Gospel. A native suggested that splendid Christians. God must intend them to go to now opened a home for blind beggars, and is also working at Barotseland, as they spoke the Educational and evangelistic same language, although a thou- work take preeminence over the a scheme for the unification of the work among the blind, and its extension so as to benefit all blind persons in Egypt, whatever their age or class.
-E. M. M. S. Quarterly.
Response to the Gospel R. F. Cleveland, of Congo sand miles away. In August, medical, although there are three BeIge, writes in the Presbyterian 1885, Coillard's wagon halted at doctors for the twelve stations.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Hospitals are small and primi- churches were grouped into there good fellowship, excellent tive. The Church of Scotland· three District Councils made up teachers and special features, has the largest mission hospital of the pastors of the churches of such as courses in social hygiene, in Nyasaland. the respective districts, and a that are not available elsewhere. number of elders in proportion Even state officials have decided -Edinburgh M. M. Quarterly. to the m e m b e r s hip of each to keep their sons in Irwin church. The three District School. WESTERN ASIA Councils in turn elect five dele- gates each to a Synod that is to "To my great surprise," Turks Adopt Sunday meet biennially. writes Mr. Gorde, "two or three educated guardians said to me, The National Assembly, on A Christian convert· from 'The only hope of our country is May 28th, discarded a centuries' Islam, who at one time was an Christianity. We shall remain old tradition by adopting a bill important government official, Hindus, but we think the day which makes Sunday instead of was elected moderator and an- will come when all India will be Friday the weekly sacred day of other convert from Islam was Christian, because there is no rest in Turkey. elected secretary for the meet- real hope in Hinduism.' ing and for the two ensuing President Mustafa Kemal Ata- years. A proposal was sent "One state officer said to me, turk has struck many hard blows down to the churches for ratifi- 'I want only Christian teachers in recent years at Mohammedan cation providing for two ranks and a Christian school for my practices, depriving the priest- of clergy, one of lesser qualifica- son because of the healthy atmoshood of rights they had exercised tions whose offices will pertain phere and outlook on life.' Anfor centuries. His actions have only to local churches, the other other ret ire d officer says, resulted in several plots for his of higher qualifications whose 'Whether we are actually bapoverthrow. offices will be accepted through- tized or not, we have received out the church. A committee Christ, and the biggest thing in Friday is said to have been was elected to handle ad-interim life is Christ. I want my sons chosen by Mohammed as the day business with a special view to to be real followers of Christ.' " for obligatory religious gather- the assistance of the weaker ings in memory of the creation churches. The school's enrolment is 290; of man. -Associated Press. Christians, 80; non-Christians -Near East Bulletin. of all castes over 200. New Movement in Palestine New Ideas for Pathans -Western India Notes. A Hebrew Christian in Palestine, Moses Immanuel Ben- The plan devised by Amanulla Telugu Caste Movement Maeir, writes of a movement of Afghanistan to found a uniamong Palestinian Jew s to versity in his country is to be The author of "Christian Mass thwart Christian missionary realized by the establishment of Movements in India," Rev. J. work. It is called Merkaz, and a new institution in the new city Waskom Pickett, is in charge of has been in operation for the last of Darelmann, five kilometers a High Caste Movement Survey two years, but recently has be- from the capital, Kabul. Lec- which is taking place in South come very aggressive. Its mem- tures are already being given by India. He now estimates the bers proclaim that sending chil- French and German professors, baptized caste people up to date dren to Christian schools, at- and groups of Afghan students in this Caste Movement as about tending missionary clubs, clinics are being sent to Europe for edu- 30,000, and that this number is and evening schools are treason cation. On the other side of this being augmented at the rate of against the Jewish national frontier Peshawar is also to have at least 4,000 a year. He reports hom e. S u c h proclamations its university which will mean a about 3,500 unbaptized but enfrighten many away from mis- new standard of education for rolled catechumens; and thinks sions and Christian institutions. the Pathan peoples. The Islamia that the number of converts in So far, medical and educational College already existing is being 1934 may have been as high as missions still have a large at- raised to university standard. 5,000. It is largely through the tendance. Heretofore, the Mer- witness of transformed lives of kaz has dealt leniently with such -Near East Bulletin. outcastes who have become Jews, but now it threatens to Christians that this ingathering use hard measures aainst them. INDIA-BURMA has come.
-Moody Institute Monthly. Christian School Preferred Toward Church Union Union in North Persia Mr. Gorde, of Irwin Christian Substantial progress is being High School, Kolhapur, writes made toward union in North In- The Evangelical Churches of that although two new high dia. The j oint council of repre- North Iran completed a union schools have been opened, one sentatives of the Methodist Episorganization I a s tAu gus t. for Marathi boys only, both par- copal Church, the B apt i s t Twenty-four churches were rep- ents and boys prefer the Chris- Churches and the United Church resented with a total member- tian school because they find of Northern India had its first ship of about 2,500. These meeting over three years ago,
and several committees have of Rangoon. In the dry season all, the radiant faces of those been at work on important points they sleep on the walks or under who two years ago had never involved. Their deliberations the night bazaar stalls. One is heard of Christ. reached the stage where a Coun- left to wonder where they sleep -Baptist Missionary Review. cil was called in Allahabad in on rainy nights. They rummage February to go over the ground. through the garbage cans on the Indian Tribute to Missions The three most important re- streets for their main susteports presented were on the nance and steal when they can. Once again the people of India statement of doctrine, the min- The Y. M. C. A. is taking the have paid tribute to Christian istry and polity. The council de- lead in a project whereby a missions. Sir Mirza Ismail, bated long over a formula on group of societies have banded prime minister of Mysore, at the baptism which would make op- together to provide a home for centenary celebrations of the tional the choice of mode and the them, and are trying to provide Wesleyan Mission High School, baptism of infants, in order to decent living conditions. The Bangalore, said: "They (the meet the convictions of the Bap- children are being taught useful Christian missions) have been a tists. As to the ministry, only occupations. The Street Boys' potent factor in promoting the one order – that of "elder" or Refuge Society is also trying to cause of education and the "presbyter" was contemplated. help these waifs. -Missions. spread of enlightenment and cul- The report on polity set forth in ture in the state, as indeed in detail the representative bodies Volunteer Ohristian Service India as a whole. Missionary or courts proposed for the colleges and schools have been Church. It was found that the Dnyanodaya, Indian Christian valued and honored partners United Church and the Meth- weekly, extends an invitation to with governments in this imporodist Episcopal Church have Indian Christians to write a tant field of national developsimilar bodies, but this subject paper on "Volunteer Christian ment. One has only to turn to requires further study and ad- Service" or lay leadership. The institutions like the Christian justment. It is hoped that more main purpose of the paper College in Madras, the Wilson definite steps may be taken at should be to frame a practical College in Bombay, the Forman the next meeting in December. program of Christian service College in Lahore, and the Scot- that may be rendered by men tish Churches College in Cal- -Dnyanodaya. and women who do not receive cutta; and to recall the names salaries or sub sid i e s from of Duff, Wilson and Miller, to Baptism in Lushai Hills church or mission; and to give realize the magnitude of the con- stimulus and inspiration for tribution which Christian mis- The Christian Church is mak- such service. The paper may in- sions are making to modern ing notable advance in the South clude Biblical material and ex- India." Lushai Hills. There were 698 amples from India or other counbaptisms during the year, of tries, but this should bear upon Sir Has san Suhrawardy, which 129 were from Christian the practical problem of main- former vice-chancellor of Calfamilies and the rest from non- taining and expanding the work cutta University, thus appealed Christian homes. The member- in towns and villages with dimin- to women medical students: ship is now 6,019, out of a pop- ished financial resources. The ulation of 26,217, and there are service in view may be evan- I sincerely hope that the great exnearly 10,000 Sunday school gelism, conducting services, Sun- ample of women doctors sent out by scholars. The Boys' Day School day schools, Christian Endeavor, Christian missionary institutions of has had an enrollment of 157. etc., as well as all kinds of social Europe and America, working in un- Four pastors and seven evan- service and rural reconstruction. known parts of the country, facing gelists are supported by the hazards and hardships, will inspire funds of the Baptist "presby- New Ohurch Organized our Indian women-who I know are tery" without any deficit, and not behind so far as compassion and many of the members have given February 17 was a Red Letter self-sacrifice go-to take to the medlabor for the building and repair Day for the Vizagapatam Bap- ical profession and enrich the country of their chapels. The sale of tist field. On that day a new by a selfless example of service in Scriptures and other literature this direction.
-Christian Century.
in Lushai has increased con- church was organized at Sun- Forward in Lower Burma siderably, and choir festivals kurimetta eight miles beyond have become a notable feature of Anantagiri, and 3,808 feet above For several years past the Lushai life. The Spurgeon can- sea level. It is the third church Pwos have been praying that ten tata drew great crowds, and the to be organized in this field in thousand new members should Carey Centenary was celebrated the last four years. be added to their churches in ten with a special demonstration. It was a memorable scene- years. Two years ago the Bas- -Baptist Missionary Herald. the matchless mountain scenery, sein Association reported 800 the triumphant hymns, examina- baptisms; the past year they The Streets Their Home tion of 18 candidates for bap- have had 1,000, while in one sec- It is estimated that more than tism, the organization of the tion 500 more are waiting for 2,000 children live on the streets church with 67 members; above baptism. A sprinkling of Bur-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
mans are coming into the numbers, and very few are en- corps. These bands have agreed churches with the Pwos. tering, because of the large en- to go out preaching the Gospel trance fee of over $40. This has at least once a week. The movement has been aided resulted in a record breaking especially by the activity of lay- number of removals in some of -So S. Times. men who have gone out to win our churches. their neighbors. In one place, a Robber Becomes Evangelist Pwo trained as a doctor in CHINA America returned to labor for When Dr. Sherwood Eddy his village, and it is now called Some Basic Facts visited Amoy sixteen years ago, "Health Hill." Another studied there was a man there with a agriculture in America, returned Rev. H. E. Etter, a former price on his head; he had been to his village and it is now called Baptist missionary in Peiping, leader of a robber band for ten "Pleasant Hill." gives six basic facts regarding years. During the first meeting China. 1. One person in every he cut a hole in the mat shed Cooperative Credit Societies four in the world is a Chinese. roof, and through it watched and are helping the new converts to Their population is increasing at heard Dr. Eddy attack officials keep their heads above water the rate of 10,000,000 every and others who were robbing the economically. An agricultural three years. people. This man said to himgraduate took ten acres and self, "I am a robber. I am robfarmed it himself as a demon- 2. Six-sevenths of the people bing China. I must stop!" He stration; he produced over 600 live on one-third of the land be- could not sign his name on the baskets of excellent paddy – a cause much of the area is unsuit- card as a convert, but secured a higher yield than any of his ed to agriculture; therefore the worker to sign for him. After neighbors had. After selling his density of population is as great Dr. Eddy left he joined the crop, and paying all expenses he as 800 per square mile in some church and served as a volunhad a net profit of Rs. 150. He sections. teer preacher. Among other then put the ground in beans, things, he resolved to win as chick peas and sugarcane, with 3. The nation is about ninety many into the Christian life as a vegetable garden in addition. per cent rural; 300,000,000 live he had killed, and began work Other sections have asked for a in villages. for robbers and pirates right in similar demonstration, offering the home district. More than to provide the land. 4. Fifty per cent of the peo- 100 joined the church as a re- ple have not enough to eat and sult. There were two villages -Brayton C. Case. wear. whose residents had for genera- tions followed robbery as a pro- Siam's National Church 5. The people are illiterate (at fession; he reached thirty of least 85 per cent), industrious, their leaders and the villagers Rev. Kru Pluang, first mod- patient, thrifty and superstitious have given up robbery for farmerator of the National Christian in general. ing. This Christian worker can- Church of Siam, is genial, wise not write yet, but he keeps a and discerning, and withal a cap- 6. Two-thirds of the Protes- record by getting someone to able leader. He has been travel- tant churches of China have write down their names. He ing over the country in an effort been established in villages and then draws a rough picture of a to see how best to use greatly small towns. The Christians tree with branches, on which he reduced funds and forces. The number about 1 in 1,000 of the indicates the fruit he finds dework at Chiengmai is very en- population. veloping in their lives. couraging. Many new families were coming into the church Watchman-Examiner. Traveling to Amoy to hear from at least sixteen different Dr. Eddy at his recent meetings villages. Bible Vacation Schools A Chinese "Billy Sunday" he met two strangers on the were held with the usual inter- launch and induced both to beest and success in several coun- Dr. John Sung, an American come Christians. try centers. educated Chinese scientist, now connected with the Bethel Gos- -Chinese Recorder. The Prae City Church is now pel Bands, has been holding listed with the churches entirely evangelistic meetings in Nan- New War on Narcotics self-supporting. T h r e e other king, China. Great crowds have churches in the Prae field pro- been in constant attendance. The The Chinese Government has vide the most fruitful centers of Friends' Mission Church has a declared a six-year war against the evangelistic work of the sta- seating capacity of 500, yet one opium and drugs, and is attacktion. They raise 40 per cent of night by actual count there were ing the evil with military measthe pastor's salary. The two 1,070 within the church. ures. Both the traffic in nargroups at Hoi Rai received 28 cotics and their use are now on confession of faith last year, Fifty evangelistic bands have crimes, and the death penalty and. eleven by letter. already been organized, aver- may be applied. Since the for- aging four or five members to mer policy of prohibition did The Chinese in Siam are re- each band. Ten of these are not give satisfactory results, the turning to China in rather large from the Friends' Church and School. Some come from the University of Nanking and the university hosp~tal n u r sin g
menace is to be tackled by cap- Unity Discussed Margaret Williamson Hospital turing territory progressively; Last January, six denomina- Anniversary in Chekiang, Kiangsu, Fukien, tions (out of the 13 invited) Anhwei, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, sent representatives to a confer- On May 11th, the Margaret Honan, Hopei, Shantung and ence on church unity which met Williamson Hospital, pioneer Shansi an order has been issued in Shanghai. These denomina- American medical missionary infor immediate prohibition of tions were the Church of Christ stitution, completed 50 years of poppy .cultivation. This will not in China, Methodist Episcopal service to the Chinese commube applied to all provinces at Church, Methodist Episcopal, nity in Shanghai, and the annionce because in some areas the South, Methodist Church (Eng- versary was appropriately comshift cannot be peremptorily lish) , (Northern) Baptist Con- memorated. S tar tin g from made from poppy to grain culti- vention and the North China humble beginnings, the hospital vation. The government is pro- Kung Li Hui. The desire of the has grown during the 50 years viding facilities for curing ad- conference to promote fellowship to include a general hospital, madicts. This treatment is com- as a preliminary to developing ternity hospital, the Women's pulsory, but the cost is made some sort of proposal for the Christian Medical College and a light and may be reduced to promotion of Church Unity grew training school for nurses. It nothing if necessary. These cor- in clarity and intensity as the has accommodations for 200 parective institutions have already meeting progressed. One mem- tients, but plans are under way been opened in Shanghai, Peip- ber of each communion present for expansion. Several clinics ing, Nanking, Tientsin and other made a statement of his own are maintained. cities. In Kiangsu alone there understanding of its general atare some twenty. In Shanghai titude towards the question of Th€ hospital is supported by 732 addicts were treated in about church unity, considered from the Southern Methodists, Northtwo months; in Peiping 283 the viewpoint of possible organic ern Baptists and the Women's were discharged cured in sixteen unity. Reporting for the Amer- Union Missionary Society in the days. -Chinese Recorder. ican Methodists, Dr. C. Lacy United States, together with con- said that a commission favors tributions raised among Chinese Answered Prayer the following order of steps and for e i g n supporters in thereto: Union of Methodists, Shanghai. TibWetraitninsgtatifornomopenKedwesiixtehy~arsa North and South; union of all ago, Mr. G. A. Bell gives a strik- Methodist bodies in China; and -China Weekly Review. ing instance of answered prayer: union with other Christian bod- ies offering opportunity. The Hainan's "New Deal" J~ly 18-Prayed definitely for im- Southern Methodists were remedIate answer regarding a Tibetan ported to have little interest in H. F. Burkwall, Presbyterian teacher. medical missionary in Hainan, organic union but much in prac- writes of the attempt to inaugu- July 19-"Renowned" turns up on tical cooperation. Practically rate a "New Deal" for missions initial visit, and after some conver- the same stand was taken by in China, in the form of a projsation agrees to come tomorrow. the Baptists. The discussions ect plan which is an attempt to give the Chinese the degree of July 20-He comes as promised and autonomy for which they have we all read with him. "Renowned" is been asking for so long at every the name of the priest who suddenly missions conference or other re- ligious assembly attended by dropped in from app agraernmtleyntnso. wheHrie~ dressed in ragged voice is gentle and his demeanor quiet brought out some of the lines Chinese delegates. The plan if not shy. There is a fineness about him rarely seen in priests. With all along which some churches are, has already been tried in a small this, were we not taking a risk in hir- consc~ously 0 r unconsciously, degree, but at first has threat- ing a teacher so quickly? But tchaemn~ drawmg nearer to each other in ened to work a hardship among the prayer for definite answer practice. native workers. The pas tor seemed to take it as a challenge to mind, and there the matter rests. Finally, the conference unan- to the church members of Hai- imously expressed its convic- nan to put the church on a self- The more we have to do with him, the tion as follows: supporting basis. He said that if each one gave only $1.00 silver more we desire his conversion. He is We find ourselves united in our to the support of the church, the loyalty to Jesus Christ, and in our a fair scholar and feels the shame of earnest desire to become so united to the contempt that is put on his monas- tery by others, on account of its low standing. His aim seems to be to earn a. few doll~rs whereby he can improve hIS educatIOn, and thus help bring the Christ that the result may be an or- synod would have almost enough monastery into higher respect. This i~, at least, a considerably higher mo- ganic union of all Christian bodies, we to run the schools in the country districts, pay the evangelists, tIve than most of the priests have. believe that the time has come when some definite action is not only de- and keep up the many chapels We pray that as he is brought into sirable but necessary. scattered throughout the island.
touch with us that he will gain a yet That statement became the preamble to a set of resolutions higher motive. Only today I had a through which the delegates Some one has estimated that the pledged themselves to work. average Chinese earned less than long talk with him on Christianity. $60 per year, so that the giving He admitted that after all his works of $1.00 a year represents a real of merit he had not attained peace and that he needed a Saviour. '
-China's Millions. -Chinese Recorder. sacrifice. -Board Letter.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
JAPAN-CHOSEN ital, Hsinking, is soon to be elder, my Bible woman and I, erected. The quadrennial Gen- and a few other Christians gath- Letter of Good Will eral Conference will meet in ered at the home. Most of the Tokyo next October. things had already been heaped An open letter of friendship together in the courtyard. First to the Japanese, signed by 301 -The Christian Century. we sang a song-a prayer for American religious leaders, was the Holy Spirit's presence; then made public in Japan on May 3d. Suitably Named the pastor read a selection show- The message was sent because of ing Christ's power over demons. "the failure of the widespread A Korean village has adopted This was followed by prayer that protests from churches and a new name-"The Lord-Believ- as the evil spirits were driven peace organizations to secure the ing Place." Practically every out, the Holy Spirit would come cancellation of the naval maneu- resident of the village is a Chris- in and make His abode in the vers which begin in the North tian, so, say they, why not call home. Then everything that had Pacific today." the town what it obviously is? been collected was set on fire. The things they burned included The message asserts that "we -Presbyterian Tribune. ribbons of strong paper knotted are strongly opposed" to the fleet together, pieces of dress matemaneuvers "because they can Mass Marriages rials, or garments, rice in brokhardly escape misinterpretation en jars so old that it had turned by sensation mongers and indi- Here is an example of perfect to powder, and handfuls of dried viduals in each nation who are cooperation. The parents of twigs. in a position to profit from the ten young Korean couples who creation of fear and suspicion." wished to get married agreed to "While the burning was going The message informs the Jap- contribute 15 yen each for a wed- on, the church bell rang for eveanese people that "many thou- ding at one time in one place, ning service. What a contrast sands of our citizens, especially and from the amount thus saved was its joyous note to the scene those who constitute the mem- a liberal contribution was made in front of our eyes!" bership of our churches and toward a new church building. synagogues, have pro t est e d This was in Kochang; of the 20 Poor Boys' Club against the holding of these ma- young people seven brides and neuvers." It invites the Jap- four grooms belong to the church Wonsan Y. M. C. A. has a new anese people to "unite with us in there. There was no competi- activity – a club for poor boys redoubling our efforts to main- tion in presents given, and no only. There are about 50 memtain our historic friendship, and rivalry as to which would be the bers from ten to sixteen years of in opposing every effort that is best dressed. age. Most of them spend the likely to lead to mistrust between day going about with a basket or our peoples." All the brides and grooms pail picking over garbage recep- then arose and the minister gave tacles, coal heaps and other Among the signers are four- them a solemn exhortation. The dumps. An exceptionally good teen bishops, many college presi- name of each groom and the day's pickings would net about dents, ministers and rabbis of name of his bride were read and five sen. All are extremely poor, leading congregations, editors of the question put to the grooms. and many live in dugouts and the religious press and other In unison, they said, "I do." The tiny shacks on the outskirts of leaders. questions were likewise put to the city. Parents for the most the the brides and their answers part are appreciative and the Methodists Pass 40,000 Mark given. All was done in a quiet, youngsters themselves are en- dignified, serious spirit. Prayer thusiastic. The really incor- The east and west Conference was offered and the officiating rigible boy soon drops out and of the Japan Methodist Church Korean pastor pronounced so disappears and the others take held annual meetings during and so man and wife, in the every chance they get for mak- March, one in Kyoto and the order of the positions in which ing something out of life. They other in Tokyo. More than 500 they were standing. Asked if were rounded up for a bath one pastors are now on the rolls of they wished to make any pres- evening. A good-hearted baththe two Conferences, and the ents to their brides, several of house keeper near by sent his church's membership has passed the grooms came to the pulpit regular guests away early, and the 40,000 mark. Sunday school and laid down an offering to gave a special price of a sen and attendance has declined some- God. -George S. McCune. a half each for our boys. Of the what in the past two years, and forty-two boys who took the there are other signs o.f spiritual Fetish Bonfire plunge only five had ever had a lassitude in the church. But real bath before. However, great missionary passion is be- Pyengyang News says that Wonsan is on the seashore, and ing shown in the program that while the Women's Bible classes in summer these youngsters calls for the evangelization of were being held, two families splash in the ocean. Manchuria. The first unit of a decided to burn their fetishes. fine Methodist church in the cap- The writer says: "The sun was -D. A. Macdonald. setting when the pastor, an
Fifty New Churches This is not only the first time a ber of sects among them is not World's Sunday School Conven- generally known. Three out- Pyengyang Presbytery's sl?- tion has been held in a Scandi- standing divisions are the Orthogan is for fifty new churches thIS navian country, but also the dox, the Conservative and the year. Each district is taking its farthest north. Deeply conscious Reformed. These three recently assignment seriously. Ten is of the honor, Sunday school appointed a committee to push a the quota for Pyengyang city. workers of Norway are planning revival, and a meeting was held Four of those have been started a cordial welcome to delegates. in New York in April to devise since summer, and four more Norway's King, Haakon VII, has plans for this objective. A resoare in the making. One district promised to act as the Conven- lution was passed with the view whose assignment was four has tion's "guardian." of seeking "to interest the unalready gone over the top with affiliated Jew in synagogue life, five, and with plans for more. What Are Missrionaries? and to assist congregations in Pyengyang also plans a fund their endeavor to enlarge their of 20,000 yen to keep a group We missionaries are sent to membership." of evangelizers continuously in preach some of its less covered districts. -Alliance Weekly. Through all Korea, in nearly Not experience, but redempevery district, they have b~en tion; Christian Congresses setting goals and are workmg definitely toward them. Not economics, but Gospel; No less than thirty-six inter- Not culture, but conversion; national Christian Congresses -Presbyterian Banner. Not reforms, but liberation; will be held throughout the world Not progress, but forgiveness; from the period of May 4th to Lepers' Church ,Destroyed Not social reform, but awak- October 11th of this year. ening; On the night of March 16th, Not a new organization, but a The Executive Committee of ruffians set fire to the church in new creation; the World's Alliance of Y. M. Soonchun Leper Colony, Korea. Not civilization, but Chris- C. A.'s will meet at Geneva from Try as they did, the lepers could tianity. July 12th-20th to discuss prepnot check the fire until floors, We are ambassadors, not dip- aration of the World Conference roof, doors, windows, the new lomats. to be held in India at the end of organ and all the other furni~h 1936 or the beginning of 1937. ings had been burned. Mornmg -By Erich Schick, in N eusaw them standing about heart- ruppiner Missionbote. The Continuation Committee broken and in tears. To repair of the Faith and Order Movethe damage will cost $1,250. Fighting Paganism ment will meet at Hindsgaul, This sum the lepers have pledged Denmark, from Aug. 4th-7th, themselves to raise by going The British and Foreign Bible while the Ninth World Convenwithout dinner every Sunday for Society last year added 14 new tion of the International Society two years. translations of the Bible; nine of Christian Endeavor will meet of these were African, three be- at Budapest, Hungary, from The Soonchun C h u r c h has longed to Oceania, and two to Aug. 2d-7th. about 600 members. The follow- Asia. In 1910, the number of ing is a report of the year's languages on the Society's list From Aug. 6th-11th, the 2d work: was 424; it now stands at 692. quinquennial World Conference In circulation and income the of the Churches of Christ (Dis- Baptized this year, 72; Sunday year was encouraging. The ciples) will be held at Leicester, school pupils, 656; teachers (lepers), world figure was 10,970,000 England. 72' Bible school pupils, 105; teachers, copies. In Germany there was 4' ' learned to read, 118; memorized an increase of 19,000 over the A number of international shorter catechism, 40 (4 of them previous year-a significant ad- conferences will be he I d in blind); memorized child's catechism, vance in view of the offensive Switzerland, including the meet- 38' memorized Sermon on the Mount, against Christianity. In Spain ing of the Executive Committee 19' (7 blind); memorized the entire there was an increase of over of the Universal Christian Coun- Gospels according to Matthew and 14,000 copies. In China, 4,296,- cil for Life and Work, to con- Luke, 1 (blind). 000 copies were placed out, as sider pre par at ion s for the compared with 3,902,000 a year World Conference in 1937, which -Without the Camp. earlier. The total income was meets at Chamby-sur-Montreaux £366,000, and e x pen d i t u r e from Aug. 18th-22d, and the Tri- MISCELLANEOUS £364,000. -The Christian. ennial plenary meeting of the World A I I ian c e for Interna- Sunday School Convention in Jewish Revival Planned tional Friendship through the Norway Churches, which meets in the To an outsider, Jewish people same city from Aug. 12-18. The next World's Sunday seem to be a unit, and the num- School Convention will be held in -N. C. J. C. News Service. Oslo, Norway, July 6-12, 1936.
Missionary
Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information ~===–~===–~~~~~~~==—=I.d Modern Trends in World-Religions. The acids of modernity have longer religious in.the old s~nse, and Edited by A. Eustace Haydon. 8 vo. indeed disintegrated the ol~ re- that they are religIOUS only In so far 255 pp. $2.50. T~e University of ligions. Only one of the wrIters as they are educational, in so far as Chicago Press. ChIcago, 1935. points out that one of the factors they are teaching men to be more moral and social? And why not During the summer of 1933!1 in this disintegration has been frankly transfer all ~u.r old loyalty. to group of scholars met at the Um- Christian missions _ secondary the new instrumentalItIes of educatIOn which are taking the place of the older versity of Chicago under the he considers it. As a matter of religions as sources of instruction, inauspices of the Haskell Founda- spiration, and consolation? tion and sought to interpret the fact nearly all of the moyements adjustments of six great reli- and important changes. m pr~s S. M. ZWEMER. ent-day Judaism, Buddh.Ism, Hmgions to modern life. They ~ade duism, and Islam are dIrec!ly. or The Rediscovery of John Wesley. reports on Hinduism, ConfucIan- indirectly due to the ChrIstIan By George Croft Cell. 420 pp. ism Buddhism, JUdaism, Islam, enterprise. No one can read t~e $2.50. Henry Holt & Co. New York.
and' Christianity and the s e evidence collected by Dr. Denms The thesis of this book is that papers are here ~resented under in his three volumes on "Chris- John Wesley and his message four general tOPICS: Wo~ld !e- tian Missions and Social Prof!- were related directly and ha!- ligions and modern SCIentIfic ress" without realizing that m moniously to Luther and Calvm A..!- thinking ; World Religi.ons and economics, social life, education, and that it is an error to class Modern Social EconomIC Prob- and religious thought, the power Wesley as an anti-Calvinist lems; World Religions and Inter- that transforms was introduced minian. Professor Cell tells m cultural Contacts; The Task of by pioneer missionaries. Dr. the preface of the radical revis- Modern Religion. Under these Carl Clemen, of the University ion of our judgment of Wesley topics the re~igion~ are grouped, of Bonn, wrote recently on the which his studies for twenty-five in each case m a dIfferent order. influence of Christianity on the years have forced upon him. Islam is discussed by Professor non-Christian religions (D e r "The long prevalent and still Martin Sprengling and C~n- Ein/luss des Christentums o:uf current anti-Calvinist interprefucianism by Professor Hu ShIh. andere Religionen, Lei p ZIg, tation of Wesley's message and The writers on Christianity are 1933), showing ho'Y the great ministry was abandoned under Professor Edward S. Ames, of changes in these varIOUS systems compulsion of the facts upwards the University of Chicago; Pro- of thought were largely due to of twenty years ago as equally fessor A. W. Taylor, of Vande,r- the impact of Christianity, di- false to the truth about John bilt University; Professor WIl- rectly or indirectly. In the vol- Calvin and to the truth about liam Ernest Hocking, of .Har- ume before us all this is ignored. John Wesley. Analysis of the vard; and Bishop FrancIs J. The chapters on Ch~ist~anity content of John Wesley's preach- McConnell. The book should give no evidence of ~elIef m the ing made it perfectly clear that have a place on the missionary authority of the ScrIptures, the for fifty-three years he said as shelf next to Rethinking Mis- finality of Jesus Christ, or of ac- extremely little about the human sions, for it has the same hu.man- quaintance with the heart of his- side of saving faith, except istic antisupernatural v I e yv- toric Christianity as expressed man's dire need of it, as he s~id point.· Christianity.is not. dIS- in the creeds. A closing para- extremely much about savlI~g tinguished as essentIally dIffer- graph in Hu Shih's paper on the faith as God's work for us m ent from other religions of the future of Confucianism at the Christ and in us by the Holy group: "In their origins both end of the book is very signifi- Spirit. F,urther, the W~s!eyan Christianity and Islam are me- cant. It sums up the impre~ doctrine of the Holy SpI.rIt, ~o dieval Mediterranean monothe- sion one would gather from thIS conspicuous and controlllI~.g m isms." The various religions are comparative study of religion. the Wesleyan theology, SImply stood for and summed ~p the viewed as "facets of the same So we have the Y. M. C. A.'s and the true objectivity and realIty of crystal; soil, roots, pith, wood, Y. M. B. A.'s. But why not drop the bark branches, leaves, etc., of third initials? Why not frankly rec- our communion with God. It th' t " ognize that all these movements are no was indeed something of a sure same ree. . Any of the books noted In these coIumns will be Bent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
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prise from the standpoint of the from the pen of a missionary in and this number had increased Arminian tradition about Wes- Korea under the Southern Meth- to 125,479 in 1930, a seventy ley to discover that he had con- odist Board. per cent increase. sistently and categorically denied the doctrine commonly re- Dr. Wasson confines his dis- The value of the book consists ferred to him, namely, that a cussion almost entirely to the in the fact that coming, as it man can of himself by the pow- does at this time when Protesers of his free will produce or work of the mission with which tant missionary work in Korea generate this faith in his own he was connected and for this has just passed its fiftieth milemind; rather, since man is by reason it would have been better stone, it calls attention to some nature evil and incompetent to restrict the title to make it of the methods pursued and both to think and do good, it is points out a number of the local altogether necessary that saving conform to the limited scope. factors which have contributed faith as the first principle of all The purpose, as stated in the to the rapid growth of the Christian experience should be preface, is "to explain an im- church in Korea. These factors wrought in Him by the Holy portant but little understood really constituted a singularly Spirit. True genuine Christian phase of the Church in Korea, providential preparation (alfaith is in its totality the gift namely, the marked fluctuations though the author does not say and work of God." so) for the introduction of evan- in its rate of growth." Five of gelical Christianity into Korea. If Professor Cell had not in- the eight chapters the author dedicated that his view of Wesley votes to a discussion of his prob- C. S. HOFFMAN. and of the Christian Gospel had lem; the first two are introducrun back these years into the Toward the Sunrising. By B. H. past one would have been tempt- tory and the last is entitled, Brunner. 279 pp. $1.50. Cokesed to see in this fascinating book "Summary and Conclusions." another evidence of the influence bury Press. Nashville, Tenn. of Karl Barth, but Professor The main discussion is con- Cell's line has evidently been his fined to the years between 1910 A series of fourteen sermons own. It is a very fresh and and 1930, a period which the vivifying word which he speaks, author maintains include five by a Southern preacher who has clear and positive like Profes- cycles in the development of the sor E. Lewis's "Christian Mani- church when rapid growth alter- a stimulating style which occafesto." It is significant to have nate with periods of decline. His these two books, so emphatic in explanations and conclusions are sionally rises to the brilliant. their reaffirmation of the his- a matter of opinion. toric evangelical faith, coming Because the Old Testament has from the two leading Eastern The book contains a number schools of Theology in the Meth- of statements to which the ma- rich imagery in those passages odist Church. jority of missionaries in Korea today would take exception. For that speak of sunset and sunrise, Professor Cell writes with example, on page fifteen the great clarity and with a style of statement is made that the the series before us tells of the originality and power and with a supernatural element in the Gosfull acquaintance with the ma- pel, which was such an asset to sunrise and sunset in the lives of terial embodying Wesley's doc- the pioneer m iss ion a r y in trine. He has earned the right preaching to the Koreans, has to- the patriarchs and prophets, to the title of his book and he day become a liability and the has thrown a bridge across from intimation is that C h r i s t ian e. g., "The Sunset of an Old his own church to the churches workers in Korea today no of the Reformed faith. Books longer hold this view. Person- Faith," "The Sunset of Selfishlike this and Professor Lewis's ally, I bear testimony to the fact are the best contribution that that in my twenty-five years of ness," "A Sunrise wit h 0 u t can be made to the cause of service in Korea I have never unity among those who look to known the people so ready to Clouds," "The Sunrise of Jus- God to save men and not to man hear and accept the Gospel with to save himself. all its supernatural meaning as tice," "The Sunset of the Proph- taught by the early missionaries. ROBERT E. SPEER. ets," etc. There is a wealth of Another statement which is Church Growth in Korea. By W. A. misleading, unless the author re- quotations from the poets, but Wasson. Published under the aus- fers only to his own mission, is pices of the International Mission- found in the introduction where it is not always apt. We have ary Council, New York. 1935. he says: "There were about as many names on the rolls of the expository preaching of a sort, This book first appeared under church in 1910 as there were in the title, "Studies in the World 1930." In the Korean Presby- but there is an absence of Scrip- Mission of Christianity," and is terian church, which is the largest Christian group in the tural exegesis, and one misses country, the total number of communicants and catechumens the acumen of scholarship. Al- on the roll was 73,184 in 1910 together Dr. B run n e r has availed himself of the great characters of the Old Testament and by putting them on the can- vas of Biblical history, draws lessons for the home, for the Church and the preacher of to- day. S. M. Z.
A Historical-Educational Study of the Japan Mission of the Reformed Church in America. By Stephen Willis Ryder. 173 pp. $2.00. Union Theological Seminary Book Service. New York. 1935.
The Mission of the Reformed Church in America is one of the oldest missions in Japan. Its history therefore includes the
1935] OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF Q83
pioneering period of modern little if anything that the expert product of Haskell and Dawn missions, the period of rapid will find novel, he is expressly Light, the Indian maiden, who growth and that of relationships writing not for that limited class finds a shelter at the mission in with the established Japanese of readers, but for the much time of need. Nick Tumaka is churches. Beginning with Dr. larger number who know little a real character. Years ago the Verbeck, this mission has in- of China but wish to understand writer of this review met him at cluded in its membership a num- what is happening there. Mr. Zuni village where he was known ber of outstanding leaders in the Clark devotes most of his atten- as a "progressive" and eager to Christian movement in Japan. tion to the years of the impact of have his people avail themselves Mr. Ryder, a member ,of this the West on China and to the of education, sanitation, better mission for fifteen years, has changes which have ensued. housing and modern methods of carefully searched through the Very wisely, however, he has agriculture. Later he became a records of the mission, the cor- prefaced this and interwoven it Christian and died in the faith. respondence of the missionaries, with something of China's older His marker is the first tomband other relevant historical history and civilization. His stone in the Zuni cemetery and source material, and then has style is eminently readable. He bears the inscription, "Nick Tusystematically recorded the dif- writes, too, from long experience maka, Ex-governor of Zuni; 'I fering aims and attitudes of the in the Far East and from a fair am the Resurrection and the members of the mission on some familiarity with some of the per- Life.' " of the major issues in mission- tinent literature in English. The As the title indicates Chant in ary policies and programs. For specialist will find it easy to the Night weaves into its narrathe student of missions this book point out errors in fact. Those tive descriptions of outstanding contains much valuable source interested in missions will de- Zuni ceremonials, the Shalako material. Under the title, "A tect a certain bias against that (annual rain dance), the Kokok- Historical Sourcebook of the enterprise and will believe that she, the Koyemeshe, "grotesque Japan Mission," the book is is- it has not been presented in a and awesome," the Priests of the sued for wider circulation among fair light. However, the volume Bow, the legends c en t e r i n g members of the Ref 0 r m e d is, for all these shortcomings, around Toa Yallone (sacred corn Church. In this edition, a chap- one of the better members of its mountain), the coming of the ter on "Contributions of the Re- very numerous family. Corn Maidens, the making of formed Church Mission" has K. S. LATOURETTE. pottery, and other insights into been substituted for the con- the culture and religion of the cluding chapter on "Major Is- Chant of the Night. By C. Kuipers. Ashiwi (Zuni). In the foreword sues" which summarized the 215 pp. $1.00 paper, $1.25 cloth. the author recognizes the diffistudy in the edition under the Zondervan Publishing House, Grand title given above and which was Rapids, Mich. 1934. culties inherent in properly eval- uating the culture of another submitted as a dissertation in While Chant of the Night, ac- race when he says, "This may be partial fulfillment of the require- cording to the author's foreword, a tale half told, as must be the ments for the degree of Doctor "is purely fiction except for its case when one race scrutinizes of Philosophy in Columbia Uni- native setting," it nevertheless and attempts analysis of another versity. A. L. W. gives the reader in attractive race." Mr. Kuiper's presenta- form a comprehensive idea of tion while definitely Christian in The Great Wall Crumbles. By Grover Zuni customs, legends and be- its philosophy and outlook is re- Clark. xvii, 406 pp. Macmillan. liefs. For Chant of the Night is New York. 1935. an Indian mission story which markably free from bias and eminently fair in its portrayal of When an author sets himself, graphically describes not only Zuni life. Too often in the past as has Mr. Clark, to retelling the the trials of an Indian convert the reader of Indian tales of the story of the China of the past but presents the every-day life Southwest has been exposed to hundred years as an introduction of a mission station in the South- gushing sentimentality which to an understanding of the China west where problems of law and sought to idealize the old culture of today, he is attempting a task order, schools, social customs, and spoke deprecatingly of the which has often been essayed. etc., continually face the mis- He finds it next to impossible to sionaries. Here one meets the new. G. E. E. LINDQUIST.
say anything very radically new impetuous Mr. Dirks, the young Suppressing Communist Banditry in either by way of interpretation Mr. Dekman, who with enthuor of a record of facts. How- siasm is ready to try new meth- China. "China Today" Series. Edited by T'ang Leang-Ii. 110 pp, ever, a certain value is to be ods of approach, and the staid profusely illustrated. U. S. $1.50. found in each new book of this but experienced Rev. DeWitt, China United Press, Shanghai, 1934. kind, if, as is this, it is well done. who acts as a sort of balance This first volume of a pro- It at least reaches a fresh body wheel for the entire staff. Inter- jected "China Today" series is of readers with information esting native characters appear, of as great value to China's forabout a land with which the rest especially Nick Tumaka who "in eign friends as to her own peoof the world has much to do. the prime of life had been gov- ple. It presents in clear and doc- While Mr. Clark has said very ernor of Zuni," Ametolan, a umented form the origin, nature,
rise and fall of that variously other leaders and grew ever The Foreign Missionary Enterprise more influential u n til they and Its Sincere Critics. Cleland evaluated movement of recent threatened the very life of the B. McAfee. 190 pp. $1.50. Revell. years, the imported Communism, republic. Dr. Sun and General so enthusiastically welcomed in Chiang Kai Shek awoke in time, New York. and Communism was outlawed. its theory by thousands of stu- But the price of the mistake has God's Christ and God's Book. Archie dents, yet so horribly destructive been heavy, for only now is there Naismith and W. Fraser Naismith. evidence of the halting of the 126 pp. Is. 6d. paper, 2s. cloth. in its practice since its well- scourge and a hopeful beginning trained troops have become the of the enormous work of reha- Pickering & Inglis. London. bilitation in the desolated provmost murderous bandits of that inces. Fortunately many youths A Historical – Educational Study of suffering nation. So interesting have been found ready to sacri- the Japan Mission of the Reformed and enlightening is the account fice their own comfort and gain Church in America. Stephen Willis to organize and administer the Ryder. 173 pp. $2. Union Theothat a reviewer can hardly resist hard labor of reconstruction in logical Seminary. New York. the temptation to quote at length, the wake of the conquered and retreating hordes of pillagers Hot-Hearted. F. I. Codrington. 111 yet must be content to note a few and cutthroats. While the book pp. 28. Church of Zenana Mission. outstanding features. Begin- clearly recognizes the difficulty ning with China's "disastrous of this bandit-suppression, its London. tone is sanely optimistic. heritage" of half a century be- Heroes of the Cross. 96 pp. each. fore the Republic in the steady C. H. FENN. 40 cents each. Obtainable from Zondervan Pub. House, Grand weakening of central authority Helps to the Study of Colossians. and a tendancy toward provin- By W. Wilson Cash. 106 pp. Is. Rapids, Mich. cial authority, which made it im- paper. Church Missionary Society. possible to maintain peace and London. 1935. Series 5 – Jam e s Hannington, Mackay of Uganda, Aggrey the order, the writer makes clear the These brief Bible studies by a reason why Communism has secretary of the C. M. S. are, like African Teacher. been so difficult to suppress. It his notes on Ephesians and Phihas cost six million lives, thou- lippians, devotional, spiritual Series 6-Dr. Frederick Baedeker, and practical. Any earnest Horace Underwood, Art h u r sands of square miles have been Christian student will find them Neve of Kashmir. laid waste and innumerable farm helpful for the light they throw on the Epistle and for the "pre- Series 7 – David Brainerd, Dr. houses and livestock have been eminence" they give to Jesus Grenfell, McCullagh and the destroyed in the province of Christ. Red Indians. Kiangsi alone, several other New Books Series 8-David Hill, Samuel Polprovinces suffering almost as lard, Dr. Apricot of "Heaven heavily. The Communists have Apolo the Pathfinder-Who Follows? Below." A. B. Lloyd. 68 pp. Is. C. M. S. endeavored to enforce a definite London. India Calling-The Memories of Coragrarian policy, one of China's nelia Sorabji. 12s. 6d. Nisbet & greatest needs, but to enforce it Ambassadors for Christ. Mildred by massacre of landlords and by Cable and Francesca French. 160 Co. London. the stirring up of strife and mu- pp. 35 cents; $1.00 paper. C. I. M. tual hatred among the peasants. Philadelphia. Islam for Beginners. Murray T. Titus. 69 pp. Oxworth Book Serv- Instead of the promised peace Christian Realities. Robert E. Speer. ice. India. and prosperity, Communism's 256 pp. $2.50. Revell. New York. progress has meant blood and Life on the Negro Frontier. George fire, barrenness and desperate The Conquest of Cannibal Tanna. A. poverty. The revolutionary pol- K. Longridge. 200 pp. 2s. 6d. R. Arthur. $2.50. 259 pp. Assoicy of the Kuomintang has Hodder & Stoughton. London. ciation Press. New York.
sought the people's good; that of Christ's Alternative to Communism. Modern Trends in World Religions. E. Stanley Jones. 302 pp. $2.00. Edited by Eustice Haydon. $2.50. the Communists has been bent Abingdon Press. New York. 250 pp. University of Chicago on the Bolshevik "WorId Revo- Christ and the Student World. Rob- Press. Chicago. lution," regardless of the fate of ert P. Wilder. 80 pp. Is. Simpthe Chinese people. kin, Marshall, Ltd. London. The Morning I The Night Also. W. J. Maddax. 62 pp. 6d. Pickering Chinese Communism had its Epochs in the Life of the Apostle origin in the student agitations John. The late A. T. Robertson. & Inglis. London. 253 pp. $2.00. Revell. New York. of 1919, spreading widely from Negro-White Adjustment. An In- Peking University in opposition Ethical Issues Confronting World vestigation and Analysis of Methods to the Versailles Treaty, and the Christians. David Johnson Fleming. in the Interracial Movement in the 280 pp. $2.00. I. M. C. New York. U. S. Paul E. Baker. 267 pp. official traitors disposed to sell $3.00. Association Press. New their country to the Japanese. York. Many publications sprang up, Outline of Buddhism – Great Relisome of them advocating Marx- gions of the East Series. C. H. S. Ward. 149 pp. 2s. 6d. Epworth ism. Soviet R u s s i a, avidly watching, professed and prof- Press. London.
fered a unique friendship, intro- The Rediscovery of John Wesley. duced able advisers who were George Croft Cell. 920 pp. $2.50. welcomed by Sun Yat Sen and Holt & Co. New York.
South China Folk. Mary Brewster Hollister. $1.25. 141 pp. Revell.
New York.
Toward a Christian America. Her- mann N. Morse. 206 pp. 60 cents paper, $1.00 cloth. Missionary Edu- cation Movement. New York.
That Other America. John A. Mac- kay. 214 pp. $1.00. Friendship Press. New York. .
Word Studies in the Old Testament. B. A. M. Schapiro. 88 pp. 50 cents.
Hebrew-Christian Pub. Soc., New York.
Penon.I Items HAYFEVER 1884 to 1907, then served as corre-
sponding secretary of the Methodist (Concluded from !d cO'IJer.) ASTHMA …. SUMMER COLDS are …….-.,.. Sunday School Board, and afterwards Complete reliel oall: $1.08 postpaid. Nolhi… else to went to the Methodist Book Concern. Social Settlement and leading peace bUJ. 0…., 40…. HOLFORD'S WONDER INHALERS worker in Germany, but an exile since ….d1.1t Jear alooe. Mail $1.00 tode,.lor lull …….•• ••• theo Hitler revolution, declares that relief to THE DANDEE CO.. 2S2 HENNEPIN AVENUE. "eighty per cent of the pastors of Ger- MINNEAPOLIS. MINN•• or write lor Free BookieL Mrs. Chauncey Brown, former mismany now support the 'Confessional sionary of the Presbyterian Board in Synod' in its defense of Christianity Obituary Note. Hunan, China. died at Raton, N. M., against paganizing influences in Ger- May 13th. Her husband died last Sepmany, and also against the denial of Dr. John Duncan Byrnes, for nearly tember at Liberal, Kansas, while at freedom." Dr. Siegmund-Schultze ar- a quarter of a century superintendent home on furlough. rived in New York at the end of of missions of the Presbyterian Church March from Zurich, Switzerland, of Canada in northern Ontario, and ••• where he now resides. He has come very active in behalf of church union, to deliver the annual lectures on the died at his home in Tillsonburg, On- Lazarus Raikane, native African Rauschenbusch Foundation at the who was associated with Livingstone Colgate – Rochester Divinity School, • • • tario, March 80th. in his 65th year. in the middle of the last century, re- The Rev. John N. West, D.D., who cently died at the age of 100. He Rochester. N. Y. went to India in 1892 as a missionary was baptized by Dr. Samuel Moilatt, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and later sent to Kanye with Living- *** died in Detroit, Michigan. on April stone. He worked as a local Methodist 29th at the age of 73. He was a grad- preacher in Heilbron district for many . Miss Michi Kawai has returned to uate of Boston University and was years and established a number of Japan with a gift of $1,000 for her for some time principal of Lucknow native schools.
school. ••• • • Christian College. ••• Professor W a 1t e r Livingston • The Rev. Frank Lincoln Moore, Wright, Jr., of the Department of Secretary of the Western Division of History at Princeton University. has The Rev. D. R. Mackenzie, a mis- the Congregational Extension Boards been elected president of Robert Col- sionary of the United Church of Can- died on March 28th. He had been a lege and of the American College for ada, who served for 39 years in Japan, home missionary superintendent from Girls, both at Istanbul, Turkey. 1913 to 1918 and a secretary of the Dr. Wright will assume his new • • died recently at the age of 74. Home Missionary Society from 1918 duties in the Fall after teaching to 1926. He thus spent 22 years in Turkish history and language at a • tireless work in the interest of home seminar on Islamics at Princeton this missions. He was born in July. 1866. summer. Dr. Paul Monroe has been David G. Downey, book editor for president of the two Istanbul colleges the Methodist Church from 1912 to • *• for the last three years and was due to 1928, died at his home in White Plains, retire on June 30th. N. Y., March 8th, at 76 years of age. The Rev. Robert M. Logan, a Bap- Dr. Downey held pastorates from tist nllssionary of Argentina, died on Dr. Wright was graduated from January 22d. He had a remarkable Princeton in 1921 and taught history mastery of the Spanish language and at the American University of Beirut, was recently in charge of the pub- Syria, for several years. lishing house at Buenos Aires.
AN INDEX TO THE TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES OF THE MOSLEM WORLD SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, Editor Even though you do not possess a complete set of THE MOSLEM WORLD Quarterly, you will want this Index for the following reasons: 1. It contains a complete list of articles by Orientalists and missionaries on every phase of the Moslem problem, such as, the sources of the Koran, the life of Mohammed, the traditions, and Islamic law and dogma.
2. It will contain a complete list of all the litexature published on Islam and Moslem lands, in English, French, German, Dutch and Italian, in the last two decades.
3. Nowhere else can you obtain such an encyclopedic index to all the important articles on the subject in current periodicals.
~~~~~~~ORDER IT NOW~~~~~~~ from THE MOSLEM WORLD—156 Fifth Rvenue, New York:, N. Y.
Price one dollar (four shillings)
MOTHERLESS
of AH,FONG Motherless, practically homeless, the sons of Ah Fong were brought to Chung Mei to mingle with sixty other Chinese boys in a sympathetic, Christian atmosphere. .Here they get an abundance of fresh air, exercise and play , and are given as fine a public school education as any American lad enjoys.
Becaus~ the great bridge that is spanning San Francisco Bay needed the ground Chung Mei occupied, it was necessary to begin a new home in the sloping hills of EI Cerrito facing the Golden Gate. No money was in sight for the purpose until the boys themselves through their personal earnings and musical programs had .raised enough to buy the land. They also gave money to relieve suffering in China.
Yes, friends have helped to increase the building fund since Chung Mei was condemned to make way for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. but $15.000is needed to complete the new Chung MeL Will you help?
Chung Mei is not a reform school or detention .home. It is what its founders intended it should be, an institution which undertakes to provide a Christian home, care and training for under-privileged Chinese boys of tender years—orphans, half-orphans, boys from needy. broken or unfit home~, and the so-called delinque1).t or problem boy-in fact any Chinese boy who has not had a fair chance or a good.start in life.
The Home is the joint project of The American Baptist Home Mission Society. the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society and the San Francisco Bay Cities Baptist Union, Dr. C. R. Shepherd, Superintendent.
Send gifts and address inquiries to SAMUEL BRYANTt Treasurer The American Baptist Home Mission Society 23 East 26th Street New York City