The Missionary Review of the World — January 1937
1937
A Missionary Appraisal, January 1937 Robert E. Speer A Doctor's Tour in Neglected Arabia w. Harold Storm Some African Evangelists in Training L. Paul Moore, Jr.
Highlights of a Century of Presbyterian Missions Arthur J. Brown Story of an Afghan Christian Martyr Alfred Zahir When Japanese Buddhists Pray , Winburn T. Thomas Ethiopia Under Italian Rule James L. Rohrbaugh 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember WILL ROGERS
January 1 to Easter-Local Follow- ~~ I M MORTAL I TV" up Meetings of the National Preach- ing Mission. "A~(JARY ISS(JE OF January 4-10-The Nation Wide Week CHl1RCH MA~A6EME~T of Prayer. Subscriptions: Six months William H. Leach, Editor January 4-6-Committee on Women's $1.25; one year $2.50; two Order direct or- through Work of the Foreign Missions Con- years $4; single copy 25c. AUDITORIUM BLDG., CLEVELAND, O. your Religious Book Store ference of North America, Asbury Park, New Jersey. Missionary Council. He is an Amer- Mr. Homer Rodeheaver has re- ican citizen, a Gentile layman, who turned from a music mission trip to January 6-8-Foreign Missions Con- was graduated from the University of Africa, which covered over 16,000 ference of North America, Asbury Wisconsin and for a time served as miles by air. His special interest was Park, New Jersey. general secretary of the Y. M. C. A. the study of native music, and he is of Kansas University. more than ever convinced of the effec- January 11-14, 1937-Annual Meet- tiveness of music in spreading the ings, Home Missions Council and * '" * Gospel. His experiences in Africa The Council of Women for Home have been gathered into a little book Missions. Asbury Park, N. J. The Rev. Robert Lee McLeod, Jr., called "Singing Black." The Rode- has been elected to succeed Dr. John heaver Company offers to give a free February 7-13-Negro History Week. A. Rodgers who recently retired as copy to ministers and missionaries. February 8-13-International Council secretury for Annuities and Special Gifts under the Board of National Mr. Hugh Re*dw'o" od'", Religious Edi- of Religious Education, Executive Missions of the Presbyterian Church, Committee and Associated Meetings. U. S. A. Dr. McLeod is a graduate tor of The London Times-Ghronicle- Chicago, Ill. of Davidson College, North Carolina, a daily paper with 1,500,000 circula- February IS-Annual Meeting of The and of the Presbyterian Theological tion-and author of the best sellers, Missionary Review of the World, Seminary in Louisville, Ky. For the "God in the Slums" and other vol- 156 Fifth Ave., New York. last five years he has served as pastor umes, has recently been on a preach- of the Presbyterian Church at Winter ing tour in America under the au- FLORIDA CHAIN OF MISSION- Haven, Florida. spices of the Salvation Army. ARY ASSEMBLIES * '" '" A WARNING January 16-19, 1937-Jacksonville. We regret to learn from a corre- January 19-Z0-Lake City. Miss Mildred Cable and her com- spondent in Venezuela that Mr. Elie- January ZO-ZZ-Daytona Beach. panions have been obliged to leave cer Fernandez, the converted priest in January ZO-ZZ-Deland. Suchow, Northwest China, in haste, Venezuela whose story was told in the January 23-Z7-Miami. owing to Red activity in that locality. November issue, has not proved January Z6-27-Ft. Lauderdale. They have reached Lanchow safely. worthy of confidence. He is reported January Z7-Z9-Palm Beaches. tv have turned against the mission- January 30-February 2-0rlando. Dr. Harry E'". W'" oo'"lever, until re- aries and to have led astray some February Z-4-Winter Haven. Venezuelan Christians because of his February 4-5-Ft. Myers. cently editor of the National Meth- eloquence. February 4-5-Sarasota. odist Press, has become executive sec- February 6-11-St. Petersburg. retary of the American Christian February 7-l0-Clearwater. Foundation, and editor of its publi- February 10-12-Tampa. cation, These Times. February 13-16-Tallahassee.
Personal Items The Shepherd.Prince 1'''~ M~tt~ Dr. L. P. Dame, of Arabia, has re- signed from the Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church to take charge of the Standard Oil Company of California hospital "hich the company A historical novel Qf love in Zion during the times of the Prophet Isaiah proposes to erect near the Katif Oasis By in eastern Arabia. ABRAHAM MAPU * '" '" Translated from the Hebrew by The Rev. Andrew T. Roy, a Presbyterian missionary in Nanking, B. A. M. SCHAPIRO China, now at home on furlough, is the interim general secretary of the Introduction by PROF. ROBERT DICK WILSON Student Volunteer Movement. The new secretary to succeed the Rev. Jesse R. Wilson has not yet been Phillip Whitwell Wilson, "N. Y. Times Book Review"
selected. '" '" '" "It is one of those spacious stories which have been written for all times."
Dr. Conrad Hoffman, Jr., Secretary William T. Manning, D.D., Bishop Diocese of New York of the International Missionary Council's Committee on the Christian Ap- "It is fortunate that Abraham Mapu's novel has found so scholarly and "iflcd a proach to the Jews, has accepted the translator as Mr. Schapiro, for the rendering of this masterpiece of mode,.;Jewish call of the Board of National Missions literature into English has peculiar value at this time." of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., Hundreds of othcr such tributes frOID eminent men.
to become Assistant Secretary in "Beautifully bound and superbly illustrated·-Limited De Luxe Edition, $.).25. Popular charge of Jewish work. He succeeds Edition, $2.75. 400 pages. Send for FREE 24-page prospectus. Dr. John S. Conning, who has filled this position with consecration and ORDER DIRECT FROM ability for the past eighteen years. Dr. Hoffman will also continue his BROOKSIDE PUBLISHING CO.
association with the International 676.678 Bible House Astor Place New York City
J. Hickey, an
THE MISSIONARY Tell Me About Moody who founded the "League of Another REVIEW OF THE WORLD Chance" and brought many exconvicts DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor to Christ, died in New York on De- VOL. LX JANUARY, 1937 No.1 An International Centenary Tribute cember 7. to the Publication and Business Office- *** Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. Foremost Evangelist of Modern Times The Rev. Charles H. Derr, a mis- Editorial and Executive Office- D. L. MOODY 156 Firth Avenue, New York City. sionary to Chenchow, China, under the Entered as second-class matter at By Board of Foreign Missions of the Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under WILL H. HOUGHTON Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., Act of March D, 1~7~. President of The Moody Bible Institute died on November 15 at the age of 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. of Chicago 'fifty-nine, in Chenchow. Mr. Derr Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. Published monthly, except August. and was a graduate of Park College and All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1937. British agents – Marshall, Morgan CHARLES T. COOK McCormick Theological Seminary and and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, went to China in 1904. London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, Editor of The Christian, London 10 shillings a year. THE NATIONAL WEEK 128 pages in easy reading type, pictorial OF PRAYER MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- covers, full-page illustrations, LISHING CO., INC. sewed binding, net 40c. January 2-The Reality of God. John BOARD OF DIRECTORS 14 or ColOSSians 1. BIBLE INSTITUTE COLPORTAGE ASS'N ROBERT E. SPEER, Pre8ident January 5-The Wisdom of God. Job A. L. WARNSHUIB, Vice-President 848 North Wells St. Chicago, Illinois 28: 12-28 or 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31. WALTER McDOUGALL, Treasurer DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary "We greatly aupreciate the REVIEW. January 6-The Love of God. 1 John You are rendering a magnificent serv- 3 or Roman.s 5: 1-11. SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT ice in many ways." January 7~The S~fficiency of God. WILLIAM I. CHAMBERLAIN H. KERR TAYLOR, 2 Corinthians 11: 18-12: 9 or Ephe- D. J. FANT Educational Secretary, Exe'cutive sions 8.
MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD Committee of Foreign Mwsions, Januar; 8-TheS~viourhood of God. Presbyterian Church' in the WM. B. LIPPHARD U. S., Nashville. John 3: 1-21 or Romans 10.
ERIC M. NORTH January 9-The Comradeship of God. John 14.or John 15. SAMUEL M. ZWEMER January IO-The Kingdom of God. Editorial Chat Matthew 6 or Revelation 21.
A joyful New Year is our wish for Obituary Notes (Full programs may be secured every reader of The Review and from the Department of Evangelism Dr. E. S. Tipple, minister, educator of the Federal Council of Churches of every follower of Christ throughout and administrator, and from 1912 to Christ in America, 105 East 22nd 1928 president of Drew University at Street, New York.) the world. Madison, New Jersey, died on October 17 in New York City. Dr. Tipple II If you use *** was a member of the Methodist Board of Foreign Missions, the American PRINTING At least one regular reader of THE Bible Society and president of the Methodist Historical Society of New Y OU will profit from an ac- REVIEW u!les it as a daily prayer re- York. quaintanceship with us. We do the job complete in our own minder. He prays for the editor and *** plant, whether it be large or those associated with him; for the small. Sir Arthur Yapp, national secretary authors of articles and the work and of the British Y. M. C. A., died in While our specialty is Books, London, November 5, at the age of 67. Magazines and Pamphlets, yet needs they present; he prays for the He began his work with the Y. M. we have a variety of modern places and persons, the missionaries C. A. 46 years ago, and wrote several equipment to meet all the re- books on the movement, including quirements of your particular and converts in each field mentioned "Romance of the Red Triangle" and job. You will find our service in every department. If each reader "The Adventure of Youth." prompt, careful and courteous.
would do that it would not only mean *•• Will you allow us to estimate on your next printing? We benew vision and power to the editor Dr. John Hutchison, appointed to lieve you will be delighted with the Church of Scotland Mission in the our product, price and service. and authors, but would bring the Punjab in 1869, died JUly 26 in his blessing of God on Christian workers 89th year. He retired in 1929, but The EVANGELICAL PRESS continued to care for lepers in all over the world. Chamba, where he had spent the Printers of greater part of his life. The Missionary Review of the World *** *** PLANT AND MAIN OFFICE We call especial attention to the Third and Reily Strub HaITI,bur., Pa. paper in this number by Dr. Robert E. Mrs. Guy W. Hamilton, who, with Speer. It presents the subject of an her husband, Dr. Hamilton, spent 24 address given at a prayer conference years in missionary service at Shunof missionary executives meeting in tefu, North China, died in Cincinnati, Lakeville, Connecticut, last autumn. Ohio, November 17. Dr. and Mrs. Everyone interested in the problems Hamilton went first to Siam under and progress of the missionary enter- the Presbyterian Board in 1899, and prise should read it. a few years later were transferred to China to organize a' new station at *** Shuntefu.
THE REVIEW receives many com- [ 1] ments from readers, showing that the publication is widely read and highly valued as a world-wide survey of present-day conditions and activities, from a Christian viewpoint. Here are a few extracts from recent letters.
*** "Dr. Kagawa, and his circle of as- sociate and volunteer, missionaries en- joy the MISSIONARY REVIEW. It is a source of light, and of inspiration to us." HElNRY TOPPING.
Tokyo, Japan.
by the St. Louis Globe
AUDIENCE OF 10,O(JO AT THE NATIONAL PREACHING MISSION MASS MEETING IN THE MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, OCTOBER 11, 1936 REVIB ORLD VOLUME LX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 1 JANUARY, 1937 Topics of the Times TRAIL BLAZING FOR 1937 Missionary trail-blazers have also an opportu- nity to try new sacrificial methods, or to follow old Everyone admires a trail-blazer but compara- but difficult paths-for evangelizing and training tively few have the courage or are ready to pay youth; in turning labor and capital to Christ; . by the price required to be the true pioneer. T?e a dedication of all talents and resources to HIm; price is usually high in endurance, da;nger and dl~ in converting politicians and governments to the comfort whether the trails blazed be III geographIc way of Peace, righteousness and Godliness; in feats in science in spiritual realms or in Chris- promoting Christlike race relations even at the tian 'missions. 'Many are ready and enjoy the sacrifice of pride and prejudice; and in selfless fruits that grow up where the few have led the love and unity that will emphasize only loyalty to way in breaking ground and planting new areas. the Head of the Church and true harmony in His service. When God directs His pioneers to go forward it is always in the face of difficulties, never on the To reach the ideals of Christ in each of these easy down-hill road. This was true when Abram directions requires courage, self-sacrifice and was called to go from Ur of the Chaldees into faith. The dangers and difficulties in the way are Canaan; when Moses was told to lead Israel out not easy to overcome, as they were not in the days of Egypt; when Joshua was commissioned to en- of Livingstone, Carey, Hudson Taylor, Florence ter the Promised Land. Jesus Christ set the Nightengale and Lord Shaftsbury. Most of these greatest example in sacrificial pioneering when difficulties are more subjective than objective and He temporarily laid aside His eternal robes of come from ignorance, selfishness and fear-all to deity and came from Heaven to earth in the garb be conquered by following the great trail-blazer, of a servant. When He commissioned His dis- Jesus Christ. ciples to "Go into all the world to preach the Gospel," and when Paul and Bar.nabas .were sent The rewards to pioneers are real and abiding. forth from Antioch it was to pIOneer III the face They are seldom found in wealth, not always in of hardship, difficuity and persecution, but with fame for great success achieved, but they are exthe promise of victory. perienced in the satisfaction of achievement, in the knowledge of blessing brought to mankind and Is there not great need today for the manifes- in the Master's "Well done." tation of this pioneering spirit-this readiness to blaze new trails-in missionary work? To be sure What trail-blazing will be undertaken and acthere are difficulties and adversaries in the way, complished in the face of the present-day colossal as there have always been. There are not only physical difficulties and the spiritual adversaries new and difficult mission fields to enter – as in that form the great opportunities of the year Tibet, Afghanistan, Arabia, Central Africa and 1937? New Guinea-but there are old fields to reconquer as in Soviet Russia, Siberia, North Africa and SUCCESS OF THE NATIONAL PREACHING Turkey. In other fields the Christian trail-blazer MISSION must face danger and some form of oppositior. from governments and anti-Christian leaders-as Enthusiastic reports come from all over the in Germany, Spain, Portuguese territo~y, Japar. United States as to the effectiveness of the Naand Chosen, China, Iran, India and MeXICO. tional Preaching Mission, the first phase of which closed in New York on December 9. It was a [3]
notable campaign, not to promote any special eco- power to cure present-day evils and to solve modnomic or political, denominational or theological ern problems. views, but to present Christ and His Gospel as the solution of all our personal, national and world Great mass meetings, such as that which filled problems. Under the auspices of the Federal Madison Square Garden, New York, with 18,000 Council of Churches of Christ in America, seventy people, were demonstrations to the public at large well-known Christian advocates, men and women, that the living Christ has not lost His drawing served the cause without remuneration. They in- power when He and His Gospel are stripped of the cluded Americans, a Chinese and Negroes, Brit- grave clothes with which many secretarians and ishers and a Frenchman who visited twenty-eight nominal Christians have sought to bind Him. But centers-North, East, South, Central and West- the most effective meetings of the campaign were to proclaim the "unsearchable riches of Christ." those for ministers and for high school students. The preachers, who came in large numbers, Preliminary preparations had been made by seemed to receive new encouragement, a fresh pastors and local communities, some churches understanding of the Christian message, and holding crowded daily meetings for prayer, for power to preach the unadulterated Gospel. Many dependence was on God and not on effective or- were challenged by the necessity for leading their ganization and wide publicity, good as these were. people in victorious living and in more sacrificial Then teams of varying numbers descended on service. In practically every city visited the high these twenty-eight cities for campaigns of two to schools were thrown open to the Missioners and four days each, extending over a period of nearly the pupils listened eagerly with alert minds and three months. The largest auditorium in each hungry hearts to the Good News, which few of city was secured for a mass meeting and was them had ever before heard so clearly and conusually packed to capacity with from 2,000 to vincingly presented. 18,000 eager listeners. There was also street preaching in many cities; other gatherings, and Dr. Stanley Jones, in summing up the results of usually the most fruitful, were held in high the campaign, says that it put new heart into schools, churches, at luncheons and clubs – for many churches and put evangelism again at the ministers, young people, women, businessmen and center. The essential unity of the Body of Christ teachers. In Philadelphia, 300 university profes- was manifested to the world by bringing together sors met to hear the Gospel. In every place min- members of practically all evangelical Christian isters came in large numbers – Chicago alone churches, North and South. They included Protbrought together 1,500. Many people traveled estant Episcopal, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, hundreds of miles in hope of receiving new in- Presbyterian, Congregational, Friends, and Disspiration and to learn the secret of power. In ciples, and revealed their common fellowship and Portland, Oregon, it was found that 164 outside primary message, exalting Christ as the Son of towns and cities were represented. Uncounted God and the one Saviour and Lord of men. Such multitudes were also reached through the news- a fellowship and common loyalty, said Dr. Jones, paper reports and over the radio. In practically should be the means of bridging the gaps existing every place the Preaching Mission was front page between (1) the Church and youth, (2) the news, the press cooperating by giving wide pub- Church and labor, (3) the racial gap, (4) belicity and full reports, even in the midst of the tween the so-called personal and social Gospel, presidential election. (5) between the various denominations and va- ried theological concepts. All forces and factors, From other lands and races came some of the so far as they represent phases of truth, are one most effective speakers – E. Stanley Jones, the in Christ. missionary from India; Muriel Lester, the Chris- The success of the National Preaching Mission tian social worker of Kingsley Hall from London; was due, first of all, to the spirit of prayer that T. Z. Koo, the Chinese evangelist and Channing characterized leaders and other participants; sec- Tobias of the Negro Y. M. C. A. The whole com- ond, to the emphasis on the common need of all pany was knit together and ably organized and men for Christ and His Gospel; third, to the thorough organization and adequate publicity; directed by Dr. Wm. Hiram Foulkes, of Newark, and fourth,_to the unity and readiness of the Misthe chairman of the committee, and Jesse M. sioners to serve Christ and His Cause, without Bader, of New York, the dir.ector of the cam- thought of self. These should characterize every paign. The workers and the participants in every Christian and every church. city testify to the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ that actuated all the participants and to the This Preaching Mission has shown a new reaeagerness with which His message was received son for the existence of the Federal Council of by the audiences. There was evident a hunger for Churches. Such a united campaign could scarcely the Word of God and for the experience of His have been carried out successfully without such a
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
cooperative body to promote it. The campaign ters could be reached by the seventy Missioners also had and will have beneficial effects in home in a three months' campaign. Only the surface missions and in foreign missions. It has uncov- was scratched and in that in but few places. Most ered defects in national life, has revealed needs, of those who attended the meetings were Amerhas stimulated spiritual hunger, has sounded the ica's most earnest Christians. While all need spircall to serve, has united the Church and has proved itual awakening, the Gospel must also be preached anew the power of the Gospel to reach all classes to the unsaved multitudes. and conditions of men. The work of evangelizing, educating and enlist- WHAT NEXT IN NATIONAL ing Americans for Christ has scarcely begun. EVANGELISM? Therefore the campaign is to go on with renewed vigor. Already local eight-day preaching missions It is too early to report on the lasting effect of have followed the National Mission in many places the National Preaching Mission on the 2,000,000 and plans are under way for similar follow-up people who attended the meetings. These included work between January first and Easter. Small 25,000 or 30,000 pastors, beside the nearly two teams are to visit many new centers, with pastors million laymen, women, teachers and students. of local churches cooperating to evangelize their Much encouragement came from the responses to own districts. Then, following Easter, there will the platform and personal appeals – in decisions be seven weeks' campaigns and next autumn the for Christ and in rededication of life to Him. It Federal Council plans to continue the work on a was clear that many wanderers are eager to go national scale. Personal acceptance of the chalall the Way in consecration, if they know how. lenge of the Gospel is clearly needed to bring into At the same time the Missioners learned many practical operation national and inter:r:ational lessons in methods of approach, in emphasis and peace with good will and racial, economic and technique. Two weak points in the campaign are social justice. Only so far as pastors, with the felt to have been (1) the failure to reach, in any official boards and church members, are truly adequate way, the students and teachers in col- aroused and filled with the Spirit of God, can leges, universities and professional schools. These America be brought into harmony with the will present and future leaders in business, science and of God as revealed by Christ. philosophy must be brought face to face with the challenge of the Gospel. They were scarcely THE FEDERAL COUNCIL BIENNIAL touched in this campaign. Where they were, as with professors in Philadelphia and students in In a three-day session at Asbury Park, New Los Angeles, there was an encouraging response. Jersey, some two hundred and fifty delegates and friends gathered at the Biennial Meeting of the (2) There was a failure to reach the working Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in classes, most of whom seldom if ever attend America. Among many topics brought up for rechurch or hear the Gospel. Many of them are port and discussion the most vital was the recent hesitating between Fascism, with its dictatorial National Preaching Campaign. The reports, and state, and Communism with its godless philosophy the plans for a continuance of the work, are most of social revolution. They do not realize that enheartening. AmoLg other subjects, that are Christ, understood and followed, is the solution perennial, were evangelism, race relations, proof their problems. In Portland, where laboring motion of international good will and peace, work men as strikers were contacted by Stanley Jones, for economic justice, the remedying of social evils, they were quick to respond to the appeal to apply work for youth, and the development of Christian the teachings of Christ to settle their difficulties. unity and cooperation in the churches. Another campaign should give more attention to the spiritual needs of both capital and labor so The officers elected for the next two years were that these forces may be led to follow Christ and Dr. Edgar Dewitt Jones, pastor of the Central His Way of Life. Christian Church, Detroit, who succeeds Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, of St. Louis, as president. The new (3) There was a weakness in the program to vice-president is Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo, pastor of break down racial barriers. While Negro Mis- the Marble Collegiate Church of New York; Mr. sioners were included as members of the teams Frank H. Mann was reelected treasurer, and Dr. in almost every center, the 12,000,000 American Rivington D. Lord, recording secretary. The Negroes were not reached in any large number; executive secretary is Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert. neither were the Jews, the Orientals or the vari- The twenty-eight denominations that are memous European language groups. Multitudes of bers of the Federal Council include about 24,000,- these are unchurched and form the mainstay of 000 Protestant church members which the Council antireligious radicalism. is eLdeavoring to bring into closer harmony and more effective action in righting the evils of pres- (4) The Preaching Mission was Lot truly national in scope. Not more than twenty-eight cen-
ent-day life and in promoting the Kingdom of God The effect of all this on the work of Christian on earth. missions cannot be foretold but the probability is that the work will go on as usual without increased NEW INDEPENDENCE FOR EGYPT difficulty. The aim of the missionaries is to turn Since the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty men's thoughts and allegiance to God as He is reon August 26, last year, Egypt has become an in- vealed in Jesus Christ. They work to build up dependent state; foreigners will be subject to Christian character and a high type of healthy, Egyptian laws, law courts and taxation. An in- intelligent citizen but they have no desire to mix ternational court will be continued for a short in local politics or international affairs. They detime during the period of transition. Egypt and sire religious freedom, including the right of Great Britain have formed a military alliance minorities to think and worship according to the which gives Great Britain the right to establish dictates of their individual consciences, no percamps along the Suez Canal and to move troops secution, discrimination or interference because in time of war, while Egypt agrees to build mili- of religious affiliations and the right of propatary roads. The control of the Sudan will be co- ganda by appealing to reason, without any atoperative and the country will be administered tempt to bribe or force anyone to conform to any "for the welfare of the Sudanese." sect or form of belief. Whether or not this ideal will be reached under Egyptian rule, it is im- The effect of this new treaty on foreigners, for- possible to say at present. Certain it is that the eign business and Christian missions is being spirit of tolerance has been growing under Chriscarefully studied-especially as regards discrim- tian influence. The seniors in the American Uniination, "minority" rights and the preservation versity in Cairo, composed of Armenians, Copts, of law and order. The Copts represent one in Greek Orthodox, Moslems and Protestants, refourteen of the population. Before the coming of cently expressed their common belief in God and the British, they were subjected to petty persecu- religion, but only one student assented to the tion and injustices and with the withdrawal of statement, "My religion is perfect." The majority the British many fear that certain elements will rated moral conduct above intellectual beliefs. renew the old religious rivalries. Others think that the State has become so secularized and so Egypt has entered upon a new day, with new unified by nationalism that religious persecution freedom for women, new opportunities for youth is no longer a great danger. and, it is hoped, a new spirit of liberty, tolerance, justice and goodwill.
With reference to law and order, in recent MARKS OF A GREAT TEACHER years, each political party has sought to reinforce its position by appealing to the student classes and Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher the world the youth movements, so that there has developed has ever known. Some of the marks of a great a far-reaching organization of the youth. The teacher have been noted by the president of one of dominating organization today is that of the Blue the great American universities: Shirts, said to number 15,000. At first unarmed, latterly they have begun to carry weapons. Their 1. The great teacher never ceases being a humorganization heads up under the leadership of ble learner. three students, assisted by three ex-army officers. Numerous clashes have occurred between them 2. He establishes a personal relation with his and the Green Shirts, a rival organization. Such students. an organization as the Blue Shirts is viewed with anxiety by all who hope that an independent Egypt 3. Whatever he may be teaching, is a window through which he looks out upon the whole uniwill move along lines of law observance. verse.
4. The merchandising of information will never seem to be his main purpose.
It is going to take wisdom and tact on the part 5. The great teacher will not think he has failed of all foreigners to avoid hurting the national feel- unless the students have not wanted to learn.
ings of a generation jealous for its rights ar:d for 6. He will not think it beneath his dignity to the full recognition of its new status of inde- pay attention to the art of presentation.
pendence. There will be manifestations of politi- 7. He will never speak of his work as routine cal excitement, agitations over trivial issues; some teaching. – will try to swing the Nation along antiforeign na- 8. He will ir:spire without sacrificing a rigid tionalistic tendencies; others will try to make realism of fact and idea.
Egypt a distinctly Moslem State with attendant 9. The great teacher has a gracious spirit and anti-Christian influences. Probably there will be is a tonic to his students.
a lowering of the standards of administrative effi- ;LO. The great teacher's aim is to bring his stu- ciency, due to the characteristic Oriental reluct- dents into harmony with the truth of God and into ance to assume responsibility for decisions. full obedience to His will.
A Missionary Appraisal as of January 1
By ROBERT E. SPEER, New York Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions 1""'… A MONG the glorious aphorisms with which the time. In this view, the old Student Volunteer Ignatian Epistles abound, there are many Movement watchword, "The evangelization of the as relevant to our day as they were to the World in this Generation," is both reasonable and days of Ignatius: necessary. There is no other way that the world can ever be evangelized. The world for us is the "Find time to pray without ceasing." world of our generatfon. The only agency that "Every wound is not healed with the same can evangelize it is the Church of that generation. remedy." "The times demand thee, as pilots the haven." I stand at the end of the past; where the future begins "The crown is immortality." I stand; "Stand like a beaten anvil." "It is part of a good athlete to be bruised and Emperors lie in the dust; men may live to command; to prevail." "Consider the times: look to Him who is above Over my head the stars, distant and pale and cold; Under my feet, the world, wrinkled and scarred and old; time." Back of me all that was, all the limitless past, "Slight not the workers." The future awaiting beyond, silent, untenanted, vast; "Let your stewardship define your work." I at the center of all that has been or that is to be- "A Christian is not his own master, but waits The task still unfinished and now God and man are de- upon God." pending on me!
"Consider the times" is essential counsel to the But though each time stands alone and needs foreign missionary enterprise as it enters this new to be considered by itself and in itself, it needs year. Such consideration involves two things. The first is our duty to see things as they are in to remember that what it is to itself, other times truth, with objective and dispassionate accuracy. No one is free from preconceptions and mental have been to themselves and that each time must bias in his approach to any subject and neither consider its own significance, not to itself alone, friends nor enemies, believers in, nor critics of but to and in the long movement of all the genforeign missions come to the consideration of the erations. How can we know until the end which present issues with empty minds. Those who were the most crucial and critical of all the times? have most at stake, however, are the men and We are both right and wrong in claiming the women who are putting their lives into the work. uniqueness and crisis-significance of our own We can least afford to be self-deceived. Of all time; right because it is our time and our one oppeople we are the ones who are most concerned to portunity, wrong because our strength and wisknow the truth and to see things in and about the dom for our own time require a calm and discernmissionary enterprise in themselves, as they really ing appraisal of other times. It is easy to fall are. into a panic and regard our own day of disorder and confusion as the supreme and critical day. It But it is not enough in considering the times is good to think this to the extent that we are to look at things as they are in themselves. We made earnest and resolute by the thought, but bad can see the present situation veraciously only as to the extent that we grow fe~erish and fearful we see it in its relations and perspective. No time and forfeit our sense of proportion and perspec- tive and lose our calmness of judgment and our confidence as to the future.
is isolated from its antecedents and its conse- We listen to "the challenge of the present quents. In one sense, to be sure, every time is crisis." We are told that "We are living, we are separate and unique and supreme to those who dwelling in a grand and awful time," that "Once live in it and in it alone. It is their one oppor- to every man and nation comes the moment to detunity to fulfil their task. It is indeed the past cide." But we forget that all these declarations which they are completing and the future which are quotations from another age. They are no they are preparing, but they were not here in the more real and true to us than they were to the past, and will not be here in the future, as they men of three generations ago. Is our time really are here now. Today is for them the accepted any more significant to us and its history than [7]
the fall of the Roman Empire was to the fifth cen- and in great outbreaks the mob of London or Birmingham tury and to all the centuries? Will some future .ournt houses, flung open prisons, and sacked and pillaged Chesterton say as much of our age as G. K. said at their will. . . . The introduction of gin gave a new of that one? impetus to drunkenness. In the streets of London gin- shops invited every passer-by to get drunk for a penny, or For the end of the world was long ago dead drunk for twopence. When the ends of the world waxed free, In no· field more than in the enterprise of for- When Rome was lost in a waste of slaves eign missions do we need to see things in true pro- And the sun was drowned in the sea. portion and relationship. Here, as elsewhere, men are filled with panicky fear or with the thought, When Caesar's sun fell out of the sky, whether reluctant or welcome, that the foreign And whoso hearkened right mission movement, as we have known it, is draw- ing to an end. Assuredly in foreign missions we Could only hear the plunging need to "consider the times." And it is proposed Of the nations in the night. here in the opening number of the REVIEW in 1937- And are we sure that even the upheaving ideas and discoveries of today are of any more signifi- (1) To suggest an historical review of the cance to us and to history than the great germinal, "crises" which the foreign missions movement has creative concepts and enlargements of the fif- already survived in the matter of its apologetics, teenth century, when the Reformation shattered its motives and methods; the bal~s of human liberty and new worlds, visible and invisible, opened to mankind? Or if we think (2) To suggest a diagnosis of features of the that this age is charged with unprecedented ex- present situation and its difficulties and problems; ter:r:al threats to the Christian faith, are we not forgetting the glacial movement of deism in the (3) To suggest an outline of missionary policy eighteenth century and the suicidal forces which for the immediate future. again and again, in the past and perhaps also today, are more dangerous to Christianity than any I. Crises Survived in the Past force from without? Of the religion of the clergy in England in the eighteenth century Bishop Ryle The idea that the foreign missions movement wrote: has in the past enjoyed the full support of the Christian Church but that today this interest and The vast majority of them were sunk in worldliness, support accorded by the Church in general has beand neither knew nor cared anything about their profes- gun to wane, is a fallacious idea. Foreign mission. They neither did good themselves nor liked anyone sions have never been the concern of any large else to do it for them. They hunted, they farmed; they part of the Church. At the beginning, in spite of swore, they drank, they gambled. When they assembled the fresh enthusiasm of the first Christians and it was generally to toast "Church and King," and to build the memory of the last commands of Christ, the one ano~her up in earthly-mindedness, prejudice, igno- foreign missions proposal met with determined rance, and formality. When they retired to their own opposition. It enlisted but a small minority suphomes, it was to do as little and preach as seldom as pos- port and there might have been no real foreign sible. And when they did preach, their sermons were so missions movement at all if it had not been for St. unspeakably bad, that it is comforting to reflect that they Paul pulling the Church out of Jerusalem and the were generally preached to empty benches. destruction of the city expelling it.
And J. R. Green wrote of that time: Medieval missions, from the early centuries until the Reformation, were not the enterprise of In the higher circles "everyone laughs," said Montesquieu the entire Church pressing out in a great and on his visit to England, "if one talks of religion." Of the united effort to evangelize the world. They were prominent statesmen of the time the greater part were the work of heroic individuals, some supported by unbelievers in any form of Christianity, and distinguished ecclesiastical or political influence, and some for the grossness and immorality of their lives. Drunken- single-handed – men like Patrick, Columba, Auness and foul talk were thought no discredit to Walpole. gustine, Boniface, Alexis, Anschar, Cyril, Metho- . . . Purity and fidelity to the marriage vows were sneered dius and Raymund Lull. The Church as a whole out of fashion. . . .. At the other end of the social scale had no missionary program and provided no suplay the masses of the poor. They were ignorant and brutal port for the devoted souls that went out to the to a degree which it is hard to conceive, for the vast in- non-Christian peoples. crease of population which followed on the growth of towns, and the development of manufactures had been met The Reformation was an upheaval within 'the by no effort for their religious and educational improve- Church and not an out-going missionary propulment. Not a parish had been created. Hardly a single sion. Neither under Luther nor under Calvin new church had been built. Schools there were none, save and Knox was any attempt made to launch forthe grammar schools of Edward and Elizabeth. The rural eign missions either in Asia or in Africa. The peasantry, who were fast being reduced to pauperism by Huguenot colony in Brazil in 1554-1558 was not the abuse of the poor-laws, were left without moral or religious training of any sort. "We saw but one Bible in the parish of Cheddar," said Hannah More at a far later time, "and that was used to prop a flower pot." Within the towns they were worse. There was no effective police;
a foreign mission nor were the colonial settlements seem to me alike founded in error; and, therefore, I must in North America, and when the latter turned to consider them both equally romantic and visionary. foreign mission work, as in John Eliot in 1646, and David Brainerd in 1743, and David Zeis- In America also foreign missions did not spring berger in 1739, it was only to reveal the more from or rest upon an awakened and devoted clearly that foreign missions were the concern Church which ardently supported the cause. Samonly of devoted individuals or small minority uel J. Mills and his four companions at Williams groups and not of the Church as a whole. And of College drew up the constitution of their Society the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation the for- of Brethren pledged to go as missionaries in eign missions were the work of the Jesuit mi- cipher, "public opinion then being opposed to us." nority. A small voluntary group undertook to send them and became the American Board. As similar When our modern foreign missions movement movements later developed in the various denombegan it was, as foreign missions have always inations it was always under the earnest advocacy been before William Carey and since, the interest of individuals or small groups who invariably met of the "Remnant," not of the body. The German with lethargy or opposition. Never in the history Pietists who founded the Danish-Halle Mission in of foreign missions has there been a time when 1705, and the Moravians whose foreign mission the work rested on the conscience, commanded the work began in 1732, were small minority groups, conviction, and enlisted the support of the whole illustrative, as foreign missions have always been, body of anyone of our denominations. It has been of St. Paul's principle in 1 Corinthians 1: 26-28: the burden of the "Remnant" in every case, often having a general official approval, but often meet- For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many ing direct or indirect opposition, and always for wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, real support by gifts and prayer and life, deare called; But God hath chosen the foolish things of the pendent upon a minority, often a small minority. world to confound the wise;. and God hath chosen the weak Let anyone read the biographies of men like Jerethings of the world to confound the things which are miah Evarts, Elisha P. Swift, William Taylor and mighty; And base things of the world, and things which Matthew Tyson Yates, and he will cease from conare despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are trasting the situation today with an inspired not, to bring to nought things that are. "golden age" when there was no lukewarmness or hostility and when everybody believed in for- William Carey and his supporters very dis- eign missions and gave liberally for their support. tinctly fall under Paul's characterization. Their movement was no enthusiastic general movement Again and again in the last hundred years forof the Christian Church. The respectable and eign missions have had to meet almost identical authoritative elements looked askance at this issues with those which we confront today. Since small company of "twelve obscure Northampton- 1819 the secretaries of the Foreign Mission Soshire ministers attempting the propagation of the cieties with headquarters in London have held gospel among the heathen." The London Mission- meetings regularly for counsel and fellowship. At ary Society began with three ministers – Bogue, the centennial of these meetings in 1919 it ap- Stephen and Hey.· The Church Missionary So- peared that there had been some 680 meetings ciety sprang from a small evangelical group of held and in a review of their history Dr; J. H. sixteen in the Church of England and could get Ritson, then one of the secretaries of the British none but German Lutheran missionaries for the and Foreign Bible Society, called attention to the first sixteen years of its history. Not one bishop problems discussed in the early years and their gave the group "the slightest recognition beyond resemblance to the problems of today. He is what he was officially obliged to give." In Scot- speaking of "Difficulties and Criticisms": land the very basic conceptions of foreign missions were at first rejected by the Moderatist ma- Missionary Societies have never been free from perjority. George Hamilton's well-known, and still plexities of finance, and these have not been their only familiar argument in the General Assembly of difficulties. The year 1823 was marked by terrible mor- 1796, was: tality at Sierre Leone, the C. M. S. and W. M. M. S. suf- fering heavily. The two best German missionaries of the To spread abroad the knowledge of the Gospel among C. M. S.-Johnson and During-were lost at sea. Twelve barbarous and heathen nations, seems to me highly pre- men and women went out, of whom six died within the posterous, in as far as it anticipates, nay, as it even re- year, and four more in the following six months. The verses, the order of nature. Men must be polished and C. M. S. report in May 1824 began, "The Committee have refined in their manners before they can be properly en- to display a chequered scene." No wonder the secretaries lightened in religious truths. Philosophy and learning of 1823 enquired, "What indications have been observed of must, in the nature of things, take precedence. Indeed, it the particular working of the great enemy against the should seem hardly less absurd to make revelation precede cause of missions, and how can such influence be best civilization in the order of time, than to pretend to unfold guarded against and counteracted?" to a child the "Principia" of Newton, ere he is made at all acquainted with the letters of the alphabet. These ideas At this period the whole outlook of missions changed from enthusiastic expectation of world-wide success to a
humble hope that a few elect might ;;e saved. A good deal its havoc, ignoring its implacable warfare on of hostile criticism was leveled against the Societies. In opium and idolatry, were charged to missions. It 1825 the Association was enquiring, "In what light are was held that Hung-su-tsuen, its founder and we to regard the opposition now so generally excited leader, had derived his ideas from Christianity against the diffusion of divine truth, and in what mode and that the wildness of the movement was an should it be met?" and then in 1826 they tried to profit illustration of what might happen anywhere if from the opposition – "What practical lessons may be Christian missions were free to let loose their relearned from the recent animadversions on benevolent in- actionary influences among unrestrained and stitutions?" Again a little later they discussed, "What ignorant races. "It is no chimera," wrote Alexare the causes of that distrust which has been excited re- ander Michie, "that the Chinese dread in Chrisspecting the management of religious societies, and what tianity, but a proved national peril, their vague is the best mode of removing it?" There is a tone of intuitions of which ripened suddenly into a terresignation in the title of a paper read in 1849, "The rible experience. . . . Much of the same evantrials of missions-the reason of these afflictive dispensa- gelizing proceedings, so far at least as the Chinese tions and the beneficial results of them." But they were Government can be expected to distinguish, which not allowed to work in peace, for within three years it was incited the Tai-ping rebels, are being carried on said, "A notion prevails to some extent that the mission- without intermission over a vastly wider field; ary enterprise is a comparative failure. Is there any truth and the missionaries today know perhaps as little in it, and what are the best methods of dealing with it?" of the ferments which they may have set up in The minutes of this meeting record the conviction that thousands of minds, as they did of the incubation "missions had been successful beyond expectation, and of Tai-pingdom." probably far surpassing the hopes of the fathers and founders of them." The unfavorable effect of the criticism of mis- sions, based on the Indian Mutiny and the Tai- The storm oroke out again in 1858 after the Indian ping Rebellion, was aggravated in the United Mutiny-the friends of missions urging a bolder Chris- States by the difficulties due to the Civil War. tian policy on the Government, and the critics declaring The war absorbed attention and resources. It dithat the Mutiny was caused by proselytism. In the same vided some of the largest denominations, diminyear the Secretaries were also driven to examine "Some of ishing their contributing constituencies and parthe principal objections made against the management of alyzing, by the blockade of the South, any foreign Religious Societies such as-the cost of deputation work, missionary effort of the separated churches of the publications and periodicals, etc." Criticism from without Southern States. Foreign exchange was disadlIas never ceased, but for half a century the Association vantageous. The American dollar was worth has not spent much time in discussing it. Of course it has only forty cents in China and one rupee in India. not always come from without. There have always been With mutinies and rebellions, the Civil War in critical and argumentative and candid friends in the inner America, the Crimean War in Russia, an old order circles. In 1825 Edward Irving's famous L. M. S. sermon and world-view dissolving and a new order with a declared that the current methods were all wrong, and a new idea of man's place in nature coming in, that few years after there was a topic of discussion which generation spoke of itself in the same terms in sounds peculiarly modern-"What line of conduct should which our generation speaks. One Board said in be adopted by Missionary Societies in order to obviate the its report: dangers, which may be apprehended from the agitation among their friends or agents, of those controversies Here is need of prayer; here is room for Christian libwhich have recently been moved in the Christian Church?" erality. Both are called for by the Word, the Providence, and the Spirit of God. The Committee cannot doubt that The Indian Mutiny brought with it an avalanche in both, the members of our Christian body, generally, of criticism of foreign missions. It was declared might make large advances on their past efforts. To refer that it was the fear and dislike of the Christian particularly to the pecuniary means required for increased propaganda of the missionaries that had brought labors, the Committee does not doubt that the churches on the Mutiny. Lord Ellenborough, "the vain and which now support these missions could really double their bombastic Governor-General who had preceded gifts, in a great number of instances; and the churche:, Lord Hardinge, and who was now the leading which have made no offering in aid of this cause, might advocate in Parliament of an anti..Christian policy surely do something for its support. Let this report with in India, on hearing of the Mutiny at once jumped its many and varied statements of what God is doing by to a conclusion as to the cause of it, and pro- his servants, be regarded as an earnest call to the considpounded it in the House of Lord. Lord Canning eration of Christian duty. This will also lead to greater (the Governor-General) had subscribed to mis- hopefulness in the missionary work of our beloved church. sions !" And Ellenborough's hostile voice was only one of many. The Committee are closing this Report in the midst of times that are filling the minds of men with apprehension. At the middle of the century and later the low Kingdoms are shaking. Our own country was never in tension of spiritual life, the weakened Christian such awful calamity. But the Church need not fear, her conviction, the indifference of students-and many members being found in their lot, at the post of duty. The other causes no doubt-brought missions to a low kingdom that shall never be moved is rising. He that has -ebb in Great Britain. For a decade the C. M. S. all power in heaven and in earth is now on its throne. ,could get an average of only two university men a year for foreign missionary service.
Paralleling the Sepoy Mutiny in India, came the 'Tai-ping Rebellion in China. This Rebellion and
A MISSIONARY APPRAISAL AS OF JANUARY 1, 1937
His Almighty Spirit is now in the world, as the great who are the unfortunate victims of unemployment the agent of converting the souls of men. thousands of dollars which are expended annually in one And those who believed that they could interpret of the most foolish and needless institutions in this wise, prophecy and read the signs of the times, pre- up-to-date country-foreign missions. dicted our Lord's immediate coming, as some do today, while others talked of chaos and social rev- While millions of Christians in our own country are in olution in the language so familiar to us and, dire distress through no fault of their own, we (some of what is more, effected revolutions as truly as us at least) are sending straight out of our country thou- Lenin and Mussolini and Hitler have done since. sands of dollars to heathen who don't give a —. Oh, the bitter, bitter irony of it! Of course if we ever did abolish foreign missions and give the money we waste on missionaries to those who desperately need it, the poor Again and again, through the century since dear missionaries would be unemployed. And that is as it Carey died in 1834, waves of criticism have should be. broken forth on foreign missions, which anticipated essentially all the criticisms which we meet Oh, you self-satisfied church members who so ardently today. Some of these criticisms sprang from support the foreign missions, turn your simple eyes from ignorance but many came from full and intelli- the naked Indians who revel in their heathenism, and cast those eyes upon the wretched hungry folk in the slums of your prosperous country's cities! Does Christ, when such gent knowledge, such as Alexander Michie's books conditions as today exist, appreciate the dollars you deon "China and Christianity" and "Missionaries in liberately send away in His name, from the emaciated China," and R. N. Cust's "The Gospel Message," hands of your own fellow countrymen? No, a thousand "Notes on Missionary Subjects," "Essays on Re- times no! ligious Conceptions," and "Missionary Methods." Many of those so-called followers of God-ministers- also have it in their power, by taking their children out Michie was editor of the Tientsin Times and knew of some of the most expensive private schools in the East what he was talking about. Cust had been one of and sending them to public schools, to aid, with the sevthe Punjab school of British civil servants in In- eral hundred dollars "saved" thereby, their needy brethren. dia and had retired in England, where he became Scarsdale, September 30,1931. A. O. P.
a member of the C. M. S. Committee and a con- Only one other period may be s'poken of-the structive but relentlessly unsparing critic of missionary policies at home and abroad. These men Boxer Uprising in China and its aftermath in the were only representative of hundreds. The mis- Church at home. As in the case of the Indian sionary enterprise is today under far less criti- Mutiny the guilt of government and trade was cism-less in volume and less in harmfulness- shifted to foreign missionaries, and missions were than it has met again and again in the past. What blamed for the consequence of political and ecowe have heard in recent years is only very old and nomic invasion and of the imperialism of opium very tawdry stuff, such as that of Will Rogers and oil. Mr. Sidney Brooks was a good represenwho, in the New York Times of March 23, 1932, tative of the attitude of missionary antagonism at said: "Has your town or city investigated this the time. In his opinion missionaries were not great scheme called 'block-aid' that they have in well educated, were untactful, careless of local New York City? Each person with a job that prejudice, speaking a "bastard Chinese," guilty lives in that block is asked to contribute a dime, of "blundering provocation," ignorant of the phiquarter or not more than a dollar a week. Your losophy they were "intent on overthrowing, the block is so organized that each block helps itself. language which must be their chief weapon"; It's practical and it works. they were bigoted and sectarian, "enthusiastic girls who scamper up and down the country. Of "Every city, town and even country townships the needless causes of irritation the missionary is should organize and use it. You know absolutely easily the most prominent." Brooks began his where your money is going, it's helping your next article by discrediting the plea which the mission- door neighbor. That's one trouble with our chari- aries might make, that the political pressure of the ties, we are always saving somebody away off, West and the seizure of territory and "the endless when the fellow next to us ain't eating. Same demands for concessions are the real occasions of thing wrong with the missionaries. They will this semi-national uprising."
save anybody if he is far enough away and don't A new type of anti-missionary propaganda apspeak our language." peared in attacks by Westerners hiding behind Or as A. O. P., in the New York Sun of October Chinese nom-de-plumes – such as Lowes Dickin- 1, 1931, wrote: son's "Letters of a Chinese Official," and Simpson's A REMINDER THAT CHARITY BEGINS- "A Chinese Appeal concerning Christian Mis- AND IS NEEDED-AT HOME sions" which was a barefaced and deliberate fraud, appearing under the name of Lin Shao To THE EDITOR OF The Sun. SIR: Yang. The newspapers were full of such antag- I am presenting no solution of the unemployment prob- onism, some blase and some bitter. Sometimes the lem. I merely am trying to raise a cry to give to those papers would admit replies and sometimes they
would not. Even an American Secretary of State, study and (3) he found a deepening purpose Mr. John Sherman, shared in the derision. It was among the chosen few to exalt the missionary well that the Ecumenical Conference in New York enterprise to a place of supreme importance in in 1900 came when it did, with its unimpeachable church economy, "but unfortunately not many of witnesses from all over the world and with the ap- these men and women of faith are possessed of proving presence of President McKinley and Ex- large pecuniary means." President Benjamin Harrison, Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York, Governor Beaver of Penn- If this diagnosis were not dated thirty-four sylvania, Lieut.-Governor Bates of Massachusetts, years ago it might be regarded as contempora- Governor Northen of Georgia, and some of the neous. There has no conflict or temptation or most trusted leaders of the Christian Church crisis befallen the foreign missions movement tothroughout the world. day essentially or fundamentally different from what it has had to meet, generation by generation, But how like our own condition that genera- since foreign missions began with St. Paul when tion's was may be seen from the careful analysis he concluded that it was the duty of Christianity of the missionary situation then by Dr. J. P. to turn to the Gentiles. Even depressions and J ones, one of the wisest and ablest missionaries curtailments and presidential elections are not in India, who wrote from America in 1903 to The new: Harvest Field in India. He had traveled on furlough 20,000 miles in twenty-one states and had I have read with much interest the pamphlet you sent, addressed 200 gatherings. The facts which "fre- which gives such encouraging reports from the field and quently obtruded themselves upon him and which reveals such aUuring opportunities to press forward in the he could not ignore," were: extension of the work. It must be hard, indeed, not to respond to these splendid opportunities, and instead of (1) The appalling fact that so few of the members of advancing, to have to order retrenchments, but that policy seems to be the order of the day in all business enterprises the churches have any knowledge whatever of, or slightest in these days, and I see no other course open to you. We have found it hard here to get people to give what they interest in, foreign missions. gave last year towards maintaining the fixed charges, to say nothing of new work. I think therefore it would be (2) That the old doctrines of the past, upon which the wise for you to defer any extension of the work until after election, when we confidently expect to see financial conmissionary movement of a century ago was constructed, ditions greatly improve.
have been entirely swept away or have lost their emphasis. This letter is dated July 28, 1908!
There is no gainsaying the fact that the missionary move- II. Factors in the Problem Today ment of a hundred years ago no longer obtains and is But in each generation the basic issues have to be grasped afresh, the conditioning environment being supplanted by another, or at least is yielding to it shifts its emphases and proportions, and new ele- ments of difficulty replace the old. What are the preeminence in its influence upon the Christian mind. main factors which constitute the problem today?
(3) Americans have become great travelers; as such 1. The general low spiritual tension due to many things-the great diversity, diffusion and their examination of missionary activity is superficial or superficiality of human interests, the heightened speed which dissolves continuity and promotes wanting altogether; and on returning home they hide their vacillation and change of concern, the excitement of new toys and tools, the mania for amusement, bold ignorance of what might have been seen and studied the spectator attitude to life, the diminished re- gard for fixed conviction and principle, the eninte11igently by cool assumption or bold assurance that the grossment of men's minds in economic and politi- cal issues regarded as the really significant things missions either do not exist or are practicaUy doing noth- -and much else.
ing. The blasting influence of these traveled people upon 2. An inadequate conception of the nature of Christianity, its finality and absoluteness, its true the missionary cause at home is much greater than many character as a revelation and not a religion. John MacMurray quotes a remark of Collingwood in of us think. . "Speculum Mentis" to the effect that when Chris- tianity becomes a religion, it ceases to be Chris- (4) Many who were indifferent to the missionary cause tianity. Even among Christians, and of course outside the Church, there is wide rejection of the a decade ago are now its pronounced enemies. They are Christian view of the uniqueness, the sole ade- quacy, the universal necessity of the Gospel of found in churches. the New Testament. There is avowed or uncon- (5) Anti-missionary spirit has been caused by the seeming ingratitude of alien peoples responsible for mas- sacres of missionaries sent to do them good; and more- over the growing prevalence of belief in the doctrine of evolution. carries in the mind of many an argument against missions to non-Christian peoples. These say, "Why do you not let peoples with ethnic religions graduallY evolve their own religious destiny rather than thrust upon them a foreign faith and introduce a revolution of religious life and conceptions among them?"
(6) A great deal of the commercialism of the age has entered into the Church of America, and this spirit is im- patient with the remote and not very articulate appeals of the missionary in foreign lands. : . . The apathy and indifference can in part be traced to the indifferent-and sometimes worse-advocacy by missionaries of their cause among the churches.
On the other hand Dr. Jones was encouraged (1) by the better attitude of the ministry which he attributed to the better attitude of the theological seminaries, (2) by the increase of mission
A MISSIONARY APPRAISAL AS OF JANUARY 1, 1937
scious rejection of the position stated in the Mes- is a personal matter, and I am not going to ask another sage of the International Missionary Conference man to become a Hindu or Parsee. in Jerusalem in 1928: It does not matter, according to this view, The Gospel is the answer to the world's greatest need. whether men become Christians or not, and there- It is not our discovery or achievement; it rests on what fore it is superfluous if not impertinent to mainwe recognize as an act of God. It is first and foremost tain an enterprise which seeks to evangelize and "Good News." It announces glorious truth. Its very na- convert them. ture forbids us to say that it may be the right belief for some but not for others. Either it is true for all, or it is 4. There is the idea of a self-contained Amernot true at all. ica, living its own life aloof from the rest of the world. No one can really defend such a view, but We believe that men are made for Christ and cannot it is set forth by men who ignore its absurdity and really live apart from Him. Our fathers were impressed impossibility but who mean by it that we are to with the horror that men should die without Christ-we get what we can from the outside world but have share that horror; we are impressed also with the horror no duty to it. Let us suck up all the gain we can that men should live without Christ. from the nations, but we owe them nothing and our business is to let them alone! Let us go on Herein lies the Christian motive; it is simple. We can- our way and leave them to go theirs. We have not live without Christ and we cannot bear to think of men fallen on an age of an ingrown national soul. living without Him. We cannot be content to live in a Here indeed we have a new political mind, shrivworld that is unChristlike. We cannot be idle while the eled, selfish, afraid. What a contrast this is to yearning of His heart for His brethren is unsatisfied. the outspoken words of President Grant in his second inaugural: "As commerce, education and Since Christ is the motive, the end of Christian missions the rapid transit of thought and matter by telefits in with that motive. Its end is nothing less than the graph and steam have changed everything, I production of Christlike character in individuals and so- rather think that the Great Maker is preparing cieties and nations through faith in and fellowship with the world to become one nation, speaking one lan- Christ the living Saviour, and through corporate sharing guage-a consummation which will render armies of life in a divine society. and navies no longer necessary. I will encourage and support any recommendations of Congress Christ is our motive and Christ is our end. We must tending towards such ends." Well, General Grant give nothing less, and we can give nothing more. would get none from the last Congress or the next.
These truths are not adequately grasped. And, 5. The influence of the current political phialas, some foreign mission boards seem to have losophy of the State, as the organ of the social, adopted the view that their work is henceforth to educational, economic and cultural life of the nadwindle. tion, is revealed in their taking over the philan- thropic and cultural activity and responsibility 3. Therefore, and in consequence, the prevalent hitherto borne by society functioning nonpolitiidea of religious equalitarianism-that religion is cally. Already this philosophy has done far more a relative thing with no criterion or valid claim than is realized in breaking down the sense of reof absolutism anywhere, that if people have any sponsibility in individuals and in disintegrating religion it is best to let them alone in it and not some of the most precious functionings of a livdistuvb them, that "religion" in its general sense ing society. "Why," men ask, "should we try any is enough without allowing any specific religion longer to do what the State is now doing or proa place of exclusive preeminence, that there is a posing to do." The State does not propose to common stratum under all religions that is the carryon Christian missions, but its philosophy sufficient and essential thing, and that propaganda undercuts the human attitudes on which foreign and proselytism are inappropriate. Mr. Gandhi's missions must depend. untenable view, which would in reality disallow all religions except man's original and primitive 6. And furthermore, this expansion of the funcfaith, is too common. He said to a group of rep- tions of the State requires resources which must resentatives of the British missionary societies be provided by increased taxation on the very at the time of the Round Table Conference: people who had cared for these ministries. Even if they would continue them they cannot, because The idea of converting people to one's faith by speech income and inheritance taxes take away the caand writings, by appeal to reason and conviction, and by pacity to do so. The late Jesse Strauss, American suggesting that the faith of his forefathers is a bad faith, Ambassador to France, cancelled legacies of in my opinion, limits the possibilities of serving humanity. nearly a million dollars which his former will be- I believe that the great religions of the world are all more queathed to educational and philanthropic causes, or less true and that they have descended to us from God. and for these two reasons: the expansion of gov- . . . While I criticize part of the missionary work, I willingly admit that missionaries have done indirect good to India. There is no doubt about this. But for my having come under Christian influence, some of my social work would not have been done. My fierce hatred of child marriage and "untouchability" is due to Christian influence. I have come into contact with many splendid specimens of Christian missionaries. . . . Though my conviction i.s strong enough in me to die for that conviction, that force does not carry me to the goal of believing that the same thing should be believed by my fellowmen. . . . Religion
ernment functions, and the diminution of individ- again for our justification. The old idea was to ual resources due to taxation required for the ac- Christianize international and all other human tivities of the State. relations. The present idea is to internationalize and humanistically secularize our Christian con- 7. Just as the conception of the deep spiritual cepts. Collective and social ideas supplant the need of man for Christ has grown dim with many, personal and redemptive, not more so than in the so also there has been a discontinuance of the rep- past, but just as really, and just as resistantly to resentation of the moral and social need of the New Testament foreign missions as in the past. pagan world. The words "pagan" and "heathen" have fallen into disuse. Dr. Ambedkar, of India, 10. The home church has been confused and denounces the present generation of missionaries misled by the just emphasis that is laid in foreign for sparing so tenderly the abuses of Hinduism, missions on the native or national or indigenous and contrasts their timidity and overcharitable- church, as aimed at and in such glorious measure ness with the downright declarations of their already partly., achieved. "Why not let these predecessors of the horrors of idolatry and caste. churches now do the work?" it is asked, not real- It is not necessary to correct this present-day izing that they are still so unequal to the task that tendency by harsh denunciations of "heathenism." has to be done that they themselves are the strong- The true view is to comprehend all men in all est and clearest voice calling for the expansion of lands under one common condemnation and need. the missionary enterprise. On the other hand "All have sinned and come short of the glory of there are lands where excessive nationalism in the God." It is because so many people in the Church joins with these home critics in their queschurches themselves feel no deep need of Christ tion. But these very churches are quick to urge as the only Saviour that they feel no constraint to that it is not a cessation of foreign missions which send missionaries to save others. they want but the acceptance of a principle, which in reality is neither wise nor right, namely, the 8. Our missionary freedom is increasingly dissociation of authority and responsibility. The abridged by the nationalistic and secular move- very idea is proof that the work of foreign misments which are limiting religious liberty. We sions has not yet been perfectly done. are losing, in many lands, the freedom of worship and conscience and of religious expression which 11. There is also the situation in the home the last two generations won, and are returning churches. Many of these churches are suffering to the darker days of a century ago. In some from a regimentation of benevolences which sublands, as in Mexico, the limitation is chiefly on stitutes mathematical ratios for vital education foreigners, but in other lands, as in Russia and and living motives; which subordinates causes in Germany, it is on the nationals as well. In some common treasury pools, which increases overhead lands the limitation is only partial and is indeed charges, which removes the donor to a fatal disnot religious. In some countries, as in some of tance from the cause which he is asked to support, our own states, no foreigner can practice medi- and which weakens and threatens to destroy the cine. In some he can carryon schools only under power and persuasion of the appeal of the living special regulations. In a very few, as for ex- work. In many denominations there are conflictample, Russia and Turkey, all Christian propa- ing parties which sacrifice the missionary work of ganda is disallowed. Passport and vise regula- the church on the battlefield of their doctrinal contions are increasingly hampering. A missionary tentions. In all the churches foreign missions are, has just been forbidden admission to Japan be- as they have always been, the burden of the micause he was declared to be an extreme pacifist. nority and are too often sacrificed by the power Martyrdom is not the option of missionaries any of the majority to the interest of causes near at more. No vise thitherward can now be secured hand – the very right of the minority to direct and without a vise the martyr is not allowed to their gifts to foreign missions being sometimes sail from home. frustrated or abridged.
9. The missionary motive has thinned out in 12. The situation in the missions-is it worse many quarters. Humanitarian concepts, appeals than in the past? Are the missionaries really for world peace and international and interracial, "weary" or disheartened? They might well be if and even interreligious, good will have been sub- their reliance were upon the home church. In stituted for the evangelical ideas. Instead of the some denominations missions have suffered reconstraining love of Christ, which included the duction of from 30 to 60 per cent in their staffs. love of human brotherhood, human brotherhood Are missionaries today less effective than in' the is urged as sufficient without the hampering and past? The answer to these questions is NO! The separating addition of the love of Christ; or if average of foreign missionary character and cathe love of Christ is kept, it is only as an ethical pacity and devotion has not fallen. The relation symbol. Christ is no longer the Christ of the of missions and boards is better than in the past. New Testament, crucified for our sins and raised Most missions are functioning more effectively.
A MISSIONARY APPRAISAL AS OF JANUARY 1, 1937
Their policies are clearer and more continuously III. Our Future Missionary Policy pursued. Right principles are more surely discerned. The forces of indigenous Christianity are Many of these elements in the contemporary immensely multiplied. There are indeed counter- missionary situation are beyond our control and vailing weaknesses, although they are less in for- perhaps even beyond our influence. Others are eign missions than in the home church. There is not, but lie wholly within our area of action and need of a spontaneous, sustained, evangelistic mo- responsibility. Roughly, there are four modes of mentum. Schools and hospitals should be still influence open to us: more dominantly evangelistic (instead of less, as has been recently advised) in purpose, character (1) Prayer. Perhaps with many of us prayer and influence. The furlough complex needs re- is in the same category as the weather, as Mark straint. The problem of mastering the language Twain characterized it. We talk of it but we has been made more difficult by short terms of don't do anything about it. There is probably no service or long and frequent furloughs, the prev- greater peril to the church than this theoretical alence of the use of English and the probationary acceptance of the reality of prayer as a force and and experimental conception of foreign mission our neglect to use it. service which has become too common. There is need for spiritual and intellectual leadership, tak- (2) Publicity, not in any narrow promotional ing the place of influence and authority based on or advertising sense, but as the ceaseless and effecfinancial and administrative control. There have tive proclamation of the essential nature and the been surveys enough to last for some time. fundamental principles of Christianity, and of the facts of human need and of the adequacy of the 13. This analysis is far from complete. Many Gospel. more aspects of the contemporary situation could be cited. One must suffice. The world is increas- (3) Wisely conceived and steadily executed ingly one world in the problem which it presents plans for presenting the cause at home and proseto the Christian apologist and evangelist. Wil- cuting it abroad. liam Hung, of Yenching University in Peiping, may be overestimating the declension and debility (4) Personalities. It is on personalities rather of the non-Christian religions, although what he than on programs or policies that this and all says is inevitably and rapidly verifying itself, but great work rests. When John Lawrence was he is describing accurately the main issues of the asked by what methods he had saved the Panjab present and coming days, when he says: and broken the Indian Mutiny, he replied, "It was not by my methods but by my men." Personali- It seems to me that we have arrived at a stage in the ties have been God's instrumentalities from the history of missions when it is no longer worth while for beginning. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt the missionary leaders to study the Christian approaches among us." "I am the Light of the World." "Ye to Buddhism, Confucianism, etc. The scientific study of are the lights of the world." Paul, at the outset, these non-Christian religions will have historical and aca- the long list of the medieval pioneers and the moddemic interest, but it has ceased to have the same practical ern company-Carey, Duff, Martyn, Livingstone, importance in missionary work as it used to have up to Anderson, Lowrie, Lambuth, and the men and twenty or even ten years ago. We must realize that the women we know today – these are God's living frontier of our missionary enterprise has changed, and forces. with it we must also change the old tactics. Too much praise cannot be given to the growth in the study of com- But there are specific endeavors and courses of parative religions in the missionary training centers of the action which suggest themselves in this appraisal West. Thus prepared, the missionary movement has been for our present scrutiny and care. enabled to deal with the non-Christian more effectively. It is partly due to the educational activities of the Christian 1. Every mission board and its officers must movement that the other religions are losing the grip they themselves discern and work with and by a true had in non-Christian lands. While Christianity is making conception of the real basis of missions in the inroads into these religions from one side, these religions New Testament Gospel. There should be fresh are suffering a great deal in the rear from a group of and definite statements of this basis made in new enemies, who have advanced so far into their terri- forms that will reach the intelligence and contory, that, for all practical purposes, Christianity must science of the Church. No such statements will ignore the incapacitated older religions and think of its reach and convince all. There are Christians and frontier work in terms of what it will have to do with Christians, but the true sheep will hear their Masthese same new forces; scientific agnosticism, material- ter's voice in the truth about Him and its mission istic determinism, political fascism, and moral iconoclasm. to the world. It will be disastrous if in any mis- sion board there is uncertainty or unbelief as to If we are not prepared to meet these issues on the evangelical supernaturalism of the Christianthe foreign mission field, where two-thirds of the ity of the New Testament and the missionary human race are involved in them, we may as well enterprise. abandon hope that we can meet them in the United States. 2. Every missionary secretary ought to satu- rate his mind and spirit in the literature and his-
tory of the foreign mission· enterprise from the istry depleted by the withdrawal of the inspira- apostolic days until today. He ought not to have tion of the foreign mission appeal. There are to remake discoveries already made long ago. He hundreds of men in the home ministry today who ought not to see the foreign mission enterprise in would not have turned from other work to full- any distorted or unrelated form, but should know time Christian service if it had not been for the enough of the history of the Church and of the influence of the foreign mission call upon their world, and enough of the contemporary life and lives. The national churches on the foreign field movement of the world, to understand the times are appealing more strenuously than ever for and the place of the missionary enterprise, neither more men and women from the Western churches.
exaggerating it nor undervaluing it, in the will of The voice of India was uttered by the Bishop of God. It would be well for him to read Rufus Dornakal in the appeal which he sent to the meet- Anderson's "History of the American Board"; ing of the British students in Edinburgh in J an- Eugene Stock's "History of the Church Mission- uary 1933: ary Society"; Dr. Arthur J. Brown's Centennial We cannot, therefore, at this time restrain ourselves "History of the Presbyterian Board"; Volume IV from sending you a call to "come over and help us" with of the Edinburgh Conference Report of 1910; all the earnestness and passion at our command.
Volume I of the Report of the Jerusalem Confer- 1. There are vast regions in many parts of India and ence of 1928 and the volume published some years Burma into which the message of God's revelation in ago by the Committee on the War and the Reli- Christ has not yet penetrated. gious Outlook, entitled, "The Missionary Outlook in the Light of the War." 2. There are still whole classes of people, even in already evangelized regions (like the middle class Hindus, Mus- lims, Buddhists and Untouchables), to whom Christ and 3. The promotion and cultivation of missionary his message have not yet been demonstrably put.
interest by the mission boards should not be less 3. The small church in India needs outside aid to train general and diffusive, but it should be more per- its manhood and its womanhood and its ministry for misonal and individual. There is need of far more tional Christian service and for effective witness to the specific, careful and continuous education of indi- regenerating power of Christ. vidual pastors, women and laymen, to raise up a new generation of intelligent and consecrated 4. The rural churches and those established among classes of people once despised and suppressed need guid- ance and help to enable them to play their part in service givers. for rural India.
4. The effort should be made, afresh or in repe- 5. Doctors and educationalists are needed for mission tition, to secure on the part of every pastor, at hospitals and colleges-to serve India towards stronger least once a year, a clear presentation of the es- and saner citizenship. sential missionary character of Christianity, its relation to the so-called world-religions with We fear that the strong national feelings exhibited in which it is not to be classified as though it be- recent years in India may estrange even the disciples of longed to their category, and the basic principles Christ from the call to serve Him in a land that is full of racial antipathies. We may assure you that, while that is true to a certain extent in the sphere of politics, it is of the Church's mission to evangelize the world. not true in the sphere of religion. At no time has there been a greater friendliness among the people towards 5. The literature of the missionary enterprise, Christians and Christian messengers than at the present already effective and appealing, needs to be still time. British missionaries of the true type-missionaries more qualitatively sharpened and empowered. who endeavor in the spirit of our Master to come to India The circulation of the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE with sympathy and discernment and to serve her people WORLD, the only popular, interdenominational with that peculiar self-effacing love and power that issues missionary periodical left to the Church, should out of the Cross of Christ-such are in greater demand be multiplied tenfold. now than ever before.
Again we fear that some may be deterred by a con- 6. New missionaries should be called for and sciousness of personal inadequacy for the needs of India, sent out. The day for this is not past. It is true and by a procrastination that makes them wait for some that in the recent years of depression many boarels inward guidance and special call before they respond to have had to reduce their staffs. It is also true an appeal for service in India. But surely the crying needs of this great country and its peoples, and especially that this reduction has been lamentable. The at a time like this, and the possession of that life and good of it, in throwing responsibility upon the power which issued from Calvary and the Upper Room native churches, could have been secured without coupled with consciousness of ability with the help of God the appalling loss to the work in the withdrawal of to meet these needs, constitute a call the Divine source of thousands of qualified and experienced mission- which no one. can easily doubt. aries. Young men and women whom God has We therefore plead with you to consider whether Chris- tian students can now fail to give India what they alone manifestly called ought not to be hindered from can give, and whether they do not owe India this immeanswering that call. diate help at the present crisis of her history. We pray that the call to come over and help us may touch the hearts The home church will suffer in her own life of some of you, resulting in your surrender for missionary and will find the supply of men for the home min- service in India.
A MISSIONA:RY APPRAISAL AS OF JANUARY 1, 1937
This is an authoritative voice, quite different which shall be self-propagating, self-supporting and self- from the irresponsible statements of non-Chris- governing; to cooperate, so long as necessary, with these tian students studying in Western universities. churches in the evangelizing of their countrymen, and in bringing to bear on all human life the spirit and principles In these appeals the National Churches deal of Christ.
very specifically with the idea that missionaries Missions and all their institutions and the naought not to go except where they are invited. tional churches with which they cooperate need, The National Christian Council of Japan at its all of them, in common with the Church at home meeting last December spoke these manly words: and all of its institutions, to be caught up in the The work which Foreign Mission Boards have started in momentum of a powerful and sustained evan- Japan has by no means reached a full-round goal. Much remains to be done to bring it to full completion. Weare gelism expressed, not in the living deeds of Chrisanxious that they shall finish it fully and happily. The tian service only, but also in a direct, persuasive, reason self-support and the spirit of independence lags convincing and unremitting proclamation of the among our churches is the tendency to lean on friends and truth and the truths of the Christian faith.
funds from abroad. The Japanese Church should cut loose S. The problem of the establishment and relaand launch out for itself. This has been done in every tionships of an independent national church has other sphere of life in the Empire; diplomacy, education, not been solved fully under any board. Each commerce, industry go forward through Japanese initia- system has its advantages and its disadvantages. tive and effort. Why not the church? Mission organiza- tions and missionaries should act from an irresistible sense Any approach to a satisfactory solution has lain of mission and not wait for an invitation. The missionary attitude of American Christians motivated by an impelling not in any program or scheme and has been forinner urge should be positive and aggressive. Regarding warded, not by conferences and compromise, but policies for evangelism in Japan, we believe that the Jap- has been achieved through persons and personal anese Church should in the main take the initiative. How- relationships. There are impersonal principles ever, we welcome assistance from abroad which is moti- involved; and no one has ever set this forth more vated by a positive urge. We fail because there is too clearly than Henry Venn, for thirty-one years much of a spirit of compromise with the "Japanese spirit." honorary secretary of the Church Missionary So- If Christianity were to become a Japanese religion it would ciety. But it has required persons of Christian cease to be Christianity. When this is put squarely to the student, for example, he is attracted by it. We need to mind and spirit to discern these principles and be more forthright in our presentation of the essential dif- how they could be applied, and these persons must ferences between Christianity and Japanism. arise in the native church, as well as in the mis- And these calls are for men and women like sion. Noone from without can make a native those who have gone in the past, not for the super- church living and free. Life and liberty are not men sometimes recommended, who are to go out qualities that can be donated by man to man. No and, without the language, accomplish in a few mission can give them to a church, and no mission months what other men, just as able as they, have can withhold them when a church wants them failed to accomplish in years. The great ones and will take them from God by whom alone they have gone again and again: Joseph Cook, J. H. can be given and who is more ready to give them Seelye, Henry Drummond, and others in our own than we are to take them. time. But the men who made the deepest impression on India, and the same thing is true of every 9. In almost every mission field new national or other land, were not visitors like these, but ultra-nationalistic regulations are affecting the Schwartz and Carey and Bowen, who went out to tenure or title or terms of mission property hold- India and never came back to learn the new phi- ings. In Mexico many clear titles have been losophies and psychologies of the West. Schwartz simply wiped out by the Government with no reserved forty-three years with never a furlough muneration or redress. Elsewhere increments of out of India; Carey forty-one years, and Bowen, value have been denied or imperilled. In many forty years. It is service like theirs, with or with- lands the national churches are disposed to argue out furlough, that leaves its mark. that all mission property is held in trust for them, even though it was wholly provided from the 7. The fundamental evangelistic aim of the for- West, or by people who gave it, not for the endoweign mission enterprise must be kept clear and ment of the church in some one land, but for use made even more dominant. In spite of advice to in the evangelization of the whole world. It would subordinate this aim, or to regard it as fulfilled seem to be wise for each boardin humanitarian service, the declaration which a number of boards have made in their Manuals (1) To examine all its property holdings to deshould stand unaltered in its letter and meaning: termine what should be held for the present and future needs of the work; The supreme and controlling aim of Foreign Missions is to make the Lord Jesus Christ known to all men as their (2) To have a clear and just understanding Divine Saviour and to persuade them to become his dis- with the national churches as to what, if any, is ciples; to gather these disciples into Christian Churches to be turned over to them and when and on what terms and to what title-holding body;
(3) To dispose of the rest while it is still pos- 12. We need to give, with real national leaders sible to do so. It must be realized that in some (such, for example, as the late Erasmo Braga in countries there is a difficult inheritance of pater- Brazil, and the late Masahisa Uemura in Japan), nalism and dependence to be overcome. Here is a careful study to the problems of training leaders fragment from a letter from Cawnpore, India, for the church. Are we simply duplicating Westdated June 25, 1936: ern modes and ideals? Can we do anything else? Are missions deciding questions which are church Ages ago the word of God was preached by the for- problems rather than mission problems and which eigners in India. As a matter of fact our Lord Jesus no illusory merging of church and mission can Christ was revealed to the inhabitants of the country by qualify us to solve for a really indigenous church? the most zealous Americans. They left their dear home Would we approve in America in the training of and came out to India convinced of the Holy Spirit-lived our ministry the duplication here of the former in a strange place, though so unfavorable. They faced schools of the Orthodox Church in Russia, or of great trouble in introducing the historical Christ as the the schools of any of the continental churches? real Saviour of the world. By and by through their efforts Or again, can we act otherwise in our mission many were brought to the blessed feet of Jesus Christ. training schools? Here once more we wait for the Thus missions were organized and worship places erected development of an adequate autonomous church at their own expense. such as is already foreshadowed in autonomy, and also in a measure in true indigenous originality, Next they took upon themselves to arrange for the in Japan and Brazil. boarding schools to be established in various cities of the land, and thus feed and give education to the children of 13. The problem of the relation of missions to the poor, altogether free of charge. They further solved government, which was one of the central probthe problem of the medical need of their native Christian lems two and three generations ago, is back again brethren, and opened hospitals and dispensaries, where with a vengeance. The meaning and limits of they considered it fit, for free treatment of the sick. They religious liberty must be restudied and the attidid all this and many other good deeds for the sake of the tude of missions to government limitations and One who opened their hearts to so do. They ran all such control. How many of the following rights may institutions with their own hard-earned money and greatly be justly demanded as included in the claim of benefited the countless people of the world especially our religious liberty? country. No doubt they sent out more than enough of money to India, whereby several were saved and educated. (1) Freedom of private opinion; (2) Freedpm of private worship; Then follows an appeal for continued free edu- (3) Freedom of assembly and public worship; cation and medical care and subsidy of the church (4) Freedom from requirement to participate in India. There have been many arguments in in objectionable worship; the Indian Christian papers to the effect that mis- (5) Freedom for propagation (the new Russion property should be regarded as the property sian constitution of 1936 allows only antireligious of the Indian Church. It is bad for the Indian propaganda) ; Church to take this view. And mission boards (6) Freedom in education, to be exempt from must do, in this matter as in all else, only what is state schools and to conduct our own schools; right and just in itself, and what is best for the (7) To hold property for use; Christian cause, whether doing this is easy or (8) To hold property for endowment; hard. (9) To sell property freely at what price can be obtained; 10. We should limit the quantity and improve (10) Freedom from all discrimination upon rethe educational quality and the Christian char- ligious grounds. acter and missionary influence, and should reexamine the type, of all our educational work, How far shall we go against a government? lower and higher. This is a different issue today from the earlier days, because now we cannot cross a national 11. We must evidently restudy the work of boundary line without government consent. We medical missions. Already they are discontinued can't die any more for rights for which our fain some fields, either through government hin- thers could die. What shall our course be ? Well, drance or through displacement by indigenous de- one thing is clear-we must exhaust every effort velopment. Elsewhere the economic problem to obey what we believe to be God's will and leave becomes increasingly difficult. The inadequate the consequence to Him, and we must use to the appropriations compel mission hospitals and dis- full and without delay all our still allowed liberty pensaries to achieve a measure of self-support of Christian witness. which diminishes their ability to give charitable service to the poor and increases their competition 14. The problem of cooperative and union work with native practitioners. Again the problem becomes increasingly difficult. Large sections of arises of diffusion or concentration; of quantity or quality, of competition or supplementation; the solution is to be found by asking "What will best serve the fundamental Christian missionary aim ?"
A MISSIONARY APPRAISAL AS OF JANUARY 1, 1937
some of the churches are moving in a doctrinal or mild. Some missions complain of too much direction that makes cooperation with them by home direction and control, and some of too little. others, in some forms of work, impossible. The What we all need is to hold fast to David Livingfundamentalist group in some churches demands stone's doctrine that judgment and responsibility withdrawal from cooperation that we believe go together and that whoever exercises the judgought to continue, and the opposite groups do the ment must bear the responsibility and whoever same, and also demand cooperation that is im- bears the responsibility must exercise the judgpracticable. The situation is tragically confused. ment. In reality the work is an integer and all The fundamentalist and independent groups are of us together must seek the wisdom which we divided among themselves. The modernistic can achieve collectively alone and all of us must group is inchoate and inarticulate. The great bear each his own burden and also the burden of evangelical body goes on its way but is harassed us alL from either side. It could be wished that we would all assemble on the platform laid down by 16. Probably every mission board has from Charles Hodge at the great meeting of the Evan- time to time surveyed its whole work, in the light gelical Alliance in New York City in 1873: of its situation in relation to its home church and the areas of the world where it is at work, and has Finally, there is the duty of cooperation. In union is sought to outline a comprehensive and continuous strength. All Christians and all churches are engaged in policy, asking itself where the emphasis should the same work. They are servants of the same Master, be laid, whether any of its work should be disconsoldiers of the same Great Captain of their salvation. If tinued, whether it should press out on new roads, the several corps of an army should refuse to cooperate whether any change in policy or program should against the common foe, defeat would be the inevitable be made. The archives of some boards are rich result. What then is to be expected if the great denom- in such surveys and appraisals. More than once inations into which Christians are divided keep contending in the Presbyterian Board we have tried to attain with each other instead of combining their efforts for the to the height of a grand missionary strategy and overthrow of 'the kingdom of darkness? . . . If all Chris- statesmanship. In 1896, Dr. Ellinwood made tians really believe that they constitute the mystical body such a careful and comprehensive study. In 1920 of Christ on earth, they would sympathize with each other another careful analysis and projection of work as readily as the hands sympathize with the feet, or the was made, based on a study of all the fields of the feet with the hands. If all churches, whether local or de- Board in regard to occupancy, responsiveness, nominational, believe that they too are one body in Christ strategic importance and human need. All such Jesus, then instead of conflict we should have concord; studies are useful but they need to be handled with instead of mutual criminations we should have mutual an easy touch and with an open and ready mind. respect and confidence; instead of rivalry and opposition Paul went to Europe against his previous plan, we should have cordial cooperation. The whole visible and not by his deliberated program. It is well for Church would then present an undivided front against us to heap up the wood symmetrically for the infidelity and every form of anti-Christian error, and the altar. But the fire! Lord, we wait for the fire. sacramental host of God, though divided into different corps, would constitute an army glorious and invincible. The aphorism of Ignatius was a double ad- juration: "Consider the times. Look to Him 15. The mission boards will do well to maintain Who is above time." in their relations to their missions and to the churches with which they are working on the field, the principle of a democratic equality, and not be led into an attitude of autocracy whether stringent SOME SEORETS OF POWER Before power can come into the lives of men and women, they have to become channels through which the power can work. To be that channel, one has to get rid of self. Self has to be crucified. The heart and life have to be cleansed. Then the clean vessel has to be presented in consecration for service. Paul had experienced something of this power, and appealed to the Romans to present their bodies upon the altar as holy, living sacrifices. The purpose of this consecration was to perform the Will of God. They could not be channels through which the power of God flowed until they were willing to lose their lives in His great cause.
God will not try to force Himself into the life of anyone. He stands at the door and knocks. He is seeking and wooing and loving, but does not use force. God created man and redeemed man when he transgressed. It is a twofold ownership which God has over man, but still He waits until the heart is opened before He comes in to cleanse and abide there.
Power is never given to be wasted.-Ralph Pfister, in Gems of Cheer. s Au D I ~ NEJ D ~ Hofu!d"it~~~_ _ _ _/fL-T'–':~—l ~ Ri.'a.'.d'.'hD-··················l 'A.'…~ … ····R R I A J~ . ~ ……………
liddah 1 Mecca ……… : …~ .0.······· Taif / 20°~~–~~·~ '~—-~~~~-SAN-DY–DES-ER-T ~~~:r/~ 200 AN/~_ m~~ ~ ~ / .'
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p II p.. ..'••/ …..
"~ 'r =. . .~–~,'————-~>=~~.~…~.. -~.-'.'.-….-.~ —–t———–~ 15° ARABIA Showing Route of Dr. Harold Storm Socotra~ o'===="5=0S=CA=1L0~0E=OF1=5M,0""I=L2E0=0S<==:2d50 Route of Or, Storm …………….
45° Longitude East of Greenwich 50° Prepared by C.S.HAMMOND & Co.,N. Y. [20 ]
A Doctor's Tour in Neglected Arabia*
By W. HAROLD STORM, M.D., Bahrain, Persian Gulf Missionary of the Reformed Church in America A MOST interesting and important journey On August 23 we left Taif for Jiddah and the across Arabia and around the western and sea. The more direct and easier route is spoken southern shores of this great unknown of as the Derb EI'Muslameen (road of the be- peninsula, has recently been made by Dr. W. lievers) and leads directly through the holy city Harold Storm of Bahrain. He was accompanied of Mecca. The other, which is longer and more by three Christian hospital helpers to make a sur- difficult, is called the Derb Elkafireen (road of the vey at the request of The World Dominion Move- unbelievers) and makes a circuitous detour ment of London and the International Leprosy around Mecca. We, of course, were taken by the Association. After spending Sunday, June 23, longer route.
1935, in Riatih, the capital of Saudia Arabia, the Jiddah has an estimated population of about party of four started out on this unusual tour of 30,000 and is the chief seaport and commercial territory, much of which had never before been center of the Arabian coast on the Red Sea. In visited by Christian mission- recent years it has become the aries. This survey is made after diplomatic capital of Saudia forty-five years of missionary Arabia. Its importance can be work in this difficult field where judged best when we realize that Moslem fanaticism combines all pilgrims coming to Mecca by with desert, mountains, a torrid sea pass through this city.
sun and primitive life to raise Here we were called upon to barriers against the progress of treat a young member of one of the Gospel of Christ. The jour- the most influential families in ney was the answer to many Hedj az. Their history is as earnest prayers for the opening dramatic as it is romantic. Four of Arabia and Arab hearts to or five generations ago they the Gospel. were slaves in the home of an in- The travelers came from Bah- fluential member of the Sheri- rain on the Persian Gulf to fian family, who was the local Riadh in central Arabia; from representative of the r u lin g thence they journeyed to Taif, house in Constantinople. One near the west coast, to Jiddah, member of this slave family the seaport of Mecca and then DOCTORS DAME AND STORM. WITH gained the favor of his master down the west coast and through MRS.STDOARMME, AATNDRIRAODBH ROY and was given his freedom and southern Arabia until they re- property. He combined a shrewd turned to Muscat, after many adventures and win- business mind with a likeable personality and ning many friends. Dr. Storm writes in Neg- finally amassed a great fortune. It was not long lected Arabia as follows: until those who formerly had been vassals became Our trip from Riadh to Taif was the same as feudal lords and gained more and more favor i~ that followed by Dr. Dame in 1932. Taif is sit- the Sherifian court.
uated about 6,000 feet above sea level and is a Political upheavals change the destinies of men.
haven of rest from the stifling heat of the coastal The Sherifian house fell as the great Wahabi King plain and especially from Mecca and Jiddah. It Ibn Saud entered Hedjaz and those who had be- is the summer capital of Hedjaz and would be an come equal to kings suddenly found themselves ideal location for permanent mission work. We with neither fame nor fortune. Shrewd diplo- spent six weeks in this delightful city and experi- macy, however, combined with unquestioned abil- enced a splendid reception from both Arab royalty ity, soon gained for them the confidence of the and the Bedouin. new Saudian authorities and today they are – *' Condensed from Neglected Arabia, 25 East 22nd St., New York. trusted counsellors and among the wealthiest and [ 21 ]
most respected families on the eastern coast of so placed as to give the greatest advantage to Arabia. prevailing winds. Never have I had such per- The influence and friendship of this particular family opened the way for a visit to Yenbo. They sonal satisfaction in carrying on medical work arranged all the details and sent us in their own car, one of the very few privately owned cars in for nowhere in Arabia have I met people who Saudia. Yenbo is a small but important center as it is the seaport for the holy city of Medina. No- are poorer or more needy. Their gratitude was where have I seen a cleaner Arab town. It is surprising almost to the point of a shock when, upon touching. . being awakened by the early morning prayer call of the Muezzin, you look out of the window and J eizan presented a new problem in missionary see a street cleaner diligently at work with his donkey cart and broom. This is obviously a re- touring. Various kinds of animal life frequently sult of Turkish and Western influence. trouble the traveler. Plagues of locust, in swarms Rumors of political instability in Sana, capital of Yemen, spread throughout Hedjaz, encouraging so thick that often the sun is hid from sight, deideas of the possibilities of an open rupture of relationships between Saudia and Ye- scend from the unknown upon the Arabian desert. men. If hostilities actually broke out our movements would all be stopped Every green thing is eaten. Here we were conand even the rumor might be ample excuse to check and frustrate our plar s. fronted with another plague – scorpions were Everybody became excited and na- everywhere. Literally dozens would be seen in tive Arab troops poured into Jiddah from Mecca. The chief Saudian rep- the streets if one strolled out of an evening. We resentative in Hedjaz proved to be a friend in need for he greatly appre- even found them in our beds. My hospital boys ciated what had been done for his family in Taif and gave an order that we frequently amused themselves after the day's be carried on the S. S. Fetak along with three hundred Saudian soldiers work was over by seeing how many they could who were going to the Nejran frontier. DR. STORM'S EYE CLINIC AT ASIR The time of departure from Jiddah was sunset. Soldiers and more soldiers catch and bring to me by use of a flashlight and a came aboard until they were packed pair of operating forceps. tighter than sardines in a tin. One inquisitive soul turned a winch valve and imme- Again wars and rumors of wars threatened to diately steam poured out. An alarm of fire spread. stay our progress. The !talo-Abyssinian contro- Pandemonium broke loose. Those nearest the versy was working itself up to fever heat and the railing literally dove into the waters or into sail- Red Sea was becoming a scene of intense acing dhows standing alongside the Fetak. Con- tivity. Kameran Island, four days by a sailboat, fusion reigned until a member of the crew re- is the International Quarantine Station for the vealed the source of trouble. The entire trip was southern end of the Red Sea and is administered both pathetic and amusing. One minute we were by the British as directed from Geneva. It was laughing at the absurd situations they managed to of special interest because of the leper problem. get into, and the next our pity and sympathy were Everything and everybody was in a state of aroused. They disembarked at Kunfida where anxiety, suspicion and fear. ~aravans awaited to take them on a long fifteenday trek far into the interior, across an unknown From Kameran we set out for Hodeidah by saildesert into an equally unknown future. boat, but a sudden inconsiderate thrust of a sword fish or mighty blow of a huge stinging ray &ank We continued on to J eizan, chief seaport of one of our boats off Ras Esa, Yemen. Everything Asir which has served as a buffer state between was lost excepting a very small part of the cargo Yemen and whatever power held sway in Hedjaz. and we were forced to go overland by camels. Our route took us over a portion of the Tahama, a We stayed in Asir three weeks living in a native wild desert country. The people are very illiterate hut. These are made hy loosely tying together and are only nominally Moslem. In one village we branches of trees in the shape of a cone, and then covering them with grass, which is in turn secured by a close network of rope. There are two doors
A DOCTOR'S TOUR IN NEGLECTED ARABIA
noticed a most unusual sight – an emissary of Yemen is to anything foreign and especially mis- Iman Yahia, ruler of Yemen, had been sent to sionary.
teach the natives how to pray. With a huge club The next stage of the journey found us aboard in one hand he marked out a line on the sand and the S. S. Africa, bound for Aden. Rihani gives a had the men and boys line up. Then using the most amusing description of this antiquated rat- club as reinforcement he taught them the positions tletrap in his book, "Around the Coasts of Ara- and words of the Moslem prayer. bia." In the early days of Arabian mission We were unwelcome guests and were ordered history, many of the missionaries traveled on this from the village. But suffering humanity cares same boat. Patience and a calm sea made pleasant not for caste nor creed and while deciding upon what might have been an unpleasant journey.
the best move to make we were asked to see a lad The formidable peaks of mountains surround- suffering from a bad leg ulcer. It had been treated ing Aden typify the obstacles encountered in Mos- by the application of grape leaves under which lem mission work, over which the Ion Keith Fal- was a mixture of dates and coner Mission of the Church powdered dog brains. We of Scotland and the Danish cleaned the ulcer and treated Mission, both located in Aden, him and through the patient's stood out as great beacon gratitude we won the friend- lights. Here we spent fifteen ship of the entire village. days and during that time When we reached Hodeidah saw their work in detail. Both in the early hours of the missions are ready to move at morning only Pariah dogs the first opportunity into the welcomed us. We could not unoccupied areas of Makella find our host's house and de- and Yemen. Pray that the cided it was best to wait out- doors to these unoccupied side of the city wall until sun- areas may be opened. These rise. Suddenly, as though two missions along with the coming out of nowhere, we Arabian Mission of the Amer- were surrounded by a group ican Reformed Church – are of agitated men. It was un- the only Protestant groups usual if not an unheard-of working among the 10,000,000 thing for a European to be people of the Arabian Penin- wandering about the city in sula.
the early hours of morning in While we were with the Ion a camel caravan. They be- Keith Falconer Mission, the came more excited and I oldest of these three, they talked and talked, stalling for celebrated their 50th anniver- time. We finally persuaded sary. Their Jubilee program them that we possessed bona calls for medical dispensaries fide letters from Ibn Abbas throughout the Aden Protec- and that we were to be the torate and for a reading room guests of a certain Hodeidah TWO BEDOUIN CHIEFS AT ASIR and church building in Sheikh merchant. One of the men Othman.
guided us to our host where Arab coffee and rest Our next goals were Makella and Hadramaut.
ushered in the dawn of another day. Twice has a representative of the Danish Missions The next few days in Hodeidah proved only too been in Makella but on each occasion he was al- short but we met the Governor several times and lowed to stay but a few days. Dr. Samuel M.
visited among the merchants. As everywhere the Zwemer stopped at Makella in 1891, in the early medical bag opens seemingly locked doors. Ye- days when a survey was being made to determine men is undoubtedly the most closed of all sections where the mission should begin its work. As far in Arabia to anything savoring of the Christian as available records show, the interior of Hadra- mIsSIOnary program. Neither the ruler nor his maut has never before been visited by a mis- prime minister has ever been away from the con- sionary.
fines of Sana and has never seen the sea, despite We traveled to Makella by a small native the fact that Yemen borders on the Red Sea, and steamer carrying a cargo of sheep. Makella many Yemenites are seafarers. Narrowed out- harbor is one of the most picturesque spots of look, plus strong religious fanaticism added to a Arabia, reminding one of the harbor of Naples.
deep rooted egotism, create a warped mentality. The city is one of the most cosmopolitan of all It is therefore not difficult to see how antagonistic Arabia. A babble of tongues, clashes of color and
smells of all kinds greet you as natives from all Women guard the trenches while their men-folk parts of India, Africa, Java and Netherlands care for the gardens.
India. The city is a beehive of activity, a great Religiously everything centers ahout either the trading center. How long-how long-before the tombs or the Sayyids (direct descendents of the Gospel of Christ can be preached here? prophet). Thousands gather from every part of The word Hadramaut means "place of death." Hadramaut, coming on pilgrimages made to the It takes six long tiresome days to travel by donkey tombs at appointed times when a four- to five-day or camel over the waste djol (barren plateau be- fair will be held in connection with religious ob- tween the coast and Wadi complex of Hadra- servances.
maut). A wonderful unique watering system A Weli or saint is buried in some spot desig- broke the monotony of the desolate path at fre- nated by himself before death and a shrine is quent intervals, placed by pious Mohammedans built and frequent pilgrimages made to it. All either just before death or ordered put there right property and money in Hadramaut are in the after death. Suddenly without any warning you hands of the Sayyid class. Thus a combination of stand on the edge of a precipice and below you lies a dead religion and foreign money have deadened a most amazing sight. It seems like a fairy para- progress in one of the great potential sections of dise. Fertile fields of dhurra (maize) and verdant the Peninsula. The obstacles and difficulties for patches of palm groves flank the sides of the white missionary work are tremendous but the challenge Wadi (valley bed). Along the sides of the cliffs are built the villages, the houses are gray or clay color with whitewashed frieze work.
In and around Wadi Doan we discovered lepers, but leprosy seems to be on the wane inasmuch as nearly all the cases are of an ad- vanced type. A method of isolation has been adopted for years and thus continued contact is thus pre- vented.
The Wadi complex of Hadramaut presents one great surprise after another; the majestic beauty of Wadi Doan is in such direct con- trast to the monotonous waste of A VIEW OF MAKELLA HARBOR, HADRAMAUT the Djol. Shibam, one of the three great cities of Hadramaut, reminds one of an is great in proportion to the difficulties. Need, American city with its five hundred seven-story ignorance, and false religion cause 100,000 people buildings. One is amazed to find that these are in one of the most interesting and picturesque built entirely of clay. Everywhere dotted among parts of Arabia to call out with clear clarion voice the date gardens are villas of modern European the fact that they know not the Christ nor have style, electrically lighted and equipped with inside they had any chance to know Him.
swimming baths. From Makella we set out in a sailing vessel on Many of the ancient mysteries of the southern a trip that may be done in three to four days with end of the Arabian Peninsula lie buried among persistent favorable winds. Thirty-three days the ruins of Meshed and other parts of Hadra- later we arrived in Dhufar intact yet rather maut. Here the secrets of the early history of weather beaten. We experienced every conceiv- Arabia as well as the truths about early trade able delay possible – terrible storms, absolute routes will some day be unearthed by arche- calms, loss of three anchors, deceptive captains, ologists. etc. I have never experienced such loneliness any- As one rides along in a modern automobile there where in Arabia as when I realized that I was is pointed out a villa where lives a man who re- alone and five hundred miles from the nearest ceives ten to twelve thousand rupees monthly from known Christian at Christmas time. Still the joy the East Indies. Near by are two families which that was mine because of this rare privilege over- are still carrying on a feud that has been going on shadowed all sense of loneliness.
for years. We heard a bullet shot being fired as Dhufar I had visited for two months in 1932-33.
we passed by. Trenches have been built from the Sayyid S-, Sultan of Muscat, had granted per- houses out to the gardens because it is unsafe for mission for my trip. Forces of opposition had the men-folk to appear in sight of the enemy. changed his attitude, but, true to an Arab trait,
he would not rescind a promise once given. My The general attitude completely changed and a hospital helper, M-, who recently took his stand new house (the finest in Dhufar) was ordered to for Christ, arrived some weeks before I did and be made ready for the doctor on his arrival. One was denied customary Arab hospitality. The Sul- morning when the Sultan came to greet his countan refused to see him. For three nights he had selors he noticed M- coming to care for his eye to sleep on the medical cases on the sea front. and he said to this hitherto hostile crowd, "See His greetings were not returned – a discourtesy M-! I don't want an unkind word said or an unthe greatest of which an Arab can be capable. kind act done to him." Here was a young Moslem They assigned him a house which was hardly fit ruler actually defending a Christian convert. It for animals. He was paying the price of having was an act of the Lord and truly marvelous. taken his stand for Christ but he stood firm, praying that they who were persecuting him might Two months spent in Dhufar helped to bind come to know the joy that was now his. more closely the friendships already made. The Sultan's attitude and the growing friendships re- Days passed. The Sultan was suffering from sulting from two medical tours opened wide the badly infected eyes. As there are no medical fa- doors. A clear clarion voice calls out, "Come cilities in a place like Dhufar, he called in M-. to Dhufar and help us.." This is a challenge to Although only a hospital helper the lad was able our faith. Are we ready? to relieve the intense pain and by his gentleness and care he completely won the Sultan's favor. After fifteen days on a sailboat we arrived at Later the Sultan said to me, "M- was so careful Bahrain on March 28, thus ending a 5,000 mile and so clean and so gentle, I can never thank him medical tour which took ten months to complete. enough." Our total treatments numbered 10,406; opera- tions, 224, and outcalls, 558.
THE CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA SON OF IBN SAUD OF RIADH Friendly to Dr. Storm and Dr. Dame, medical missionaries of the Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church in America.
ONE OF THE PALATIAL PRIVATE RESIDENCES in Hadramaut, the unevangelized field in Southern Arabia, recently visited by Dr. Harold Storm.
Lights in a Century of
Foreign Missions By the REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D.D., New York Author 0/ The Centenary Volume, "History of the Foreign ~. Mission Work 0/ the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A." * I I T IS easy to be deceived by temporary fluctua- legacies. Of all causes, hospitals are the closest tions in the interest and support of home to the hearts of the American people; but Mr. churches. They naturally bulk large to those Robert Jolly, retiring president of the American who are living at a given period. The course of Hospital Association, reported to the annual meet- Foreign Missions has been like that of the Mis- ing of the Clinical Congress of the American Col- sissippi River with its alternations of sluggish and lege of Surgeons, October 28, 1935, that donations rapid currents, its tortuous channels, and its many to the support of hospitals had fallen off seventy- bends, some of them so long that, in the old days, five per cent, gifts having dropped from $185,- a steamboat sometimes traveled a whole day only 000,000 to $49,000,000 between 1929 and 1934.
to find itself at evening within sight of the place There was no such slump as this in contributions from which it had started in the morning. But to the Presbyterian Board. Manifestly, whatever that the river would eventually reach the sea is the causes of the decline were, they were not due never in doubt. Contributions do not tell the to loss of confidence in the Board.
whole story, but the record is, nevertheless, sug- It is clear, however, that the main financial degestive. Beginning with $5,431 in 1833, total re- pendence of Foreign Missions must, to an increasceipts from all sources for the year ending March ing degree, be upon the rank and file of church 31, 1936, were $2,910,908.00, and the Presbyterial1 member,ship, people of average incomes who can total for the whole period is the huge sum of contribute comparatively small sums. Death has $131,276,70l. removed many of the wealthy men and women Misleading inferences have been drawn from who in the preceding generation gave generously the recent decline in receipts from living sources to Foreign Missions during their lives and left of $4,757,590 in the peak year of 1924. It should great sums in their wills-John S. Kennedy bebe noted, however, that the year 1924 was the queathing to the foreign missionary work of the culmination of a special campaign to cover a large Presbyterian Church $2,725,976; Mrs. Kennedy, deficit; that, if the exceptional contributions for $1,608,645; Mrs. Russell Sage, $1,613,672; Mrs. the deficit were left out of account, the receipts Anna M. Harkness, $2,639,285; and Mrs. A. F. from living donors in the following five years were SchaufHer, $229,481 – these five legacies aggrelarger than ever before; and that for the year before the business collapse in 1929, the receipts gating $8,817,059 in. twenty-one years (1909from living donors were actually greater than 1930) . Are there to be future legacies like these? they had been for the four preceding years. It Perhaps so. In 1934, the unexpected news came was during the depression that the Board suffered that the will of Mr. C. Sidney Shepard had bemost heavily; but even then, the Board suffered queathed to the Board one-third of his large residless than religious, philanthropic, educational and uary estate, the amount realized being $2,841,- secular enterprises in the United States. Gifts 617. But many of the living donors who gave liband legacies for religious and philanthropic pur- erally before the depression of 1929-1935 lost poses fell from $14,777,747 in 1932 to $6,411,311 most, and in some instance all, of their fortunes in 1933. Gifts for education fell from $59,498,828 during those disastrous years. Whereas special to $14,552,988, and most of the latter sum was in individual gifts to the Board averaged $372,773 a year for the fifteen years ending with 1929, they * One Hundred Years—<A History of the Fareign Missionary Wark shrunk to $142,881 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1933. President Nicholas Murray Butler, in af the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., With Same Account af a message to the alumni of Columbia University Countries, Pooples and the Palicies and Prablems of Modern Missions. in 1934, said: By Arthur Judsan Brown, Secretary Emeritus af the Board. 1,140 pages. $8.00. Flemiug H. Revell Campany, New York. The survey In the history of Columbia University we have arrived here given includes the rise and develapment of foreign missionary at the end of an era. That era was one during which most interest in the home churches, the history of the Board and the women's societies, and the founding and pragress of missionary work AamsioangandtheLatAinmeArimcaenricaIn. dians and in sixteen cauntrles In Africa, [26 ]
HIGH LIGHTS IN A CENTURY OF PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS
generous and great gifts were received from many differ- of Guatemala and National Presbyterian Church ent individuals for the endowment and enrichment of the of Mexico. Each of these national churches is work of the University. . . . That era has come to an end. ecclesiastically independent of the Presbyterian The great fortunes which made these benefactions possible Church in the U. S. A., elects its own officers and are either dissipated or destroyed. The economic and controls its own work as a self-governing body. financial crisis which grips the whole world has made The missionaries help by counsel but not by autheir return quite impossible, certainly for a long time to come, if not forever. . . . Columbia University must, thority. therefore, depend for its prosperous continuance upon Of course this does not mean that missionary thousands of relatively small gifts. work in these countries is no longer needed. None It is equally true that in the support of Foreign of these autonomous churches are yet able to Missions the lessened number of large givers will maintain unaided the educational and medical inhave to be balanced by an increased number of stitutions that are essential parts of the Christian small givers. This class has from the beginning program, and all of them need the cooperation of furnished the bulk of the Board's income. Indeed, the missions in their evangelistic work. Even in Robert R. Doane, in his book on The Measure- Japan, where the national Church is strongest, its ment of American Wealth, shows that persons of leaders emphasize the fact that, while their moderate means are usually more liberal than the churches are relatively strong in the cities, there rich. He declares that in 1929 thirteen and a half are thousands of rural towns and villages that per cent of the total gifts to all religious and phi- are still untouched by Christian effort (Dr. Willanthropic objects was contributed by persons liam AxIing, of Tokyo, places the number at whose incomes exceeded $25,000, eighteen and a 9,976), and that more missionaries are urgently half per cent by persons whose incomes were be- desired to take the Gospel of Christ to them. tween 3,000 and 25,000, and sixty-eight per cent by those with incomes of 3,000 and less. The in- In my history of "The Foreign Mission Work come tax returns for 1935 showed that the total of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A." (just pubgifts for all religious, educational and philan- lished) I have not failed to stress the character of thropiccauses of the men and women who made the Christians in all the mission fields. They are the returns were only two per cent of their re- not perfect-neither are Christians in America. ported incomes, and that, with the exception of We of the West should be generously appreciative about half a dozen individuals, the wealthiest gave of our brethren in non-Christian lands. Their only a small fraction of their incomes and noth- leaders are not our "agents" or "helpers," but our ing from the principal of their large fortunes. coworkers in a common task. It is harder for People of moderate means suffered more griev- them to follow Christ than it is for us. Many of ously than the rich in the depression years, many them have had to endure social ostracism, loss of losing a considerable part of their incomes and business and disownment by their families. Some others losing their employment. In these circum- have borne stripes and imprisonment. If the stances, their contributions to all causes naturally eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews shrunk, but tens of thousands of straightened were to be brought down to date, it would surely Christians continued to support the work of their add many names to the list of those who were churches. "afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy" and who have manifested a devotion be- Development of Churches in the Missions Field fore which we may well stand in humility. We would not exaggerate their good qualities. They Since the ultimate aim of the missionary enter- have imperfections. But one cannot fairly think prise is the establishment of the Church in each of them in a critical mood. They are so much non-Christian land, we should note as one of the better than we might have expected them to be, "high lights" of the present situation not only they are witnessing for Christ in such difficult that churches have been founded in every mission circumstances and with such patience and fortifield where Presbyterians are at work, but that tude that criticism is disarmed. They are doing, the Board and the missions under its care are now to say the least, quite as well as any of us would cooperating with thirteen autonomous national do in similar circumstances. If one wants to churches on the foreign field – Church of Christ know what their failings are, let him ask himself in China, Presbyterian Church in China, Presby- what his are. They are the same, and he can cataterian Church in Chosen (Korea), United Church logue them at his leisure. But surely God who of Northern India, South India United Church, tempers His judgments with kindly consideration Church of Christ in Japan, United Evangelical of circumstances, who "knoweth our frame and Church of the Philippines, National Christian remembereth that we are dust," will deal more Church of Siam, Syrian Evangelical Church, mercifully with the Christians in the mission field Presbyterian Church of Brazil, Presbyterian In- than He will with us. Some of them have come dependent Church of Brazil, Presbyterian Church "out of great tribulation," and they will surely be
among those who stand "before the throne of cooperative movement. Secretaries of the Board God." have been among its recognized leaders. Presby- terians gladly recognize their partnership with Cooperation and Union Work other Christians in world evangelization. They realize that they do not represent such an exclu- A marked feature of the century under review sive type of obedience to Christ that they should is the development of cooperative planning for a ignore the presence in any field of a sister evanmore effective use of men and money. Recent gelical church, and that it is no part of their misdecades have seen the International Missionary sionary duty to extend and perpetuate on the for- Conferences in London in 1888, New York, in eign field the sectarian divisions in America. 1900, Edinburgh in 1910 and Jerusalem in 1928; regional conferences in Shanghai, Panama and Loyalty to the Evangelical Standards Montevideo; the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, begun in 1893; the Student Vol- The Presbyterian Board and the missions under unteer Movement which, since its beginning at its care have steadfastly adhered to the declara- Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts, in 1886, has seen tion embodied in the Board's Manual: more than 16,000 students of American colleges go to the foreign field; the Laymen's Missionary The supreme and controlling aim of Foreign Missions Movement which followed the World Missionary is to make the Lord Jesus Christ known to all men as Conference in New York; the Missionary Educa- their Divine Saviour and to persuade them to become tion Movement which, starting in 1902, has en- His disciples; to' gather these disciples into Christian rolled over 50,000 persons in mission study churches which shall be self-propagating, self-supporting classes; and the Central Committee on the United and self-governing; to cooperate, so long as necessary, Study of Foreign Missions which, in the thirty with these churches in the evangelizing of their countryyears of its existence, has published 3,500,000 men and in bringing to bear on all human life the spirit volumes. The foreign missionary enterprise has and principles of Christ. led the modern movement toward closer cooperation of the people of God, nobly expressed in grow- This led the Board to emphatic disagreement ing comity and cooperation at home and abroad in with the basic principle of the report of the Apseveral organic unions, the Universal Christian praisal Commission of the Laymen's Foreign Mis- Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in sions Inquiry. While the Board recognized what 1925 and the World Conference on Faith and was good in the volume, it declared with regard Order in Lausanne in 1927. The International to the chapters relating to the basis of the mis- Christian Press and Information Service in Ge- sionary enterprise, that "these chapters do not neva, June 17, 1935, listed forty-four international conform to the fundamental aim of Foreign Mis- Christian organizations.t The recent volumes on sions as expressed in the Manual of the Board." "Cooperation and the World Mission," by John R. In a further action, January 15, 1934, "the Board Mott, and "Conspectus of Cooperative Missionary definitely disavows those parts of the volume, 'Re- Enterprises," by Charles H. Fahs and Helen E. Thinking Missions,' which are not in harmony Davis, show that no less than 338 cooperative and with New Testament teachings and not in agreecoordinating enterprises are now functioning in ment with the doctrinal position of the Presbymissionary work, and that they are no longer re- terian Church." By the end of 1934, it was clear garded as tentative and experimental but as essen- that the effort of the "Modern Missions Movetial and permanent factors in missionary policy ment" to galvanize "Re-Thinking Missions" had and practice. In the educational field alone, there failed. In the Presbyterian Church, the Report are 153 union institutions in fifteen countries. is dead. There are indeed individuals who still Seventy missionary boards share in these unions. advocate it, but their number is relatively neg- The Presbyterian Board is in forty-eight, the ligible. An overwhelming majority of the minis- Methodist Episcopal Board in forty and the ters and members who have studied the book now American Board in twenty-four. In two of these know that its sound recommendations were the institutions, Cheeloo University in China and the policy of the Board long before the Appraisal Woman's College in Madras, twelve boards are Commission went to Asia, and that if the prinworking together. There are more (forty-five) ciples which determine its character and viewunion theological seminaries and Bible schools point had prevailed, there never would have been than any other class of union institutions. a missionary enterprise for modern appraisers to appraise. – Presbyterians hold no narrow inter- The policy of the Presbyterian Church, as rep- pretation of the Gospel. They gladly recognize resented by the General Assembly and its Board that it includes a wide variety of missio~ary work, of Foreign Missions, is in full harmony with this not only direct evangelism but educational, med- ical, literary, and social service activities. They t Figures given by Dr. A. L. Warnshuis in The Chr'istian Century, recognize, too, the wisdom of adapting their meth- May 13, 1936. ods to the changing conditions of the modern
world. But they insist that all must be done in deed, not only critics of foreign missions who asthe name and in the spirit of the risen Christ and sert but some anxious supporters who fear that it that their missionary enterprise shall not be per- is not a tide but a river that is flowing away not mitted to degenerate into a mere cultural and hu- to return. But the effort to give the Gospel to the manitarian effort. Non-Christian governments world will not be, cannot be, permanently arrested. can give secular education and non-Christian re- Many, and we believe an increasing number of deligions can promote reforms. Foreign Missions voted ministers and church members, realize both have no adequate justification unless they pro- the peril and the opportunity of the crisis. Theclaim the redemptive Gospel of Christ. ological seminaries are giving increased attention to missions. The purpose of God for men is not If the space limits of this article permitted, it to fail. The numerous changes in the political, would be easy to extend this short list of "high economic and intellectual life of the world, and in lights" of Presbyterian missions. I do not claim the attitude of "Christian" nations toward the that they are peculiar to Presbyterians. In my non-Christian do not impair in the slightest de- History, I have frequently referred to the splen- gree the impera,tive character of the missionary did missionary work of other evangelical denom- obligation. Rather do they increase it. There inations. Nor should we ignore the fact that may and should be changes in methods and emthere are not only "high lights" but deep shadows. phasis, but no present or prospective conditions Secularism, nationalism, totalitarian state policies, can modify the world's need of Christ or lessen denials of religious liberty, a denatured Chris- the duty of the Church to persuade men to accept tianity and skepticism regarding other peoples' Him. He is still the answer to the deepest human need of Christ are rife. To change the figure, the need, the goal of all true progress, the Lord and tide of missionary interest is apparently receding. But it will turn. Tides always do. There are in- Saviour of men.
THOUGHTS ON RECENT EVANGELISM IN INDIA Accounts from different parts of India regarding evangelistic efforts leads the National Christian Council to draw the following conclusions: 1. The Church is realizing afresh that the glorious Gospel of the blessed God has been com- mitted to her trust.
2. The lay forces of the Church are coming steadily into action.
3. Evangelism is accepted as the primary concern of every branch of the Christian enterprise. Some of the most striking illustrations of evangelistic effort come from schools and hospitals.
4. The "Week of Witness," preceded by serious preparation, has come to stay. It has made cooperation possible and indispensable. It has also been the means under God of re- storing many lapsed families to the fellowship of the Church – a most important service.
5. The need of good ,Christian literature is felt everywhere. Distribution must be expedited.
6. Significant as is the "Ambedkar revolt," of even greater significance is the movement among the Bhils, Ezhavas, Balahis and other communities. Systematic instruction of inquirers must be maintained.
7. There is a new spirit of expectancy abroad and a new zest for corporate prayer.
8. There can be but one adequate motive in Evangelism – "the love of Christ constraineth me" – but the methods may be many. For example, Bible Weeks, Book Weeks and Rela- tive Weeks have come hopefully into the scheme of things. So also has newspaper evangelism and evangelism by pictures. Intervisitation by carefully selected teams has proved a great success. Pledge cards have met with a surprisingly cordial reception. Personal witness is still the most effective method.
9. While spiritual unreadiness is a bar, it is not an insuperable bar to a Forward Movement. In going out to save others the Church herself is saved and finds the grace she needs.
10. The Gospel must be carried to all who are in need, irrespective of caste, creed or color. The time is ripe for a concerted Christian attack on illiteracy.
11. "We must not forget the enemy." The open door means that many adversaries are aroused. 12. Forward Movement is just beginning. The Holy Spirit is leading and as Christ's followers cooperate with Him the next step becomes clear. In this cooperation we discover afresh our essential unity.
African Evangelists in
By REV. L. PAUL MOORE, Jr., :1 -·"._'if,'–==E=de=a,=C=am=ero=un=, W=e=st=A=fri;ca;;;;;;j'I!JJ.- W HEN Herman Ntamak, one of the elders strong character from the days when the Leopard in the native congregation at Nkom, set Society, the sorcerers, and the tribal chieftains out one morning, long before it was light, had things pretty much their own way. He stood bearing a large burlap bag of cocoa beans on his . high in the reigning house of his tribe and had head, one would hardly have surmised it was he. every prospect of some day fulfilling a successful Ntamak was not making his departure from the career as an influential chieftain. But when Jesus village while it was still dark because he was Chris·t became not only the transforming but the proud. Even though he had been ordained as an all-consuming desire of his life, Hans Biyik re- elder, he did not chafe because he was carrying linquished all claims as successor to the seat of a load of produce to a European trading center, authority in his tribe. With the passing years he like any other ordinary native. But his early de- has manifested such a deep love and reverence parture was a matter of necessity; he wanted to for his Lord that he has indefatigably sought op- go and get back before the missionary and his portunity for testimony, not only and alone to the company of native elders, evangelists, preachers, people of his own tribe, but he has eagerly sought and others assembled at Nkom for the next Bible opportunity in tribes formerly despised and hated.
conference. When Ntamak met him that morning in the midst Of course the road he was following in the of the jungle Biyik was just returning from two darkness was nothing new to him. If it was in- weeks of self-sacrificing itinerary among what his terspersed with many hills and valleys, many people considered inferior and backward tribes, a crude log bridges to cross, much overhanging venture unattempted by any of his fellow elders.
forest, he would hardly feel conscious of any of "When are they going to arrive at Nkom 1"
these details. It was still dark, but this path was enquired Ntamak, hoping that he might get back so familiar that Ntamak could easily let his mind home in plenty of time for the final preparations.
wander where it would. "Oh, it will be at least three weeks, perhaps Soon after the first streaks of the dawn began four, because the missionary and his company to appear overhead, off in the jungle to the right have gone to the villages far to the north."
Ntamak thought he espied the light of a lantern With this the two men continued their journey swinging into view and out of view, as it passed through the forest together. Biyik extinguished through the heavy vegetation. When he arrived his lantern, for it was now light enough to see, at the place where a small bypath joined itself to and Ntamak was full of further interrogation. the main road, Ntamak waited until the lantern and its bearer came out to him. "They tell me that you have a new catechist in your village." "0 thou that bearest a lantern, I salute you," he called out, as the would-be stranger came with- "0 yes, he is a 'catechist homiletique,''' rein earshot. sponded Biyik.
"Is that Ntamak, a person of the Nkol tribe? "What do you mean by a 'catechist homi- The voice sounds like his." letique'1"
"Biyik I" cried Ntamak with undisguised joy, "Why," said Biyik, "he has just come from the Mission Bible Training School, and he has a black steadying the sack of cocoa beans lest it lose bal- notebook in which he prepares his sermons, and ance on his head. "Where are you coming from 1" to which he refers when he stands before us at "Oh, I have been traveling with the missionary service. That is what 'homiletique' means."
for almost two weeks 1 We have been holding "I heard it said that the missionary has brought Bible .conferences among the Makumak tribes. a new thing for us, a book which explains every People have been thronging all the meetings in verse in the Book of God." .
every place. But now I must get back to my wife "Well, it is not exactly that," explained Biyik, and children across the river. I just went to help "but the missionary has brought out a book which the missionary." explains the Book of Romans, and it is from this book our catechist prepares his sermons. It has Biyik is a strong character, and has been a [30 ] a good many new words in it, and new explana- hearts, so great our debt to God, that we have tions we never heard of before." nothing to give Him to pay for His gift of ex- ceeding generosity, complete and permanent for- "What do you mean?" interrupted Ntamak. giveness through the death of His Son. The Book "First of all, it cuts across all ideas of fetishes." of Romans tells us that God's gift comes first, "But we Christians don't believe any longer in giving us release from punishment, and a new fetishes," was Ntamak's quick reply. life, and a new nature. It is this new nature, the "Yes, but you and I as elders know how many very life of Jesus Himself within us, which gives of our people are even yet held by the hand of a us the power to live the Christian life. The memgreat fear, trembling in terror of witches and orizing of the catechism and of the verses from many other invisible enemies. And oh, how many God's Word gives this life strength, and causes it of our church people believe that the water of bap- to grow, and to conquer the old nature. tism is like a great river which carries away all their guilt. And many people look upon the bread "Our 'catechist homiletique,' " continued Biyik, and wine of the Lord's Table as though these had "has been at the mission station -in training for the same power as the 'soya' of our fathers, an about nine months and he has all sorts of books antidote which dispels guilt and repels disaster. to help him now. He has not only the translation God's Word itself says that the blood of Jesus on of Romans, and the book I told you about, but he the cross has once and for all exhausted the wrath has the same thing for 1 Corinthians, with teachof God against every sin we have ever committed, or still commit, or may in the future commit; that A PASTORS' TRAINING CLASS AT DONDI, ANGOLA we are saved and safe by His 'exceeding generosity.' " ing about the Lord's Supper, about the death and By now the two men had come to a large resurrection of believers, and many other things. stream, over which a gigantic tree had been felled He has, as well, books on Matthew and John. Then in order to give passage over the water. Without there is the new book of Bible verses which excomment, and as though this, too, were quite plains our catechism. You've seen it, haven't usual, one after the other the men planted their you?" bare feet upon the fallen tree, passed over the trunk, then followed one of the main branches "0 yes," replied Ntamak – "the one with all where the tree forked up and down, and were soon the Scripture verses, the one which has the 'Five walking again in the half light under the tall Steps to Salvation and Life' at the back of it?" trees of the jungle. "I tell you truly," added Biyik, "this teaching "What do you mean by His 'exceeding gener- in Romans and 1 Corinthians is revealing sin to osity'?" asked Ntamak, after the interval of the me in a new way. It is exposing the hypocrisy crossing. "Where did the missionary get that of lip worship, and makes me realize that Jesus combination of words?" Himself must dwell in the heart, for He longs for us to be holy as He is holy. And that just reminds "It means that through the exceeding gener- me. I wish I could find out who those fellows osity of God, a generosity to us who merit nothing were who stayed in my village while I have been but punishment for all our sins, we now can ob- away. They were from over on this side of the tain forgiveness and a new life, and shall never river. The catechist wrote me about them. He come into God's judgment for sin. That is a gift sent the letter to me while I was at Bodipo with of exceeding generosity, an unmerited favor from the missionary. Think of it! These fellows, four God to all who will reach out the hand of faith and accept it."
"But," interrupted Ntamak, "do we not have to do something to obtain this gift of exceeding generosity? I am an elder, even as you, and I know the steps into the church. One must know the catechism, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments. He must live for two years in the light of this teaching without a 'palaver.' He must present himself daily at prayers and church service and give regularly to the church. Then he is worthy to be baptized and to partake of the Lord's Supper."
"Even so," replied Biyik, "but this new book on Romans shows us that so great is our sin and so sinful our every thought and the desires of our
of them, were on their way to the trading center. through us. Why, if we could get that teaching, While under the sweat and exertion of carrying, that life, into the hearts of all our young people, they wore old, worn-out clothing, but when they our women, our men, our children, then sensual came to a town, they would hide their bags of sin would no longer hold its powerful attraction cocoa beans somewhere, dress up in new shoes, over our people, and they would be free from fear- trousers, sport shirts" and even hats, which they ing witches, ghosts, water sprites, and the rest of had carried wrapped up in a towel on top of their the invisible host.
loads, and then promenade around our villages, "Why, do you know, Ntamak," continued Biyik, enticing our young girls to sin. I wish I had been so grieved over present conditions, so fired with there. I wish I knew who they were." enthusiasm at the possibilities of the future since "That's not the worst I have heard," replied he had experienced the power of the new nature Ntamak. "These young fellows who are working in his own life, "unheard of things are happening as clerks in the stores at the trading centers keep to those who have fully accepted this teaching.
bread and cube sugar, small tins of sardines, and You know that our fathers used to say, 'No hu- even cigarettes in their rooms of the huts they man being ever goes anywhere unless he has occupy. Knowing that women and girls have something somewhere about his body, something come from great distances, are hungry, and have which can protect him and save him.' But today a hankering for the thrill of 'city life' as well, actually many are putting their confidence in these fellows very cordially direct our women to nothing but what they hold in their hearts, that make themselves at home out back of their shop invisible something which they believe. To many and rest until the work is finished. You know, this seems like unheard of foolhardiness, I know.
Biyik, many people think that when they are in a And others will not believe that we actually do large place where no one knows them, it doesn't not have something somewhere about our persons.
matter what they do. Who will report it to their And still others say that God does His part in sav- husbands or fathers, fifty or sixty miles back in ing the soul, but is not concerned with keeping the bush?" watch over our bodies. We must do that. But "Do you know," reflected Biyik, "there are to those who really know the Jesus way, who many things of trouble which we are called upon really talk to Him and trust Him for everything to face these days. Some of these troubles en- there is no need of amulet or charm, no need even courage us, some discourage us. For instance, of casting one's confidence on the Lord's Supper down where I come from there is a feeling-and as though in itself it had power to keep from it is daily becoming more evident-that many physical danger or calamity. I am not talking Christian people do not want to sell their daugh- about my own experience only. Talk to Abraham ters into marriage for so many goats, so much Telep, Mose Bikai, Martin Um, and many others money or gifts. They believe that if their chil- I could mention."
dren are gifts from God, and if they themselves "Is the missionary going to call another class are believers in Christ, their daughters· should not of catechists together in January for Bible train- be sold like so many slaves. But the trouble is- ing?" asked Ntamak, hoping that the catechist in the young people. All of them, perhaps, do not his village might take advantage of the training have as much light as their parents, and perhaps other catechists in other villages had had, and marriage without the dowry will not hold them that thereby he and his own people could get more to each other as it does now." light upon this new teaching of Romans and 1 "But," continued Ntamak, whose people were Corinthians.
one of the tribes further in the interior and hence "I don't know how he can," replied Biyik, "at somewhat more backward than those of Biyik, least not until another ordained missionary comes, "even among us· our young men are wanting to when either one or the other of them can be set marry girls who are chaste. Time was, you know, aside for this kind of work. You know there is that if a girl had had an illegitimate child, she no one now to take care of the 150 congregations had proved her worth as being able to have chil- in this field, and so the school has had to be closed dren, and therefore was the more desirable. Times indefinitely."
are changing." When these two native elders had reached the "I think a great deal is due to the catechists bank of the Sanaga River, which separates the among us," suggested Biyik. "These fellows who Babimbi tribes from the tribes to the south, they have been to the mission training school have separated. Ntamak turned to the right and shown our people a new teaching from the Bible wended his way to the European trading center which makes Jesus real. Think of it! His resur- not far distant, while Biyik crossing the river in a rection life in us ! We are no longer our own. large dug-out canoe, hastened along the road to He must not be hindered in living His life in and join his family in the village of Nkofia.
E. Vail, the Beloved
By REV. R. C. RICHARDSON, D.D., Miraj, West India Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
AMONG the Christian missionaries in India by obtaining high grades in his studies and in be- coming tennis champion and was a good baseball ~ who have completed their work during the player. He was a member of Clio Society and present year, perhaps none has been better Colonial Club. Graduating from Princeton in 1902, he entered the College of Physicians and known than Dr. Charles E. Vail, who went to his Surgeons the same year and was graduated in reward on March 21, 1936. His body was laid to 1906 after a strenuous four-year's work. At the rest in Miraj, where he had labored ir:cessantly conclusion of his course he received the much covand whole-heartedly since 1910, not only to relieve the bodily suffering of the people, but to lead them eted appointment of an to a knowledge of Christ, internship at St. Luke's the only Saviour of man- Hospital, New Y 0 r kkind. having won this honor in competitive examination. Dr. Vail was a devoted Christian as well as a most After two and a half skilful surgeon. When he years in this hospital in volunteered for mission- surgical work, .he spent ary work in India, his six months in Sloan Machief reason for going was ternity Hospital and anto lead the people of India other six months studying to a saving knowledge of the eye and ear. During Jesus Christ and he wish- his years of study in meded to use his medical ical school Dr. William J. knowledge and surgical Wanless (afterwards Sir skill to assist to the utter- William) came home on most to this end. Many furlough from India and an Indian Christian has when Dr. Vail heard him testified publicly to the speak of his work he was fact that Dr. Vail's com- so impressed that he deing to India was r:ot in cided to go to Miraj to vain. work with Dr. Wanless who had started the work On July 1l,1880,Charles there in 1889. It had E. Vail was born at Corn- grown to be one of the wall – on – Hudson, New best known medical mis- York, the son of Dr. and sions in Asia. Dr. Vail Mrs. William H. Vail. Charles Vail came of good stock. His grandfather on DR. CHARLES E. VAIL applied to the Presby- his father's side was also terian Board of Foreign a physician and his grandfather on his mother's Missions and was assigned to work in India in side was the great evangelistic and educational 1909. He sailed from Philadelphia in September missionary in Constantinople – Cyrus Hamlin. 1909 and stopped in England to study tropical dis- Charles Vail's early education was obtained at eases, medicines and for practice in cataract Blairstown Academy. While there he came under operations.
the influence of Miss Anna Scudder, one of a No medical missionary had arrived in the great and well-known missionary family of India. Western India Mission any better prepared for He took kindly to out-door sports, as well as to work than was Dr. Vail. Few have had as great his studies, and was well prepared for entrance a task set before them as he found ready to his to Princeton University in 1898. During his four hand when he arrived in 1910. Dr. Wanless and years in the university he distinguished himself his associates had built up a wonderful piece of [ 33]
work at Miraj-a work that was known through- ing back to Miraj, the doctor's car would be out India and neighboring countries. The equip- crowded with the poorest of the people needing ment included a hospital, dispensary, several out- operations, which could be performed only in the station dispensaries throughout the district, a hospital operating room. Reaching Miraj at one Nurses Training School and the only Christian or two or three o'clock in the morning, Dr. Vail Medical School for men in all India. Many a man would begin the regular work of the day as usual would have felt the work too great to attempt- a few hours afterwards. This included prayer for Dr. Wanless was leaving on furlough in six service for medical students at 7: 30 a. m., teachweeks and Dr. Vail was to be in charge of all this ing from eight o'clock to nine or sometimes until work, with the responsibility for raising the 10 o'clock; then hospital rounds until nearly noon, money in India for its support. Moreover, the seeing new patients until about one o'clock, then great majority of the patients knew no English the noon meal, after which operations would begin and Dr. Vail knew no Marathi. Yet, he took hold and continue until evening, oftentimes until ten of the task with such earnestness and prayer, that or eleven at night. he not only maintained the high standard of work, but also raised more money than had been raised On alternate days, there would be eye operain any previous year – a marvelous accomplish- tions and occasionally work would close about five ment. o'clock. Then it was really refreshing to see the great and gentle surgeon, relaxing on the tennis He soon established a great name as a Chris- court, showing that he excelled his fellows in tian surgeon. A few years after his arrival in tennis, as he did in surgery; or he might jump India, he held a record for cataract operations, into his car and rush out to a jungle, thirty or including those on members of the families of forty miles distant, in search of a panther or tiger many Maharajahs and princes of India and on that had been troubling the people of that district. chiefs of Arabia and on high English officials. Dr. Vail, while on his work in the outstations or But his greatest work has been for the many thou- villages, was always ready to share his meals with sands of the poor, who otherwise might have had his neighbors or share the meals of the Indians, no medical aid. whether rich or poor.
All who have come to Miraj Christian Hospital This beloved physician was taken away in the have received the same kindly Christian treat- midst of a wonderful work, when he was used of ment, whether they have been princes or paupers. God to bring much relief and comfort and joy to The spirit of Jesus Christ has dominated all his many thousands of people. This is one of those work and from early morning until far into the Divine mysteries we shall understand only when night for these twenty-five years and more, he we come into God's presence. has given the best that was in him to relieve bodily suffering and at the same time has sought to Dr. Vail was undoubtedly one of the greatest lead patients to a knowledge of the Great Phy- surgeons India has known. People came from all sician, who can heal both body and spirit. over India, from Africa, from Arabia, from Per- sia and other countries to be under his care. Most Outstation dispensary work has been of ines- of these have been helped, not only physically, but timable value to the people of India and Dr. Vail's spiritually. weekly visits to these places have been a great boon to many thousands. The writer well remembers one case especially -that of a cultured Parsee, an author who had Starting at noon in his car from Miraj, after written a life of Jesus Christ. After having been his morning's work in the hospital and Medical around the hospital the best part of two months, School, he reaches an outstation about two hours he said that he wished he had not written some of afterwards. There he finds a crowd of people the things in his book about Christ for now he waiting at the dispensary. (The medical assistant knew better, having seen true Christianity in the of the place having notified the people of the dis- lives of the doctor and his assistants. When this trict of the doctor's coming.) He commenced his Parsee family left the hospital they asked for and work by the reading of a passage of Scripture, received a picture of Christ to take to their home. usually from the Gospels telling of the wonderful Later Dr. Vail was called to their home to treat a work of the Lord Jesus Christ-and, after prayer member of the family although there are many for God's blessing on the people and the work, he Parsee doctors in the city in which they live. would treat the many people assembled faithfully, skilfully and lovingly. After prescribing, he The gentle Christian spirit of Dr. Vail was what would operate-oftentimes under great difficulty, impressed Christian and non-Christian alike. A not having the best equipment and sometimes with high caste Hindu young man who attended the light only from a kerosene lamp. This work would Medical School for four years, openly confessed often go on until nearly midnight and when start- his faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized at the close of his four years in Miraj. Dr. Vail always
CHARLES E. VAIL, THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN
gladly took his turn conducting the English Gos- been cured and one day while operating he acpel service conducted every Sabbath evening espe- knowledged that he was tired and went to his cially for medical students and nurses from other house. After a few days God took him "home." parts of India. This service was always assured of a good attendance, for he never failed to give a The deep love the people of India had for this message that was uplifting and made his audience man of God was clearly evidenced when he rerealize the presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. turned from Berlin. The railway station was crowded with people of Miraj-Hindus, Moham- The doctor never could have accomplished the medans, Parsees, and Christians – to welcome great work he did, had he not had the most loyal back the beloved physician. A great procession cooperation of all who worked with him and had escorted him to the Christian Church, where the not Mrs. Vail relieved him of much of the details multitudes filled the churchyard, as well as the of the work of administration. church to unite in thanksgiving to God for bring- ing the doctor-friend back to them. In January, 1935, there was noted the first sign of the disease that brought an end to this Christ- Again, when his work on earth was finished and like life. A prompt consultation with the mis- his body was waiting for burial, several thousand sion's physicians resulted in Dr. Vail's being sent people assembled to pay their respects and to show by airplane to Berlin, where he received special their deep love for one who had given his life in treatment for about two months. He returned to service for them, for he saw them as those for Miraj apparently cured and worked as before. whom Christ died. .AJbout nine months afterwards, however, a sign again appeared which caused him again to fly to The work in Miraj needs another such man. Berlin. On his return he entered on his work, as Who will come and continue this work that has if quite well again-but, the dread disease had not led so many to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?
IS GOD WAITING FOR YOU? * By JAMES H. MCCONKEY Standing on the wall of a great lock of the Sault Sainte Marie ship canal, I saw a huge lake vessel about to enter. At my feet lay the empty lock – waiting. For what? Waiting to be filled. Beyond lay great Lake Superior with its almost limitless supply of water, also waiting. For what? Waiting for something to be done at the lock ere the great lake could pour in its fullness. In a moment the lock':'keeper reached out his hand and touched a steel lever. A little wicket gate sprang open under the magic touch and at once the water rushed into the lock and began to boil, and seethe, rapidly rising. In a few moments the lock was full. The great gates swung open and the huge ship floated into the basin now filled to the brim with the fullness from the waiting lake without.
Is not this a picture of a great truth about the Holy Spirit? God's children are like that empty lock, waiting to be filled. And, as that great inland sea outside the lock was willing and waiting to pour its abundance into the lock, so is God willing to pour His fullness of life into the lives of His children. But He is waiting. For what? Waiting, as the lake waited, for something to be done by us. Waiting for us to touch that tiny wicket gate of consecration through which His abundant life shall flow in. Is it hard to move? Does the rust of worldliness corrode it? Do the weeds and ivy-vines of selfishness cling about and choke it? Is the will stubborn, and slow to yield? God is waiting, and once it is done, He reveals Himself in fullness of life even as He has promised. He has been all the time willing and ready, for all the barriers and hindrances have been upon our side, not upon His. They are the barriers not of His unwillingness, but of our unyieldedness. You may say that you received all of Christ when you were saved, but did Christ get all of you?
* Adapted from "The Surrendered Life." which will be sent free to anyone addressing Silver Publishing Co., Bessemer Building, Pittsburgh, Pa., U. S. A.
MASAYUKI A JAPANESE HERO SHRINE AT KANAZAW A
A Statue of a Faithful Subject, in Tokyo, Venerating the Emperor This Is One of the Objects of Worship Daily Revered by Hundreds When Japanese Buddhists Pray -~ I By WINBURN T. THOMAS, Kyoto, Japan I }~o._ ~==========================~J A LL Japanese are not Buddhists, but the na- phasis upon national unity, faith healing, and .r-. tive religion, Shinto, has become so inter- other popular ideas, appeal to young Japanese woven with the Buddhism brought from who lack any great object to which they can give China and Korea in the seventh century, that the their loyalty. From 1925-32, Marxism was the two are today virtually indistinguishable. The "gospel" that challenged the courage of youth. non-Christian Chinese answers the question, Beginning with the efforts of the government to "What is your religion?" simply, "I worship suppress all "dangerous thought," nationalism has idols." He does not differentiate between Con- held the center of youth's affection until recently. fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Due in part Capable observers now claim that this hold has to the efforts of the government to separate the been broken and that youth is again on the march, two, Japanese Shinto and Buddhism do have cer- seeking some great idea which can sweep it off tain distinctive characteristics; and while an of- its feet. Of the hundreds of students who fill out ficial statement has ,been issued, stating that the cards for my file, most write in the space for reformer is not a religion, Japanese subjects classify ligion: "Nothing." Excepting Buddhist priests, themselves religiously as Buddhist, Shinto, or perhaps half of those who do indicate any reli- Christian. Superficial observation leads the gious faith list Christianity as their religion, or as writer to believe that Buddhists are largely old the philosophy or social creed which most appeals persons and professional priests. Young people to them. – are scarcely ever seen worshiping at the Buddhist This sketchy introduction to the religious mind temples. They are attracted more by the various of Japanese youth is necessary if one is to undersects of Shinto that have been forming during the stand the answers recently given when a group of last few years at the rate of about four each week. students were questioned concerning prayer. We These semireligious organizations, with their em- had spent the evening in a study of Christ's ideas [36 ]
WHEN JAPANESE BUDDHISTS PRAY
on the subject. The group of Christian and non- addressed. These prayers do not voice praise for Christian Japanese students was then asked to the gods, nor are they petitions on behalf of the list points of similarity and difference between souls of the departed. They are prayers offered Christian and Buddhist prayers. While the an- in self-interest for money, proposerity, health, the swers are admittedly the ideas of a sophisticated nation, or even to satisfy lusts. Sometimes there is confession of sins, and a plea for forgiveness, THE TORI! LEADING TO THE HEIAN SHRINE IN KYOTO but this is rare. The prayers are seldom prompted by a sense of humility. In Japan the highest god group of college men, and thus are hardly repre- to whom a petition can be addressed is the Emsentative of the views of the masses, they do sug- peror. All deceased ancestors are looked upon as gest an objective valuation of the subject. There dead gods; as are Christ and Buddha. The Emwas little contradiction found in any of the pa- peror being alive is therefore considered superior pers; they rather tended to supplement each to all spiritual gods. other. The contrasting view of Christian prayer There are Japanese who feel, with Henley, that throws light on the common saying that Christhey are masters of their own fate and have no tians in Japan are different. The Christian stuneed of prayer. These are perhaps truer to the dents believe that God is aware of our needs bespirit of Buddha himself than are those who fore we ask Him but that we need to pray so that pray, for he did not find in the universe sufficient God will answer our petitions. The sense of sin evidence of a God to whom he could pray. There is much more real in Christians than in nonis a sect of young Buddhists who, reasoning from Christians. the atheism of Buddha, are offering Buddhism to the world as most compatible with the agnostic Some feel that in educated circles prayer habits point of view of science. and ethical standards have been vitally influenced by Christian concepts, and therefore Buddhists Multitudes of Buddhists do feel the need for and members of Shinto sects now address their prayer. It is offered before the shrine in the prayers to deity and ask for things no less worthy household, each morning and evening, by the than those found in the most petitions of Chriswoman of the family. There are few who do not tians. The filling of Buddhism and Shinto with at some time during the day pause in front of a Christian ideas, insofar as it is a reality, is one of shrine, temple, gravestone, or likeness of some the valuable secondary results of Christian mishero or ancestor, and offer a short prayer. At the sions in Japan. occasional services held in the temples, prayers are said by the priests. Usually "a prayer is not A BUDDHIST PLAQUE BEFORE WHICH JAPANESE WORSHIP offered save in front of some object." But since they "worship everything in nature" it is not difficult to find an object to which requests may be
Story of An Afghan Christian
-~I By ALFRED ZAHIR !Ja.- : ~==============================~ T HE pale, broad disc of a summer sun was hand in hers and pressed it with the tenderness sinking silently behind the dark line of ma- of wifely affection. jestic mountains that bounded the landscape "Yes! my dear," she said composedly, "the gloon all sides. Slate-colored hawks and eagles rious sun is hidden from our eyes, but its efful- floated peacefully through the motionless air and gent rays are now illuminating other parts of our the dismal wail of the screech-owl deepened the world. We are deprived of its light, but not for- gloom of the passing day. ever. It will be morning again, and the beautiful In the sequestered little village of Quetta in sun will rise once more in its grandeur and glory."
Baluchistan (the scene of the recent devastating The comforting words had such a ring of hope- earthquake), nestling picturesquely in the bosom fulness and cheer that her husband, turning to of the mountain fastnesses of North India, Dr. her, said: "Do you think then, that our discour- Summerhayes and his wife were sitting in the agement will one day change into hope, and that porch of their little bungalow, talking over a cup we may yet live to see some fruit of our labors?"
of tea, and recounting the events and adventures "Yes, indeed I do," answered Mrs. Summerhayes of the day. in a voice resonant with cheerfulness. "Haven't The evening wore quietly on. The soaring birds you seen how the people around have changed in gradually alighted silently on treetops and bare their attitude and are beginning to have confidence rocks. The screech-owl, having procured its eve- in us. More than once I have heard them say, ning meal, ceased its distracting plaint. As the 'We are convinced now that Christians are a truth- massive cliffs hid the glory of the setting sun, a telling and honorable people.' The people are deep yellow tint overspread the scene and brought visiting our hospital in larger numbers every day what the natives call a "false evening." The two and are willing-as they have never been before- missionaries sat entranced under the mystic spell to trust their lives to our care. Is it too much to of the dying day, and gazed spellbound at the vast say, then, that some day they will more fully ap- panorama illumined by the glory of the setting preciate this service of love, and in the end will sun. find Him in whose name we serve? My faith Suddenly, as though waking from a haunting leads me to believe that I shall yet see it with dream, Dr. Summerhayes moved restlessly in his these eyes of mine."
chair, learned forward and peered intently into After dinner the little family gathered round the gathering darkness. Presently he sank back, the fire for family prayers and Dr. Summerhayes and glancing at his wife, sighed heavily and said: poured out unrestrainedly the thoughts of his "Was not that a glorious sunset!" Without wait- heart before God. He begged for forgiveness of ing for an answer he added: "Yes, the beautiful his weak faith, and implored His Master for a new day has drawn to its close and so do our lives; and baptism of the Holy Spirit and for a spirit of yet in all these years we have not led one Moslem greater devotion and wholehearted fidelity to his to Christ. During the past few years that we Lord. On rising from his knees he felt that he have toiled amongst these people all our efforts had indeed received the divine anointing for which seem to have been in vain. Not one soul has re- he had prayed.
sponded to our message. This very day, as I sat The two missionaries sat down to read and dis- watching by the side of a dying patient, and saw cuss the different aspects of their work and to his soul go out, I realized that was the end of all consider plans for larger undertakings. They the efforts we had been making to bring him to were in the middle of an interesting discussion, Jesus Christ. Are we flinging our lives away, when the sound of footsteps was heard outside.
vainly attempting what we shall never accom- They were somewhat startled for the night 'was plish?" already far advanced and the whole city was This pathetic moan of distress deeply touched wrapped in silence. They had heard many stories Mrs. Summerhayes' tender heart. Anxious lest of ghastly murders and nightly ambuscades by the her husband should see her grief she quickly wiped fierce highwaymen and cut throats of Baluchistan.
away the tears and, turning to him, she took his But they soon regained equanimity and laughed [38 ] at their fears. Dr. Summerhayes unlatched the "He is the Saviour, Isa Masih (Jesus Christ) ," door and walked into the vestibule. What he saw replied the doctor, "who came to this world to excited his sympathy more than either his doubts suffer and to die for you and me, and for all sinor fear. Four men had borne a sick patient on a ners, that all of us might be saved and set free covered cot and set him on the verandah. On see- from sin." ing the doctor, the men saluted him respectfully, bowing to the ground. Then one came forward The uncultured Pathan had never heard of such and making another low salaam, humbly peti- a Saviour before. His heart was gripped and he tioned the doctor saying: kept the Sahib for a long time answering ques- tions and satisfying the curiosity that had begun "Sir, in the name of Allah, we beseech you to to burn in his heart. have mercy on us and on this sick man for he is in great agony." For many days after his discharge, the young man clung to his benevolent patron, visiting him Saying this, he lifted the cover and showed the at intervals and eagerly learning more and more sick man's face. After a close examination, Dr. of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Summerhayes ordered the patient to be removed to the hospital while he followed and there spent The young man's name was Nasar Ullah Khan, two or three hours trying to relieve his suffering. a full-blooded Afghan, tall and stalwart. He had When the patient had fallen asleep, the kind- once served in the ranks of the army of the Amir hearted doctor returned to his bungalow for a few of Afghanistan and had fought in many a battle. hours rest. He had abandoned the military profession and be- come a merchant, carrying on trade between Ka- Next morning while the stars were still shin- bul and Quetta. On one of his business tours, he ing, Dr. Summerhayes rose and went to see his had suddenly been taken ill and was brought to patient again. This early visit, the vigilant care the mission hospital at Quetta. and the touching love, won the patient's heart. Through the long days of his stay in the hospital, The message of the Gospel, which the life of the the unselfish devotion of the missionary filled him missionary physician had commended to his heart, with a sense of deep reverence for the good man. transformed Nasar Ullah into a new creature but there were many vital issues to be considered be- When the patient had nearly recovered from his fore he became a professed Christian. His zeal sickness, and the date of his discharge was an- was so great and his faith so strong that he put nounced, the patient began to be very sad. He all considerations aside and requested to be baphad become so deeply attached to the loving phy- tized immediately. When it was suggested that sician that he was grieved at the idea of having it was better to wait till he was more adequately to leave his care. One day the grateful patient instructed in. the faith, he clasped his hands in caught the lapel of Dr. Summerhayes' coat and despair, and naively declared, "Well! all right, said: just as you please, but if my Saviour comes in the meanwhile and says to me: 'Nasar Ullah, why art "Sahib, please sit down for a minute. I have thou not baptized?' remember the fault will be some things to ask you." yours."
When the doctor had seated himself on the bed After he had received baptism, Nasar Ullah the patient said: was filled with a new passion for souls and with a desire to preach the Gospel. He forsook his occu- "Tell me, Sahib, what makes you so kind and pation as a merchant and devoted his time to loving. We are all very poor and humble folk; working in the hospital, preaching to the patients, you charge no fees, nor do you accept any re- and becoming more thoroughly grounded in his wards, and yet you have been kinder to me than new faith. my own father and mother would have been. Tell me I adjure you by the great name of Allah, the A few months later, Dr. Summerhayes sent him reason of your wonderful love!" to Lahore to be trained as an hospital assistant. While at Lahore, young Nasar Ullah had a second The missionary's heart glowed with joy. Was attack of his old disease and became so ill that he God answering his prayers after all, and sending had to be admitted to the big government hospital. an encouragement to his faltering faith? With a Here he often felt very lonely and his young faith silent prayer for guidance, he glanced towards the went through a fiery trial. Not only was the physpatient and smilingly said: ical pain very great, but a whole group of mis- chief-making and unsympathetic Mohammedan "My friend, it is a joy to me to be of service to workers and ward coolies made sport of his faith you and your people. My life has been dedicated and jeered at his Christianity, causing him great to the service of a loving Saviour who gave His spiritual agony. They repeatedly asked him to life that you and I and all mankind may be saved." renounce his religion and to return to Islam. When he refused to listen to their entreaties, they "And what is his name ?~' questioned the patient in amazement, lifting himself on his elbow to get nearer the doctor. "Tell me, who is this Saviour who makes you work such miracles of love?"
neglected to attend him and did all they could to It so happened that on the very day they had hasten his death. But with the true fortitude of planned to start, Nasar Ullah had an unexpected an Afghan and the forbearance of a disciple of visit from a group of friends. In the early morn- Christ, Nasar weathered this storm of persecu- ing Nasar Ullah's nephew made his sudden ap- tion. In his trouble he often called the name of pearance in the courtyard and, after the usual his friend, Dr. Summerhayes, but more often on form of salutation which in Baluchistan involves the name of his Saviour, asking Him for strength embracing, kissing and touching the feet, the to continue faithful. nephew intimated the purpose of his unannounced Nasar Ullah's prayers were answered and to the arrival, as follows: surprise of his enemies, he recovered. After com- "I have come accompanied by four other pleting his medical training he returned to work friends, who are waiting outside, to carry you in the mission hospital at Quetta and spent many home with us. There is serious sickness in the a day of happy and close fellowship with his family and your people have desired your imme- friend, working in the love and spirit of their diate attendance."
great Master and touching many a heart by the Without waiting for any further explanation or apostolic zeal and tender affection with which they asking for any guarantee of good faith, Nasar ministered to the sick and suffering of Balu- Ullah immediately made arrangements to return chistan. with his nephew, and sent his family to his wife's Then came a call from the government, and home. It was a long and tedious journey, and Nasar Ullah was asked to fill a position in a re- most of the distance had to be covered on foot, but mote government hospital on the Afghan fron- the sturdy mountaineers were accustomed to tier. It was an unsafe position and the remu- such hardships.
neration was meagre. But Nasar Ullah was long- They journeyed along, cheerfully talking over ing for increased opportunity to penetrate further the events of the past few years, discussing the north and reach the hardest type of his country- numerous family and tribal feuds, and the man- men, to whom the Word of Life had never been ner in which some had been settled and others left carried. He was aware that murder and larceny unavenged. Despite the thought of sickness at was a regular profession among the frontier tribes home, Nasal' Ullah could scarcely help feeling and that to them, all who possessed any money peculiarly happy. His joy was largely the result were hated infidels and especially so were Chris- of the feeling that he was going home. After all tians whom every Afghan hated. "But," said these years of silence and hostility, his people Nasar, "God has called me and I have answered, were at last willing to open their door to him.
'Here am I, Lord, send me'; so I am going, come "This is a promise of great opportunities," he said what may." to himself in exultation. "Maybe this is the first He said "Good-bye" to his great friend and with step my people are taking towards opening their his wife and family went to the frontier village to hearts to the great Saviour." His joy was great.
take up the duties of his new position. In a few On the third day, as the travelers crossed the months he won the confidence of his hard-hearted frontier and entered the Amir's dominion, Nasar countrymen. The sincerity of his motives and the Ullah saw a sudden change come over his hitherto love and honesty with which he served amongst jolly companions. They became sullen andmo- them, made them his friends. His fame spread rose, and sparing of speech. Unwilling to allow to great distances, even across the frontier to any doubts against the love and honesty of his Afghanistan. People came in ever-increasing own nephew, Nasar ascribed the change to weari- numbers to be treated by his kindly hand and ness resulting from the toilsome march and did many were healed by the touch of his love. Many his part in trying to cheer them up. About mid- found the Lord Jesus through the ministry of this day, the men stopped beside a shady spring to humble Afghan, and were openly admitted to the partake of a hasty meal from the provisions they Christian fold. But while many of his country- carried with them. They had hardly set down men were impressed by his exemplary life, his their burdens when Nasar's nephew made a sud- popularity was a source of annoyance to others. den spring and planted himself in front of his They felt bitter jealousy against him because he uncle. Then holding his wrists tightly, and look- was an apostate Moslem and was engaged in ing into his face with eyes full of fire, he said spreading the Christian Gospel. harshly: – One day Nasar Ullah's wife persuaded him to "Chacha (uncle), you are now in our control, accompany her to her parents' home further in and we can do with you what we like. You have the interior and to spend a few days there in order become an accursed Kirani (literally a Christian that he might have a little rest. Nasal' Ullah con- dog) and have disgraced the entire household.
ceded to his wife's request, and the family made You have choice now, either recite the Kalima ready to go. (the Mohammedan creed) or prepare to die."
ETHIOPIAN MISSIONS UNDER ITALIAN RULE
Nasar Ullah was astonished by this treacherous I turn unfaithful to Him and forget His great assault by one of his own kindred. Several at- love. No! Never! I am willing, yes happy to tacks had been made on his life in previous years, lay down my life for His sake, for I know that but Nasar's devotion to his Master and his love thereafter I shall go to live with Him forever. for his countrymen had long effaced their memory But as for you, you can gain nothing by killing from his heart. Of all the trials that he had been me." through this last seemed to be the hardest. Was he to choose life, and turn a traitor to his Saviour, These words of Nasar Ullah did little to assuage or should he choose death and win His everlasting his nephew's anger, on the contrary they incited approbation. His expression of perplexity testi- him to greater brutality and confirmed him in his fied that he was debating this question and wait- murderous resolve. The last words were still on ing for guidance. Presently his expression Nasar's lips, when the nephew's eyes gleamed like changed into one of great serenity. liquid fire. He whipped out a deadly kirch (a large pointed knife) from under the folds of his "Do you wish to end my life, my son," he at last garment, thrust it ruthlessly into his uncle's body. answered with a smile of perfect happiness, "because I am a Christian? If so, I am only very After their deadly mission of hatred and malice sorry; because rest assured that one day you will had been fulfilled, the Afghans resumed their regret your action. Remember, that it is only my march to their home, while their brother and wellbody you can destroy, for you cannot touch my wisher went to His heavenly Home. A tablet to soul. My body is not my own. It has been bought the martyr's memory was erected in the little with a great price-the blood of my Saviour who church at Quetta, with the inscription: laid down His life for you and for me. How can "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Ethiopian Missions Under Italian Rule By REV. JAMES ROHRBAUGH, _J~'- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia T REMENDOUS changes are being wrought in terian and thirty were with the Sudan Interior Ethiopia. The land in which the long-eared Mission. Before the war there were about one mule was the beast of burden and the slow, hundred and fifty, the SIM having grown to sevtedious trek the means of travel is undergoing enty and the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Sosome startling transformations. The Ethiopia, ciety and a number of independent groups having which continued the same for two milleniums, is entered. Today there are about sixty in the SIM, definitely no more. Modern roads are beginning five in the United Presbyterian Mission, the same to stretch over the rolling plateaus and up the number in the BCMS, three Pentecostal ladies winding valleys. Aeroplanes soar constantly over- and two under the Independent Presbyterian head. A system of schools and hospitals is being Board. There are also a few Germans and Adplanned which promises modern education and ventists. Independent workers and many others medical treatment to millions who have never have gone, so that about half the number here beknown it before. Sleepy Ethiopia, which produced fore the war remain. The United Presbyterians not a builder, scholar, artist, or scientist, is being withdrew two of their workers in obedience to the compelled to sit up and watch changes which, request of the American Government that Amerwhen completed, will have utterly transformed all icans leave, and later withdrew all of their workwhich she heretofore knew. ers in the west when danger threatened and the British Consul requested them to go. They plan "What part will Missions play in the new Ethi- to send these missionaries back into the country opia?" is a question often asked by those who have in the immediate future. Incidentally the United been watching the growth of missionary groups Presbyterians paid more attention to the requests and their work during the past decade. Six years of governments than did the other Missions and ago there were approximately seventy mission- by so doing, their workers were not in grave aries in the country of which about twenty were danger nor have any lives been lost other than Dr. Swedish, another twenty were United Presby-
Hockman of Chicago, killed in Red Cross service. countries, the Government is taking over the func- Of the SIM's nine stations in the south, seven tion of education and in addition the ministry to have had to be abandoned, the occupants of three the sick. In many primitive countries missions having fled for their lives and hidden in the moun- have undertaken these tasks. Heretofore many tains until rescued. Their two stations in the of the Ethiopian Government's trusted servants west are intact as is one of their two stations in came from mission schools and the care of the the north. Two of their workers have been killed. sick was entrusted almost wholly to mission so- The BCMS abandoned both their stations outside cieties. Within the first week of the Italian occu- of Addis Ababa. At present all but twenty-eight pancy of Addis, a Government school was opened of the missionaries in the country are in the cap- and rapidly grew to over a thousand pupils. Such ital, and the majority of those are concentrated at schools are planned for the whole country, yet Wolamo awaiting the coming of the Italians. here in Addis no religion is taught in the school.
It is apparent that Christian missions in this Pupils have perfect freedom to learn religion land are at their lowest ebb in some years and where they will. Similarly, hospitals have been very little in the way of missionary work is being opened; poor are treated free and an obstetrical carried on outside of Addis Ababa. Here three clinic has been established. Hospitals are to be mission schools and three hospitals are all oper- erected in the big cities and movable hospital ating as usual. The SIM has about thirty workers units are being devised to patrol the roads. Mis- here learning the language, preparing to reoccupy sion hospitals and schools have done a great work and rebuild outstations as soon as permission is in Ethiopia but it is plain that their day is passing.
given. The United Presbyterians are sending Mission schools and hospitals still operate in Ad- some of their workers back via Addis and they dis and have not been interfered with. Yet, if hope to reoccupy both of their stations in the west they cease to exist, children will learn and sick very soon. But all have been waiting a statement will be treated. Their main raison d'etre is gone.
of Government policy so that they may know what Established schools and hospitals may not be to expect. The Italian Viceregal government closed, but they must prepare to occupy an in- kindly gave a statement of general missionary creasingly small part in community life.
policy especially for this article in order that peo- Missions may still evangelize. That fact should ple both here and at home may know what to be enough to cause the downhearted to take expect. heart and cause missions to prepare to bring their Following is an English translation of their work back to normal and to look forward to ex- policies as given to the writer: pansion. The Roman Catholic Church has already Missions may carryon their work in Italian East Africa made it plain that she plans a vast missionary so long as they limit themselves to religion and do nothing enterprise for Ethiopia. There is no doubt that against the law of the state. many will prefer to be taught religion by the emis- Protestant missionaries will always have liberty to saries of the Church of Rome, Rome having con- quered. In the past Protestant and Catholic mispreach without special permission so long as they confine sionaries have worked without friction in this land themselves strictly to the sphere of religion. The official decree of religious liberty includes the right of missionaries to make converts among the pagans of the and we hope that it may continue so. Protestants country. have been permitted to work and evangelize. This is a vast country, with millions of people and no Missionaries who abandoned their stations due to the matter how many workers various societies send, war or riots will be permitted to return and occupy them if in the past they have spread no anti-Italian propaganda and if their former term of occupancy has not demon- it will be decades before all have heard the Gospel.
strated any unfitness to continue their work. The qualifications applying to those who hope The Italian Government will not forget the nations who to return to their stations are very interesting. Naturally the Italians do not want those who have maintained an attitude of good will toward Italy during spread propaganda against them. Very, very few the ltalo-Ethiopian conflict. If any distinction is ever made among the missionaries of different countries, cer- tainly those of the United States, will be favored within thought it their duty to do this and such cannot the limits of possibility. expect to work under the new regime. But – the It is clear that a policy of religious liberty will questions, What part should a missionary play be followed in Italian East Africa. The Italian when the country in which he is working is at Government has definite political and economic war? Should he go home and be considered plans for this country but has demonstrated cowardly1' Should he remain neutral when. pas- leniency in the sphere of religion. Inasmuch as sions run high and have no following? Should all missionaries are ambassadors of Christ and he help to keep up the morale of the people and Christ alone, the thing for which they came to face certain expulsion if the opposing country con- this country is granted to them. The idea, held quers? Should missionaries obey the advices of by some, that missionaries are the emissaries of their home governments during such time? etc., civilization, is out of order here. As in civilized would be worth a careful study treatise by some
experienced missionary leader. It is certain that Roads are being built, and in the most literal if the advice of governments had been heeded sense this country is being opened. Territories during this struggle, many lives would neither which saw few white men in the past millenium have been risked nor lost. will see thousands daily. It will mean mission- ary opportunity and the sphere of activity of each What the Italian Government means by "Unfit- missionary will be widened. The writer, who has ness to continue their work" will not be definitely a school in Addis will have no regrets if teaching known until decisions have been given to numerous is unnecessary and if he is privileged to go by applicants who wish to return to their stations. automobile from village to village preaching the I have been unofficially informed that a good Word of God. In the rainy season we can teach recommendation from one's consul will be one of the Bible in Addis and during the dry season we the things required. I have also heard that per- can tour. It is an entrancing possibility. sons wishing to come to this land will be required to secure a recommendation from their respective No one knows when this land will be safe for Departments of State. However, until we see ap- general travel and until then permits to travel will plications approved or rejected we will know little not be given. In the year that lies ahead probably of the Government's desires in this matter. little can be done. This is a perfect time for fur- loughs. But it behooves missionaries to learn the Finally it is clear that Americans will be in the languages of the regions in which they hope to favored nation class and that there will be no dis- work, and then when the rebels are cleared from crimination against us at any time. We owe a the country and travel is safe, once more the Way deep debt of gratitude to our American Govern- of Salvation can be proclaimed by those who are ment for its wise foreign policy in which they ready. The Italian Government is kind in giving have sought to live at peace with all men and take us these assurances. If missionaries seek to be a up the quarrels of none. Noone can appreciate help to those in authority and teach that subjecthis as well as the missionary. It is unfortunate tion to governments is the law of God, they may but true that persons residing in foreign lands as soon find their presence appreciated and their libguests of other governments either gain or lose erties extended. If they prove to be a disturbing by the foreign policy of their own nation. factor there is no doubt that their stay will be Obviously the future of institutional mission short. work in Ethiopia is not bright but we should be Missions are being given the opportunity to glad that the new government is willingly undertaking these functions. We have the privilege of prove their worth in this land. If societies at doing the greater work for which we came to this home give support and if missionaries loyally cocountry and should be grateful for being per- operate, the missionary future of Ethiopia may mitted to do so. be brighter than it has ever been.
THE MISSIONARY * Far from the lar:d that gave him life and name He only labors on and is content; He makes his home, amid an alien race. Happy to go the way the Saviour went.
He comes, not seeking worldly wealth or fame, Where sin and ignorance hold baleful sway, But by a mandate from the Throne of Grace- Or superstition grips men in its thrall, "Go forth to all the nations of the earth, He strives to guide their steps into the way Bearing glad tidings of the Saviour's birth." That leads to Him who lived and died for all.
A man like other men, not set apart "Come unto Him ye burdened and oppressed, As one above the common human plane; Come unto Him, and He will give you rest."
He too is subject to the tempter's art; And some there are who lend an eager ear He too is burdened by life's stress and strain- To catch the Message that new hope imparts; Yet feels himself preserved from worldly harms While others stand aloof or mock and jeer Supported by the Everlasting Arms. Because it finds no echo in their hearts; Day in, day out, he labors-oft in vain; Yet all alike are human souls in need, Stony the ground and thorny where he sows. The sheep that Jesus once bade Peter feed.
Perchance some other hand will reap the grain Nor is the spoken word the only art Sprung from the seed he diligently bestows. Wherein he seeks to carry out God's plan; • From Syria News Quarterly. The school and hospital both play their part In showing forth the Saviour's love for man.
Exconvict Who Made
EDITORIAL MICHAEL J. HICKEY, the converted pick- From the beginning Mike had his own ideas pocket who founded the "League of Anoth- concerning reform work. He fought hard against er Chance." "Mike" Hickey served over the practice of police in those days of hounding nineteen years behind prison bars before he "went exconvicts, even when they obtained jobs, and straight." So successful was he in his work with against the general attitude of most persons to- exconvicts that he was a welcome visitor at pris- ward any man who had served a prison term. He ons and jails throughout the East, and detectives thought that if it was possible to change a crim- occasionally told exconvicts, who complained that inal's viewpoint and his purposes into honest they were being persecuted, to "get an okay from lines, and if he could be led to surrender his life Mike Hickey and we'll let you alone." to Christ, then reform was assured.
Michael Hickey was born in New York City News of Hickey's work spread rapidly among sixty-four years ago, and started out on his career exconvicts, who saw in him a friendly combination of crime early. His first wrong step, he said, was of vocational guidance bureau, employment agency when he stole 25 cents from his sister and lied and relief bureau. Hickey, although himself an when she questioned him about it. He blamed that earnest Christian, never forced religion on those first theft and lie for his downfall. After his con- who came to him for aid. He suggested the need versions he would never lie concerning any mat- for God's guidance, but his primary interest was ter. By hard experience he learned the value of in reforming the exconvict.
strict honesty. After twelve years Hickey's following became Mike became a very clever pickpocket and could so large that it was necessary to move it out of the extract wallets and watches even from the most Y. M. C. A. and the "League for Another Chance"
wary. During the years prior to his conversion, was founded by him and Mr. Eldridge. Into the Hickey was in and out of prison and jail con- small office a steady stream of exconvicts poured, tinually. While serving a ten-year sentence in receiving advice, jobs, a little money or an over· Sing Sing, he had the cell next to the late Billy coat, but never being turned away empty if in McQuere, subsequently head of the McAuley Cre- real need. morne Mission. McQuere wrote poetry that In his spare time Hickey spoke in church and Hickey liked and this was the beginning of a long charity gatherings and in mission meetings. His friendship-. Sundays were devoted to jail meetings, and the On getting out of Sing Sing prison McQuere last time he visited Sing Sing, thirty-three con- was converted by the late Jerry McAuley, but victs stepped forward when he called for decisions Hickey went back to picking pockets and was sent to surrender to Christ and follow Him. Warden to Dannemora Prison. When released he returned Lewis E. Lawes, former Prison Commissioner to New York and a friend told him that McQuere, Mulrooney and the late Dr. Walter N. Thayer, by this time superintendent of the Cremorne Mis- State Commissioner of Correction, were among sion, wanted to see him. his many advocates.
"I'm not interested in going to that place," he With the depression, Hickey four.d it more dif- muttered. "I'm not looking for religion today. ficult to obtain jobs for his followers, but he kept I'm looking for money." trying. During the last few years a recent checkup But Hickey went to see Billy and walked out of showed that 700 exconvicts had stood by their the Mission a converted man. Fred 1. Eldridge, promise to Mike Hickey to go straight. He was a then connected with the Bowery Y. M. C. A., New shrewd judge of character and could spot a man York, got him a job as a watchman, and was so pretending penitence.
impressed by his work that he offered him a post "I can look through a stone wall," was a favorite as religious secretary at the Bowery "Y." This expression of his, "when it comes to faking. If was twenty-four years ago. you don't want to go straight don't come to me."
Hickey's job was to handle exconvicts and va- On November 12, Hickey was guest of honor at grants, and he tackled the job with enthusiasm. a meeting -celebrating the twenty-fourth anniver- His first step was to organize the "Make Good sary of his conversion. During his last illnes's he Club," with forty men with a prison record of was making plans for sending Christmas cards twenty and a half years each as charter members. and a "little money" to those behind the bars- Of that number only three went back to crime; "they like to be remembered and it means a lot the other thirty-seven found legitimate employ- when they get out."
ment and went straight. Mike Hickey died in New York on Dec. 7, 1936.
[44 ]
South as a Missions
-·-t6f11 By REV. JOHN R. SCOTFORD, New York il~'- THE religious needs of the South are rapidly situated as those in the northern states. The eclipsing the "call of the West" in their ap- South has come much closer to the lives of church peal to the interest of the people in our people than has Montana and Wyoming, which churches. This shift may ultimately produce a are commonly thought of as being "out west someradical change in home mission aims and methods. where."
From the American Revolution to the World The present administration at Washington has War our land of dreams lay towards the setting dramatized both the need and the possibilities of of the sun. The ambitious turned their backs the South through the TVA and the Norris Dam upon the East. But today the stream of venture- has been a magnet drawing an endless stream of some youth flows from West to East. Young men visitors into the mountains. Many have seen once demonstrated their pluck by staking out a something besides a gigantic wall of concrete. homestead and growing up with the country, now Recently the agitation concerning the plight of they exhibit their nerve by daring to seek a job the "share-croppers" has stirred the conscience of in some eastern city. The West lingered long on the nation. The socially minded have come to the movie screen and in the pages of magazines, think of the South as a region of dire need and as but even in these hectic regions it gives signs of a section of the country where many interesting flickering out. The rising generation seems to developments are on the way.
find gangsters more interesting than cowboys. The bane of large sections of both the West and Home missions were born of the frontier. South is poverty, but it is of a different sort in the two regions. The West seems to be in the plight Through them the churches of the East sought of a gambler who has played for large stakes and to meet the emergency created by the rapid ex- lost; much of the South is a pauper who has pansion of population across a continent. They began as the heroic effort to plant Christian been reared on hunger and who has never known churches and schools amidst the inevitable dis- the feel of a good warm coat on his back. In order of the frontier. In some instancs their am- terms of per capita wealth and per capita income bition developed into the effort to claim new em- the South is the poorest section of the United pires for particular denominations. Home mis- States. sions in the past have been commonly associated For years many home mission boards have car- with the meeting of the religious needs of the ried on work in the South, usually as a sideline West. to their western activities. The emphasis has been upon the Negro and the Southern Highlander Florida is now the mecca of many who are aged -a figure that has always stirred the imagination. and opulent. Drouth has followed drouth with Recently the vision of our people has expanded to such deadly monotony that the East has grown take in the rural white population and the multi. weary of the woes of the West. Many have con- tudes of country folk who have been herded into cluded that the best thing for the settlers to do the. mill villages during the past twenty years. in a land where grasshoppers thrive is to move Ultimately mission boards reflect the interests of out! Certain it is that the Eastern churches have their giving constituencies and the growing connot been as deeply stirred by the plight of the much plagued West as the facts of the case would cern of our churches for the South will lead to an seem to warrant. Part of the reason is that their increased interest and effort in this area. attention is turning in other directions. In two respects home mission work in the South Several circumstances are making our churches differs from that in the West. The South is not increasingly conscious of the needs of the South. a field for denominational expansion. She already In the wintertime Florida is a popular resort, possesses a superabundance of both local churches with the automobile as the most satisfactory way and denominational affiliations. In addition to getting there. Only a small fraction of the mil- most of the groups found in other portions of the lions who drive across Georgia get a clear con- country she has three great denominations of her ception of the poverty, illiteracy and human need own. She has nothing to offer the denomination- of that state, but all know where it is and most of alist who is yearning for new worlds to conquer them realize that its people are not as favorably for his church. From the point of view of home [45 ]
missions this may be fortunate. The bugaboo of Christian ministry? The northern ideal of one home mission promotion is the widespread suspi- minister serving one church is economically imcion on the part of some that home missions are possible. The prevailing practice in many secmerely a name for denominationalism. The tions of the South is for a minister to preach in a easiest way to dissipate this notion is for home different church on each Sunday of the month, missions to advance into an area where there is while he farms or follows some other pursuit no hope of denominational profit. through the week. Preaching is often almost the sole religious activity of a preacher; a church The problem of the West has been to awaken building is merely a place where people go to sit and organize religious interest; that of the South and listen. Both pastors and congregation need is to direct religious devotion into channels which to be trained into a larger conception of organized, are profitable to the whole community. In the practical Christianity. Ways must be found for South great faith and dire poverty live cheek by either training laymen to preach, or for training jowl. The Church has a prestige and power which preachers so that they can preach and make a it lacks in many other sections. Church member- living in an honorable way. ship is a form of respectability; the mores of the people are favorable to the Church. As the say- The mill village presents another problem. ing goes, "It is easy to do religious work in the With $12 a week as the prevailing wage it re- South." quires either a large membership or great sacri- fice for a church to support a pastor. One way of On the other hand, there is no section in which easing the difficulty is for the minister to be given the church faces more problems which have spir- free house rent and a financial grant from the itual implications. Most of the population is mill. But can he serve his people effectively when caught in a bog of hopeless poverty. This is not he is on the payroll of their overlords? Leaderthe passing "bad luck" of the frontier but a per- ship is a pervasive problem of both town and counmanent state which sears the soul of self-respect. try. Where education is scanty in quantity and deficient in quality how can the Church find teach- There is also the loss of individuality on the ers for its Sunday Schools and leaders for its part of those who take up their abode in "com- young people? Puzzling problems such as these pany houses" that they may serve as servants to the all-powerful machines which spin and weave abound in the South. our cloth. Something is likely to happen to the Because the South is the neediest section of our soul of a man when his fingers become a cheap supplement to a mechanical process. country today an increasing proportion of home missionary effort should be directed to the South. Over all the South there also hangs the pall of Such a change of emphasis may help to purge race prejudice-one of the most sinister phases home missions of charges of expansionist and secof American life today. These are some of the tarian ambitions of the past and lead them to an tangible problems with which the Church must attempt to solve in a Christian way the problems grapple in the South. of poverty and ignorance in the most needy sec- tion of our country. How shall a vast rural population living close to the poverty level be provided with an adequate HOW TO MAKE AMERIOA OHRISTIAN?
For the first time in all recorded history I should say, we are living in an almost completely secularized world. We have separated ourselves from the living past. The Bible is a neglected book, even as all the books of the past are neglected. Weare no more historically minded. The past, for this generation, is as dead as yesterday's daily press. We have broken not only with authority but with continuity. We are not only sep- arated from Jesus and the prophets – we are also separated from Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Their names are still in vogue, used by the preacher and by the politician, but they are not rooted in the minds and hearts of Christians today, nor in the minds and hearts of Americans. History is being taught, but it is purely secular history, used primarily to instill war patriotism.
As a result of our break with the past we have lost, in fifty years, everything which may be called a reli- gious culture. We have everything to make life comfortable, but in working we are quite empty. We know no other values except those of size, speed, and cost. So big – the biggest. So fast – can you break the record? It must be good because it costs so much!
The task for Christian workers will not be easier in the ten following years; it will be harder. The eco- nomic struggle will further separate man from God and, still more, pe~haps, men one from the other. We shall have to face more of prejudice as men become less religious, for prejudices grow among people who have no. Christian faith. To the degree that passions are inflamed in the struggle for living, the more we will have to face a narrow Americanism, or nationalism, at war with the spirit of Christ.
Our task is to keep alive the loving, tender, compelling spirit of the Christ; to stand in the midst of the war and take the nrount of the fight. Our work will be a success in the degree that Americans and all the rest of the races and creeds and nationalities become more and more one in Christ, and help people to find a one- ness in Him.-From an address by Dr. Edward A. Steiner.
Ways of
I 'rested Metlwds for Increasing Interest at Home I EDITED BY Mas. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'==-=================——I~ CONCERNING THAT church School of WorId Friend- mer conferences and in local ship. Attempting to equalize communities, the Editor has "NEW LEAF" leadership responsibility among asked clergymen and Sunday the cooperating denominations, school superintendents without Do we need to turn it over? here is a tabloid transcript of number for their organizational Assuredly, Yes! Missionary what she encountered among and promotional plans. In only interests in the local church are "the brethren" : a very few cases has she met not at flood tide. with a response indicating a defi- What should be inscribed No.1, university professor of nite plan or well attested meththereon after it goes over? such broad culture that it was ods. How can "Thy Kingdom Many things, among which are reported, "You cannot tap him come" by hit-or-miss kangaroo the following: on any subject on which he is activity? not thoroughly informed." He 1. Making missions a main said, "0" (with a slight laugh), In the past two years, a few proposition instead of an op- "mission study is entirely out of outstanding exceptions h a v e tional corollary in personal en- my line. I shouldn't care to at- been discovered and reported in listment under the standard of tempt that." this Department – Sun day the Author of the Great Com- schools with a systematic plan mISSIOn. This means that pas- No.2, university professor of of missionary cultivation, men's tor and church officials will have broad horizon: "You see my missionary leagues in the local a definite program for mission wife's leading one of the younger church, etc. To those will be study, informational and inspi- classes and one in the family is added in the February issue of rational culture and missionary enough." THE REVIEW the following disbenevolences instead of letting cussions, all prepared by "the things go hit or miss in pulpit No.3: "I'm missionary in brethren" : as well as departmental life. spirit but my present work is too "Check" ? arduous for me to undertake "Missionary Activities of a anything more." (Quite true to 2. Climbing out of the ruts of fact.) Men's Bible Class." "the usual missionary meeting," "Socratic Evenings – aNew banishing the Faithful Tradi- No.4: "I don't know a man tionalists or else converting in our church who is qualified to Venture in Adult Education." them, and lining up under the do that. We leave mission study "Making C h u r c h Members most efficient plans issued and entirely to our women. They do promoted by the missionary edu- plenty." Missionary." cational departments of your "How the World Came to own denomination as well as the No.5: "Our minister is teach- United Mission Study courses ing a class. That represents our Portland." which now are fully up with the van in approved pedagogical church." Please send me your own conprinciples and methods. Again, No.6: "I always think of that tribution of attested plans and "Check" ? programs for (1) making mis- as a woman's job!" sionary endeavor an essential in 3. Parsing "missions" in the church membership; (2) getting masculine as well as the fem- And so with one accord, they out of traditional ruts; (3) makinine gender – in fact common all said, "I pray thee, have me ing missions masculine as well gender is the ideal. Too long excused." Those six sessions as feminine. Departmental mathave "the sisters" shouldered the suffered in interest and attend- ter giving down-to-date suggesresponsibility for cultivation of ance because of lack of mascu- tions for young people's and chilthe home field. Hark ye: Your line cooperation, though it must dren's work is always welcome. Department Editor recently had be said to the credit of all the"'e The ensuing timely articles are occasion to organize the adult dissenters that they were giv- from outstanding leaders in foreign mission study depart- ing to missions personally or junior endeavor. ment in a community inter- through their families. Down to Date Junior Plans Pastors are not wholly blame- less in this state of affairs. In The children interested in her perpetual quest for "effec- missionary work today. will be tive ways of working" at sum- [47 ]
the young people who enjoy his people. We shall also make candle to indicate how short a serving others tomorrow and "Treasure Books" of poems, time the man had to serve; then the church workers of the day songs, names of paintings and he lights a large one to show how after tomorrow. So we must in- painters, books and articles we long a child giving his heart to terest the children today in order have received from Africa and Jesus may serve. All the chil- to have them carryon what we the American Negro. By cor- dren come forward singing, have started. Our best mission- respondence with Negro schools "Jesus Bids Us Shine," and ary workers should be their lead- we shall learn how they cele- kindle their candles at the Christ ers. When you have found a brate Christmas, Easter and light. Close with Mizpah bene..
leader who loves Christ and His other special days. We hope to diction. The children love this children, she will follow these learn direct of other young peo- service at rally day in the mis- ple who have gone from schools sionary society, at Christmas, missionary B's: helped by our boys and girls Easter or the last meeting of the Be prayerful. through their mite boxes, dues year. Be early. Be regular in attendance. and pledges. We shall make The United Brethren Women's Be well prepared. maps showing the schools in the Missionary Association, 1412 Be prompt in beginning and ending. U. S. and Africa where our mis- United Brethren Building, Day- sionaries have gone, then choose Be interested in each individual. ton, Ohio, publishes good Afri- Be faithful to other church activities.
This year we are studying the some school and write to it to can Primary Picture Stories for Negro child and working with find what we can do to help at 25 cents. "Gifts of Black Folk," him. There is a wealth of ma- Christmas time. We make beau- by DuBois, will furnish material terial at hand. As we start the tiful posters which tell the for treasure books. In "Junior work we may use an invitation Christmas and Easter stories. Talks for Special Days," by to gain attention. Make it in the Treasure books of pictures and Arnold Westphal, is an interestshape of Africa with a picture poems, made by the children, ing teaching program called of a Negro child on the front and will be sent to mission schools. "Missionary Quartette." I use the invitation giving date, place material wherever I can find it, of meeting and the words, "Come Children like to give chalk ordering through my own deand help make an African vil- talks. I have used C. O. Brown's nomination so they may receive lage," on the back. This village "Easy Chalk Talks," also his the profit. I should be very consists of a set of drawings to book on paper tearing, with grateful to know of material be cut out and assembled and Bible verses. "Eye~ate Ser- others have used in junior work, can be bought for 25 cents at mons," by Rev. H. Reed Shep- for use in my home church and The Department of Missionary pen, is also helpful. What chil- my classes at the Epworth Education, 740 Rush St., Chi- dren do or see will be remem- League Institute, Lakeside, Ohio. cago. The following stories may bered long after what we have be told (never read): "Camp- told them is forgotten. This is MRS. E. R. BROWN. fires in Congo," by Mrs. John further illustrated by candle- Akron, Ohio. Springer; "In the African lighting services, at least one of Bush," by Jewel H. Schwab; "I which will be held this year, More Junior Studies Would Sing America," by Ma- using Bible verses on Light. The and Projects rion Cuthbert. following plan may be used: An interesting course in For- Learn some Negro songs such Have children seated in half eign Missionary education was circle facing a cross with tall given the children of the junior as "I Want to Be a Christian in candle at one side, at back of department of the United Breth- My Heart" (book of "Southland stage. A picture of Christ is ren church in Westerville, Ohio, Spirituals," 25 cents) and have placed near at hand. Then the with Africa as the subject. The children tell Negro stories. children sing the first two children met for one and a half These may be purchased for a stanzas of "Jesus Loves Me," hours in a midweek session, for few cents each from the Meth- with added verses, eight weeks. Families gathered odist headquarters at 420 Plum Jesus loves the children dear, for dinner together, after which St., Cincinnati, Ohio. Use the Children far away or near. the children were dismissed for leaflet, "The Finding Out Box" They are safe when in His care, this instruction. (5 cents), and "The House of Every day and everywhere. A brief worship period was Their Hands" (2 cents), pub- Jesus loves me, this I know, And my love to Him I'll show, followed by the telling of an lished by the Lutheran Women's When my happiness I share African story-"In the African Missionary Society, 723 Muhlen- With His children everywhere. Bush," by Schwab. After the berg Building, 1228 Spruce St., story a three-reel film was Philadelphia, Pa. Collect poems Ten or more children then shown. In cooperation with our and stories written by Negroes. come forward with their Bibles, public schools we were able to One that I shall use is "Give a each reading his verse and light- secure educational films telling Thought to Africa," by Hosea K. ing his candle from the large the story of Africa, her people, Nyobongi, son of an African one. The leader tells of a man her climate and products. After king, at Clark University fitting who gave his life to Christ when this film, the children were given himself for larger work among 80 years old, and lights a short a rest period and taken to the
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
recreation room where African themselves, deserving respect as finale came when, on a Sunday folk games were played. Then well as interest and help. afternoon, the department held groups were formed around the MRS. ONA MOCLOY, open house and explained the work tables where an outline Supt. of Junior Department, exhibits, furnished music from map of the country was studied, First U. B. Church, Wes- India, Mexico and China, and terville' Ohio. served tea to the church memcolored, discussed, with outline bership who called in large numpictures (also colored) mounted bers. Surely missions were thus in the proper places thereon. An Elaborate Junior Project woven into the very warp and Larger pictures were mounted woof of the children's thinking, and other handcraft projects The specific details of the fol- and parents who had remained completed. One group had as lowing expressional work devel- aloof from the greatest Adventheir project the finding of the oped by Mrs. Helen Leach, of ture in the world gained some names of those in the denomina- Granville, Ohio, for her junior idea of its importance. tion who were entitled to places study last year, are not imporof honor on the map. tant as the method and prin- Inbringing Day ciples involved are universal and A trip to the museum of Otter- may be used equally well with The First Baptist church of bein College to see the Mrican our current topics. They consti- Dayton, Ohio, used a plan (decurios was made. A college stu- tute a de luxe attempt to make scribed in Missions,) to help dent who is a native of Africa the themes part and parcel of children understand the need for gave an interesting talk. We are the children's lives and to moti- systematic giving. At a meetfortunate in having a large num- vate future action. ing of junior and primary deber of returned missionaries partments, baskets filled with from Africa who are most gra- With South America as the the coins the children had cious in lending their curios, na- first theme, photos and objects brought during the year were tive costumes, pictures and were collected such as pictures displayed on a table. At one baskets. showing points of international interest, tissue paper flags of the A "browsing table" was kept nationalities, data about the side stood a shadow box containfilled with National Geographies, Columbus Memorial Lighthouse ing a picture on glass of the books of travel and pictures. to be erected by Pan-American church. Explaining the need of Two books the children enj oyed countries as a Friendship Me- the church for money, the leader were "Camp Fires in the morial, cacti, objects loaned by drew from a box a sheaf of bills Congo," by Mrs. J 0 h n M. friends and an elaborate poster incurred for heat, supplies, etc., Springer, and "Children of the of the products of Mexico, this and suggested that children Chief," by Mary Entwistle. "In latter project requiring weeks come up and drop money from the African Bush" was inval- of work. the basket into the box marked uable as it contains outlines for The foreign study following for light and heat. As they did teaching, stories, worship ma- this covered four countries in this, the light was switched on terial, hand work, drum calls Asia celebrating their centenaand folk and game songs. The ries in missionary work. One in the shadow box and lo! the children dramatized some of the church was illuminated! Next a stories they heard. That these class whose teacher was a mis- missionary map was displayed, tales of the intimate home life of sionary's daughter from Podili, African children and their ac- with electric bulbs marking mistivities made a vivid impression South India, made a beautiful sion stations. Little wooden on our group was very evident. reproduction of the mission com- chests in front of the map were Some of the boys whittled out pound where the girl had spent call drums, native canoes and her early youth. This proved a each marked with the name of paddles: the girls made gourd a station. Children took more and cucumber dolls, baby straps real work of art. A class of collection money and dropped it and modeled huts of clay with boys made a moving picture reel into any chest; whereupon the dried grass and leaves for roofs. corresponding bulb on the map which, worked back and forth, furnished the basis for two dif- flashed on, the coins making the ferent talks on China which connection with the metal bot- were later given by young lads. tom of the box. The children Certainly a closer bond was Stamps from many countries were "electrified"! When boxes drawn between our children and were collected, cut up and pasted were left empty, and correspondthe little ones in Africa by these on letters to form the te~t, "Go ing stations remained dark, the activities. When children por- ye into all the world." This leader explained that this is tray such scenes from the home handsome ten-foot frieze was what happens when gifts are not life of African children as the eventually taken to the Northern equal to needs of the field. way they travel, care for their Baptist Convention and exhibsick, work and play; the way ited before hundreds of inter- A Oorrection the women prepare the food and ested delegates. All the juniors In our December issue it was stated the songs they sing to their cooperated in making up White that Miss Elizabeth 1. Fensom would babies, an indelible impression furnish a year's subscription to her is made. They begin to realize Crossl supply boxes that were that these people are much like sent to Arizona, Puerto Rico, Program Pointers for 25 cents. She Assam and Africa. The grand states that the next five issues will be sent for 15 cents. The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK A PRAYER FOR THE This be our prayer as we face liminary conferences will be NEW YEAR the new year! Prayer that com- held. On Sunday afternoon, bines love of God with love of January 10, the Conference of By Mrs. Orrin R. Judd our fellow men! Prayer that the Committee on Young Peo- identifies ourselves with the ple's Work and Conference of "If Thy presence go not with wounds and suffering and sins Presidsnts and Executive Secme, carry us not up hence." of humanity! Prayer that knows retaries of Women's Home Mis- Exodus 33: 15. the Presence that avails for sal- sion Boards are scheduled, and vation, sustenance and guidance. are to be followed by a devo- For those who are charged tional service. Presidents of with responsibility of leader- It is not an easy prayer. The women's and young women's ship, this prayer uttered by way to the answer is long and missionary societies of Asbury Moses many centuries ago offers beset with obstacles. It is prayed Park and Ocean Grove will be a significant pattern. Shaken with few words, but with much by the events that followed his living, and with utter sincerity. the guests of the Council at this return from Mt. Sinai, he with- Like Moses, we shall have to be devotional service and the feldraws to solitude to find again stabbed wide awake by pain to lowship tea which follows. peace and direction for himself make it ours. May we be willand a wayward people. ing like him to bear the pain of In preparation for the Annual corporate delinquence, and in the Meeting a Service of Worship He is aware of God. The un- conscious, blissful companionseen is real to him. He knows ship of the Presence be led for- will be held Sunday evening. from frequent communions "the ward continually to triumph, for On Monday afternoon, while upward reach in the soul of the redemption of our country man." To talk with God is the and the world. Joint Committees are meeting, a habit of his life. He is therefore popular meeting is being set up quickly sensitive to any veil that "If we have found favor in comes between him and God. Thy sight, show us now Thy way for church women throughout that we may know Thee; but if that area of New Jersey. A He is conscious of one supreme Thy presence go not with us, graphic account of the World need. Nothing else matters. carry us not up hence. 0 Lord Day of Prayer observances, the Like the psalmist he cries out: Jehovah, show Thy servants Thy "Whom have I in heaven but greatness and Thy strong hand." challenge of the united Protes- Thee? And there is none on -A New Year's Eve Prayer, tant work in the United States earth beside Thee." His suffi- from" A Chain of Prayer Across Indian Schools, and motion picciency is to be realized only in the Ages." this Presence which is to him tures of the interdenominational friend, companion, counselor ANNUAL MEETING service in Migrant Labor Camps,. and guide. are all features of this program. January 11-14, 1937 His need is too great to be On Monday night, January 11, satisfied by personal well-being. Berkeley-Carteret Hotel, Why not be satisfied? He has Asbury Park, N. J. the Annual Meeting of the Counalready received the assurance: cil of Women for Home Missions "My presence shall go with thee, The Committee on Annual opens officially with the Fellowand I will give thee rest." It is Meeting of the Home Missions ship Supper. On that evening a gracious word, but promises Council and the Council of Womnot enough. He needs more. en for Home Missions is develop- the Home Missions Councils will The destiny of an entire people ing unique plans for this Annual meet in joint session and reports is his concern. He is their Meeting. Methods of presenting of Indian Work, and Young Peomediator with God. His life has reports are to be different and ple's Work and City and New no value save in and for them. ample time is to be allowed for Americans are on the agenda. "If Thy presence go not with interesting and encouraging de- Tuesday, January 12, is to be deme, carry us not up hence." The velopments on the field. Pre- voted entirely to the separate Presence that strengthens him, ceding the Annual Meeting pre- business sessions of the two must sustain all. Councils. Interesting plans are [50 ] under way for unique methods of presenting the work of the Council of Women for Home Missions for 1936. A panel dis- cussion will combine the presen- tation of the work of committees
BULLETIN OF THE COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS
on International Relations, Race church women of all denomina- schools in the South, in Cuba, Relations and Legislative Mat- tions, in both Canada and the Puerto Rico and Alaska; from ters, a graphic presentation of United States united in a Day of mission stations among Indians the World Day of Prayer, study Prayer for Missions both Home of the West, Christian Centers books and Schools of Missions is and Foreign. in the East and many of our being arranged. The Migrant In 1921 there were published great northern cities come the Committee is working on a dra- and distributed 62,425 pro- same heartening letters, some matic presentation. On that eve- grams. One offering of $25 was with tiny offerings, others with ning the Home Missions Councils sent to the Council of Women considerable sums but all carrymeet again in j oint business ses- for Home Missions. In 1927 the ing cheering messages of faith sion for dinner and the evening World Day of Prayer was ob- and love-love for God and love session. served and special objects were for His work.
National Conference on designated for the offerings. As The Call has gone out for the the City Church information concerning the 1937 Day of Prayer to be ob- needs for Christian Literature served February 12th. Over Wednesday, January 13, in- in Foreign Lands, C h r i s t ian 300,000 copies of the Program cludes the opening of the Na- Work Among Migrants, Union have been printed. The theme, tional Conference on the City Christian Colleges for Women "Thou Art the Christ, the Son Church, the part of the Annual and the Indian American Youth of the Living God," has been de- Meeting that is given over to a of Today, the response has been veloped in a program prepared detailed consideration of one more and more generous until by Miss Mabel Shaw of Northphase of home mission work last year the offerings for the ern Rhodesia, Africa. each year. A remarkable pro- work of the Council of Women In sending the program Miss gram has been planned with ex- for Home Missions amounted to Shaw writes, perts on various phases of the City Mission field scheduled to $12,291, a like amount going to The program is supremely an act of the Foreign Missions Confer- worship. I feel more and more that present the situations and lead the thinking of the group as the ence. There were reported ap- our hearts must be stirred to adoraissues are considered. proximately 2,200 observances. tion before prayer can be of real power. We must dimly see the un- There are four themes relative One cannot read the letters ac- bearable wonder of the greatness of to the City, those on Wednesday companying the offerings with- Him to whom we pray, the unutterincluding The Urban Process, out realizing the spiritual uplift able majesty of the Son of God, and The City-a Field for Social and of such union meetings. Often the shattering humility of the Son of Religious Adventure, and The a small offering carries the fra- Man. I have tried to reveal that. Social Ministry of the Urban grance of real sacrifice. A little There are two periods of meditation Church. The closing Session on town in Kansas sends 67 cents in the program which will need care- Thursday, January 14, will be with the remark, "We had one ful preparation if they are to serve devoted to The Interdenomina- of those terrible Kansas dust their purpose. The unity of the protional Approach to the Modern storms that day and there were gram depends upon them. I suggest City. not many out." each period to be seven to ten minutes long. I have had in my thought a WORLD DAY OF PRAYER From a city in Alabama comes background of praying women. a description of a "program with As we read of the growth of beautiful music, earnest prayers Twelfth Conference on the the World Day of Prayer which in a quiet atmosphere of faith Cause and Cure of War is sponsored jointly by the Wom- and trust," which, the writer en's Committee of the Foreign says, "grows dearer with each JANUARY 26-29, 1937 Missions Conference and the observance." Negro women in Council of Women for Home this city held their meeting at Plans for the Conference to be Missions, we are reminded of night in their own church and held at the Palmer House, Chithe parable of the "grain of sent an offering of $2.00. They cago, January 26-29, are promustard seed, which, when it is were working women, most of gressing. The program will whom have large families. center around the theme, "Today in Peace and War," and will in- clude discussions of the issues which have come to a head be- sown in the earth, is less than all From Manitoba, Can a d a, cause of the revolution in Spain the seeds that be in the earth. comes the word, "We held the and other critical situations in But when it is sown, it growetp first Day of Prayer in Flin Flon Europe and the Far East. up and becometh greater than last Friday" ; from Hartwell, Al- If you are interested in being all herbs and shooteth out great berta, "I am enclosing $1.00 as one of the 200 delegates reprebranches so that the fowls of the my offering for the World Day senting church women at this air may lodge under the shadow of Prayer. I am very isolated Conference, further information and unable to meet with other may be secured from the Forof it." Evidence of this appears if we women so had my meeting all by eign Missions Conference, 156 follow reports back to earlier myself. I am sure God will hear 5th Avenue, New York, or the days. Previous to 1920 mission- my prayer but now I miss the Council of Women for Home ary societies encouraged days of inspiration of church and con- Missions, 105 East 22d Street, prayer but during that year gregation." From m iss ion New York. jil Our World–wide Outlook A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events ~,,~======E=DIT=ED =BY=MR=S. H=EN~RIE=TTA=H=. F=ERG=USO=N, =XE=NIA=, O=HIO========,~"
MISCELLANEOUS Bible. Attention will be focussed Missions, Then and Now on the "Injunction of 1538," or- Six World Conferences dering that all must have free Dr. James Endicott, who has access to the Bible. Archdeacon just retired as Foreign Mission A chain of six Christian world Storr, of the Anglican Church, Secretary of the United Church conferences – three in Asia- says in reference to the celebra- of Canada, contrasts expendiwill be held during the next tion: tures on foreign missions today three years. Early in January, with those of forty-three years Dr. John R. Mott will preside at The Bible has made the English ago. The church is giving nearly the conference of the World's nation. This generation does not read seven times as much to mission- Alliance of the Y. M. C. A. at its Bible as our forefathers did, but I ary work in central India today Mysore, India. "The center of see signs of a return to the Bible. as it was 40 years ago, and 28 gravity in Christian world af- Local education authorities are ar- times as much to African misfairs is shifting from the mis- ranging courses of lectures on the sions. "Conditions now," he sionary societies in the West to Bible for teachers. Seventeen Uni- said, "are inexpressibly better in the younger churches and their versities in England and Wales have coordinating the work with other auxiliary agencies in the East," put the Bible on their lists of Uni- churches." World conditions says Dr. Mott. The plans for versity lectures. It would be an evil also are far better than they these conferences reveal the day if the Bible should be crowded were 40 years ago. world-wide sense that there is out by the rush of modern life. Thereneed for Christian organizations fore, as an act of thanksgiving for the -Presbyterian Banner. to get together – nationally, in- Reformation, we propose to set on ternationally, interracially, de- foot a back-to-the-Bible movement. ChTistian Literature Needs nominationally. Our problems are world-wide and we all need "Citadels of Darkness" A representative gathering of each other's help in solving them." J. Merle Davis, in the Inter- various missionary pre sse s, national Review of Missions, church publishing houses and The second of the six is ar- calls attention to difficulties persons interested in missionary ranged by the Universal Chris- which confront missionaries to- vernacular literature meeting in tian Council for Life and Work, day of which their predecessors Bloemfontein last June made on Church, Community and never dreamed. several practical suggestions: State at Oxford next July; the third on Faith and Order meets Since the first Protestant mission- 1. Churches should cooperate to at Edinburgh in August, 1937; aries sailed for non-Christian lands produce one good Christian newspaper a year later, in August, 1938, the more than one hundred years ago, the World Student Christian Fed- work of foreign missions has become within each vernacular area. eration is to meet in Japan; in an increasingly complex undertaking. 2. For religious purposes, more use the autumn of the same year the Then, broadly speaking, mission strat- International Missionary Coun- egy called for a frontal attack upon should be made of the African secular cil will meet at Hangchow, heathen citadels of darkness. Today press, which is, on the whole, very China. Finally, in 1939, there is the missionary's task is rendered far sympathetic. to be a great gathering of Chris- more intricate by a formidable array tian Youth Movements, when the of new factors that have come upon 3. Provision should be made for the Christian youth of aH nations the field-anthropology, the compara- production of (a) simple Bible picwill be able to "size up" the tive study of religions, the renaissance tures, and (b) pictorial helps for Day findings of the preceding gather- of indigenous cultures, nationalism, School work. ings. disillusionment with western civiliza- tion, secular idealistic cults and the It was also urged that ma- Back to the Bible Movement whole network of influences let loose by the investment of western capital terial be supplied on the follow- Preparations are under way in mission lands with the disorganiza- ing topics: for the celebration in 1938 of tion of society and traditional ways of the fourth centenary of the life that have resulted from them. Missionary Development and Biog- Reformation, and of the English The church in mission lands finds its position undermined and its claim raphy. upon the allegiance of society chal- lenged by citadels of darkness that Notable Deeds of Africans. exist behind the missionary lines in the homelands. These, through the Nature Studies for Children. moving picture, literature and a hun- dred other ways have a rapidly in- Family and Home Life. creasing influence throughout the world. Hygiene (within smaller areas).
[52 ] Christian Conduct, and other purely Religious Subjects. .
The need for introducing lit- erature to the attention of the people was seen to be as urgent as the need for greater produc- tion.-South African Outlook.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
NORTH AMERIOA bring the missionary enterprise Mormons Oall for Sabbath into the heart of the program Observance Million Unit Fellowship was warmly welcomed. It was said that student movements Has anything like this oc- The "Million Unit Fellowship" needed the cutting edge of the curred in any Protestant denomof the Methodist Episcopal missionary appeal to deepen and ination of America? Church was formally launched strengthen their work. at Scranton, Pa., in November. Six thousand Mormon youth Renewed devotion to the stand- The most significant outcome gathered in a Sabbath observards of Christ; a study of social of the Oberlin meeting was the ance assembly to launch a cruand economic problems; and strong and positive conception sade for the recovery of the Sabgreater interest in world mis- of Christianity to which it gave bath! The leaders of the Morsions are among the goals of the expression. New emphasis was mon church are shocked at the Fellowship. Financially these placed on the effort to know and widespread desecration of the are to be expressed through follow the will of God, in place Sabbath and the growing spirit the underwriting of 1,000,000 of centering student work in the of lawlessness in America. This "units" or subscriptions of $1 a carrying through of related pro- movement is the result. Fifteen month to Methodist missions and grams of many sorts. states were represented by delebenevolences. gates at the conference. The -Missionary Herald. Mormons expect to push the cru- -Christian Advocate. sade in all the states where they Southern Baptists Send have any considerable popula- The Bishops' Orusade 15 Missionaries tion. Their goal is – no sports on the Sabbath, no movies, no The I a r g est simultaneous Fifteen new missionaries have dancing, no feasting, no type of Methodist project in recent been appointed to serve in the self-indulgence, no work that is years will be the "Bishops' Cru- foreign field under the auspices not absolutely necessary. The sade" to awaken the churches to of the Foreign Mission Board of meeting was called the Aronic their responsibility of winnning the Southern Baptist Conven- Priesthood Sabbath Observance the unchurched masses in Amer- tion. Thirteen were assigned to Assembly, and was held in the ica. Plans for the evangelistic China, one to Africa, and one to Mormon tabernacle. movement, to include the entire Brazil. A reduction in the mis- South, will be drawn at New sion debt during the past four -Presbyterian Banner. Orleans, January 5 to 7. Rallies years from $1,115,000 to $400,- in key-centers from coast to 000 is also announced. America's New Heathenism coast will then be held in the interest of foreign missions and During the past four years Dr. Samuel L. Joshi, noted the forward movement in the eighty-three new missionaries educator and East Indian, said churches. have been appointed, twenty- recently in Chicago that a hea- eight others reappointed, mak- thenism, worse than any anti- E. Stanley Jones, B ish 0 p ing a total of 111 reinforce- Christian movements or faiths Oxenham and others are to be ments. in the Orient or Europe, is growpresent at New Orleans to plead ing up in Christian America. for more evangelistic fervor. A Thrilling Work for Indians This heathenism is manifest chiefly in the utter disregard for Student Ohristian Advance Sage Memorial Hospital at the spiritual, and an exaltation Ganado, Arizona, is the only In- of the material and of natural- Last September, 0 be r lin, dian hospital in the southwest ism. Dr. Joshi urged church Ohio, was the scene of a meet- fully accredited this year by the people to seek a balance between ing of student Christian leaders American College of Surgeons. these elements in society, with that is certain to have far-reach- Its School of Nursing, the only greater emphasis on the spiring effects. The delegates were training school in the United itual. -The Living Church. representative of the principal States for American Indian student Christian organizations nurses, enrolled this year 19 Metlakahtla Independent – the National Intercollegiate students from 12 different In- Mission Christian Council of the com- dian tribes scattered fro m bined Y M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. Alaska to Arizona. The execu- Rev. William Duncan founded and the General Council of the tive of this Presbyterian Mission the Metlakahtla Independent Student Volunteer Movement. writes: Christian Mission on Annette Overtures were made to the Na- Island, twelve miles from Ketchtional Intercollegiate Christian Can anyone imagine a greater ikan, Alaska, in 1891. The enter- Council, asking that the Y. M. pioneering thrill than gathering in prise prospered materially and C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. join these splendid girls from their hogans, spiritually, until its far-reaching with all other interested bodies "wickiups," igloos, and tepees, from significance was recognized and in an effort to evolve an ade- all over this western country, and acknowledged by Christian leadquate plan of work in the inter- after three years of intensive training ers in distant lands. At the time est of world Christianity. This sending them back to establish a new of his death in 1918, Duncan's was agreed upon, and the plan to outlook on modern medicine on the last will and testament be- part of their people, and to have an active part in setting up new stand- ards of health and hygiene among their tribes?
queathed his accumulated prop- The people had been advised to many of their workers have erty and financial assets in trust deny them even a glass of water. passed through extremely diffito three co-trustees, appointed The following morning the whole cult experiences owing to the by him, with power to choose town turned out to see the here- fanaticism which still reigns in their successors, who we r e tics. In spite of the fact that many of the less accessible parts charged with certain clearly de- they had to pay five times as of the country. It is reported fined administrative responsi- much as the food served them that work which the Franciscans bilities: perpetuation of the was worth, they were gladdened carried on in the region of the Metlakahtla Independent Chris- by the response of the crowds. UcayaIi in the eighteenth centian Mission, and the support of tury is to be reopened by misits religious, educational and The priest endeavored to draw sionary priests. charitable activities; also, the the people away by ringing the support of similar work for such church bells, but they turned a The Christian and Missionary other native people in Alaska as deaf ear to the bells and listened Alliance has devoted a number these trustees may deem wise to the message of the colpor- of years to an attempt to found and proper. teurs. In one house where the work among the Campa Indians, colporteurs spent the night, the one of the few groups of numer- For a number of years, follow- landlady and other visitors ical importance. ing the death of William Dun- bought Bibles. On leaving the can,' the Metlakahtla Mission next morning their hostess EUROPE was supervised by Dr. Henry J. treated them to a royal break- Minthorn, a well-qualified Chris- fast because she said she be- British Pronouncement on War tian physician, uncle and foster- lieved them to be real ministers father of Herbert Hoover, for- of God, and worthy of the best Evangelical Free Churches of mer president of the United she could give. In one large city Great Britain have issued the States. -Christian Advocate. they spent four days. Doors following statement: were opened everywhere, and LATIN AMERICA from the highest government The Federal Council of the Evan- officials and lawyers, down to the gelical Free Churches, believing that The Missionary Spirit in Cuba poor cholo on the street, all the ultimate sources of war lie in un- heard the Good News of Salva- regenerate human nature, appeals to Children at the Protestant tion. Christians everywhere to rededicate Episcopal Mission in Cardenas, themselves to win men and women for Cuba, received Christmas gifts "Good Neighbor Policy" the Lord Jesus Christ and the acceptfrom the children of Trinity and Missions ance of the full obligations of Chris- Church, Seattle, and in return tian discipleship as the final guarantee made up a scrapbook of photo- Charles E. Maddry, Executive of world peace. graphs and notes about their Secretary of the Southern Bapmission. They have a plain little tist Foreign Mission Board, says The council not only refuses to acchapel in a rented house in Car- that Uncle Sam's "good neigh- knowledge that war is inevitable, but denas, a city of 40,000. More bor policy" has done much to reaffirms its conviction that universal than 100 children are in the open doors of missionary oppor- peace is the mind and purpose of mission school. tunity in South America. Dr. Christ. It holds that Christians Maddry spent four and a half everywhere should not support any Without waiting until they months on a missionary journey war with regard to which the governhad a better church themselves, through the four countries of ment of their country has declined to in 1930 this Mission started a South America in which South- submit the dispute to impartial settlemission of its own at !tabo, a ern Baptists have work, namely: ment by judicial decision, conciliation, village of 1,500 about 35 miles Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and or arbitration. . . • away, holding services in a Chile. As a result of his messhabby old bakeshop. For the sages, 1,500 turned to God. Dr. It urges Christian people in our past five years they have been Maddry described Bahai, Brazil, own land actively to cultivate to their working to build a little brick the Catholic capital of South utmost power friendly relations with church at Itabo, to cost $1,700. America, as the most fanatical the people of other nations, especially city he had ever visited. There with those who share with them a Pioneering in Ecuador are 365 Catholic churches in this supreme loyalty to Jesus Christ, and city of 400,000 people. . to this end to support such work as is A Christian and Missionary carried on by the British Christian Alliance worker writes of a trip -Baptist Message. Council for International Friendship,. with two native colporteurs Life and Work. through southern E c u ado r, Peruvian Indians where there is great need for the -British Weekly. Gospel. In the first town where The Synod of the Iglesia the colporteurs passed the night Evangelica Peruana, which is Evangelicals in Spain the police authorities had to composed exclusively of nacompel a man to rent them a tionals, reports a year of con- Spain has only 22,000 Evanroom and give them their meals. siderable b I e s sin g, although gelical Christians. Before the' recent uprising there were less than fifty ordained Evangelical ministers and under a hundred full-time evangelists and colpor- teurs. There are 6,000 full members in the churches, and up till recently there were nearly 7,500 children in Evangelical schools.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Most of the foreign workers The Christlicher Volksfreund boys – Christians, Moslems and have now been expelled from the says that a Conference of the Jews-are grouped in four "Y" country. Meanwhile meetings Societies of the Godless has de- clubs, each with a university stu- continue in private h 0 use s. cided to award a prize of 25,000 dent as leader. One club of 25 Neither the Evangelical churches rubles for the best antireligious recently elected as president a of Spain nor the foreign organ- poem. Mohammedan; sec ret a r y, a izations interested in their work Copt; sports leader, a Jew, and have attempted to take political The Deutches Pfarrerblatt social leader, a Presbyterian. sides in the present tragic con- says the Soviet Government will flict. -The Life of Faith. permit entry into Russia of Bi- In Alexandria a group of 47 bles in non-Russian languages. came from 20 schools, 12 na- German Church Cause Lost? Bibles in French, English or tionalities and seven religions. Dutch would pay a tax of about Accommodations are needed in Pastor Niemoller expresses six rubles in foreign currency- Cairo for 300 boys to demoncomplete discouragement over a prohibitive impost. While strate the value of a Christian the Church and State situation 12,000 ecclesiastics are still at program on a large scale. in Germany. No religious paper their posts, over 40,000 have in Germany, he says, now dares dropped out of sight; many are Converts in Ethiopia to publish what it thinks. No in concentration camps. man dares to speak without first Mr. Allan Webb, of the Sudan looking anxiously around to see AFRICA Interior Mission, writes: who may be listening. "The stroke of a pen is now sufficient Moslem Expansion One amazing thing is the ready sale to dissolve synods and church for the Word of God in this country. councils, and no one can know An event of wide religious im- Comparatively few can read, but a what church buildings, in two portance is the movement for crowd quickly gathers to listen to any years, may not be turned into Moslem missionary expansion one who can read aloud. These people theaters." The neopagan move- which has its sou r c e and also love listening to a story well told ment, whose most outspoken ad- strength in the University of the around the fire,s at night. One story, vocate is Baldur von Schirach, Azhar at Cairo. Not only in of which they never tire, is that of the official leader of the Nazi youth Cairo, the intellectual center of Prodigal Son. It is wonderful to organizations, grows constantly the Moslem world, but in other watch the expressions flit over their bolder, and no one now dares to centers of Moslem influence it is faces and to hear the grunts, as each speak openly against it. The maintained that Islam has a point makes its appeal, and is clearly Buppression of Pro t est ant much needed message of peace, understood. This opens a mighty schools in Wiirttemberg and in brotherhood, sharing, sobriety sphere for a native evangelist, who Bavaria has been scarcely no- and a slowing down of the com- will move from place to place, telling ticed. petitive rush and heartless rival- the same story and returning peri- ries of the European people. odically to the mission station to learn The New York Herald-Trib- another Bible story. une contrasts the courage of One of the latest plans of the Evangelical Christians with the Moslem missionary movement is Mr. Harry Glover, of the same ,opposition groups. to send missions of students Mission, tells of helping to exam- from the Azhar to study in the ine six candidates for baptism, No group of men of science, no universities of Europe, in order five of whom were lepers. On :academy of teachers or of artists, no to gain knowledge and experi- the following Sunday these were bar association, has risked concentra- ence for European indoctrina- baptized, and with them Man- tion camp for scientific, academic or tion in the tenets of Islam. Mis- gasha, Dr. Tom Lambie's per- :artistic ideals. One group, and one sionary efficiency of a high order sonal servant. alone, inside Germany, has had the is a recognized necessity if th~ courage and the daring to attack European peoples are to be won. -Moody Institute Monthly. fundamental theses of the totalitarian state, and attack them openly, read -The Indian Witness. An African's Parable -them publicly, sign their names and give their addresses, in the face of the The "Y" in Egypt A letter from Kenya, East dictatorship and for Germany and all Africa, says that African Chris- the world to see . . . the pastors of There are many points of ten- tians frequently speak in par- the Confessional German Evangelical sion among Jews, Moslems and ables which have originated in Church. Christians, and this is felt keenly their own minds, and gives as an in Egypt. Anti-Semitic feeling illustration one -from a former Situation in Russia is growing there. A prominent herdboy. Egyptian Christian said recently The Reformed Constitution that even he is becoming con- It was this boy's custom to -for Russia promoted by Stalin, scious of this animosity-some- take the cattle and goats to the which grants a measure of re- thing he had never felt before. water to drink, about noon. One ligious freedom, recognizes the day the river had risen suddenly declaration of Lenin that "it A Y. M. C. A. secretary in after heavy rain, and a large was just to consider religion as Cairo, Wilbert B. Smith, says crocodile appeared. It ignored an idea and personal sentiment that hope in this realm lies with the goats, and deliberately seized -that could not be forbidden." the boys. A hundred Egyptian and tore to pieces a fine cow. "Satan is like a crocodile," said he. "He is very strong and is afraid of nothing. And he is
like a hunter; if he is out to kill A missionary Retreat and a have been driven to their knees an elephant, he won't bother native clergy Retreat are first under conviction of their lack of about small deer – he can get steps in preparation for the Dia- faith in the God of miracles. them any time. And just as that mond Jubilee. Further steps Revival always began in confes- crocodile did not want goats will be taken when missions will sion of sin–confession which is when he could get a cow, so be held in every district, cul- edifying, true scriptural confes- Satan does not mind about minating in a central service of sion. No revival would result if heathen if he can get a Chris- thanksgiving and renewal in the Christians would not humble tian. While we are still in dark- cathedral, probably in Septem- themselves before God. ness we are his already, and he ber. can have us any day; but when At the final meeting the mes- we come out and join Jesus Christian Council of sage was "The Cross of Christ." Christ, then Satan tries his hard- South Africa est to get us back. So don't WESTERN ASIA think that being a Christian Following upon the Edinburgh means an easy life." Conference of 1910, National One Hundred Years' Christian Councils have func- Bible Work -C. M. S. Outlook. tioned with increasing useful- ness. They act as a bond of fel- The mission school in Scutari, Dictionary for Umbundu lowship between the different Turkey, recently celebrated a Christians churches and missionary agen- century of service of the Amer- cies, and accomplish important ican Bible Society in the Near In compiling a dictionary, just results in the coordination of East. Most of the American off the press, Mr. R. L. Wilson, Christian work. In June, 1936, Board missionaries were pres- of the United Church of Canada the Christian Council of South ent, as well as native pastors and Mission, has rendered real serv- Africa was established, and al- colporteurs. Dr. F. W. Mac- ice to Umbundu Christians. This ready twenty – seven churches Callum, now engaged in com- will make it possible for them and missionary societies have pleting the new translation of to profit by the considerable beeome affiliated. Committees the Scriptures in Turkish, pre- amount of evangelical literature will deal with Education, Evan- sided. Selbi Aghassian, read the now published in the Portuguese gelism, Literature, M e d i c a I Scripture lesson, Luke 4: 16-37, language. Equally important is Work, Native Welfare, Women's from the old Armeno-Turkish the fact that a knowledge of Work and Youth Movements. translation of 1831. Pap e r s Portuguese will open to Um- were read on the work of the bundu Christians those parts of South Africa will now be offi- great translators, Riggs, Schauf- the Scriptures which have not cially represented for the first fler and Goodell. yet been translated into their na- time at a world meeting of the tive language. The new diction- International Missionary Coun- -Bible Society Record. ary has nearly five thousand cil, and the Christian Council of carefully selected Portuguese South Africa is entitled to send International College words, with Umbundu terms to nine delegates to the next world Transferred represent their equivalents in meeting in 1938 at Hangchow. that language. Plans are in hand for the com- International College, which pilation of a Direetory of South for many years has performed a -United Church Record. African Missions, through the valuable work as a Christian in- cooperation of the World Do- stitution in Smyrna, is being Sixty Years in Uganda minion Press. transferred to Beirut, Syria, and affiliated with the American Uni- It was in 1877 that Uganda's -South African Outlook. versity there. Due to govern- first missionaries walked up mental regulations relating to from the coast. This year is the Revival in South Africa all educational work, it was diamond jubilee of their arrival. found increasingly difficult to Could they have looked into the The South African campaigns continue the work in Symrna. future they would have seen in of Mr. J. Edwin Orr are still The new ararngement is to con- Uganda a flourishing church producing results and over 5,000 tinue on an experimental basis with some 7(J native clergy, people professed decision for for five years. 17,000 baptisms and 6,000 con- Christ in seven weeks. From firmations each year; and close every center comes news of spir- Giving Criminals a Chance . to the site where many of the itual quickening among Chris- early converts were done to tians, especially at Durban, Kok- Turkey is trying an experi- death stands a magnificent ca- stad and Bloemfontein, capital ment in the treatment of crim- thedral. Persecution now is of the Orange Free State. It is inals. The plan is being carried rare and a generation of Chris- reported that the results of his out, under the direction of the tians has arisen, many of whom preaching at Bloemfontein, a Minister of Justice, on Imrali have had no experience of con- difficult place for aggressive Island in the Sea of Marmora, version, nor of the stabilization work, are amazing, astounding about 20 miles from Istanbul. A of character through Christian even the most optimistic, who Turkish paper says: Every con- home training. vict is regarded as a pathological
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
case, with a tendency to moral are desperately poor the Bible is in men mISSIOnaries. This dedisease through birth or environ- in many cases given to them cline is a serious matter in view ment. When the sickness is es- without charge, though they pay of the unprecedented opportunitablished through legal channels in them, a little when able. They ties which exist in India today. it is necessary to confine him for greatly appreciate the Society's Literally tens of thousands of ina period in a psychological sana- interest in them, and often it is quirers are pressing for admistarium, where he is protected with tear-dimmed eyes that they sion and there are not enough from harmful elements in so- accept the gift. One of the spe- workers to deal with them. The ciety and where he can be made cial needs of the Iran field is a large mission boards have many into a useful member of society. motor car, that the work may be vacancies, but few candidates. Every convict will be given the more effectively supervised. opportunity to prove by his con- A Movable School duct that he is no longer a dan- -The Christian. gerous character. From this For over 20 years the Sangli point of view, prisons will be re- INDIA-BURMA Industrial and Agricultural garded as hospitals; the word School has been tackling the punishment will be discarded, The Indian Opium Trade problems of rural life. It has and the idea of cure will be sub- been offering courses in agriculstituted. As the stay of a pa- This year a notable step has ture, blacksmithing, carpentry, tient in an insane asylum is not been taken by the Government masonry, motor mechanics and a matter of a fixed period, so of British India to curtail ex- tailoring to boys of middle and must it be in the sanatarium ports of opium to limit its use high school age, chiefly of "unwhich is called the prison. First for medical and scientific pur- touchable" origin. For more offenders who pass the examina- poses. This will contribute much mature young men there are spetion of good conduct will be toward the solution of one of cial short courses in intensive treated leniently. Second of- the great social problems of the agriculture and motor mechanfenders will be looked upon as world. In 1900 the Government ics. Most of the students are natural enemies of society and of India decided to reduce opium either Christian, or from Chriswill be subject to the usual sys- exports to China by progressive tian background. For five years tem of punishment and expia- steps and to stop them alto- the school has been offering spetion. gether by 1917 if China give cial courses for Leadership clear evidence that she had Training in Rural Reconstruc- In about one year, this experi- ceased to cultivate the poppy. tion, lasting six weeks, a longer ment has netted some excellent In 1913 the exports were abol- period than that of any similar results. ished in spite of the continued course in India. manufacture of opium by China. Torchbearers for Iran The Indian Government, since In addition, the Sangli School 1915, has sought to limit opium has been carrying on extension It is among the youth of Iran exports to governments of im- work. Its outstanding agency that the new spirit is most evi- porting countries that agreed to for this work is the Sangli Movdent. Many a young man buys its use only for legitimate pur- able School. This consists of a a copy of the New Testament in poses. This is further than in- Ford 11f2-ton truck, in which is Persian and one in French for ternational conventions require carried almost every article usethe purpose of language study. and has reduced Indian revenue ful for village uplift work. Before long the message grips from opium from 81,000,000 There are numerous illustrated him, and he finds himself chal- Rupees in 1910-13 to 1,900,000 charts and posters, touching uplenged by the Truth. Rupees in 1934-5. The con- on various phases of village life; sumption per capita in India has a medicine chest or traveling The nomad tribes offer an es- also been reduced 16 per cent in dispensary for the more compecially needy field. Rev. A. three years.-British Informa- mon ailments; a circulating li- Nakhosteen, a colporteur for the tion Service. brary and books for sale; a British and Foreign Bible So- crate or two of chickens and a ciety, describes a visit to one of Decline in Missionary Force couple of good milk goats. the largest of these. Great was their delight upon receIvmg The new Directory of Chris- The truck, charts and posters Scriptures in their own tongue. tian Missions and Churches in are Sangli-made, and a great Ten expressed a desire to follow India, Burma and Ceylon, just deal of the equipment is pro- Christ and later asked for bap- published, shows that there are duced right there. There are tism. now 4,467 missionaries com- all kinds of seed samples for pared with 6,030 at the end of field and garden crops and speci- Then there are the lonely 1933. This decrease consists of mens of improved cotton, wool, islanders in the Persian Gulf. 324 men, 295 women and 944 sweet potatoes, bunch-type pea- So far as known, a colporteur is wives. This latter figure is nuts, etc. This Movable School the first Christian worker to go partly due to the enumeration has its own portable generating there. He has sold about 2,000 only of those who are engaged unit, stereopticon and movie books. in full work, but one-third is cer- projector. At night the sur- tainly due to the large decrease There are thousands of Russian refugees in Iran, and as they
roundings are lit up like fairy- much discussed scheme for a powerful one, but this year a land, and there have been as mass change of religion on the new one has been installed, and many as 3,500 people sitting out part of India's 57-70 million Un- for nine hours every day this in the open for the illustrated touchables to a new phase. station is sending out its pro- lectures. The aim is to touch -Christian Science Monitor. gram, which can be heard not only in China, but in Japan, the every phase of rural life, eco- Philippines, Australia, New Zeanomic, physical, mental, social From Pagoda to Clinic land and all over the Far East. and religious. Bible classes have in Burma been conducted for the men of Bricks of an old pagoda are While the chief aim of the stathe village as early as five a. m. being used to build a new clinic tion is "evangelizing China by The Indian crew consists of in Mong Yang, Shan States, radio," the programs are varied, three fine leaders, and the mis- Burma. Rev. Raymond Buker and comprise music, talks on sionary director is frequently writes that several evangelists homemaking, child problems, along. His first assistant is an in that area are clinically cured outstanding Christian, so valu- lepers, and their influence for health, nursing, biographical able that he has had many talks, Bible study and a daily tempting offers from elsewhere. Christ is strong. He believes children's period. At fixed times that a movement among the peo- talks are given in local dialects -Pre8byterian Tribune. ple of that great area is immi- nent. Translation of the Gospel for the benefit of those who do Indian Christian Witnessing of John in the Hkuin dialect is not understand Mandarin or "Shanghai."
Indian Christians take their being started, and other founda- Letters received indicate the religion seriously. Called upon tion work is being attempted in favorable response. A shopkeepto bear personal witness to their addition to station and medical er who had been listening while faith, about half the communi- work, and touring. at work wrote to ask how he cants of the diocese of Dornakal should proceed to become a responded by going from village – Watchman-Examiner. Christian. A department manto village in bands to carry the ager of a railway made his demessage of Christ to nearly a CHINA cision to become a Christian bequarter of a million men and cause of messages heard at his women. New Venture in Evangelism office. A home broken with dis- cord has found peace, and the The results were as follows: The Market Town Evangeliza- husband and wife have enrolled tion Campaign is a systematic, in the Bible Institute as a result Two thousand, four hundred and thorough, seed – sowing cam- of the radio. fifty-seven villages were visited by paign, designed to go to every bands of people telling of Christ. market town in China, of which -The Chronicle. there are said to be 40,000 and, Two hundred and fifty-nine thou- stopping in these market towns, Movies for Literacy sand (approximately) heard about reach out in house-to-house visi- Christ.
Three hundred and four new villages are asking for instruction as to tation, open-air and indoor Moving pictures have been enhow to become Christians. preaching until every home in listed by the Chinese Govern- ment in a fight to the finish with Four thousand and fifty-one have every village surrounding the handed in their names as being desirous of becoming Christians in the market towns have had the Gos- Kistna Area (about half the diocese). pel taken to them. These work- illiteracy. They will be used es- pecially to meet the problem of Fifty thousand pamphlets, etc., were ers not only distribute and ditributed. Of these, 18,415 were Gos- preach the Word by the wayside, educating adults, under the supel portions. pervision of the Chinese Min- Twenty thousand Gospels were in the fields and in the homes, istry of Education. A special either sold or given to people. but also constantly seek every committee has been organized to -The Living Church. opportunity of personal appeal. purchase production and proj- Each market town is said to ection equipment, and to super- Maharaja Leads Reform have an average of 25 villages vise the training of technical The Maharaja of Travancore, surrounding it, which makes a staffs for the educational picture celebrating his 25th birthday on studios. total of about 1,000,000 villages November 13, issued a proclama- Nanking's movies are to be tion wiping out caste distinction in this great field of 483,000,000 100 per cent educational. Suit- . in Hindu temples of his State. able topics for the educational souls. productions, according to prin- He gave the depressed castes- ciples laid down by the education the so-called "Untouchables"- Special courses of training are ministry, are chapters from his- the right to enter and worship tory, especially those with a pa- being given the workers in this in the temples on an equal foot- undertaking. _ -Oriental Missionary Standard.
ing. This marks a unique occa- Church of the Air triotic moral or lesson. sion in the history of India. Some authorities predict that The first transmitter of the The films are to teach also elesimilar measure~ will follow in Christian Broadcasting Associa- mentary scientific and sanitary tion, Shanghai, was not a very principles, modern methods of other states. This brings the farming and industrial methods.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Motion pictures thus produced even the strongest would do well in Milwaukee. The Brotherhood will form a major part of the to combine with others. China has set for itself the dbjective of curricula of the adult mass edu- has thirteen Christian colleges winning 100,000 converts to cation institutes which are to be and universities, and about 250 Christianity in the next ten opened throughout the country middle schools. years.
during the coming five years. Beyond this, "In the near fu- General Chang on Bible Study Bible Schools in Manchuria ture," Mr. Kaneko declared, "we have a vision of a Christian General Chang Chih-kiang, Two short-term Bible schools after an extended trip through were held recently in Manchuria Japan. Think what a step that the United States and Europe, by the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Over fifty men, includ- will be toward a C h r i s t ian world." -The Living Church.
speaks with clarity and enthu- ing many evangelists, gathered Japanese Christian's View siasm of the place of Bible study at Cheng Chia Tjun for six in personal, family and national weeks' intensive Bible instruc- Rev. T. Takamatsu, in the progress. "The great message tion. The evangelists showed English preface to his book, of these Scriptures," he declares, progress in their knowledge of "Building the New World for "is summarized in the words, the Bible and in their spiritual God," published in Japanese, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as lives. For the women's Bible- says that in the era since 1860 thyself.' When this becomes the school, Bible-women and teach- too much emphasis has been laid universal rule international dis- ers a t ten d e d from over on science, with the result that cord will give way to world-wide seventeen centers, and entered the present generation is suffergoodwill." heartily into study of the Word. ing the loss of religious faith.
General Chang is chairman of The importance of the s e The whole nation is facing a the National Callisthenics' As- schools, in instructing and en- great spiritual crisis. The need sociation, and the primary pur- couraging native evangelists is for religious faith has suddenly pose of his journey was to in- apparent when it is realized that been expressed from various vestigate methods of physical at present the mission has only quarters, and many insist that training used in Western coun- two missionary families on the any sort of religious faith will tries. While in America and field, while throughout the same do. Even a fish head is thought England he accepted many invi- district the Roman Catholic worthy to be an object of wortations to address church and Church has over 100 priests and ship. Recent tragedies, howstudent gatherings, and was the nuns from Quebec. ever, have proved how important -Life of Faith. is the object of faith. Nothing guest of honor at numerous functions.-Chinese Recorder. is more harmful than a mistaken Religious Education belief. . . .
Christian School Fellowship Nobody is satisfied with the A writer in the Chinese Re- The Religious Education Fel- present condition of the world. We all want to have a better corder is not satisfied with the lowship in China now has a world to come. But in order to membership of nearly 700. The bring a better world everyone in present status of China's Chris- purpose of this fellowship is to the world must be filled with the seek to link together those who spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, tian schools. He summarizes the are at work in the various fields and determined to offer the situation as follows: . of religious education. It is open world to God.
1. The Christian schools as a whole to those who are nominated by a Progress Is Slow are making a large contribution. They member present. The duties of have considerable prestige, are well the members are (1) to pray for managed and are growing steadily.
2. A large minority are small and weak, with poor equinment, and are not able to meet the increasingly diffi- each other, (2) to share with Bishop Heaslett, of South cult problems of reduced mission sup- each other the problems and re- Tokyo, says: port and competition with government sults of their work, and (3) to schools. form local fellowships wherever Advance is slow everywhere in Japan. This is the experience of all 3. The Christian character of the schools has suffered owing to a de- possible. Dr. T. T. Lew is chair- Christian bodies. Statements that creasing proportion of Christian stu- hundreds or thousands have been condents and faculty. man. -Sunday School News. verted or won for Christ through a 4. Programs of religious activities campaign are easily misunderstood.
are disorganized as a result of JAPAN-CHOSEN The most that can be said of the rechanges in government relationships, sults of campaigns running into large and in administration. Test of a Ohristian numbers is that so many have ex- 5. It is possible by cooperative plan- pressed a desire to hear more. In no ning and mergers of weak schools to "In Japan we do not consider sense are these people converted, and maintain the present prestige and a man a practicing Christian position. until he has won his man to a percentage of five baptisms out of a hundred such inquiries is good gain. 6. It is possible by wise, vigorous Weare handicapped by the poverty measures to greatly enhance their Christ," was the challenge laid of our mission, by our lvck of sllffi- Christian contribution. cient personnel, by our shortcomings down by Tadao Kaneko, general in educational and literary activities, This writer believes there are s.ecretary of the Brotherhood of find by the smallness of our social ef- too many weak schools, and that St. Andrew in Japan, speaking forts. . . . The divine origin of Chris-
tianity is proved abundantly in the kuo. Money was given freely to ually to fall into disuse, and to fact that we see such good results from such feeille efforts. help in many different parts of replace it by regional colonies which, they believe, will be -C. M. S. Outlook. the land, and the various com- closer to the people and more mittees reported well-thought- The Ainu Race out plans for meeting the many easily managed. The Elders of The Ainu, despised class of needs of the native church. This the United Evangelical Church Assembly proved conclusively in Culion Colony have now sent Japan, seem destined to extinc- that the Korean Church has a memorandum to the General tion, unless something is done. come of age, and is seriously try- Moderator of the United Evan- They have been the victims of ing to care for her own needs. gelical Church in the Philippine compulsory servitude and com- Islands. After citing and appulsory tribute, under penalty of -Christian Observer. proving of the new law in regard death. Formerly, for many to the care of lepers, the Elders years, they were not even per- ISLANDS OF THE SEA beg the Moderator to help them see to it that there shall be Protmitted to cultivate the land, and Religious Awakening in estant workers in each of the to educate them was a criminal the Philippines new leprosaria. Such workers offense. They were regarded as would be chosen lepers within a blot upon Japan's escutcheon. Representatives of a number each colony whose living would of Evangelical churches in the be provided by the government. This is not the government's Philippines met last August to It is believed that $65 a year view, which now desires to af- pray and plan for an evan- will suffice for each worker. ford them opportunity to rise; gelistic campaign to last from but public opinion deems them November 2, 1936, to February -Without the Camp. unworthy of preservation. Al- 28, 1937. Preparation was coholism, largely due to the in- made by special prayer, group Concerning the Oollection troduction of sake, is a factor in study of a pamphlet on spiritual their poverty and disease, and revival and by sermons, during A recently appointed worker tuberculosis is making heavy in- the pre-Pentecostal per i 0 d- in the mountain area of the roads upon their numbers. fifty days preceding November Philippines says it would almost 2. A careful follow-up is to suc- make one weep to see Christians -Alliance Weekly. ceed the revival campaign. putting their gifts into the col- lection plate. Money is terribly New Life in Korea This pamphlet is rich in sug- scarce. An egg is a rare and gestion, challenge and spiritual choice possession to most of the There is renewed enthusiasm people, and eggs are their fain the younger generation of the stimulus. Among other things, vorite form of offering. Some- Korean Church, and Christian the forty-two page booklet, of times there is a piece of rope put Endeavorers have been espe- which thousands of copies have on the plate, signifying that cially active. The total member- been purchased, contains the fol- there is a fowl or animal of some ship of the Epworth Leagues is kind waiting outside the church reported to be more than six lowing: door as an offering. thousand. The primary duty of the Christian -Syirit of Missions. The fifth summer conference Church is to witness to Christ. . . . for religious instruction was If it fails to do this it will spiritually Pioneering in Canary Islands held at Union Christian College, decay and die. . . . All kinds of Pyengyang under the joint au- Christian work are only different spices of the College Y. M. C. A. ways by which we witness to the ade- quate Gospel of Christ.
Jesus is the Master Teacher and shows by His example how to work and the Christian Endeavorers with individuals and with groups. The Canary Islands (in the of that city in August. More North Atlantic Ocean), noted as than 600 members were enrolled Examples are given of the a source of cochineal dye, are and a devotional spirit was methods and fruits of personal also a needy mission field. Rodeeply manifest throughout the work and of cases in the Philip- man Catholicism has had undis- pines of witnessing by organ- turbed sway for centuries, until conference. -Korea Mission Field. ized Gospel teams composed of two years ago when William F. church members; of witnessing Sirag, a graduate of the Moody Korean General Assembly in homes and by Christian Bible Institute, answered the The General Assembly of homes; of the use of evangelistic call and settled in Santa Cruz de . Presbyterian Churches in Korea literature and through Christian Tenerife, a city with a populawas held in Kwangju last fall, schools. tion of 38,000. The whole island with 200 Koreans and 34 for- An interdenominational na- has more than 200,000 people. eigners. There were divisive tional convention will be held in Last July, special services forces that caused sharp debate Manila the second week in Feb- were held in the theater of Santa and threatened to disrupt the ruary. Cruz, where gatherings of na- Assembly, but the moderator's Leper Work in the P. I. tives, most of whom had :r:ever tact preserved the peace. The heard the preaching of the Gos- foreign mis~ion program was The new Philippine Govern- pel before, listened attentively to expanded to include a worker ment plans to allow the great the stirring messages. among the Chinese in Manchu- Leper Colony at Culion grad- -Moody Institute Monthly.
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. I,i Our Missionary Bookshelf 1_ l Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information ~,====~=–===-==-====""",-===—=—==–==–=~-=-,~ India and the Christian Movement. it be preached? What will be vation, sanctification, consecra- By V. Z. Azariah. 128 pp. Paper. the result? tion, but these are made clear 8 annas. Christian Literature So- by Mr. Goodman's simple, brief ciety for India, Madras. 1936. The ninety-six pages (in large definitions, wit h appropriate type) are divided into three Scripture references. Under the The Anglican Bishop of Dor- parts: The Gospel We Preach, head of "Accretions" the author nakal is an Indian Christian of The Beauty of the Christian deals plainly with ecclesiastical great ability and consecration. F'aith, and The Accretions. The formalities, ceremonies, and or- He notes the great changes that fifteen chapters are subdivided ganizations which obscure the have come over India and in par- under various topics, with nu- simplicity of the Gospel. ticular over the religious situa- merous supporting quotations tion and the shift of emphasis and cit a t ion s of Scripture. Taken as a whole, this is an from the mission to the church, These divisions and subdivisions excellent handbook for one who in the last quarter of a century. almost make the book appear like aspires to win souls, and also for Here the Bishop has given us a an analytical chart of the sub- the inquirer about the Way. brief but comprehensive and ject, were it not for the author's thoughtful study of the land and brief, pointed comments, ex- ROBERT M. KURTZ. peoples, the religions, the wom- planations, and exhortations. en, Christian progress in India, Short sentences are the rule, and New Testament Principles and Modthe Church, the problems of the they are forceful and to the ern Missions. By a Missionary future and the unevangelized point, as for example these, ad- Secretary. Pamphlet. 6d. World areas. Among the problems as dressed to preachers, upon the Dominion Press. London. 1936. he sees them are (1) spiritual subject of appealing for dequickening, (2) evangelism, (3) cision: The question of the ideal mischurch union, (4) Christians in sionary aims and methods is civil life, (5) the missionary and "There is nothing in which the still debated. The World Dothe Church, (6) Indian youth, young preacher errs more readily than minion MovemeI:t stands for (7) Rural reconstruction, (8) in this matter of appeals to his hear- what it conceives to be the New education, (9) literature, and ers. His earnestness and desire for Testament methods for extend- (10) unoccupied areas. The their salvation leads him to keep on ing the Gospel and planting inmost needy provinces are Cen- urging them to take the all-important digenous churches. The anonytral India, Punjab, Rajputana, step. But appeals fail of their pur- mous author of the present trea- Kashmir, Baluchistan, Sin d, pose when they are reiterated so often tise contends that we have failed Gwalior, and Bihar. as to become wearisome and to lose all to extend the realm of Christ in effect on the conscience; when they proportion as we have failed to "In many parts of India there are so mixed as to cause confusion; follow the methods of St. Paul, are still entire communities, when they follow an address in which the great apostolic missionary. classes and castes that are al- little or no instruction is given or His method was to plant living most untouched even in so-called Gospel preached." (P. 32.) Seed in great centers and then 'occupied areas.' " go forward to plant elsewhere. Or take this statement, sim- He proclaimed the living Gospel The Gospel We Preach, and the plifying things for the layman: of Life and soon his churches Beauty of the Christian Faith. By became self-supporting, s e I f- George Goodman. 96 pp. 1s. net. "Here is a threefold reason for com- governing and seU-propagating Pickering & Inglis. London. 1936. ing to Christ. For salvation, service, under the guidance and power and sanctification. To rest from guilt of the Holy Spirit. Most mod- In his introduction Mr. Good- and sin. To submit to Him in the obe- ern missionary societies have man tells us that this book was dience of faith; and to learn of Him, succeeded in building up foreign written in response to requests so as to become like Him. supported and controlled instifrom several persons who com- tutions. The pamphlet is worthy plained that "Our young men "For God has a threefold aim in of careful consideration. are not preaching the Gospel." our salvation. Our relief from guilt He has therefore given us here and sin; our obedience to His will; Portuguese East Africa. By Ed- our character, having predestinated wardo Moreira. Maps and Statisan outline of Christian truth, de- us to be conformed to the likeness of tics. 8 vo. 104 pp. 3s. 6d. World signed to answer the questions, His dear Son, from Whom we must Dominion Press. London. 1936. What is the Gospel? How must learn." (P. 34f.) Portugal is a small country, The layman often has a very comparatively weak and insig- vague idea of the meaning of the terms, repentance, conversion, justification, regeneration, sal- Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
[61 ]
nificant in Europe but with im- and the sufferings of those who cases, also, he spent so much of mense possessions in East and were its victims. his time in refuting what he West Africa. These territories deems erroneous opinions, that exercise great influence on the "On Sunday, February 22, he left himself little time to exfuture of the continent. This 1931, the bandits decided they plain what he wanted his hearsurvey deals only with East could wait no longer for the ran- ers to accept as the right view. Africa. Portugal has been in som, so they led Rev. Tvedt and For example, nearly ten of the control here for four hundred Rev. Nelson to an open space, fourteen pages of the chapter on years but until recently did little tied them with ropes, and made "The Triune God" are devoted to develop her colony. It has a them kneel on the ground. Us- to preliminary discussions becoastline 1,615 miles long on the ing bamboo poles the tormentors fore he comes to the Trinity. He Indian Ocean, and the country beat them across the shoulders effectively advocates the deity of consists of forested hills, high until they were so bruised and Christ in several chapters, but a mountains, plateau, lakes, rivers, sore that they could not sleep listener who heard only the radio fertile valleys, a temperate cli- for many nights. The bandits address on "What is the Deity mate and a total popUlation of claimed that if supplies or ran- of Christ?" must have been be- 4,028,946 in an area of 287,756 some money did not come soon wildered when all but the last square miles. Evangelical mis- they would do worse things." two minutes were given to exsion work began in 1823. Today plaining what it is not and only eighteen Protestant missions This was only a portion of a few assertions at the close have work there and four Ro- their measure of suffering. The show what it is. As usual, Dr. man Catholic organizations; be- six months of captivity dragged Machen interprets the Bible sides there are eight independent out into twenty-two months of from the viewpoint of sevennative bodies. The largest Prot- exile. His companion was re- teenth century theology and estant mission is the Swiss with leased, but Nelson paid the price philosophy. He discusses at 45 missionaries and the next is with his death. length other and later interprethe American Methodist with 19. tations, but he rejects them and The total number of Protestant A final chapter deals with regards all who differ with him communicants reported is 19,- Communism or Christianity as as "Modernists" who deny "the 696 with about the same number the alternative for China. The faith once for all delivered." He of probationers. Roman Cath- book is in every way attractive, is, however, less belligerent in olics work in 40 stations and 179 especially as it gives facsimile this book than in most of his outstations, with 132 mission- copies of the first and last notes writings. Indeed he is occaaries and 241 native helpers. sent out by Mr. Nelson during sionally genial and almost ironic. his captivity, The book contains much that is This survey gives a brief his- admirable, par-ticularly the chaptory of mission work in the col- We regret that the English ters on God, the resurrection and ony, describes the character of style of the book is so faulty, es- the testimony of Paul. Readers the work and the attitude of the pecially in the use of the abbre- who accept his basic assumpgovernment. The appendices viation "Rev." without personal tions will undoubtedly regard deal with statistics, Bible work, name or article. It jars the mind the whole as entirely convincing. and the legal status of missions. to read that the missionaries The northern part of the terri- spared no effort "trying to con- ARTHUR J. BROWN. tory, with over three millions, is tact the General . . . and they still largely unoccupied for did not forget to contact the The Only Hope of Church or World. Christ. Source of Power." What Is It? By W. B. Riley, A.M., D.D. 158 pp. 2/ net. Pickering The Apostle to the Chinese Commu- S. M. ZWEMER. & Inglis. London. 1936. nists. By Daniel Nelson. 139 pp. $1.00. Board of Foreign Missions The Christian Faith in the Modern The author, who is widely of the Norwegian Lutheran Church ·World. By J. Graham Machen. known as a Bible teacher and a of America. Minneanolis, Minn. 256 pp. $2.00. Macmillan. New writer upon evangelistic sub- York. 1936. jects, has published "The Peren- The Nelson family is well nial Revival," "Revival Serknown for their missionary ac- Dr. Machen's ability, firmness mons" and an extensive work tivities in Central China. The of conviction and facility of ex- called "The Bible of the Exfather came to Hupeh in 1890 pression are illustrated in this positor and the Evangelist." and died a martyr's death after series of addresses, given over Dr. Riley here gives a series of thirty-six years of service. Bert the radio. In a clear, persuasive sermons on the premillennial Nelson, the hero of this volume, and colloquial style he speaks of doctrine of our Lord's return. served as a missionary from God, the Bible, Christ, the Holy They cover the subject in a 1916 until he was killed by the Spirit, and related topics. He fairly logical order, as this list communists in 1932. The author admits that his limited radio of the seven chapters shows. is his brother. time did not permit him to deal Christ, the Church, and the adequately with these large sub- Kingdom; The Church and the The book presents in detail j ects and that others had to be Kingdom – a Distinction; The the development and present omitted. Still, it is odd that, in Gospel and "That B I e sse d state of communism in China a book which purports to present "the Christian faith," the atone- ment is left out. In several
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
Hope"; Grace and "That Bless- tration of Kenya is told vividly and Spaniards are interesting ed Hope"; "That Blessed Hope" and the Moslem problem is clear- and important. In the past they and the Resurrection Bod y; ly set forth. Mr. Philp has played an important part in his- "That Blessed Hope" and our spent a large part of his life in tory, both secular and religious. Behaviour; The Apostasy and Kenya as a medical missionary The present political condition His Soon Appearance. of the Church of Scotland. He is greatly disturbed, the eco- enables the reader to see the nomic condition is low and the The layman to whom this sub- country and the people, the in- religious situation is weak and j ect is new will find the style fluence of the World War and uncertain. Form and superstisimple and direct and the mean- the progress of evangelization. tion still rule the massE:!s, and ing clear. As indicated by the The maps and statistics enable agnosticism or irreligion grips chapter titles, the author is at the student to picture the forces the upper classes. Here we some pains to distinguish be- at work and the land yet to be have a reliable picture of the tween the Kingdom and the possessed. Everyone interested situation and of the need for Church, about which the ideas in the study of Africa should evangelism. There are today of many laymen, and perhaps have this survey for reference. only 166 I 0 c a I Evangelical some ministers, are very hazy. churches with 6,259 communi- Sources of Power in Famous Lives. cants. The total Protestant The closing chapter laments By Walter C. Erdman. 12mo. 160 community, out of a popUlation the lack of faith today and urges pp. $1.00. Cokesbury Press. Nash- of 23,563,867, is only 22,000-or readiness for the return of our ville, Tenn. 1936. less than one in a thousand-as Lord, which the author believes the result of 64 years' work. will not be long delayed. Fifty-two brief sketches of Twenty-five societies are at work lives of famous characters of with 25 foreign and 123 national ROBERT M. KURTZ. history make up this stimulating workers. The maps and sta- series. They include a wide va- tistical tables in this survey are So Half Amerika. Die Auslandshilfe riety – Abraham, Bunyan, Co- valuable for students. der Vereinigten Staaten 1812-1930. lumbus, Robert Dollar, Glad- von Hermann Stohr. Stettin: Oku- stone, Robert E. Lee, Jenny Oil Lamps Lifted. By Pearl Dorr menischer Verlag. 1936. Price, Lind, Pasteur, Shackleton, Liv- Longley. 86 pp. $1.00. Fleming 5.60 marks. 327 pp. ingstone, Mary Slessor, John H. Revell Co. New York. 1935. Wanamaker and Charles Wes- This careful statistical study ley. In many walks of life these Mrs. Longley's more than of the relief and help given by men and women showed that twenty years of ministry to the America for the past one hun- they were believers in God and women and children of South Indred years to other nations, is all achieved by faith something dia have given her insight into based on government statistics definite for the benefit of man- the very heart of the race. Her and reports of the International kind. The sketches are chiefly poems are delicate word paint- Relief Committee, the American factual, not homiletical, and of- ings, descriptive of India's Red C r 0 s s, the Rockefeller fer excellent material for read- thought. Throughout this vol- Foundation, etc. There are spe- ing aloud or for brief ten-minute ume the earthen lamp and its cial chapters on the work of the talks in church, Sunday school need for oil, is made symbolic various Christian groups, Cath- or day school. They were orig- of the Indian woman's desire for olic and Protestant, and a con- inally given over the radio in light. The parable theme was cluding chapter on the Carnegie Cleveland at the request of the suggested by seeing a timid Foundation, the Millbank Fund, president of a large business outcaste child, on the night of the Commonwealth Fund, and firm. They are thoroughly the "Festival of Lights," carrythe Golden Rule Foundation. Christian and practical and re- ing a broken pot with a rag for America has been "a good neigh- cord facts that show the secret wick, but with no money to buy bor" for over a century. of power. oil. Impulsively a child of wealth shared her oil with the S. M. Z. Religion in the Republic of Spain. outcaste. C. A. Garcia and Kenneth G. Grubb. ANew Day in Kenya. By Horace R. 109 pp. 28. 6d. World Dominion H. H. F. Philp. Illus. Maps. 58. World Do- Press. London. 1935. minion Press, London and New Daily Devotions. By William Bren- York. 1936. This series of surveys is ex- ner. 8 vo. 337 pp. $1.75. Zon- ceedingly valuable. The re~ults dervan PuiJ. House. Grand Rapids, Kenya Colony, British East of careful research and expres- Mich. 1936. Africa, borders on Ethiopia, "ion of view by experts are of- Italian Somaliland, Uganda and fered to the general reader in an These prayers for each day in Tanganyika. It is made up of attractive form and at small ex- the year are spiritual and heartseven provinces, with forty- pense. Spain receives more at- searching. They will be a real eight tribes and over 3,000,000 tention from Roman Catholics, help to those who have difficulty population. Fifteen Protestant Communists, artists, historians in expressing to God their adoramissionary societies are at work and travelers than from Evan- tion and their deepest heart with 303 missionariec:; and Chris- gelical Christians. But Spain hunger for light, strength, putian adherents numbering 112,- rity and fellowship. 127. Roman Catholics also have a strong work almost as large. The story of the Christian pene-
New Testament Commentary. One ers, attractive pictures and de- Mackay and Aggrey of Africa; Volume Complete. Edited by Her- scriptive text to show how the Baedeker of Russia, Underwood bert C. Allerman. 8 yo. 720 IIp. Christian Church is observed in of Korea, Neve of Kashmir; $3.00. United Lutheran Publica- Brainerd, Grenfell and McCul- tion House. Philadelphia, Pa. 1936. mission lands. logh of America; and Hill, Pol- lard and Dr. Main of China. Many have desired a scholarly, Lesson Commentaries, 1937. They are short stories of misyet reverent and conservative sionary pioneers who lived heroione-volume commentary on the The International Sun day cally in the midst of many priva- New Testament. Here it is, pre- School Lessons (improved uni- tions and dangers. Boys and pared by twenty-eight Lutheran form series) are expounded in a girls will find them thrilling and scholars. There are also nine in- popular, illustrated commentary will find in these life histories an troductory essays on the New by Eugenia LeFils. They are excellent introduction to mis- Testament, the C h r i s t ian conservative, Biblical, practical sions and missionaries. Church, the Life of Jesus, the and illustrative helps for teach- Virgin Birth, the Life of Paul, ers. (Fleming H. Revell Co., George Miiller, The Man of Faith. Cardinal Doctrines, and intro- Frederick G. Warne. Illus. 8 vo. ductions to each book. Bible $1.00.) 239 pp. 28. Pickering & Inglis. students will find this a very il- "Points of Emphasis" is a Glasgow. 1935. luminating, handy volume. vestpocket commentary on the The remarkable story of Children of Sunny Syria. By Myrta International Sunday School George Milller, the founder of H. Dodds. Illustrated by Margaret Lessons for the coming year by the orphan homes at Ashley Ayer. 8 vo. 148 pp. $1.50. H. C. Morse, D.D. It contains Downs, Bristol, England, is all Thomas Y. Crowell, New York. maps, expositions and teaching ready well known to those of the 1936. points for each department. It older generation, but it is worth is wholly Biblical and has val- repeating. The story here told Children are interested in uable suggestions. (Southern is not so complete as the official other children the world over. Baptist Sunday School Board, biography written by Dr. Arthur The author of this story has Nashville, Tennessee, 35 cents.) T. Pierson, but it narrates the lived in the East as a missionary main facts about the man and and writes understandingly and Scripture Calendars and Almanacs his work, his method of supportattractively. It has not a definite and Diaries. Pickering & Inglis. ing the orphanages, his hints on missionary message but has a Glasgow, Scotland. 1937. Christian living and the con- Christian tone, and will interest tinuance of the enterprise. Many children in Syrian boys and These attractive annuals are have already been stimulated to girls. practical helps to keep engage- new faith and service by the story of the profligate young Christmas in Other Lands. Compiled ments with men and to keep the man who, after his conversion, by Dorothy M. Horne. Illus. 64 daily tryst with God through His determined to show by experi- pp. Paper. 18. 6d. S. P. G. Lon- Word. The calendars (1 shilling ence that God is a prayer-hear- don. 1936. each) include a "Daily Text ing and prayer-answering god. Young Folks Calendar"; "Words The book would be more valuable The celebration of the Birth of with an index. Christ has spread to all lands of Grace and Truth," a daily leaf and is observed in many ways. calendar; "A Choice Daily In Seven Nations. Twelve mission- Here we have pictures by 22 Text," a "Morning and Evening ary studies for use in church ordrawings, by verses and descrip- ganizations. Pamphlet prepared tive text the ways in which Text" calendar and a "Choice by the Literature Dep.artment of S. P. G. missions of the Church Text and Thought" (each Is. the United Lutheran Church in of England celebrate the event America. Baltimore. 1936. in Africa, Malaysia, I n d i a, 3d.) and a "Choice Text and Burma, China, Japan and else- Daily Meditation" (Is. 6d.). India, Liberia, Japan, China, where. Churches and Sunday Argentina, British Guiana and schools will find here unique and These latter have messages from the United States are the miseffective ways of celebrating such spiritual teachers as J. sion fields of the United Lu- Christmas in America and Great Stuart Holden, Andrew Bonar, theran Church. The secretary Britain. Alexander White, Arthur T. of literature has prepared these Pierson, J. H. Howett, D. L. brief, informing stUdies, with "Thine Is the Kingdom." By Ed- maps and photographs, which ward D. Sedding. Illus. 125 pp. Moody and Alexander Mac- leave no member of that church S. P. C. K. London. 1936. Laren. with any vestige of excuse for ignorance as to their mission Christian progress is thrilling The Golden Grain Diary is a work, the fields, workers, needs, to those who know the facts. opportunities and results. The This little booklet pictures the leather-bound vestpocket edition mission study questions at the ways in which the Church of end of each section will be a help Christ is being built up around with a pencil (Is. to 68. 6d.). to teachers. the world. The march of the months is followed, with pray- The various almanacs include Bible verses and religious poems by various authors. _ Heroes of the Cross. Series 5, 6, 7, 8. IlIus. 12 mo. 40 cents each. Mar- shall, Morgan & Scott. London, also Zondervan Pub. House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1935.
These four volumes tell briefly the s tor i e s of Hannington,
STUDIES mine the Christian faith." If Gordon. A Drama in Three Acts. E
he had lived up to the present he J. Richter. 50 cents. Capano Press. IN THE would have seen many more an- tagonistic forces at work in the God in the Everyday. Hugh Red- OLD TESTAMENT world today. wood. 28. 6d. 117 pp. Rich and Cowan. London. With a Hebrew·Christian Commentary Christianity and the Malays. By Containing Talmudical and Rabbinical In· Laurence E. Browne, D.D., London: The Hidden Treasure. Lucy E. terpretations on the Hebrew Words of the S.P.G. and S.P.C.K. 1936. 78 pp. Guernsey. 2s. 6d. 340 pp. Picker- Old Testament. Price, one shilling. ing & Inglis. London.
by Here is an illustration of the Kagawa in Lincoln's Land. Edited B. A. M. SCHAPIRO fact that the best type of mis- by E~erson O. Bradshaw, Charles sionary literature may be had E. Shike and Helen F. Topping. Each book contains 28 large pages. size for an English shilling – "good 121 pp. National Kagawa Cooperl1x87~ inches, art pa'per. Three 'Volumes measure, pressed down and run- ating Committee. Brooklyn, N. Y. now ready, 50 cents each. ning over." Dr. Browne paid one visit to Malaya, but he is Loaves and Fishes. (S. P. G. World PAMPHLETS thoroughly acquainted with the Wide Series.) 1 penny. 16 pp. literature of this part of the S. P. G. in Foreign Parts. London. "Love Begets l."ove"; "V'hat the Rabbis world. The Malays number Have to Say on the 53d of Isaiah"; "What 1,644,000 Moslems, and prac- My Beloved Armenia. Marie S. Ails My Peopler"; "The Sure Word of tically no effort is being made to Banker. 205 pp. $1.25. B. 1. C. A. Prophecy"; "Sacrifices, Their Origin and evangelize them. Chicago. Significance"-Prof. Robert Dick Wilson of Princeton said of this tract that it is the The author sketches the his- Points for Emphasis. H. C. Morse. best treatise he has seen on the atonement; tory of the peninsula, the char- Southern Baptist S. S. Board. HThe Higher Critic's Hebrew"; "Without acter of the inhabitants, their Nashville, Tenn. Him Ve Can Do Nothing"; "Jesus and primitive religion, Shamanism, His Kinsmen"; "The Faith of Noah"; which has left deep impress on The Rebirth of a Nation. Jacob "Saul the Pharisee, and Paul, the Chris· their present faith, Islam. The Gartenhaus. 75 cents, cloth; 40 tian"; "Jesus Christ, a Historical Character, present missionary situation is cents, paper. 132 pp. Broadman as Proved by the TalmudH ; "Gethsemane described in two illuminating Press. Nashville, Tenn. in OUf Lives," containing twenty-six por- chapters, and a plan for adtraits of "Eminent Christian Jews"; "Why vances proposed, which is both A Study in Gold. Grace Pettman. I, a Jew, Am a Christian"; "The Miracle practical and challenging. 320 pp. 2s. 6d. Pickering & Inglis. of the Jew"; "Jesus, the Light of the London. World"; "Some Objections Raised to Jew~ S. M. Z. ish Evangelization"; "Must Christians Keep Thine Is the Kingdom. Edward D. the Jewish Sabbath ?"; "A Symposium Con· The Way of Partnership. With the Scdding. 125 pp. S. P. C. K. Lontaining America's Great Menace"; "The C. M. S. in Egypt and Palestine. don. Mission of Israel"; and "The Messiah Ac- By S. A. Morrison. 87 pp. One cording to the Old and New Testaments," shilling. Illustrated. Church Mis- With Christ into Tomorrow. Hunter and many others. sionary Society, London. 1936. B. Bla~ely. 50 cents. Presbyterian CommIttee of Publication. Rich- 16 pamphlets, $2.00 This brief account of the work mond, Va. of the Church Missionary So- DR. I. M. HALDEMAN ciety in Egypt and Palestine was The Way of the Witnesses. Edward written before the present crisis Shillito. 152 pp. $1.00, cloth; 50 "Under Mr. Schapiro's skilful pen, each in the Holy Land. Three chap- cents, paper. Friendship Press. word in Holy Writ blooms and blossoms ters tell of the ministry of recon- New York. out like a flower." ciliation carried on by this So- ciety in Palestine, and three Christian Giving. Clarence E. Ma- THE MISSIONARY REVIEW chapters deal with Egypt. The cartney. 16 pp. 15 cents. Zonder- emphasis is rightly placed upon van. Grand Rapids. OF THE WORLD the importance of the Oriental churches in winning Moslems. Christ's Seven Letters to His Third & Reily Streets Harrisburg, Pa. In Palestine the work has five Church. William McCarrell. 86 centers. In Egypt it is limited pp. $1.00 cloth, 50 cents paper. Miracles in a Doctor's Life. By to two, Cairo and Menouf. Zondervan. Grand Rapids. Walter L. Wilson, M.D. 120 pp. 20 cents. Paper. Bible Institute S. M.Z. Campfires in the Congo. Mrs. John Colportage Assn. Chicago. 1935. M. Springer. 128 pp. Central Com- New Books mittee on the United Study for For- These are stories of soul doc- eign Mission. Boston. toring by a medical man. They Are You Awake? Florence E. Marare stimUlating and offer good shall. 96 pp. 50 cents each or $30 Daily Devotions. William Brenner. incidents for sermons. a hundred. Lansing, Mich. 337 pp. $1.75. Zondervan. Grand The Silence of God. By Sir Robert Christian Brotherhood in Theory and . Rapids. Anderson. 8vo. 216 pp. Is. Pick- in Practice. Toyohiko Kagawa and ering & Inglis. Glasgow. 1935. E. R. Bowen. 36 pp. Tokyo, Japan. The Gospel and the African. Alex- ander Hetherwick. 48. 6d. 176 pp. The late Robert Anderson was T. & T. Clark. Edinburgh. for some years the head of "Scotland Yard," the famous India and the Christian Movement. British police force. He was an V. S. Azariah. 128 pp. Christian earnest Christian and a con- Literature Society for India. Madservative Bible student. This is ras. a ninth edition of his helpful consideration of what light the Livingstone Memorial Pic t u res. Bible throws on some mysteries Sepia, 9×13 inches, $1.00 per set. which are not yet fully explained Colored postcards, 50 cents per set. – the problems of oppression and evil in the world, unan- A set of nine pictures of outswered prayer, and human un- standing events in the life of the belief. Sir Robert brings out great explorer-missionary. many helpful truths on such subjects as miracles, Satan, Picture of David Livingstone. 12×14 temptation and prayer. When inches. 20 cents. he wrote this study over twentyfive years ago, he said: "The A lithograph suitable for tide has turned which in recent framing. years has threatened to under-
MOSLEM
SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, Editor CONTENTS OF THE JANUARY NUMBER: The V aI1'dl' ty and N eCCss'lty 0 f MI' ss,lons to MosIems { DJowhIn.ghWt ,MB,ooDwnmaanldson Back to the Old Qibla Samuel M. Zwemer The Relics of the Prophet Mohammed David S. Margoliouth Has Westenl Culture a Debt to Islam? W. A. Zoerner A Survey of the Netherlands Indies Hendrik Kraemer Literature and Evangelism 'Villiam N. Wysham Islam in the Balkans G. H. Bousquet Christ in the Chinese Koran Rolf A. Syrdal The Hebrew Philosophical Genius Henry S. Gehman Book Reviews ••• Current Topics Survey of Periodicals Sue Molleson Foster . – -•• SUBSCRIBE NOW +(-…
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