Eugene Stock, Herbert T. Andrews and Alexander J. Grieve

“ While it is true that very diverse opinions are held concerning missions, it is indisputable that the most favourable testimonies come from those who have really taken the most pains to examine and understand their work. The one discouraging feature, from the Christian point of view, is the backwardness of Christendom in its great enterprise. ”

“ There are now five missions definitely linked with the universities. The Central African Mission (1858) , indeed, is not for the most part manned by graduates, though it is led by them; but the Cambridge Mission at Delhi (1878) , the Oxford Mission at Calcutta (1880) , and the Dublin Missions in Chota Nagpur (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1891) and the Fuh-Kien Province of China (Church Missionary Society, 1887) consist of university men. Moreover, the older and larger societies have much increased the proportion of graduates on their staffs. ”

“ Columbus also in 1492 had landed on San Salvador, and the voyages of the Venetian Cabot along the coast of North America opened up a new world to missionary enterprise. Thus a grand opportunity was given to the churches of Portugal and Spain. But the zeal of the Portuguese took too often a one-sided direction, repressing the Syrian Christians on the Malabar coast, and interfering with the Abyssinian Church, [14] while the fanatic temper of the Spaniard consigned, in Mexico and Peru, multitudes who would not renounce their heathen errors to indiscriminate massacre or abject slavery. ”

“ The transformation was due in its initial stages to broad-minded men like Stephen, Philip and Barnabas who were the first pioneers of missionary work. Their efforts, however, were soon completely eclipsed by the magnificent achievements of the apostle Paul, who evangelized a large part of Asia Minor and the most important cities of Greece. The success which attended the work of the great apostle to the Gentiles stamped Christianity as a missionary religion for ever. From this point onwards Christianity pushed its way into all the great centres of population. ”

“ The Student Volunteer Movement, already referred to, has had large influence in the United States, where it arose; and its leaders have proved themselves men of rare intellectual and practical capacity. In a journey round the world in 1895–1897, J. R. Mott succeeded in forming students’ associations in universities and colleges in several European countries, as well as in Turkey in Asia, Syria, India, Ceylon, China, Japan and Australia; and all these associations, over 150 in number, are now linked together in a great International Student Federation. ”

“ Side by side with this continuity of missionary zeal, a noticeable feature is the immense influence of individual energy and the subduing force of personal character. Around individuals penetrated with Christian zeal and self-denial has centred not merely the life, but the very existence of primitive, medieval and modern missions. ”

“ Each bishop now deals with the Ethiopians in his own diocese. The South African governments foresaw dangerous developments in the Ethiopian movement, and steps were taken to restrain its growth. Ethiopianism, if ecclesiastical in its origin, gained strength from racial base. The task of averting the racial bitterness so dominant in the United States of America is a most formidable one. There are in South Africa several vicariates and prefectures of the Roman Church, the principal missions being French, those of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost and the Oblates of Mary. ”

“ In New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand and Canada there are also Church missionary associations which supply missionaries, and support them, for the mission fields of the Church Missionary Society.
The German societies are numerous and important, and have increased in number and in vigorous work. The Moravian Church, whose missions are the oldest (1732) , is itself a missionary organization in a sense in which no other Christian community rivals it. Its total membership is under 100,000, and it has some 350 missionaries,3. ”

“ Missions to the Jews are worked by distinct organizations. There are several societies in England, Scotland, Germany and America. No special development has to be reported, except the great extension of John Wilkinson’s Mildway Mission to the Jews, and its energy in the free distribution of Hebrew New Testaments. Converted Jews are commonly supposed to be very few, and in numbers they do not compare with converted heathen ”

“ The cause of missions in the universities has been fostered greatly by the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement, initiated in America in 1886, and organized in England in 1892. The Union has over 3000 members (of whom 1400 have gone to the field) , and has adopted as its watchword, “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation”; and this motto has been approved by several bishops and other Christian leaders. ”

“ There is one Anglican society working, like some of those just mentioned, in one particular field, viz. the South American Missionary Society, founded in 1844. Many foreign dioceses also have associations in England for their help and support. Medical men have come forward in increasing numbers for missionary service, and medical missions are now regarded as a very important branch of the work of evangelization. They are especially valuable in Mahommedan countries, where open preaching is difficult and sometimes impossible, and also in works of mercy among barbarous tribes ”

“ Yet a keen sense of missionary duty marks many of the chronicles of English mariners. Notably was this the case with the establishment of the first English colony in America, that of Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh. The philosopher Thomas Harriot (1560–1621) , one of his colleagues, laboured for the conversion of the natives, amongst whom the first baptism is recorded to have taken place on the 13th of August 1587. [20] Raleigh himself presented as a parting gift to the Virginian Company the sum of £100 “for the propagation of the Christian religion” in that settlement. ”

“ Having for some time learnt to be aggressive, she girded herself for the difficult work of teaching the nations a higher faith than a savage form of nature-worship, and of fitting them to become members of an enlightened Christendom. ”

“ Of these the China Inland Mission is the largest and most influential; and while it has sent forth many of this class, it has also enrolled not a few men and women of considerable wealth, education and social status. The South Africa General Mission, the North Africa Mission, and the Congo Balolo Mission come next in importance; but there are several smaller bodies working in different countries. The Salvation Army also has missions in India, Ceylon and Japan; but these cannot be called “non-denominational,” because the Army has gradually become a very strict denomination itself. ”

“ The responsibility, if there be any, of believing, rests with the individual told; the responsibility of telling him rests with the Christian Church.” On this view of the matter, results, however desirable, are no certain test of a mission doing its work. A mission in Persia, with its handful of converts, has, on this view, as much right to support and appreciation as a mission in southern India with its tens of thousands. Again, on the hypothesis that Christianity is true, the statistics at a particular period are no test of success at all. For in them the dead are not counted ”

“ The war with China in 1894 marked a new chapter and initiated a time of intense national activity; education and work for women went forward rapidly. Missionaries went through the island as never before, and their evangelistic work was built upon by Japanese ministers. In the war with Russia Japanese Christianity found a new opportunity; on the battlefield, in the camp, at home, Christian men were pre-eminent. In 1902 there were 50,000 church members; in 1910, 67,043; the total Protestant community in 1910 was about 100,000, and had an influence out of all proportion to its numbers ”

“ One of the most interesting features of missionary work in China is the comity that prevails among the workers of different societies and agencies. Thus in 1907 at the Centenary Conference in Shanghai, when many topics were discussed centring in the question of the native Chinese Church, a general declaration of faith and purpose was adopted, which, after setting out the things held in common, proceeded, “We frankly recognize that we differ as to methods of administration and of church government; that some among us differ from others as to the administration of baptism ”

“ There can be no question, if the community pursues with steadiness the present policy of its teachers, that in the course of a generation it will have secured a preponderating position in all the great professions.”
What India wants (as Nobili 300 years ago saw, and attempted, though by fatal methods of deceit, to supply) is a Christianity not foreign but native, not dissociated from the religious life of the land but its fulfilment. Though there are many Christians in India to-day, the Hindu still looks askance at Christianity, not because it is a religion but because it is foreign. ”

“ The North German or Bremen Society split into a strict Lutheran or Leipzig agency and the Hermannsburg Mission, which aimed at a more primitive and apostolic method. In Denmark, the Danish Missionary Society, founded by Pastor Bone Falck Ronne in 1821, worked through the Moravian and Basel societies until 1862, when it began independent work and concentrated on the Tamil population of South India. In Norway and Sweden missionary activity kept pace with the development of the national life ”

“ Protestant societies have done much to bring the Bible to the knowledge of the nominally Roman Catholic population.
Results of Missions
The Christian Church bases its missionary enterprise upon the spirit, the example, and the commandment of its Founder, and regards the duty as just the same whether the results be large or small. It appeals to common sense, saying in effect, “If it be a fact that a Divine Person came into the world to bless mankind, all men ought to know it, and have a right to know it. ”

“ The Portuguese in Angola and the agents of King Leopold in the Congo State have not been conspicuous friends of missionary enterprise, and the light-hearted childishness of the native character, so well portrayed in Miss Kingsley’s writings, shows how difficult it is to build up a strong and stable Christian church. ”

“ There are five dioceses, and in 1897 an episcopal conference was held in Shanghai. Since the Japanese War the Scottish and Irish Presbyterians have made wonderful progress in Manchuria; native evangelists do an increasing share of the work, and there is hardly any town or village without Christians. The London Mission has always been conspicuous for the contribution made by its agents to linguistic and literary knowledge, the name of James Legge being an outstanding example; it is now, in co-operation with other societies, earnestly taking up the new educational and medical openings. ”