Missions

“ In fact, looking at the work of Missions on the broadest scale, and especially upon that of our own Missions, we must confess that, in many cases, the condition is one rather of stagnation than of advance. ”

“ We cannot doubt that missions have a high place in forming this opinion; and among mission agencies I believe there is no one which has told and is telling more beneficially on the people than our mission schools. ”

“ The definition of districts for the mission stations is commonly recognised, and in planning new work directors of missions frequently allow themselves to be influenced, in some way and in some degree, by the position of existing mission stations. There are also in some parts of the world bodies composed of leading members of many of the missions that work in the country, who meet to consider the progress of the Christian faith in the province or the country as a whole, and deliberately plan their work with some consideration of the position and character of the work done by the others. ”

“ Missions are however a far greater thing after all than simple proselytism. It would require many a volume to tell of what they have done for civilization, freedom, the exploration of unknown regions, the bringing to light of ancient literatures, the founding of the science of comparative religion, the broadening of the horizon of Christian thought in the homelands, and the bringing of distant peoples into the brotherhood of nations. ”

“ You can trust them with missions, and send them where you choose. From their fathers' lips they have learnt all about places and roads; they can decoy Feringhee travelers, the Company's servants or soldiers, into quiet places, and slay them. ”

“ Viewing the peculiar nature of this enterprise it is impossible to resist the conviction how entirely the work of missions is the work of the Lord. He must appoint the men for it; He must endue them with the needed qualifications ”

“ We can no longer afford to ignore the work of others and to plan our missions as though other missions did not exist. ”

“ There are great questions of missionary policy to settle. A strong force of missionaries, adequately superintended by men who are acquainted with the work they superintend, is the least that can be asked in our missions. A close and detailed oversight of all mission interests, working out a far-sighted policy, which changes only by light that comes by actual experience in mission work, is of the greatest value. ”

“ The directors of missions, and missionaries themselves, have not yet come to a full practical agreement as to the principles that underlie the working of missions, nor as to the results to be accomplished by them ”

“ We do not for a moment doubt that all Christian missions do exercise an influence of this wide and far-reaching character, and from time to time we can see results which clearly spring from it, but we cannot think it wise to set out this vague influence as the primary purpose of a mission. We believe that the Christian missions which aim directly and primarily at the conversion of men and the establishment of a living native Church produce this fruit by the way. ”

“ It belongs to the very concept of missions and is largely a question of aim and purpose. The trend of the times is doubtless in favour of the broader, humanitarian, philanthropic, civilizing purpose of missions as against the deeper and more exclusive, spiritual and Christianizing end. ”

“ This proposition is abundantly proved by the results of that sublime and stupendous enterprise, which the spirit of missions has so gloriously struck out, and is so successfully carrying forward, and which looks with such a firmly founded and well built confidence to the conversion of the whole world. ”

“ Let our brethren who are going on missions keep themselves pure and unspotted from the world. We know that we can perform a mission in the world and mingle with them as far as shall be necessary, without partaking of their wickedness. ”

“ Who would not be a missionary? "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Is God not preparing the world for missions which will embrace the whole of Adam's family? The gallant steamships circumnavigate the globe. Emigration is going on at a rate to which the most renowned crusades of antiquity bear no proportion. ”

“ In some missions, when persons have shown an aptness for domestic service they have been trained to it. In a number of missions trades have been started, and have been carried on for a longer or shorter period, with more or less success ”

“ We have endeavoured to present, without entering into the technical details which are being taught by the officers composing the various Allied missions, a general sketch of the conditions and principal factors of modern warfare that will be sufficient to give an idea of a modern army and its operation in the field. ”

“ Missions and mores. The contrasts and antagonisms of the mores of different groups are the stumbling-blocks in the way of all missionary enterprise, and they explain many of the phenomena which missions present. We think that our "ways" are the best, and that their superiority is so obvious that all heathen, Mohammedans, Buddhists, etc., will, as soon as they learn what our ways are, eagerly embrace them. Nothing could be further from the truth. ”

“ It has been my endeavour in the ensuing narratives to bring together such of the more distinguished Missionaries of the English and American nations as might best illustrate the character and growth of Mission work in the last two centuries. It is impossible to make it a real history of the Missions of modern times. ”

“ We should not send hasty missions here or there because some interesting political event attracts the eyes of men to this or that particular country, but on definite missionary principles, acting on a clear and reasonable understanding of the missionary situation in the world. ”

“ Missionary periodical files abound in references to the war's inroads upon missionary enterprises, and to the important mediating work of missions. A great volume of testimony would show that while missionaries still regard the upbuilding of the mind and the saving of souls as fundamentally desirable, the enterprise affects every phase of the personal and community life of the peoples to which it ministers. ”

“ The history of missions has shown that no mere feeling of benevolence or desire to better social and economic conditions, but the command of Christ, love for Christ and gratitude to Christ has led the army of missionaries to endure separation, hardship, persecution and death. ”

“ It is a task the conditions of which vary from time to time, and consequently plans and policies and methods must vary, and this variation can only be rational if it is determined by recognition of the changing circumstances, and the change of circumstances can only be understood and appreciated if the survey of missions is a continuous process kept constantly up to date. ”

“ However, it is rather to you young men that I look with great hopes. The universities have their missions among costermongers and dockers—to which they send down their enthusiastic best blood—but these are religious and ecclesiastical. I want social missionaries, such as may become leaders with an immense army behind them. ”

“ Certainly it is true that the support of a very large body of men is lost because they have never yet been able to understand the work of foreign missions. They are accustomed in their daily business to "know what they are driving at," and to relate their action to definite ends; and they have not seen foreign missions directed to the attainment of definite ends. ”

“ Even the large amount appro- priated for the outfit of the general reinforcement to the mission seemed to meet with a general acquiescence. And is our faith to be measured only by the visible, im- mediate and uninterrupted success attendant upon our efforts? Had the Wesleyan Mission in Southern Africa and elsewhere, the Baptist Missions in India, and those of the American Board in the Sandwich Islands, been conducted upon such principles they had long since been abandoned. ”

“ As such you will have many opportunities of doing good service, as you will naturally proceed on missions to the chiefs of neighbouring peoples, and will so qualify yourself for some important post in the future. ”

“ If we take the widest expression of such mission activity we find that to estimate the true value of such work we should be compelled to survey not only the mission and its activities but the social, moral, material, and spiritual state of the people among whom the mission was planted, and seek for signs of a change which we could trace with some certainty to the influence of the mission. ”

“ The evangelistic value of medical missions has not been the one dominant directing principle in their administration, and the consequences have been confusion of aim and waste of power. Nor has any other dominant purpose taken control; no other purpose, philanthropic, social, or economic, ever will take control so long as the vast majority of the supporters of foreign missions are people whose one real desire is the salvation of men in Christ. ”

“ And all of the work should be done through the missionary society which alone can rightly coördinate and unify the whole work of the particular mission.
Faith Missions, so called, represent a genuine and a worthy spirit among many of God's people today. To them the somewhat lumbering business methods of the large missionary organizations savour too much of worldly prudence and seem subversive of the deepest Christian faith. They maintain that the old method is one that looks too much to men and too little to God for support. ”

“ Is it not necessary that it should know and express to itself, to its missionaries, and to its supporters what forms of activity it deems essential, what less important, what aims it will pursue with all its strength, and what it will refuse to pursue at all? ”

“ The Pentagon, if you want to refer that question to them. Q Now, wait a minute. If you're going to stand at the podium and tell the American people these are routine missions, I believe we expect you to know something about how routine they are. ”

“ Of the daily life and routine of a mission, accounts of travelers enable us to form a pretty vivid picture; and though doubtless changes of detail might be marked in passing from place to place, the larger and more essential features would be found common to all the establishments. ”

“ It is expected that they will be ready, whenever they are called, to go out in the world, or to go out to the various organizations of the Church to fulfil missions and to perform such duties as shall be required of them, in order that the work of the Lord and the work of the ministry may be upheld and sustained and carried on in the Church and throughout the world.—Oct. ”

“ It may be true that the introduction of everything which tends to uplift and enlighten is a proper object for missionary activity, but we venture to argue not all at once, in the same place, nor even any one of them at the whim of any missionary at any time, anywhere. ”

“ Let us improve and make good use of our time, let us walk worthy of the vocation in which we were called, let us work out our spiritual salvation, with fear and trembling, and that of our brethren, with the most ardent charity and zeal, and let all glory be to our great God. In connection with this, I took great pleasure in learning that your reverence was preaching a mission at Ivisa when Padre Commissary Verger passed through there. ”

“ Where innumerable forces are at work such as are implied in the impact of western civilisation upon the peoples of the East, or of Africa, it would be extremely difficult to state the exact impression made by the mission, even if we could survey the whole state of the people at regular and definite periods. ”

“ In this work of the Missionaries Jason Lee, the chief of the Methodist Missions, was, up to the date of the incident we are to narrate, the most successful of all. He was a man of great strength of character. Like Whitman, he was also a man of great physical strength, fearless, and, with it all, wise and brainy. No other man among the pioneers, for his untiring energy in courting immigration, can be so nearly classed with Whitman.
They were all men, who, though in Oregon to convert Indian savages to Christianity, yet were intensely American. ”

“ The ideal arrangement for a mission would seem to be to keep well in front its evangelistic and pastoral endeavour, and to utilize all forms of educational work with a view to strengthening and furthering these. [pg 252] It is true that certain missions, like certain individuals, have a special genius or talent of their own; and their highest success will depend upon their following that bent. For instance, the Free Church of Scotland, in South India, has shown eminent ability and taste in the work of education. ”

“ Turning now from the force at work we must consider the force in training, for this is prophetic. Let us then take first a table which shows the proportion in which students are being trained for pastoral and evangelistic work, for medical mission work, and for educational mission work, in the province or country, regardless of the place at which they are being trained, whether that place is inside or outside the area under consideration. ”

“ This force consists of permanent and more or less temporary members. Some will in all human probability remain in the place till they die; they are of it, they belong to it; others will probably depart elsewhere; they are not of the place; they speak of home as far away; they are liable to removal; sickness which does not kill them takes them away; the call of friends or business carries them back to their own land; they are strangers all their days in the mission district. Nevertheless, they are generally the moving, active force ”