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VIII. THE CRITICISMS OF TRAVELERS

Quotations from Dr. Arthur J. Brown

IX. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS

Cost of Administration

Missionaries Living in Luxury and Idleness

Cramming Religion down the Throats of the Heathen

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The Example of Commercial Missionaries. Dr. James L.
Barton

34

Missionaries Are Inferior Men

36

X. STRIKING TESTIMONIES

What Mr. Julean Arnold Has to Say about the Missionaries
in China

36

Editorial from the St. Louis Republic

38

XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books Bearing upon the Criticism of Foreign Missions

40

I.

NEED OF DISCRIMINATION

MR. WILLIAM T. ELLIS, the well-known journalist, was once asked to address a convention of the Laymen's Missionary Movement on "Criticisms of Foreign Missionaries." He began by saying: "My observation is that every criticism ever made against the missionaries is true!—at some place or in respect to some man. I know of a lazy missionary in China, a narrowminded missionary in Turkey, and a generally inefficient missionary in India; and I know of ventures in the missionary field which have not been successful." That sentence was a master stroke. It at once caught the attention of his audience and indicated that the speaker was open-minded, willing to recognize the validity of criticisms founded upon fact, and that he did not propose to deal with the subject as a fanatic. After a few opening sentences like the above, Mr. Ellis' address was taken up with an enthusiastic endorsement of the missionary enterprise. It is a mistake for defenders of this cause to place the missionaries on pedestals as superior beings, lifted above the tests and criticisms to which common mortals must be subjected. The missionaries are very human. They are simply earnest souls trying to do the Lord's work in the spot where the Lord has placed them. The fact that this spot happens to be over the seas gives them no exemption from the ordinary human frailties. They have a right to their mistakes, just as other people have, and the fact that occasionally they make mistakes should not be used to discredit the enterprise to which they are devoting their lives. How about the mistakes of railroad presidents, political managers, architects, engineers, naval and military commanders, and diplomats? Although these men make stupendous blunders, as the newspapers keep reminding us, yet the enterprises of business and government move on to ever larger success.

II.

JOHNSTON ROSS AND
JOHN MACNEILL

AN INCIDENT FOR BUSY PASTORS

THE REV. G. A. JOHNSTON Ross, the well-known Scottish preacher, now professor in Union Theological Seminary, in addressing a group of newly appointed missionaries, told a story of a change of view as to foreign missions, which came to him in his early ministry. As pastor of a Presbyterian church in Edinburgh, he had become so deeply engrossed in parish work that he found little time for the larger affairs of the Kingdom. One day he was standing with John MacNeill, the well-known evangelist, on "The Mound," watching the procession incident to the opening of the General Assembly of the National Church. In connection with this event the king sends a lord high commissioner, who, as his representative, opens the meeting and authorizes the Assembly to proceed with its work. The commissioner is conducted to the assembly hall by a great pageant. Along with the moderator, he is seated in a gorgeous car, drawn by milk-white horses, gaily caparisoned, with outriders, trumpeters, banner-bearers and what not-a gorgeous spectacle. This procession is one of the great shows of the year, and everybody turns out to see it pass.

As the pageant swept by that day, the whole business impressed Ross as so absurd in its pompous irrelevance to anything Christian, that he said to MacNeill, "John, what do you suppose the Lord Jesus thinks of this?" For a moment MacNeill did not reply, and supposing he had not heard the question, Ross looked at his face and saw that he was gazing up into the skies, his eyes suffused with tears. Then lapsing into Scotch, he said, "He's thinkin' naethin' ava'; he's ower thrang!" (He's thinking nothing at all; he's too busy.) Mr. Ross said the words pierced his soul like arrows. There came to him with overwhelming power the thought that the Lord Jesus is a very busy man, and

that he does not concern himself with many of the petty things which consume the time of some ministers. This led Ross to a careful examination of his ministerial program, with the purpose of determining what things were worth while and what were of little or no value.

As a result of this process, he was led to give a very prominent place in his thought and plans to the work of foreign missions. Not only did he recognize the central place of world missions in the program of Christ, but he came to connect the idea of the expansion of the church with the true values of our monotheism. We state his experience, with his permission, in the belief that it will prove suggestive and stimulating to many a pastor who feels that he is too busy to interest his people in the work of their foreign board.

III.

GREAT MISSIONARY SUCCESSES

WE can admit occasional missionary failures, both in measures and men, the more willingly because of the tremendous success of the work taken as a whole. If the early missionaries failed in their efforts to convert and civilize the Bushmen of South Africa, they certainly have scored splendidly in practically every other part of the continent, notably in Uganda, Nyasaland, Zululand, on the Congo, and in the Cameroun. We cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of making the facts of missionary progress and success the main feature. Men who would stiffen up against direct argument in behalf of foreign missions may be won easily by presenting the facts of the work.

The facts, however, should be fresh, not merely the rehashing of old material which has been used from the time of our grandfathers down. The progress of missionary work during the past ten years has been more remarkable than in any other decade. Why then should we go back to ancient times for our evidences? Ministers sometimes send board secretaries copies of sermons

they have preached on foreign missions, sermons upon which they have expended a great deal of labor, and in too many instances the secretaries find that the illustrations of missionary success are hoary with age. It was all right for our fathers to talk about the success of the early missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and of the abolition of suttee in India, but why should a modern minister pass by the glorious achievements of the last twenty years for the sake of retelling these old tales?

It is important, also, that the facts should be sizable. These are the days of great enterprises, world-wide in their scope. If you want to interest the man at the end of the pew, talk to him of big things, and surely you cannot find anything bigger than foreign missions. Present the subject in a large, compelling way, not allowing your time to be consumed by too many details of the work. There is a place, of course, for picturesque items in connection with individual missionaries, native leaders and institutions, and local projects; but the major part of the recital should relate to movements which are national or racial in their scope. For illustrations of this kind we would refer pastors to the first number of the Missionary Ammunition Series, where they will find such subjects discussed as "Governmental Recognition of Christianity in Japan"; "Movement of the Literati in China toward the Church"; "Mass Movements in India"; "Mass Movements in Africa." Material of this kind is practically unlimited. Individual men and women who have accomplished great things on the foreign field are often the best kind of argument. In this connection it is well often to speak of the humanitarian achievements of missionaries, such as the abolition of foot-binding in China, and the stopping of the Congo atrocities.

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