The Call of the World Part 3

=The Conclusion of the Whole Matter.=--Under the weight of this ma.s.s of proof we may accept the interpretation of history given in Isaiah xiv. 26-27. He is answering that question which has challenged thinkers in all ages, What is the vocation of the nations? Isaiah concludes that all nations have a place in G.o.d's purpose and that all peoples contribute to his plan.

"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back?"

No man who is willing to accept the facts which have been stated can escape the conviction that Christ is possessing the world in an unmistakable way. Although there are still great battles to be fought out, and problems to be solved,--greater probably than men have ever grappled with in the history of the world,--the final issue cannot be in doubt. In the midst of all the disturbing forces, when many leaders are bewildered by the swiftly moving scenes incident to the transformation of great and ancient civilizations, at a time when the cries of race and clan are deafening and when there is a struggle between age-long forces on a gigantic scale never before witnessed, serene and confident of the outcome moves our Christ.

As Mr. Robert E. Speer puts it, "Christianity is moving out over the earth with ever-enlarging agencies, with ever-increasing success, and with open and undiscouraged purpose to win the world."

With the change of a single phrase we may join in the song of Christ's triumph which Longfellow left as an inspiring heritage to the world.

"And him evermore I behold Walking in the midst of the world, Through the cornfield's waving gold, In hamlet, in wood, and in wold, By the sh.o.r.es of the beautiful sea, He toucheth the sightless eyes; Before him the demons flee; To the dead he saith: Arise!

To the living: Follow me!

And that voice still soundeth on, From the centuries that are gone, To the centuries that shall be."

FOR ADDITIONAL READING AND FOR REFERENCE

Edinburgh Conference Report (9 volumes). Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $5.00.

World Atlas of Christian Missions. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York, $4.00.

The Statesmen's Year Book, 1913. Macmillan Company, 64 Fifth Avenue, New York. $3.40.

Taylor, Alva W. The Social Work of Christian Missions. The Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Cincinnati. $0.50.

Gulick, Sidney L. The Growth of the Kingdom of G.o.d. Fleming H.

Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Brace, Charles Loring. Gesta Christ, A History of Humane Progress. George H. Doran, 25 West 32nd Street, New York. $1.00.

Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. The Century Company, 33 East 17th Street, New York. $2.40.

Dennis, James S. Christian Missions and Social Progress (3 volumes). Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York.

$6.25.

Dennis, James S. Commerce and Missions (A Pamphlet). Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 5 cents.

Goucher, John F. Growth of the Missionary Concept. Eaton & Mains, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.75.

CHAPTER II

THE CHALLENGE OF A GREAT TASK

One of the best tests of the measure of a man is in his relation to great forces and opportunities and tasks. A small man will either be unconscious of their presence and significance, or will be overwhelmed by them, and therefore inactive or inefficient. On the other hand a man who is really alive will rejoice that it is given to him to relate himself to life's greatest forces and opportunities and tasks.

It would be difficult to conceive of any combination of human and divine energies, of golden opportunities and inspiring tasks, comparable with those centering in the world-wide propagation of Christianity. In our day more men are undertaking with relentless courage the whole program of Christ than ever before, notwithstanding its immensity, its bewildering complexity, and its taxing difficulty. The first long step toward a solution of the missionary problem is this willingness to face the total issues involved without reserve and without fear.

The following pages present a condensed and swift survey of the unfinished task of the Church of Christ. The size of the task is sketched in its bold outlines. In this chapter is heard the cry that is flung out across the world to every Christian man. It is a cry of neglect and need, of urgency and crisis, the united voice of mult.i.tudes among whom the forces of the new age are battling for mastery. The limits of the chapter make it impossible to discuss many important features of the missionary task, such as the social evils of the non-Christian world, the inadequacy of the vast religious systems to meet the deepest needs of mankind, the strength of the customs of centuries, and many more. The reader is referred to the books listed at the close of this chapter for a discussion of these elements of the problems. These pages will give but a glimpse of the task but enough surely to strike a high note of summons to every man to whom Christ is indispensable to make Christ known to all other men in the world to whom he is also indispensable.

=The Unity of the Race.=--In this survey it will be of great value to remember that G.o.d "made of one every nation of men" (Acts xvii. 26).

The unity of the race is a great and solemnizing truth. Men can not be cla.s.sified by the color of their skin or their language. It is impossible for a scientist to tell the difference between the blood of an Arab, a Chinese, and an Englishman. Sin is not a heathen characteristic, it is a human characteristic. If the gospel had gone eastward instead of westward civilization would have traveled that way. As we speak about the backward races let us remember that the chief difference between them and us is that we have Christ and they have him not.

=Explanation of Terms.=--It is essential that the meaning of three terms which are current in the literature and discussion of missions be understood before we proceed. These terms are, _the evangelization of the world_, _the naturalization of Christianity_, and _the Christianization of the world_. What do these terms mean, and whose task is indicated by each?

=The Evangelization of the World.=--This phrase means the giving of every person in the world an adequate opportunity to know and receive Jesus Christ. This is the present and urgent task of all Christians. It is a universal obligation organic in the gospel. By this we do not mean simply giving the message of Christ once in the hearing of all men. That is not adequate. There must be repeated instruction in the gospel, until the need of Christ is made clear and influence brought to bear upon the will so that an intelligent decision to accept and follow Christ is made possible. Many will reject the message, no doubt, but the responsibility of Christians to any man is not discharged until that man has had opportunity to know and receive Jesus Christ. Wherever there are belated countries and races, or religions that do not meet the deepest needs of mankind, wherever there is no adequate opportunity to enjoy the deliverance from sin, the freedom, the intelligence, the purity, the safety, the justice and equality, the rewards of honest labor, which the gospel of Christ brings, it is the duty of those who possess all these to pa.s.s them on to others.

=The Naturalization of Christianity.=--By the naturalization of Christianity in a country is meant the permanent planting of the Christian Church and Christian inst.i.tutions in that land. When a foreigner becomes a naturalized American he must meet certain educational and financial requirements and take the oath of allegiance to the United States, in return for which he is guaranteed the privileges and rights of citizenship. The process of Americanization is not completed by this act of naturalization; it is only well begun.

Many years are required to thoroughly a.s.similate the spirit of our inst.i.tutions and life. Naturalization is a first not a final process, Americanization is the goal.

Christianity may be said to be naturalized in a land when the native Church has reached the point where it is capable of governing and supporting itself and of completing the work of evangelizing the country. Therefore the naturalization of Christianity is the joint task of the foreign missionary and the native Christian Church. In the process the foreign missionary must decrease, as the native Church increases.

=The Christianization of the World.=--This involves the application of the principles of the gospel to the total life of mankind. In a strict sense this is not yet true in any country. There are of course many countries where the evangelization of the people is being vigorously carried out and the naturalization of Christianity is without question; but the complete redemption of society is not yet a fact.

This final stage in the missionary enterprise is the task of the native Church in each land. There will still be fellowship with the Church in all lands and interchanges of ideas and service. There will no doubt be greater unity than ever, but the final responsibility rests with the naturalized Church in each land to complete the Christianizing task.

While the definitions given must not be interpreted too strictly, since the processes overlap and there is no absolutely sharp line of distinction between them, in general it is true that it is the duty of each generation of Christians to evangelize its own generation; it is the joint duty of Christendom and the native Church to naturalize Christianity in every land and among all races, and it is the task of the native Church in each land to press with all possible urgency the Christianization of the country. Evangelization and naturalization are the immediate aim: Christianization the final aim of the Church of Christ in the world.

I. AMERICA'S HOME PROBLEM

A primary missionary obligation is to purify the fountains out of which the missionary streams flow. Unless there is a genuine Christian civilization in America the impact of America on the non-Christian world will not be life-giving. As Dr. Love well says, in _The Mission of Our Nation_:

"The man who minimizes the importance of any department of missions leaves himself without ground for the strongest appeal for any department of missions.

"We shall never be able to develop a great conscience concerning any one department of our missionary work, except we develop a great conscience concerning it all.

"Though he may not think so himself, a man whose appeal is wholly for foreign missions may be as truly provincial as one who is all for home missions, for his field does not comprehend the whole world."

No man who has candidly studied the home problems in Canada with all their significance to the future of the Dominion, and the splendid way in which the Canadian leaders are seeking to solve those problems can talk lightly of the task there. The total immigration to Canada in 1910-11 was the largest in its history,--311,084. While the large majority were from England and the United States, the total included representatives of 64 nationalities. The Bible has been called for in 110 languages in the Dominion. There are about 900,000 Protestant Church members out of a total population of 7,200,000. The Catholic Church claims 2,538,374 members. There are about 3,000,000 French Canadians. Montreal has 70,000 foreigners; Winnipeg, 50,000. There are 12,000 Orientals in Vancouver. The great western provinces have all the problems of the frontier.

Looking at the situation in the United States we are confronted with the fact that there are 34,796,077 people over ten years of age who are outside the membership of all the churches. That in itself const.i.tutes an enormous spiritual opportunity and responsibility. Tens of thousands of these people are unreached because the Church has not seriously attempted to reach them. Recent investigations have shown that thousands of our country churches are entirely abandoned, and that in large rural sections the rising generation is practically deprived of all religious training. Until America solves its rural and city church problems, it will be greatly handicapped in its world-wide missionary operations.

There are certain neglected and overlooked groups in American life, such as the Mountaineers of the South. Concerning these st.u.r.dy Southerners, who are serving an altogether too long apprenticeship, and who have remained in isolation while modern progress has rushed by them, W. G. Frost says, "I expect to see the mountain regions of the South as peculiar a joy and glory to America as old Scotland is to Great Britain."

The Mormon menace is appalling. Every citizen should read Bruce Kinney's _Mormonism, the Islam of America_, and then do his part to eradicate this evil from the land.

Several millions of illiterate Negroes sorely need education and Christianity if the civilization of the country is to be safe. Progress in the solution of these problems has been great, and the Churches are addressing themselves to the task with growing conviction and power.

The loudest call to missionary devotion in the United States is presented by the unprecedented tides of immigration from all corners of the globe. While Canada is feeling this pressure in an unusual degree, the magnitude of the problem in the United States is much greater, not only because of the great numbers but also because of the character of the immigration. The sheer size of the task may be made concrete by comparing the numbers of people who have come to the United States in the last few years with some of the other great migrations of history.

The leading of the children of Israel out of Egypt was one of the outstanding movements of a great population in ancient history.

According to the census figures in Numbers i. 46, there were 603,550 men of twenty years of age and upwards. Some were heads of families but many of these were single men, so that, if we multiply the number given in the Bible by five, it will probably give the approximate number of the entire population, or 3,017,750. In the last ten years nearly three times as many people have come to America as the number Moses led out of Egypt. Furthermore, immigrants to America are not all of one race as in the case of Israel, but represent a Babel of races and languages.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES

SHOWING PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION REPORTED AS PROTESTANT, ROMAN CATHOLIC, AND "ALL OTHER" CHURCH MEMBERS, AND PROPORTION NOT REPORTED AS CHURCH MEMBERS FOR EACH STATE AND TERRITORY. PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU]