The Call of the World Part 5

(3) Arabia includes a territory 1,500 miles long by 1,200 miles wide.

Much of this country is only partially explored. The eight millions of population are almost all Mohammedans. Of the six provinces only three are occupied by missionaries, and in the coast-line of 4,000 miles there are workers in only four centers--Aden, Muscat, Bahrein, and Busrah, and not one in the interior. Along the 1,500 miles of Red Sea coast from Suez to Aden, pa.s.sing the Sinai Peninsula and the forbidden city of Mecca on the way, there is not one missionary. From Aden to Muscat is a journey of nearly 1,500 miles, from there to Bahrein is 550, and Busrah is 400 miles further on.

The judgment of the Edinburgh Conference was that at least six of the eight millions are beyond the reach of the present missionary force.

Unless there is adequate response in Christendom six millions of our fellow beings in this one land must lie down and die without a knowledge of Christ.

=2. Central Asia.=--Between the Near East and the Far East is Central Asia. The lands located here are comparatively little known, and in part unexplored. They have an area of 2,700,000 square miles, nearly as great as the United States. Out of this area we could carve fifty-two Englands, or nearly eight provinces the size of British Columbia, or twenty-four countries as large as Italy. The population is quite dense in the oases and along the rivers, but in other parts widely scattered, so that the numbers are not nearly so great as in the countries with which its geographical area has been compared.

There are, however, 23,368,000 people. We have here a bewildering array of races and languages.

The most important of these lands are Afghanistan, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and Russian Turkestan. The entire region is overwhelmed by the intellectual stagnation and moral rottenness of Mohammendanism, except Tibet, which is the stronghold of Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism.

In all this region there are only three mission stations, and not a physician or hospital anywhere. It is 2,000 miles from the Moravian station at Leh to the first outpost of the China Inland Mission in China. From the last station of the Church Missionary Society in North India it is 1,000 miles northward to the next missionary outpost.

In this territory there are some cities of considerable size like Bokhara, which has 10,000 students and 364 mosques, but no Christian church, and Tashkend with a population of more than 155,000. There are a dozen or more cities with populations reaching from 25,000 to 200,000.

Afghanistan is unoccupied by Christian missions. Fanaticism and hatred of Christ hold sway everywhere. According to Dr. S. M. Zwemer, 94 per cent. of the people are illiterate. Mohammed has swept the field. Only fearless workers can win this land.

Tibet is still the Gibraltar of the non-Christian world, and although a line of missionary outposts is drawn around it, in one place there is a gap of 1,500 miles between stations.

=3. India.=--India is the burning heart of Asia. It has a genius for religion unsurpa.s.sed in the world.

India has been called the Mother of Religions. Of the four great faiths which were born in Asia, two came from India.

India is a menagerie of races and languages. According to the Edinburgh Conference Report there are 147 languages in India. Some of these are spoken by only a few people, but there are ten languages, each of which is spoken by ten millions or more.

The census of 1911 gives the population of the country as 315,132,537.

Of every hundred people in the world eighteen live in this one land.

Among them there are two hundred and seventeen millions of Hindus, more than sixty-six and a half millions of Mohammedans and 3,876,196 Christians. There are ten millions of Buddhists in Burma. George Sherwood Eddy says there are four and one-half millions of mendicants or holy men. These figures are all the more startling when it is recalled that the holy men outnumber the Christians by several hundred thousand.

The caste system makes India one of the most difficult mission fields in the world. There are 2,378 princ.i.p.al castes and tribes, but all these are subdivided so that there are 100,000 caste divisions in India and no two of these can intermarry. The Brahmins have 886 sub-castes. Of the 144,000,000 women, in 1901, according to the _Statesman's Year Book_, there were 26,000,000 widows, or one in six.

On account of the fact that they are not allowed to remarry and other hard social conditions their lot is pitiable indeed. Of these widows it is reported there are 115,285 under ten years of age, 19,487 under five, and 1,064 under one year of age.

India has only 3,555 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds, while the United States with less than one third the population has more than six times as many. Only about five out of each hundred people can read or write. Of 39,000,000 children of school age, 28,000,000 are growing up without schooling.

India has 5,200 missionaries, counting wives, or one to every 60,293 of the population. If wives are not counted, each worker has a parish of 93,901. The preamble of the const.i.tution adopted by the National Missionary Society of India two years ago, states that only one third of India has been reached by missionaries and that one third only partially. There are whole districts, densely populated, where there is no missionary, and in some not even a native Christian.

In the Bombay Presidency it is reported that there are thirty districts, each with a population of over 50,000, in not one of which is there a missionary or a native worker. In Sind there are 3,000,000 people and only three mission stations in the province. "In northern Bengal," says George Sherwood Eddy, "there is only one missionary to every two million of the population."

The problem of determining the exact situation for the whole of India was so complex that the Edinburgh Conference was not able to give a definite statement regarding even the approximate number of people who are not reached, but considering all the facts it seems a fair estimate to say that there are living to-day in India at least 150,000,000 people largely untouched, none of whom can hope to know of Christ unless the force of missionaries and native workers is greatly increased.

=4. Bhutan and Nepal.=--These two wholly unoccupied states north of India are usually overlooked, yet Bhutan has a population of 250,000, and Nepal, which is not quite as large as Michigan, has five millions of people, or twice as many as there are in that State.

=5. French Indo-China.=--This portion of Asia is six times as large as New York, with a population of about sixteen and a half millions.

Roman Catholics are allowed in all parts of French Indo-China. In all this region there are but two Protestant mission stations, one in Annam and one in Laos. Except in the two missions mentioned, there is not a hospital or even a physician or trained nurse in the whole territory. The att.i.tude of the government has been unfriendly to missionary effort. Vast populations are absolutely ignorant of Christ and his gospel. No Protestant mission work is carried on in Cambodia, Cochin-China, or Tongking.

=6. j.a.pan.=--Everyone who has studied the geography of Asia has been impressed with the strategic geographical position of j.a.pan. This line of islands circling the seacoast of Asia from Siberia to southern China is truly the gateway of the Orient. The j.a.panese Christians and some of the missionaries have strongly advocated independence and also the union of the Christian forces.

Many think that j.a.pan is largely evangelized, but one fact will make it clear that this is an erroneous idea. Half of the population of j.a.pan are farmers and have scarcely been touched at all. It will be readily seen why this is so when it is stated that 60 per cent. of the missionaries are in eight cities, Tokyo alone being the headquarters of 279 of the total of 1,029 missionaries in the Empire. These figures include wives.

=7. Korea.=--This land, only slightly larger than Kansas, was closed to foreign influence until twenty-five years ago. It has a population of approximately twelve millions. There are 307 missionaries, including wives, two fifths of them in the south, in one fourth of the area of the country. Korea is a conspicuous example of an entire nation divided up among the missions at work in it. That division is now complete, and the eight denominations having representatives in the country each have a clearly defined territory. Responsibility for every foot of soil is definitely a.s.signed, although millions of the Koreans have not yet had the gospel preached to them in an adequate way.

=8. China.=--This is the world's newest and largest republic. Bishop Bashford's statement is no doubt true that the greatest compliment ever paid to the United States in its history was when the leaders of China's new era accepted its form of government as their model.

According to the _Statesman's Year Book_, the population of the Chinese Empire is 433,533,030, with an area of 4,277,170. If we omit India alone there are more non-Christians here than in all the rest of the world. According to the _World Atlas of Christian Missions_ there are at present in China 4,197 missionaries of all cla.s.ses. This gives a total of 103,300 people and a parish of 1,018 square miles to each missionary. All the provinces and, except Tibet, all the dependencies have some mission stations, yet there are great populations which are yet unreached.

Let us look at two or three sections of the problem.

Sin Kiang has thirty-eight walled cities, but there are missionaries in only two of these cities.

Mongolia, twenty-four times the size of the State of Iowa or six times as large as the Province of Ontario, has but ten missionaries. One's heart is deeply moved as thought goes back to the time when Gilmour began his heroic labors in Mongolia. When he came within sight of the first native hut he fell upon his knees and thanked G.o.d for a redeemed Mongolia. In our time there is need of a thousand Gilmours with the same daring of faith and uttermost devotion of life to carry the gospel message to these vigorous and wonderful people just now emerging into the light of modern life.

Manchuria has a population estimated at 20,000,000, but only the southern and western portions are occupied at all. One of the missionaries in reporting to the Edinburgh Conference says that two thirds of the population in his field have not even been approached.

Dr. Fulton reported to the Edinburgh Conference that within 140 miles of the scene of the labors of the first missionary to China, Robert Morrison, there are three counties containing some ten thousand villages, averaging two hundred and fifty inhabitants each and so near one another that in some cases from a central point six hundred villages may be counted within a radius of five miles. He says that in hundreds of these no missionary or Christian preacher has ever set foot.

Some time ago a striking map appeared in _China's Millions_, and is reproduced in _The Unoccupied Fields_, contrasting England and Wales with the province of Honan. While conditions have changed somewhat since the map was made, it is still sufficiently accurate for ill.u.s.tration. On this map are shown 1,846 villages and cities. There are 106 walled official cities, only twenty-six of which have resident missionaries. Three other large towns are occupied as mission stations, only twenty-nine places occupied out of the 1,846.

ENGLAND AND WALES HONAN

Area 58,309 sq. miles 67,940 sq. miles.

Population 32,526,075 (1901) 35,316,800 (1901)

Ordained Ministry 32,897 112 missionaries (including wives and single ladies)

Local Preachers 52,341 159 Chinese helpers (including women)

Average area of parish 1-3/4 sq. miles 1,788 sq. miles.

Average population of parish 1,000 929,389

The dimensions of the task remaining in China are sufficiently summarized by stating that there are 2,033 walled cities in the Empire and that only 476 of them have missionaries, leaving 1,557 of the princ.i.p.al cities unoccupied.

SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS IN THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD

1. _Fields Unoccupied but Open_

(1) Large portions of Mongolia, Manchuria, and Central Asia

(2) Many parts of Africa

2. _Fields Unoccupied by either Protestant or Catholic Missions because Closed to All Christian Work_

(1) Tibet

(2) Nepal

(3) Bhutan

(4) Afghanistan