The Call of the World Part 6

3. _Fields Unoccupied by Protestant Missions because of Government Opposition_

(1) French Indo-China

(2) French Possessions in Africa

These three lists represent the work _yet to be begun_.

4. _The Religion Least Reached is Mohammedanism_

Conservative estimates state that not less than 150,000,000 Mohammedans are not being reached in any adequate way by the Christian gospel.

5. _The World as a Whole._ (1) The Edinburgh Conference Report says that there are 119,000,000 people in Asia and Africa who are not even included in the plans of any missionary society on earth. (2) There are many more millions--and no one knows accurately how many--who are included in plans which have not yet been carried out. (3) In view of the facts presented it is probably a safe estimate to say that with the present forces in the field 500,000,000 people will pa.s.s out of this generation without having a fair chance to know Christ and his message of redemption, unless the Church pours out a princely offering of lives and money and prayer to give them that opportunity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF THE WORLD

World Population, 1912 1,700,000,000]

When it is remembered that there are such mult.i.tudes of people who have never had a chance to adopt a living creed adequate to the facts of life; that there are still whole nations which are the habitations of nameless cruelty; millions for whom as yet Christ died in vain; vast regions where there are a starless sky, a bottomless need, a life full of fear and a future without hope--this certainly presents a task which may well test to the utmost the vitality and devotion of Christendom.

One look at the immensity of the problem drives us back upon the measureless resources of G.o.d. Over against the greatness of the task we place the greatness of our G.o.d. He alone is sufficient for these things.

The great question to be answered now is whether or not there have been developed in Christian lands a faith and power sufficient for this most momentous hour for the human race. The supreme question of missions is the development in Christendom of a vitality equal to carrying the faith of Christ to the last man in the world.

Is my Christianity equal to this task? Will the Christianity of my Church go to the limit of devotion to the plans of Christ? Is American Christianity strong enough so G.o.d can anchor a planet to America without wrecking America? In this great hour you must answer and so must I and so must the Church. Accepting the great opportunity with an unmoved confidence in final victory, let every man joyously put his hands between the King's hands to follow him forever.

Some questions in parliamentary law are undebatable. Having been faced squarely and the decision made, the vote is cast in silence. When a Christian man has once understood what the call of Christ is, and what moral and spiritual demands that call makes upon men, the only possible att.i.tude which a real man can take is _obedience without debate_.

BOOKS FOR ADVANCED READING

Carrying the Gospel to All the World. Vol. 1. Edinburgh Conference Report.

Zwemer, S. M. The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia.

Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Barton, James L. The Unfinished Task. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York.

Dennis, James S. Social Evils of the Non-Christian World. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue. $0.35.

Moscrop, Thomas. The Kingdom Without Frontiers. Eaton & Mains, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Eddy, Sherwood. The New Era in Asia. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

Pott, F. L. Hawks. The Emergency in China. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

Winton, George B. Mexico To-Day. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

CHAPTER III

AMERICA'S POSITION IN THE WORLD BATTLE

That was a great day for the world when the Pilgrim Fathers started on their history-making journey across the Atlantic to America. There is no more thrilling scene in the beginnings of the history of any nation. A service of solemn consecration was held in the church. Then the immortal company marched to the sea led by their pastor, John Robinson, reading from an open Bible those words in Genesis xii. 1-3, which must have had a prophetic meaning to every man within the sound of the pastor's voice.

"Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

It was a summons across the centuries to a new and profound application of the principles of religion to nation building. The conviction burned in their hearts that G.o.d was sending them out on a divine mission and that they were to found on this side the sea a nation which should bear an important part in the world plans of Christianity. There are no words in the Bible which have a more wonderful meaning in the light of the expanding purpose of G.o.d for America than these words of commission to Abraham which were accepted as G.o.d's commission to the Pilgrim Fathers. In the days that followed G.o.d was as good as his word and the Pilgrim Fathers were as good as theirs.

There is a growing conviction with many leaders in America that one of the central features of our religious life should be this sense of mission. In the history of the expanding Kingdom, G.o.d has evidently given to America a commanding place of leadership and power. This is nothing less than a divine appointment. To have such an appointment as this in a time like ours, from our G.o.d, is to have a share in a task like no other task the world has ever seen. To make men see that the redeeming of America is strategy of a high order is to strike a high note of summons to extend the sway of Christ to the remotest bounds of our own continent. To hasten the time when this conviction shall leaven the thinking of American Christianity and when this sense of mission shall liberate the measureless spiritual and material energies of America to bless the world should be the aim of every Christian American.

What are some of the signs that America has been called to a place of leadership in the Kingdom? Are there certain principles according to which G.o.d selects men and nations for the fulfilment of his world purposes? Do these principles and purposes emerge in G.o.d's dealing with America? The answer to these questions has a deep missionary significance.

Among the principles which G.o.d has evidently applied in choosing his prophets through the ages, the following are unmistakably clear:

1. PROPHETS ARE STRATEGICALLY LOCATED.

2. PROPHETS ARE CHOSEN BECAUSE OF A CERTAIN FITNESS OF CHARACTER.

3. PROPHETS HAVE RESOURCES SUFFICIENT FOR THEIR TASK.

4. PROPHETS REMAIN SUCH ONLY SO LONG AS THEY HAVE VISION AND CONSECRATION ADEQUATE TO THEIR TASK.

These principles apply to the outstanding prophetic figures of all times. Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Malachi in the Old Testament, Paul in the New, Luther and Wesley in modern times, all ill.u.s.trate the working of these laws.

The principles stated above apply to nations as well as to individual men. Israel may be taken as an ill.u.s.tration. Palestine was the crossroads of the world. Israel was centrally located so that she had an unusual opportunity to influence the known world. Her leaders had a message and a spiritual insight unique in their day. They were a people chosen not for privilege but for service, and when in the supreme test the nation failed to understand and accept its world-wide mission, G.o.d was compelled to move westward in his choice of a new prophetic race to bear his message to the world.

There is a tradition that Christ died with his face turned westward.

Whether this be true or not, men in these Western lands, with the missionary principle at the center of life, may well be steadied and strengthened by the thought that Christ saw across centuries and civilizations the new peoples in the West who were to be called to a prophet's place in his Kingdom. At any rate the westward movement outlined in Acts and later history, from Palestine to Europe, to the Anglo-Saxon race, to America, is an unmistakable indication of G.o.d's plan. For two thousand years this movement has been gathering momentum for impact on the mighty East.

The United States and Canada are standing together solidly in all the great religious and missionary movements of our time. In the discussions that follow there is no thought of minimizing Canada's position of leadership. She has vast dimensions and almost unlimited latent resources. Her response to the call of world-wide missions is inspiring. The national missionary policy adopted by the Canadian churches at the conclusion of the National Campaign of the Laymen's Missionary Movement in 1909 set a definite goal for the Dominion which is much more nearly realized to date than that suggested for the United States by the National Congress in Chicago in 1910. These two nations are inseparably united in common missionary ideals and plans and in a common missionary purpose. On both sides of the border Huntington's hymn may be sung with real sincerity.

Two empires by the sea, Two nations great and free One anthem raise.

One race of ancient fame, One tongue, one faith we claim, One G.o.d whose glorious name We love and praise.

Now may the G.o.d above Guard the dear lands we love, Both east and west.

Let love more fervent glow As peaceful ages go, And strength yet stronger grow Blessing and blest.

Canadians will find it easy to apply to their own land the principles here stated. Some of the ill.u.s.trations are taken from Canada, but of necessity a majority refer to the United States. A pamphlet ent.i.tled "5,000 Facts About Canada," published by Canadian Facts Publishing Co., Toronto, is illuminating reading.

AMERICA'S PLACE OF LEADERSHIP IN THE KINGDOM OF G.o.d IS INDICATED BY HER STRATEGIC LOCATION AND OTHER GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS.

Provincialism has no place in true statesmanship, especially the statesmanship of the kingdom of G.o.d. It was Salisbury who, in the English Parliament, took as the basis of one of his greatest speeches the phrase "Study large maps." It was Carey who said that he received his call by studying the Bible beside the map of the world. Gladstone had great power of discriminating judgment and it was he who said, "America has a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by mankind."

The strategic position of America is indicated by the following facts: