Read Ebook: The Call of the World; or Every Man's Supreme Opportunity by Doughty William E William Ellison

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 282 lines and 30290 words, and 6 pages

ligious.

"The crucifixion was two hundred and eighty years old before Christianity won toleration in the Roman Empire. It was one hundred and twenty-eight years after Luther's defiance before the permanence of the Protestant Reformation was assured. After the discovery of the New World one hundred and fifteen years elapsed before the first English colony was planted here. No one who saw the beginning of these great, slow, historic movements could grasp their full import or witness their culmination. But nowadays world processes are telescoped and history is made at aviation speed."

All this makes it clear that we have come to an hour of crisis in the relations between Christendom and the non-Christian world. What is a crisis but a point of time in the history of the human race when great issues are at stake, when there is an unprecedented break-up of civilizations, when Christian nations must make great decisions about their relations with the non-Christian world. We find everywhere conditions that are passing and that will not return. It is the time of all times for men who love Christ to make him known to the ends of the earth. The situation is summarized in "the Message of the Edinburgh Conference," in the following language: "The next ten years will, in all probability, constitute a turning-point in human history, and may be of more critical importance in determining the spiritual evolution of mankind than many centuries of ordinary experience. If those years are wasted, havoc may be wrought that centuries will not be able to repair. On the other hand, if they are rightly used, they may be among the most glorious in Christian history."

"The spread of the English language is one of the wonders of the age. The English language is spoken at the present time by nearly 200,000,000 people; each year sees large additions to the group of English-speaking peoples. In the Philippines more people to-day speak the English language than spoke the Spanish language after three hundred years of Spanish rule.

"In all higher education in India, English is compulsory; in the secondary schools in India, English is taught. In China, the government has made English a part of the regular curriculum. In Japan, the students are eager to learn English. It is the avenue through which the missionary frequently is able to reach the educated classes. In Syria, one of the boys in the classroom wrote on the blackboard, 'God is love' in his own language, thirty boys followed, each writing the text in his own language; yet these boys sooner or later will all speak the English language. A speaker at the Edinburgh Conference declared that some missionaries read the Lord's command as though it were written 'Go and teach all nations the English language.' Macaulay says that whoever knows the English language has 'ready access to the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and stored in the course of ninety generations.' The English language is the language of liberty, of law, of morals, of high ideals. The English Bible, which has molded Anglo-Saxon civilization, is making no small impress on world civilization.

"The Greek language became the vehicle in which the gospel story was borne to the educated world of the first century. The English language seems destined in the providence of God to be the bearer of the gospel to the races of the twentieth century."

French 31,450,000 52,100,000

German 30,320,000 84,200,000

Italian 15,070,000 34,000,000

Spanish 26,190,000 46,500,000

Portuguese 7,480,000 15,000,000

Russian 30,770,000 85,000,000

English 20,520,000 130,300,000

In the light of these figures the total given by Dr. Halsey quoted above is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of those speaking English six and a half times in the century under review. Since an overwhelming majority of missionaries speak either English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these languages is apparent.

In 1800, four hundred millions of people were governed by Catholic and Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions, or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In 1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day, England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together.

The Mohammedan world furnishes a startling illustration of this shifting control of the world. A few generations ago Mohammedan political and religious control were coextensive. To-day over three fourths of the Mohammedans of the world live in lands which they do not rule politically. The passing of Mohammedan political dominion from Africa is of profound significance for that continent. France has extended and consolidated her African possessions by taking Algeria and establishing a protectorate over Morocco, which is one of the greatest strongholds of orthodox Mohammedanism. Italy has now taken full control of Tripoli. Only a few of the forty or more millions of Mohammedans in Africa are under Moslem political rule. Italy has already begun the construction of 400 miles of railway in Tripoli. In Algiers and down through the Sahara toward the Sudan the steel lines are being laid by France. God is evidently preparing his people for a great advance among Mohammedans. The great question now is whether his Church will be equal to the emergency.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were two important missionary organizations in Great Britain. On the continent the Lutherans and Moravians were struggling heroically in the carrying on of their missionary operations. There were scarcely more than a dozen missionary societies altogether in the whole world, either well established or just beginning. It was a very small and feeble list of organizations compared with that of the present day. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference reported that there were 994 missionary organizations in Christendom in 1910. These have nearly all come into existence within the century.

Among the indications of increased efficiency the following may be named:

In Korea a union hymnal was issued some time ago and the first edition of 24,000 copies was sold within the first few weeks. In this same land, in dividing the territory between the different missions, the Methodists and Presbyterians exchanged several thousand converts, and now, Korean Christians moving from a territory occupied by one mission into that occupied by another automatically transfer their membership to the other denomination.

The Edinburgh Missionary Conference called special attention to these strategic principles and pointed out how they apply to the evangelization of the world. The application of these principles is another evidence of the fact that the leaders of the Church are facing in a thoroughgoing way, not a fragment of the plans of Christ, but his total program for the world. Some of these principles are quoted here:

"Accessibility, openness, and willingness to attend to the gospel message. During the past ten years the people of pagan Africa have been peculiarly ready to listen to the presentation of the facts and arguments of the Christian religion.

"The responsiveness of the field. Korea and Manchuria are examples of nations in which the people of every community show readiness to yield to the claims of Christ when presented to them.

"The presence or concentration of large numbers of people. Obviously, the Chengtu plain of the westernmost province of China, with its population of 1,700 to the square mile, or the densely populated valleys of the Ganges and lower Nile, should receive attention commensurate with the massing of the people.

"Previous neglect. With a gospel intended for all mankind the policy of the Church should be influenced by the existence of any totally unoccupied field, like extensive tracts of the Sudan.

"Conditions of gross ignorance, social degradation, and spiritual need. Christ came in a special sense to seek and to save that which was lost, and the history of the Christian Church has abundantly shown how the blessing of God has attended efforts to reach the most unfortunate and depressed classes and peoples, such as the Pacific Islanders, the outcasts of India, the lepers, and the aboriginal tribes of the East Indies.

"As has already been made plain, the Church, while recognizing the importance of advancing along lines of largest immediate promise, should, under divine guidance, direct special attention to the most difficult fields of the non-Christian world. In the light of this principle, Moslem lands present an irresistible appeal to the Church.

"The prospective power and usefulness of a nation as a factor in the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the probable weight of its example as an influence over other nations. Japan is especially fitted to become, in intellectual and moral matters no less than in material civilization, the leader of the Orient. This attaches transcendent importance to its attitude toward Christianity.

"The principle of urgency should as a rule have the right of way; that is, if there is to-day an opportunity to reach a people or section which in all probability will soon be gone, the Church should enter the door at once; for example, if there is danger that the field may be preoccupied by other religions or by influences adverse to Christianity. Equatorial Africa in a most striking degree is just now such a battle-ground. It is plain to every observer that unless Christianity extends its ministry to tribes throughout this part of Africa the ground will in a short time be occupied by Mohammedanism."

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the missionary force was a mere handful. There was not one representative of the churches of North America anywhere in the non-Christian world. The Buddhist world and the Brahmin world were closed, and the millions of the Mohammedan world were practically untouched. The vast regions of South America and Africa were almost unknown. To-day there is an army of 24,000 missionaries, counting wives, or about 17,000 missionary families and single missionaries scattered over all the continents, and in almost every country of the world.

In North America the evidence of the growth of conviction regarding foreign missions is seen in the following record of the Student Volunteer Movement. In the report made by that Movement every four years the following facts appear:

Number of Volunteers Sailed

In the year 1911 the total reached was 410, indicating the fact that the goal of two thousand sailed volunteers for the quadrennium is not an impossible number to expect to see go out before the next convention in 1914.

"To learn Chinese is work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!"

The first column includes the period to the end of the century named. The second column gives the number of millions of Christians of all faiths:

A glance at these figures reveals the following inspiring facts.

The number of Christians reported at the end of ten centuries was doubled in the next five centuries. The total was doubled again in the next three hundred years. At the end of the nineteenth century the number was two and a half times as great as at the end of the previous eighteen centuries.

Looking at America first we discover that one hundred years ago there were 364,872 communicant members of the Protestant churches out of a population of 5,305,925, or one in fourteen. To-day one in four of the population is identified with the Protestant church. These are not nominal Christians, as in the paragraph above, but actual Protestant church-members. These figures make it clear that the forces of aggressive Christianity in America have realized a tremendous return on their investment. If we include Catholic and all other religious bodies the total communicant members reach 36 millions in round numbers, or about two fifths of the total population.

One hundred years ago only one in ten of the college students in America was a communicant member of the Church; to-day practically every other college student is a member of some church. It is certainly encouraging that fifty per cent. of that small fraction of our population which will furnish an enormous percentage of the leaders are church-members to-day, or five times as large a proportion as a hundred years ago.

The situation in the non-Christian world to-day is summed up, on the basis of the statistics in the chart below, as follows: It took about ninety years to gain the first million converts . The second million were added in twenty-three years . They are now being added at the rate of a million in ten years.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a single Protestant in Japan, not one in China, only a few in India, and the great non-Christian world was practically closed to the Protestant missionary. Three of the five continents of the world were inaccessible and a large part of a fourth largely untouched.

Protestant Christian work began in Japan in 1859. In 1913 there are 73,000 Protestant communicants,--among them twelve members of the Japanese Parliament. The influence of the Protestant Christians in the Empire is out of all proportion to their comparatively small numbers, because Christianity began with the ruling classes in Japan. There are to-day in that one country more Protestant Christians than there were in all the non-Christian world at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Morrison, the pioneer missionary to China, entered that land in 1807. At the end of thirty-five years of effort there were only six converts; at the end of fifty years there were less than fifty, but to-day, according to the China Year Book, there are 195,905 communicant members of the Protestant churches, and Dr. Timothy Richard has publicly stated that he thinks there are not less than two millions of people in China who accept Christ as Savior, although many of these have not as yet united themselves with the Christian Church. One missionary in North China reported recently that he had seen more Chinese accepting Christ in the last nine months than in the previous nineteen years of his service in China.

In Korea, on Christmas Day, 1887, the first seven men were baptized in secret; now there is a Christian community of 300,000. There has been an average of one convert every hour of the day and night since Protestant missionaries entered Korea. The Korean Christians are an evangelistic, self-sacrificing, Bible-studying, prayer-loving people. The training-classes for Bible study and preparation for Christian work have been wonderful in their attendance and power. One church has developed into five churches in its short history. The members of a single church in Seoul preach the gospel in over a hundred villages in the vicinity of the city. Pingyang was not entered until 1895. At that time it was said of the city that every other house was a wine shop. In the short time since the first missionary entered the city such progress has been made that it is now said of Pingyang that every other house has a Christian in it, and that at least one sixth of the population may be found in the regular church services every Sunday morning. The great challenge presented by Korea is to press the advantage at this point in the far-flung battle line, in confident expectation that Korea will be evangelized in this generation.

Uganda in Central Africa has made great progress since the days of Stanley's discovery of Livingstone. Recently an eight-days' meeting was held in one of the stations. The attendance ranged from 3,500 the first day to more than 6,000 on the last day. In the five years ending September, 1907, there was an average increase in membership of 6,000 a year, and in 1909 the total increase reached 8,000.

Even the Near East which has for many years been so comparatively unresponsive to the appeal of the gospel, is more ready than ever to receive the gospel message and especially the missionary school. On a visit to the Near East in 1911, Dr. C. H. Patton, one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, addressed some inspiring audiences, in one place a multitude numbering three thousand. At Aintab, the crowd was divided into three audiences so that all could hear. There was a total attendance of four thousand. Among many other encouraging signs Dr. Patton found forty sons of pashas and members of the Turkish parliament in one school. Where a very few years ago there were hatred and hostility, there is now not only toleration but in many places a growing spirit of welcome to the Christian school and the Christian missionary.

These examples are typical of a world-wide response to the gospel never known before. The simplest and most evident proof of the widening sovereignty of Christ in the world is the number of those who are uniting themselves with the Christian Church. It is an inspiring record, but only the beginning of the indications that the kingdom of God is spreading over all the earth.

Every land has a contribution to make before there can be a complete interpretation of Christianity. Christendom is as yet only beginning to realize what enrichment of life is to come from Africa and the East, from Mohammedan lands and the islands of the seas, when the living energies of Christ have been brought to bear adequately upon their life.

"There are certain practises, principles, and ideals--now the richest inheritance of the race--that have been either implanted or stimulated or supported by Christianity.

"They are such as these: regard for the personality of the weakest and poorest; respect for women; the absolute duty of each member of the fortunate classes to raise up the unfortunate; humanity to the child, the prisoner, the stranger, the needy, and even the brute; unceasing opposition to all forms of cruelty, oppression, and slavery; the duty of personal purity and the sacredness of marriage; the necessity of temperance; the obligation of a more equitable division of the profits of labor, and of greater co?peration between employers and employed; the right of every human being to have the utmost opportunity of developing his faculties, and of all persons to enjoy equal political and social privileges; the principle that the injury of one nation is the injury of all, and the expediency and duty of unrestricted trade and intercourse between all countries; and finally and principally, a profound opposition to war, a determination to limit its evils when existing, and to prevent its arising by means of international arbitration.

"Ideals, principles, and practises such as these are among the best achievements of history."

"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?"

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet