Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/139

 REVIEWS 125

Christian Missions and Social Progress; A Sociological Study of Foreign Missions. Vol. II. By Rev. James S.Dennis, D.D. Fleming H. Revel! Co., 1899.

The author had intended to complete his work in two volumes ; he now announces a third volume. While the " Inner Mission " is sometimes treated at home in a sort of apologetic way, and " social work " regarded in conservative quarters as something too worldiv for a church, this zealous advocate of foreign missions makes out of this kind of service a powerful argument for the value of such ministries. He seems to believe that if religion really has power to give character and happiness in a future life, it should be able to prove it in this life. Not only does he fill this large volume with materials illustrative of his position, but his ample notes and bibliography open up a mass of information almost startling in quantity. One wishes that his authori- ties were more frequently civil and non-clerical, since such evidence exists and has more weight with many minds.

The evidence presented in this volume goes to prove that the missionaries in all lands have contributed to the temperance reform ; to abolition of the opium traffic, gambling, prostitution, polygamy, slavery ; to the elevation of the lot of women and children, and the purification of domestic life ; to the spirit of patriotism, industry, and general culture ; to the extension of medical science and art in all countries where missionaries have gone.

The most secular and skeptical student of social history is under obligations to consider and give due weight to the array of facts here presented. While the author admits the merit of military conquest, he shows that the fruits of victory cannot be gathered unless the teacher accompanies the soldier and follows destructive activity with con- structive labors. British soldiers may stop Arab slavers, but mission- aries are needed to transform the ideas and motives of the native populations and build up a higher civilization. Such services cannot be secured for salaries, but only by an enthusiasm which usually seems to the ordinary man something like fanaticism. The annals of military achievement present no loftier examples of courage. This volume is witness to a real social force of immense significance. To ignore this force is unscientific, since it is already powerful, and is augmented every decade and gathers momentum with the years.

C. R. Henderson.