Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/668

* MISSIONS. 596 MISSIONS. have been held, of which tlic last, known as the problem arises of their orjjanization and culture Keunienical ilissionary Conference of 1900, as a bod- having self-control, initiative, and the brou'dit together representatives of 240 Protest- power of expansion. The results of missionary ant missionary societies. The harmony displayed work cannot be permanent unless the Christian at such conferences, representing many dcnonii- Church becomes indigenous on the foreign field, nations, gives the impression that Protestant for- Hence the members of native churches must early cign missionaries should be considered as a be accustomed to manage their own afTairs and sin'de force, and that they stand, to quote the to support their own clnirch institutions and words of the historian McKen/ic. "in the fore- their schools. Missionaries rarely become pas- most rank of powers destined to change the face tors of the local churches, and in general avoid of the world." settling local ecclesiastical questions except in (,3) Methods and Prohlems of Foreign JIis- conjunction with the local ministers. The inder- siON Work. As to the methods used in the taking of the local church to provide financial presentation of the Gospel, experience has dc- resources for its own church-work is called By veloped certain principles, almost attaining to the somewhat ambiguous term of 'self-support,' the quality of a science of missions. I'rcachinq and is well established m a large number of in the language of the people is the first and missions, notwithstanding poverty among the most important method of evangelization; and church members. the establishment of a permanent preaching Whatever the ability and common sense of the place, to which all mav come if thcv choose, is a missionary, attack is probable upon him by first concern in every 'missionarv station. Xeed vested interests represented in the religion of at once appears to place the Riiile in the hands the country where he would preach. The murder, of the people. This fi.xes lilcrary trork as an- during 1900, of 135 British, Swedish, and. ieri- other method of evangelization. Qualified mis- can missionaries in China was a tragedy of mis- sionaries translate the Bible, set up presses and «ions moie than once paralleled in quality, print it. prepare helps to its study, tracts, and though not recently in degree. In this connec- gcncral Christian literature, and iii short apply tion a problem arises as to the right of mis- the enormous inlluence of the i)riiiling-press to sionarics to ask Government protection. It is the enterprise of making Christ known. In MtOO generally held that missionaries should not de- the publishing centres in IMotcstant foreign mis- pend upon such protection: that they go among si.m fields numbered 148. with an annual output savage tribes at their own peril, and that in lands of nearly 3(i.j.000.000 pages of Christian litera- where laws and treaties exist they must obey the ture Desire that the people shall read not only laws. On the other hand, a government jeopar- requircs the printing of primers, but the estab- dizes the right of all its people residing in any lishiuent of schools. But every school gives unsur- foreign country when it neglects to defend such of jiassed facilities for moral aiid spiritual culture. Uiem as arc maltreated while engaged in lawful and tliis in proportion to the importance of its occupations. general training. Bence educdtioiinl iroil.- hnii an (4) TtEsfLTS OF Missions. Statistical tables rmportance as a method of evangelization which is of Protestant forei,gn missions sufi'er from diver- iiiuiieasurablc where the (|ualitv of inslruction is sities of conception as to the meaning of the of the best and the spiritual power of the teachers returns which are due to diversity of nationality is of the highest. In inOO there were, under the and ecclesiastical polity. Nevertheless, the fol- direciion of Protestant foreign missionaries lowing may be taken as a fairly accurate though througlumt the non-Christian world. 1S.804 conservative statement of the number of Chris- primary schools and kindergartens, with 009.140 tian adherents in Protestant missions throughout pupils of both sexes, and 1(114 higher educational the world in 1900: institutions, with 142..320 students: 94 of the ^he Amprioan continents, including: Grwnlanrt last-named institutions are universities and col- and the West Indips '■"'SSS leges atten.h.d by :io.5:H. stud-mts of both sexes^ l?Ji:^^l:iil';^^X:^"''."^'^^'*:::::;::;:::::;::;:;: :ZZ ,]trilir(il ircirl; is another iiowerful method of oceanica and Australasia 300.000 evangelization. Protestant foreign missions in 1900 possessed ZhlTy hospitals and 7r>.S dispen- Total 4.11...UW saries. in which 2.r)79.0:)l individuals received Of this number. 1..31S,000 were communicants, treatment during the year. . most pervasive and the number admitted as communicants dur- method of evangelization is consistent Christian ing the year was 85.000. lirinff. This includes not only Christian family Again, foreign missions have not merely life, which in itself is an object lesson for non- planted Christianity in all the principal non- Christians, but social intercours<- with the people. Christian lands of the world. They have added ^lissionaries. both men and women, find access the Bible to the literature of all the great Ian- to the homes of the jicople, travel among the guages of the earth, placing before the eyes of towns and villages, speak to the poor and igno- the people the principles of true manhood and its rant perhaps the only sympathetic words heard model in the peerless figure of .Jesus Christ. The in a lifetime, make known to them the Gospel annual circulation of the Scriptures in foreign of Christ, and in famine or pestilence they make mission fields is 2.5.35.400 Bibles. Testaments, ♦ he interests of the sufTerers their own. and help and single CJospels or other jiarts of Scripture, them to endure and survive the catastrophe. Itesults of missions visible to the eye in non- Thi' effect iveness of all these methods of evan- Christian lands, but not capable of record in gelizatii>n depends largely, however, upon the statistics, are the overthrow of di;;rading super- qualities of the missionaries themselves. Too stitions. the limitation or extinction of immoral milch stress cannot be laid upon the fact that and cruel customs, the modification of non- the success or failure of a mission depends upon Christian religious teaching, the gradual eleva- men rather than upon methods. tion of the standing of woman, the quickening As soon as converts have Wen won. the of general intelligence, and the wide introduction