Time: December, 1927.

Place: Secretary's Office in the Congregational House, Boston.

Persons: The Pastor of a City Church, a Secretary of a Mission Board, a Missionary from India.

Pastor. Good morning, Mr. Secretary. Are you too busy to answer some questions that are bothering me? Secretary. Never. Come right in and sit down. What is it you have on your mind?

P. I am troubled over these recent attacks on foreign missions. Do you realize that this cause is under fire, and that we pastors are up against it to meet the criticisms that are appearing in the magazines and daily papers? I have a fine earnest people, yet whenever I mention foreign missions in these days, they come back at me with an astonishing array of doubts and objections.

S. Yes, of late I have been making a card-catalogue of objections. It is most interesting.

P.

But I am serious about this. It is affecting the giving of the church, and if my people are at all typical you will be feeling it in your treasury.

S. I am serious, too; very serious. I quite agree with you that we need a fresh statement of our case, a new apologetic, if you will. That is why I am listing the new objections in this way. It is a sort of Preparedness Campaign on my part. What you say leads me to think that perhaps the war is actually on.

P. It is; at least in my church; and what I need is a good supply of ammunition.

S. I hope I have the right sort. If I haven't, perhaps I can tell you where to look for it. But just what line of attack have you been facing of late?

P. Well, to begin with something right up to date: one of my men, high up in business circles, a man who has always stood by our missionary program, said to me last Sunday, "Pastor, not another dollar for foreign missions." When I expressed surprise, he replied, "Look at China! Look at the way they are treating the missionaries! What has it all amounted to? After all these years and all we have done, the missionaries are being driven out by the very people they have sought to help. I see by the papers that the work has come to an end, and that not less than one hundred million dollars of property has been lost. For one, I am through with the whole business." I tried to calm him down, but I confess I did not make a very good job of it. Now what should I have said to that man?

S. That speech of his sounds like certain remarks which were reaching us last spring, when the papers were printing on the front page stories of how the missionaries, driven from their stations, were escaping to the coast, or to Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States. It certainly looked serious at that time, especially for the man who has little or no historical perspective for estimating upheavals of that nature and who believes all he sees in the papers. But your business friend was behind the times; evidently he has not been reading the later dispatches and probably he does not look at the religious press at all. A good many things have occurred since the tragic events of last spring, and a good many other things have come to light. For instance, we know now that the Chinese did not drive out the missionaries.

P. Who did drive them out?

S. Our Government drove them out. At least, it amounts to that. Without claiming absolute control of their nationals in China, our consuls exerted such pressure that, with few exceptions, the missionaries felt it would be an act of disloyalty to

remain. As American citizens they had no desire to embarrass their government, and so, after repeated warnings and appeals that amounted to a demand, they consented to withdraw. Now that things have quieted down, and they know for certain of the friendly attitude of the Chinese, they question whether the United States officials were as well informed on the situation as they thought they

were.

P. If that is the case, I should think the missionaries would feel decidedly sore.

S. Some of them do, and they are saying that the Boards should have a better understanding with the State Department as to just where the responsibility of the consul begins and ends. They consider it intolerable that a person engaged in missionary work, with full knowledge of all it may cost, should be counted disloyal if in a time of danger he declines to escape to a place of safety. They particularly object to the impression being conveyed to the Chinese that the messenger of peace on earth and good will toward men requires the support of gunboats and armies. Not thus, they maintain, will the cause of Christ be advanced in a country like China. They hold that under conditions such as arose last winter and spring, the higher loyalty of their religion should be allowed to come into play. In any case the course of events in China appears to have justified the missionaries who threw questions of political casuistry to the winds and remained at their posts.

It should be understood, however, that the defining of the duties and responsibilities of our Government in respect to missionaries in the interior of a country like China-how to recognize their position as American citizens under the guaranty of treaties which must be upheld, and at the same time not handicap their usefulness as ambassadors of Christ-is an extremely difficult one. Some are saying the only solution is for the missionaries who feel they cannot accept our Government's protection, to renounce American citizenship and become naturalized as citizens of China. I hope, however, some less drastic solution can be found.

P. But don't you think such a situation as arose at Nanking last spring justified the attitude of our Government and that the missionaries were fortunate to escape on United States gunboats in the way they did?

S. I do. I think, had I been in their place, with all of those lives under my care, I would have acted precisely as Consul Davis and Captain Hough did. I have the utmost sympathy for our American officials in the far-off places of the earth, where in critical situations they are obliged to act upon their own responsibility. Their problems are of a baffling nature. But as it turned out, Nanking was not typical of the attitude of the Chinese people as a whole. It was a sporadic outbreak on the part of a radically anti-foreign division of the Southern Army. You know how quickly the trouble was put down, and how the incident served to awaken the

Chinese to the sinister character of Russian communism, and how as a result the anti-foreign party in the Army lost control. But more important than that, from our point of view, was the revelation of the essential friendliness of the Chinese people toward the missionaries residing in their midst. In not a single instance, so far as I have learned, has the local population of a city or town where missionaries have lived and worked, risen up against them. On the contrary, they desired them to stay and sorrowed to see them leave under pressure from their own government, which they were unable to understand. I could give you any amount of evidence to prove that your friend is wrong as to the unappreciative Chinese driving out the missionaries.

P. But has not the evacuation of all those stations been a body blow to the missionary enterprise? I saw one paper that characterized the withdrawal as a "Missionary Debacle."

S. Well, God maketh the wrath of man to praise him. We certainly would not have chosen the events of the last twelve months. The cost of it all in dollars has been very great; the American and European public has formed wrong ideas which it will take years to correct, and a good many of the Chinese, even the Christian Chinese, felt that they were being deserted by their best friends. But in spite of all that, we see the cause set forward in a wonderful way by reason of the new spirit of courage and responsibility that has come to the Chinese Church. Our Christian leaders, for the most part, have risen splendidly to the situation. They are determined from now on to make the Christian movement their very own. At last comes the opportunity to domesticate the ideals and the institutions which hitherto have held a foreign flavor. What we had hoped to accomplish by the slow processes of missionary evolution, possibly through a period of fifty years, has now come to pass almost overnight. Maybe that is God's better way. Other examples in history will occur to you. You know it sometimes requires a revolution to make social and religious progress possible. Napoleon once remarked he had noticed that men develop rapidly on the battlefield.

P. You have confidence that the Chinese Christian leaders are capable of taking the responsibility of leadership hitherto borne by the missionaries?

S. They will make many mistakes. Of course they will. We have made a few ourselves. But they should have the privilege of learning in that way. As President Burton of Chicago University once remarked of the Chinese Church, "They may bungle it for a while. Very well. Better let them bungle it than keep it in our own hands, for it will always be bungled if we keep control of it." Thus far these leaders have shown steadiness and restraint and, best of all, a real humility of spirit. Instead of being puffed-up and assertive, they are saying, "Too few of us are educated for this task; financially we are a feeble folk, and we appeal to you to stand at

our side and see us through." I wish your business friend could read the letters describing the welcome the missionaries are receiving as they return.

It would inspire him to give as he has never given before. In this office there is only one opinion: we believe that under the new conditions the missionaries in China will be far more effective than before. As for this newspaper talk of huge property losses, nothing of the kind has happened. Under the conditions of civil war, naturally there was a stoppage of institutional work for a time. Many of the schools had to close, but with surprising rapidity they have reopened, as a rule under Chinese leadership. As for the churches and hospitals, they have been in operation all through these days of upheaval, and never have they rendered finer service.

P. Well, I see that you are not hanging your harp on a weeping-willow tree-as yet.

S. The only trees we have any use for in this office are palms.

P.

That sounds good to me. But how about that prominent Chinese who was recently in America and who had an article in the Forum, to the effect that the people of China are turning from Christianity as unsuited to their disposition and needs, and that the dream of a Christian occupation is fast vanishing, probably forever. As I recall it, he argued that the Chinese will turn, are turning, to rationalism and not to religion.

S. Mr. Hu Shih, yes. A remarkable man; intelligent, scholarly, patriotic. Our people out there hold him in high esteem. He is known as the Father of the Chinese Renaissance-that is, the intellectual awakening, as distinct from the political and military ambition of the people. I read his article, but of course, as a Christian, I cannot hold, as you cannot, that rationalism can ever become a substitute for religion. I do not read history and human nature that way. I do not clearly see the four hundred million people of China, naturally devout, or even one hundred million, living solely on the strength of their reasoning powers. History presents no such spectacle, not even in ancient Greece, the most intellectual of all lands.

I have a notion that Mr. Hu Shih became a little excited when over here. The success of the nationalistic movement, as the Southern Army was sweeping northward, might easily carry an enthusiast off his feet. Already certain reactions are setting in, and, in my opinion, Brother Hu has another guess coming. Possibly our estimate of the profundity of his observations may be influenced by the fact that in this same article he found American religious life characterized by personalities like Aimee McPherson and Elmer Gantry! That unfortunate reference, I fear, prevented his article from making the impression it deserved. I appeal from Hu Shih drunk to Hu Shih sober. Just before coming to America he made an address at a meeting of the Christian Literature Society of Shanghai, in which he generously attributed to the missionaries the incentives that led to both the intellectual and

political awakening of China, advising them not to worry over the so-called anti-Christian movement. I think I have a report of that address in my desk. Here it is. Now listen to this passage:

"The present social movements agitating the people of China are the product of the Christian missionary teaching and are but signs of a day of great things for China. Do not be discouraged at the so-called antiChristian movement. This thing is your own product. It is a sign of the awakening of China, for which you have been working and longing. Don't be discouraged by these things. You wanted an intellectual awakening and you have it. You missionaries have trained the people for the new ideas. Even your opponent is influenced by you-if he had not learned of your work, he would not have been your opponent. You were the pioneer in this great movement that is going on in China." P. But, may not Mr. Hu Shih argue that while the incentives for a free and enlightened China have come through the inculcation of Christian ideals, now that the awakening has occurred, they can get along very nicely without any such help?

S. Undoubtedly he does argue in that way, but such a development does not seem to me reasonable or likely. It will take more than ideals held by a small group of reformers to carry China to the goal of an intelligent and characterful national life. China had age-old ideals of her own; on the ethical side, they were of a remarkable character; yet they failed to save her in the evil day. What China needs, what America needs, what the world needs, and needs continuously, is a spiritual dynamic sufficient to make accepted ideals come true. It appears to me that the religion which alone could furnish the incentive will be needed to carry the movement to success. To put the thing in a nutshell, China, no more than America, can get along without Jesus Christ.

I have quoted one man in my congregation, and you have helped me to meet his objections; but let me now quote another, a man even more intelligent, who follows the missionary news, and believes in the enterprise fundamentally. His point is that in your strategy you ought to pay more attention to the changing tempers of non-Christian people, withdrawing from lands like China, when the tide is against you, and concentrating upon more favorable areas. It is good business, he argues, to place your goods where there is a demand for them. How about that? S. A big question surely. Perhaps it can best be answered concretely. You know that is what many were saying at the time of the Boxer Uprising in 1900, when the missionaries were driven (this time by the Chinese themselves) from North China, when all our stations were destroyed, when over a hundred missionaries, along with 1,600 Chinese Christians, suffered martyrdom. Certain timid folk-I will not call them pusillanimous said at that time, "Now that you are out of China, better stay out.

"It is clear they don't want your religion and it is a waste of life and money to keep sending missionaries to such people." How well I remember such remarks! Now, suppose the American Board and the other foreign boards, instead of meeting the situation with vision and courage, had followed that

advice! Suppose the young men of our colleges, like Watts O. Pye and Hugh Hubbard, had followed counsel of that sort, instead of offering themselves in unprecedented numbers for the filling of the broken ranks! Surely the Church would have lost one of the greatest periods in missionary history. You know, of course, that during the years following the Boxer trouble, Protestant Christianity forged ahead in China in an unprecedented way. In 1900 the Protestant Church membership was 113,000; in 1924 it was over 400,000. During the same period the number of Christian adherents increased 105 per cent, while the students in Christian schools increased 332 per cent. Is not that a sufficient answer to your friend? Has it not been true from the days of the Apostles to the present time that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"? Is there any better strategy than the strategy of the Cross? "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." Would your friend have opportunism and easy chance take the place of a sublime faith? Let your friend understand that this work is no holiday excursion. never has been; it never should be. But if China is not sufficient answer, tell him to look at Turkey.

It

Ten years ago, after the massacres and the expulsion of the Christian population of Turkey, some were telling us-some very prominent people, tooto keep out of Turkey and send the missionaries to China, where Christianity just then was going strong. Now, I suppose, these same wiseacres, if they are keeping up with events, are thinking that we might well move the China missionaries to Turkey, since the situation there is so materially improved. Well, it would be a very expensive process, and in more than financial ways. I prefer the wisdom of the greatest of all missionaries, the Apostle Paul, to that of your friend. I believe if in China we remain "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," we shall find that our labor is not "in vain in the Lord." Personally, I look for great advances in that land. But there may be other questions in your mind.

P. Yes, there are many others, but I have no time for them today. Can we have another talk, say next Monday?

S. By all means. I am likely to get as much out of such a conference as yourself. Shall we say at ten o'clock?

P. Very good. But before going I would like to make one broad inquiry. We have been talking about China, because the startling events there have set many friends of missions thinking; but in regard

to the foreign missionary movement generally, do you consider that the outlook is favorable or unfavorable?

S. That question should be answered by a missionary of long experience, one who can give you the "then and now" argument, based upon wide observation. I see Dr. Robert A. Hume, our veteran from India, looking in at the door, and I propose to put the question to him. . . . Dr. Hume, please come in and sit down. This pastor wants to know about the general outlook for foreign missions over the world; is it favorable or unfavorable? Your life has been spent in India, but we think of yoù as a world figure. Will you not, in the briefest possible form, give us your frank opinion?

Dr. Hume. My impression is that the missionary situation everywhere is favorable. But because I was for fifty-two years resident in India, I speak with positiveness about that country. Numerical proof is not the most important. The oldest American foreign mission was established in India in 1813. In its first twenty years more American missionaries died than Hindus became Christians. Now in some parts of the country twenty non-Christian Indians join the Christian church every day. According to the Government census there are five million Indian Christians. The last census showed that in the decade then ending the Hindu community had lessened, the Mohammedans had increased six per cent, the Christians had increased thirty per cent. As in apostolic times, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

God hath chosen what is foolish to shame the wise, and hath chosen what is weak to shame what is strong, by greatly improving through Christ the quality and character of those of the Christian community. One Indian Christian, Mr. John W. Bhore. whose father was born in a village near Ahmednagar, has lately been a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Another Indian Christian, Mr. A. C. Mukherji, was for eighteen years the Municipal Secretary of Benares, the religious capital of Hinduism. An Indian Christian, Mr. N. V. Tilak, was the chief Marathi poet of Western India. Yet the most en couraging feature of India's religious situation is that millions who still keep the Hindu name, without avowing themselves Christians, revere the Lord Jesus Christ as the foremost religious leader of the world and are greatly influenced by Him.

HR

E was a wise man who said that students studying a strange language should provide themselves with grammars with good strong bindings so they could stand being thrown violently about the room! The missionary feels, occasionally, this need for well-bound grammars as he studies the language of the people. Grammars of African. tongues are incomplete; language teachers are lacking in knowledge of the grammatical construction of their own parts of speech, and, of course, unable to imagine themselves in the place of the struggling student. Language study is no joke.

My wife and I were perspiring over our Zulu lessons one day, trying to get the many different classes of nouns straightened out, and trying to stretch our mouths to make the funny Zulu clicks, when a messenger arrived with an invitation to attend a native wedding that afternoon. Down slammed our books! We hurried to get ready for the trip over the winding native paths.

We discovered on our arrival that both Christians and heathen had been invited to attend the joyous occasion. On one side of the collection of huts were assembled the heathen; on the other, the Christian folk. On the heathen side the wedding dances were being put on by a long line of sparsely-dressed men, young and old. They stamped and shouted and sang, looking up into heaven with staring eyes, for they were invoking the blessings of the departed on the newly-wedded pair. When the dancers tired, there were the women to encourage them by their steady hand-clapping, and there were also brimming pots of home-brew beer with a powerful kick to spur them on.

The side of the kraal occupied by the Christians, however, was quiet and dignified. Here in his black frock coat was the preacher, vigilant to guard his flock. All were attired, as nearly as possible, up to the standard set by the white people whom they had seen. And they were seated on European chairs. (Their heathen brethren squatted on the ground.) What could the Christians do to contribute to the joy of the wedding? The pastor solemnly stood up and selected a hymn; they turned to the places in their books, stood up together, and in good harmony sang one of the great hymns of the church-"Holy, Holy, Holy." Then they resumed their seats.

But all the time, on the opposite side of the kraal, the heathen commotion continued without letup, the noise rising and falling-stamp, stamp, stamp, grunt, grunt; the bursting into song, the waving of the shields, and the vicious jabbing of the spears went on.

We were looking on from a point midway between the Christian and heathen groups. About us were gathered the children, many of them the sons

Who can say that the African is not a real human?

In many cases it does. Many children of Christian parents find much in heathenism that attracts them and they slip off into the heathen kraals, there to stamp their feet, clap their hands, and shout the songs. Their places are vacant in church, and their parents see with despairing eyes that their wayward children are slipping downward into a life which is not wholly heathen, yet not genuinely Christian; they accept the easy benefits of each and end too often in a total disregard of the conventional moral standards prevailing in even heathen society.

THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAM

This problem of the second generation Christian has caused the missionary to put increasing emphasis on the adaptation of Christian social methods to the legitimate social needs of the group. It has been seen that the preaching of the Gospel should be supplemented by the addition of the playground, the Scout program, and athletics, as well as by the school and Sunday school. This has meant additional work for the evangelistic missionary and his wife.