The student will quickly find that actual heathenism is less attractive than when it is viewed from a comfortable library at home, but he need not on that account go at it with a sledgehammer. Even if he does succeed in destroying the native's confidence in his own faith, it does not follow that he has made him a Christian. He may simply have destroyed confidence in all religion, and left a chamber "swept and garnished" to be occupied by "seven devils worse than the first." Compromise is fatal, but lack of knowledge and tact are almost equally so.

Let us, with as little of the racial peculiarity as possible, urge the essential point that the supreme thing for all men, wherever they live, is the knowledge of God. That knowledge we desire to communicate to the world. We take no credit to ourselves for having it. We did not discover it. Our ancestors were simply so placed that during those centuries when the lack of intercommunication separated the Far East and the West by an impassable gulf, the white man heard that God had revealed Himself to sinful man as a personal Being, holy, just and wise, a Creator, a Sovereign, a Father; that He had caused His message to be written in a Book; and that He had sent His only begotten Son into the world to incarnate the divine sympathy, to show the ideal life and to make "propitiation for the sins of the whole world." We have found that this faith and its necessary corollaries transform the human heart, purify society, exalt woman and develop all that is noblest in man. We therefore preach it to others, as it was

first preached to us.

Christ set a good example to the soul-seeker everywhere in His treatment of those who came to Him. When some sought "the loaves and fishes," He did not turn them away, but spoke to them of the bread of heaven. When Nicodemus came by night, Christ did not rebuke him, but lovingly reasoned with him about the spiritual life. When the self-satisfied young ruler told Him that he had kept the commandments from his youth up, "Jesus beholding him, loved him." When the

mother tried to use Christ for the advantage of her two sons, the disciples "were moved with indignation," but Christ taught them the nobler ideals of the Kingdom. His severest denunciations were not upon the "sinners," but upon hypocrites.1 Even when a fallen woman came to Him, He, the purest of the pure, did not turn contemptuously away, but with divine sympathy made her feel that she was not beyond the reach of the Father's love. "Jesus was never rude. He never gave needless pain to a sensitive heart. He was considerate of human weakness. He was gentle towards all human sorrow. He never suppressed the truth, but He uttered it in love. And to-day it is not science or intellect or eloquence that wins souls, but love to Christ pouring over in love to men. Love will give a delicacy of perception and ingenuity of persuasiveness which no heart shall be able to resist. Love will reconcile the profound scholar to a life among savages. It will carry the refined woman with the precious tidings into the most unattractive homes. Love will bear all, believe all, hope all, endure all, if only it may win men for Christ."' missionary, in the words of Whittier :

"Give human nature reverence for the sake

Of One who bore it, making it divine
With the ineffable tenderness of God;

Then let the

Let common need, the brotherhood of prayer,

The heirship of an unknown destiny,
The unsolved mystery round about us, make
A man more precious than the gold of Ophir,
Sacred, inviolate, unto whom all things
Should minister, as outward types and signs
Of the eternal beauty which fulfills

The one great purpose of creation, Love,

The sole necessity of Earth and Heaven!"s

1 Luke II: 42-44.

9 Dr. E. P. Dunlap, Pamphlet: "How to Approach the Siamese with the Gospel."

"Among the Hills."

XV

THE MISSIONARY AND THE NATIVE CHURCH

T

HE missionary's perplexity in dealing with the natives is not ended when they are converted. New problems then emerge. In the pioneer days, these problems were comparatively easy; for the congregations were small and composed of humble people who were usually content to follow the lead of the missionary. Now, however, a numerous and powerful native Church is developing and the problems are becoming more difficult.

The first problem to appear in most fields is a financial one. The policy, formerly in vogue, of freely aiding the congregations gave the native Christians a motive for leaning upon the missionary, who thus became the channel of temporal as well as spiritual. blessings. The missionary of to-day pays less money to the native Church, partly because it is better able to help itself and partly because the principle of self-support is more generally recognized. This policy, while right and necessary, is not always agreeable to the native helper. As an employee of the mission, he had the power of that body behind him and was virtually independent of his people; now he is more subject to their caprice. His support, too, becomes more uncertain; for the natives are not such prompt paymasters as mission treasurers, nor can they always pay adequate salaries. There are exceptions in almost every land, especially in Japan where the Christians have generally come from the middle and upper, rather than the lower classes; yet the great body of Christians in Asia and Africa is now, as in New Testament times, very poor. The talented native almost always makes considerable financial sacrifice by remaining in the service of the Church. The Rev.

Boon Boon Itt of Siam, who received $600 a year as a preacher, refused a government position which paid $4,000. Almost every educated native could readily earn far more in commercial or political life than in the ministry. A Siamese Cabinet official says that his Government is ready to take all the young men that the mission boarding school at Bangkok can turn out. President Bergen writes from China: "The Chinese officials are offering extravagant salaries to our men, and it is not surprising that they are tempted by the offer of an income which would make them independent in a decade."

The question is often not one of financial inducements, but of actual living, and it becomes acute in the case of native ministers of the higher grade. An educated native cannot live in a mud hut, subsist on a handful of rice, and confine his clothing to a loin-cloth. Abroad as at home, such a man "wants foreign books and magazines. He likes to have things about his home decent and clean. He likes to be a social factor in his parish. He wants to be respectably clad, his wife and children too, and he finds that his pay will not half meet his expenses. He does not demand unreasonable salaries, but he does demand enough to keep up a respectable standing among his friends." 1

The first generations of the coolie class cannot be expected to produce many educated, capable Christian leaders. It is no reply to say that the apostles were unlearned men; for they were the product of centuries of Hebrew teaching in the Old Testament Scriptures. Nor is it just to urge that the best of our home ministers usually rise from the poorer classes; for they almost invariably come from Christian homes and are the results of generations of Christian influence. The "poor but honest" parents of England, Scotland and America are very different from the Asiatic peasants of age-long ignorance, superstition, poverty and oppression.

1 Mr. F. S. Brockman.

We of other lands cannot withhold our sympathies, for our own churches in Europe and America are finding increasing difficulty in securing an adequate ministerial supply in less trying circumstances. We are wont to explain the falling off in candidates by referring to the spirit of commercialism which is tempting young men to a business career. Why should we wonder that the same cause produces the same effect abroad?

The difficulty cannot be wholly removed by an increase in contributions from the home churches. Any advance that may be possible from that quarter will be more than counterbalanced by the expansion of the general work, the more expensive institutions that it necessitates and the rapid rise in the cost of living. Nor is it in money, anyway, to solve this problem. Nowhere in the world does Christian work bring as high financial rewards as a secular career. The typical missionary himself could earn more money if he went into some business or profession; while the qualities that fit a man for successful religious work in Europe and America are far more liberally rewarded in other professions. We cannot offer the native helper as much money to work for Christ as he could earn in other ways, and we would not even if we could. The attempt would simply attract men who are influenced by "the loaves and fishes," rather than by the spiritual motives of Christian service. The best men in Asia, as in Europe and America, cannot be hired. In spite of diminished salaries and increased cost of living, the native churches are producing a larger proportion of Christian workers than the home churches. Commenting upon the fact that the theological seminary conducted by the Japanese gets more students than the one conducted by the missionaries, though offering smaller financial inducements, Mr. D. A. Murray writes:

"There is a strong strain of heroism in the Japanese character. If they can feel that they are personally sacrificing and giving something to the cause of Christ, that appeals to them. But it is quite a different thing when you approach a young