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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.

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

man with the proposition that you will support him far more luxuriously than he has lived at home, and give him a splendid education for three or seven years, on condition that he will afterwards hire himself to work for you at less than half the salary that he could then get easily elsewhere. It is only a very limited number of young men that we would feel safe in making such a proposition to."

When we appeal to the avarice of an Oriental, we stimulate his most dangerous passion; but when we appeal to the best that is in him, we are more likely to get responses that are of permanent value, even though they may be less numerous. One native helper who is willing to make sacrifices for Christ in order that his countrymen may know the gospel is worth a hundred helpers who are simply working for money.

In this connection, it may be well to state that friends in the home-land should observe greater caution in responding to the appeals of the Orientals who are flocking to England and America in increasing numbers. We do not refer to those who have availed themselves of the facilities afforded by the mission schools in their native land and who have come here for the purpose of taking further studies with a view to supporting themselves afterwards. Such men should sometimes be encouraged. But if financial assistance is needed, it should be given as tuition is generally given to students in our home colleges, and never from missionary funds; nor should any one imagine that he is doing the missionary cause a service by aiding an Oriental to "return and preach the gospel to his own people." The opinion of boards and missionaries is emphatic, that, with very rare exceptions, chiefly among the Chinese and Japanese, Orientals that have been trained abroad are not so helpful as many in the home land imagine. The difficulties involved are often independent of the question of personal character. Experience has shown that native converts can be most economically and effectively trained for Christian work in their own country, in the institutions which

are now in operation in almost every mission field and which have been founded at considerable expense chiefly for this purpose. A sojourn in America usually develops tastes which render an Asiatic discontented with the financial support which the native Church or the board can give him, and makes him so conceited and overbearing in manner that he is heartily disliked by other native helpers. He thus becomes a source of trouble rather than of help.

The policy of encouraging these young men to come to America thwarts wise plans for higher education on the fields, creates irritation among the whole force of native agents, stimulates a worldly ambition, cuts off patriotism and race sympathy, and really cripples the influence which it is supposed to increase. Not infrequently, too, it leads to imposition upon the home churches and to the diversion of funds to personal uses which are supposed to go for missionary objects. Many Orientals have made a good living in this way, and some have been able to buy property and to loan money on bond and mortgage. It is always wise to refer all appeals for assistance to the board, which can judge better than any one in the churches whether a given native can be employed to advantage.

Another problem that is assuming large proportions grows out of the new consciousness of power that was noted in the preceding chapter. While some peoples are so lacking in independent vigour, or are so accustomed to be dominated by foreigners, that they look up to the missionary as a superior being; others, notably the Japanese, Chinese and East Indians, are of a more virile and haughty type. The attitude of a convert towards a missionary is naturally influenced by this racial spirit. He is still an Oriental, and he shares, to some extent at least, the irritation of proud and ancient races as they see the white man everywhere striving for the ascendancy. The growth of the native Church in numbers and power has developed within it a strong nationalistic feeling, a conviction that the natives should be independent of foreign control in

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