CHAPTER VI ESTIMATE OF THE RESULTS OF EVANGELICAL MISSIONS 295. WHEN Paul returned to Antioch from his first missionary journey, he gathered the congregation there and "rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles" (Acts xiv. 27). In this oldest missionary report the chief stress is manifestly laid on this, that it was God who gave the missionaries entrance and success; and it is profitable also, in view of the facts of present-day missionary history, to have regard to the Divine leadings and influences which are opening the doors, alike to the lands and to the hearts of the heathen. But at the same time the apostle in giving his report throws into prominence ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς μετ ̓ αὐτῶν. If we translate öra by "what," "all that," then we have simply the results of this first missionary journey recorded, without the addition of any verdict as to whether these results are to be reckoned as considerable or as not so. We may, however, also render the word by "how much," "how great things," and then the results are characterised as an important missionary success. In the foregoing survey of the evangelical mission field of to-day, the attempt has been made to set forth in outline soberly and objectively what has been accomplished up to this time. Looking now at the state of the facts, can we say that what has been done is much? 296. In face of a non-Christian humanity numbering still over 1080 millions,1 the numerical result of about 11 million 1 Religious statistics cannot, any more than missionary statistics, lay claim to absolute reliability. According to the relatively most certain returns, the 1587 millions of human beings who inhabit the earth to-day are divided according to religions as follows: Christians. Jews Roman Catholics Greek Catholics Protestants Mohammedans Heathen 530,000,000 230,000,000 115,000,000 185,000,000 heathen-Christians1 is not much, especially when one considers that at present the non-Christian humanity is being increased yearly through births by 1 millions more than this total, if the accepted rate of increase of 12 per 1000 per annum is accurate. The number of heathen-Christians, it is true, increases much more rapidly in proportion through baptisms of adults and children than the number of heathen through births, and it is therefore a knotty problem in mathematics to calculate how many hundred years are required for missions to reach even a yearly increase equal to the yearly overplus of births. For missions at the outset indeed resemble, as has been sarcastically said, "a tortoise running a race with a railwaytrain"; but it is not true that "this tortoise lags farther behind, the longer the race continues." The statistical results of missions increase in ascending, though not regularly ascending, progression, just like a capital sum to which compound interest is added. Not to speak of the sporadic missionary activity of the eighteenth century, the statistical result of which amounted to scarcely 70,000 heathen-Christians, it is only since the beginning of the nineteenth century that we have carried on missions with gradually increasing energy. After about 80 years-up to 1881-there were (according to the second edition of this Outline, in which the negro Christians were not included in the reckoning) 2,283,000 native Christians; the number at present is (without the North American negroes) 4,000,000. There has thus been in 18 years an increase of a million and three quarters, or at least of a million and a half, seeing that perhaps some hundred thousands of this increase are to be accounted for by the greater accuracy of the statistics. In any case the number of heathen-Christians is increasing at present at the rate of about 125,000 yearly, which is in proportion almost thrice the birth-rate within the heathen world. We have no desire to lose ourselves in trifling calculations as to how far, at this rate of progress, the tortoise will have gained on the railway-train in 100 years; this, however, is indubitable, that the missionary results of the future will at this rate of progress be greater than those of the past. Nevertheless, the present attainments of missions, measured by human standards, must still be described as small. This verdict cannot be essentially altered by a reference to the 3 [This phrase is the common German expression for Christians converted from non-Christian religions through modern missions. -ED.] 2 [Published in 1883.-ED.] 3 Such a foolish reckoning is one which was based on the supposition that in the year 1887 there were 60,000 baptisms of heathen, and this was regarded as the normal number, which should always remain the same. Ten years later, the baptisms of heathens in a year amounted to fully twice as many. results of apostolic missions. The statistical results of these we can only estimate in this way: 100 years after the beginning of the apostolic mission there were perhaps a third of a million of Christians; to-day, after 100 years of mission work, there are 11 millions. Is that not much? By such a mechanical comparison,-yes! In comparison with the missions of to-day, apostolic missions had immense advantages, which may be described in a word as a gratia præveniens, such as no later missionary period has shared; all this was favourable to their success. On the other hand, there stand behind the missions of to-day a vast Christendom, with its civilisation and its temporal power, and an army of workers in comparison with which the workers of the apostolic and subapostolic times seem a very small company; and this has to be considered in estimating the success of the latter. For a just comparison both sides must be taken into account, and then the balance of much success hardly inclines to the side of the missions of to-day. The earth is not yet full of the knowledge of the Lord; only a small beginning has been made, and in face of this a sober missionary judgment dare not shirk the question whether it does not partly lie with the workers, both at home and abroad, that by this time the result is not greater. It is a short-sighted prejudice always to lay the blame of this deficiency only on the still insufficient number of workers. Our home Christendom, indeed, has not yet by any means acted in accordance with the magnitude of its missionary task; 6000 missionaries for more than 1000 millions of non-Christians justify the old complaint, "The labourers are few"; but this does not justify us in refraining from examining whether there are not also defects in the quality of the workers, and errors in the methods of work, which have prevented the attainment of greater results. And now let us look at the other side. 297. To read Luke's report in Acts xiii. and xiv. of the first missionary journey, it does not seem as if much had been accomplished in it, although it lasted about four years. In four places congregations had come into existence amid much enmity and persecution, with presumably a very small number of members; and yet the apostles are glad and thankful that God had done so much with them. Why? Because a beginning had been made that was sure of development, and in the little harvest of first-fruits there lay the seed of the future. The apostles view the first results with the believing look of hope, and to this look they are great. To judge fairly of the missionary results of the present day, we must consider the 11 millions of heathen-Christians from these three points of view: (1) They are the beginning of a harvest, which becomes seed again; (2) the missions of to-day have to reckon with hindrances which greatly interfere with their operation; (3) the success of missions is far in excess of the statistical results. 298. As has been already remarked, the missions of to-day are still young. Of the great work of the Christianising of the world the words are true: "A thousand years are with the Lord as one day"; at a later time the other half of the text will apply, "and one day as a thousand years." The mission has its times of leisure and of haste. But the beginning has the characteristics of the mustard-seed and the nativity: the growth is slow and invisible. That is God's way of building. Except in the case of the negroes of the United States, and of some small regions which have been Christianised, the missions of to-day are still everywhere in the initial stages, and it is particularly the beginnings of missions which are hard. In truth, it is necessary to observe the work from somewhat near at hand in order to understand the mountains of difficulty which present themselves in the climatic conditions, the alien character of the people, the acquisition of the languages, and in the vain manner of life handed down from the fathers, which offers the most obstinate opposition to the new Christian order. Much more than heathen doctrine, it is heathen customs, especially customs consecrated by religion, which occasion the chief struggles with Christianity; it is only necessary to think of caste, ancestor-worship, polygamy, and circumcision. And conversely, the reaction of heathenism is against Christian ethics, the new moral order of life, far more than against Christian dogma. And a long time is needed for this reaction to lose its power. What has been done hitherto has been mainly in the way of preparation and foundationlaying, and the work of foundation-laying is slow. It is a great matter, however, that this work already extends over so large a part of the earth's surface. Just as an army has already gained a great victory in a war when it holds a position in the midst of the enemy's country, even though it has won no battle, so the missions of to-day have also gained a great victory in having penetrated so deeply into the midst of the non-Christian peoples, and in having gained a permanent foothold among them. But already also battles have been won, and if the 11 million heathen-Christians are but a small spoil in comparison with the still gigantic heathen-world, they are, nevertheless, the earnest that Jesus Christ can and shall win the victory over the alien religions. In our time, characterised as it is by haste and impatience, it is found to be very difficult to reconcile one's self to the slowness of missionary progress consequent on the nature of the work and the large number of hindrances. Even believing Christians suffer from this malady of the times, and because they do not succeed rapidly enough with Christianisation, they set before themselves as their missionary task a mere evangelisation, with which they hope to be able to speed quickly through the world. 299. The difficulties are to be found not only in the strange peoples, languages, religions, and customs, but in the many offensive hindrances put in the way of missionary success by the large number of nominal Christians scattered over the world. The immense world-wide traffic of to-day, with its commercial relations and occupation of colonial possessions, brings to almost all the mission fields ever increasing bands. of Western Christians, the majority of whom live a life which brings shame on Christianity. Had Paul to bring against the Jews of his time the accusation, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you"? Even so this accusation cries to heaven even to-day against a great number of Christians living among the heathen. And that not merely because of the many sins of particular individuals, but far more because of the inconsiderate self-seeking which characterises the whole commercial and political intercourse of the Christian West with the non-Christian world. While, on the one hand, trade and colonial politics are opening the world's doors, they are, on the other, closing the people's hearts to the Gospel; so that missions have liked best to seek their field of labour outside of the shadow of dispersed Christendom. When we take into account also the numerous direct temptations that proceed from these Christians, and their many malevolent attacks on missionaries and their work, we find ourselves confronted with an array of influences in opposition to Christian missions, in face of which we can only wonder that all the seed sown has not been utterly trodden under foot. And there are adversaries of another kind. Unfortunately, it is not an united Christendom that is engaged at present in the propagation of the Gospel. The multitude of the divisions of evangelical missions has a confusing tendency, even when the missionaries of the various societies do not compete with each other; but the intrusion of the Roman Mission, which is advancing ever more systematically and with increasing hostility, is destructive in its effect.1 Paul, indeed, had to complain of false brethren who crept into his work, but what 1 Warneck, Protestant. Beleuchtung, p. 322; Roman Intrusion and Prosely |