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BBRKOWIT2 SNVOUJPS CO., K. 0., MO.
KANSAS CITY, MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY
D DDD1 0301flt,2 &
The Making of Modern
Missions
By
STACY R. WARBURTON
Professor of Christian Missions
in Berkeley Baptist Divinity School
N B w Y o st ic . CHICAGO
Fleming EL Revell Company
LONDON* AND EDXNBU&QH
'JCbpySight, MCMXXXI, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 851 Cass Street
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 99 George Street
CONTENTS
t THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY . . 9
n. THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND ... S3
in. THE MISSIONARY METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 94
iv. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY IDEA IN
PROTESTANTISM 120
v, THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS * . ' . .ISO
VL THE AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS , 173
I
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY
HISTORY is not a very popular subject. " The dead
past," " the living present," these are familiar ex-
pressions. They imply that what happened in days
gone by belongs to the past, and has no relation to our own
day. We are now living in a new time, so we are told, with
conditions, problems and possibilities of its own, and our
business is only with these. The past has gone; we live in
the present.
But the past has not gone. It still lives in the present.
The present has the conditions, problems, possibilities that
it has, just because the past was such as it was. Missionary
history has immense significance for the present, for us who
live in these times, for the tasks we hope to solve. For it
has made us what we are, it has fashioned the times in which
we live, it has given us the tasks that are ours. We cannot
understand Christian missions today unless we know the
past. Arid if we are to interpret rightly the present situ-
ations and problems we must do so in the light of past con-
ditions and problems and of our understanding of them. On
the other hand, nothing that we read about in history be-
longs wholly to the past. The same movements continue
today, or there are similar movements to be seen; problems
solved then have risen from their graves to vex us again;
methods used then are, it may be, still to be used; and the
lives and work of great pioneers still influence us after many
centuries.
Missionary history has a value for us in its attractiveness
9
10 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
and interest, quite apart from its sober lessons for our work.
There are adventures that read like a novel, romances that
carry us off into a world of love and loyalty, heroes of great
deeds and leaders in great events, picturesque scenes of life
in strange lands and ages, mighty movements that have
changed the world, a panorama upon which you can look
almost anywhere and catch a thrill that will stir you to
the depths.
Both the significance and the interest of missionary his-
tory arise out of the fact that the past is a part of the pres-
ent, the present a part of the past. When we talk of history
we are not speaking simply of events. There is a difference
between chronicles and history. The famous Irish Annals,
such as the Annals of the Four Masters, or the Annals of
Ulster, were chronicles simply. They give a date and an
outstanding event of that year; another date and event; then
another; and so on. That is not history. History presents
the relation of events, the chain of cause and effect, the story
of century-long movements that perhaps reveal themselves
only occasionally in changing conditions and notable occur-
rences. It is this unbroken relation, this steady ongoing
movement, that gives significance to history to the history
of the missionary expansion of Christianity as well as to
general history.
So events and movements have causes back of them. Il-
lustrations in missionary history are innumerable. The
evangelizing of Ireland and the great missionary enterprise
that followed were the result of the capture and slavery of
Patrick, The Christianizing of most of Anglo-Saxon Eng-
land by the Celtic monks from Scotland came about through
Oswald's exile, his stay at lona, and his winning of the king-
dom after the death of his heathen brother* The meeting of
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 11
Zinzendorf and three Moravian companions with a West In-
dian Negro resulted in the wonderful Moravian missionary
movement. The adventure of exploration opened Canada to
the Jesuits, as later it led Livingstone to the heart of Africa.
South America is Roman Catholic today because the early
explorers were of that faith and took Roman Catholic mis-
sionaries with them. The past condition of Negroes in the
United States provided the soil out of which have grown
present problems and needs. The remarkable group of early
Christian leaders in Japan is one cause of the outstanding
Christian leadership and large influence of Christianity in
that land. So we might pile up the illustrations of the his-
torical causes back of familiar events.
To be sure, history is not quite as simple as this. In every
situation that I have mentioned there were many other
causes besides the single one given. In fact, there was a
whole group of causes, some direct and some indirect, some
immediate and some lying far back in time. It is impossible
to unravel the complex and often tangled skein of influences
and to know that we have them all. Many factors have
made missionary history. Some of them we shall note later.
The point to be emphasized is that there are these factors,
these causes. Missionary history, like all history, is an inti-
mate chain of cause and effect.
That means that the present is the source of the future.
Just as the present has developed out of the past, so the
future is to be what the present makes it. Take missionary
policies, for example. Concentration of work, as opposed to
diffusion, is a widely accepted policy* It has grown out of
experience that dates back as far as the Danish mission in
Tranquebar and Carey's work at Serampore. Education is
a phase of missionary policy that has been emphasized since
the days of Alexander Duff. The development of the Church
of the land, under native leadership, is nothing new; it has
12 THE, MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
been an objective since Patrick, and even since Paul, and in
modern Protestant missions has increasingly been brought to
the fore. These are policies that have come out of the past,
they are the gift of the past to us. Will future missionary
work, of American or British Christians, of Chinese or Afri-
cans, have these same policies or different ones? That de-
pends upon what policies we are developing for the future.
Our own plans are the basis on which those who follow us will
build. The mission fields of today have been given to us by the
conditions of the past. We are where we are, in most cases,
because our fathers went there. And future fields of work are
being determined by our choices and plans. Of this I have
more to say later. The methods we use, too, were mostly
given to us by our precedessors. Where those who follow us
will work will be largely where we direct their steps, and how
they work will be according to the tried methods we pass on
to them. Like ourselves, they will make some original
choices, but mostly we are determining these things for them,
Or take the native church, Just now the policies of the
earlier missionaries are being criticized* That is itself an
illustration of what I arn speaking about, the development
of the missionary enterprise of one age out of the missionary
enterprise of preceding ages. It is perfectly clear to us that
whatever difficulties or limitations we are meeting in the
making of a worthy Church in the lands where we are at
work are in considerable measure due to what earlier mis-
sionaries and native Christian leaders did; and it ought to
be just as clear that the successes we are meeting are in like
measure due to them and their wisdom. From this we can
sense to some degree the responsibility we have in the build-
ing of the Church of the future. Of course the same. reason*
ing applies to the Church at home, If our fathers had not
been so wide in their Christian sympathies, so persistent in
their loyal presentation of the missionary message, so states-
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 13
manlike in their organization of the Church for its world
task, we would not have the rich heritage we enjoy in the
present missionary outlook and endeavour of the Church.
And conversely, if they had balanced their efforts better,
had informed the children as well as they tried to inform the
women, and had taken a longer look ahead in their policies
of promotion, with more adequate attention to the education
of Church and Sunday school and comparatively less stress
upon the financial needs of just the current year, we would
be far better off today. You can apply the same reasoning
to our own relation to the future. Decidedly we are deter-
mining now what the Church of our children will be in its
missionary knowledge, its missionary attitudes, its mission-
ary activity. So too as to the missionary aim. Just now we
are discussing that very seriously, and some seem quite at
sea. We shall not be at sea if we look at It historically.
History has something very definite to teach us as to the
aim of missions. For what we are to aim at in our mission-
ary endeavour now or in the future is pretty well indicated
by the aim or aims that have been followed through the
centuries-long effort to establish the kingdom of Christ in
the world.
Look back or look forward, and you view a serious,
thought-provoking situation. Look backwards, and you see
the leaders of missionary enterprise entering their fields,
making their policies, adopting their methods, laying founda-
tions for indigenous Christianity, setting In motion forces
that will develop into one or another kind or form of Chris-
tian life, forces that have given us the conditions we meet
today, the problems, the successes, the failures. Look ahead,
and you see the Church of the future in many lands, the
peoples won or lost to Christ, the deep or the shallow under-
standing of Christ and His Gospel, the clearly grasped aim
of missions, true to their founder, or an aim diverted into
14 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
side issues and less important phases of human need. The
present is the heir of the past in the succession of events
that have made the story of missions and brought us to the
place we occupy. And the present is the father of the
future; what that future will be awaits our word and our act,
II
I have spoken of the significance of missionary history
from the point of view of its promise for the future. Let us
look more closely and see the factors that affect and deter-
mine the missionary enterprise. Elsewhere x I speak in de-
tail of certain major movements that may be thought of as
sources of modern missions. Exploration and colonization
form one of these, making known new lands and new peo-
ples, establishing centres for the expansion of life in the new
world, broadening the outlook of the people at home, and
stirring Christian leaders with zeal to adventure for Christ,
Trade is another factor to be noted; we see it enlarging the
acquaintance of Christians and others with non-Christian
peoples, developing the middle class in England to be the
bulwark of evangelical religion and of missionary interest,
transforming the political leadership in important mission
lands from Roman Catholic to Protestant, and providing
facilities for wide-ranging missionary transportation and
communication. A third factor is nationalism, sometimes
furnishing protection for missionaries and sometimes pre-
senting opposition and hindrance, arousing among Christians
at home interest in the far-away peoples and their evangel-
ization, stimulating the organization of missionary societies,
and actually providing missionary service on the part of gov-
ernments. Fourth is to be mentioned learning, freeing and
broadening the attitude of thinkers and the content of
1 See Chapter 5.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTOBY 15
knowledge, widening popular acquaintance with the world,
developing educated leaders among Christians, and ulti-
mately making the universities and schools centres of mis-
sionary interest and effort. Still another major factor among
the sources of modern missions is humanitarianlsm, atheistic
in its leadership yet influential among Christians, stimulat-
ing an unselfish attitude, broadening Christian interest, and
directing missions in aim and activity into every reach of
human need. Finally there is the evangelical movement, the
climax of these major factors, vitalizing all other factors,
bringing to the fore progressively the true basis of Christian
missions, providing stimulating examples of missionary en-
terprise, laying a foundation for modern Protestant missions
in the evangelical churches of England, and finally giving
birth to Carey and to modern missionary societies.
But there have been other factors besides these that have
affected the past. One is racial migration. The most impor-
tant movement in the western world since Christ was the
fifth century migrations of the Germanic and other peoples.
In almost every way that can be thought of, these migra-
tions affected the life of Europe and the future of the world.
From the point of view of Christian missionary expansion
they were of superlative importance. They completed the
disintegration and dismemberment of the Roman Empire
and gave the Roman Church its imperial aim and world
activity. They provided the occasion and the stimulus for
the rise of the nations of western Europe, with all that that
involved in the encouragement or discouragement of Chris-
tian missions, the variety of missionary message and activ-
ity, the establishment of a Protestant Europe and a base for
Protestant missions. They gave direction to the develop-
ment of Britain and Ireland, turning Christian Britain back
to paganism and necessitating its evangelization anew, and
by the isolating of Ireland from continental contacts, giving
16 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
that land the opportunity to develop its own distinctive
evangelical Christianity. They provided in Europe itself an
extensive mission field at the very doors of the Christian
Church, when the Moslem forces were closing Europe in and
were shutting it off from outside mission fields. These are
direct results of the fifth century migrations; indirect results
can be followed in political, social, intellectual and economic
developments. The Mongols in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries swept across Asia, almost wiping out the wide-
spread Christianity, and opening the way for the firm estab-
lishment of Islam throughout that part of the continent
formerly covered with Christian churches, the fixing of
Buddhism and other faiths in the life of eastern and northern
Asia, the settlement of Moslems in India with its resulting
influence upon the Christian history of that land, and the
retarding of the development of Russia and the weakening
of Christianity in that and neighbouring countries. The
coming of the Magyars at the end of the ninth century di-
vided the Slavic peoples of Europe like a wedge, so that
those of the south followed the Eastern Church while those
of the north turned toward Rome, Quite as significant in
more recent times has been the great movement of European
peoples across the Atlantic to America and the smaller move-
ments of other folk from other continents, giving to Ameri-
can Christianity distinctive qualities and setting before it
the opportunity and problems of its home mission task,
The crusades were another leading factor in the mission-
ary history of the past. They had some favorable effects.
They stimulated loyalty to the Christian Church and at least
to the externals of the Christian faith. They developed an
interest on the part of European peoples in the lands beyond
Europe and in the peoples of those lands. The contacts
which they made with the Moslem culture introduced new
elements into the culture and life of the west. In the minds
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 17
of a few, as perhaps Raymund Lull, they gave birth to the
thought of Christian missions to the Moslems. But there
were unfavourable effects as well. They aroused a hatred of
the Moor and the Jew. They gave to Moslems a radically
erroneous conception of the nature and true spirit of Chris-
tianity and fixed in the followers of the Prophet an unbend*
ing attitude of fierce opposition to the Christian faith* They
caused the Christian leaders of the west to think of relations
with Moslems in terms of military antagonism instead of
loving service, and thus helped to postpone to the long
future any missionary endeavours for them, as well as to dis-
courage Christian effort for other non-Christian peoples. By
fostering military activity they continued or increased the
state of disturbance and chaos in Europe, and prevented the
growth of strong and aggressive Christianity. The crusades
represented and embodied a great ideal; but while they in-
troduced some elements favourable to the expansion of Chris-
tianity their net result was decidedly unfavourable, and we
are still immensely handicapped by them in our approach to
the peoples of Moslem faith.
The changes of rulers and governments have been another
factor and a very considerable one affecting missionary
history in the past, I have pointed out how Oswald's be-
coming king of Northumbria after the death of his older
brother, who had renounced his Christian faith, opened the
way for the spreading of the Gospel throughout most of
England* The overthrow of the Tatar dynasty in China
sounded the death-knell for the Franciscan missions in that
land. Three centuries later the change in rulers from
Kanghsi to his successor Yungcheng, the one favourable to
the work of the Jesuits in China, the other opposed, brought
persecution and weakness to the widespread Christian enter-
prise. In Japan the death of the military dictator Nobunaga
turned the tide, which had been flowing with the mission-
18 THE MAKING OF MODEBN MISSIONS
aries, against them, and the persecutions of the Christians
followed, with the closing of the country to foreigners and to
Christianity. Such instances are numerous. The attitudes
of governments have been among the most influential factors
in missionary history. And there have been still other factors
which might be described, internal as compared with these
external ones, some social, some intellectual, some religious.
If we turn to consider the present missionary situation,
from the Protestant viewpoint, we can discern certain fac-
tors and forces that are now operating. Outstanding is of
course evangelical faith. Vital religious experience, now as
in the past, is a sine qua non of missionary interest and suc-
cess. The consecration of missionaries to their task, the faith-
fulness of the Christians of the land in the face of difficulties,
discouragements and persecutions, the spirit of fellowship
and love in the relations of native and foreign leaders, the
power of the witness given in word and life by countless con-
verts and missionaries, the bond uniting the nationals of
almost every land under the sun in the missionary task, the
gifts and prayers and loyal support by thousands of churches
in the sending countries, all these and other phases of the
Christian mission of today hark back to the living experi-
ence of Christ and the personal relation to Him. What suc-
cess there is in Christian missionary work is due to the faith
and the faithfulness of those who accept Christ's missionary
command as the authoritative word of a personal leader, liv-
ing and divine, and who believe that the world-embracing
enterprise in which He leads is worth whileworth money
and time and life itself. The faith of evangelical Christians
throughout the world is the dominant human factor in the
missionary movement today. And this is only the continu-
ation of a force, a movement, that has been in Protestant
missions from their beginning. In other words, this factor of
the past still continues its influence, and if we would appreci-
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTOEY 19
ate Its power and significance we must trace it through its
development and results in past time as In our own day.
Another factor influential in the work of twentieth cen-
tury missions and in the framing of their task is education.
How largely educational work bulks in the work of the
Church and the missions in the East, in Africa, and in Latin
America is familiar to all who know that work. Nearly
300,000 pupils in China alone were enrolled in Protestant
schools of all grades when the statistics of the World Mis-
sionary Atlas of 192 S were gathered. In India the number
was nearly 650,000, in Africa over 900,000; in all lands out-
side of the United States, Canada and Europe the total was
more than 2,400,000. Almost every type of school is repre-
sented. And the investment in buildings, current expense
and other items reaches into the millions. Evidently educa-
tion is thought of as a principal factor in the work today,
Of course it is Christian education, based on a Christian in-
terpretation of life and controlled by an evangelistic purpose
or hope. The rapidly growing insistence upon educated lead-
ership is a concrete illustration of the place education has in
the missionary plan and outlook. Educational plans in the
churches of the home lands are another illustration of the
same attitude. But all of this is due to the emphasis on
education in modern life everywhere. Increasingly through
the nineteenth century and into the twentieth the people of
Western lands and more recently those of the East have be-
come eager for knowledge. Schools have rapidly increased,
newspapers and periodicals and other educational means
have multiplied, individual horizons have widened, and
through educational growth we have come into a new world.
All of this has affected missionary policies, the quality and
attitude of churches native to mission lands, the intellectual
point of view of Christian leaders native and foreign, the in-
terpretation of the Scriptures and of the missionary objec-
20 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
tive, the attitude of the people to whom the message is
presented, the point of view of the Christians in the sending
countries, and a host of other phases and factors in the mis-
sionary situation. Yet education is not a new thing. The
intellectual factor has already been mentioned as one of the
major factors in the making of missions in the past. Clearly
the influence of learning In the missionary situation today is
only a projection of the past into our own time. The prob-
lems and questions that face us in relation to education are
outstanding and critical, and call for the fullest knowledge
and the clearest perspective that we can gain. How can we
know thoroughly the many aspects and phases of the educa-
tional movement if we disregard the past out of which it has
come? Here again the missionary history of the past has
something to teach us of today.
Trade is a third factor of large importance in the
present-day missionary movement. The business men in
non-Christian lands are giving a message in regard to Chris-
tianity just as truly as are the missionaries. For Christian-
ity is thought of as the religion of the West, and the words
and life of every Westerner are quite naturally taken as an
interpretation of that faith. So that the business man, the
manufacturer, the trader, may greatly help or greatly hinder
the presentation and acceptance of the Gospel. The Opium
Wars grew out of trade relations; but the treaties that closed
the wars contained a provision securing protection and privf-
leges for missionaries and their converts, which while advan**
tageous in that day has proved to be an embarrassment to
Christians now. The insistence of business interests for pro*
tection by their home governments is quite as much of an
embarrassment. On the other hand, trade is a favourable
factor of considerable importance, providing transportation,
communication, useful supplies and conveniences, as well as
financial help and occasional friendly advisors, Among the
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 21
people of mission lands the results of trade have been both
helpful and detrimental. The outlook has been broadened
and the economic condition of some has been improved,
while on the other hand the development of organized in-
dustry and the growth of the factory system have brought
grave problems. Trade is a most important factor in the
present-day missionary enterprise, but if we would get a full
understanding of its meaning and possibilities we must see it
in its development, we must trace its history. For trade, as
we have seen, has been one of the major factors influencing
the missionary movement in the past. And just as it pre-
pared the way for missions and at the same time was a hin-
drance, so now it is an aid and a detriment. For the highest
success in Christian missions we must Christianize business
and industry. And all this applies or will apply to the mis-
sions of the younger churches when these seriously under-
take the foreign mission task that awaits them.
A fourth factor in the making of the missionary enterprise
and the missionary situation today is government. This too
is simply an extension from the past. Governments in other
days have helped to make the colonies that have become
bases for the missionary work; they have protected the mis-
sionaries or perchance have persecuted them; they have even
established and conducted missions. All this was important
in the development of the Christian enterprise. But the atti-
tude of governments today is quite as important. The limi-
tations and regulations of Mexico, Turkey, China> Persia,
Portugal, France and Great Britain affecting education,
church life or evangelism in those countries or their depend-
encies affect in the most intense degree, unfavourably or
favourably, the progress of Christian life and work. The
treatment of Eastern nations by occidental governments, or
African peoples by European governments, has a most inti-
mate and serious result in the attitude of the people toward
22 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
the missionaries and their message. The preparation of
members of the Christian community for leadership in na-
tional affairs may be almost as important a part of the work
of a missionary as the organization of church life, and the
Christianizing of the home governments may be as influential
in the success of missions as the contribution of large funds
and the sending of many missionaries. To interpret and
evaluate government as a factor in Christian missions one
needs to discover the bases of governmental attitudes in the
past, and to see what those attitudes and their influence have
been, and thus learn how to gain the advantages and solve
the problems connected with this relationship. Here the past
can teach us much.
Still another factor today is travel. This seems to belong
exclusively to the present rather than to the past. Certainly
it has come to have a large place in its influence upon mis-
sions and upon the attitudes of people in the sending lands.
The tourist business carries occidentals to almost all the
lands of the East and even from the Cape to Cairo; while an
increasing stream of visitors from other countries flows into
and across Western lands. Some travellers are neutral in
their attitude toward Christianity, some are favourable, some
are opposed. The life and influence of Western travellers
greatly helps or sharply hinders the propagation of a true
Christianity in the lands they visit. What visitors from the
Orient see of occidentals sometimes influences them favour-
ably toward Christianity, and, sometimes, unfortunately, sets
them definitely against it; and the point of view of the peo-
ple of western lands regarding missionary work is affected in
very considerable measure, even among Christians, by what
is told them by oriental visitors. Travel began with the ad-
venturers and buccaneers of the early days; it is of a differ-
ent character today. Yet we have something to learn from
reading the story of the past.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTOBY 23
Thus we can understand fully the factors that enter into
the making of missionary conditions and the missionary en-
terprise in the twentieth century only by viewing these fac-
tors historically, studying them in their beginnings in earlier
centuries, tracing their development, and discovering their
effect upon the expansion of Christianity and the results and
influences that have issued from them. In nothing is the
connection with the past more clearly to be seen than in the
persistence of the dominating factors of past missionary his-
tory and their continuance in the missionary situation of
today. We shall be wise if we let history speak to us.
Ill
The significance of missionary history is strikingly seen
when we attempt to evaluate twentieth century missions in
the light of the conditions and causes that led to their begin-
nings in earlier days. The location of mission fields and sta-
tions, the methods that are employed, the lines taken by
Church development, and even the aims and objectives in
the enterprise, are all the outgrowth of the past, and have
been determined by situations and attitudes of days now
gone. Take note of the places which are centres of Chris-
tianity in missionary lands, like the ports. Yokohama,
Shanghai, Canton, Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay, all these are
well-developed bases of Christian expansion and centres of
church life. It is clear that an important reason for their
present state of development is that they were most readily
accessible when Christian missionaries first sought entrance.
Then their growing importance helped to stimulate the
strengthening of the work there. So also of the capitals and
other large cities. Meanwhile other centres and stations
have been opened farther inland and away from the larger
political and commercial cities, but as they have grown the
older centres have continued their development also, until
24 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
with their many-sided work, their growing administrative
activities and their enlarging educational institutions they
have by far the greatest proportion of the missionary force
and require the bulk of the available money. View the mis-
sionary map of almost any non-Christian land, read the re-
ports of societies and the letters of missionaries, and this
becomes clear. And what applies to cities applies to sections
and provinces. Missionary work is best developed in such
areas as east China, eastern and southern Japan, the Ganges
Valley, South Africa, southern Brazil. They were the parts
most accessible, or the governments were most favourable,
or religious and social conditions seemed most promising.
The order of prominence of mission fields goes back largely
to the conditions that led to the initiation of the work. Of
course other factors have influenced their development, but
fundamentally we are where we are and as we are principally
because of conditions or reasons determining the entrance of
Christianity in the first place.
It is interesting to note also the peoples among whom work
is particularly emphasized, as compared with some among
whom little is done. One thinks, for example, of the Karens
of Burma, as compared with the Burmans who outnumber
them nearly ten to one; the Laos of Siam as compared with
the dominant Siamese; the Copts of Egypt as compared with
the Moslems; the white peoples of South America as com-
pared with the Indians; the animists as compared with fol-
lowers of the organized religions; Hindus and Buddhists as
compared with Moslems. In the case of almost every group
among whom Christian effort is emphasized the missionaries
were drawn to the group because they were more responsive;
the work prospered among them, while little numerical suc-
cess could be reported among the others. It was assumed
that God was leading to the more responsive people, and
others were more or less neglected in proportion to their lack
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONAEY HISTORY 25
of interest in the message. It would be a very interesting
and profitable study to follow up in particular cases the cir-
cumstances and events that led to the comparative emphasis
upon this or that race or religious group. In general the
reasons will be found to be much as I have indicated.
We have our present fields, then, as to stations, areas and
peoples, principally because in early days we largely followed
the lines of least resistance. We could enter this field but
not that, we had better response from this people than from
that. So the work became set in the directions it has fol-
lowed. There were some exceptions but few. Doubtless
the very human desire to make a good showing and the feel-
ing that success was to be reckoned in terms of the numbers
who could be brought to accept Christ personally, as well as
the knowledge, perhaps, that the boards and churches at
home would provide money and reinforcements largely in
proportion to these reportable results, were strong elements
in the situation.
The work, well established, developed under the same in-
fluences that had dominated its beginnings. Accessibility
and responsiveness have been prime factors. Institutions
like schools and colleges, hospitals or presses have developed,
the work has expanded into numerous neighbouring areas,
with outstations and corresponding institutional develop-
ment, until a whole system of church and institutional life
has grown up around the centre, or in the field or section.
All of this development has required money, an increasing
amount of it. Meanwhile other fields have become acces-
sible, and the claims of peoples whose response is not prom-
ising press upon us. But the need of conserving the results
already obtained, and the evident importance of the place or
field and its work, naturally lead to continued emphasis on
these and effectively prevent any serious consideration of the
possibility of scaling down money appropriations and other
26 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
foreign resources designated to these leading centres. The
result is that there is no money available for new fields, and
no missionaries to be spared if there were money; nor has
the missionary interest of the churches of the land been
developed to provide in any serious way for the neglected
fields.
In general this is how the work came to be where and how
it is. Have conditions changed? Are there any new factors
in the situation? Do the same reasons that led to the choice
of present fields or the emphasis upon certain peoples or
groups hold good today? Are there any new claims that
could not be considered then that should now receive atten-
tion? It is a truism that we are living in a new age. But
every age is a new one, with new conditions and situations.
And we who are living in this age can see many things that
are new and that justify our raising the question whether we
should continue to follow In the footsteps of the past or
should change some of the fields we are stressing.
For example, the native Church has in many fields not
only come to self-consciousness but raised up worthy leaders.
Is it possible to transfer in a large way to the native Church
some of the old established work and thus release some of
the foreign workers for new fields? Of course that is the
ideal and objective of missions, and in some small way, here
and there, the objective is being reached. But in an un-
exampled degree the ability of the Church to care for its own
work has in recent times been revealed, and leaders have
arisen who have shown themselves capable of wise leader-
ship. Is this new element a sufficiently strong one to balance
the elements that have brought us to our present situation in
these fields? It is dangerous to be too bold: but it is tragic
to be too timid. One senses the possibility that we have
come to a time of crisis that perhaps we shall not have
again just such an opportunity as the present one to make
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 27
safely the broad advance Into new fields and among new
peoples that we have long hoped might become possible. It
may be that the new leadership among nationals has been
given to the Church by God to make this hope a reality.
New groups are accessible to a degree that constitutes a
new situation. This applies to the Moslem peoples, for
example. To be sure there are areas of the Moslem world
that are still closed to Christian effort, like Afghanistan and
central Arabia. And there are grave difficulties In other
parts, as in Turkey, in northwest China among followers of
the Prophet there, and In the little known lands of central
Asia. But against these limitations we can set the transfor-
mation in attitude that has come about among Moslems in
many countries, the broader world interest, the development
of modern education, the disintegration of characteristic
Moslem social customs by contact with European life, the
new spirit of toleration towards Christians, and even the
interest In the Christian teaching. These and other facts
challenge us with the question whether we are not called to
undertake in a large way missions to certain Moslem peo-
ples, by the same sort of leading that determined the begin-
ning and the strengthening of the work we now emphasize.
And if that necessitates our adjusting our present policies
and relationships, shall we not see a divine leading In this
as we saw it in the things that led us long ago into our
present fields and work?
There are new opportunities also in South America. We
have scarcely sensed the changes in the situation in that
great continent, though the Congresses at Montevideo and
Havana have opened the view to us. Here, as in not a few
other fields, missionary expansion must be a joint enterprise
of those native to the land and of the leaders from abroad,
with the direction increasingly native, though with propor-
tion of emphasis differing according to conditions. The
28 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
important consideration is that among intellectuals and
common people, among the Indian population, among the
people of the interior, there are new opportunities that call
for serious consideration of the question whether readjust-
ment of the missionary plans of many denominations may
not be called for to provide a response to the new conditions.
Certain other lands, presenting pioneer conditions, might be
thought of also, such as east central Asia and parts of Africa.
Some of the groups I have mentioned are quite as accessible
as those were among whom we began when our present fields
were determined, and the same considerations that led us
then may perhaps be factors now.
In line with what has just been said is a third circum-
stance with its accompanying question. Has the time come
to reach out from the centres into the rural districts? To
do this would require a readjustment and redistribution of
work and workers. For, as we have seen, the great bulk of
our work, whether led by foreigners or by native Christians,
centres in the principal cities. One can hardly doubt that
the pioneers were wise in entering the ports and other promi-
nent cities first. And they will remain, as in all lands, the
most influential centres. But the rural districts are terribly
under-provided with Christian opportunities. Here on the
one hand is the vast bulk of the population in almost every
country, while on the other hand Christian work is solidly
and permanently established in the central cities* To be
sure, the cities and their environs are not by any means
fully Christianized; leaders of Church and mission have
problems and opportunities galore pressing upon them there.
But how long shall we wait? When will the cities be fully
Christianized? The large cities in Western lands are still a
great mission field. We cannot wait until the work in these
centres is completed before we turn to the fields beyond,
any more than we can rightly refuse to carry on foreign mis-
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 29
sion work until our home lands are fully Christian. The
country population challenges us. We have come to see in
a new way something of its importance. Do not the con-
ditions lead us now, as in the initiation of the work, to weigh
needs and opportunities, and to make such changes and
adjustments as may be needed to meet the present situation?
One other phase of the question may be mentioned. There
is a widespread doubt as to the authority of Christianity,
the supremacy of its message, the right of Christian mis-
sions. It boldly asserts itself among those unfriendly to
Christianity, not only in non-Christian lands but in so-called
Christian lands as well. And it has made its way into the
thinking of Christians also, weakening their loyalty to the
missionary programme and all too frequently their Christian
faith. The question suggests itself whether we perhaps need
to offset this weakening of faith by a bold attack upon a new
and difficult situation, challenging in its newness and diffi-
culty. We have reached almost a stalemate in the mission-
ary situation, as I have already pointed out. Funds and
workers are apparently not available for new fields, the
native church has not gained the missionary vision or im-
pulse, the present work presses upon us with its unfulfilled
opportunities and its needs. It may be that nothing else
will shake us loose and release the resources which we clearly
possess except a bold, faith-challenging adventure into one
of the practically unoccupied fields. Such an adventure
would drive the Church and its members back on the reali-
ties of their faith and make them face clearly the uniqueness,
the authority, the power of the Christian Gospel, and it
would make evident in a new and large way to Christians of
the younger churches and to those not yet ready to accept
Christianity the reality of the Christian faith and the sin-
cerity and purpose of the followers of Christ,
From this third point of view, then, missionary history has
30 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
significance for present-day missions. It leads us to examine
the considerations that have brought us to the present situ-
ation and to our present fields of emphasis, and to inquire
whether those considerations still have equal value and
whether any new considerations have entered the situation.
This is a very practical application of history. We must
give attention to the study of the past if we are to face ade-
quately the possibilities and duties of the present.
IV
History has its significance also in regard to the methods
to be employed. For example, how shall we meet the new
conditions we are now facing? Consider the highly devel-
oped self-consciousness of the Church in many lands. As
already pointed out, that holds large opportunities for prog-
ress. It presents also problems, for the leaders of both
Church and mission. This self-consciousness is something
new, and some have been led to feel that the attitude of
missionaries toward the Church in the past has been repres-
sive. As a matter of fact there has been little to repress.
The national life in which the Church was growing up was
not characterized by independence and aggressiveness, or the
Church had not developed leaders, or the leaders had not
adequately learned from the missionaries or from direct con-
tact with Western Christianity the significance and task and
possibilities of the Church. So that the missionary was
compelled to take the position of oversight and direction
that some today are pleased to call paternalism. But now
the Church has come into its own, and is in many areas
ready and able to take the place of leadership. What does
that mean in the proper and helpful relation of Church and
mission, of native leader and missionary? What does it
mean, too, in the work of Christianizing the land? It would
be a serious misunderstanding to suppose that the Church in
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 31
almost any of the non-Christian lands is adequately fitted, in
resources, in attitude, in appreciation of its task and respon-
sibility, to carry forward its work unaided. By and large,
the Church on the mission field is very limited in its mis-
sionary outlook. It has been taught by the missionaries in
the past to think almost exclusively in terms of its local task
tremendously pressing, to be sure- and the development
of the nationalistic spirit has not helped to broaden its view.
How are we to meet this situation? Elements from the past
enter into it, the weakness of the Church in earlier days, the
disproportionate emphasis under the leadership of the mis-
sionaries, the lack of self-consciousness in national life, the
absence of a stimulating contact either with distant un-
touched fields or with the missionary Church of the West.
And elements new to the present are a part of the situation,
the rapid rise of nationalistic feeling in the Church as well
as out of it, the new complexity of need and relationship and
opportunity, the new attitude of complacency toward those
who have not been reached with the Gospel but who are
supposed to be " living up to the light they have," the chal-
lenging threat of secularism to forestall the success of Chris-
tianity, How shall this situation be met? How shall the
churches of East and West relate themselves to each other,
in view of the relations of history? How can the resources
of past experience and history become available for the new
churches of today? These and other similar questions arise
when we consider the bearing of the past upon the new
conditions in the development of the Church.
There is a whole list of questions that have come up in
relation to governments in our day that were never known
in the past. For example, the limitations put upon mission-
ary and Christian education, the influence of governmental
attitudes and actions in foreign countries upon the attitude
of those to.be reached with Christianity or those already
32 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
reached, the provisions of new treaties and other interna-
tional commitments that bear upon Christianity and mission-
ary expansion, and similar questions. History has important
things to contribute in the solution of the problems that are
suggested. Take the relation of education to government.
What led missionaries into educational work in early days?
We are carried back in this question to Comgall and Co-
lumba and Ansgar, not merely to Carey and Duff. What
developments have there been since their time, and how did
they come about? What were the results of education in
earlier days, in different periods and in different lands?
What relations have existed in the past between education
and government? What new conditions have appeared, and
what new aims may be considered? In all questions of
government the experience and precedents of the past are
most weighty and important.
How shall we meet the new development of secularism and
eclecticism? That carries us immediately back into the past
to discover what the attitude has been toward religion and
toward specific religions, what the aim of Christian missions
has been, what conditions similar to these of the present are
to be found in history, what developments of earlier and
more recent years have brought these movements to the
fore. To deal with these new religious attitudes as though
they had dropped upon us out of the heavens is to approach
them blindly and to deal only with surface conditions and
appearances, instead of getting below the surface into the
fundamental causes and forces and contributing conditions.
The fact that we are facing what is largely a new situation
does not release us from debt to the past; it only makes a
stronger demand upon us to ask history for its contribution
to the solution.
In the matter of method we may ask also, how shall we
use the new resources that are ours? The funds that we
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 33
have are greatly increased above those available a few years
ago; are we making wise use of the increase? To be sure
it seems as if we had no more than in the past, if as much.
But that only emphasizes the question whether we are wisely
using what we have. It costs more to do missionary and
other forms of Christian work now; does that mean that we
are to put proportionately more money into what we are
now doing, or does it call for a reappraisal of our present
plans and policies and perhaps a readjustment of work?
We may well stop to inquire of history how successes were
won, what part money played, how money was used. What
of the Irish missions, what of the Moravians, the Jesuits,
the early nineteenth century work, the ingatherings on the
Congo and among the outcastes of India? What were the
methods and what the financial outlay in the training of
leaders? What has been the contribution of the Church to
general education as compared with that of the state, and
what have been the results? And now what new situations
have arisen, what new factors are to be considered, what
new principles or old ones can be discovered as to the
proper use of money in missionary work?
We have new cultural resources. Literature plays a large
and increasing part in our life. Travel is becoming the most
common thing. The radio brings us messages from across
the seas. Art is applied to advertising. From airplanes we
write upon the sky. What shall we do with these and many
other new resources of culture and skill in the work of
spreading the Gospel? Shall we use the same methods as in
the past or adapt them to our new resources? This is pecu-
liarly an inventive age, and history has nothing just like it
from which we can learn. But perhaps the leaders of the
days gone by were sometimes slow in using the means that
offered. Call to mind the marvellous use of art on the part
of the Irish of the early mediaeval period, in decorated
34 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Scriptures such as the Book of Kells and in the metal work
in which they were so skilful. And remember the richly
adorned churches of Wilfrid in Northumbria, and the art
so widely used in Roman Catholic worship. A proper and
valuable inquiry would be what the results of such use were,
what gains, what losses, how far the experience of one period
was put to use in periods that followed. The Passion Play
makes an ineffaceable impression on those who witness it;
can drama be used as a missionary instrument more widely
and more effectively than it is now used? The stereopticon
has long been useful on the mission field; can the movie be
used as effectively? The radio uplifts us as well as amuses
us, and many are won to a new life through it or are deep-
ened in their knowledge of Christ or His Word; what possi-
bilities are there in this for the spread of Christian truth in
non-Christian lands? The past has its questions for us to
consider when we face the riches of our present culture.
How were the resources of the past used? How shall we use
those of today?
So we might face the question, how shall we organize most
effectively? What should be the organization of the Church
of the land a question certainly for the Christians of the
land to decide for themselves, but by all means to decide in
the light of the history of the Church in all lands. What of
co-operation? What of church union? What relation should
the mission and the mission work have to the Church in the
home land? Every one of these questions looks not only
forward into the future but back into the past. What has
been the history of the Church in the lands to which its mes-
sage has been carried? What was the policy of Patrick, of
Aidan, of Boniface, of Schwartz, of Zinzendorf, of Carey
and Judson and Duff and the leaders who have followed?
And what light have their experiences to throw upon the
questions facing the new churches today? What has been
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONAEY HISTORY 35
the experience of missionaries and mission churches in past
days in the matter of co-operation, what determining con-
ditions, what attitudes faced, what difficulties, what suc-
cesses? Trace the relation through the centuries between
the home church and the mission it has sent out what has
been that relation? what problems? what results in the
work? A study of past experiences should have a wealth
of suggestion for us as we face these vital questions in our
own day. In all these questions of policy and method that
we are meeting under new conditions missionary history can
be our teacher, leading us around the mistakes of the pio-
neers and helping us to duplicate their successes.
V
The story of missionary history is brilliantly illuminated
by the lives of the great missionary leaders. And these
great personalities provide a significance in that history that
makes the history indispensable for us in our day and life-
First of all, there is the inspiration they give us to emulate
their achievements and successes. Their evangelistic vic-
tories stir us with the wish that we could win many to the
kingdom as they won them. One thinks of Paul and the
companies of those whom he called into fellowship with
Christ and the Church. One calls to mind the tireless jour-
neys of Patrick as he travelled throughout Ireland preaching
the Gospel, and his success in winning such numbers to the
faith that Ireland became dominantly Christian. One re-
members Aidan and Cedd and Chad and Eata and other
Irish missionaries of northern and central England who
gathered so many followers to evangelical Christianity that
even through the darkest days and still to the present it has
kept its evangelical life. In modern times one recalls the
success of John Geddie in the New Hebrides, on whose
memorial on Aneityum it is said, " When he came there
36 THE MAKING OF MODEBN MISSIONS
was not a single Christian; when he left there was not a
single heathen." The names of William C. Burns and J.
Hudson Taylor come to us, flaming evangelists of China; of
John E. Clough of South India, leader in the mighty in-
gathering of the outcastes; of Paul the Apostle of the Congo,
of Kimura of Japan, of a host of other nationals from early
days to our own time. And we are reminded anew that
evangelism is the supreme work of the Church and of the
missionary. Are we giving it chief place in our missionary
plans? Does it have the emphasis in our personal life that
it had in the lives of these inspiring personalities of the past?
Missionary history brings us also the inspiration of per-
sonal attractiveness. There have been some marvellously
attractive men and women among the missionary leaders of
the past. Raymund Lull must have been such a one. He
was not perfect who is? But can you read The Book of
the Lover and the Beloved without feeling that it is a true
reflection of the author? The devotion with which he set
himself to years of spiritual development in preparation for
his missionary task, and the spirit in which he faced the
Moslem crowds on the shore of north Africa, testify to the
attractiveness of this bold pioneer of the thirteenth century.
Zinzendorf , founder of the Moravian missions, had the abil-
ity to attract others to himself. So had Fabricius, the
" extremely amiable " co-labourer of Schwartz in South In-
dia. Dr. Hepburn, one of the remarkable group who began
Protestant missions in Japan, seems to have been such a
one. Professor Moore says of him, " Few missionaries ever
gained in higher degree the esteem of all classes of people," *
And of David Livingstone it was said by one who travelled
widely among the Africans with whom he had lived, " Wher-
ever the footsteps of Livingstone are crossed in Africa, the
1 Moore, E. C,, The Spread of Christianity in the Modern
World, 152.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 37
fragrance of his memory seems to remain." 3 No one can
be a successful Christian worker, in this land or in any
other, who cannot attract others to himself. He must first
attract them to himself, that he may attract them to Christ.
Not a few who have been missionaries to their own people
could be added to the list I have given. We are stirred to
emulation as we see these attractive figures of the past.
These men had great powers of leadership, and a study of
their lives and the work they accomplished is a stimulus to
us to fulfil a large leadership in whatever position we occupy.
More especially it calls us to a reconsideration of the things
that may be expected to be achieved through missionary
leadership. Some of these outstanding missionary person-
alities were strong in organization. Columbanus of the
Irish Church and Boniface of the Roman Church were great
organizers, the one on the basis of monastic rule, the other
on that of ecclesiastical authority. It was due to the one
that Christianity became so deeply imbedded in the life of
the people of eastern France and western Germany and
Switzerland, to the other that Christian life became consoli-
dated and the Roman Church became dominant. The su-
periors and generals of the great missionary orders, notably
Loyola and others in the Society of Jesus, have been states-
men, though handicapped by their subservience to the
Roman authority and tradition. John E. Clough in South
India was a master in marshalling his outcaste preachers
and teachers in digging the Buckingham Canal at the time
of the great famine and in organizing the outcaste villages
under their direction. Many another might be mentioned
among missionary names, and now we are beginning to see
such leaders among those who are the products of missions
in the churches native to the land.
"Henry Dmmmoixd,
38 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Others have rendered an inestimable service in developing
the principles of missionary work and setting them clearly
before us who follow them. Of course Paul was the great
pioneer in this, and we are indebted to the suggestive studies
of Julius Richter, 4 Roland Allen 5 and others for serious
thought on his missionary principles. A study of the mis-
sionary policies worked out by Raymund Lull may still be
valuable, not only in carrying the Gospel to the Moslems
but in other directions as well. A modern illustration of
conspicuous leadership in developing missionary principles
is Carey with his emphasis upon training of native leaders,
the place of social ministry, the importance of the vernacular
Scriptures, the value of interdenominational fellowship, and
the central place of evangelism. And another is Duff, pio-
neer in the use of Christian higher education in missions,
originator of such modern plans as the missionary depart-
ment in the theological seminary, the missionary lectureship,
and the quarterly missionary review. When we stop to
consider the work of such pioneers as these, we are deeply
moved by the thought of our indebtedness to them for the
principles so valuable to us, and are stirred to give ourselves
to a new study of Christian principles in relation to the
missionary enterprise of today, and to test ourselves in the
light of the principles these leaders of the past worked out.
Above all, there is stimulus for us in the beauty and
strength of their lives. Beyond and above what they did is
what they were. James Gilmour of Mongolia had scarcely a
convert to show for his twenty-one years of service in the
tents of the Mongols, but we reckon him among the great
missionaries for what he himself was. The literary contri-
bution of Henry Martyn was of high value, but his short
life has moulded hundreds of men and women. So of David
4 Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus als Missionamche Sendschreiben,
* Missionary Methods, St, Paul* or Ounf
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 39
Brainerd. And so of scores of other leaders in the mission-
ary enterprise, foreign and native, Francis of Assisi, Ray-
mund Lull, unnamed Moravian missionaries, Samuel R.
Brown of Japan, Neesima of the same land, Bishop Patte-
son of Melanesia, Francois Coillard of the Zambesi country,
with Pandita Ramabai, Isabella Thoburn, and other devoted
women. Whatever else a missionary must do in his crowded
life, he cannot omit a continuous, life-long reading of the
lives of the great personalities of missionary history, for
the lessons he will learn, the suggestions he will gain, and
the stimulus he will receive for his own successful achieve-
ment. And these personalities have a significant contribu-
tion to every one who is related in any way to the missionary
enterprise, at home or abroad, in the mission or the native
Church, to all, indeed, who are striving for the best in their
Christian lives and their life's accomplishment.
It is important to inquire what the qualities were that
made these great. One notes first their adaptation to their
special task. How significant that William Carey should
have been the one to whom was committed the initiation,
in a large and permanent way, of the modern missionary
movement. His adventurous, pioneering spirit, stimulated
by the stories of his uncle and his reading of Captain Cook's
voyages, his training in humble employment and practical
industry, his early studies in botany and his later attention
to languages, his relation to the evangelical movement and
his zealous work as an evangelist, his interest from early
manhood in great humanitarian questions, his training in
what Culross calls " the enthusiasm of patience," 8 these
were some of the qualities that adapted him to the particular
task that was his. One notes the same providential adapta-
tion in others, like Martyn, Livingstone, Chalmers, Verbeck.
s Lije of William Carey, 6.
40 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Change some of these about and you can hardly think of
them as succeeding Chalmers and Martyn, for example, in
each other's fields. Another missionary might make herself
a ridiculous failure if she tried to act as Mary Slessor did.
Alexander Mackay seems to us to have been just the man
to hold the fort in Uganda when the success of Christianity
was in the balance, and James Hannington the one who pos-
sessed the exact qualities needed to open the road to Uganda
with his life. God makes no mistakes. And how evident
has been His leading is clear from the story of the choice
and designation of the great leaders, and many of lesser
fame as well. In the light of the evident importance of this
essential of success we may properly inquire whether we are
using sufficient care in the selection and especially the desig-
nation of the missionaries we send forth. Increasingly the
importance of such care will rest upon the churches of the
nationals in the choice of their own leaders and their foreign
associates.
You note, too, the pioneer spirit in these great leaders.
That was another quality contributing to their success.
They were ready to face the unknown, with confidence and
courage and the ability to win through. Some were pioneers
in the adventure into new lands. Livingstone's name occurs
to us at once. The spirit of the pioneer is in those words
of Ms, "Anywhere, provided it be forward." But there
was a great band of pioneers before him, making their way
into parts little known, or even discovering new lands for
Christian effort. The unnamed heroes of the Nestorian
missionary enterprise who fared across Asia and set the light
burning in city after city from Siberia to the Indian Ocean
and from Persia to the Pacific, the friars who sailed with
the conquistadores to the Americas or followed them to
blaze new trails in Paraguay and Guatemala and Califor-
nia, the Franciscan John of Monte Corvino in China, the
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 4.1
Jesuits Brebeuf and Marquette in Canada and Xavier and
Ricci in the Far East, the humble Moravians in a score of
lands from Labrador to West Africa, Egede in Greenland,
Judson in Burma, Whitman in Oregon, Williams in the
South Seas, we might go on with a long list of mighty
names. The world is larger because of their efforts, and
the Church of God has found new areas of work through
their ventures of faith. Who can measure our debt to them?
The missionary enterprise of today is built upon their
labours and adventures. We can see the work of the present
in its true perspective only as we visualize these pioneers
who opened to us the fields in which we work today.
Others were pioneers in forms and methods of Christian
expansion. A brilliant story of missionary devotion was
written into history on the pages that tell of Ireland and
Rome and the East, the story of the use of monasticism as
a missionary agency. Brendan and Columba and Colum-
banus and Martin and Boniface are great names, and there
are many others worthy to be named with them as monastic
missionary leaders. Lull taught the Christian world a new
way of showing to the Moslem the meaning of Christianity;
he did not get quite free from the hold the crusades had
upon the minds of Christian leaders, but he showed em-
phatically that the way of Christ was love, and that success
in winning the Moslems was possible only through love
and by revealing a God of love. The Jesuits were pioneers
in organization, planning missions on a world basis, the
imperial idea expressed in statesmanlike organizing and dis-
tributing of forces. Saravia and especially von Weltz
pioneered in the development of the missionary idea in Prot-
estantism, showing that Christianity is missionary in its
very nature. Carey was a pioneer in providing the Scrip-
tures in the vernacular as an essential of missionary work,
and in experimenting In the rich variety of missionary meth-
42 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
ods that we have mentioned. Others were pioneers in other
lines, in method and conception and expression. If we are
to understand the genius of missions we must take account
of its pioneer spirit. It has been the pioneers who have
carried the Church out to new endeavours and new victories
everywhere and always. And what has been true in the past
is still true. When we settle down to a following of the
beaten path, then the day of Christianity's expansion is
ended. When we are afraid to pioneer into new fields we
have lost the characteristic spirit in Christianity. The men
and women who inspire us in the story of Christian history
were bold and fearless, always pressing forward with a
divine discontent. With the emphasis today upon inten-
sive development in missions we are in danger of losing
the essential missionary spirit. Next to the deepening of
its spiritual life, the greatest need of the Church in mission
lands is a wide-ranging missionary interest and effort, and
for this the missionaries and the leaders of the Church must
be going back constantly to the pioneers for inspiration and
instruction. We shall never cease to be indebted to these
bold spirits of the past.
But if we would seek for the essential qualities in the
success of these outstanding personalities of earlier mis-
sionary history we shall find them in the realm of Christian
character. These men and women knew God. Their ex-
perience expressed itself in different ways, but the ines-
capable thing is that the dominant fact in their life was the
presence and fellowship of God. There have been plenty
of notable leaders in history who have had qualities adapt-
ing them admirably to their task; there have been explorers
and adventurers with the pioneer spirit. But what the mis-
sionaries of whom we are thinking had was something more:
they had peculiar qualities fitting them to their mission and
they were inspired by a restless pioneer spirit, but above all
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 43
they were men of God, men who lived in His continual
presence, men who were led by Him and were supported
always by the consciousness that they were at work for
Him. Like Paul they might say, " To me to live is Christ; "
" I can do all things through him that strengthened me."
They were men of faith. It is hard for us to carry our-
selves back into the conditions In which they lived and
worked, but the more we can appreciate those conditions
the more we shall marvel at their faith. It seems to us
often that great faith is needed today in the face of the
situations met by Christianity throughout the world. But
consider what these earlier missionary heralds confronted:
nations one hundred per cent pagan or Hindu or Moslem;
the Bible and Christian teachings wholly unknown to those
to whom they went; languages unwritten, highways un-
charted, precedents wholly lacking, meagre knowledge of
disease and less of sanitation, the Church not informed,
the missionaries themselves not trained, and anti-Christian
forces at work in society comparable to those that tend to
discourage us today. But they were not discouraged. They
had faith. And what they had we in our day and our situ-
ation must have. It is well for us again and again to go
back to these men of faith and try to catch their spirit,
which is the spirit of Christ.
So we might speak of other Christian qualities. They
had need of sympathy and friendliness and patience and
perseverance. And in large measure they had these. Rob-
inson says that " the secret of Livingstone's success, as that
of every other great missionary, was his capacity for sym-
pathy." 7 In one and another of tfye great personalities of
missionary history we note these high qualities. Not that
these were perfect men far from it, but in so far as they
'Robinson, C. H., History of Christian Missions, 320.
44 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
approached perfection in moral character they were suc-
cessful. That is the point: their supreme characteristic, so
far as concerns the qualities that gave them their high place
in missionary history, was Christian character. In nothing
do we need more to learn from them for missionary success
Christian success in our own day and work than in this.
These were men of God: everything else was secondary.
So in its wealth of great personalities missionary history
has a significance for present-day missions. There is a glow
of inspiration, a mine of information, an unending course of
instruction, a storehouse of wisdom, in their lives and
achievements. Their contribution to missionary expansion
was not ended with their lives. It still goes on in us as we
are inspired by them and learn from them.
VI
Missionary history has a significance for us in what it can
teach us as to aims and methods and personal qualities.
These we have noted. It has spiritual lessons, also. Some
of these lessons have appeared in our study of the person-
alities of the Christian movement in the past. But the
spiritual phase of missions is the fundamental one, and we
may well give special attention to it here. There are very
many lessons from missionary history touching the spiritual
side of our task. There is a lesson of faith. We have
already seen something of that in the great leaders of past
days, and have noted it as one of the qualities that led to
their success. Not only in the missionaries themselves, how-
ever, has faith been noteworthy, but in the whole Church in
its attitude toward the missionary movement. Put yourself
back in earlier days and try to appreciate the immeasurable
obstacles that the Church has faced in its missionary en-
deavour. Think of the size of the non-Christian world.
The little band of disciples to whom Christ committed the
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONAEY HISTORY 4<5
task of winning the world confronted the pagan Roman
Empire. That was an enterprise sufficient to challenge even
the resources of faith that we might suppose those had
gained who had been inspired by the personal presence of
the Master. But their task was relatively not greater than
that which the Church of the fifth and sixth centuries faced.
Beyond the Roman Empire the Christians of the first cen-
tury knew vaguely of lands and peoples, but these were not
in their thought nor within their reach. The fifth century
brought vividly to men's consciousness the great " barbar-
ian " world of central and northern Europe. And already
the Church of the East, as the Church of Syria and Persia
called itself, had discovered the vast multitudes lying to the
east and had started on its mighty missionary movement
across Asia. Here was a task equal to that which had faced
the Church at Pentecost, a task to test the faith of the
Church. But how heroically the Church met the challenge!
One is not more stirred by the faith of the missionary mes-
sengers themselves than by the faith of the home Church,
the Church of Persia, the Church of Rome, the Church of
Ireland, as they faced the impossible and made their plans
for world conquest, prepared the missionaries, sent them
forth into strategic places, and made the missionary enter-
prise their own, confident of success. The world to be won
was immense, the resources were small, the opposing forces
were powerful, precedents were lacking, and the future was
unknown. But God was all-powerful, Christ was the leader,
and the Church had faith.
Not less can be said of the Church's faith in other periods,
when the world had grown still larger, as in Carey's day
and the days that followed. But faith was needed not only
in the initiation of the enterprise, when the Church and its
representatives might set themselves with enthusiasm to the
undertaking of an immense task, but in the humdrum days
46 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
of slow development and meagre results. There have been
times of terrible persecution, like those of the Roman em-
perors of the first and second centuries, or that of the
Japanese of the early seventeenth century, or those of the
Armenians of the nineteenth century and our own. There
have been days of slow progress, like the first half-century
of Protestant Christianity in China, or the early years of
work in Burma. There have been fields that have sent home
meagre reports of ingatherings and baptisms, and there have
been peoples and classes and castes among whom the Gospel
has won no outstanding triumphs. But the Church has kept
on. It has faltered sometimes, but its faith in God and the
future has held it to its great missionary task. Faith has
been the steady, compelling force that through discouraging
conditions has yet kept the Church and its great spirits from
discouragement of heart and made it certain of success.
The history of missionary enterprise has this lesson to
teach us in our missionary efforts today the lesson of faith.
And as we follow the story through the years and the centu-
ries and discover how the faith of the pioneers was rewarded,
how the kingdom has grown and Christianity has expanded,
we can see the power of faith and sense the necessity of it.
Certainly we need faith today, faced with new conditions,
confronting an untrodden way through difficult and danger-
ous situations, and meeting the insidious influence of secu-
larism and doubt within Christianity itself. But a study of
past history will strengthen our faith. History has no
greater lesson for us than this. And we can mightily profit
from the faith of the past in our mission today.
Another spiritual lesson from missionary history is the
persistence of spiritual forces. I am thinking of some of
the great Christian movements that for a time were highly
successful and promised greatly, but were overcome by
other forces and were wiped out by heathenism or were
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 47
absorbed by a non-evangelical faith. One remembers the
Nestorlan missions, already mentioned. 8 They carried Chris-
tianity over most of Asia. Cosmos, the early traveller,
found Christians in 525 A. D. in Ceylon, the Ganges Valley,
Pegu, Cochin China, Tonking and Siam, By the eighth
century there were Christians and a metropolitan among
the Turks. In the eleventh century the Keraits, an impor-
tant people northwest of China, are found to be Christian.
In the thirteenth century Christianity was widespread in
Turkestan and there was an archbishop at Merv. The in-
scriptions in the Christian cemetery at Semirechensk, near
Lake Balkash in central Asia, tell of Christians from places
and peoples so many and so widespread that Professor
Chevolson, of Leningrad, thinks there were millions of dis-
ciples in central Asia. They were an eminent factor in the
life of China through many centuries. They were in Tibet
and Siberia, in Mongolia, and it may be in Japan. Twenty-
seven metropolitans are mentioned, in Samarkand and
Kashgar and Herat and other centres now without a single
Christian. The light of the Gospel shone in hundreds of
places from Persia to the Pacific and from Siberia to the
Indian Ocean. Then came Tamerlane and other terror-
bringing leaders, and wiped Christianity off the map of cen-
tral Asia, while in China and Japan compromise with
non-Christian faiths, the opposition of governments, Roman
Catholics and Moslems, and the separation from a base of
spiritual support at home, did their work of destruction, and
Christianity disappeared from view. Yet the spiritual force
lived on. One may not dogmatize when proof is wanting,
but missionaries are confident that the wonderful traditions
of the Karens and other hill people of Burma, about a flood,
and a book that told of God and was lost, and white mes-
8 See also Chapter 6.
e Stewart, Nestorian Hmionary Enterprise, passim.
48 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
sengers from the West who would some day bring back the
lost book, find their source in the Christianity that centu-
ries ago was so strong in southeastern Asia, and are a left-
over from that great movement. If this is true, the spiritual
force that expressed itself in the widespread Christian life
of the early centuries has not been lost, but has again re-
vealed itself in the marvellous turning of the Karens, the
Lahus and other peoples to Christianity. There are those,
too, who find in the Nestorian Christianity of China the
source of Shin Buddhism in Japan, with its parallels to
Christian teaching. Of this there is less certainty; we only
know that its founder brought Ms ideas from China, where
he had opportunities to meet Christian leaders and to learn
their faith. We may yet discover in the little known regions
of central Asia further living proofs of the persistence of
the Christianity of tKe great missionary period.
A different case was that of the Irish Church and its mis-
sionary enterprise. 10 Growing up in the fifth and sixth cen-
turies, when contact with Europe was infrequent and
influence from outside was little felt, it held in large measure
to the faith and practices of early centuries. It emphasized
simplicity of organization and worship when the Roman
Church was developing an elaborate ecclesiasticism and
formalism. When sacerdotalism was coming to the front
in the message of Roman missionaries it largely avoided this
and held loyally and insistently to the Scriptures and their
use. Great Irish leaders arose who established in many
parts of their land monasteries as schools of Christian train-
ing, from which Christianity was carried into almost every
corner of Ireland, and which drew students of the Bible
from over the seas. Evangelistic zeal early developed into
a wide-ranging missionary enthusiasm, and a stream of mis-
10 See Chapter 2.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 49
sionaries spread from the centres in the West across Scotland
and northern England and western Europe, winning innum-
erable converts to the new faith. But the Irish missionary
movement met the powerful Roman movement, and after
a strenuous struggle Rome won and the Irish movement dis-
appeared. I discuss elsewhere the causes; here we only
mention the fact. But was that the end? I think not. To
begin with, we have the fact that many of the centres of
Christian influence established by the Irish monks contin-
ued under the Romans and lasted on as bases of powerful
Christian effort. The Roman leaders added to what the
Irish had done, but the success of Roman effort later may
be traced back in large measure to the spirit and attitude of
early days and the impetus given the work by the Celtic
workers. Moreover, one wonders whether a permanent In-
fluence was not left in England, in the spirit of the people
and of their religion. It may be that the eagerness for
freedom and the independent attitude toward government
and toward religion that seem to have characterized the
English people had its origin in the teaching and influence
of the free and independent Celts. It may be, too, that the
evangelical spirit of the early Irish years impressed itself
permanently upon the English Church, and that though hid-
den through many centuries of outside ecclesiastical domi-
nation it came to light again in Reformation days and
became one of the influences that have set England on high
in Christian service to the world. One can only surmise.
Here is a fascinating subject for historical study. Perhaps
we may discover that just as in Japan the Christianity es-
tablished by Xavier and Fernandez and their followers per-
sisted through the centuries of seclusion when the Christian
faith was under the ban and was found still living when
Christian missionaries once more arrived, so the evangelical
faith of the Irish Church and its evangelists lived on, under
50 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
other forms or in the dark, to issue in a larger and finer
Christianity than if it had not been.
So again it may help us in our understanding of the
present, our attitudes toward present-day Christian life and
missionary principles, and our thought of the future, to look
back into the past and to study the missionary movement
of earlier days. Energy can be transformed but cannot be
lost. What we do today may seem to lose its effectiveness
tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow it will emerge in
different form to continue its blessing to the world.
A third spiritual lesson that we do well to learn from
missionary history is the greatness of truth. How many
divisions and groups there have been among the Christian
forces! Yet each has represented some separate phase of
Christian truth, and all have contributed to the spread of
Christian faith throughout the world. In that great mis-
sionary age from the fifth to the tenth centuries, there were
four principal missionary streams that spread across Europe
and Asia: the Irish, the Roman, the Eastern and the
Nestorian. Each represented a distinct ecclesiastical idea.
They had little to do with one another. Each thought the
others unorthodox, with a message incomplete or imperfect.
But God used them all. Every one was inspired by the same
missionary zeal, every one made its contribution to the
expansion of Christianity. The story of missionary history
is incomplete without them all. So it was in later times.
Denominational division has carried Christian missions forth
under many different organizations, but each is making its
contribution to the one common work. The glory of Prot-
estantism is its variety of expression. And the many groups
have each given their service in the one cause.
Organization is of course closely related to credal inter-
pretation. In missionary history emphasis has sometimes
been laid upon the one and sometimes upon the other. The
SIGNIFICANCE OF MISSIONARY HISTORY 51
Roman Church denounced the Nestorians as unorthodox,
and the Nestorians would have nothing to do with Rome.
But each had the imperial idea, and each gave its best in
the missionary expansion of Christianity. Roman Catholic
Jesuits and other pioneers of that Church gave an example
for all time of self-sacrificing Christian devotion, and Prot-
estants have built upon their foundation. Among Protestants
and in the Christian world in general there have been many
interpretations of the common faith, but each has taken a
place in the common missionary service and task. This is
by no means to say that what is believed is unimportant: it
is vitally important. The tragedy of missionary history is
the devotion of some of the notable missionaries to the car-
rying of a message that was based upon a "false interpreta-
tion of Christian truth. But the fact that God seems to
have used them all emphasizes the greatness of that truth.
It may mean also that in spite of the things we have perhaps
emphasized more, the common fundamentals are the power-
ful forces that have achieved the true and lasting results.
The greatness of Christian truth is seen also in the varied
methods in which missionaries have expressed the message.
Some have been evangelists, like the members of the China
Inland Mission, and have given little place to other forms
of work. Some have devoted themselves to social ministry,
as did many of the monastic groups of mediaeval days, in the
attempt to build a Christian society. Some have given their
effort to education, like the teaching orders of the Roman
missions and the great company of. Protestant teachers in
modern missions, to capture the mind for Christ and to
develop an intelligent Christian community with trained
leaders. The debate as to the validity of various methods
is not a new one. Many methods have been used and the
message has been given in many forms. And many others
will yet appear. A study of the past should make us realize
52 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
the wealth of variety that is possible in presenting our mes-
sage, and the broad reach of truth as it is expressed in Chris-
tian activity. If we read history with open mind, we shall
learn a lesson of vast importance as to the greatness of the
truth of Christ. In these days of emphasis upon consolida-
tion and union and standardization we shall see the place
that variety of organization has had in the spread of the
faith. In a day of doubt as to the Christian message on the
one hand, and of syncretism on the other, we shall appreciate
the importance of evaluating interpretations of Christianity
and of discovering the true interpretation. In the midst of
a bewildering diversity of form and method we shall see the
value of all and try to find the just place and the most effec-
tive use of each. And above all we shall realize that truth
is larger than all we have yet learned, and that we must still
study and learn and press on to the full knowledge of God's
truth, that we may make known that truth in all its fulness
to mankind.
II
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND
FOUR streams of Christian missions have been men-
tioned that flowed across Asia and Europe in the
early Middle Ages. One went out from the Church
of the East, or the Nestorian Church, and spread over most
of Asia in the marvellous way described elsewhere. 1 The
three others were in Europe. One represented the churches
of the eastern empire and flowed northward from Constanti-
nople through the Slavic lands of eastern Europe; a second
took its rise in Ireland and carried the Gospel into Scotland
and England and across western Europe; the third was the
Roman missionary enterprise, which ultimately absorbed in
large part the two other European streams. Many of us
are more or less familiar with the streams that flowed from
Constantinople and Rome, especially the latter; but for one
reason or another we do not know very much about the
great missionary enterprise of the Irish churches. This is
due principally to the fact that, as I have said, the Irish
missions were ultimately absorbed by the Roman Church,
and we have lost sight of the work of these Irish missionaries
because of the greater prominence of their Roman succes-
sors. But the story of the missionary pioneers of Ireland is
one of thrilling heroism and devotion, second to none that we
can read in all the history of the expansion of Christianity.
No one knows who the first Irish Christians were, or who
first preached Christianity in that island, or where the first
churches were. Possibly Christians from Wales or Britain
* See Chapter 6.
S3
54 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
carried the message to their fellow Celts. More likely the
Gospel came direct from the Continent. Traders from Gaul
and Spain were constantly visiting Ireland, and among these
were without doubt some Christians. Others who were not
traders but simply travellers came to that far-off island, and
as likely as not some of these were Christians. Of course
among these Christian traders or travellers there were those
who were eager to make converts to their faith, to make
Christ known to those who had not heard of Him. So we
can conjecture their telling the wonderful story, giving
Christianity its start in Ireland and so establishing the first
Christian churches. The first definite knowledge we have
of the existence of Irish Christianity is the statement of
Prosper of Aquitaine in his Chronicon under the year 43 1 :
" Palladius having been ordained by Pope Celestine as the
first bishop is sent to the Scots [i. e., Irish] believing in
Christ." But we know little of his work. Apparently he
landed at Wicklow, preached in that neighbourhood for
about a year, founded two or three churches, and then left
Ireland and died in Britain.
This brings us to the great Patrick. Many of the details
of Patrick's life are uncertain, but the chief facts are clear.
Born in Britain, probably in what is now southwestern Scot-
land, he was trained in a Christian home, his father being a
deacon and his grandfather a priest. When only sixteen
years old he was carried off by a marauding party of Irish
and for six years was a slave In Ireland, tending the swine
of his master. Until then he had given little thought to
religion, but in his misfortune he turned to God, and often
spent long hours at night in prayer in the woods and on the
mountain. That gave him his spiritual training for his
future task. He finally escaped and returned home by way
of the Continent. In response to a vision of the night, In
which he seemed to receive a letter containing " The Voice
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 55
of the Irish " and to hear some from their island beseeching
him to come and henceforth walk among them, he deter-
mined to return to the land of his captivity as a missionary.
Either then or before his return home after his escape he
spent some years in study in monasteries in Gaul, especially
in Auxerre with Germanus, and perhaps at the famous
Lerins. In 432, after Palladius had left Ireland and died,
Patrick was ordained bishop by Germanus and was sent
to Ireland. There for nearly thirty years he gave his life to
evangelization. He travelled from one end of the island to
the other, preaching the Gospel and establishing churches.
Many times he was in peril of his life. Hardships and diffi-
culties filled his days. But he was tireless in his missionary
zeal, and he inspired his companions and his converts with
his own enthusiasm, with the result that difficulties and
opposition were overcome and Christianity was firmly estab-
lished. It is hardly true to say, as has been said, that " he
found no Christians and left no heathen," but he did evan-
gelize Ireland, particularly the northern half. Churches
were founded wherever he went, so that thus centres of
evangelism were planted widely over the land. Patrick's
message was an evangelical one. He knew his Bible thor-
oughly and used it constantly. In his little Confession he
quotes from twenty-three books of the New Testament and
from ten of the Old. 2 He emphasized the central truths of
Christianity and was free from the sacerdotalism that after-
wards came to the front. He looked with respect upon the
Bishop of Rome, but there is no reliable evidence that he
ever visited Rome or that he was ever in any way related to
the Pope. He was simply an evangelical of the fifth cen-
tury, filled with love for Christ and fired with zeal for the
preaching of the Gospel. The Roman Catholic Church has
* White, N. J. D., St. Patrick His Writings and Life.
56 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
canonized him as a saint; but he belongs to the whole
Church, one of the great Christian pioneers.
During the greater part of the century following Patrick,
Christianity in Ireland suffered a spiritual decline. Of the
causes we have no certain knowledge, as materials are lack-
ing. We do not even know as much as we need to know
about Patrick's work. But it would seem that his work
may have been too superficial. He moved rapidly from
place to place, preaching the Gospel first to the chiefs and
then to others, and wherever there was a favourable response
erecting a church or establishing a monastery. Evidence of
long-continued residence in these centres is lacking, as is
that of thorough training of converts. To be sure, Patrick
made a practice of leaving one of his associates at each of
the churches he founded, and these carried on the work he
had begun. But we know nothing of their work, and we get
the impression of a rather constant itineration up and down
and across the island. As I have said, some strong Christian
centres were established during the thirty years of his resi-
dence in Ireland, and these formed the basis of the ecclesi-
astical organization which he formed, but perhaps too much
depended upon one man to make the results as solid and
permanent as was desirable. Then again, Patrick had to
approach first the king or chief in order to secure land for
a church and protection for the Christian disciples. Land
belonged not to individuals but to the tribe, and only the
chief could assume the right to alienate any of it. The prin-
ciple of cujus regio ejus religio also was universal, and the
word of the chief as to the religion of his people was almost
decisive. So that Patrick was closely tied up in his work to
the chiefs. If they were Christians or maintained their sym-
pathetic support, Christianity would have a strong influence;
if they were unfriendly or disinterested the influence would
be lessened, A third factor was the lack of strong leaders
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 57
after Patrick's death in 461.* Between that date and the
appearing of the great monastic leaders we hear of no strong
personalities, except Enda, on the island of Aranmore on
the west coast. Without them it was easy for paganism,
which still existed widely, to develop again. A further sig-
nificant reason for the weakening of Christianity may be
found in the lack of missionary outreach. In every age
spiritual vitality depends upon missionary interest and zeal,
and evidence is lacking of missionary work in the period
immediately following Patrick. The contrast with the situ-
ation in the succeeding monastic period is striking.
We can at best only surmise as to the reasons for the
decline of Christianity. It was brought back to new life and
zeal by the coming of monasticism from Britain. The
monastic movement had found its way from the East into
western Europe early in the fourth century, and thence into
Britain. Two great monasteries were those at Whithorn in
southwestern Scotland and Bangor in north Wales. From
these monasticism crossed into Ireland. Finnian went from
Ireland to Wales and spent some time at Bangor and other
monasteries, and then returned and founded his celebrated
monastery at Clonard, some thirty miles west of Dublin,
about the year 520. Twenty years or so later another
Finnian, who had studied at Whithorn, founded a monastery
at Moville, not far from modern Belfast. From these the
movement spread rapidly and widely. Famous institutions
arose at Clonmacnois, founded by Kieran in 541, at Derry,
founded by Colurnba in 546, at Clonfert, founded by Bren-
dan in 552, at Bangor, founded by Comgall in 558. Others
were established at Durrow, Kells, and Glendalough, on
many of the islands off the west coast, and elsewhere. Some
had only a few monks or nuns, others a large number, Fin-
3 Bury, White, et al., favour this date. Ussher and Todd pre-
ferred 493,
58 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
nian of Clonard is said to have had 3,000 monks in his mon-
astery at one time. The ecclesiastical system that Patrick
had established was no longer in evidence. The monastery
was now the dominating factor, the churches founded through
the work of the monks being under its care and direction.
As the monasteries rapidly grew in influence and impor-
tance, multitudes of young men came to them from all parts
of Ireland, being attracted by the opportunity they furnished
for cultivation of the spiritual life. The abbots were domi-
nating personalities, and exercised a powerful influence
upon the members of the monastic community. The Bible
was the centre of interest, and the abbot or prior gave him-
self to explaining or expounding its truths, especially the
Gospels and the Psalms. But other subjects were taught,
for the monasteries quickly took on the character of schools.
Grammar, rhetoric, geometry, music and Greek were in-
cluded in the curriculum, all of these being thought of as
helpful for the better understanding of the Scriptures and
development of the spiritual life for these were the objects
constantly in view. The attention to Greek was noteworthy,
for at this time the language was unknown elsewhere in
western Europe. As the fame of the monasteries in Ireland
spread, earnest young men came to them from over the sea,
from England and even from the Continent. From all of
this it can be seen what a powerful force the monasteries
were in the life of the Irish people, and how it was that
religion revived under their leadership.
With the broad outlook and interest which the studies
suggest, with the deep spiritual life and devout attitude
which was generated, and with the earnest, independent
study of the Scriptures, it is not surprising that the monastic
schools soon caught the missionary spirit, and became
schools of missionary recruiting and training* Young men
who came to them became fired with a missionary passion
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 59
and were eager to go out to preach the Gospel. Out from
the monasteries went the monks throughout all Ireland,
and the whole nation felt the influence. Then they looked
across the water, and soon began to " migrate for Christ."
It is significant that some of the abbots themselves under-
took missionary service abroad. Columba went to Scotland,
Cbmgall followed him, Brendan took his famous voyage,
Fursey went to England and later to France. A zeal for
winning the world for Christ gripped the minds and hearts
of the monks. Their severe training fitted them for hard-
ship and their constant emphasis upon the unseen world
beyond this life cultivated the far look. So the monastery
became the great agency for missionary advance, to such an
extent that it has been said that " there is no country which
in proportion to the extent of its population sent out so
many of its sons to serve as missionaries in other European
countries." 4 Indeed, as George Smith says, " For eight
hundred years Ireland was the missionary school of Chris-
tendom in a higher sense than Constantinople or Rome." B
The Irish missionary pioneers went first to what is now
Scotland. On a clear day one can look across the interven-
ing water, and see Scotland from the Irish shore, so the land
to which they went could not have been entirely unknown.
As a matter of fact, an Irish colony had been planted in
western Scotland early in the fifth century, in what is now
Argyllshire. When Columba and a few companions, in 563,
went out from their monastery and sailed over to their new
mission field it was the beginning of an adventure that was
to carry the missionaries of the Irish Church far afield. In-
deed, when Columba settled on the little island of lona, he
found a small group of missionaries who had already pre-
ceded him. They gave place to him, however, and he estab-
4 Robinson, C. BL, Conversion of Europe, 46.
B Short History of Christian Mmions, 62.
60 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
listed a monastery as the centre of his mission. From this
as a base he and his monks went forth into all the country
to the north and northeast, and among the people of the
many islands off the west coast, preaching the Christian faith
and winning large numbers to Christ and Christianity. A
visit was made to the Pictish king, Brude, whose capital
was near the present Inverness, and he is said to have ac-
cepted the new faith. Monasteries were founded in various
favourable centres, and these, all subject to Columba, be-
came in their turn bases of evangelism for the people round
about. Reinforcements came over from Ireland, and so
great a leader as Comgall, abbot of Bangor, visited the new
mission and rendered notable service.
At lona and all the monasteries established by the Irish,
the copying of the Scriptures was an outstanding occupation
of the monks. There was need for all the copies that could
be made, for as we have seen, the monastic schools were
centres of Bible study, and naturally the missionaries used
the Bible in their work as freely as they had used it as stu-
dents. So that a portion of time was regularly set apart
each day when the more advanced monks copied the Bible,
and the scriptorium of the monastery was a busy room. The
monks loved the Bible, and gave themselves with a skill that
has never been equalled to the embellishment and decoration
of the copies which they made. The place which the Bible
had in the missionary work of Columba and his successors
was notable, growing naturally out of the interest in Bible
study in the monasteries of Ireland.
From Scotland the Christian faith spread to England.
The British had become pretty well Christianized before the
invasions by the Saxons and other pirates from the Conti-
nent. An evidence is the presence of three British bishops
at the Council of Aries in 314. But the coming of the Sax-
ons, Angles and Jutes, who after raids of increasing fre-
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 61
quency definitely established themselves in the second half
of the fifth century, made it a heathen land again. The
Britons were enslaved, or absorbed, or driven back into the
west or the north of the island, or were destroyed. So that
England was again a field for missionary service.
In the year that Columba died 597 Augustine, sent from
Rome, landed in Kent and began once more the preaching of
the Christian Gospel. Neither he nor his immediate followers
had great success. Kent accepted Christianity, and a begin-
ning was made among the East Saxons and in Northumbria.
However, in neither of these last two kingdoms did Chris-
tianity gain much more of a place than the nominal accep-
tance of it by the ruler, and when a new king came into power
who was not a Christian the land became heathen again.
Oswald, Christian king of Northumbria, when he came to
the throne in 634, found England a heathen country except
for Kent, a few Christians in his own kingdom, and the
Britons on the Welsh border and in the northwest. That
England became Christian is due to his action in bringing
Irish missionaries in from lona. He had spent some time
at lona when in exile from Northumbria and had there been
baptized and received Christian training, so it was natural
that he should turn to that centre when he sought mission-
aries for his country, rather than to the Roman mission in
Kent, a foreign kingdom. After an inauspicious beginning
by a bishop named Corman, Aidan came from lona into
Northumbria, and established as the centre of his work a
monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, now called Holy
Island. Aidan was not alone in his work. King Oswald
himself engaged in missionary effort, heartily supporting his
bishop and not infrequently interpreting for Mm, since evi-
dently he knew but little of the Anglian tongue. Moreover,
as Bede tells us/ " many from the country of the Scots
& Hist. Eccles., iii, 3. *IV, p. 88.
62 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
began to come daily into Britain, and with great devotion
preached the word of faith." These and English youths
whom Aidan and his successors trained went during the suc-
ceeding decades throughout Northumbria, Mercia, Essex,
as well as more remote sections, and definitely won the land
for Christ and the Christian faith. It was not Augustine and
his companions, missionaries of Rome, who made England
Christian, though they began the work; but the Irish mis-
sionaries from lona or direct from Ireland. Montalembert,
the Roman Catholic author of The Monks of the West, says,
" What is distinctly visible is the influence of Celtic priests
and missionaries everywhere replacing, or seconding, the
Roman missionaries and reaching districts which their prede-
cessors had never been able to enter. The stream of the
divine Word thus extended itself from north to south, and
its slow but certain course reached in succession all the
people of the heptarchy. 3 ' 7 When English Christianity
came later into fellowship with Rome the Irish influence
still persisted, 8 and the direction originally given to English
life by the Irish missionaries became a permanent possession,
to give it the characteristics which it has since had.
Shortly after Columba began his missionary work in what
we know as Scotland others in the Irish monasteries began
to look farther. In 673 Columbanus with twelve compan-
ions bade their fellow-students good-bye and set sail for
the Continent. They were the first in a long succession of
missionaries from Ireland who were to make the Irish name
well known on the Continent, as they carried the Gospel into
the lands of western and central Europe. Outstanding
among them all was Columbanus. It would seem that he
and his Irish companions spent some time in Brittany on
landing on the Continent, quite natural in view of the Celtic
8 Meissner, J, L. G,, The Celtic Church in Britain After the
Si/nod of Whitby.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 63
people who inhabited that peninsula, especially the Britons
who had crossed over from their own land to escape the
Saxon invaders. Many of these were Christians, aiid
Columbanus strengthened their faith and preached to those
who had not accepted Christ. He took with him some of
the Breton young men as associates in his work in France.
His great centre of work was his monastery at Luxeuil in
eastern France. At least 105 monastic centres in eastern
and northern France grew out of his original foundation or
accepted the rule which he established in his monasteries.
Others besides Columbanus and his followers also went
to France with the Gospel. A notable name is that of Fur-
sey. He was an Irish monk who had evangelized western
Ireland from his monastery on Lough Corrib, then had gone
to England and done outstanding service in Christianizing
East Anglia, and finally moved on to France about the year
648. This was nearly sixty years after Columbanus began
his mission there, a fact which reminds us that the effort on
the part of the Irish Church to Christianize the people of
the Continent was a long-continued one. In fact, for two
centuries there was a steady stream of missionaries moving
across from Ireland to France and other continental coun-
tries. Fursey was one of these. He worked in northern
France, on the border of Belgium, and then at Lagny, near
Paris. His name is said to be met with in connection with
large numbers of shrines and other memorials, evidence of
the substantial character of his mission.
Again led by Columbanus the Irish missionary movement
spread into what is now Germany and Switzerland. In
Switzerland the work begun by Columbanus was continued
by his disciple and associate Gall, and we have a permanent
memorial of his mission in the city of St. Gall, built where
he had his monk's cell. The monastery which later suc-
ceeded this became one of the principal seats of learning on
64 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
the Continent, and a notable centre for students and mis-
sionaries from Ireland. Others after Gall and Columbanus
continued the work of preaching the Gospel in Switzerland
and Germany, laying foundations upon which in large
measure the Christian life of those lands was built. We
have evidence of the strength of their work and influence
in the bitter opposition of Boniface in the eighth century,
one of whose principal objectives was to drive out the Irish
missionaries and to bring their followers into the Roman fold.
Italy must also be mentioned, for on the slopes of the
Apennines Columbanus founded a third centre of missionary
endeavour, at Bobbio, afterwards famous for its great col-
lection of valuable manuscripts. Here effort went on for the
conversion of the pagans and the winning of the Arian
Lombards to the orthodox faith.
Thus in many parts of the countries of western and south-
ern Europe the places I have mentioned are only illustra-
tions the Irish missionary movement appeared. The story
quite justifies the estimate I have quoted as to the impor-
tance of the Irish in the Christianizing of Europe. The mis-
sionaries brought their own characteristic ideas and methods.
They held fast to their traditions, made their monasteries
centres of learning, stressed purity of life, insisted on inde-
pendence from authority whether of the civil government or
of Rome. Ultimately causes to which reference is made later
led to the absorption of their work by the Roman Church,
but they made an imperishable contribution to the Christian-
izing of both the British Isles and the continental lands,
I
There were giants in this missionary enterprise of the Irish
Christians. Some of them I have mentioned. They deserve
closer study. But only brief reference to a few can be made.
The first of the great names is Enda. He was the son of
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 65
the king of the Oriels in Ulster,, and on the death of his
father was chosen to succeed him. It is a graphic story how,
after leading his soldiers in triumphant conflicts with his
many enemies, the doughty warrior came one day to the
monastic house presided over by his sister, and there was
converted to Christ. Not long afterward he crossed over to
what is now Scotland and took a course of training at
Ninian's famous monastery of Candida Casa, or Whithorn,
and then spent a brief time in Rome. Coming back to his
native Ireland, he preached and founded churches in the
eastern part of the country, and finally secured from the
king of Cashel, who ruled the south and west, the grant of
the island of Inishmore, or Aranmore, largest of the Aran
Islands off the coast of Galway. Here he built monasteries,
and gathered a group of students around him, not many in
number but of choice quality. For here were trained such
great Christian leaders as Kieran of Clonmacnois, Brendan
of Clonfert, Finnian of Moville, and most notable of all,
Colutnba. No wonder that many other devoted youth
flocked to Enda's island monastery, and that the island
became known as Aran-na-naomh, "Aran of the Saints."
Enda was the herald of the dawn, for when he died, about
542, the new day had just broken in the Christian history of
Ireland after the night of reaction following Patrick's great
work. Many factors made him what he became, and one of
these was the influence of his sister. She had a strong
power over him from the day of his conversion; she directed
his training and study; it was she who went to Rome to
bring him back to Ireland and to his great work there.
Enda's influence was very wide. Of what quality it was,
and of what depth and breadth his character must have been,
is evident from the names of those who studied under his
leadership and inspired by him went out to be missionaries
for Christ in Ireland and beyond the seas.
66 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Finnian, the founder of the monastic school at Clonard in
central Ireland, was another of the early giants. As a youth,
he sought deeper insight into the truths of Scripture, and for
this purpose went to Wales and studied a long time under
St. David and other Welsh monastic teachers. On his return
to Ireland he founded Clonard. To this centre came great
throngs of young men three thousand, so we are told,
though that figure is open to suspicion, it is so common in
the story of other monasteries. But, at any rate, we have
Archbishop Ussher as authority for the statement that schol-
ars came out of Clonard " in as great numbers as Greeks of
old from the sides of the horse of Troy." Finnian was
known as the preceptor of " the twelve apostles of Ireland,"
from a group of outstanding Christian leaders who studied
with him, among whom were Columba, Comgall and Kieran
(Ciaran) of Clonmacnois. Of other work done by him we
know little, but to be the teacher of great evangelists and
missionaries like those mentioned is to have a place of emi-
nence in Irish Christian history that might well be envied.
In any list of the early Christian leaders of Ireland the
name of Comgall must appear. He was not a Scot, 10 like
Finnian, Columba and the other leaders of the Church, but
a Pict, from the colony established in northeastern Ireland
by that people. After his studies with Finnian of Clonard
and others he was ordained at Clonmacnois, and eagerly
planned to cross the seas to Britain, but was persuaded to
remain in Ireland. At Bangor, on Belfast Lough, he built
his monastery, and multitudes came to it from every quar-
ter. Among them was Columbanus, most famous of his dis-
ciples. The distinctive characteristic of the rule which he
Dictionary of Christian Biography, ii, 518.
10 In early centuries the Irish were known as Scots,,, and gave
their name to Scotland when the leader of their colonists there
became king of the country.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 67
established was Its severity, To the usual rule of prayer,
manual work and the reading of Scripture he added fasting.
So severe was the asceticism demanded by him that seven
monks are said to have died of cold and hunger, and he was
urged to relax the seventy of his rule, but he refused. It
was this intense and abnormal asceticism that Columbanus
carried to France. In spite of the severity of life in his
monastery it gained rather than lost in popularity, due
probably to the high standard of educational training given
there, and the aggressive spirit of Christian service that was
fostered, which naturally appealed to red-blooded young men.
He taught them to be " soldiers for Christ,' 7 and they followed
his teaching. And he set them an example as well, for he him-
self finally crossed the sea as a missionary, joining Columba
in Scotland for a time, founding a monastic centre on Tiree,
and accompanying Columba on his visit to Brude, king of the
Picts, his knowledge of the Pictish language and the fact that
he himself was a Pict proving valuable factors in winning
that ruler to the Christian faith. Comgall, like Columba, was
intense in feeling, but tremendously in earnest in his devo-
tion to his Master. He was a scholarly teacher, an aggressive
leader, a skilful administrator; and his monastic school at
Bangor, with the Welsh Bangor on the Dee, and Columba's
lona, were " the three great lights of Celtic Christianity." u
A host of other names crowd forward for attention. That
of Brigid (Bridget, Bride) surely deserves mention. At
least eight early biographies of her are known. She flour-
ished around the end of the fifth century, and her monastic
home in Kildare became the centre and head of a system of
widely-scattered monasteries for both men and women, who
were trained under her leadership for Christian service and
evangelism, She was a woman of great Christian devotion,
31 Dictionary of Christian Biography, i, 609.
68 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
and her charity and piety and love for the Scriptures made
her an outstanding figure in the days when the Irish Church
was gathering its strength for its great missionary task.
Brendan the Traveller, abbot of Clonfert, must also be
mentioned. He was one of the so-called " twelve apostles of
Ireland.," and founded churches not only in Ireland but in
Scotland and Britain as well. In search of the Land of
Promise he set sail on a long seven years' voyage, which
carried him far to the west and north, preaching the Gospel
and establishing many Christian centres. But the most
famous place connected with his name was his monastery
at Clonfert. A beautiful story is told of the heavenly music
he heard from the altar of his church, and how after hearing
it he never cared again for earthly music. He died in 57 7,
having not only trained many for evangelistic and mission-
ary service but by his travels having set an example of
pioneering which became a tradition in the Church.
Of the leaders in the conversion of Scotland and England,
Columba ranks first. I must say more of him. We wish
that we had more information about him and that the infor-
mation we do have were more trustworthy. There is an old
Irish life whose author we do not know, and there is a life
by Adamnan, the fifth successor of Columba as abbot of
lona. The latter is our chief authority. But, like all the
early lives of saints, it is really a legendary rather than a
biography, presenting what was supposed to be spiritually
helpful instead of a full and critical account of the life.
Thus Adamnan divided his life of Columba into three parts,
prophecies, miracles, and visions. But while important
things are missing we can get a fairly clear picture of the
great Irish missionary.
Columba was born in County Donegal, being descended on
both sides from royal families. He studied with Enda on
Inishmore, with Finman at Moville, and also with Finnian
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 69
of Clonard. After his ordination as a Christian minister he
spent fifteen years in Ireland, establishing churches and
founding monasteries in various parts of the country, among
the latter Derry and Durrow. He was forty-two years old
when he set out across the sea with twelve companions for
the land that could dimly be seen from the northeastern
Irish shore, and at lona began the wide-ranging work for the
Picts and Scots of which I have spoken above, and which he
carried on for thirty-four years until his death in 597.
Bede says " he converted the Pictish nation to the faith of
Christ by his preaching and example." 13 Evidently, then,
he was an effective preacher, even though occasionally he
had to speak through an interpreter. Doubtless Ms effec-
tiveness was due in not a little measure to his use of the
Bible. This may be noted as a characteristic of the man.
He loved the Word of God, and was copying the thirty-
fourth Psalm on the very last night of his life. The inten-
sity of his earnestness was another quality that made him a
good preacher. The doubtful story of the war against the
king to which he is said to have incited his followers, and In
expiation of which grave sin he was advised to exchange
Ireland for the mission field, and the later story of the battle
between his followers and those of Comgall, tell of a vehe-
mence of spirit that was apparently characteristic of him,
whatever may be the truth as to the contests themselves.
Bede, who looked with abhorrence upon the Irish Church
and its methods, but who nevertheless appreciated the
Christian character of many of its leaders, would have us
know that Columba's example was a potent factor in the
winning of the people to Christianity. Columba was sym-
pathetic. A beautiful story is told of how the lona monks,
returning wearied from the harvest field, for several days
M Hist Ecdes. y iii, 4,
?0 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
felt a strange influence that wondrously uplifted and glad-
dened them, and how Baithen, the senior monk, explained to
them that Columba, mindful of their toil, was thinking
anxiously about them and was grieving that they had so
long a day of work, and as he could not go in body to meet
them his spirit met their steps and consoled them and made
them glad. 18 Such was the attention he gave to prayer. All
the monks spent stated periods in prayer, but the story I
have just quoted shows that prayer was something vital with
Columba and not simply a formality. He was a lover of
nature, too. He could hardly have lived for a generation in
the midst of the scenery of the western islands and the
northern highlands without having their beauty sink deep
into his soul. As Bishop Lightfoot says, " Columba loved
men and he loved nature because in both he saw God," 3 *
He was a man of humility, like his Master bathing the feet
of His brethren. He set a constant example of industry, to
such an extent that " he could not pass the space even of a
single hour without applying himself either to prayer, or
reading, or writing, or else to some manual labour." as He
was not so serious and austere but that he could always have,
as Bede tells us, a pleasant, holy countenance. And Light-
foot sums up his character when he says that " his vision
embraced the great spiritual realities of life. He regarded
things with a spiritual eye." Here was the source of his
power. " He was gladdened in his inmost heart by the joy
of the Holy Spirit." It is no wonder that his followers for
centuries looked back to him as to an apostle of Christ.
Of Columba's followers none was more important than
Aidan, whose great work in the conversion of England I
have mentioned. He was of noble birth, the son of an Irish
M Adamnan, Life of Oolumba, i, 29.
34 Leader in the Northern Qhwrch, App,, 183,
18 Adamnua, op, cit* t i, 2nd pref
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 71
saint commemorated in the calendar, and was In the same
line as St. Brigid. He was not unworthy of his ancestors,
for when Corrnan reported to an assembly of the monks at
lona his unsuccessful mission to England, it is said that the
whole assembly recognized in Aidan the one who should go
to England in his place. Aidan 7 s success was due in part to
the hearty co-operation of the king, Oswald, but largely to
his own outstanding qualities. Bede, who " very much de-
tested " his teaching as to the time for observing Easter,
speaks with enthusiasm of those qualities, and tells us of his
assiduous devotion to the preaching of the Gospel. He went
throughout Northumbria (from the Firth of Forth to the
River Humber), usually accompanied by some of his fellow-
monks or by the king, preaching and talking with the people.
The monastery which he established on the island of Lindis-
farne became what we may think of as the first theological
seminary on English soil, for according to Irish custom it
was a centre of learning and of training for evangelism and
missionary service. Early in his ministry he selected twelve
youths " to be instructed in Christ," ae who were followed by
others either English or Irish. It was this wise custom of
his that made possible the wide spread of the message and
the Christianizing of the greater part of England by him
and his followers, Aidan held to the ascetic ideal which was
characteristic of the Irish monks. Bede speaks of his " dili-
gence in reading and watchings," 17 and even when he was
invited to eat with his friend the king he ate very sparingly
and hurried off to his nearby monastery to engage in the
reading of the Bible or in prayer. Several miracles are sup-
posed to have been wrought by his prayers, a tradition which
is a sufficient testimony to the reputation he bore as a pray-
erful man. Differing, perhaps, from his great master Co-
3 Bede, Hi$t> Ecdes., iii, 26. 17 Op. cit, iii, 17.
72 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
lumba, he was a man of irenic disposition, and in spite of his
asceticism was genial and friendly, a trait without which he
could not possibly have achieved such success in winning the
people to the new faith.
Aidan was generous. He had no possessions but his island
home, but he frequently received gifts of money from the
rich, and these he always distributed to the poor or used in
ransoming slaves. His broad spirit and his insight are seen
in the fact that he recognized the part which women could
play in the evangelization of the people, and in line with this
he consecrated the first woman Christian leader in northern
England, Heiu, who became the founder of the monastery of
Hartlepool; more significant was his inspiring Hilda to take
her great place in Christian education and leadership.
Bishop Lightfoot sums up Aidan's qualities in the statement
that " he had all the virtues of his Celtic race without any
of its faults," perhaps a rather exaggerated estimate. But
he supports his claim by a comparison of him with Columba,
as also with Augustine, Wilfrid and Cuthbert He was emi-
nent, he points out, in " the singular sweetness and breadth
and sympathy of his character." 18
Aidan the missionary, Oswald the king, and Hilda the edu-
cator were the three great leaders in the Christianizing of
northern and eastern England. With Hilda are to be men-
tioned some of those whom Aidan trained, such as Chad
(Ceadda), Cedd (Cedda), and Eata. Hilda was in the royal
line of Northumbria from King Edwin, and was baptized by
Paulinus, the early Roman bishop in that kingdom- After
Aidan began his work she came under his influence, and was
set apart to Christian service. She was abbess of Hartlepool
after Heiu, and in 657 founded her famous abbey at Whitby,
which until her death in 680 was a centre of Christian learn-
Leaders in the Northern Church, 44.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 73
ing and missionary evangelism. She was evidently a woman
of outstanding ability as an organizer and administrator.
Robinson says that " to her initiative was largely due the
development of the monasteries which became centres of
education in the north of England." * Whitby was a double
monastery, that is, It contained both men and women. A
notable figure among its monks was Caedmon, the father of
English poetry. At Whitby Hilda established a strict rule,
with rigid observance of the usual virtues of piety, chastity
and poverty, but emphasizing especially peace and love.
This suggests another side to her character quite as impor-
tant as her administrative ability. She was a woman of
"singular piety and grace, ... a pattern of life." * Bede
speaks of her industry and virtue. She held to the customs
of the Celtic mission, even after the decision of the Synod of
Whitby had turned the scales in favour of the Roman side,
and steadfastly opposed Wilfrid. It is clear from this and
from her close relation to Aidan that she held to the spiritual
ideals of the Irish. It is equally clear from her acceptance
of the Whitby decision that her emphasis upon peace and
love was no nominal thing. It is said that on the last night
of her life she gathered her nuns around her and exhorted
them to keep the peace among themselves and with others. 20
Kings and princes came to her for advice, and she trained
her pupils so well in the Scriptures that many of them be-
came leaders in the Church, five of them bishops. Hilda
well deserves the place she holds in the history of Chris-
tianity in England.
Among the young men whom Aidan trained in his monas-
tery on Lindisfarne were the two brothers Cedd and Chad.
They belonged to a remarkable Anglian family, for not only
did these two attain eminence in the Church but they had
* Conversion of Europe, 135. * Bede, Hist. Eccles., iv, 23.
74 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
two brothers * who were among the clergy, Caelin, chaplain
of King Oldilwald of Deira, and Cynibill. Cedd and Chad
both became bishops. Cedd was born in Northumbria, and
assisted Aidan in his missionary work in northern England,
as well as doubtless Finan who succeeded him. On the bap-
tism of Peada, son of the Mercian king Penda, Cedd was one
of four monks who went back with him to South Anglia,
which he ruled under his father. When Sigbert, king of
Essex, accepted Christianity and asked for Christian teach-
ers, Cedd was recalled by King Oswy of Northumbria and
sent with a companion to Essex. In Mercia he had won
many to the faith, especially among the nobles. In his new
field he was quite as successful, and was consecrated Bishop
of the East Saxons by Finan, There he worked for some
years, establishing many churches. In his home country of
Northumbria he also built a monastery, not far from Whitby
his brother Cynibill finishing it when he himself had to
return to Essex. At the Synod of Whitby, in 664, he took
the Irish side, true to his teachers Aidan and Finan. Bede
says that he was moderator of the synod. When the king's
decision went against the Irish, however, he accepted the
Roman custom as to the time for the observance of Easter,
the chief question at issue. Shortly after the meeting of the
synod he died of the plague at his monastery, Cedd seems
to have been a man of irenic spirit, though he could speak
straight out to the king when the latter's conduct appeared
to merit reproof. He followed the simple manner of life
characteristic of the Irish monks, going about on foot among
the cottages and castles in the country and preaching the
Gospel to the people in the towns. Bede says that in South
Anglia he " diligently preached the Word/ 1 and we can
believe that he did so in Essex and Northumbria.
m Howorth H. H., Golden Days of the Early English Church,
i, 141, See also ii, 50,
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 75
Chad, Cedd's brother, received the latter's monastery from
him by bequest upon his death. After King Oswy's son
Alchfrid had irregularly appointed Wilfrid to the bishopric
of York, Oswy appointed Chad Bishop of the Northumbrians
with his Seat at York, and he was ordained by Wini, Bishop
of the West Saxons, as there was no other bishop nearer.
He continued in York for only a brief period, for King Eg-
frid, who succeeded Oswy in Northumbria, removed him and
put Wilfrid in his place. Shortly, however, King Wulfhere
of Mercia appealed to Theodore at Canterbury to appoint a
bishop for his people, and Chad was appointed, fixing his
episcopal see at Lichfield, where he served all of central
England for seven years, until his death in 672. Until
Whitby, Chad had maintained the Irish position in regard to
the time of Easter, but he accepted the new situation, while
retaining otherwise the Irish customs and rule. Bede speaks
of " his many merits of continence, humility, teaching, pray-
ers, voluntary poverty, and other virtues." " It was per-
haps a questionable humility when he submitted to reconse-
cration as bishop by Theodore. But his fine spirit appears
in his words: "I never thought myself worthy of it, but
though unworthy, I submitted to undertake it in obedience
to authority " 2a referring to his original acceptance of the
office. When his last day came and he had gathered his
monks around him, he " admonished them to preserve the
virtues of love and peace among themselves and toward all
others." M Like his brother Cedd, he seems to have been of
sweet and peace-loving disposition, faithful in his ministry
according to the ideals of the Irish missionaries who had pre-
ceded him, and able in his administration of his great episco-
pal field. These two brothers are but eminent illustrations
of a large group of missionaries of the Irish Church in Eng-
n Hist. Mcdes., iv, 3. * Ibid., iv, 2. * Ibid., iv, 3.
76 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
land who were not foreigners like Aidan and Finan and
Colman, but were native Englishmen, or Anglians. To them,
with their great leaders from lona, was due the Christian-
izing of most of England.
We have seen how Christianity through the work of the
Irish missionaries spread not only to Scotland and England
but to the Continent. In this part of the story the greatest
name is Columbanus. Basically, Ms name is the same as
Columba's, and indeed he is not infrequently called Columba
in some of the codices of his life. He is worthy to rank with
the great Columba of lona, with whom he was in part a
contemporary. Columbanus was born in Leinster, and, ac-
cording to Jonas, his biographer, insidious temptations early
in life led him to turn his attention to the safety of religion,
and he gave himself with great exertion (" sweat " is the
expressive word used by Jonas) to the study of grammar,
rhetoric, geometry and the Scriptures. Going one day to
visit a woman who was a hermit, he was challenged by her to
do what she herself had been unable to do, cross the sea as a
pilgrim for Christ. He resolved to follow her counsel, but
his mother was overcome at the thought of his leaving her,
and threw herself on the floor across the doorway. His vision
called him, however, and he stepped across her prostrate
body to go " wherever the way of salvation should open a
road." K After a short time spent with a highly esteemed
Bible student and teacher Sinil he made his way to Bangor,
where the famous Comgall had his great monastic school.
He passed many years there, studying and teaching and
working, but the words of the old recluse could not be for-
gotten, and he sought ComgalFs approval of a foreign mis-
sion. He had become so indispensable to Comgall that it
was with difficulty that the abbot could bring himself to
6 Jonas, Life of Colwnbanw, i,
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 77
favour his going. But finally lie gave him Ms blessing, and
Columbanus, with twelve companions, like the Lord and His
twelve apostles, set sail one day from Ireland, never to
return.
We have in this story of his early life the key to his later
attitude and achievements. His unwavering devotion to
what lie believed to be right, his persistence in following his
purpose, his thoroughness and careful attention to detail, his
own scholarliness and the standard of learning which he set
before the Christian leaders of Gaul all of these had their
springs in the early experiences of his life and his years of
training under Comgall. From the latter he received the in-
tense ascetic tendencies which made his rule so rigorous and
so unnatural, and which led in the end to the substitution of
the more human Benedictine rule in many of his monasteries.
He was unflinching in his denunciation of evil wherever he
found it, and the picture of the Christian monk facing the
Prankish king and confronting him with his egregious sins is
a stirring and stimulating one. He showed the same fearless-
ness in Ms condemnation of the base paganism of the Ale-
manni of Switzerland. He was not always tactful, but could
never be charged with weakness. In line with the loose in-
dependence which characterized the Irish organization he
had no relations with the bishops of Gaul and did not recog-
nize their authority nor follow their customs. This led them
to call a synod and to summon him to come and explain him-
self. Nothing shows better the independence, tact and hu-
mility which were combined in him than his letter of reply:
" I pray you through our common Lord . \ .that I be per-
mitted to dwell, with your peace and charity, in these for-
ests, and to live beside the bones of my seventeen departed
brethren. And we will pray for you, as we have done until
now, and as we ought to do. Let Gaul receive together those
whom the kingdom of heaven will receive, if we are deserving
78 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
of good. . , , Let us not quarrel with one another. . . .
Pray for us, my fathers, even as we, humble as we are, pray
for you. Regard us not as strangers, for we are members
together of one body, . . . Therefore let us all rejoice in the
knowledge of the faith and the revelation of the Son of God
. , , in communion with Whom let us learn to love one an-
other and pray for one another. 77 *
He was quite as tactfully bold in writing to Pope Gregory
and Pope Boniface. On the other hand, he could use strong
terms in his condemnation of those who opposed his preach-
ing. He was constantly a Bible student, as appears not only
from his expositions of the Psalms, but also from Ms ser-
mons and epistles. He was tireless in preaching the Gospel,
possessing a magnetic personality that attracted large num-
bers to his monasteries, and able in addition to all his other
activities to organize and administer not one but three mon-
asteries and to direct his followers in their monastic work.
Through all his days he was the master missionary, looking
with longing toward the imreached peoples beyond, and even
at the sunset of his life pressing on to new fields with the
evangel that in his earliest years had won him, the evangel
that through all the decades of crowded endeavour had
dominated his thought and effort.
Among the companions of Columbanus was Gall, whom I
have mentioned. He was one of the original twelve who had
been at Bangor with Columbanus and with him had gone
forth on the mission to the Continent. He seems to have
been a good linguist, and was able to preach not only in
Latin but in the language of the Alemanni, thus making him-
self indispensable to his leader Columbanus, as the latter
could not speak to the people except through an interpreter.
He loved to fish, and enjoyed the woods and the hills. These
is. ii, in Migae, 'tax col. 264ff.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 79
human characteristics were invaluable, for when Columbamis
antagonized the people and found it necessary to leave the
country, Gall stayed behind and gained an increasing place
of influence among the inhabitants. Near the southern shore
of Lake Constance, where the city of St. Gall now stands, he
built his cell, and there he lived for many years, preaching to
the people and teaching them the things of God. He was
urged by the monks of Luxeuil, where he and his master had
lived and laboured so long, to become their abbot, but he re-
fused. The duke of the Alemanni would have appointed him
bishop of his people, but this honour also he declined. Gall
was not a man for the complexities of administration or the
distractions of official life. Rather his strength was to be
found in the less prominent but equally effective ministry of
the simple life, the quiet service of personal relationship, the
teaching of those who might come to his cell or the preaching
to those whom he could gather together here and there as he
travelled about the country. But his influence was wide-
spread, and " when he died, in 646, 27 the whole country in-
habited by the Alemanni had become Christian. 3 ' a
I have mentioned Fursey, an Irish missionary who worked
quite independently of Columbanus and his disciples, one of
a considerable company of such independent missionaries
who made their way to the Continent on their " pilgrimage
for Christ." Fursey was born in Munster of noble heritage in
the early part of the seventh century. He lived for a time in
the monastery of Meldan on Inchiquin in Lough Corrib.
Possibly he also built himself a monastery on that island.
Later he had an oratory near Cong, at the northern end of
the lake, a larger church near Headford, not far from the
eastern shore, and a monastery a short distance away. This
was all part of a wide ministry in Ireland. He had many
m Some authorities say 629.
m Robinson, Conversion of Europe, 317.
80 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
visions, doubtless brought on by his extreme ascetic life, and
these he used in his missionary journeys through Ireland and
later Scotland. They have been thought to be, in part at
least, the basis for those which Dante describes in his Divine
Comedy. About 633 he went to England and settled in East
Anglia. Here, near what is now Yarmouth, he founded a
monastery within the remains of an old Roman fort (Burg-
castle), He had come to England partly to escape the
crowds that came to him in Ireland, and in his English mon-
astery he sought quiet that " he might with more freedom
indulge his heavenly studies." * But he could not or would
not give up his practice of preaching the Gospel, and " by
the example of his virtue and the efficacy of his discourse he
converted the unbelievers to Christ, and confirmed in the
faith and love of Christ those who already believed." * De-
siring, however, a more complete withdrawal from the in-
fluences of the world, he turned over his monastery to his
brother Fullan, retired to a cell where Ultan, another brother,
lived, and there for a while devoted himself to prayer and
meditation. But after a time, as has been said, Ms mission-
ary eagerness called him back into active service and carried
him across the Channel to France. Peronne and Lagny are
the two places most noteworthy in his missionary story, but
they are only two among very many. After a life of wide-
ranging missionary service he died in France about 650,
Bede tells us that Fursey had from earliest days applied
himself to the reading of sacred books. Evidently he shared
the universal Irish eagerness for learning. His visions or
dreams were most fantastic, but they show that his thoughts
were fixed upon spiritual things and the life in the angelic
world. Yet he did not lose himself in other- worldliness; he
kept in touch with his fellowmen and their needs and gave
*Bede, Btot. Scct*$. t iii,
THE MISSIONARY PIONEEES OF IRELAND 81
himself without reserve to the preaching of the Gospel which
he knew they needed. It is a testimony to the dominant
missionary purpose, characteristic not only of Fursey but of
the Irish Christian leaders generally, that though he tried to
pull himself away from an active life and devote himself to
self-cultivation, he could not resist the pull in another direc-
tion and soon found himself back in missionary service again.
Like Chad, he was one of a family of brothers who were emi-
nent missionaries. Fullan, to whom he turned over his mon-
astery at Burgcastle, followed him to France and built a
monastery near Mons and finally is said to have won a mar-
tyr's crown. Ultan also went on a mission to France, and
became abbot of Fosse and later of Peronne.
These are but a few of the giants in the Irish missionary
enterprise. Other names we know, but the names of very
many are unknown to us. They formed a great company of
missionary pioneers, carrying the evangel through Ireland,
across to Scotland, down into England, and finally to the
Continent, leaving to us the inspiration of their noble char-
acter and devoted service, and contributing richly to the
Christian world enterprise of today in the wise methods and
enduring principles which we can learn from them for
our work,
II
What were the achievements of the Irish missions? And
what enduring results are to be chronicled? Most note-
worthy, of course, were the followers they gained in the
many lands where the missionaries were at work, the con-
verts they won to Christ, the Christian churches they estab-
lished. One cannot guess the number of those whom they
gained for the faith. That it was immense we can readily
see from the wide spread of their work, the long lists of
churches and monasteries which can be catalogued, the in-
82 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
fluential position held by many of their Christian centres and
many of their leaders, and the fact that through them Chris-
tianity came to dominate the peoples whom they evangelized.
Even if the results had not lasted beyond their own lives, the
work of the Irish missionaries would be counted successful in
high degree. To win individual Irishmen, or Picts, or Angli-
ans, or Franks to Christ the Saviour was their chief and pri-
mary aim. There could be none higher. And in this they
were outstanding. As evangelists, they won a place of emi-
nence for all time in Christian history, and through eternal
ages a great company whom no man can number will give
thanks to God for these who brought them the knowledge of
Christ and led them from darkness into the light,
The achievements of the Irish missionaries in personal
evangelism are thus plainly evident. That there were endur-
ing results in the national life may not be so clear at first
glance. But when we point out that through their labours
Christianity was permanently established in the lands where
they wrought, it will be seen that they set in motion forces
that continued after their missions had come to an end, and
that they introduced into the life of the peoples an ele-
ment that was to be abiding. On the one hand, there was
the Christian life and experience. To be sure, it was not a
Christianity of the highest quality, even during the lifetime
of the missionaries themselves, and through the centuries
since then there have been periods when the Christianity of
the people sank to a very low level. But it must be remem-
bered that they were laying foundations; Christianity was
only at its beginning with these peoples. And if the develop-
ment in future years was not all that one could wish well,
we ourselves have not yet developed our Christianity per-
fectly. The missionaries gave the best that they had and did
their work well, so well that Christianity never afterwards
was lost from the life of the people. The Irish mission-
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 83
ary movement itself disappeared. The Roman Church took
the place of the Irish, and later the Roman gave way to the
Protestant. " One soweth and another reapeth." But the
reaping would be impossible without the sowing, and those
who reap depend on those who sow. It is simple historical
fact that the sowing was done by the Irish missionaries, and
that they did their work so well that Christianity was perma-
nently settled in the lands which they evangelized, so that
the Christian movement has never been lost out of them.
Consider also the Christian Church, the organized embodi-
ment of the Christian life. There were striking differences
between the Irish Church and the Roman which succeeded
it. The Irish Church was independent of any central au-
thority; the Roman owned allegiance to the Pope. The Irish
Church was loosely organized, the several groups having
scarcely closer relation to one another than the groups of
Protestantism in later centuries or today; on the other hand,
the Roman was developing its hierarchy of priests, bishops
and archbishops, with all sections of the Church increasingly
integrated into a well-organized ecclesiastical body. The
Irish Church, though it had bishops, was organized around
the monastery, whose head was often simply a presbyter;
the Roman emphasized the bishop and rapidly developed the
diocesan plan. The differences between Irish and Roman
churches, however, were hardly greater than those between
the Church in general in the seventh century and that today.
The early Church was monastic, whatever its ecclesiastical
connection; today monks and nuns, even in the Catholic
churches, are of quite secondary importance and the Church
has a secular organization. The differences are especially
noteworthy when one considers the Protestant churches of
today. The free churches of England are certainly in a true
succession from the Irish Church of the seventh century, but
though the message is not essentially different the whole
84 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
method and dominating idea is worlds removed from the
method and idea of the earlier time. Through all these
changes, however, the Church has lasted on, building on the
foundation laid by the missionaries of the Irish Christian
faith. Forms have changed, authority has changed, ecclesi-
astical ideas have changed, yet the Church established by the
Irish pioneers still goes on, in lineal succession through the
centuries. One is handicapped in the study of the Irish
Church by the fact that the churches which have succeeded
it have been dominantly those of a closely organized episco-
pal order, and that the historians of the Irish Church have
been almost uniformly from the Anglican or Roman Church.
It would be breaking almost entirely new ground to consider
the Irish Church from the point of view of the free churches.
Perhaps we shall yet find in the organization and life of these
early churches more of value than we have believed. But
the great fact is that in whatever form the Church is to be
found in the lands where the Irish missionaries worked, the
Church of today is the successor of the Irish. The Church
established by them still exists, even though in other forms.
If the Irish missions achieved all this, it is fair to ask,
Why did they not continue? How is it that the Roman
Church succeeded in absorbing the Irish churches into its
system and ultimately wiping out the independent Irish
movement altogether? There is no entirely satisfactory
answer, but several causes are clear.
In the first place, there was the power of the Roman or-
ganization. Its strength was a gradual growth. In the sixth
century the Pope had little authority beyond the Alps, and
was scarcely thought of as more than the senior bishop, to be
honoured but by no means to be obeyed unless his injunc-
tions approved themselves to local authorities. In England
(except in Kent) and in Scotland and Ireland, the Church
was entirely autonomous until near the end of the seventh
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 85
century. With the appointment of Theodore as Archbishop
of Canterbury, however, papal authority gained recognition
in the British Isles, and at the same time increased papal
power developed on the Continent; lona became divided in
its allegiance and Lindisfarne yielded to Roman jurisdiction,
and the Frankish bishops loyally obeyed the behests of Boni-
face the Roman archbishop. The strength of the developing
hierarchy was put behind the effort to bring all Christians
into conformity to Rome, and the missionaries and other
leaders devoted themselves quite as assiduously to destroying
what they termed heresy as to winning to the Christian faith
those who were still pagan. Civil rulers were influenced in-
creasingly by ecclesiastical organization, just as today
" princes of the Church," and bishops in communions episco-
pally organized, secure attention from civil authorities which
it is often difficult for leaders of other churches to gain.
And the Roman Church used this advantage to the full. The
power of the organization was made possible largely by the
wise choice of strong men for places of large and outstanding
leadership. To mention only two such leaders though these
were the most important ones, to be sure Theodore in Eng-
land and Boniface in Germany personified the power of
Rome and its imperial policy, and to their ability was largely
due the weakening of the Irish influence and the absorption
of the Irish missions by Rome.
There was a steady development of sacerdotalism in the
Irish Church, and this was a second cause of the disappear-
ance of Church and missions into Rome. In the days of Pat-
rick there was very little of this. Irish Christianity was just
about what was to be found in Gaul, though somewhat more
simplified owing to its primitive character, and more inde-
pendent due to its isolation. Judged by twentieth century
standards, Patrick was a pretty heretical Catholic. His writ-
ings show him to have been evangelical rather than sacer-
86 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
dotal in his attitude. Christ and His Gospel were primary.
It is of these that he speaks. The efficacy of the Church and
Its ordinances is quite in the background. When the Irish
missionaries began to go forth in the sixth century, the evan-
gelical spirit was still to the fore, and the attitude and mes-
sage which was characteristic of them I have already
described in speaking of certain of the leaders. But even
thus early the sacerdotal element is to be seen, the growing
prominence of the mass, the emphasis upon other service
forms and priestly functions, the use of the sign of the cross,
etc. Though we must remember that practically all we know
of the Irish missionaries and their work comes to us through
followers of the Roman faith; how much of their own cus-
toms they read into the history of the Irish cause we do not
know. Doubtless the emphasis upon the miraculous which
was involved in this growing sacerdotal attitude was stimu-
lated by the widespread, apparently universal, belief in su-
pernatural powers, visions, miracles and wonders that seems
to us almost incredible. At any rate, sacerdotalism to some
extent developed in the Irish Church, until its message was
apparently not radically different from that of the Roman
Church. Naturally, that weakened its independence and
made it easier for Rome to gain the supremacy. Moreover,
its strength had rested upon an inner spiritual vitality rather
than upon ecclesiastical organization or miraculous claims,
and when the basis of its message shifted from the Scriptures
and personal religious experience to priestly power and cere-
monial efficacy it had nothing in organization or traditional
authority upon which it could fall back. So that its sacer-
dotal development was a weakness both in lessening the con-
trast to Rome and in removing the fundamental source of its
strength. Thus this development helped to bring about The
absorption, of both the Irish missions and the Irish Church
by Rome.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 87
A third cause of the weakening and disappearance of the
Irish Christianity was the unnatural monastic ideal which it
fostered. The monastic life, which made its way into west-
ern Europe in the early part of the fifth century through
John Cassian, who founded his monasteries at Marseilles,
and Honoratus, whose monastery at Lerins had such wide-
spread influence, 30 was the form in which the Christian ideal
was presented to the Irish and through them to those to
whom they carried it. In that rough age there was probably
an advantage in a community of Christian workers, provid-
ing as it did a safe refuge for them and their converts, a
place of training for evangelists and missionaries, and a pub-
lication house for the Christian Scriptures. Under such con-
ditions, with the added elements of primitive Christian
experience and limited knowledge, something might be said
for a monastic rule as a guide and help to right living and
worth-while Christian service. But when the arguments in
favour of the monastic ideal are all in, it remains true that it
represents a wholly and fundamentally unnatural life. The
exaltation of celibacy, though not given the place by the
Irish which it had among the Romans, yet was inevitable in
the system, and was an abandonment of the home and the
sacredness of the procreative function. The asceticism which
the monastic ideal fostered, in spite of the true emphasis
which it gave to the supremacy of the things of the spirit,
meant a despising of the body as evil and a scorning of the
joys of human intercourse as a hindrance to the real objec-
tives of life. And the Irish leaders and missionaries went to
the farthest extreme which human ingenuity could devise in
a cruel and unnatural austerity. Some of their followers re-
volted and some succumbed and died, but the ascetic prac-
tice held its grip upon the Irish system, with the inevitable
80 See Howorth, Golden Days of the Early English Church,
169f.
88 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
result that when the Benedictine rule was brought in by the
Roman missionaries its more human spirit and methods
easily made it the victor in the contest.
A fourth cause, really a phase of the monastic cause just
mentioned, was the exaltation of the monastery at the ex-
pense of the Church. I refer to this elsewhere. 81 So high a
place was given to the monastery that all Christian life and
the whole organization of that life revolved around the mon-
astery and its abbot, and the churches were quite secondary.
This prevented the development of the normal organization
of Christian life and activity which is represented by the
Church. The mistake of the Irish Christian movement was
not, as Anglican writers affirm, in disregarding the bishops
and neglecting the unified organization which the episcopal
system gave to the Roman communion and later to the
Anglican, but in disregarding the basic importance of the
Church itself and of its leaders, whether bishops or plain
ministers, and in substituting for these the monastery and
its autocratic head the abbot. Moreover, as we have seen,
Irish monasticism, with an austerity so alien to natural hu-
man relationships, ultimately gave way to the Roman sys-
tem. And when that occurred there was no basis on which
the Irish Christianity could rest or in which it could express
itself. This neglect of the Church was a fundamental weak-
ness. The Roman leaders were wiser. With them the
Church was primary and the monastery secondary.
Thus Irish Christianity disappeared as a distinct move-
ment, due partly to external causes and partly to causes
within itself. But its achievements were great during its own
lifetime. And through the centuries its influence has contin-
ued, with results that are uncounted and in great degree un-
seen, but which mark it as a permanently effective movement
a Chapter 3.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 89
in the history of Christianity. It had its weakness, but it
had its strength, and it still makes Its contribution to the
world and to us.
Ill
The Irish missionary movement, as I have just intimated,
is not simply a great fact of the past, unrelated to the pres-
ent. Like all history, it has significance for our own day,
and meaning for ourselves. Much of what this significance
is has already appeared in what has been said. But it will
be more clear if I sum it up here, bringing together the les-
sons that have been suggested and perhaps adding others.
First of all, there is the example given to us in the devotion
of these Irish missionaries to Christ and to His missionary
purpose. We have a never-failing resource for encourage-
ment in the missionaries of the past. There is no great name
and no great missionary movement that does not have in-
spiration for us. But of all the movements and all the
names there is none that has in it more inspiration than the
Irish missionary movement and its outstanding leaders.
These men had a task full large in the home land, but they
heard the call of unevangelized peoples across the water and
went forth with their message. They knew practically
nothing of missionary organization and they could look to
the Christians at home for no support, but they had a trust
in God that gave them a sense of security and made them
certain of success. Travel was very irregular and communi-
cation uncertain, and they could hear but seldom from those
they had left behind, but they had resources of encourage-
ment and strength far greater than they could find in human
friendship. It was like sailing uncharted seas for them to set
out on their missionary adventure, so new and so lacking in
precedent, but they had faith in the divine leadership.
Jonas, the biographer of Columbanus, again and again refers
90 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
to this. They met difficulties and oppositions and tempta-
tions, but never turned back. What Schlunk says of the
Moravian missionaries could be said of these early Irish
pioneers: a Men hard as steel, with iron will, ready to devote
everything to winning one soul to the Saviour." * Call the
roll of the leaders, Patrick, Columba, Aidan, Chad, Colum-
banus, Gall, Fursey, and it seems as though God had sifted
the nation to secure the choicest men for His great mission-
ary task as indeed He had. They were men of rare devo-
tion, in whom Christ had the supreme place and in whose
thought His missionary purpose was the dominating idea
" Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." Certainly one les-
son we all need all the time, especially as we contemplate our
missionary task, is the lesson of faithful devotion to Christ
and His world purpose, and in this the Irish missionaries
can be our teachers.
The Irish missionary movement has lessons for us also as
to the true ideal of the Christian life. I have spoken of the
distinctive expression of that ideal on the part of the Irish
Christian leaders in the extreme austerity of monasticism,
and have compared the Irish and Romans in the place given
to the Church as the organized expression of the Christian
ideal. The early Irish monasteries apparently started out on
a family basis. They were Christian settlements, each family
living by itself in a humble cottage, carrying on its life in
ordinary fashion, with work in the fields and the home, with
family intercourse, and normal friendly social life. Meals
were taken in a common central hall, and the church was the
centre of the settlement and of its life. Here the Christians
cultivated their spiritual life, and were able to protect them-
selves from pagans who might oppose the followers of the
new religion. One is reminded somewhat of John Eliot's
m Die WeUmission des Christentums, 111.
THE MISSIONARY PIONEEES OF IRELAND 91
Christian Indian villages. The later monastery, on the other
hand, excluded all natural joys and pleasures. Not only
was family life left outside, but friendly talk, hearty laugh-
ter, and play were strictly taboo, as belonging to the devil.
Of course this was in large measure the monastic ideal wher-
ever found, in the Roman Church as in the Irish; only the
Irish monks carried it to the furthest extreme. The basis of
this ideal was the exaltation of the spirit and the emphasis
upon the unseen world and the future life. This is strikingly
illustrated by the fact that it is not the birthday of the
saints that we note and celebrate, but the deathday or
rather their birthday into the life of the eternal world. After
all, here is a fine teaching for us. The great thing is not this
world that we see and that is so ever-present with us, but the
world unseen yet all around us and that after this present
life we shall enter into in a reality and a completeness that
we do not know now. The highest things in our life are the
things of the spirit, supremely important, with which nothing
else is to be compared in value. These are the essential and
fundamental aspects of the ideal fostered by the monks.
But they added non-essentials. And the lesson for us is to
distinguish between the essentials of the Christian ideal and
non-essential additions. With all the emphasis of which we
are capable we should preach the supreme importance of
spiritual things and the spiritual world, but we need to re-
member also that God has put us in a world of human rela-
tionships, a world of beauty and delight, and given us a body
and a physical life to use for His glory. A judicious distinc-
tion between essentials and non-essentials, with all possible
emphasis upon the former and proper use of the latter this
is what we are to learn from the story of the Irish monks.
A third point of significance for us in the Irish missionary
movement is the value and importance of education in the
missionary enterprise. It is not reading into the record what
92 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
is not there when we speak of the monasteries of the Irish as
monastic schools. Nor was it by accident that they became
such. It must be remembered that they were centres for the
cultivation of the spiritual life, and that the objective source
of that life was recognized to be the Bible. On this as a
basis the monasteries developed their method and activity.
First of all, a thorough understanding of the Scriptures was
desired, and that led to exposition of the Word, in which
some of the abbots became such outstanding figures. It was
this, also, together with the paucity of copies of the Bible,
that emphasized the memorizing of large portions of the
Psalms and Gospels. For the interpretation of the Scriptures
and the enrichment of the spiritual life recourse was also had
to more general studies, such as grammar, rhetoric, geom-
etry, Greek and music- Doubtless the eastern origin of the
monastic system had something to do with this breadth of
cultural interest ; though it must be remembered that it was
not culture for its own sake, but simply the aid that these
cultural studies might give in the interpretation of the Scrip-
tures and the development of personal Christian experience.
In other words, the monasteries were never schools in quite
the modern sense, but schools in Christian living. However,
the point is that they were schools. The significance of this
for us in our thought of the missionary enterprise is that
when the deep and genuine Christian experience of the young
men in the monasteries, and the broad interest represented
by their cultural studies and fostered by these studies, stirred
the members of the monastic communities to missionary zeal,
the monasteries quite naturally became training schools for
missions. Thus the Irish missionaries were trained men,
well educated, fitted for positions of large leadership, able to
establish schools of the prophets like those where they them-
selves were reared and to train those who should follow in
the good succession begun by them. Roman monks, to be
THE MISSIONARY PIONEERS OF IRELAND 93
sure, were also educated, though except in England, where
the Irish influence was strong and continuing not so
broadly or so thoroughly as the Irish* So notable was the
attention given to education among the Irish that at one time
in western Europe if a man knew Greek it was almost proof
positive that he was an Irishman. Among the distinctive
characteristics of the Irish missions none is more notable
than the emphasis given to education. That surely is an
example for us and a lesson we can most wisely learn and
never forget. There is no short cut to knowledge, and good-
ness and wisdom are not identical There is no stage in the
expanding missionary movement when thorough training of
both heart and mind are not needed. Missionaries to primi-
tive peoples need to be well educated quite as much as those
going to lands of higher culture. The names of Columba
and Aidan and Columbanus illustrate the importance and
value of education. They were great missionaries, not only
in their personality but in what they were able to achieve.
And their achievement was possible largely because of the
thoroughness and breadth of their training and education.
I need not mention again the importance of the evangelical
message of the Irish missionaries, nor can I here discuss the
value of their independence or of the church system which
they fostered. What has been said as to the significance of
the Irish movement is sufficient to make clear that it is not a
movement unrelated to the present, but that it has a rich
contribution to make to us in its inspiring personalities, in
the permanent forces which were released through it, and in
its practical teachings and warnings for missionary policies
and ideals in our own day. The more it is studied, the
greater will its contribution be found to be.
Ill
THE MISSIONARY METHODS OF THE MIDDLE
AGES
WE are likely to think of the world of the Middle
Ages as though it were a different world from ours.
Ten or twelve or fifteen centuries seem a long time.
Most of us live entirely in the present. Few of us see our
own times against the background of history. Methods of
Christian work today may be clear enough, but what have
the methods of a thousand years ago to do with our twen-
tieth century methods? That is not so evident. The diffi-
culty is that we do not realize how similar were the
conditions of missionary work in the early Middle Ages to
those of our own days. To be sure, civilization differed then,
and indeed was different in different lands, as is true today.
But non-Christian peoples had their own religions, with well-
established beliefs and customs of worship; there were relig-
ious leaders to be reckoned with; rulers had a close relation
to the religious life of the people and hence to the mission-
aries of a new faith. There was the same reaching after God,
the same ability to grasp spiritual ideas, the same prepara-
tion in religious life and moral need for the message of
Christianity, the same obstacles in human sin, social custom,
jealousy or privileged position, political expediency and sec-
tarian division, not to speak of the difficulties of travel, lan-
guage and adjustment to new conditions. Essentially the
conditions of missionary work were similar in the time of
Patrick and Columba and Boniface and Otto to those in the
94
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 95
time of Ziegenbalg and Carey and Ashmore or the men and
women of today. In some lands we are facing new condi-
tions, but in basic things we are not so far from the world of
the Middle Ages as we might unthinkingly suppose.
In all ages the question of missionary method is of high
importance. How shall the message be presented? What
should be the content of the message? Who should be chosen
as missionaries? How ought they to be trained? What have
the home churches to do with the missionaries and their
work? What agencies are to be employed? What shall be
the attitude to the faith of the people? What indeed are the
aims of missions? Thesfe are questions that belong to no one
period in the expansion of Christianity, but have to be asked
in every age in which our religion is preached. All of these
questions are of great importance today: they were as im-
portant a thousand or fifteen hundred years ago.
In this practical matter of missionary methods it is quite
possible for us to learn from the past. We need all the wis-
dom and suggestion we can get from any source. We are
accustomed to hold innumerable conferences to discover how
others do the work, and we try to gather as richly as possible
from correspondence and printed literature the ideas and
knowledge of other lands and other denominations. That is
to say, we are learning wisdom from those who are living and
working today. In a similar and not less effective way we
may learn from those who have lived and worked in the past,
those who have faced similar needs and problems and have
worked out their solutions for the times when they lived.
After all, the Gospel is the same in all ages, and human
need is the same among all peoples. Fundamental principles
are likely to be found permanent, even though methods of
applying them may change. It will pay us, then, to study the
methods of. other days, to see how we may wisely make appli-
cation of the principles to the needs and conditions of today.
96 THE MAKING OF MODEBN MISSIONS
In considering the work of the Middle Age missions the
missionaries are of first interest to us. Who were they and
how were they appointed? First of all, we notice that they
were volunteers. That holds true not only in the early
medieval period, but in the later centuries when the great
orders were the agencies of missionary work. Those who en-
tered the orders did so of their free will, and so were volun-
teers for missionary service. But in a more definite way the
missionaries of the earlier centuries were volunteers. They
were members of monastic communities or of monastic or-
ders, and were absolutely subject to the will of the superior
by their vow of obedience. But so far as foreign service was
concerned they seem to have made their own choice. The
old Irish life of Columba tells us that after he had sown
faith and religion in Ireland and multitudes had been bap-
tized by him and he had organized churches and monas-
teries, " the determination that he had determined from the
beginning of his life came into his mind, namely, to go on a
pilgrimage. He then meditated going across the sea to preach
the Word of God to the men of Scotland. He went there-
fore on the journey." Nothing is said as to his being set
apart to that mission by a higher authority. We disregard
the uncertain tradition of the battle of which he is said to
have been the occasion and the consequent advice of his
" soul-friend " to devote his life to missionary work. In any
case, that was only advice, not authoritative command, and
it is clear that he was a volunteer for the foreign work. To
be sure, Columba was not then under monastic authority,
but was engaged in establishing and conducting his own
monasteries. Columbanus, however, his contemporary, was
a monk of Bangor, under the headship of the great Comgall,
as we have seen. The idea of a foreign mission seems to
have come to him quite independently of any suggestion
from his abbot, indeed it was present with him from his
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 97
youth. When he asked permission to go forth as a mission-
ary, Comgall opposed it at first, but only because he thought
Columbanus was needed in Ireland. However, when Colum-
banus pressed the matter the abbot gave his approval. It
would seem that the consent of the abbot was necessary, but
the choice of the foreign work was wholly a voluntary affair
on the part of Columbanus. Aidan's mission to England was
suggested to him by the assembly to whom his unsuccessful
predecessor reported, and he voluntarily accepted the service.
Boniface made choice of the monastic life and studied and
served successively at Exeter and Nutescelle until his mind
became set upon missionary work abroad, and then appar-
ently of his own free will he sailed with his companions to
the Continent; and his appeals for reinforcements were di-
rected to the clergy and others as well as to the abbots and
bishops; the numbers who responded were volunteers. Very
largely, it would seem, 1 the principle of voluntary enlistment
prevailed. It was a great host of volunteers who through the
sixth, seventh and eighth centuries streamed forth from their
monasteries as foreign missionaries.
As to the call to missionary work, it came in various ways,
as in our own day. Patrick was summoned by a vision or
dream. " I saw in the night visions/ 7 he says, " a man whose
name was Victoricus coming as it were from Ireland with
countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read
the beginning of the letter, which was entitled, c The Voice
of the Irish;' and while I was reading aloud the beginning of
the letter, I thought that at that very moment I heard the
voice of them who lived beside the Wood of Foclut which is
nigh unto the western sea. And thus they cried, as with one
mouth, 'We beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk
1 Augustine, of course, with other missionaries from Rome, were
exceptions. They were commissioned by direct papal authority.
There was no such dominant authority in England and Ireland,
98 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
among us once more.' " 3 And another night he heard a
voice saying, " He Who laid down His life for thee, He it is
Who speaketh in thee." Again a third time he dreamed that
one was praying as it were within him, " mightily with
groanings," and when he awoke he remembered the words of
Paul, " The Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered." His dreams centred
around his experience as a slave in Ireland, and were used
by God to call him back to the land of his captivity as a
missionary.
Columbanus was called to Christian service through the
words of the woman recluse whom he visited as a youth, and
Ms desire for foreign work was stimulated by thinking on
the call of God to Abraham, which seemed to be a call to
Mm. Aidan's call came in the recognition by his fellow
monks that he himself fulfilled the conditions and possessed
the qualifications that he urged were necessary for success in
a mission to England. Willibrord heard the call to Christian-
ize the Frisians in the appeal of Egbert, in whose monastery
in Ireland he was studying, urging that he take tip the work
which he himself had desired to undertake but had been
prevented from doing. Boniface heard the stories of Willi-
brord's life and work and was stirred to follow in his foot-
steps. Thus through the experiences of their lives, through
dreams and visions, through the appeals of others, through
the stories of missionaries already on the mission field, God
called them to the service abroad.
It is instructive to note the qualifications which these mis-
sionaries of early days seem to have had. Noteworthy was
their zeal for Christ and His work. Columbanus, in the fer-
vour of his devotion, could not be held back even by the
wild appeal of his mother in throwing herself across the
a Confession, 23.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 99
threshold of their home to keep him with her. It was not
the love of adventure nor the call of romance that stirred the
enthusiasm of these missionaries, but a deep and genuine
love for God and a feeling like that of Paul when he cried,
" Woe is me if I preach not the gospel! " But zeal was not
enough; thorough training and education was recognized as
necessary. So they spent years of study in monasteries, the
universities of that day. Sometimes they entered when
scarcely more than boys and stayed until they were grown
men, studying and gaining experience. All the outstanding
missionaries of those early centuries of whose lives we have
full details were men of the most thorough education. A
third qualification was experience. They did not undertake
the great responsibilities of foreign mission service until they
had had years of work at home and had been tested and
proved under the careful guidance of wise leaders, perhaps as
evangelists, perhaps as teachers, perhaps as priors of monas-
teries. Their success as missionaries was in most cases as-
sured by success at home. A fourth quality which they
possessed was ability for leadership. This, too, they had
first proved by experience in the home land. They could
each be trusted with responsibility to lead, through ability in
organization or administration, or through magnetic person-
ality, or through their tact and wisdom, or through their
impressive spirituality and deep piety. There was no mis-
sionary society to direct their work and they were thus left
almost entirely independent; even those who held official re-
lation to the Roman Church carried on their work with only
occasional conference or correspondence with the Pope. So
that well-tested powers of leadership were indispensable. The
early missionaries had these powers to an outstanding degree.
For the success of these missionaries of the early Middle
Ages we must give large credit to the monastic schools where
they were trained, and to the great leaders who were their
100 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
teachers, like Comgall of Bangor, Finnian of Clonard and
Flnnian of Moville, Columba of lona, and Germanus of
Auxerre, These were men of deep and strong religious ex-
perience, with broad and solid learning, and wide outlook
and catholic spirit. The Bible held the central place in the
curriculum, especially the Gospels and the Psalms, with care-
ful and extended exposition and the committing to memory
of large portions. In the Irish monasteries, which, as already
noted, were famous centres of learning, Greek was studied,
with other general subjects. Very definite and well planned
attention was given to the cultivation of the spiritual life.
This was not left to the students themselves, nor was it given
a subordinate place or made voluntary. Rather was it
stressed as the fundamental thing and was carefully organ-
ized and directed. Student Volunteers today are urged to
observe the " morning watch." But these missionaries
throughout their years of training gave many hours of the
day, often eight out of the twenty-four, to prayer and medi-
tation and worship. This was quite as thoroughly supervised
and as carefully directed as the manual labour or the evan-
gelistic or literary work in which they engaged. They were
thoroughly trained for all phases of their great undertaking.
A word may be added as to their relation to the home
churches after they had sailed to the foreign field and were
at work as missionaries. Most of them, as we have seen,
never returned to the home land. Columba was an exception,
but his field was only a few hours' sail from Ireland. In
almost every case they went with no expectation of ever re-
turning home; though occasional exceptions show that there
was no requirement or established custom governing the
matter. Facilities or lack of facilities for travel probably
constituted the determining factor. The missionaries cor-
responded with abbots of their home monasteries or with
other leaders at home, as opportunity very infrequently pre-
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 101
sented itself, and such stories and reports of their work as
were received were used to inspire the younger men and
women for in some cases women went out as missionaries
and thus some in the home Church were kept in touch with
their representatives abroad. Largely in proportion as this
latter could be done was the work of the missionaries per-
manently successful.
Missionaries were expected to secure their own support.
So far as we know, they received nothing from the churches
or monasteries at home, though occasional gifts by individ-
uals are recorded. Records are relatively meagre, and more
regular contributions may have been sent abroad, but the
opportunities and facilities for sending them were few and
far between. It would seem that some supplies must have
been taken by the missionary when he started out, or money
for the buying of food, for he had the journey to make and
it would be some days before he could make even temporary
arrangements for food and shelter. The customary way, as
we have seen in the case of Patrick, 8 was to approach first
the chief or ruler, present the message to him and win him to
the new faith, or at least secure his approval or his consent
for Christian missionary work. If the missionary's appeal
was successful, he asked for a piece of land on which to
build a church or monastery. Here he made his headquar-
ters; and here he and his companions might raise grain and
other produce and might keep a few cows and other stock.
As the religion of the people was determined by the ruler, it
was quite natural for the missionaries to try first to win him
to Christ or to induce a favourable attitude toward the Chris-
tian faith. After groups of Christians were gathered they
would contribute much of what the missionaries needed.
But their needs were few. They could sleep in the open air,
a Chapter 2, , .
102 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
or In a rough shack which they could throw up easily and
quickly, and they ate very sparingly and with frequent inter-
vals of fasting. For example, Columbanus directed his
fellow-missionaries in the monasteries subject to his rule to
eat but two simple meals a day, and these meals were limited
to pulse, cabbage, flour mixed with water, and a little por-
tion of biscuit, with fish. Only when guests came was a more
elaborate meal indulged in. Some of the missionaries, like
Gall, were great fishermen, and this added an enjoyable and
cheap dish to their fare; of meat they ate very sparingly.
Some of the hagiographies have marvellous stories of the
miracles wrought by the missionaries to secure food, as well
as to get other things they wanted or needed. But however
it came, it was secured by the missionaries themselves In the
country where they were at work and was not provided by
the churches at home. We have a letter from Boniface to
Fuldrad, chaplain of Pepin the Frankish ruler, urging that
the king provide means of support for his followers and suc-
cessors after his death. 4 Columba, on the other hand, had
on lona a regular farm for the support of his community.
Of course, it must be remembered that these early mediaeval
missionaries worked in countries with a temperate climate.
Whatever significance their practice of self-support might
have for missionary method today would be modified by the
fact (among others) that foreign missions are now located
mostly in tropical lands, where the climate is very different
from that to which the missionaries have previously been
accustomed.
How did these missionaries work? What methods did they
use in presenting the message? On the one hand, there were
wide-ranging preaching tours, on the other, the manifold
activities of a central station. The great purpose was evan-
*Epis. Ixxix in Migne, Ixxxix, col. 779.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 103
gelism making known the good news and enlisting men and
women as disciples and followers of Christ. This is the key-
note of their message. It appears in abstracts of their
sermons that have come down to us, it conditioned and de-
termined their methods of work. Touring, as I have said,
was one of the chief methods. Usually they travelled in
groups, preaching in villages and towns along the way, and
talking of the things of the kingdom with those whom they
met. Bede says of Aidan that " wherever in the course of
his journeys he saw any, whether rich or poor, he would
there and then invite them, if unbelievers, to embrace the
mystery of the faith, or, if they were believers, he would
strengthen them in the faith and would stir them up by
words and actions to almsgiving and the performance of
good works." 5 Miss Margaret Stokes has told in her inter-
esting account of Three Months in the Forests of France
that as one travels along the road in northern France one
comes continually on springs or wells bearing the name of
Fursey, witnessing to his wide travels proclaiming the Gos-
pel. Boniface made long journeys in what is now Saxony,
Hesse-Cassel, Bavaria and other parts of Germany, as well
as in Holland, where he finished his life as a martyr. Some-
times the missionary had to use an interpreter, but the most
successful spoke in the vernacular of the people. Patrick,
of course, knew the Irish tongue from his years of captivity
in that land. Columba worked principally among those who
were of his own race and language, but needed an interpreter
when he went to the Picts. Columbanus may have used an
interpreter at times, though many if not most of those to
whom he preached, in Burgundy at least, would understand
Latin, which was familiar to him. Gall was a famous lin-
guist and "had not a little knowledge not only of Latin but
5 Hist. Ecdes., iii, 5.
104 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
also of the barbarian language." 8 Boniface learned or knew
the language of the Germans. The means of transportation
which the missionaries used were usually their own stout
legs, though other facilities were used when available or
necessary, like the " chariot " or cart used by Patrick or the
boats on which Columba had to travel among the islands or
on the lochs and rivers.
A second phase of the method employed by these pioneer
missionaries is that which centres around the monastery.
This was the central station, from which the activities of the
mission extended into the surrounding country, and from
which the missionaries and their associates went out on the
tours of evangelization. The first thing that Columba did
on his arrival in lona was to establish a monastery just a
small group of rude buildings, a central oratory for worship,
a few huts for shelter, some outbuildings for the grain and
cattle. Columbanus built three monastic institutions at
Luxeuil, Annegray and Fontaine, which became famous
throughout the land and to which multitudes flocked. Boni-
face founded Fulda and many other monastic centres for
men and women. The use of the monastery as the agency
for missionary work was the accepted method and practice.
Within the monastery there was a wide variety of activi-
ties. Some of the monks attended to the household duties,
in the kitchen or elsewhere. Some worked in the fields or
cared for the stock. Others more advanced, who were well
trained for the work, gave themselves through long hours to
making copies of the Bible or of parts of it, or providing
catechisms or service books. Special attention was given to
this literary work in the Irish monasteries, where, as has
been noted, education held a high place. A large portion of
each day was given to worship and prayer, stated hours
*Bobinson, Conversion of Europe,
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 105
being observed in the chapel and much time being spent in
private devotions. The older monks, or those who were most
experienced or best qualified, had the responsibility of lead-
ing the worship of the community. The Benedictine monas-
teries gave particular attention to industries and art, hardly
any form of these being neglected, with the result that in
many cases a community or village grew up, in which the
monastery was not only the religious centre but also the cen-
tre of culture and learning. The influence of the monastery,
and of the Christian missionaries who made it their head-
quarters, was much extended by the founding of branches of
the chief monastery. This was quite a common custom, as
we find in the stories of Columba, Columbanus and others.
An important element in the method of the missionaries of
the earlier mediaeval period, especially those of the Irish
churches, was the attention to the Bible which has already
been mentioned. The Roman missionaries apparently laid
more stress upon liturgy and the forms of worship. Augus-
tine, writing to the Pope a year after his arrival in England,
makes inquiry about a good many details of liturgy. Grad-
ually the Irish gave increased emphasis to liturgical forms
and practices, but in the earlier days the Bible was used as
the chief instrument in winning the people to Christianity.
Patrick's writings are saturated with Scripture. Columba is
said by Adamnan, his biographer, to have used the Word of
God as the great instrument in conversion. Columbanus
wrote commentaries on the Psalms. The wonderful decora-
tion or illumination of the copies of the Bible made in the
monasteries of Ireland, Scotland and England show the place
which the Scriptures had in the thought and plans of the
Irish leaders. The relation which the Roman missionaries
had with the ecclesiastical organization explains the greater
emphasis which they placed upon liturgy and the forms of
the Church. Both Bible and liturgy were in Latin, which
106 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
was recognized as the ecclesiastical language. Of course this
needed translation by the missionary when it was read to the
people, but this was not so great a handicap as it would have
been had copies of the Bible been common and the people
been able to read it. Pew could read, and books of any kind
were scarce. But the missionaries were well instructed, and
they could use the Latin freely and could translate and
explain in the tongue of the people.
Mention has been made of the place that was given to the
cultivation of the spiritual life in the education and work of
the monks. One needs only to read the lives of the saints or
such writings as have come down from their hands to appre-
ciate the emphasis which was laid upon the devotional life.
Patrick's Confession breathes the spirit of devotion, and his
Lorica is really a prayer. The writings of Columbanus are
full of the same spirit and his monastic rule gives detailed
directions for prayer and devotion. Columba's intercessory
prayer for his associates as they worked in the field, to which
reference is made elsewhere/ is a good illustration of Ms own
practice. Boniface laid very great stress on intercessory
prayer, and gave careful attention to the enlisting of inter-
cessors both in Germany and in England. He wrote to Eg-
bert, Archbishop of York, " With heartfelt prayers we
entreat your clemency, that your piety would pray for us in
our labours and dangers, for great necessity presses upon us
to seek the help of the just, as it is written, ' The persistent
prayer of a just man availeth much.' " 8 He wrote to others
in the same strain. And in his monasteries he organized in-
tercessory prayer on a systematic basis, the Fraternity Book
of the monastery listing the names of those for whom regular
prayer was made by the monks. Other examples might be
given of this emphasis upon intercessory prayer.
7 See Chapter 2.
9 Mpis. xxxviii, quoted by Robinson, op. cit. f 379.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 107
Something more should be said about the relation of these
early missionaries to the government. I have pointed out
that it was the common practice to try first, on coming into a
new field of effort, to gain the favour and approval of the
chief or king. This friendly alliance between the religious
and the secular powers was quite the rule, but the religious
leaders maintained their independence and refused to allow
the secular authorities to limit them or their work in any
way. On the other hand, they made use of the rulers to aid
in their missionary work, as occasion offered. Oswald, king
of Northumbria, worked hand in hand with Aidan, and was
almost as powerful a factor in the evangelization of northern
England as the great missionary himself. Boniface freely
used the active help of Charles Martel, saying that without
his patronage he could neither rule the people nor defend the
priests or deacons, the monks or nuns, nor without his man-
date and the awe which he inspired could he put a stop to
the rites of the pagans and the sacrileges of idol-worship.
This borders closely upon compulsion by the secular author-
ity, but Boniface probably did not seek more than the strong
influence of the government, so far as positive effort in
making Christians was concerned. It was only the moral
influence of Ethelbert, king of Kent, that Augustine used,
for Bede says of those who came in numbers to hear the
Christian preaching, " Their conversion he is said to have
encouraged, but only so far that he compelled no one to
embrace Christianity, but only embraced with a closer affec-
tion those who believed in being heirs with himself of the
heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from Ms instructors
and those who were the instruments of his salvation that the
service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not compul-
sory." 10 In later times the attitude of the Roman mission-
8 Epis. xii, quoted by Robinson, op. at., 361.
10 Hist Ecdes,, i, 26.
108 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
aries radically changed, and they not only did little or
nothing to keep enthusiastic monarchs like Charlemagne
from adding to political efforts a Christianizing by the
sword, but in some cases Otto in the twelfth century is an
example definitely used the power of the civil authority to
compel acceptance of the Christian faith. It was inevitable
that alliance with secular authority should run into this
excess; the danger was not foreseen in the early years.
I
We have looked at the missionary in these early days, and
have seen how he was called to the work, how he was trained,
and what his relation was to the churches which he left at
home. We have seen him at his work, and have watched him
in his missionary tours and in his central monastery. We
have observed him making large use of the Bible or liturgy,
always emphasizing the devotional life and the practical use
of prayer. And we have seen how increasingly he worked in
co-operation with the secular authority. Now let us consider
the Church, as the missionaries built it in the new lands
where they proclaimed the Christian faith.
The Church held a very different place on the one hand
among the Irish and on the other hand among the Romans.
In the early days of Irish Christianity there were no monas-
teries, though there were Christian communities, " clans re-
organized under a religious form," * where whole families
lived and sought to nurture their spiritual life. Those estab-
lished by Patrick seem to have been of this character. It
was not the monastery but the Church that received chief
emphasis and held the principal place. Patrick and his fol-
lowers founded churches wherever they made converts, and
before Patrick's death these were to be found almost all over
1 Montalembert, The Monks of the West, iii, 86.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 109
Ireland. It was natural that these churches should look to
him as their leader, and quite as natural that he should bring
them into a united organization under himself } in accordance
with custom prevailing widely in the Christian Church.
While there were other bishops, he was supreme, with his
episcopal headquarters at Armagh. Probably he thought of
himself and his churches as part of the great Christian fel-
lowship, and like most of the Christians of the West held the
bishop of the Church at Rome in high honour. But there is
no satisfactory historical evidence that he ever had any
formal or official relation to the Pope, or ever thought of the
churches as part of the Roman organization. In his earlier
life he purposed to visit the Pope, as the outstanding Chris-
tian leader in the West, but it is practically certain that he
never actually went to Rome. With Patrick, then, the local
church was the regular and natural Christian organization,
and in accordance with the common practice he grouped
these churches into a national organization.
When the religious life in Ireland had declined, in the cen-
tury following Patrick's death, it was revived through the
agency of the monasteries. These were introduced from
Britain, through Finnian and others, as already described.
Monasticism was at this time spreading through all the
Christian world, West as well as East, and the monastic life
was coming to be thought of universally as presenting the
ideal for the Christian. As centres of spiritual culture and as
agencies for the spread of Christianity the monasteries pro-
vided an organization which did for that day what in the
earlier years had been done more informally and less sys-
tematically by the churches. The Roman Church, with its
developing authority and imperialism, took the monastic
movement under its aegis, guided it, and kept the Church in
the ascendancy. The Irish churches, however, having a
looser and only a national or even tribal organization, yielded
110 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
their place of eminence to the monasteries. The result was
that in the two centuries and more after Patrick the monas-
tery was the chief organization and the Church occupied
quite a secondary place. Some of the monasteries, Co-
lumba's, for example, were ruled by prebyters, that is, or-
dained ministers, and had among the monks under their
direction one or more bishops. This was a unique situation,
not found outside of the Celtic system. So far as the ordi-
nary life and work of the monastery was concerned the
bishop was quite subordinate to the abbot, and only took the
leading position when there was ordaining or similar episco-
pal duties to be performed. This is sufficient indication of
the different attitude which had come to be assumed toward
the Church. Churches were subordinate parts of the monas-
tic organization and were subject to the abbot. But the
work of the Church went on, preaching was regularly done,
the ordinances were performed, personal spiritual needs were
cared for. The difference was that the monasteries, with
their abbots and priors, were dominant, and not the churches,
with their bishops and other clerical leaders.
The Roman missionaries, too, were monks, as were the
Irish. But, as I have said, the Church took the monasteries
and the orders into its organization and directly or indirectly
controlled their work. Thus the Church retained its leading
position. Bishops and archbishops were ordained, synods
were held, missionaries made occasional or frequent visits to
Rome, and the relation of the churches founded by the mis-
sionaries to the ecclesiastical authority centreing in Rome
and the Pope was constantly emphasized and strengthened.
The rapidly developing imperial outreach and centralized
authority enabled the Roman Church to make itself the
chief Christian organization; but it was the general body,
the Church as it centred in Rome, that was emphasized, not
the local churches.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 111
The church buildings erected by the Irish missionaries
were simple and plain. In the monastery the oratory occu-
pied the central position, surrounded by the common hall
and the huts of the monks. But the oratory was a small
structure, with one room and no apse; so with all their
church buildings. The Saxon Church, which was typical of
early churches of Roman faith, added the apse, and rapidly
developed the form and decoration of later times. The Irish
service and organization were simple, while the Roman
tended increasingly to elaborateness, and this difference is
manifested in the form of the church buildings. In other
words, the church buildings represented the Christian mes-
sage and ideal as interpreted and taught by these two
different Christian groups.
In the development of the Church a practical question
arose as to the attitude which should be taken towards the
non-Christian customs. Those which were directly related
to pagan worship were of course opposed with utmost stern-
ness and unyielding insistence. Worship of Thor and Odin,
or of the sun, was directly the opposite of the worship of the
one Creator, and of His Son Jesus Christ. One or the other
must be chosen; there could be no compromise. So with
magic and offerings to gods and spirits. The rejection of
Columbanus by the AJemanni of Switzerland was due to Ms
strenuous opposition to the idolatrous customs of the people.
At Bregenz, where he and Gall made their headquarters in
an ancient Christian church, they found three idols on the
walls, which the people said were the gods which protected
them. Gall urged them to give up their idolatry, but Col-
umbanus seized the images and broke them in pieces, throw-
ing them into the lake near by. Dr. van Dyke's story, The
First Christmas Tree, gives a pretty accurate view of the at-
titude and custom of Boniface (Winfried) . No quarter was
given to the things of pagan worship.
112 THE MAKING OF MODEBN MISSIONS
On the other hand, customs which were not distinctively
religious were generally not opposed. Of course there was a
racial similarity between the Britons and the Irish, between
the Scots of Ireland and those of Scotland, between the Celts
of Ireland and of Gaul, between the Saxons and the Ger-
mans, which meant little difference in popular customs, ex-
cept as these were connected with religious practices. So
these customs were likely to be understood by the mission-
aries and there was not much ground for opposition. The
missionaries were not greatly concerned with changing the
culture or civilization of the people to whom they went, but
laid their major emphasis, almost their exclusive emphasis,
upon the religious message, the worship of the true God and
salvation through Christ His Son.
But there were pagan customs which might be sublimated
and used. A Christian meaning might be put into them, so
that they could be retained and be given a place in Christian
life and worship. At least some thought so and suited their
practice to their thought. O'Donovan, in his edition of the
Annals of the Four Masters says that " Patrick engrafted
Christianity on the pagan superstitions with so much skill
that he won the people over to the Christian religion before
they understood the exact difference between the two sys-
tems of belief." But while this may suggest a rather more
superficial work than seems to be the fact, there Is evidence
that Patrick did use the pagan beliefs in explaining his mes-
sage and in establishing its practice. The attitude of the
Roman missionaries in England was determined by Pope
Gregory, whose interesting letter to Mellitus, one of Augus-
tine's companions and first Bishop of London, later Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, is preserved by Bede. 13 He directed
that the heathen temples should not be destroyed, but only
. 131n. Hist, Ecdes., i, 30.
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 113
the idols in them. Holy water should be sprinkled in the
temples, altars installed, and relics placed there. To take the
place of the heathen festivals with their sacrifices of oxen,
the anniversaries of the death of the martyrs whose relics
were preserved were to be observed, huts of boughs being
erected around the churches, and oxen being slaughtered for
the feast. An important question is raised by the explana-
tion which he gives of his attitude: " For there is no doubt
that it is impossible to efface everything at once from their
obdurate minds, for the man who strives to ascend to the
highest place rises by degrees or steps and not by leaps."
The practice of Boniface seems to have been governed by
much the same spirit as that indicated by Gregory. In esti-
mating this attitude of both Irish and Roman missionaries,
one must recognize that they very generally believed in mag-
ical powers and miraculous acts that seem to us only super-
stitions though it is possible that the biographers of the
saints in later centuries were more credulous than the saints
themselves. The missionaries were not different, however,
from the people generally in their time. And what seemed
important religiously to the Christian missionaries or the
pagans might have very little meaning with us. Whatever
significance there is in the attitude of the missionaries lies in
the principles which they followed, not the details of their
practice.
If the churches which the missionaries established were to
be permanent they must be provided with leaders. So the
question what the missionaries did to secure such leaders
becomes important. We are especially interested in the ques-
tion in view of the modern emphasis on the development of
native leaders. We notice first of all that evangelization was
carried on by the most available agency, whether that were
native or foreign. The missionaries recognized themselves as
foreigners Columbanus, for example, felt this in his rela-
THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
tions with the Galilean bishops but so far as possible identi-
fied themselves with their adopted country and made no
distinction between the nationals of the land and workers
from their home land. As late as the year 748, or there-
abouts, thirty years after he had begun his work in Ger-
many, Boniface received a large group of reinforcements
from England in response to his appeal for help. These seem
to have been placed in positions of responsibility because of
the disappointingly slow development of the German con-
verts. Patrick, Columba and Columbanus made large use of
foreign workers who had accompanied them or who came to
their aid from the home land. For a time, longer in some
cases and shorter in others, both foreign missionaries and
native workers laboured together, taking such places of
responsibility as they were fitted to assume.
But gradually native workers took the place of the for-
eigners. Within a half dozen decades after Patrick's death
the Christian leaders of Ireland were of Irish birth. Colum-
banus took twelve Irish companions with him on his mission-
ary expedition to France, and added others from Brittany,
but when he was expelled from Burgundy only these were
allowed or compelled to accompany him, and a considerable
number of Gallic associates remained behind, many of whom
became important leaders in the work. Jonas, who wrote
the life of Columbanus a quarter of a century after his death,
and was a monk of Bobbio, Columbanus' Italian monastery,
was a native of Italy, The change to native leadership took
place gradually, as those born in the land became trained and
fitted for larger tasks. Nationalistic self -consciousness had
not arisen to make unjustifiable demands, nor did the for-
eign missionaries hesitate to put in their own places nationals
of the country where they were working, like Eustace, for
example, the successor of Columbanus at Luxeuil.
But much attention was given to the training of these
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 115
native leaders, quite as much as to that of the missionaries
themselves. A striking illustration of the care taken by the
Irish missionaries to secure worthy successors appears in the
case of Aidan, who selected promising Anglo-Saxon boys,
twelve at first, more later, whom he trained for the work of
leadership in the Church. Among these, as we have seen,
was Chad, or Ceadda, who became Bishop of York, and his
brother Cedd, later Bishop of the East Saxons. Eata, a
successor of Aidan at Lindisfarne, was another. The mon-
asteries which the Irish missionaries established provided
excellent facilities for this training. Here they lived in com-
pany with their missionary leader, here they studied the
Bible and the related subjects which were thought helpful
for the work, from these as centres they went out on tours of
evangelization under the direction of the abbot, and thus
through many years of training and experience they received
the preparation which made them worthy successors of the
great pioneers. So that the later leaders were nationals,
trained under the immediate direction of the missionaries,
and thoroughly fitted to build up a Church which should be
on the one hand independent and indigenous and on the
other related to Christians across the sea, a part of the
Christian fellowship in many lands.
II
What is the meaning of all this to our day? Can we learn
anything for the work of Christian missions today from the
methods used by these pioneers of a thousand years ago?
First, as to the type of missionary. One is Impressed, in a
study of these early missionaries, with the emphasis which
was laid upon their spiritual qualifications. They had thor-
oughly proved themselves in this. The devotional life had
become natural for them, and they had given full evidence
of their consecration to Christ and His service. This must
116 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
still and always be the primary and principal qualification.
In these days, when many of the people of the land to which
the missionaries go have as good education or culture as the
missionaries themselves, it is of even more importance than
formerly that the foreign leaders should be men and women
who have seen the King and who live constantly in His pres-
ence* It is only great Christians who make great mission-
aries, and we cannot substitute high training or outstanding
skill for proved Christian character. Perhaps we need to pay
more attention to this than in many cases we are doing.
But that does not mean that we can neglect thorough train-
ing, in education and experience. These early missionaries
spent many years in the best schools in the world in prepara-
tion for their life task, and we make no mistake in urging
and requiring full scholastic training. Unfortunately, mis-
sion boards still allow the pressure of immediate need to
overbalance the importance of full training, and send men
and women to the work with shortened courses of study or
without the years of experience which every missionary
needs. Notably in the home mission field is the standard
lower than it should be. In both home and foreign work
additional years of study on the part of the prospective mis-
sionary, and closer observation of his service in the home
churches on the part of the board, is a pressing necessity.
The missionary chooses his work as a life task: we may well
stress this still. And for the great task the best is still not
too good.
In the missionary's work itself the points of emphasis are
significant. First of all, with these missionaries of the Mid-
dle Ages evangelism had the chief place. Of course we must
recognize that those were not the days of books and wide-
spread education, and the emphasis which we are putting
upon school work was not to be expected. But, on the other
hand, the Irish missionaries, and to a large extent the Ro-
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 117
man, were trained in the best schools to be found and were
men of wide and thorough learning. They gave those who
were to be leaders of the churches the best education pos-
sible, but they did not themselves very generally engage in
teaching in the community. They gave themselves with
strenuous devotion to the work of evangelism. With the
differing conditions of today doubtless the proportion of
emphasis may properly be different. But it is possible that
we have gone to an extreme and need to re-examine the place
and purpose of our educational work. Certainly evangelism
must still be the chief thing. In most mission fields it does
not hold the pre-eminent place which it once had. But
nothing can take its place. We can learn a needed lesson in
this from these missionaries of a past day.
Evangelism did not mean simply wide touring. The policy
of concentration was followed. The monastery was the cen-
tre from which all, the work reached out. And when new
fields were developed there were new monasteries established
as new centres for the expanding work. The policy of con-
centration is the approved policy for today. But expansion
must go with it, or the missionary zeal of both the missionary
and the Church will be dulled.
Two other points may be mentioned. One is the place
occupied by the Bible and prayer. We may be encouraged in
all our efforts for Bible translation, Bible publishing, and
Bible teaching by the emphasis the early missionaries laid
upon the Book of books. It must always be the centre of the
missionary's study and the centre of all his work. Undoubt-
edly the larger place which prayer occupied in their pro-
gramme was wiser than the smaller place which we accord to
it. Activity is the chief thing with us. We are too crowded
to give unhurried time to prayer, in adequate spiritual cul-
ture for ourselves or in the intercession which the work and
workers need. Less should be demanded of our missionaries,
118 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
and it should be definitely set before them that they are ex-
pected to do this larger thing that prayer means. Of course,
in the last analysis, the matter rests with the individual mis-
sionary, but the boards are not free from responsibility.
Definite plans for their service in prayer may be suggested,
and clear expectation as to this phase of their work may be
definitely and frequently set before them, while equal stress
is laid upon this vital feature in the programme of home
Church cultivation. The other point is the relation of the
missionary to the government. It is evident that official con-
nection with the government led to unevangelical and un-
christian methods of work. It is evident, also, that lasting
good results were secured only when the mission maintained
its independence of the government or its supremacy over it.
When the government could control the mission in anything
the mission lost its effectiveness. We must not forget the les-
son. Its relation to the present situation is too large to be
considered here. But it may be well to study again the
experience of these early missionaries in view of pressing
conditions on the mission field today.
What of the Church? One lesson that stands out is the
fact that the Church is essential for the permanence of Chris-
tianity wherever it is preached. Undoubtedly the Irish lead-
ers who built their work around the monastery, to the
subordinating of the churches as such, were not as wise as
the Roman missionaries who exalted the Church. Of course,
this is not to say that the latter were wise in their over-
emphasis on ecclesiastical organization and the subordinating
of the local churches to the hierarchy and Rome. But al-
ways it has been true that the Church is the agency for
permanency in the proclamation of the Gospel and the devel-
opment of the Christian life. May this not have some bear-
ing upon the tendency seen in some countries to substitute
" Christianizing " for "proselytizing " (to use the antithesis
METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 119
sometimes heard), urging the acceptance of Christian belief
and the practice of Christian ethics without definite enlist-
ment in the Christian Church?
Our modern emphasis on the training of leaders is not
modern, after all, for the missionaries of long ago emphasized
the same thing. They did it thoroughly, and we can do no
less. But native leadership was not the chief thing; a na-
tional Church was not the highest ideal. The dangers in the
present nationalistic movement among Christians in mission
lands are evident, in the narrowing of Christian fellowship
and the dulling of the missionary spirit. The movement has
immense advantages in the development of self-consciousness
and initiative, but it does not represent the highest ideal or
objective, which is Christian fellowship in its widest inter-
national reach, and the carrying of the Gospel to unevangel-
ized peoples, even before the fullest self-development is
attained at home. Above all, there must be no compromise
with non-Christian faiths, however much they may represent
the national culture. Christianity still has a message that
sets it apart and above all other faiths and lifts it above
national cultures and national organizations of religious life.
The most important thing for us today is the discovering of
the essential character of that message and the best and
truest methods by which it can be made known and made
dominant. In such a study the missions of the early medi-
aeval centuries hold possibilities of large contribution and
help.
IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY IDEA
IN PROTESTANTISM
PROTESTANTISM was not born with the missionary
idea full-grown. It was a hundred and fifty years
after Luther nailed his theses on the door of the
cathedral church at Wittenberg, before von Weltz sent forth
his full-toned missionary call, and nearly two hundred years
before a Protestant foreign mission was established. The
idea developed slowly, and is still developing.
Missions were in full swing in the Roman Catholic Church
in 1517. The friars of the Franciscan and Dominican orders,
with the Augustinians of earlier date, were at work in Amer-
ica and Africa and Asiatic lands, and the Jesuits began in the
middle of the sixteenth century their almost unexampled
missionary endeavours. By the middle of the seventeenth
century Roman Catholic missions were to be found in India
and China and the Philippines, in west and east Africa, in
South and Central America, while even a century later the
only missionary work being carried on by Protestants, apart
from that among the Indians in the English colonies of the
Atlantic seaboard, and the meagre missions of the Dutch East
India Company, was the small Danish mission in southeast
India and the scattered missions of the Moravians. Through
centuries the missionary idea in the Roman Church had de-
veloped with the developing Church, and it was part and
parcel of the plan and purpose of the Church. In fact, it
was missions that had made the Church what it was. The
120
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 121
imperial idea, that had made it into the world-reaching or-
ganization which it had become, was simply the missionary
idea. And missions were accepted as a matter of course
the natural method in the Church's activity and the natural
expression of its life. So that the missions of the Roman
Church were spread widely over the world and its mission-
aries were at work among the peoples of every continent.
On the other hand, as has been said, for nearly two centu-
ries Protestants undertook no missionary work, except that
among the American Indians. This was important, but it
was very small and quite local, and did not grip any large
section of the Protestant Church. Occasional voices were to
be heard calling for the undertaking of missionary activity,
and here and there were individuals who set out by them-
selves to carry the Gospel to the heathen; there were also a
few futile politico-missionary schemes. These last had no
solid religious basis, and the individual efforts had no organ-
ized support; all were temporary and had no future. The
important point to be noted is that the Church of Protestant-
ism was not committed to the missionary undertaking. No
group of Protestants was prepared to carry on missionary
work; for no group had grasped the missionary idea. The
significance of this is not to be seen in 1517, but rather in
the decades that followed that date. Through all the early
Reformation period there was no missionary enterprise. As
Mirbt significantly puts it, " One can write a history of the
Reformation without using the word missions/* *
But more important than the lack of missionary activity
was the lack of the missionary idea. That is what makes
Mirbt 's remark so significant. Circumstances might make it
temporarily impossible for Protestants to undertake mission-
ary endeavour. Some of those circumstances were perhaps
1 Mirbt, CX, Missions und Reformation, 4.
122 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
in evidence. But we look in vain for an expression of regret
that they were prevented from beginning the enterprise, or
of hope and longing for the time when the way would open
for missionary outreach. The discoveries that were giving to
Europe a new world were seen by the Roman Church as the
signal for a great missionary a3vance; but they appeared to
mean nothing to Protestants. As Warneck says, " We miss
in the reformers not only missionary action, but even the
idea of missions, in the sense in which we understand them
today." a There were ample difficulties we shall note them
shortly but not more than the first century Church faced
when it sent out the great apostle and his associates to con-
quer the world for Christ, or even the Church of the early
Middle Ages when it set out to evangelize Asia and the con-
tinent of Europe. Had the missionary idea gripped the
hearts of Protestants as it later gripped the Moravians, or
Carey, or large numbers of Christians in our day, nothing
could have kept them back from the effort to carry to every
land the evangelical message and experience that had so
revolutionized their life; at the very least there would have
been lamentations over the necessity of delay in the under-
taking. But of such effort or such regret we h.ear nothing.
They did not read rightly the New Testament message, they
did not see the vital connection between one's personal ex-
perience of Christ and the necessity of making Him known
to all men. The missionary idea was inherent in Christianity,
and above all in evangelical Christianity, but it had yet to be
grasped and understood, it had yet to be developed.
I
We shall see the situation more clearly if we look into the
attitude of the chief Reformation leaders. Luther frequently
f Wameck, G., Outline of a History a] Protestant Missions, 9.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 123
speaks of the heathen, and of the necessity of sending preach-
ers to them to declare to them the Word of God, but he uses
" heathen " (die Heiden) in the common German meaning
of Gentiles, either non- Jewish or non-Christian. 3 He nowhere
calls for missionaries to go to the non-Christian world as we
know it. Luther looked for the spread of the Gospel over the
earth, but not through missionaries, rather through captives
and travellers and similar means. The Christian movement
had been given its universal aspect by the apostles, and so it
had been already preached to all the nations. Moreover,
Luther expected the early end of the age "The end is at
hand, at the very threshold" "The world will perish
shortly " and there was not time for wide preaching of the
Gospel, which indeed he believed to have been offered to all
already. The heathen world as we understand it was not in
Luther's view, and the missionary idea was quite absent
from his mind and purpose.
Luther assumed that missions, carried on definitely and
systematically, were a work belonging to the apostles. 4
Melanchthon took the same position and supported it by
dogmatic argument. In fact, according to his view, the voice
of the Gospel had been sounding forth since the time of
Adam, and especially through Christians who have been liv-
ing or travelling in various parts of the world. " Everywhere
there are some who teach truly, in Asia, Cyprus, Constanti-
nople. God marvellously stimulates the voice of the Gospel,
that it may be heard by the whole human race." So that
there is no need for missions or missionaries. The missionary
idea was not in Melanchthon J s mind. He does not so much
argue against missions as he assumes the spread of Chris-
tianity through means that make missions unnecessary.
3 Warneek, op. dt., 10.
4 On the whole question of the attitude of the reformers see
Wameck, Outline of History oj Protestant Missions, 10 f .
124 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Zwingli came a little nearer to an acceptance of the idea
of missionary endeavour. The apostles, he affirmed, had
carried the Gospel into most parts of the earth, but there
still remain very many to be won. But this must be done by
apostles, evidently meaning those who are definitely called
and set apart by God for that purpose. The Church has
nothing to do with the matter: it belonged to the apostles in
the beginning, it belongs to apostles now.
Calvin, in his exposition of the Great Commission, deals
with it simply in its relation to the apostles. He taught that
the Gospel and Christ's kingdom are not to be advanced by
the work of men, but that this is the work of God alone.
This, of course, would not encourage the undertaking of mis-
sions by the Church. In accordance with his own practice
he held that rulers had a special duty to spread Christianity
in their lands a phase of the doctrine of cujus regie ejus
religio that figured so prominently later. Calvin's theolog-
ical attitude effectively kept him from seeing the missionary
duty that is involved in Christian discipleship.
Beza, in his reply to Saravia, 5 insisted that in the Great
Commission one must distinguish between what refers to the
apostles and what belongs to all Christians: the apostles were
sent out to all nations, all Christians are always to preach
the Gospel. While the Church is to extend the kingdom,
Beza has only vague ideas as to its missionary duty. The
missionary idea did not grip him.
Gerhard also opposed Saravia with dogmatic arguments.
He insisted that the Gospel had been preached to all men
three times: through Adam, through Noah, and through the
apostles. He presented an extraordinary proof that the Gos-
pel had been proclaimed to all nations, by summoning the
peoples of all the continents and showing evidence that the
6 See infra.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 125
message had long ago been given to them. But what evi-
dence! America had received the Gospel long ago, for did
not Paul say that the Gospel had brought forth fruit in the
whole world? Mexicans had received it, probably from the
Ethiopians, because both peoples connected baptism and cir-
cumcision. In Peru there was a belief in immortality and a
flood, in India the people were acquainted with incarnations,
in China a picture had been discovered with three heads
looking toward one another quite evidently referring to the
Trinity. So as to other peoples all clearly proving that
the Gospel had been preached already to all nations, as com-
manded in the Great Commission. At any rate, according
to Gerhard, the command to preach in the whole world be-
longed solely to the apostles: " The command to preach the
Gospel in the whole world ceases with the apostles." If
Gerhard had had the missionary idea he would have quite
argued it out of himself by such reasoning.
The theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg ad-
ded its argument against missions in a formidable " opinion "
on the Great Commission, in which they stated that the com-
mand to go into all the world was a personal privilege of the
apostles, like gifts of miracles, and had already been fulfilled:
that as the Gospel had been preached to all peoples through
Adam, Noah and the apostles it was their own fault if they
did not now have it; and that it was now the duty of rulers to
see to the preaching of the Word, " so that everywhere the
true knowledge of God shall be spread." Not a word as to
the duty and privilege of missions on the part of the Church.
It is evident, then, that the leaders of Protestantism in the
early days had no conception of missions as an essential of
Christianity, and as a duty inherently belonging to Chris-
tians and the Christian Church. And ordinary members of
the churches would not be likely to go farther than their lead-
ers. Roman Catholics brought up this lack of missionary
126 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
teaching and activity as a charge against Protestantism, for
they saw clearly that missions belong by nature to the Gos-
pel. But Protestants had not grasped the missionary idea.
There were reasons for this situation. Probably the most
important was the fact that in the beginning and for many
decades Protestants were occupied with establishing and
maintaining their position. The Roman Church was sum-
moning all its forces of authority and argument to crush the
rising evangelical movement, and the empire threw all its
powers back of the efforts of the Church. Everywhere there
was preaching to be done by the reformers on the theme of
justification by faith, there were arguments to be written and
answers made to ecclesiastical and civil authorities, there
were commentaries to be prepared and hymns to be com-
posed, there were princes and religious leaders to be won to
the side of the new movement. All this and more had to be
done by a few, and for the larger work of missions there ap-
peared as yet no time. But there was time for what seemed
to be important; missions were not conceived as important.
Next in significance was the fact that mission lands were
mostly in the hands of Roman Catholic authorities. The
newly-discovered territories in South America were con-
trolled by Spain and Portugal. The same was true of most
of India and the East Indies. The fate of a Protestant mis-
sion in those countries might be imagined from the experi-
ence of the Huguenot colony In Brazil, quickly wiped out by
the Roman Catholic Portuguese. Protestant lands for a long
time were not in touch with mission fields in either West or
East. Particularly was this true of Germany, the home of
the Reformation, which was not a colonizing country. The
lack of available mission fields was enough, it might seem, to
discourage any attempt to arouse the Church to missionary
interest and effort. But no serious attempt was made to
break through the closed circle and to find a mission field.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 127
A third reason was the identification of Protestantism with
nationalism. The Protestant movement was furthered by the
effort of German rulers to establish their independence of
the empire. Luther and other leaders sought the support of
these princes and other rulers, partly to win them personally
to the evangelical faith, partly to offset the power of the
Roman Catholic empire, partly because they believed it was
the duty of rulers to care for the religion of their subjects
(cujus regio ejus religio). The movement for nationalism
went hand in hand with the Reformation movement. The
imperial idea was narrowed to that of the nation. National-
ism is never favourable to the missionary concept, and this
stood in the way of the development of the missionary idea
on the part of the leaders of the Reformation.
A fourth reason, somewhat related to the reason just men-
tioned, was the emphasis which Protestantism laid upon in-
dividual interest as opposed to social. It was the faith of the
individual which was stressed, and his resulting personal jus-
tification. As one has said, " Much emphasis was laid upon
grace, but little upon the duty of following Christ in ser-
vice." The interest was theological rather than practical,
individual rather than social. So it was that even Luther
opposed with utmost vehemence the peasants' uprising, and
apparently saw no justice in their demands. The missionary
instinct in the Protestant evangel would some day broaden
Christian interest to the widest social ministry, but with the
reformers the centre of interest was the individual's relation
to God. That effectively prevented the expansion of their
thought to a missionary outreach.
Other reasons have already been mentioned: the theolog-
ical attitude, as in the case of Calvin; the expectation of the
early ending of the present age, as with Luther; the misinter-
pretation of the Great Commission, which grew in absurdity
with the development of anti-mission arguments. But none
128 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
of these reasons/ nor all of them together, could be sufficient
to excuse the lack of interest in the missionary expansion of
the Christian faith. As already pointed out, the difficulties
were not greater in Reformation times than they were in
apostolic days, or even in the early Middle Ages. They were
different, but not greater. The real, essential reason for the
absence of missions from the programme of the Reformation
leaders was their failure to grasp the missionary idea itself.
It was not in their thought or their interpretation of Chris-
tianity. Schlunk points this out, saying that " so essential a
part of Christianity as missions cannot be lost again after it
once has been recognized as necessary on principle." The
fact is, it had not been recognized as necessary; the mission-
ary idea as an essential element in Christianity had not been
grasped at all.
Yet Protestantism was essentially missionary. It had in
it the germs which would inevitably develop into a mission-
ary enterprise. The personal experience of God's saving
grace, which was the central idea in the new message, must
surely mean the sharing of that experience with others, dis-
content and unrest until everyone has that experience. That
sharing became a reality when the uppermost thing came to
be the experience itself rather than the doctrine. Growing
out of this central idea of individual justification was the
idea of freedom. Even in the early days that idea expressed
itself, in the fact of the varying interpretations of doctrine
and church organization as represented by Luther, Zwingli,
Calvin, Hiibmaier and other names. There was to be no cen-
tral authority in Protestantism as in the Roman Church,
which would decide what the message was and how it was to
be proclaimed and where. Protestant groups everywhere
would assume the freedom to carry the Gospel wherever they
SdhluiLk, Martin, Die Weltmission des Christentum, 85.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 129
wished, however different their views might be from those
prevailing. That presents to all in the Protestant fellowship
the widest opportunity and the fullest encouragement for
missionary endeavour- And a third idea, related to those
mentioned, was the establishment of independent, self-
sufficient churches among those to whom the message was
carried, churches which would themselves become centres of
extension in missionary service in proportion as the central
idea of personal experience of God's grace became a reality
in them. Protestantism, therefore, had basically a mission-
ary urge within it, vital not formal, resting back in the heart
of the message and the experience of those who accepted in
themselves that message, and not at all dependent upon ec-
clesiastical or political ambitions or aims. The early Prot-
estant leaders did not sense this idea. But sooner or later it
would take hold. How it did so I will undertake to show.
II
The seventeenth century marked the real beginning of the
expression of the missionary idea. In New England mission-
ary work was in some measure carried on from the earliest
times. The charter which authorized the establishment of
the Plymouth colony by the Pilgrims expressed the aim that
"their good life and orderlie conversacon maie wynn and
incite the natives of country to the knowledge and obedience
of the onlie true God and Saviour of mankind, and the
Christian faythe, which, in our real intencon and the adven-
turers free profession, is the principale ende of this planta-
con." 7 Efforts began at once for this " principale ende," hut
only very meagre results were reported for some years. The
fact is, those of the colonists, in Plymouth or the other New
England colonies, who took their missionary responsibility
7 Quoted in Barnes, L. C., Two Thousand Years of Missions
Before Carey, 397,
130 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
seriously were all too few; hence the small results. There
were outstanding exceptions. Roger Williams must be named
first, for he was " the first man who gave so much attention
to the conversion of the native heathen that he can be called
a missionary to them." 8 Before his removal to Providence
he began work among the Indians, living among them and
learning their language. After his settlement in Providence
he spent much time visiting them and preaching the Gospel
to them, continuing in this activity for forty years, and in-
teresting himself both in their general welfare and in their
spiritual improvement.
A better known name in Indian missions is that of John
Eliot. Eliot's work was not more extensive than that of
Williams but more constructive. After working among the
Indians around Roxbury, where he had a pastorate, he gave
himself to the Indian work exclusively, winning many to the
Christian life, organizing Christian villages, training Indian
Christian workers, and translating the Bible into their
tongue. He prepared an Indian Grammar and an Indian
Primer, and during his four decades of missionary work
gathered a Christian community of more than a thousand.
Following John Eliot came the Mayhews on Martha's
Vineyard Island, beginning in 1646 and continuing through
five generations for one hundred and sixty years. Hundreds
of Indians were converted and many churches were organ-
ized, with Indian pastors in charge.
We can find sufficient explanation of the missionary inter-
est among the New England colonists in their genuine and
deep-rooted religious life, coupled with the pressing in of the
mission field upon them on all sides. They had come to
America primarily to satisfy their religious needs. Their
religious life was vital and genuine and was the most out-
standing thing in their experience and community relation-
*Ibid,, 400.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PBOTESTANTISM IS I
ship. It was natural that they should in some degree seek to
share their religious life with the people whom they found
around them. And the fact that the Indians were close at
hand and always to be seen would tend to press home upon
their consciences more or less continually the need of the
heathen people for the Christianity which they themselves
enjoyed. But they had only a beginning of missionary inter-
est. They did not go far afield. It was a very local work
and very limited. It did not reach far in their own land, 9
and there is no suggestion of extending the endeavour to the
less fortunate in other lands. There was the germ of the
missionary idea, but it had yet a long development before it
would come to full growth.
Occasional voices were raised in Europe in behalf of mis-
sions. There were some among the Dutch. In the earliest
Reformation days Erasmus had called vigorously for mis-
sionary activity, but it was only an incidental call, with no
campaign for its general acceptance, and no genuine evangel-
ical basis for it. The Dutch East India Company, founded
in 1602, was given missionary responsibilities in its charter.
It promptly began to send out preacher-missionaries, whose
duties included care of the Dutch colonists and evangeliza-
tion of the native people. It established at Leyden a
Seminarium Indicum for the training of these preacher-
missionaries. Preaching in the native languages, translation
of the Scriptures, and education of native leaders went along
vigorously at first, but soon degenerated into the most shame-
ful superficiality, people being baptized by the hundreds at
so much a head. The difficulty was the lack of a genuine
evangelical basis; the company, since it was the government,
was assumed to be responsible for the religious life of its
subjects. The Dutch churches in the homeland made no
Of course frontier missions to white settlers were a much later
development.
132 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
effort of themselves to carry on missions. Heumius, Dank-
aerts and others heard the missionary call within themselves
and gave voice to it In publications which they issued; but
these met no response from Christians generally. Both
Heumius and Dankaerts proved the reality of their mission-
ary spirit by becoming missionaries themselves, yet even this
did not stir the Church. The great theologian and jurist
Hugo Grotius published a treatise On the Truth of the
Christian Religion to help the colonial missionary work, and
it was perhaps under his influence that seven young men,
jurists like himself, decided to undertake missionary service,
three actually going to the field, but establishing no perma-
nent missions.
In England, also, the missionary spirit was stirring the
minds and hearts of individuals. Cromwell had a great
scheme for dividing up the world into four great mission
provinces, the work to be under the direction of a state-
appointed central council* Alleine, whose Alarm to the Un-
converted used to be so well known; Oxenbridge, who sent
forth a Proposition of Propagation of the Gospel by Chris-
tian Colonies in the Continent of Guyana; Prideaux, the
Dean of Norwich, who appealed to the Archbishop of Can-
terbury in behalf of the heathen in the English colonies, and
George Fox, the founder of the English Friends, were indi-
viduals who raised their voices in behalf of missions to the
non-Christian world. The Corporation for the Propagation
of the Gospel in New England (1649), which helped Eliot,
and the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge
(1698), which later rendered large service to the Danish
mission in India, were permanent results of the growing
missionary interest in this century.
In Germany, Bibliander the Senutist had in the sixteenth
century been stirred by his studies to a realization of the
need of the Mohammedans and the heathen; and in the clos-
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PEOTESTANTISM US
Ing years of the seventeenth century Leibnitz, influenced by
the missions of the Jesuits in China, published their letters
with an introduction by himself. But Bibliander had no fol-
lowers, and Leibnitz thought of missions simply as a phase
of Western culture.
These were some of the individual voices and efforts.
Some heard clearly the missionary call for themselves, and
others saw something of its meaning for Christians generally.
But the old notion that the care for the religious needs of the
people was the responsibility of the government was still per-
sisting, and the Church had not yet seen that missions are
an essential element in Christianity and the inherent duty
of all Christians.
The first to state the missionary idea adequately and
clearly was Adrian Saravia, a Dutch Reformed pastor, who
spent the last quarter of a century of his life in England.
From the latter country he published, in 1590, a treatise on
the different orders of the ministry, which contained a chap-
ter on missions. This was brought in to show that bishops
were needed in order to plant new churches, but it led him
to go deeply into the question of the authority and duty of
missions. The heading of the chapter is " The command to
preach the Gospel to all nations binds the Church, since the
apostles have been taken up into heaven; for this, apostolic
power is needed." As Saravia's treatise laid the basis for the
later full expression of the missionary idea, his argument is
of interest. The command to preach the Gospel to all na-
tions, he pointed out, was not given solely to the Church of
the apostolic days, but holds for every century until the end
of the world. This is clear for several reasons: (1) Because
with the command is given the promise, " Lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world," and as the promise
is for all of Christ's followers the command applies to all of
them likewise. (2) Because the apostles chose and appointed
184, THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
associates and successors in their missionary work, showing
that they recognized that it was only the initiation of the
work that the Lord had committed to them it was to be
continued by others. (3) Because quite evidently the work
was much larger than the apostles could accomplish, few as
they were and brief as were their lives. (4) Because the
continuance of missionary work through the centuries since
the time of the apostles proves that the spreading of the
Gospel has actually been going on constantly among new
peoples. So that it is the duty of the Church to be still
obedient to the Great Commission and to give the Gospel to
the nations to whom it has not yet come. Power for the
accomplishment of the work has been provided, and the
Church, by virtue of the authority committed to it through
Peter, must set men apart for this task. I have already
noted the position that Beza took in replying to Saravia, as
well as Gerhard's remarkable arguments along the same line.
Their reasoning prevailed for the time being, but Saravia had
set forth the true position clearly and unequivocally.
Yet he had not gotten down to the real foundation of mis-
sions. And he was content to let the matter stand with this
one pronouncement. Three-quarters of a century were to
pass before a definite campaign for the organization of a
mission to the non-Christian world was to be undertaken.
It will be noted that Saravia, as well as all others who up
to this time had discussed the question, either favourably or
unfavourably, rested their arguments almost exclusively upon
their interpretation of the Great Commission. These verses
seemed to be everything that was to be considered in the
matter, and the sole question was whether or not they taught
that the Church had still the missionary duty. Large
numbers of present-day Christians who believe in missions
doubtless likewise rest the argument entirely upon their in-
terpretation of these words. But the missionary idea has a
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 135
deeper basis than that, and it remained for Justinian von
Weltz, an Austrian baron, to set the missionary task upon a
broader and truer foundation. He, to be sure, like Saravia,
gave attention to the Great Commission, but his chief argu-
ments for missions were (1) God's desire to bring all men to
the knowledge oi/the truth, (2) the example of those who
through all the centuries since apostolic days have been mis-
sionaries among non- Christian peoples, (3) the prayers in
the Lutheran liturgy that God would lead the erring to the
knowledge of the truth and would enlarge His kingdom,
which necessarily requires the sending out of missionaries if
these prayers are to be more than simply words, (4) the ex-
ample of Roman Catholics with their Congregation for the
Propagation of the Faith. Here we have, not an argument
from the Great Commission, but a recognition of the essen-
tial nature of the Gospel itself, God's good news that He
wishes to save all men and has provided for their salvation in
Christ; if we accept that and pray for the coming of His
kingdom among all men we cannot avoid the responsibility
of sending out messengers with the good news everywhere.
That is basic. Von Weltz caught the idea that missions are
inherent in the very nature of the Gospel, and that the mis-
sionary duty is not fundamentally dependent upon specific
words of Jesus. Others had argued from the Great Commis-
sion: he went straight to the heart of the Gospel. And
though in combating opponents he weakened his position
somewhat by engaging in argument on the same old question
whether the Commission was for all Christians or for the
apostles only, the missionary idea had come to its own, and
was now based, as it must always be based, on the character
and message of the Gospel itself. It is significant that he
was equally interested in both the deepening of Christian
experience and the missionary expression of that experience.
The relation between the two was vital.
136 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Von Weltz sent out a preliminary publication, calling for
a missionary society, then followed this with three treatises
setting forth his ideas and outlining a plan for the organiza-
tion of the society which should carry out his missionary
ideas. There were no immediate results. The superintendent
of Ratisbon warned against the proposed society with the
prayer, " Preserve us from it, dear Lord God," and the min-
isters to whom it was presented simply laid it on the table.
But Warneck sees the possibility that Spener, the father of
Pietism, who came to the front about this time, may have
been influenced in his missionary ideas by von Weltz. 10 And
certainly the latter's conception of the missionary idea was
henceforth a permanent possession of Protestantism. Von
Weltz believed in what he preached, for he devoted most of
his property to the furthering of his plans, and then himself
enlisted in missionary service, going to Guiana and there
shortly giving up his life In the work.
Ill
There is a straight line from von Weltz to Spener and
Francke and the Danish-Halle mission of the Pietists, and
through them to the Moravians and Wesley and Carey. 31
Pietism was the first broad movement in Protestantism in
furtherance of the missionary idea. It was not primarily a
missionary movement, but its essential characteristics led
naturally into the acceptance of the missionary idea and the
missionary responsibility. It was a reaction from the dead-
ness and formalism into which Protestantism had fallen by
the end of the seventeenth century, as a result of its doctrinal
and polemic emphasis. As opposed to this, Pietism laid
stress upon a living Christian experience and a practical ex-
pression of Christianity. It was narrow as to culture and
Outline of History of Protestant Missions, 39.
1 Sohlunk, Die Weltmmion des Chri&tentums, 82.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 137
theological views and ecclesiastical arrangements, but its
emphasis on a genuine experience and on the translation of
that experience into practice led it into the broadest applica-
tion of Christianity, so that it included the whole world in its
thought and its service. Add to this its Protestant inheri-
tance, especially through Saravia and von Weltz, and we can
see how it came to express the missionary idea in organized
missions.
The Pietists themselves did not organize a mission. It
was the Danish king, Frederick IV., who originated the plan,
influenced no doubt by the still prevailing idea of the re-
sponsibility of a ruler for the religious nurture of his sub-
jects in this case the heathen in the Danish colonies. He
called for missionaries through his court preacher, but the
latter could not find any candidates in Denmark, so he turned
to the Pietist leaders in Germany, with whom he had previ-
ously been associated. The result was that Ziegenbalg and
Pliitschau, two Pietist theological students, were appointed
and the mission in Tranquebar, in southeast India, was be-
gun. We cannot here trace the history of that mission. The
significant point is that not only was the mission begun by
Pietist missionaries but that all the missionaries for many
years were German Pietists, appointed by Francke, who con-
ducted the correspondence and issued the reports. "In
Copenhagen the head, in Halle the heart," says Schlunk. 1 *
"Pietism united itself with missions, and this union alone
enabled missions to live." M And this because the Pietists
grasped the missionary idea.
Spener had seen the significance of personal Christian ex-
perience as involving missionary outreach, and had early said
that " the obligation rests on the whole Church to have care
as to how the Gospel shall be preached in the whole world,
a Die Weltmission des Chnstentums, 110,
a Wameck, op. cit. f 52.
138 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
and to this end no diligence, labour or cost be spared in such
work on behalf of the poor heathen and unbelievers. 3 ' u
Francke, before the beginning of the Tranquebar mission,
had proposed a Universal Seminary (1701), and the next
year had founded his Oriental College. Through his schools
and orphanage and the theological department of the Uni-
versity of Halle he sent out a great company of missionaries.
How Pietism, influenced the Moravians we shall see. And in-
deed its influence continued down into the nineteenth century
in the founding of the early German missionary societies, the
Rhenish, the Basel and the North German. It is evident that
Pietism was missionary at its core; and that was because it
interpreted vital religious experience as involving the most
thoroughgoing and the widest possible practical expression.
It was thus based upon personal experimental knowledge,
and belonged to Christians, not to governments. Pietism
ended the notion of missions as an affair of the government,
and definitely grounded the missionary idea in Christianity
itself and placed the missionary obligation upon Christians
as such. Thus the idea developed in Pietism in two respects:
it was carried back to personal religious experience, and the
necessity of organization for its active expression was
recognized.
But the idea was still incomplete. The Moravians added
to its meaning. These humble folk were in the true Prot-
estant succession, being followers of Huss and having been
refined through persecution to a pure and vital evangelical
faith. They were " men hard as steel, with iron will, ready
to devote everything to winning one soul to the Saviour." **
A little group of the remnant found their way to the estate of
Count Zinzendorf in Saxony, and there consolidated their
church and developed their missionary ideas and enterprise.
. y 39. ^Schlunk, cp. cit., 111.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 139
Their spirit was that expressed by Zinzendorf in his well-
known words, " I have but one passion, and that is He,
only He."
The Moravians were missionary before they came to
Herrnhut Bishop Comenius, as far back as 1644 or 164S,
had mentioned missions with other essentials of a living
Church but their organized missionary activity came
through their association with Zinzendorf. And he was in-
debted to Pietism for his missionary spirit. As a boy he had
spent some years in Francke's home and institution, where
he had heard missionary discussions and had met mission-
aries like Ziegenbalg and others. His grandmother, who cared
for his early home training, was acquainted with Spener, who
was a frequent visitor at her house. His missionary zeal de-
veloped as he grew up, and his wife stimulated his missionary
purpose. And when he met at Copenhagen a West Indian
Negro and two men from Labrador and heard from them of
the need of their fellow-countrymen for the Gospel he was
ready to lead the Moravian Christians in their missionary
adventure. Pietism had given to him his deep religious ex-
perience and his missionary vision; the Moravians had a like
evangelical background and missionary spirit. The result
was the beginning of the unrivalled Moravian missionary
enterprise.
The unique contribution of the Moravians to the develop-
ment of the missionary idea was their recognition of missions
as the responsibility of the Church as such. The Pietists
were not the Church nor a church. Their congregations were
ecclesiolae in ecdesia, little churches within the Church; the
organized Church absolutely rejected their teachings, mis-
sions and all. But the Moravian churches accepted the mis-
sionary idea in Christianity in the most thoroughgoing way.
They saw that it belonged not only to individual Christians
but to the whole Church as an organization. To become a
140 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
member of the Church was quite as likely to mean service in
the West Indies or Labrador or Africa as in Herrnhut. The
result was the missionary stream that poured forth so widely
twenty-eight fields were entered in twenty-eight years, and
still others later. Out of the conception of the missionary
responsibility involved in church membership grew the large
use of laymen; missions were not to be a matter of an order
in the Church, but something belonging to all. These mis-
sionaries were not well trained educationally, and their work
consequently was often lacking in the greatest effectiveness,
but they held tenaciously to that which was fundamental to
their missionary endeavour, genuine Christian experience;
and candidates for baptism were carefully trained and thor-
oughly tested. For the Moravians, vital Christianity quite
naturally eventuated in missions, and quite as naturally the
missionary undertaking was an affair of the whole Church.
IV
The spiritual successors of the Pietists and the Moravians
were the Methodists and other evangelicals of England. It
was through contact with Moravians that John Wesley
gained the religious experience that fired him with his evan-
gelistic zeal. The evangelical movement that began with
Luther reached its climax in the Wesley Revival. Like Piet-
ism and the Moravian movement, it emphasized as the cen-
tral thing personal, conscious fellowship with God, a real
religious experience. This was its message. Rationalism had
made religion a dead thing, a matter of form and ceremony,
A London advocate reported that he was unable to discover
whether a preacher to whom he listened was a disciple of
Confucius, of Mohammed, or of Christ. But there was no
mistaking the message of the Wesley movement. And its
influence went far beyond the Methodist societies which
Wesley formed, into all the free churches, and into the
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 141
established Church as well. So that as a result of the
movement there was throughout England, and especially in
the towns and villages, a throng of Christians with a surg-
ing religious life that sought for expression, and a rapidly
growing group of churches in which this was the message
and the life, Baptist and Independent and Established as
well as Methodist.
The Wesley movement found expression in evangelism.
Evangelism and missions are of course essentially the same,
and the evangelism of the English evangelicals was largely
home missions, reaching neglected groups with the Gospel.
But of missions in the larger sense there was nothing in an
organized way until Carey came. John Wesley had the mis-
sionary spirit and vision: " The world is my parish," he said,
thus proving that he was in the real apostolic succession of
missionary leaders like von Weltz and Francke and Zinzen-
dorf. Whitefield, too, was stirred by missionary zeal, and
urged the observing of special hours of prayer " for the out-
pouring of the divine Spirit upon all Christians, and over the
whole inhabited earth." But there was no effort to organize
a missionary enterprise or to send out missionaries abroad,
Philip Doddridge among the Congregationalists tried to form
a missionary society and to awaken his fellow-Christians to
definite work for the people of non-Christian lands, but met
no response. Baptists in 1784 sent out a call for a concert of
prayer, but did nothing further. Methodists made no effort
to build upon the foundation they had laid and to start a
foreign mission. Thomas Coke, in 1786, began a mission to
the Negroes of the West Indies, which, followed by his efforts
elsewhere, finally (1813) stirred the Church at home to or-
ganized work. But his was purely an individual enterprise.
The churches awakened by the evangelical movement had
not grasped the missionary idea. In this the English, evan-
gelicals fell short of the Pietist and Moravian movements.
142 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
What, then, was the contribution of the evangelical move-
ment in England to the development of the missionary idea?
Directly it contributed nothing. But indirectly it made the
largest possible contribution. It vitalized all those factors
which were to issue in the broad missionary programme of
Carey, such as exploration, trade, humamtarianism and
learning, giving them a purpose that turned them to use in
the making of modern missions. It laid a missionary basis
of fervid religious experience in groups of Christians in
many communions throughout England. It provided the
leadership for the later missionary movement, in Carey
and others. It is impossible to overestimate the importance
of the Wesley evangelical revival in preparing the way for
the great missionary undertaking that followed and in
making it possible. But it can scarcely be said that the
eighteenth century evangelical movement in itself added
anything to the developing missionary idea. The larger
development was to come in Carey, the product of the
evangelical revival.
V
And so we come to William Carey, rightly called the
founder of the modern missionary movement. He was by no
means the first missionary of modern times, nor was his so-
ciety the first organized missionary effort. What, then, is his
significance? First, the society which he organized was the
first distinctively foreign mission organization. The Wesley-
ans, as I have said, had had missionaries, but their work had
been simply personal efforts; the Moravians had carried on
their mission as a Church; the Indian missions in the English
colonies in America had been really home missions; and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, while founded
with a foreign mission aim, had actually up to this time been
a colonial society, limited to work in the Western Continent.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PBOTESTANTISM 143
Carey's society united a group of Christians and churches, it
was an organized effort, it had a distinctively foreign mission
aim, and it led immediately to other similar societies with
similar organization and aim. Secondly, Carey's mission
was the beginning of permanent work in a large field. The
Moravians had small fields, lacking in far-reaching signifi-
cance; the Danish-Halle mission was limited to a small ter-
ritory, represented Francke and the Halle group rather than
the Danish churches, and was not permanent in any extended
way. Carey's mission had the broadest possible aim and
outreach and was permanent both in itself and in other mis-
sions that followed. Thirdly, in Carey's work are defined
the leading principles of modern missions, such as native
leadership, a strong centre with outstations, interdenomina-
tional fellowship, social ministry, wide circulation of the
Scriptures, the fundamental place of evangelism. This was
of immense significance. Fourthly, the greatness of Carey
himself, as a man and as a leader, makes him of historic im-
portance. Richter rightly recognizes this when, in his His-
tory of Missions in India, he heads the section dealing with
this period " The Age of William Carey." His perseverance
and patience, his poise and humility, his tact and irenic
spirit, his love and Christian devotion, his broad scholar-
ship and his statesmanlike grasp of the missionary prob-
lem, all mark him as a figure far outstanding above all
who had preceded him, with none greater among those who
have followed. 10
Not to underestimate the unique personal factor, Carey
was largely the product of historical forces that found their
culmination in him. I have dealt with these in their general
ia " There has perhaps been no missionary equal to him in India,
There have been very few who have not been inspired by his
example." Arthur Mayhew, Christianity and the Government of
India, 113,
144 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
relations elsewhere. 17 We are here concerned with their con-
tribution to the development of the missionary idea of Carey.
In this development we can trace four factors that were in-
fluential. One was the voyages of Captain James Cook, the
account of whose explorations, particularly in the South Pa-
cific, were eagerly devoured by Carey. They gave him a
broad knowledge of the world, and an intimate acquaintance
with the people of neglected lands. Out of his reading came
his handmade leather globe and the map that hung on the
wall of his cobbler's shop. But the significance to him of
these peoples made known by Cook and others was expressed
in the exclamation that is said to have burst from him fre-
quently when with his globe he was teaching geography
"They are all heathen! They are all heathen! " This
attitude was the result of other factors, among which must
be mentioned the Bible study in which he was constantly en-
gaged. He knew his Bible well, and saw the significance of
those passages that brought out the missionary purpose of
God and the missionary duty of His people. His famous
Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for
the Conversion of the Heathen begins with a section setting
forth the teaching of the Bible on the subject, and their ap-
plication to the world situation. His epoch-making sermon
on the text Isaiah 54:2, 3 was simply the culmination of his
studies that carried him into the Old Testament as well as
into the New. His knowledge of the South Seas people and
his interest in them became focussed on their spiritual desti-
tution through his reading of the Scriptures, and the recog-
nition of their need included a recognition of a like need
elsewhere. Of course we go back of his Bible study to the
Wesley Revival for a third factor in his missionary develop-
ment. This was really primary, for it was in Hackleton
Meeting, one of the humble products of the Wesley move-
" Chapter 5.
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 145
ment, that he was converted to Christ, and gained that spiri-
tual purpose that gave him his missionary interest. And it
was also out of the evangelical movement that his dominating
evangelistic purpose came. Finally, as a fourth factor we
may group the sermons and missionary appeals that culmi-
nated in his own response, Andrew Fuller's sermon on " The
Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation," and the Scottish call to
prayer, taken up by Jonathan Edwards in America and
finally sent out in England by Carey's own Northampton
Baptist Association.
From these factors, and from the larger world movements
that came to focus in him, we can understand the elements in
his missionary idea. It is clear that Carey understood mis-
sions to be the duty of all Christians. We see that in his
repeated appeals to his fellow-ministers and to the churches.
It stands out in his thoroughgoing treatment of the question
in the Inquiry. It comes to a head in his offering of him-
self for the work, though he could not have thought of him-
selfand did not as having apostolic qualifications. But
as he saw his own missionary duty it was clear, for it be-
longed to all Christians. He saw, too, however, that all
Christians did not recognize and accept the task, and hence
there was included in his idea the voluntary nature of the
service. The Church might be a missionary organization, as
in the case of the little Herrnhut church of the Moravians,
but where churches and Christians differed in their attitude
toward the question, as in England, a society apart from the
Church, or rather within the Church, was necessary, in which
membership should be voluntary. And no one could be com-
pelled to undertake missionary service: here, again, it was a
voluntary matter. But if missions called for a voluntary
service, that was not to leave God out of account. In his
missionary idea God was central. If he recognized the aid of
discovery and government and transportation and learning.
146 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
it was evident to him that these were means that God had
used and was using, to open the way for His people to ac-
complish the great task committed to them of making Him
known to all peoples.
The content of his missionary idea was large and all-
inclusive. Evangelism was fundamental and central. This
stands out in his appeals for the organization of the enter-
prise. It was constantly emphasized in his letters. The first
article of the Serampore Covenant was " To set an infinite
value on men's souls." Evangelism was his constant prac-
tice, even when he was teaching and translating in Fort Wil-
liam College. His missionary idea included also making the
Bible known universally. Hence his feverish endeavour to
provide translations in all the languages of southern Asia.
Next to the spoken message was his emphasis on the message
of the Word itself. Then with this came his inclusion of
education in the missionary idea. Through this means he
would provide native evangelists trained to interpret the
Scriptures and to lead the growing Church, men who would
be broad in their knowledge and faithful in their search for
truth, while they laid chief stress upon mastering the Bible.
His breadth of interest brought social ministry into his mis-
sionary idea also, and led to his activity in ridding India of
age-long evils like the drowning of children in the Ganges,
suttee, and slavery. Finally, his clear grasp of the mission-
ary idea brought into that idea a wide interdenominational
fellowship in missionary service. He was a Baptist, but he
saw that the pioneer work that constitutes Christian missions
makes possible and imperative the co-operation of all who
hold to the central things of Christ and His Gospel " Every
public institution aiming at India's betterment," he said,
"ought to be constructed on so broad a basis as to invite
the aid of all denominations."
Carey, then, greatly enriched the content of the missionary
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 147
idea; lie made basic the evangelistic purpose in missions; he
built his missionary organization upon the principle of vol-
untary enlistment; he placed the responsibility for carrying
the Gospel to all the world upon all Christians; and he based
his missionary idea, like von Weltz and the Pietists, on the
whole purpose of God as revealed in Scripture and on the
experience of God that we have in Christ. Such was Carey's
missionary idea.
VI
The missionary idea did not end its development with
Carey; it is still growing. So to complete our study we
must look at the idea as we see it today.
Its content, immensely broadened by Carey, has become
still richer. The wall of separation between home and for-
eign missions has to a considerable extent been removed and
our missionary idea includes both as essential parts of the
one idea and purpose. Government, business, travel, and
other occupations are seen to have the most intimate relation
to the missionary enterprise, and we are beginning, rather
vaguely, to include in our missionary idea their Christian-
ization. We recognize phases of truth in the non-Christian
religions, and we are seeking to adjust our attitude to them
in such a way as will bring into our missionary idea a close
relation of Christianity to these non- Christian faiths. Thus
far our grasp of this relation is not clear, and the result
among some students of missions has been vagary of thought
that tends to cut the nerve of missions.
The missionary idea has still only a limited acceptance.
Efforts for the widening of its acceptance have become im-
mensely greater in number, in variety, in studied planning,
and those who are acquainted with the missionary task are
probably much better informed than were their fathers, while
probably the number well informed is greater than ever be-
148 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
fore. But the proportion of members of Christian churches
who accept the missionary idea for themselves is still exceed-
ingly small; only a minority have it as a dominating purpose
in their lives. Those who accept the missionary idea recog-
nize it as of universal application in the Christian Church,
but the idea has yet to be grasped by the great majority.
And this applies not only to the Church at home but in large
measure to the Church on the mission field. One of the
great problems facing Christian leaders in mission lands, and
one that is far from being widely seen and appreciated, is to
instill into the minds and hearts of the Christians the mis-
sionary idea in its fulness. Many churches among the na-
tionals are evangelistic, but relatively few are missionary.
What still prevents the full acceptance of the missionary
idea? Many things could be named; we have hardly space
to do more than list them. First can be mentioned national-
ism, an exaggerated patriotism and egoistic self-complacency
that makes much of the importance of one's own country and
nation and has little thought for the value of others. Closely
related is race antagonism, found widely among those who
are otherwise Christian, and raising a barrier between indi-
viduals and groups and races that effectually prevents mis-
sionary interest or a fundamental friendliness. A third
obstacle is secularism, influential not only outside the Church
but in it, making us blind to the spiritual needs of the world
in our emphasis upon human life and activity apart from
God. Astonishingly common in this apparently well-informed
age is a narrow mental outlook, which is a fourth difficulty
in the acceptance of the missionary idea. Newspapers with
a lack of due proportion in importance of emphasis govern
the mental attitude of the great majority, and relatively few
read books that challenge thought and widen outlook*
Churches could hardly render a larger service in the forma-
tion of the missionary attitude than to widen the mental
MISSIONARY IDEA IN PROTESTANTISM 149
and at the same time the spiritual outlook of their mem-
bers. The final obstacle, and the fundamental one, is the
dull spiritual experience widely prevalent. The only source
of missionary interest, as I have frequently pointed out in
tracing the development of the missionary idea, is a genuine
religious experience in fellowship with God. Only in this can
the missionary idea find root. Where it is lacking, and to
the extent to which it is lacking, the missionary duty will not
be accepted. Fundamentally, the way to the full acceptance
of the missionary idea is along the line of its development in
the thought of von Weltz and his successors, the deepening
of the religious consciousness and experience. That which
is central in Protestantism, the personal fellowship with
God in Christ, is what must be stressed most of all. It
is this idea, central to Protestantism and central to the
Gospel, which will yet bring the whole Church to accept
the missionary idea.
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS
EVENTS do not happen. This is as true in history as
in chemistry or physics. Back of all the great epi-
sodes and facts in the history of the world's life
there were movements and events out of which they inevi-
tably grew. History is a chain of cause and effect. The
relation of this to missionary history was discussed in the
first chapter. Missionary movements have always been
the result of causes which, in part at least, we can trace.
To discover and explain these causes and their resulting
effects is the work of the historian. The causes as well as
the effects are important for any one who is to understand
the history of the missionary enterprise, or the meaning
of the great epochs in that history. We are now living in
one of those epochs, one which began with William Carey.
It is easy to think of him as simply a man who in the provi-
dence of God was raised up to lead in the inauguration of
the modern missionary movement. We are not by any means
to leave out God all history is of His making. But Carey
and his movement were the result of factors and forces which
God used. Carey was the culmination of definite movements
in that great period which began with the Protestant Refor-
mation. We may think of Mm as standing at the focus of
certain forces, the meeting-place of many streams. What
some of these streams were we can clearly see.
I
One of the streams of influence was exploration. The
ISO
THE SOURCES OP MODERN MISSIONS 151
story of exploration is a fascinating one, full of bold adven-
ture, heroic effort, persistent faith, thrilling events, not to
overlook the cruelty and selfish ambitions of many of the
adventurers. The Portuguese were the leaders, under Prince
Henry the Navigator and his successors. Seeking for a new
route to the rich lands of the East they pushed steadily
down the west coast of Africa, until in 1497 Diaz reached
the Cape of Good Hope, and ten years later Vasco da Gama
sailed around the tip of the continent and on to India.
Other voyagers travelled down the east coast of Africa. In
1500 Cabral, sailing westward, reached Brazil. Still other
explorers followed in da Gama's track and raised the Portu-
guese flag in Ceylon. Others pushed still farther east, and
finally reached the Spice Islands. By 1511 Portugal had
spread far across the world.
Spain was not much behind its neighbour Portugal. Co-
lumbus reached San Salvador in 1492 and the American
continent in 1498. Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama
in 1513 and looked out upon the Pacific Ocean. In 1519
Magellan started on his world-encircling voyage, and though
he himself lost his life in the Philippines, one of his lieuten-
ants, del Cano, completed the circumnavigation of the globe.
Cabrillo reached the California coast in 1542. And many
other Spanish discoverers sought and found new lands in
East and West, or like Cortes and Pizarro extended Spanish
dominion in the lands made known by others.
Next came the French. The Pope had divided the new
world between Spain and Portugal, but neither France nor
Holland, nor indeed England, cared for that decision.
France sent Verrazano to the North American shores in
1524, and ten years later Jacques Cartier explored the St.
Lawrence River* The French were not particularly active
in original discovery, but they followed others in valuable
explorations, as when Champlain journeyed up the St. Law-
152 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
rence Valley, and LaSalle and Marquette opened the vast
Mississippi Valley to the world.
The Dutch tried to find a northeast passage along the
roof of the continent north of Europe, though without suc-
cess. But around the turn of the sixteenth century they
had a notable succession of explorers in the Pacific, within
half a century taking most of Portugal's possessions from
her, and adding discoveries along the coasts of Australia,
New Zealand and other shores. A notable name in Ameri-
can exploration was Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the
employ of the Dutch, who placed on the map the bay and
river that bear his name.
Last came the English, with Cabot making his noteworthy
discovery of the North American coast in 1497. Other
familiar names are Frobisher and Gilbert, and the best
known of all, Francis Drake. The latter's freebooting expe-
dition down the South American coast and around Cape
Horn made the world acquainted with the western shores
of America and enriched the coffers of Elizabeth.
By 1700 almost all the world's coastline was known. And
already exploring had led to colonizing. Settlements were
made by Portugal in India, Africa and Brazil; by Spain in
South and Central America and the Philippines; by France
in Canada and India; by the Dutch in New Netherlands,
Guiana, South Africa, the East Indies and Ceylon; by the
Danes in the West Indies and India; by the English in
North America, the West Indies and India. Some of the
colonists went out just for adventure, to see the world, to
enjoy the novelty of a new kind of life, and perhaps to have
some exciting experiences. Some went because they were
down and out, or were politically ostracized, or were crim-
inals exiled by the government. Others sought for gold, or
trade, or wealth in some other form. Still others went as
representatives of their rulers, to enlarge the national terri-
THE SOUECES OF MODEEN MISSIONS 153
tory and expand the national life. And finally, there were
those who were adventurers for religious freedom or who
crossed the seas to win the newly-found peoples to the
Christian faith.
In general there was little religious or missionary interest
in the colonies. The settlers in New England were mostly
an exception though as a matter of fact not all of them by
any means were really Christian, or eager for the spread of
the Gospel. There were some other exceptions, like the
Friends, and later the Moravians, in the middle colonies,
who had strong religious life and engaged in missions to the
Indians. And in French Canada the Jesuits, with monks and
nuns of other orders, impressed religion upon the daily life
of the people in the settlements, and gained a fairly strong
popular support for their missionary undertakings. Spain,
on the other hand, never established colonies in the real
sense, and the Spanish settlements, full of adventurers and
gold-seekers, were not encouraging centres for the heroic
efforts of the early Roman Catholic missionaries. In India
and the East the great trading companies ruled, and none
of them was genuinely favourable to missions, being afraid
that religion and business would not mix at least not to
the advantage of business. The colonists were almost all
connected with the work of the company, English or French
or Danish or Dutch, and had little religion of their own
and none to spare for the natives. There were noble excep-
tions among the colonists, and there is a brief missionary
story to the credit of the Dutch East India Company, with
a meagre one in the history of the British Company; but
by and large the new settlements were not centres of relig-
ious life nor very favourable bases for missions.
Nevertheless the explorers and the colonists blazed a trail
for the missionaries. Exploration was of high importance
as a factor in the making of modem missions. To begin
THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
with, the explorers opened new lands for Christian enter-
prise, and made known new peoples for Christianization.
They told strange tales of the customs and religious life of
the natives, and stirred the interest of some at home. Some
of the rulers recognized their responsibility to these new
heathen subjects of theirs, and the missionary orders of the
Roman Church promptly took up the work of making the
new-found peoples Christian. The story of the great orders
is a story of fascinating heroism and devotion, though of
mistaken method and ideals. But the significant thing is
that it was the explorers who stirred the friars and the
Jesuits to the carrying on of missionary endeavour. Ex-
ploration became a fruitful source of Roman Catholic mis-
sionary effort. The Protestants were slow to respond to
the opportunity which the colonies offered, but gradually
opened their eyes to the vision that the new world spread
before them, and at last answered the challenge as the
Roman missionaries had begun to do earlier. The notable
fact is that but for the explorers there would have been no
missionaries, for there would have been no mission lands or
peoples of whom they would have known. The missionary
enterprise owes this great debt to the adventurers and
explorers.
Another significant result of the exploring movement was
that it opened new routes of travel. That was, of course,
particularly true as respects the Far East. Before the fif-
teenth century trade was carried over the long highways
that stretched across Asia. Those who travelled used these
land routes. But they were very difficult there were no
roads such as we know, or even such as the Romans had
built across Europe and they were dangerous. Moreover,
after the Crusades they were in the hands of the Moslems,
and it was almost impossible for others to travel them, or
indeed even to reach them from Europe. But the discovery
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 155
of a sea route to the East revolutionized travel to that part
of the world. The way of the sea might be a dangerous one,
but it was as safe as the way of the land, and it was surer,
for it was not controlled by the Moslems, but was open to
all. Africa, too, was made accessible by the new explora-
tions. Hitherto the mighty Sahara had shut off travellers
completely from the continent to the south. The voyages
of Diaz and da Gama and others showed a way to reach the
wonderful lands along the coast. So, too, towards the
golden West. With the establishment of the colonies well-
known routes were opened across the Atlantic, and those
who would could travel over them. Peoples who had been
known very vaguely, or were quite unknown, could now be
reached. And what is true of the sea is true of the new
trails opened through the new continents. Pizarro laid
highways for the Dominicans and the Jesuits. Champlain
and LaSalle prepared the way for the missionaries to the
Indians. In later decades the Protestant missionaries began
to use the newly-opened routes. A most notable illustration
of the service that exploration has rendered to Christian
missions was given in more modern times by Livingstone,
whose travels spread wide open the heart of the Dark Con-
tinent to the heralds of the Gospel. But his is only one
name in the list. It was a great and unexpected service
that was rendered to missions when the explorers and the
colonizers opened the new thoroughfares of travel across
the world.
The discovery of new lands and peoples also broadened
the outlook of the Christians at home. Not that a great
many of them thought in terms of the new Christian oppor-
tunity it took a long time for the Church, especially the
Protestant Church, to be awakened to that vision but they
began to live in a larger world, and that was the most valu-
able sort of a preparation for missionary interest. The
156 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
trouble still with too many Christians is that they live in
too small a world. It would be a great stimulus to every
Christian to have a map of the world hung before him on
the walls of his home or his church, so that he could be
constantly reminded of the great world in which he lives s i
It was bound to widen the interest of the members of the
churches at home to be hearing tales of the life beyond the
sea, and to have some of their friends or perhaps their own
family go out to live in the new colonies. Sooner or later,
here and there, Christian people would be led to think of
their Christian responsibility for those new colonies and for
the heathen people there. When that feeling should become
widespread, and should grip the heart of some leader, like
Francke or Zinzendorf or Carey, then the Protestant mis-
sionary enterprise would be born. But the preparation was
necessary, and the gradual widening of the horizon of the
world in which Christians lived was one of the factors in
that preparation.
Even more significant in the relation between exploration
and missions was the fact that the story of those who were
adventuring for gold and trade stimulated actual Christian
adventure. Not only was there a vision of a larger world,
but many had a vision of a larger duty. Where the explor-
ers went, there the missionaries would go. Wherever new
lands were opened, the bold friars or the equally brave
Jesuits sought a place of service. So we have the stirring
tales of the Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay and Canada
and Goa, of the Augustinians and others in the Philippines,
of the Franciscans in California; and in the Protestant story
the thrilling adventures of the humble Moravians, the stir-
ring story of John Williams in the South Seas, and the fever-
ish response of the Church Missionary Society to the appeal
of Stanley for missionaries to Uganda, as well as the eager
enlistment of Christian forces for Japan as soon as that
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 157
land was opened to foreigners. The missionary enterprise
is indebted to the adventurers through many centuries for
the inspiration for its task.
Still another point of significance for the development of
the missionary movement is found in the fact that the
colonies became bases for the evangelization of the native
peoples. The settled centres to which the missionaries went
were of immense help to them and this in spite of excep-
tions like the Banish colony at Tranquebar, whose governor
hindered Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau in every possible way,
and the attitude of local officials of the British East India
Company in Calcutta and elsewhere. It was natural that
the missionaries should go to the colonies. There they
would find an orderly government, protection would be fur-
nished if needed, supplies could be secured for their work,
the people spoke their tongue or one that they could under-
stand. It was to the colonies that the vessels sailed that
were to carry them to their work, and in the colonies they
might perhaps secure the help of co-workers. The story of
missions is very intimately connected with the story of
colonization. Father Fleche in Champlain's settlement in
Nova Scotia, Francis Xavier at the Portuguese colony of
Goa in western India, George Schmidt in Dutch South Af-
rica, the Danish mission sent at the instance of King Fred-
erick IV. to Tranquebar, the chaplains that accompanied
Cromwell's expedition that made Jamaica a British colony,
the choice of India as the field for Carey's epoch-making
missionary beginnings these are illustrations from the
story of the missionary pioneers. Almost invariably they
made a colony their base, and from that as a centre
worked far out into the interior. From these many
points of view the work of exploration was one of the fun-
damental factors in the making of the modern missionary
enterprise.
158 THE MAKING OF MODERN" MISSIONS
II
Trade was another such factor. The chief aim of the
explorers was to establish routes of trade. There were
some, as we have seen, who went for treasure, and some
who went just for the thrill of going, but the great com-
manding purpose of the princes and kings and queens who
paid the expenses of the exploring expeditions was to open
a way to the East and thus secure a share in its rich trade;
or to find a route to the West and establish a monopoly of
the trade in the new world. It was this that led Prince
Henry the Navigator to send his ships down the African
coast, it was this that stirred the imagination of Columbus
and drew him forth on his great adventure, it was this that
brought Champlain to Canada and Hudson to New Nether-
lands, and carried Magellan and del Cano on their world-
encircling voyage across the Atlantic and the Pacific from
Spain around to Spain again. As a result of the voyages
and discoveries a new world of commercial possibilities was
opened to the peoples of Europe, and they were not slow to
take advantage of it. Trade grew rapidly. New foods
appeared. New articles of apparel were to be had. New
wants were developed. And commerce spread from Europe
to the ends of the earth. The growth of trade during the
sixteenth century was so great that it has been spoken of
as " the commercial revolution." 1
Out of this great trading movement grew the famous
trading companies, of which " The Governor and Company
of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies," in
other words the British East India Company, is the best
known though by no means the only one. These chartered
companies were established by almost every European
country. There was one or more for nearly every section
1 Hayes, Political and Social History of Modern
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 159
of the new lands east and west. Besides the British East
India Company, the French, the Dutch, the Danish and
others had companies with a monopoly of trading privileges
in the East. And there was the Company of New France,
the Dutch West India Company, the London and Plymouth
Companies, and others. Their aim, the aim of them all, was
trade, business, profits. What Warneck, with but little ex-
aggeration, says of the British East India Company could
largely be said of all: " It sought gain, always gain; every
idea higher than a money standard was alien to it." a With
their business privileges they combined rights of govern-
ment, and though the parliaments and courts at home held
a veto power and not infrequently gave their commands in
unmistakable language, the companies were practically su-
preme. Their attitude toward missionary effort, therefore,
was most important and influential. And it will be readily
understood that with so strong an emphasis on profits as
Warneck 7 s quotation suggests, there was not likely to be
much interest in missions. The British East India Company
was not unwilling that its chaplains should do a limited
amount of missionary work, provided it could keep it well
in hand, that is, hold it subordinate to its aims for money-
making. But to a general missionary enterprise, uncon-
trolled by them, the British Company, as all the companies
with scarcely an exception, were vigorously, often violently,
opposed. 8 The experience of Judson and his companions in
being expelled from India by the government is illustrative
of the attitude of that company and of most of the others.
Where there was not open opposition there was indifference,
as in the case of the Dutch East India Company, which, like
the British Company indeed, had in Its charter a provision
a Outline of a History of Protestant Missions, 78.
a Mayhew, Arthur, Christianity and the Government of India,
Ft. I.
160 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
for carrying on missionary work, and which began faith-
fully, soon to lose interest in the enterprise, however, and
to do nothing of a genuine character in missionary effort.
Indeed, the giving up of its Seminarium Indicum because
the graduates gave too much attention to the evangelization
of the natives is an indication and illustration of the funda-
mentally unfavourable attitude of the Dutch and other
trading companies toward missions. But, as we shall see,
these great trading organizations nevertheless became im-
portant factors in the development of the modern missionary
enterprise.
It was natural that the companies should develop the
keenest rivalry. They wanted a monopoly of trade in the
countries where they had established colonies, but several
occupied the same territory or were close neighbours. They
had powers of government, they maintained military forces,
and it was easy to come into collision with each other.
Conflicts between the company armies drew the home gov-
ernments into conflict. Sometimes the rulers in Europe
themselves began the strife. Sooner or later all the coun-
tries having trading companies engaged in war with one
or another of their rivals; but the outstanding struggle for
supremacy was that in which France and England engaged.
It was a long contest, culminating in the middle of the
eighteenth century with the victory of the English in Canada
and India. This victory of England was not only important
in its economic and political results: it was most significant
for missions. The substitution of a Protestant for a Roman
Catholic power laid the foundation in Canada for the strong
base of missionary expansion which Canada has since be-
come. In India it brought Protestants in increasing num-
bers into the country as rulers and potential friends of
missions and as missionaries themselves. Moreover, the
British people at home, who were Protestants, became inter-
THE SOURCES OP MODERN MISSIONS 161
ested in India as their own territory, and the Christians
among them could not but recognize, ultimately, the respon-
sibility which the possession of this great missionary terri-
tory placed upon them. And not least in importance was
the fact that when they finally did turn their hand to mis-
sions there was a great field available for them to which they
were most intimately related. What is said as to the impor-
tance to Protestant missions of the supremacy of Protestant
England in India applies likewise to the supremacy of Prot-
estant Holland in the East Indies. Had Portugal or Spain
retained the control the missionary history of those islands
would have been vastly different. The opposite situation in
South America, with the resulting religious history, is signifi-
cant in this connection.
The culminating feature of the trade movement in these
centuries the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth was
the Industrial Revolution In England. Apart from economic
and social factors the causes were the inventions which made
possible improved and increased product in manufacturing,
such as the power loom, the spinning mule and jenny, and
the cotton gin, and the successful application of steam to
manufacturing and transportation. The result was an im-
mense increase in manufacturing and the changing of Eng-
land from an agricultural to a manufacturing country. Busy
factory villages sprang tip, towns came into prominence, and
some of the towns rapidly developed into cities. A middle
class of manufacturers and business men appeared, who be-
came promoters of culture and learning. Canals and roads
brought the people together, and the rapid increase of manu-
factured goods and the need for increased raw product
resulted in great expansion of shipping.
The whole trade movement, and especially the Industrial
Revolution, formed one of the most significant factors in the
development of the missionary enterprise. First of all, like
162 THE MAKING OF MODEBN MISSIONS
exploration, it provided an acquaintance with non-Christian
peoples. The many new articles of food from the new lands,
the things to wear that were brought from over the sea, these
and other things brought it about that the large number of
folk who were in one way or another connected with manu-
facturing and trading had their thought turned constantly
to the lands from which the raw products came or to which
the finished articles went. The whole trading movement
tended to expand the mental outlook of the people and to
broaden their knowledge and interest. And not the least
element in this expansion of outlook was the personal knowl-
edge gained by many who were sailors or traders and who
made the voyage to the new lands themselves. Foreign
trade made America and the Indians, India and the Hindus,
household words in England.
A middle class, as we have seen, grew out of the develop-
ment of the commercial and trading movement. The impor-
tance of this to missions is not hard to see. The middle
class, made up principally of the manufacturers and commer-
cial men and their families, became the group that supported
and promoted missionary work. This is the class on which
the enterprise largely rests now, and it rested on it then.
And the manufacturing villages and small towns were the
centres where missionary interest was to be found. It was
among the factory population of the midland counties that
the organizers and supporters of the first societies lived.
Witness Carey and Fuller and their associates. When the
leaders of the Baptist Society went up to London to enlist
the co-operation of the Baptists of the metropolis they met
a cold reception; the movement arose in the villages and
towns, the manufacturing centres, the home of the new mid-
dle class. Here was the stronghold of the evangelical move-
ment, here were the aggressive commercial men, and here the
effort to Christianize the new-found peoples took root.
THE SOUECES OF MODERN MISSIONS 163
Moreover, as I have pointed out, culture and learning were
promoted by the commercial men. They established libra-
ries and institutes, such as the Leicester Institute from which
Carey gained so much, and thus broadened the knowledge
and widened the outlook of large numbers of people. Thus
they helped to lay the foundation of interest on which the
missionary enterprise was built.
The new acquaintance with the non-Christian people in
India and elsewhere, gained through trade, and the response
of the commercial men and traders to the challenge of the
new opportunity, tended to arouse in church members a
sense of their own Christian responsibility for those people.
The moral response answered to the commercial response.
Not that there was an immediate uprising of the churches
comparable to the commercial revolution that, of course,
was not at all the case but the influence was at work, and
after a while it was to issue, with other influences, in definite
effort for those who were thus brought to their attention
through trade.
An outstanding result of the development of trading colo-
nies, the organization of the companies, and the growth of
foreign trade was the providing of ample means of transpor-
tation and communication. The trade routes meant regular
lines of travel. The companies had to have plenty of ships,
and these were available to a greater or less extent for mis-
sionary travel and the shipping of missionary supplies. To
be sure, the opposition of the British Company to missionary
effort prevented Carey from sailing on one of their ships, and
made it necessary for Morrison to go to China by way of
America, but even so they did go finally in trading ships,
Carey in a ship of the Danish Company and Morrison in an
American trading vessel. So also in the case of the Dahish
missionaries to Tranquebar and the Dutch missionaries to
the East Indies; they were able to make use of the facilities
164 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
for travel provided by the companies of their own lands.
Others for the most part travelled the same way, Roman
Catholic missionaries to Canada, Moravians to the West In-
dies. War vessels were sometimes used, but of course there
were no passenger liners; trade furnished the facilities for
travel and shipping and mails. It is difficult to over-
emphasize the importance of this factor. One can sense
something of the service provided by the companies to the
missionaries by trying to imagine what the situation would
have been had there been no such facilities. It is hard to see
how missionaries could have reached their fields; at least
they would have had very long delays, even longer than
what they did sometimes experience. Transportation and
communication were provided for missions by the growth of
trade. And the Industrial Revolution, immensely stimulat-
ing trade abroad, added proportionately to the shipping and
.other facilities that were made available.
Ill
A third source of the modern missionary movement is to
be found in learning and the spread of knowledge. The sev-
enteenth and eighteenth centuries set before us a galaxy of
great lights in the firmament of learning. Newton and Huy-
gens in physics, Boyle and Lavoisier and Rumford in chem-
istry, Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Laplace and Herschel in
astronomy, these are only leading names in a long list.
Knowledge which in the Middle Ages had been limited by
its strictly moral emphasis, and which in the Renaissance
had been enriched by the treasures of the ancients, now was
set free entirely to seek truth wherever it could be found.
The theory of education was broadened. Bacon brought out
the inductive method in England and Comenius developed it
on the Continent, And the natural result of this free search
for truth was the development of popular education, Schools
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 165
grew in number and were made available not only for those
of high social station but those of low degree as well. In the
manufacturing villages as well as in the cities schools were
established. And other educational agencies were added;
newspapers began to be issued in England about the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century and rapidly grew in number
and circulation; libraries werfe opened and institutes and
forums were founded. The result of all this was a wide
spread of learning, and the development of a spirit of open-
mindedness toward new ideas, both of which played their
part in preparing the way for the missionary undertaking.
The modern educational movement, so briefly sketched,
had great significance for missions. In the first place, there
was the broader knowledge of the world which came to the
common people, and to the people in general. This was not
mere hearsay or rumour or common talk. It appeared in
books of geography and history and travel, in reports and
published letters, in the wealth of information and new ideas
that schools and libraries and institutes and newspapers
brought to the minds of the people. Carey's leather globe,
from which he taught his pupils about the people of distant
continents and far-away islands of the southern seas, is an
excellent illustration of the way in which this popular knowl-
edge was broadened. Of course, without knowledge there
could be no interest, but with the wider and more intensi-
fied knowledge that came to the people of England there
was laid a broad foundation for the appeal which was to
come to them to send the evangel to other peoples. Espe-
cially did the broader and more hospitable attitude of mind
which the newer learning fostered become a factor in open-
ing the minds of the people to such bold new plans and
projects as the missionary undertaking.
A second result of modern learning that was favourable to
missions was the development of educated leaders among
166 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Christians. It is significant that practically every great
movement for advance in the world's history has been led
by one who had thorough education. Especially can that be
said of the advancing history of Christianity. Paul, Colum-
banus, Luther, Loyola, Wesley, Carey, Judson these are
illustrations. So far as modern Protestant missions are con-
cerned this was particularly significant, as that movement
grew up largely among the humbler folk, who in an earlier
generation would have produced no educated men. They
would have been led by those without education, and the
movement would have lacked wise organization and develop-
ment. But the wide spread of learning provided the new
movement with trained leadership, and thus made a contri-
bution to it in a field of the greatest importance.
A third element of significance in the relation of learning
to the modem missionary enterprise is to be found in the
fact that the universities became centres of missionary effort.
Not to mention Paris, whence came the Society of Jesus, one
thinks of Halle, the home of Pietism and the centre of the
Danish-Halle mission, as well as the source of missionary
influence among the Moravians through Zinzendorf ; Oxford,
where the Wesleys and Whitefield studied and formed their
" Holy Club," the precursor of the Wesley Revival out of
which came the missionary societies of Carey and his follow-
ers; Williams College, where Rice and Mills and their com-
panions held their Haystack Prayer Meeting and formed the
society of The Brethren for the promotion of a missionary
undertaking, a purpose which became a reality in the Ameri-
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the
Baptist Triennial Convention. In France and Germany and
England and America learning thus made a contribution of
the utmost significance how great it was appears as we
consider the part that the universities and colleges have
played in the missionary enterprise since those days, as sug-
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 167
gested by such names as Duff, the Universities Mission in
Africa, and the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign
Missions. In these and other ways learning proved a most
important source for modern missions.
IV
There were other streams of influence that contributed to
the making of the missionary enterprise of modern days.
One might mention nationalism, closely connected with ex-
ploration and colonization, yet a distinct factor. And hu-
manitarianism, arising in France with no Christian interest
whatsoever, but spreading to England and arousing the
Christians of that land to their responsibility for giving the
best they had for the enrichment of the life of others. But
we must content ourselves here with one other factor, the
most important of all, evangelicalism.
When we turn back to the beginnings of evangelical faith
in the Reformation we are struck with the almost entire ab-
sence of the missionary idea. This I discussed in detail in
the previous chapter. The significant thing, as I pointed out,
is not the lack of missionary effort but the lack of missionary
interest: it was not in the thought of the Reformation lead-
ers and there was no expression of regret that opportunity or
resources did not make a Protestant missionary enterprise
possible. But as we saw, in the evangelical life and message
of Protestantism there was the basis, the germ, from which
missions would develop in time.
If there was no missionary interest in the sixteenth cen-
tury there was little to be looked for in the seventeenth.
This was a century of formalism in religion. The warm
evangelical life of the earlier days had cooled and a religious
life succeeded it that had no vitality and spiritual experience
and hence no outreach of missionary thought or effort. But
towards the end of the century a reaction followed in the
168 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
direction of vital religion. Pietism arose, emphasizing real
experience on the one hand and a practical expression of that
experience on the other. Thus the Pietists had the necessary
spiritual basis for missionary effort and a definitely practical
attitude which gave them an interest in such an undertaking.
Out of Pietism grew the Danish-Halle mission in India, and
through Francke its missionary interest reached Zinzendorf
and the Moravians. In the Moravian Church we have an-
other high point in the development of the evangelical factor,
contributing to missions its principle of the identity of
church membership and missionary duty and the example
of high consecration to actual missionary work on the part
of its members. To this must also be added its influence
upon Wesley and hence upon Carey and his associates.
The Wesley Revival was the culminating phase of the
evangelical movement which we are tracing. In the England
of the eighteenth century religious life was again at a low
ebb. The court was notoriously corrupt; society was honey-
combed with immorality; thought was largely dominated by
French atheism or by deism; the Church's religious life was
stagnant and utterly lacking in vital religious experience.
As William Jay said, " The establishment was asleep in the
dark and the dissenters were asleep in the light." Against
the background of such conditions the Wtesleys and White-
field pteached their Gospel of personal salvation and real
Christian experience. The results are well known. A moral
and religious transformation spread through England, evan-
gelical churches sprang up everywhere among the middle
class, the free churches were revived, and an evangelical
group arose within the established Church. The influence
reached America and even the Continent. And the leaders,
like John Wesley, had an active missionary interest, grow-
ing out of their emphasis upon vital religion. The move-
ment was essentially missionary.
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 169
We do not need to trace the history of the evangelical
movement in greater detail, for it is generally familiar.
Moreover, the previous chapter, on " The Development of
the Missionary Idea in Protestantism," largely supplements
what is said here. Among all the factors that made for the
development of the modern Protestant missionary enterprise
evangelical religion is to be considered supreme. Viewing
the whole movement from Luther to Wesley, we can see,
first of all, how it vitalized all the other factors. Humanly
speaking, apart from exploration, trade, nationalism, hu-
manitariamsm, learning and the rest, there would have been
no Protestant missions. But with them all there would have
been none except for the evangelical movement. It gave life
and Christian influence to all the others and made them
actual missionary factors instead of merely potential factors.
More definitely, evangelicalism furnished the germ for a
sure missionary development. Even though the Reformation
leaders did not sense the missionary implications of the Prot-
estant faith, that faith had within it what was bound to ex-
press itself ultimately in the widest missionary outreach.
The real religious life which it emphasized, in distinction
from any imagined salvation by sacerdotal magic, was cer-
tain to lead those who had this experience to share it as
widely as possible; and with its Gospel of ecclesiastical free-
dom it was sure sooner or later to break forth in such broad
missionary effort as was seen in the Pietist movement, the
Moravian Church, the Wesley Revival and the Missionary
Society of William Carey.
Again, the evangelical movement provided actual exam-
ples of missionary endeavour, which would tend to encourage
further and larger effort. There were individual missions on
the part of some who caught the missionary significance of
the evangelical faith, like Peter Heiling in Abyssinia, von
Weltz in Guiana, and workers among the Indians in America
170 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
such as Eliot, Brainerd and the Mayhews. There were so-
cieties that had an early part in American missions, the New
England Company and the Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge. There was the organized mission of
the Danish government and the Halle Pietists in Tranque-
bar, and the gathering stream of Moravian missionaries with
such names as Zinzendorf, Nitzschmann and Dober, and
David Zeisberger. And there was the British Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, practically a
colonial society but with a basically missionary aim. It
would not be probable that these would be unknown to
evangelical leaders, or that they would be without influence
on their attitude and outlook. To be sure, the influence was
long in gathering force, and other influences were needed,
but nothing is more powerful than example. Doubtless von
Weltz's personal enlistment in the missionary undertaking
was quite as influential as his treatises, and the sight of a
little church like that of the Moravians at Herrnhut giving
itself with such unanimity of devotion to the missionary
cause must have aroused evangelicals elsewhere to inquire
as to their own responsibility for that cause. We know how
John Wesley was affected by Ms contact with the Morav-
ians; It may well be that the missionary impulse that we
have said was a characteristic of the Wesley Revival was the
result, largely, of that contact and influence. Without doubt
the examples of missionary enlistment given by evangelical
leaders and groups strongly reinforced the idea that the
evangelical faith was essentially missionary and developed
the germ of missionary growth which was within it-
Finally, the evangelical movement laid the basis for the
organization of modern Protestant missions m the evangel-
ical churches which resulted from it in England, It was
from these churches among the non-conformists or in the
Church of England that the leaders of the missionary move-
THE SOURCES OF MODERN MISSIONS 171
ment came. Carey and Fuller were pastors of such churches
among the Baptists and organized the Baptist Missionary
Society; Philip Doddridge, as pastor in Northampton, gave
the initial impulse that later resulted in the London Mission-
ary Society; the Church Missionary Society represented the
evangelical group in the Church of England: and the early
missionary societies in America and Germany were founded
by those who were stirred by the same movement of revival.
The evangelical stream did not spend itself in the awakening
of individuals; but through individuals it resulted in the
founding of churches with the missionary spirit, the reviving
of denominations and the awakening of their missionary re-
sponsibility, and at last the organizing of churches and
individuals into the missionary enterprise for which so long
a preparation had been making.
Here are the streams out of which came the modern mis-
sionary movement, the highways that led to ELettering and
Carey. Those who travelled along the highways the ex-
plorers, the traders, the scientists, the humanitarian leaders,
the evangelicals of the early days could not see whither
they led. We from our mountain peak can look back across
the world of history and see that at the end of the highways
stood Carey. He was the heir of all the contributions of
those who had come along the thoroughfares of the past. It
is easy, looking at Carey, to see in concrete ways how those
influences which we have been tracing built themselves into
the making of Carey himself and of the enterprise in whose
initiation he was the chief figure.
The explorers had made India known, and that became his
mission field. The trade movement had built the manufac-
turing villages where he lived and preached and where the
churches were to which he appealed in behalf of his mission-
ary undertaking, it was trade that had made India a great
172 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
colony and had brought it under the British flag, it was in a
trading ship of the Danish East India Company that he
sailed to India. Learning made its contribution to him
through Wesley and others, and notably in the Leicester
Institute where he read and studied and conversed with
more learned men. Finally, evangelical religion contributed
to the making of Carey in his conversion in Hackleton Meet-
ing and in the training which came to him at Moulton and
at Leicester. It was an evangelical group of churches and
leaders to whom he turned in his missionary plans. His was
an evangelical message, and beyond all his work as trans-
lator and teacher and reformer and scientist must be remem-
bered his passionate and ceaseless evangelism, that gripped
Mm so powerfully that his biographer could say of him that
" when he had no conversions he was like a woman craving
a child but knowing no motherhood, 7 ' * The evangelical
movement had implanted in him the deep religious life which
gathered together all the other contributions of the centuries
and turned them into one supreme effort to win men every-
where to Christ and to make life everywhere Christian.
* Carey, S. P,, William Carey, 180.
VI
THE AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
TWELVE hundred years ago! It was the heyday of
Christianity in Asia. Christian bishops in all the
large cities throughout the continent. Christians
among the Turks, the Afghans, the Tibetans. Christian
churches in China and Burma and Siam. Christian hymns
in Mongolian and a dozen other Asiatic tongues. Through
ten centuries of evangelism Christianity was carried across
Asia by the Nestorian Church, heretics in relation to Rome,
splendidly orthodox in relation to the Great Commission,
" the most missionary Church the world has ever seen." 1 It
stirs one's imagination to read the story. How tragic that
persecution and compromise should later wipe out the Chris-
tian faith from practically the whole of the great continent,
leaving hardly more than inscriptions and traditions to tell
us of those wonderful early centuries. But through the
years other streams of missionary effort have poured across
the world. And now again in, Asia, and indeed in almost
every land in every continent, the Christian Church has
its missionaries, telling to those of other faiths the story
of the Saviour born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary,
risen as a living hope the Saviour and the hope of all
the world.
It is a marvellous story, this story of Christian missions.
Nothing in all history equals it a story of adventure and
*A. Mingaaa, John Rylands Library, Manchester, quoted by
Stewart, Nestonan Missionary Enterprise, 88.
173
THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
faith and abounding love the story of the greatest and
most successful work of the Christian Church.
I
There is plenty of thrilling interest in the story, and les-
sons without number for us and for our twentieth century
Christian enterprise. But the question has to be asked,
What authority, after all, has Christianity for its missionary
undertaking? It is a question that cannot be avoided. For
the right of Christians to disturb those who already have a
religious faith is being challenged by many thinking people.
Some who raise the question are inside the Church; not all
are outside. Many Christians question the propriety of our
going to others with a Christianity that we have so imper-
fectly realized ourselves. And there are not a few who doubt
whether our Christian faith ever will or ever can dominate
the world.
Consider the present situation. Money is lacking for mis-
sionary work. To be sure, more is being given than for-
merly, but in view of the increased cost of missions as of
everything else there is scarcely more money available than
before the World War. Indeed, in many churches in recent
years the most strenuous sometimes almost frantic efforts
have been necessary just to keep the standard up to the
previous year, to say nothing of advance. This is a situation
all too familiar.
Consider the lack of prayer for missions, in church and
home. The missionary movement was born in prayer. The
apostles looked to the prayer life of the Church for stimulus
and power. The prayer lists in the Fraternity Books of the
eighth century monasteries were used constantly by Boni-
face in Germany and by others in England in their evangel-
izing of the people. It was through the concert of prayer
that the churches of Britain were prepared for William
AUTHORITY FOE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 175
Carey's challenge and the resulting missionary enterprise.
The prayer-meeting under the haystack at Williams College
started the American churches on their world adventure.
And there are multitudes still who support the missionary
work of the Church by their prayer. Except for their prayer
missions would die. Yet it cannot be said that the Church is
enthusiastic about missionary prayer. You can go for weeks
to many a church and seldom hear a prayer for missionaries,
for the Christians of mission lands, or for the awakening of
the Church at home to missionary earnestness.
Moreover, there is a lack of conviction as to the ultimate
success of Christianity in its missionary endeavour. We
read of the " mistakes " of missionaries in the past, of the
" failure " of missions in China or India or elsewhere. We
are asked, " Have not missionaries done more harm than
good? " The present success of missions is doubted, and the
future success as well. Even certain of the preliminary
studies for the Jerusalem Conference seemed to accept this
attitude, appearing to favour a co-operative search for God
Christians with Hindus or Buddhists as though Chris-
tianity were not to be expected to supplant other faiths.
So far as territorial advance is concerned, missions are
largely marking time. There has hardly been any forward
movement into new areas in a generation. The thorough-
going survey of unoccupied fields prepared as a preliminary
study for the Jerusalem Conference apparently received no
consideration by the Conference and does not appear in
the published Report. The emphasis has almost wholly
changed from geographical expansion to intensive Chris-
tianization. The latter is important, beyond question, but
meanwhile millions of men and women are untouched by
Christian influence and have no knowledge of a Saviour.
The challenging watchword of the Student Volunteer
Movement, "The Evangelization of the World in This
176 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
Generation," no longer stirs with its urgent appeal either
youth or adults.
All of this situation our poverty in money, in prayer, in
faith, in adventure means that there is lacking an intense
conviction of the need of the world for the Christian Gospel,
as a necessary, exclusive, supreme way of salvation and of
life; in other words, a weakness in the sense of authority
for Christian missions.
Four reasons suggest themselves for this lack of convic-
tion, this doubt as to the right and duty of Christians to
propagate their faith. One reason is the new attitude toward
the peoples of the East. We have come to a new appreci-
ation of their culture, their great literature, their historic
civilizations, and their wonderful achievements in our own
time. As between the Orientals who are here among us and
the bulk of their Occidental associates, we see no difference
morally. So our conception of their spiritual need, all too
commonly based on the externals of life, loses its intensity
and its urge. We have accepted the notion that the religion
of non-Christian peoples is of the same high character as the
culture that we admire, and we do not sense its woeful lack
of moral ideal and of saving spiritual power*
Indeed, our whole attitude toward those of other religious
faiths has radically changed. Our fathers believed that
those who died without having heard of Christ were eternally
lost. One remembers an address in which the speaker em-
phasized the great multitudes who because they had never
been told of Christ were passing out of this life into eternal
separation from God. Holding his watch in his hand, the
speaker counted off the seconds " one, two, three, four,
five, six " and one could almost see these lost souls as one
by one they passed out into the dark forever. It was a tre-
mendously gripping appeal. We do not hear appeals like
that today. Not many now believe that those who through
AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 177
no fault of their own have lacked the opportunity of know-
ing Christ are thus condemned from the presence of God. It
is more commonly held that God in His infinite love takes
account of the differing circumstances of life, and accepts
those who are obedient to the law written in their hearts,
and to that imperfect revelation of God which they have.
This belief has tremendously affected our sense of the
urgency and authority of our message. The tragedy of a
soul separated from God in eternity is gone; the equal
tragedy of a soul separated from God in this present life
does not grip us. So the authoritative command to go
and preach the Gospel to all peoples loses its urgency and
imperative.
A second reason for the present situation is the secular in-
terpretation of life, due in part to the scientific dominance of
life and thought. Unconsciously this has affected the atti-
tude of Christians. Science certainly does dominate our life.
The auto, the airplane, the printing-press, the movie, the
discoveries of medicine, the almost human machinery in our
factories, the ever increasing inventions and manufactures
that flood our stores and crowd our homes these testify to
the place that science has in our everyday life. We have
accepted the evolutionary interpretation of life, and in spite
of theistic affirmations by many outstanding scientists we
have largely left God out of the process. I repeat these
words, for they explain our situation and our attitude we
ham left God out of the process. That is to say, we have in
great measure adopted a non-religious interpretation of life,
and do not feel deeply either our own need for God or the
need of people elsewhere for Him. Material things dominate
us, rather than spiritual ideals. Science is a method of
thought; we are trying to make it an ideal for life. Civiliza-
tion, culture, trade, education these we gladly carry or send
to the peoples of the whole world; but God, Christ, salva-
178 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
tion from sin, do not stir us to a like missionary service and
sacrifice.
A third reason for our lack of belief in the authority of
the Christian message is our doubt as to what the Christian
message really is. There is strong contention and vehement
debate regarding the essentials of the Christian Gospel.
There are parties in our denominations and opposing groups
within our churches. Periodicals carry frequent articles on
the Christian message, with confusingly different interpre-
tations. Moreover, in many of the sermons to which
Christians listen there is lacking a positive message ; the dog-
matism of the past is happily gone, but the strong conviction
whose place nothing can take is not always in evidence. So
the positive assurance of the message of Scripture as God's
message, of the Christian Gospel of salvation as the only
Gospel and the only salvation, does not grip the hearts and
lives of Christians as they need to be gripped, to make them
feel the need of all men for that Gospel and that message.
Thus lack of conviction as to the message weakens the sense
of the supreme authority of our message.
The three reasons that have been given for the weakened
conviction as to the authoritativeness of Christian missions
apply more or less to the churches of both the West and the
East. But so far as Western Christianity is concerned a
fourth reason must be added. I refer to the luxury that
characterizes our personal and social life. Luxuries have
become needs, extravagances have become necessities. This
has centred our thought upon ourselves, and has turned our
attention away from others. After caring for our own wants
we have not money left to provide a doubtfully needed ser-
vice to people twelve thousand miles away. Our needs ap-
pear so great that we do not sense the needs of others in a
compelling way* Hence the weakness of the missionary
appeal.
AUTHORITY FOE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 179
II
What is the aim of Christian missions? This is a root
question when we inquire into the authority for the mission-
ary enterprise. Authority for what? What are we trying
to do?
The history of the missionary expansion of Christianity
presents a changing expression of the missionary aim. The
aim of Paul and his missionary successors was almost wholly
evangelistic the winning of individual disciples and the
organizing of these into churches. Some bit of social work
in the apostles' day is suggested by the directions given for
the care of widows, the advice as to the healing of the sick,
and the warnings against the dangers and injustices of
wealth. But evangelism was the chief thought, both in
apostolic times and in the days immediately succeeding. A
beginning was made a little later in organized theological
education, as in the important school of Pantaenus at Alex-
andria, but of other forms of education we hear little or
nothing. Provision was widely made for education in the
countries adjacent to the Mediterranean, and the social
needs and opportunities in these lands had not yet pressed
themselves upon the attention of the Church. Moreover,
what we know of missionary efforts in Britain, Abyssinia,
Persia and India during these early centuries supports the
view that in this period of missions evangelism was prac-
tically the exclusive aim and method,
The next great period, from the fifth to the twelfth centu-
ries, was devoted to the Christianizing of Asia and Europe.
The destruction of the widespread Christianity in Asia has
left us but a meagre knowledge of the missionary methods
employed. Evangelism was most prominent, but education
had a recognized place, translation and other literary work
received emphasis, and some attention was given to the
building of a Christian society. Of the methods and aims of
180 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
the missionaries in Europe we know much more. The char-
acteristic missionary instrument of both Romans and Celts
was the monastery. Recall what has been said in previous
chapters as to the monasteries and their significance. In
that period, it will be remembered, the monastery was not a
place of retreat from the world, but a training-school for
missionaries and evangelists, and a centre for religious cul-
ture, evangelism, education and industry. Missionaries who
went out from one of these monastic training-schools founded
other similar institutions, from which the evangel was car-
ried into all the country near and far. Within the monas-
tery the monks gave themselves to Bible copying and
translating and other literary activities. All around there
grew up a Christian community, with industries of various
kinds fostered by skilled leaders from the monastery.
Evangelism and Christian teaching were central, but liter-
ary, educational and social work held an important place.
In the midst of the culture of the Mediterranean lands there
was no insistent demand for Christian civilizing efforts; but
the ruder life of northern France and central Germany pre-
sented vividly the need for a broad Christian service, and
the methods and the aim were correspondingly more
comprehensive.
In the next period, that of the early Protestant missions
before Carey, evangelism was again the dominant, almost
sole method, Justinian von Weltz, the seventeenth century
Austrian baron who was the first Protestant to call the
Church insistently to missionary effort, set forth in his
treatises the duty simply of preaching the Gospel among the
heathen. The Pietist movement of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries was distinguished, as we have seen, by
its emphasis upon the inner religious experience, and the
Danish-Halle mission, manned by men of the Pietist school,
while broadening the aim a little, In general hewed close to
AUTHORITY FOB CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 181
the line of evangelism. So, too, the Moravians, who united
two lines of evangelical influence, the Unitas Fratrum of
Bohemia and the Pietism of Germany, in missions that have
had uniformly almost an exclusively evangelistic aim.
The modern missionary movement began with the broad-
est possible expression of missionary interest in Carey, who
added to his unbounded zeal in evangelism his never-
equalled series of Bible translations, his scholarly educa-
tional work, his social reforms, his translations of Indian
classics, and his scientific researches. Yet in this varied
ministry Carey was first of all an evangelist. " To set an
infinite value upon men's souls " we have quoted from the
covenant of the Serampore trio. Through his busiest days
he spent his Sundays and three days a week in outdoor evan-
gelistic work. " I hear you speaking of Dr. Carey, Dr.
Carey," said he to Duff on the last visit of the younger man
to the great pioneer; "when I am gone, say nothing about
Dr. Carey, speak about Dr. Carey's Saviour." Thus is ex-
pressed the central and fundamental aim in Carey's mis-
sionary plans.
Professor Richter, of Berlin, names the first two periods
of modern missions in India " The Age of William Carey "
and " The Age of Alexander Duff." a Carey, translator, edu-
cator, social reformer, scientist, was as we have just seen
first of all an evangelist. Duff, scholar and teacher, had
likewise pre-eminently an evangelistic aim. To use his own
words, he wanted " to prepare a mine which should one day
explode beneath the very citadel of Hinduism itself." Fol-
lowing Duff came a host of others, with widely differing
methods. Judson in Burma was an evangelist and a trans-
lator of the Scriptures, Martin in China was a teacher, Ash-
more was an evangelist; Verbeck in Japan was educator,
a A History of Missions in India, 128, 173.
182 THE MAKING OF MODEEN MISSIONS
statesman, translator; Mackay of Uganda was engineer and
evangelist, Chalmers of New Guinea was an explorer and a
preacher. And so the story goes, a many-sided activity,
hardly two missionaries doing exactly similar work. What
impresses us most in the historical expression of the mission-
ary aim, as we note it in the methods employed, is its vari-
ety, depending on differing conditions and differing needs, in
the changing life of many centuries and many lands.
But we have now come into new times. In the missionary
world we are face to face with new conditions* There is a
new social interest. Peoples that were long content with
things as they were are now examining their customs, rela-
tionships, social structure, frankly facing the moral ques-
tions involved, and seeking ways of improvement. There is
a new intellectual enthusiasm. Schools are crowded and
overcrowded. Adult education is an organized movement.
The spirit of studious criticism is widespread. The best in
knowledge and thought is sought from all the world. There
is a new breadth of religious appreciation. In the old relig-
ious communities reformed groups have appeared. New
religious movements have sprung up. Among many earnest
souls there is even a deep interest in Christ and in His teach-
ings. There is a new spirit of secularism. The value and
validity of religion in any form is denied by many. With
not a few leaders, Christian and non-Christian, the contest
has shifted from Christianity vs. Hinduism, or Christianity
vs. Buddhism, to religion vs. secularism, faith vs. agnosti-
cism, and there has been a drawing together of Christian
leaders and leaders of other faiths in what has seemed to
some of them a common problem and challenge.
Out of these new conditions have arisen aew methods of
Christian work. New emphases have appeared. And the
question presents itself anew, What is really the aim of
Christian missions? Is it to reform and ennoble and purify
AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 183
social relations and ideals to instil into these the spirit of
equality, of service, of freedom, of love? Is the aim the
enriching of men's minds stirring up the thought-life of
young men and women and helping to develop and train
leaders equipped with mental power, moral earnestness and
breadth of view? Are we, in other words, to try to persuade
followers of other religious faiths to interpret their religion
in terms of Christ's ethical teaching? Or, on the other hand,
are we to insist that salvation of heart and life, and spirit-
ual fellowship with God, are possible only to one who
accepts and follows Christ, to the exclusion of all other
religious loyalties? Or shall we hold to a middle ground,
and believing that " he that feareth God and worketh right-
eousness is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:35), whatever the
name by which men call Him Allah, Vishnu, Jehovah,
Father join with seekers after Him in every faith in the
development of personal religious experience and in a com-
mon search for God?
An increasing number of critics of the older attitude put
the question bluntly, " Shall we Christianize or prosely-
tize? " One writer entitles his article, " Converts or Co-
operation," 3 and says, " The issue comes to the fore whether
the missionary can continue to be a missionary in the ac-
cepted sense of the word, namely, a proselytizer, endeavour-
ing to persuade men of other religious faiths to enter into
the fellowship of his own. For some, the orthodox position
is becoming increasingly difficult, . . . The missionary issue
has shifted from converts to co-operation." This expresses
an attitude that not a few are holding.
In the midst of this new situation, and of this confusion
of voices, can we discover a true and abiding aim in Chris-
tian missions? I am sure that we can. In all the varying
8 The Journal of Religion, April, 1928.
184 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
expression of the missionary aim through nearly nineteen
centuries, the one great outstanding purpose has been to
offer to others, whatever their religion or religious attitude,
the Christian Gospel, the unique message of Christianity.
That aim still remains the aim of the Christian missionary,
By whatever methods or in whatever forms we may express
it, the essential aim is to give the distinctive Christian mes-
sage to all people. Christianity has enriched our lives and
the lives of all peoples who have accepted it. That enrich-
ment we must make the possession of still others. If there
are followers of other faiths who are searching for God, we
shall sympathize with them and encourage them, but we
shall not join in their search, for in all humility yet in all
confidence we know that we have found God in Christ. If
there are some good things In other religions as of course
there are we shall not be blind to them, but shall gladly
recognize that God has been seeking other human hearts in
other lands as He has sought our hearts; yet we shall not
depreciate our own experience of God as we have found Him
in Christ we shall boldly try to bring others, whatever their
present faith, to the knowledge of God that we have, and to
the more complete life in Him toward which we strive. The
aim of the early missionaries still remains ours. As Chris-
tians, we have a unique message to give to the world.
Ill
What is our message? What are the unique elements in
Christianity? What have we to give to others that they do
not have? What can Christianity present to those who in
other religious systems are earnestly seeking for God?
What can we offer in the Christian Gospel which no other
faith can offer which none but Christianity has?
If we are to discover the unique message of Christianity
we must compare it with the best in the messages of the
AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 185
other faiths. Note some of the high truths that are found
in them. Islam teaches in an emphatic way the unconquer-
able power of God, and the supreme duty of loyalty to
God's will. Hinduism keeps before us the immanent pres-
ence of God, and in its popular form offers salvation through
faith. Buddhism teaches the inescapable and eternal in-
fluence of life and thought. Confucianism reminds us that
we live in a world of human relationships, and summons us
to a recognition of the moral duties involved in those rela-
tionships. Even animism, lowest of religions, gives constant
testimony to the reality of spiritual forces and the certainty
of life after death. All of these teachings, to be sure, are in
Christianity, and we treasure them as part of the message
of our Christian Gospel, But the important thing to note is
that they are also part of the gospel of Islam, the gospel of
Hinduism, the gospel of Buddhism, the gospel of Confucian-
ism, the gospel of animism, as well as of the Gospel of
Christianity.
On the other hand, there are definite fundamentals in
which Christianity stands apart from all other religions.
One of these unique characteristics is the quality and reach
of the Christian teachings. If Islam teaches the supreme
power of God, Christianity teaches that that power is united
with an unconquerable love. If Hinduism teaches the im-
manent presence of God, Christianity shows that the imma-
nent God is revealed in the perfection of His character in
Christ. If Buddhism teaches that every act and thought
has an unending influence, Christianity transforms the
hopelessness of this doctrine into the bright shining of
hope: to be sure, "the wages of sin is death," but Chris-
tianity adds " the free gift of God is life." If Confucianism
teaches a fine code of practical ethics, Christianity shows
how one can have power to transmute those ideals into life.
We need not blink the fact that all the non-Christian relig-
186 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
ions have much that is noble, but we shall be blind if we do
not see that Christianity goes a second mile in even the best
of their teachings, and gives to them a quality and an
application that is essentially unique.
But we can go farther. What gives to the Christian teach-
ing this higher quality? There is but one answer, Christ. It
is Christ Himself Who makes His teachings unique. It is
Christ in Whom those teachings are unmistakably revealed
in life. Christ explains the teachings of Christianity, Christ
is the truth of Christianity. The supreme fact of Chris-
tianity is Christ. And Christ is unique. If you place by
the side of Christ the founders or leaders of other religions
Mohammed, Krishna, Gautama, Confucius great as they
are they fade into the commonplace compared with His
excellence. They all reveal imperfections of character. You
and I know men and women who in one or another charac-
teristic are better than they were. But Christ stands before
us perfect, matchless, complete, " the crystal Christ." Said
Saddhu Sundar Singh to a Hindu professor of philosophy
who asked him what he had found in Christianity which he
did not find in the religions of India, " I have found Jesus
Christ. 77 No other religion has a Christ.
The highest point in the revelation of Christ's character
is reached at Calvary. In the Cross we see His divine self-
sacrificing love in all its perfection. And here is a third
element of uniqueness in Christianity's message; no other
religion has a Cross. Mahayana Buddhism has the idea of
self-sacrifice in the temporary renunciation of Buddhahood
by the boddhisattva for the sake of helping and saving other
men, but this on its moral side falls far short of the holy
love of the Cross. In Krishna, Hinduism gives us the pic-
ture of a saviour who is ready to save all who yield them-
selves to him, but it is the holiness of Christ that gives
meaning to His sacrifice of love, and holiness is not in one's
AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 187
vocabulary when one speaks of Krishna. Confucianism has
no suggestion of a Cross of self-sacrificing, saving love, for
salvation, so far as it is needed at all, is a matter of cere-
mony and of social ethics. As to Islam, the possibility of a
Cross, in the Christian interpretation, is unthinkable, for
any adequate idea of divine love for sinners is quite out of
harmony with the conception of Allah. And so of other
religions. Nowhere is the Cross to be found except in
Christianity, It stands unique in the Christian message.
The message of Christianity, then, though in many of its
teachings duplicated in one or another of the non-Christian
faiths, offers at least three things which none of them gives:
( 1 ) unequalled riches of moral idealism in the teachings of
Christ, (2) a revelation of the highest love and holy self-
sacrifice in the Cross of Calvary, and (3) above all, Christ
Himself, " unequalled by any other person who has ever
lived upon earth, yet possessing the qualities of personality
which all persons should possess." * In these three features
Christianity stands apart from all other religions. None
other can offer the perfect teachings of Christ. None other
can present the perfect love of the Cross. None other has as
its ideal the perfect personality of Christ. Here are the
unique essentials of our message. To give this message to
all the world has always been the aim of Christian missions.
It is still their aim.
IV
We have reviewed the present missionary situation and
have noted the. Church's lack of missionary passion and the
absence of any strong advance movement in the missionary
enterprise. We have pointed out that the situation seems to
be occasioned and largely caused by the new attitude toward
4 Hume, It E., The World's Living Religions, 275.
188 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
non-Christian peoples and religions, by the widespread secu-
larism arising in a measure from the scientific dominance of
life and thought, by the contention as to the real nature of
the Christian message and the lack of authoritative preach-
ing, and by the selfish luxury which seems to us a first
necessity. We have inquired as to the objective of Christian
missions, as shown by the methods and activities of leaders
in earlier days and in the new conditions of today, and have
seen that the aim has historically been to give to all peoples
the distinctive Christian message. What the unique char-
acteristics of that message are we have sought to discover by
comparing briefly the message of Christianity with the mes-
sages of other faiths and have found three unique elements,
the higher moral quality of its teachings, the revelation of
divine holy love in the Cross, and the perfect personality of
Christ. That brings us to our final question, which is the
question with which we began, What is the basis of authority
for the Christian missionary enterprise? What right have
we Christians to carry the distinctive message of our faith
to those who already have a religion of their own? The
answer has been implied in our discussion of the aim and
message of missions, and only a brief word is here finally
needed.
It will be evident that this basis of authority does not lie
in the assumed possession of a superior civilization or cul-
ture. Who is to decide what civilization or culture is su-
perior? What is the standard by which cultures can be
accurately or impartially measured? Certainly Christianity
is not identical with Western civilization factories, sewing-
machines, modern farm, machinery, European dress, Ameri-
can school curricula, democratic institutions. These may be
of great value, but they are not Christianity, Paul was quite
as good a Christian as though he had woven his tents on a
Jacquard loom, Paul the Apostle of the Congo did not live
AUTHORITY FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 189
in a modern apartment house, but in an African hut, yet he
was mighty in his knowledge of Christ. The failure of the
early missionaries in the South Sea Islands is a significant
illustration of the true principle enunciated by Carey, " Not
civilization first and then Christianity, but Christianity the
royal road to a worthy civilization." Our authority does not
lie in the civilization that is ours.
Nor is the possible contribution which missionaries can
make to the education of the peoples to whom they go the
basis of authority for their work. Education has a proper
place in missionary method. History makes that clear, as
we have seen. The Christianizing of the processes of thought
and the motivation of knowledge by unselfish Christian pur-
pose are necessary factors in the making of an indigenous
Christianity. But the essential thing is Christianity, not
knowledge; first an experience of Christ and a thoroughgo-
ing loyalty to Him, then the application of this experience
and loyalty in the realm of knowledge and thought, as in
every other realm.
Not even in the power to relieve suffering or to release
from poverty is to be found the essential authority for mis-
sions. From the example of Christ we have ample justifica-
tion for all social service. Such service is essentially
Christian. We need more of it in missions rather than less.
But this is not basic. It is result, not cause; a necessary
corollary to the fundamental principle.
Where, then, is the authority for the missionary enter-
prise? Fundamentally it rests upon the imperative demand
of truth for universal proclamation* Truth requires utter-
ance it cannot rightly be kept hidden. Knowledge is a
universal right it belongs to all. Whoever possesses what
he believes to be the truth is bound by the truth itself to
make known the truth to others. It is in accordance with
this principle that Professor J. F. McFadyen has emphasized
190 THE MAKING OF MODERN" MISSIONS
the identity of the missionary idea in religion and other
phases of life." As he points out, the man who writes a book
is a missionary in behalf of the truth he is presenting; the
teacher is a missionary and has back of him the authority of
the truth he claims to teach. In the same way the Christian
has the authority of truth for his missionary endeavours.
This is not to assume that the Christian alone has the right
to carry on a mission in "behalf of his religion; the Buddhist
has an equal right; so has the Moslem and the Theosophist.
But that which gives to any one, Christian or other, the
right to give to others the message of his faith is the belief
that his message is the truth. No one has a right to with-
hold from others what he deems to be high and valuable
truth. So that if we believe that in Christianity we have
truth possessed by no other religion, we have a right, and
not only a right but an inescapable obligation, to make
that truth known, to spread our message of truth , and to
enlist all persons, all peoples, as followers of Him Who, as
we believe, spoke truly when He said of Himself, " I am the
Truth." The dilemma of Archbishop Whately cannot be
avoided: " If my religion is false I ought to change it; if
my religion is true I ought to propagate it" The demand
of truth is the fundamental basis for the authority of Chris-
tian missions.
We can carry this further: the possession of anything that
our experience shows is valuable gives us the right and obli-
gation to share it with others. In this way the farmer who
raises useful crops, the manufacturer who produces an ar-
ticle valuable to the user, the inventor and the discoverer
who have found something helpful and useful, have the
right to market their goods and carry them to the people of
other lands. How much more have Christians the right to
6 See on this part of the discussion Ms valuable little book, The
Missionary Idea in Life and Religion*
AUTHORITY FOE CHEISTIAN MISSIONS 191
make known that which has proved in their experience to
have supreme value, beyond all other good, beyond things
of clothing or food, beyond comfort, beyond money, worth
dying for, above all other possessions worth living for the
personal religious experience found in Christ. Of course, if
this experience has not proved the most valuable thing if
it takes second place, or third, or last place it is not to be
expected that its imperative will be strong. And conversely,
a weak imperative, a lack of missionary constraint, a fail-
ure to feel with Paul "Woe is me if I preach not the
gospel/ 7 implies an acknowledgment that Christianity, as
it is known in one's own experience, is not of supreme
value to oneself, not valuable enough to wish that others
should have it. But if the experience of Christ is invalu-
able to us, and if we believe that this invaluable experi-
ence is possible in no other faith, the unselfishness that is
inherent in Christianity requires us to be missionaries, and
to make known to all others our own unique and infinitely
valuable experience.
What we have thus presented as the basis of missionary
authority, namely, the possession of what is believed to be
the truth, and the experience of what is felt to be of highest
value, can be summed up in one word, Christ. For us the
perfect expression of truth, and the central fact of our high-
est experience, is Christ. For one who follows Christ, His
words, His missionary command, are sufficient authority.
The ultimate missionary obligation, however, does not rest
as many suppose it rests upon detached verses of Scripture,
even though these are the words of Christ, but upon Christ
Himself, the incarnation of His words, His Gospel, His
revelation of God. Back of His missionary command and
the missionary implication of His Gospel is the imperative
of His unique character and His unique personality. Here,
as we have seen, is the supreme distinctive message of Chris-
192 THE MAKING OF MODERN MISSIONS
tianity. Christ, Christianity's unique possession, is the final
authority for Christian missions.
The aim of Christian missions remains what it has been
through all the history of the enterprise: the presenting of
the distinctive, unequalled, message of Christianity to all
men everywhere. The uniqueness of our Christian message
consists pre-eminently in the unrivalled reach of its moral
and spiritual teaching, the revelation of holy, redemptive
love in the Cross, and the supreme and perfect character and
personality of Christ Himself. The authority for Christian
missions lies in the demand of truth for the universal procla-
mation of what we believe to be our unique possession in the
teachings of Christianity, in our experience of what we
count of highest value to ourselves in the Christian life, and
in our conviction that Christ is that truth and the source of
that experience. These demand our loyalty and compel us
to be missionaries. Backed by such belief and such author-
ity we have supreme confidence in the sure and ultimate
success of the Christian mission.
INDEX
Adaptation o missionary to task,
39
Afghans, 27, 173
Africa, 19, 21, 28
Aidan, 34, 35, 61, 70, 76, 97, 107,
115
Aim, missionary, 13, 179, 183
Alleine, 132
America, 16
American Board of Commission-
ers for Foreign Missions, 166
Animism, 24
Annals of the Four Masters, 10
Annals of Ulster, 10
Ansgar, 32
Attractiveness of missionary, 36
Angles, 60
Ashmore, William, 181
Attitude toward non-Christian
faiths, 176
Augustine, 61
Augustinians, 120, 156
Authority of Christianity, 29, 178,
188, 189
Bangor (Ireland), 62, 66, 67, 76,
78
Bangor (Wales), 57, 67
Baptist Missionary Society, 162,
169, 171
Baptists, 141
Baptist Triennial Convention, 166
Basel Society, 138 m
Beginnings of missions, 23
Benedictines, 77, 105
Beza, 124, 134
Bible. 55, 58, 60, 68, 76, 78, 92,
105, 108, 115, 117, 146
Bibliander, 132
Boniface, 34, 37, 41, 64, 85, 97,
98, 104, 107, 111, 113, 114, 174
Book of the Lover and the Be-
loved, 36
Brainerd, David, 39, 170
Brebeuf, 41
Brendan of Clonfert, 41, 57, 59,
68
Brigid, 67
Britain, 15, 57
British East India Company, 157,
158, 163
Britons, 61
Brittany, 62
Brown, Samuel R., 39
Buddhism, 16, 24, 48, 186
Burmans, 24
Burns, William C., 36
Caedmon, 73
California, 40
Call, missionary, 97
Calvin, 124, 127, 128
Carey, William, 11, 32, 34, 38,
39, 41, 45, 122, 136, 142, 143,
150, 156, 162, 165, 166, 169,
171, 175, 181, 189
Cedd, 35, 72, 73, 74, 115
Celtic monks, 10
Central Asia, 27, 28, 47, 48
Ceylon, 47
Chad, 35, 72, 73, 115
Chalmers, James, 39, 182
Character, 42
Charlemagne, 108
China, 17, 21, 24, 47
China Inland Mission, 51
Church, 30, 31, 34, 88, 108, 118,
139
Church buildings, 111
Churches, free, 83
Church home, 12, 44, 45, 95, 148
Church, Irish, 45, 48, 83, 86, 109
Church Missionary Society, 156,
171
Church, native, 12, 26
Church of the East, 45, 53
Church, Roman, 15, 37, 45, 48,
53, 64, 83, 84, 109, 110, 128
Church union, 34
Ciaran, 65, 66
Cities, 28
Clonard, 57
Clonfert, 57, 68
Clonmacnois, 57, 65
Clough, John E., 36, 37
Cochin China, 47
Coillard, Francois, 39
Coke, Thomas, 141
193
INDEX
Colman, 76
Colonies, 153, 157
Colonization, 14
Columba, 32, 41, 57, 59, 61, 65,
66, 68, 96, 103, 104, 105, 110,
114
Columbanus, 37, 41, 62, 63, 64,
76, 96, 102, 105, 106, 111, 113,
114, 166
Comenius, 139
Comgall, 32, 57, 59, 66, 69, 76
Complacency, 31
Concentration, 117
Confucianism, 185, 187
Congo, 33
Co-operation, 34
Copts, 24
Corporation for the Propagation
of the Gospel in New England,
132
Cosmas, 47
Cromwell, 132
Crusades, 16, 41, 154 m
Cujus regio ejus religio, 56, 124,
127
Cultural resources, 33
Danish East India Company, 163,
172
Danish mission, 11, 132, 136,
157, 168
Dankaerts, 132
Derry, 57
Dober, 170
Doddridge, Philip, 141, 171
Dominicans, 120, 155
Duff, Alexander, 11, 32, 34, 38,
167, 181
Dtirrow, 57
Dutch East India Company, 131,
153, 159
Dutch explorers, 152
Eastern Church, 16
East Indies, 161, 163
Eata, 35, 72, 115
Education, 19, 31, 33, 91, 117,
179, 189
Edwards, Jonathan, 145
Egede, Hans, 41
Eliot, John, 90, 130, 132, 170
Enda, 57, 64
England, 60
Erasmus, 131
English explorers, 152, 171
Evangelical movement, 15, 18,
167
Evangelism, 36, 48, 82, 102, 116,
141, 146, 179, 181
Expansion, 117
Exploration, 14, 150
Factors in missions, 14
Fabricius, 36
Faith, 43, 44, 89
Fernandez, 49
Fields, mission, 12, 23, 25
Finan, 76
Finnian of Clonard, 57, 63
Finnian of Moville, 57, 65
Fleche, Father, 157
Fox, George, 132
France, 21, 37, 63, 80
Franciscans, 17, 120
Francis of Assisi, 39
Francke, 136, 138, 156, 168
Fraternity Book, 106, 174
Frederick IV., 137
French explorers, 151
Friars, 40
Fullan, 81
Fursey, 59, 63, 79, 103
Gall, 63, 78, 102, 103, 111
Ganges Valley, 24, 47
Geddie, John, 35
Gerhard, 124, 134
Germaims, 55
Germany, 37, 63, 126, 132, 138
Gilmour, James* 38
Glendaiough, 57
Goa, 156
Governments, 17, 21, 31, 47, 107,
126
Great Britain, 21
Greenland, 41
Guatemala, 40
Hannington, James, 40
Havana Congress, 27
Heiling, Peter, 169
Heiu, 72
Hepburn, James, 36
Herrnhut, 170
Heurnius, 132
Hilda, 72
Hinduism, 24, 186
Hubmaier, 128
Huguenots^ 126
Humattitarianisra, 15, 167
Ideal Christian life, 90
India, 19, 33, 153, 160, 161, 171
Indians, American, 121, 130, 153
Industrial Revolution* 161
INDEX
195
Industry, 21, 105
lona, 10, 59, 61, 67, 68, 85, 104
Ireland, 15, 35, 53, 56, 114
Irish missions, 33, 35, 37, 53, 61,
64, 86
Islam, 187
Italy, 64, 114
Japan, 11, 17
Jerusalem Conference, 175
Jesuits, 11, 17, 33, 37, 41, 133,
153, 154, 155, 156, 166
John Cassian, 87
John of Monte Corvino, 40
Judson, Adoniram, 34, 41, 159,
166, 181
Jutes, 60
Karens, 24, 47, 48
Kells, 34, 57
Kimtira, 36
Lahus, 48
Laos, 24
Latin America, 19
Leaders, 26, 30, 33, 34, 40, 48,
56, 113, 115, 119, 165
Learning, 14, 164
Leibnitz, 133
Leicester Institute, 163, 172
Lerins, 87
Libraries, 165
Lindisfarne, 61, 71, 73, 85, 115
Livingstone, 11, 36, 39, 43, 155
Loyola, 37, 166
Lull, Raymund, 17, 36, 38, 39
Luther, Martin, 122, 127, 128,
166
Luxury, 178
Mackay, Alexander, 40, 182
Magyars, 16
Marquette, 41
Martin of Tours, 41
Martin, W. A. P., 181
Martyn, Henry, 38, 39
Mayhews, the, 170
Message, missionary, 55, 93, 95,
103, 184, 187, 192
Methodists, 140
Methods, missionary, 12, 30, 32,
51, 102
Mexico, 21
Migration, 15
Middle class, 162
Mills, Samuel J., 166
Monasticism, 41, 51, 57, 58, 87,
90, 96, 102, 104, 180
Money >> 25, 32, 174
Mongolia, 47
Montevideo Congress, 27
Moravians, 11, 33, 36, 39, 41, 90,
122, 136, 138, 139, 153, 164,
166, 168 169, 181
Morrison, Robert, 163
Moslems, 16, 17, 24, 27, 36, 41,
132, 154
Nationals, 18, 115
Nationalism, 14, 31, 127, 148,
167
Neesima, 39
Negroes, 11, 141
New England, 129
New England, Corporation for
the Propagation of the Gospel
in, 170
Newspapers, 165
Ninian, 65
Nitzschmann, 170
Non-Christian customs, 111
Opium Wars, 20
Organization, 34
Oswald, 10, 17, 61, 71, 107
Otto, 108
Outcastes, 33
Oxenbridge, 132
Palladius, 54, 55
Paraguay, 40
Patrick, 10, 12, 34, 35, 54, 55,
56, 85, 97, 103, 105, 106, 108,
114
Patteson, Bishop, 39
Paul, 35, 38, 43, 179
Paul the Apostle of the Congo,
36, 166
Paulinus, 72
Pegu, 47
^Persecutions, 46
Persia, 21
Persistence of spiritual forces,
46
Pietism, 136, 166, 168, 169, 180
Pilgrims, 129
Pioneers, 40, 41
Plutschau, 137, 157
Policies, missionary, 11
Portugal, 21
Portuguese explorers, 151
Prayer, 104, 106, 117, 141, 174
Prideaux, 132
Principles, missionary, 38
Protestantism, 50
196
INDEX
Qualities of missionaries, 39
Qualifications, missionary, 98
Race antagonism, 148
Ramabai, Pandita, 39
Reformation, Protestant, 49, ISO
Rhenish Society, 138
Ricci, 41
Rice, lyutber, 166
Roman Empire, 15, 16, 45
Rural work, 28
Russia, 16
Saravia, 41, 124, 133
Saxons, 60
Schmidt, George, 157
Schools, 164
Schwartz, 34, 36
Secularism, 31, 32, 148, 177, 182
Serampore, 11
Siam, 24, 47
Siamese, 24
Siberia, 47
Slessor, Mary, 40
Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge, 132, 170
Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
170
South Africa, 24
South America, 11, 24, 27
Spanish explorers, 151
Spener, 136, 137
Spiritual lessons of history, 44
Spiritual life, 106
Student Volunteer Movement,
167, 175
Student VolunteerSj 100
Success of Christian Missions,
175, 192
Support of missionaries, 101
Switzerland, 37, 63, 77
Sympathy, 43
Tamerlane, 47
Taylor, J. Hudson, 36
Theodore, 85
Thoburn, Isabella, 39
Tibet, 47
Tibetans, 173
Tiree, 67
Tongking, 47
Trade, 14, 20, 158, 171
Trading companies, 158
Tranquebar, 137, 157, 163, 170
Translation, 179, 181
Transportation, 163
Travel, 22, 33, 154
Truth, greatness of, 50
Turkey, 21
Turks, 47, 173
Uganda, 40, 1S6
Ultan, 81 ^
Universities, 166
Universities Mission, 167
Verbeck, Guido, 39, 181
Volunteers, 96
Von Weltz, 41, 135, 169, 180
Wesley, John, 136, 140, 166
Wesley Revival, 168, 169, 170
West Indies, 141
Whitby, 72
Whitby, Synod of, 74, 75
Whitefield, George, 141
Whithorn, 57, 65
Whitman, Marcus, 41
Wilfrid, 34, 75
Williams College, 166
Williams, John, 41
Williams, Roger, 130
Xavier, Francis, 41, 49, 157
Ziegenbaljr, 137, 157
Zimemlori, 11, 34, 36, 138, 156,
166, 168, 170
Zwinglf, 124, 128
Printed in the United S$at0$ of
Presented to the Library by
Rev* Parr Armstrong
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