The Possibility of Evangelizing the World in This Generation in View of the Opportunities, Facilities and Resources of the Church

It would seem that there is no sufficient ground for doubting the ability of the Church to-day to give the whole world the opportunity to know and to accept Christ. The fact that no generation has evangelized the world is not satisfactory proof that it might not have been done. Still less are we to measure the present ability of the Church by the standards and practice of a Church in the past not awake to her duty to the non-Christian world and under far less favorable conditions for world-wide missionary operations. The power of the Church has not yet been put to the real test. It seems hardly right to call a thing impossible or impracticable which has not been attempted. Livingstone said in a letter written from the interior of Africa not long before his death, "You don't know what you can do, until you try." The world-wide proclamation of the Gospel awaits accomplishment by a generation which shall have the obedience, courage and determination to attempt the task.

Viewed from a human standpoint, the evangelization of the world in this generation may not seem probable; but the contention is that it is entirely possible. Instead of assuming that this is impossible we should remember that God never has imposed upon the Church an impossible task. His commands are His enablings. A survey of the opportunities and resources of the Church and the facilities at her disposal will make it plain that she is more favorably situated in this than she has been in any preceding generation for the evangelization of the world.

For the first time in the history of the Church practically the whole world is open. The marvelous orderings of Providence during the nineteenth century, and notably during the past fifty years, have set before the Church the open doors for which Christians for generations have been praying. We are not justified in saying that there is a single country on the face of the earth where the Church, if she seriously desires, cannot send ambassadors for Christ to proclaim His message. If it be said that we ought not to force our way but to wait for Providential openings, it should be answered that neither ought we to neglect embracing the opportunities which God has already placed before us. Well did Carey exclaim, "What openings of Providence do we wait for? We can neither expect to be transported into the heathen world without ordinary means, nor to be endowed with the gift of tongues, &c., when we arrive there. These would not be Providential interpositions, but miraculous ones. Where a command exists nothing can be necessary to render it binding but a removal of those obstacles which render obedience impossible, and these are removed already. Natural impossibility can never be pleaded so long as facts exist to prove the contrary."

It should be noticed also that there is no insuperable obstacle to world-wide evangelization so far as the ability of the heathen to understand the Gospel is concerned. The history of missions, even among the lowest types of humanity, demonstrates the truth of the statement of Bishop Selwyn, made after many years of observation and experience among the degraded inhabitants of the islands of the Southern Seas, "that all mankind are endued by the Spirit of God, in God's own time, with a sufficient measure of capacity to receive everything that is necessary for the salvation of their souls; that there is no one single human being on the face of God's earth who is shut out from the promises of the Gospel by any difference of intellectual or of moral capacity." This does not mean that all men will accept the Gospel, but that all men are capable of receiving it. Many, doubtless, will not accept it should the opportunity be presented. Even in Christ's own day, in face of His direct teachings and mighty works, many did not yield to the truth. On the other hand, in every place where Christ has been faithfully presented some have accepted Him. Therefore whether men heed the Gospel call or not, it is to-day possible to bring it to their attention.

In considering the Church's present power of achievement we should take account of the facilities at her disposal. Among these may be mentioned, in the first place, the work of the geographical societies. There are not less than eighty-three geographical societies with a membership of 50,000, and 153 geographical journals.' A hundred years ago nearly one-third of the globe was absolutely unknown. At the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign practically nothing was known of the interior of China and Japan, Central Asia, Tibet and Afghanistan. As late as 1880 the interior of Africa was almost a blank, yet within twelve years the country was quite fully mapped out. The recent explorations of Dr. Sven Hedin and others have unveiled much of Central Asia. So to-day practically all of the inhabited portions of the earth are known to civilization. This is a distinct help to the Church. At the same time it has enlarged her responsibility. The words of Carey are to the point: "It was not the duty of Paul to preach Christ to the inhabitants of Otaheite, because no such place was then discovered, nor had he any means of coming at them. But none of these things can be alleged by us in behalf of the neglect of the commission given by Christ."

The knowledge of the social, moral and spiritual condition and need of all races of mankind which the Church now possesses should greatly facilitate her work on behalf of the world. The one fact, for example, that the non-Christian religions have been found wanting in Divine authority, power and fruitfulness should and will help to make Christians realize their responsibility to the world.

The greatly enlarged and improved means of communication constitutes one of the chief facilities of which the Church of this generation can avail herself. Of the 454,730 miles of railway in the world a considerable mileage is already to be found in non-Christian lands. It is possible, for example, to go by rail to many parts of India, Japan and South America. The greatest railway enterprises of the time are those now building or projected in non-Christian lands. The Siberian Railway will bring hundreds of millions of people of the Far East a month nearer to the Christian nations of Western Europe. The Cape-Cairo Railway and the lines being stretched from the East Coast of Africa will afford easy access to the peoples in the interior of that continent. It is not improbable that links will be supplied within a few years connecting the Russian and Indian railway systems, thus bringing London and Calcutta within ten days of each other. Still more likely is it that a line will soon connect the cities of the Levant with some port on the Persian Gulf, thus not only bringing India nearer us but also opening up the regions of Asia Minor and the Euphrates Valley. At the present time England, America, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Russia and Japan are either building or projecting railways in China. Nearly twenty concessions for 'this purpose have been granted to foreign companies within two years. When even a part of these plans materialize, as they will within a few years, more than one-third of the unevangelized world will be made much more accessible than now to the missionaries.

The extension and improvement of the steamship service has benefited the Church as well as secular enterprises. Europe is twenty days nearer America now than sixty years ago, five days nearer than twenty years ago, and two days nearer than ten years ago. Sixty years ago it required sixty days for the mails to go from Bombay to London; now it requires considerably less than one-third that time. It took Carey nearly five months to go from Dover to Calcutta in 1793. One can make the trip now in three weeks. Judson's trip from Salem to Calcutta in 1812 consumed eleven months; and as late as 1859 it took Bishop Thoburn four months to go from Lynn to Calcutta. Now one can go from New York to Calcutta in a month. Moffat was three months in 1817 on the way from Gravesend to Cape Town; now the voyage lasts less than two weeks. These developments mean an immense saving of time to the missionary force.

The cable and telegraph systems of the world are being used constantly by the missionary societies and are of the greatest service. There are 170,000 miles of submarine cables which have cost at least $250,000,000. All the grand divisions of the earth are connected by them. They skirt the South American continent, save the Southern extremity. They unite the islands of the West Indies and the Central American States. Three lines stretch from Europe and Africa to South America. Cables completely encircle Africa. Four lines connect Europe with the Far East. Along the Eastern coast of Asia the lines loop from port to port and reach on to Japan, to the Philippines, the East Indies, Australia and New Zealand. The benighted nations of Asia and Africa are in constant communication with enlightened Europe and America. Over 6,000,000 cable messages are transmitted annually. Any important event which takes place at the antipodes in the morning we hear of in the afternoon. The land telegraphs are far more extensive. These and the cable system serve the Church not only by promoting general intelligence but also in facilitating the financial transactions and administrative work of the missionary societies.

The thoroughly organized and highly developed news agencies which, through the various secular papers, bring before the members of the Church facts regarding the most distant and needy nations, serve indirectly to awaken and to foster interest in the inhabitants of less-favored lands. They have made information about the world general and also easy of acquisition.

The Universal Postal Union with its wonderful organization, its vast army of 974,314 employees, and 1,688,753 miles of regular post routes, immensely facilitates the work of foreign missions. Within a few years at the outside it will include within its sphere of action practically all of those unevangelized parts of the world which have not already been brought within its reach.

As a result of all these means and agencies of communication the world has been growing smaller and smaller. They have united, as it were, the separated continents into one great nation. They have made the most remote and inaccessible parts of the inhabited world easily accessible. When Christ gave the Great Commission, the disciples could not have gone to the world as we know it. A man now might go around the world five times within a year. Professor Ramsay points out that "there are no stronger influences in education and in administration than rapidity and ease of traveling and the postal service; Paul both by precept and example impressed the importance of both on his Churches." The Church can make more use of these valuable agencies in this generation than at any other time in her history because they are vastly more extensive and highly developed. It should be remembered also that these facilities, by increasing our knowledge of the heathen and their accessibility, thereby have increased our obligation.

The printing-press has greatly multiplied the power of the Church to disseminate Christian truth. One of the marvels of the success of the Church of the first generation is that so much was accomplished without printed books. In those days few individuals owned a copy of the Scriptures. The Old Testament writings could be found rarely outside the synagogue. The method of spreading a knowledge of the Word of God was almost exclusively by oral instruction. The Apostolic writings came into existence comparatively late and their circulation progressed slowly. For centuries after the time of the early Christians, "to own a Bible was the privilege of princes, churches and monasteries." It required years to write out a complete Bible. Even sixty years ago printing was done on hand presses and only from one to two hundred impressions could be taken in an hour. Now there are presses which print, bind and fold 96,000 papers in an hour. The invention of the linotype, the results of which Gladstone predicted would be "equally extensive and beneficent to mankind," enables one operator to produce several fold as much composed matter as any regular typesetter. This and the many other improvements in the art of printing have, to a remarkable degree, reduced the price of books. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Bibles were very expensive and consequently were very scarce. Carey's first Bengali Bible sold at about $20. A Bengali Bible can now be purchased for a few cents. The price lists of the various Bible societies show that in hundreds of languages the New Testament can be obtained for a mere pittance. No mechanical or serious financial difficulty, therefore, stands in the way of giving the Bible at once to every family under heaven.

The influence and protection of Christian governments is an immense help to the work of missions. In no age in the past could the ambassadors for Christ carry on their work with such safety. Over one-third of the inhabitants of the unevangelized world are under the direct sway of Christian rulers. Moreover, the Protestant powers are in a position to exert an influence that will make possible the free preaching of the Gospel to the remaining two-thirds of the people of the earth who have not heard of Christ. The ability of Christian nations shown in thus bringing the world within the range of their influence is, as the Bishop of Newcastle says, "the measure of the Church's responsibility to bring to them the Gospel of Christ."

Medical knowledge and skill is one of the chief auxiliary factors employed by the Church. Its influence in opening the hearts of the heathen to hear the Gospel and as an evidence in enforcing its claims is apparently almost as marked as was the exercise of miraculous gifts in the time of the Apostles. Medical and sanitary science are also a great boon in restoring and shielding the health of the growing missionary force.

The methods and results of the study of natural science and of other branches of Western learning is one of the mightiest agencies at the disposal of the Church. Its working and power were well likened by Duff to that of a vast mine beneath the structure of heathen ignorance, superstition and prejudice. Such, emphatically, is its influence to-day in India, Japan, China — in fact in all lands.

The Church not only has an unexampled opportunity to evangelize the world, as well as great facilities at her disposal, but she also possesses remarkable resources. Think of her membership. According to Mulhall there are 140,000,000 Protestants. In the British Isles, the United States and Canada alone there are over 25,000,000 evangelical Protestant church communicants. No one will question the fact that among this vast number are millions of spiritually-minded and consecrated men and women. Contrast the millions of devoted Christians, whose religion is that of the most enlightened nations of the world — such as Great Britain, Germany, Holland, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, Canada, Switzerland and the Australasian and South African colonies — with the few thousands constituting the small, unacknowledged and despised sect which, on the Day of Pentecost, began the evangelization of the then known and accessible world. As we recall the achievements of that infant Church, can we question the ability of the Christians of our day so to distribute within the present generation the Gospel messengers and agencies that all mankind might have a full opportunity to know Christ as their Saviour and Lord?

The money power of the Church is enormous. "The true value of all tangible property in the United States exclusive of Alaska, at the close of the census period, 1890, amounted to $65,037,091,197." If members of evangelical churches possessed a sum proportionate to their number, which would seem to be a reasonable inference, their share was fully $13,000,000,000. Of this great amount they gave but one dollar out of every $3,287 for foreign missions, or one-thirty-second part of one per cent. Regardless of their income, if they had given but one-two-hundredth part of their real and personal property, their contribution to foreign missions would have been over $65,000,000, instead of less than $4,000,000. In 1898 Mr. Robert E. Speer estimated that the share of Christians in the wealth of America was $20,000,000,000, and that perhaps one-fiftieth of what the Church adds to her wealth each year would suffice, in addition to what is now given, to support a sufficient number of missionaries to evangelize the world. Mr. G. T. Manley, of Cambridge University, taking 100,000 as an outside limit of the number of foreign workers required, and assuming that Britain's share would be one-third, estimates that the $50,000,000 required to support them would be far more than supplied if each communicant in Great Britain were to contribute four cents a day. If only one-fourth of the Protestants of Europe and America gave but one cent a day toward the evangelization of the world, it would yield each year a fund of over $100,000,000.

The giving to foreign missions has steadily increased throughout the century. Professor Warneck estimates that the collective gifts of all Protestants to this object in 1800 were probably not over $75,000. In 1899 they reached an aggregate of over $19,000,000. To evangelize the world, however, a much greater sum than this would be required, and, as has been seen, the Church's supply is abundantly sufficient to meet the demand. What is contributed comes from only a small fraction of the membership of the Church. The examples of what is being given in different countries by single congregations, Sunday schools and young people's societies, the situation and ability of which are typical and not exceptional, prove conclusively that the financial possibilities of the Church are practically limitless. Dr. Josiah Strong twenty years ago wrote: "There is money enough in the hands of Church-members to sow every acre of the earth with the seed of truth. . . . God has intrusted to his children power enough to give the Gospel to every creature by the close of this century; but it is being misapplied. Indeed, the world would have been evangelized long ago, if Christians had perceived the relations of money to the Kingdom, and had accepted their stewardship."

Among the greatest resources of the Church are the missionary societies, together with their workers and agencies on the foreign field. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were six Protestant missionary organizations. Dr. Dennis gives 537 as the present number of foreign missionary societies and auxiliaries.' Professor Warneck expresses the opinion that there is probably too much home machinery and that instead of increasing the number of societies there should be further consolidation. Without doubt there are missionary organizations in sufficient number and possessing sufficient strength and experience to guide an enterprise indefinitely larger than the present missionary operations of the Church.

In 1800 there were only about one hundred foreign missionaries. At the present time there are 15,460, including women workers. This indicates a gratifying increase. They are stationed at important points throughout the larger part of the unevangelized world. In no other undertaking, secular or religious, is there a more capable and devoted body of workers. They have developed and adapted varied and efficient methods for the extension and upbuilding of Christ's Kingdom. The object lesson of their lives and achievements has enriched the Church and will serve always as a guide and inspiration. While the present number of missionaries is large in comparison with that of a century ago, there is need of an enlargement of the foreign force. The Church easily can furnish as many men and women as will be required. According to the estimates of missionaries it would be necessary to send out less than one-fiftieth of the Christian young men and young women who will go through the universities and colleges of the United States and Canada within this generation. When the students of Europe are taken into consideration, it will be seen that Christian countries can well afford to spare the workers required. Their going forth would quicken and strengthen rather than weaken the entire Church.

The Bible societies, although themselves virtually missionary organizations, should receive special notice because of the vital relation which the Bible sustains to the world's evangelization. There are no less than eighty separate Bible societies besides many auxiliaries. A majority of them are inter-denominational. Pre-eminently the largest and most fruitful among them is the British and Foreign Bible Society. It issues annually, exclusive of British and Continental circulation, nearly 4,500,000 Bibles and portions of the Scriptures, and employs over 1,200 colporteurs and Bible women. Its yearly expenditures are over $1,100,000. It is estimated that since 1804 all the Bible societies combined have issued over 280,000,000 Bibles, Testaments, and portions of the Scriptures. They have accomplished an immense amount of preliminary work. In 1800 the Bible existed in only sixty-six languages and dialects, or those of but one-fifth the population of the earth. Dr. Cust states that there are "at least two thousand mutually un-intelligible [languages] spoken," and adds that though the Scriptures have been translated into only 330 out of 2,000 languages, "yet all the conquering languages, and a great many of the second class, or permanent languages, have been dealt with."

A still later authoritative statement is that of Mr. J. Gordon Watt, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who reported early in 1899 that the Bible or some part of it had been translated into 406 languages and dialects. It is significant that these translations are in the languages which are spoken by 1,200,000,000 people, and that the remaining 1,600 languages are spoken by less than 300,000,000. In view of this fact the Earl of Harrowby does not exaggerate when he says: "The past fifty years have almost seen a repetition of the gift of tongues, because we have produced translations of the Bible in something like 140 tongues. . . . [It] is almost miraculous." There is still much work for the Bible societies, namely, to prepare new translations for peoples not yet reached, to complete certain translations, and to revise still others, not to mention the great work of further distribution. But the marvelous success of the past century should encourage us to believe that, if the Church properly sustains these invaluable agencies, before this generation closes each African, each Pacific Islander, and each inhabitant of Asia will be able to read or hear in his own tongue "the mighty works of God." Of the same class of agencies are the mission publishing houses and special societies for diffusing Christian literature. By expounding the Gospel through a wide range of printed works, reaching from primer to commentary, they helpfully supplement the work of all missionaries.

There are other Christian organizations and forces on the home field which greatly strengthen the hands of the Church for her missionary task. The different religious periodicals which go into millions of Christian homes are a mighty force and are in a position to guide and stimulate the army of Christ's disciples to larger endeavor. The hundreds of Christian colleges and seminaries which are training the future leaders of society in Church, in State and in the professions are rendering a vital service to the cause of Christ in the world.

The organized Christian movements among students constitute one of the largest and most potent forces in the Church. There are now fourteen great national and international student organizations, namely, the American and Canadian Student Young Men's Christian Association; the American Student Young Women's Christian Association; the Australasian Student Christian Union; the British College Christian Union; the College Young Men's Christian Association of China; the French Christian Student Movement; the German Christian Students' Alliance; the Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian Association of India and Ceylon; the Netherlands Students' Christian Union; the Student Young Men's Christian Association Union of Japan; the Scandinavian University Christian Movement; the Students' Christian Association of South Africa; the Student Christian Movement in Mission Lands, and the Swiss Christian Students' Association. These movements have been united into a World's Student Christian Federation. They comprise over 1,400 separate Christian Associations, with a total membership of nearly 65,000 students and professors. They are seeking to make the universities and colleges strongholds and propagating centers for aggressive Christianity. Under their influence an increasing number of students are year by year accepting Christ as their Saviour and Lord. They have created a remarkable revival in Bible study. The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which is organically related to the other student movements as their missionary department, has in itself become a mighty factor in the world's evangelization. It has enrolled thousands of students as volunteers for foreign service, and has been truthfully characterized as the greatest uprising for the evangelization of the world since the days of the Apostles. Surely this has a Providential significance. "On the one hand the world — not half of which has yet been evangelized — lies open to the Christian Church; on the other hand, men and women undoubtedly moved and prepared by God, in increasing but still inadequate numbers, are ready to go. This can be no chance coincidence." Of almost equal importance is the influence of the student organizations in enlisting in the enterprise of world-wide missions the active interest of students who are to be leaders of the Church on the home field. It should be pointed out that all of these student movements have arisen during the present generation. Thus it will be recognized that the Church in possessing this important recruiting and training agency is equipped as in no preceding age for a world-embracing evangelistic campaign.

The various Christian young people's organizations which have been developed within the past two decades have added largely to the power of the Church. In North America alone the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth League, the Baptist Young People's Union, the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, the Young People's Christian Union, the Westminster League, the Luther League, and kindred movements have nearly 100,000 local societies and a total membership of fully 5,500,000. It is a great army — equal to the number of people in Holland or Sweden or Canada. These young people themselves, if properly educated and guided, are able to give and raise each year a sum large enough to support all the foreign missionaries who would be required to accomplish the evangelization of the world. They are young people; it is not too late for them to form proper habits of giving, praying and working for missions. They are organized; therefore it is possible to communicate to them missionary impulses and to secure their concerted action.

The Sunday School is in some respects the largest undeveloped missionary resource of the Church. In 1890 the number of children in the Sunday schools of Protestant lands exceeded 22,000,000. If they were trained to give even two cents a week per member, it would yield an amount greater than the present total missionary gifts of Christendom. That this is not an unreasonable estimate is proved by the actual practice of many Sunday schools.

The native Church is the human resource which affords largest promise for the evangelization of the world. It is not only an impressive monument to the power of Christian missions, but an earnest of the vast fruitage which may be expected within our generation. It constitutes both the end of evangelization and its principal means. At the present time the native Church has fully 1,300,000 communicants and over 4,400,000 adherents. The activity, earnestness and liberality of these native Christians compares favorably with that of the Church members in any Christian land. There are about 77,000 evangelists, pastors, teachers, catechists, medical helpers and other native workers, and their number and efficiency are rapidly increasing. There are over 1,000,000 children and young people in the various mission schools and institutions of higher learning; and of this number at least 140,000 are in mission colleges, training institutes and high schools. From the ranks of these students and their successors are to come the hundreds of thousands of evangelists, teachers, Bible women and other workers who will be needed to preach Christ to the multitudinous inhabitants of the unevangelized world. This suggests again the significance of the Christian movement among the students of non-Christian lands. It is doing much to solve the problem of the world's speedy and thorough evangelization by uniting the native Christian students, first, to lead their fellow students to Christ, and then, after their preparation is completed, to go forth to evangelize their own countrymen. In view of the extent and possibilities of the native Christian forces, surely the Church is able to accomplish far more to-day for the world's evangelization than in any preceding age.

The Divine resources of the Church are immeasurably more powerful and more important than all others. The evangelization of the world is not man's enterprise but God's. Christ at the right hand of God is the leader of the missionary movement, and with Him resides all power in heaven and on earth. The Spirit of God is as able to shake communities now as in the days of St. Peter and St. John. The Word of God possesses dynamic and transforming power. Prayer can still remove mountains. Macedonian visions are yet vouchsafed unto men. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Why has God made the whole world known and accessible to our generation? Why has He provided us with such wonderful agencies? Not that the forces of evil might utilize them. Not for the purpose of promoting strife and avarice. Not for us to waste or leave unused. Such vast preparations must have been made to further some mighty and beneficent purpose. Every one of these wonderful facilities has been intended primarily to serve as a handmaid to the sublime enterprise of extending and building up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in all the world. The hand of God in opening door after door among the nations of mankind, in unlocking the secrets of nature and in bringing to light invention after invention, is beckoning the Church of our day to larger achievements. If the Church instead of theorizing and speculating will improve her opportunities, facilities and resources, it seems entirely possible to fill the earth with the knowledge of Christ before the present generation passes away. With literal truth it may be said that ours is an age of unparalleled opportunity. "Providence and revelation combine to call the Church afresh to go in and take possession of the world for Christ." Everything seems to be ready for a general and determined engagement of the forces of Christendom for the world-wide proclamation of the Gospel. "Once the world seemed boundless and the Church was poor and persecuted. No wonder the work of evangelizing the world within a reasonable time seemed hopeless. Now steam and electricity have brought the world together. The Church of God is in the ascendant. She has well within her control the power, the wealth, and the learning of the world. She is like a strong and well appointed army in the presence of the foe. The only thing she needs is the Spirit of her Leader and a willingness to obey His summons to go forward. The victory may not be easy but it is sure."