Factors Essential to the Evangelization of the World in This Generation

Factors on the mission field.

If the world is to be evangelized in this generation more missionaries must be sent out. There are still extensive regions without a foreign worker, notably in the interior of Africa and of China, and in unoccupied lands like Tibet, Afghanistan and parts of the Turkish Empire. Even in the countries best supplied with workers there are districts with hundreds of towns and villages in which a missionary is seldom or never heard. Taking the unevangelized world as a whole the present force is absolutely inadequate.

Missionaries are needed for all forms of work. As there is in the non-Christian world only one medical missionary to every 1,400,000 people, it will be seen that there is need of hundreds of this kind of laborers. The fact that many missionary teachers are so overburdened that they are unable to use their opportunities to secure evangelistic results, and that there are not a few districts in which educational institutions need to be established for the training of native workers to evangelize their peoples, makes it clear that more men and women must be sent out to engage in teaching. The literary work of missions calls for large reinforcements from Christian lands. Thousands of women missionaries are imperatively needed to insure the evangelization of the multitudes of women in the world. In some missions the material equipment of educational, medical and literary missionary work is sufficient to warrant an evangelistic utilization of these aids several-fold greater than at present. In other places the facilities for all kinds of mission work have still to be created. Without doubt the greatest need in all missions and in connection with all societies is that of a large increase of the evangelistic force.

More missionaries are needed to help reach the unevangelized masses. They are needed to help solve the problems of the native Church and to meet the crisis which confronts the Church in nearly every land. They are indispensable to the development of the native Church — by helping to root and ground the native Christians in the faith, by bringing to them the lessons of the history of Christianity in the West, by helping to build up a Christian literature in the native tongues, by promoting right habits of Bible study and prayer, by suggesting tried and approved methods of Christian work, and by training, guiding and inspiring the native workers to extend the Kingdom of Christ among their own people.

In locating the missionaries there should be due regard to Providential openings, to the regions totally unoccupied, to the location of missionaries of other societies, to the distribution of the population, to the comparative receptivity of the several classes of people and to other considerations incident to the work to be done and the qualifications of the workers.

Leading authorities in all the great mission fields have been asked to estimate how many missionaries, in addition to native assistants, would be required so to lead the missionary enterprise as to accomplish the evangelization of those countries within a generation. The highest number suggested by any one is one missionary to every 10,000 of the heathen population. Few gave a lower estimate than one to 100,000. The average number given is one to 50,000. The number most frequently specified is one to 20,000. If we follow the last proportion, it would call for an increase of the present missionary force from 15,000 to 50,000.

The Church in Christian lands is well able to supply the number of missionaries required to evangelize the world. To make up the entire number called for would take but a small fraction of the Christian students who will graduate within this generation. It would require less than one-fourth as many men as now constitute the Protestant clergy and ministry of North America and the British Isles. The present distribution of laborers is not only uneven but unfair. Dr. George W. Northrop, in an address in which he appealed for an enlargement of the missionary force to one missionary for every fifty thousand heathen, says: "We challenge any man to adduce reasons which will approach to a justification of the course of the Christian churches in distributing their forces over this common missionary ground — the whole world — in such an extraordinarily uneven way, putting one minister in charge of 300 people, many of whom are Christians, and another, of no greater ability, in charge of 300,000, of whom all, or nearly all, are pagans.'

While the sudden increase of the number of missionaries by thousands might prove unwise, there is little danger that serious consequences would result from a gradual enlargement of the foreign force. Moreover, the calculations which have been given by different missionaries of the number of foreign workers required for achieving the evangelization of the world within this generation have been given simply as illustrations of what might be accomplished if the Church gave herself to the task. Professor Warneck is right in pointing out that mere numbers of missionaries afford no sure guarantee of desired results. At the same time it will be conceded by all that neither can these results be secured without a great enlargement of the number of missionaries.

The missionaries who are sent out to evangelize the world should be men of the highest qualifications. The success of the undertaking depends even more upon the quality of the workers than upon their number. The Apostolic Church set apart some of her ablest men for this work. Surely an undertaking of such difficulty as that involved in extending the Kingdom of Christ in all the earth calls for the strongest and the best. Well has Professor Legge urged that "missionaries ought to be the foremost men whom the Christian Church possesses; the men who have intermeddled most with, and gone deepest into all knowledge; whose intellectual resources are the largest, whose practical and persuasive ability is the finest, and whose temper is the most under their control; the most fervent in spirit, the largest in mind, and the most capable in action," Generally speaking, the missionary needs a better all-round preparation than the home pastor.

On the spirituality of the missionary more than upon any other one factor on the mission field depends the evangelization of the world. Far more vital than the physical, social and intellectual equipment of the missionary is his spiritual furnishing. It is supremely and indispensably important that he be a man filled with the spirit of Christ. This point is being emphasized to-day by missionaries on every field. They maintain that unless the missionary be under the sway of the Holy Spirit he will, in the midst of deadening heathen influences, become cold and indifferent, his preaching will be fruitless, the example of his own life will be powerless and he will be unable properly to lead and to energize the native workers. Dr. Griffith John in dwelling on the last consideration says: "The quality of the native agent will very much depend upon the quality of the foreign missionary. An unspiritual, self-indulgent missionary is not likely to surround himself with capable, spiritual, earnest, and devoted native helpers." Too much stress, therefore, cannot be placed on having missionary candidates form the habit of thorough and devotional Bible study before they go to the field, because a man mighty in the Scriptures is almost sure to be mighty in Christian work. The enterprise of world-wide evangelization calls also for missionaries of spiritual vision and of victorious faith in God and in His message.

Rev. Thomas Green, Principal of the Church Missionary College at Islington, years ago summed up the spiritual qualifications of the missionary in the following words: "The men we want are men of God, truly converted in heart, and holy in life; baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire; taught by the Spirit; led by the Spirit; filled with the Spirit; men of one idea, one aim, one object; like the Great Apostle of the Gentiles, counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified; loving Christ, living Christ, ready and willing, if need be, to die for Christ."

To evangelize the world in this generation it is essential that there be a great increase in the number of well-qualified native Christian workers. As Pastor V. Sorensen of Denmark indicates, the task cannot be accomplished by flooding the non -Christian lands with foreign missionaries.' Thousands of missionaries in addition to those now on the field are needed to lead the enterprise of missions, and especially to reach the absolutely unevangelized regions; but it may be safely estimated that for every thousand missionaries there will be needed ten thousand native workers. The evangelization of Asia and Africa should not, therefore, be regarded chiefly as a European or an American, but rather as an Asiatic and an African enterprise.

There are manifest advantages in enlisting as many suitably-qualified native Christians as possible in the work of evangelization. They are acclimatized and therefore able to work at all seasons. They can live and labor in their own country at comparatively small expense. They are able to come into more intimate social contact with their own people than one foreigner in a hundred can hope to do. The natives can travel, eat, lodge, live with the people; the missionary has exotic habits. The native workers naturally have fluent command of the vocabulary and idioms of the language. They have an intimate acquaintance with the habitual trains of thought, the currents of feeling and the springs of action. They understand the native character and are the best judges of the motives and sincerity of those among whom they work. They know the difficulties, temptations, doubts and prejudices of the people. In view of such considerations as these they will always have the most abundant and effective access to their own countrymen.

Experience teaches that natives have been the chief human factor in the evangelization of different countries. No extensive field has ever been thoroughly evangelized but by its own sons. This seems to be God's method. Eminent and successful missionaries have emphasized by word and by practice the essential character of the native arm of the service. Duff said that "when the set time arrives, the real Reformers of Hindustan, will be qualified Hindus." Neesima in speaking after years of observation and experience in Japan expressed his conviction that "the best possible method to evangelize her people is to raise up a native agency, and such an agency can be only secured by imparting the highest Christian culture to the best youths to be found." Mackay not long before his death said: "The agency by which, and probably by which alone, we can Christianize Africa, is the African himself. But he must first be trained for that work, and trained, too, by the European in Africa." Dr. Nevius repeatedly expressed his belief that "the millions of China must be brought to Christ by Chinamen." Dr. Griffith John recently wrote that "the remarkable ingathering of the past few years in Fukien, Hupeh, Hunan, Manchuria and other parts of China, is to be attributed, under God, mainly to the efficiency, earnestness and assiduity of our native brethren." Dr. Goodrich, in writing from North China about the important part which native agents must have in spreading a knowledge of Christ, said: "Whether considered politically, economically, sociologically, or historically, this is the only sound policy and effective method of evangelizing a great nation."

One of the most difficult problems on the mission field is that of raising up and training this force of suitable native workers. They should be men with clear knowledge of the truths essential to salvation, men of true piety, men earnest and effective in service. That it is not an easy matter to secure them, every missionary can testify. The unreliability, the lack of spirituality, the want of resourcefulness and the low ideals and motives which characterize so many native agents is a source of much discouragement. So while there should be due regard to obtaining large numbers of workers and to distributing them wisely, the main concern must be to enlist and build up workers who will be really efficient. This calls for thorough and prolonged training. Strongly manned theological seminaries are greatly needed on the mission field. Without doubt the greatest work of the missionary is to make missionaries. In no other way can he so multiply himself. Some missionaries claim that each missionary should aim to train a band of at least ten native workers. What a work was achieved by the missionaries who, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, gave the Christian impulse to Moses Kya in the Sandwich Islands, to Sheshadri in India, to Sau Quala, the Karen evangelist, to Tiyo Soga among the Kaffirs, to Bishop Crowther in Western Africa. Merely intellectual culture and foreign money alone can never produce such evangelists. They are the gift of God through the spiritual example, feeding and training of Christ-like missionaries.

The need of an army of competent native workers emphasizes the importance of educational missionary work. No work has a more vital bearing on the world's evangelization. It is said that the Pasumalai College in Southern India has sent out over 500 native Christian workers, and there are other institutions which can show an equally encouraging record. Why should not every college and school become such a center of evangelization? This will not be the case unless those who have the responsibility of conducting these schools or teaching in them keep the subject constantly and prominently before the minds of the students.

A factor on the mission field which affords large promise for the evangelization of the world is the Student Young Men's Christian Association. It is now intrenched in nearly two hundred universities, colleges and high schools of Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific Islands. Not only does the number include nearly all of the leading missionary institutions of higher learning, but also many of the government student centers. The Associations of Japan, of China, of India and Ceylon, and of the remaining mission lands are united into intercollegiate movements, each having its supervisory committee composed of missionaries and leading native Christians. Each movement has one or more traveling and local secretaries. These secretaries are university men who have had experience in Christian work among students, and they devote themselves exclusively to unifying, guiding and energizing the societies of native Christian students. The aim is to lay upon these bands of Christian students the double burden of leading their fellow-students to Christ and of evangelizing their own countrymen. Thus they have been well characterized as Student Volunteer Movements for Home Missions. Through the medium of the World's Student Christian Federation they are kept in close and helpful touch with the organized Christian student movements of Europe, America, South Africa and Australasia. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this union of the Christian students of Christian and non-Christian lands for the evangelization of the world.

There must be a great increase in voluntary Christian work by the rank and file of the membership of the native Church, if the Gospel is to be diffused throughout all lands in our day. The whole Church must be trained to be missionary. It is fatal to have the idea prevail in any native community that the responsibility for winning men to Christ rests on a professional class. Important as is the work of the paid agents or leaders, it is not in itself sufficient to reach the masses. In the days of the Apostles the Gospel spread with wonderful rapidity because individual Christians everywhere were filled with a passion for making Christ known and went about living Him and speaking of Him. So to-day in Korea, Manchuria, Livingstonia and other mission fields, where the work of evangelization is being pushed most extensively and vigorously, one of the chief secrets of the progress is that large numbers of the native Christians have heard the call of Christ and are seeking to win to Him their relatives, friends and neighbors.

The native Church of a given district may be regarded as the most important factor in the evangelization of that district. "The evangelization of a given district thus depends," as Dr. J. J. Lucas of Northern India has pointed out, "largely upon the purity, unity, prayerfulness, spiritual knowledge, and growth of the Church of that district. Only to such a Church will Christ give converts, and without converts there cannot be evangelists." The great force with which to impress the unevangelized is a holy Church in their midst, the members of which are living examples of the mighty transforming and keeping power of the Gospel.

This shows again the importance of the work of the missionaries in raising up spiritual native leaders, for what we make the native ministry they will make the native Church. We recognize, therefore, the desirability of conducting Bible Conferences for native Christians, of creating and circulating vernacular Christian literature, and of seeking to lead the students and pupils of all mission colleges and schools into a vital Christian experience and also to form right habits of prayer and devotional Bible study before they go out to become leaders in the churches. Above all, it should be remembered that the feeble spiritual life of native converts and leaders, their shallow conception of sin, the little progress they make in the study of the Scriptures, in observing the commandments of Christ, in giving of their substance to the spread of the Gospel and in preaching Christ to their own people, can be remedied only by the Spirit of God who works in answer to the prayers of those that believe.

A great enlargement of work for children will prove to be a valuable, if not a necessary, factor in obtaining and training a sufficient force of native workers to evangelize the world. The plan that seizes and impresses childhood tells mightily for victory. At first thought this may appear to require too much time to be of real help in evangelizing this generation; and yet further reflection will convince one that there is no more direct, certain and satisfactory way of augmenting the evangelizing force. The Roman Catholic Church begins with childhood in training its priests. Some consider that one of the chief reasons why Buddhism developed into numerically the largest faith in the world is the fact that during its early history so much attention was devoted to the children. The minds of the young are unprejudiced and most susceptible to Christian influence. They are the most hopeful class, not only because they are most impressible and docile, but also because the future depends so largely upon them. A child won for Christ means an adult won. Moreover, it should not be overlooked that the child as a child may be an evangelizing force. Often the parents are reached best through the children. The fact that the children are, in a sense, missionaries among their playmates and in their homes lends large meaning to the mission school system with its one million of pupils.

The promotion of the spirit and practice of comity in the work of the various missionary societies is an essential factor in accomplishing the evangelization of the world. Comity should mean nothing less than such a spirit of unity and practical co-operation as would avoid misunderstandings, friction and conflict among the workers. Such a spirit would do much to prevent the reproduction on the mission field of the narrow sectarianism of the home lands. By avoiding wasteful duplication of machinery there would be a decided saving in number of workers, in money and in power. A larger concentration of effort would be made possible. The Church would present a united front to the enemy. As a result of planning and laboring together in real unity there would be a greater manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in all the work. The evangelizing force would be greatly augmented; for, in the words of Bishop Thoburn, "if all the missionaries of the world could to-day be made of one heart and one soul according to the standard of the Church of Pentecost, the change would be equivalent to an immediate reinforcement of a thousand, or perhaps I ought to say of ten thousand, fully equipped new workers."

There are many ways in which the various missions can advantageously co-operate as has been proved by the experience of cognate denominations in certain fields. They may unite in the conduct of training schools, of higher educational institutions, of hospitals and philanthropic enterprises, and also in the creation, publication and distribution of literature. They may come to an agreement to respect each other's rules of discipline, principles of administration and scale of wages. They may agree on a just territorial apportionment and honor each other's sphere of influence. Societies in extending their operations to other regions may go to unoccupied fields. The Bishop of Lahore strongly emphasizes this as follows: "As long as tens of thousands have never seen a Christian evangelist, it is little less than crime to court difficulties and heart-burnings by planting ourselves where Christ is already preached." Dr. Walter R. Lambuth points out that "a wise regard for this branch of missionary economics on broad Christian lines would have long since led to a masterly and complete occupation of the field." Has not the time come on most of the great mission fields for a federation of all the forces in order to map out and occupy every district? Judging from the expression of missionary bodies in different lands the time is ripe for such action. The chief obstacles to unity and co-operation, as was pointed out by the two Shanghai Conferences, are some of the missionary organizations at home. The vast extent and inherent difficulty of the work to be done call for a clearer recognition than ever of the oneness of Christ's followers and for the wisest possible alignment and distribution of the forces.

If the world is to be evangelized in this generation it is necessary that the leaders on the various fields — both missionary and native — regard this as something not only to be desired but also to be accomplished. If they are sceptical as to its being the will of God that the Church of our day shall put forth her energies to bring a knowledge of Christ within reach of all men in the known and accessible world, it will not be done. On the other hand, if the missionary body as a whole and the tens of thousands of native agents have a vivid realization of the necessity of reaching the entire known and accessible world with the Gospel, they are in a position so to distribute, lead, educate and inspire the forces as to accomplish a marvelous diffusion of the great facts about Jesus Christ. Dr. Lucas, in writing on the evangelization of the world in this generation, says: "This is the duty of the Church. It should be her aim, and yet only now and then, here and there, is this aim held up and this duty urged. The Scriptural reasons and motives for such a united, systematic, heroic effort on the part of the whole Church, every Christian taking part, are not presented and pressed with such clearness, repetition, and emphasis as to awaken the conscience and stir the heart of God's people the world over. Everywhere Calebs and Joshuas are needed to point to the infinite resources back of us and to encourage God's people to go forward. The aim is Scriptural and the duty of making the attempt is clear, but the Calebs and Joshuas, how few they are!

Factors on the home field.

It is indispensable to the world's evangelization that the churches on the home field become filled with the missionary spirit. A task so vast cannot be accomplished by the leaders of the Church at home alone, nor by the representatives of the home Church on the foreign field. The co-operation of a great multitude of the members of the Church is essential. This means that the churches in Christian lands must become missionary churches.

What characterizes a missionary church? It is a church whose members are intelligent concerning the enterprise of world-wide missions, and who recognize and accept their responsibility to help extend Christ's Kingdom throughout the earth. Christians will not earnestly set about the work of evangelizing the world until they have a deep conviction that this is their duty and an ardent desire to perform it. The basis of such conviction and desire is knowledge. Among the rank and file of the Church membership there is at present great ignorance and consequent indifference concerning missions. As a result only a comparatively small fraction of the Church members are doing anything in an aggressive or whole-souled way to evangelize the world. Surely God never intended that only a few earnest and devoted men and women, here and there, should have a vision of the unevangelized world and be possessed by an intense longing for the salvation of the heathen.

Far too many Christians look on the promotion of the missionary movement as something quite outside the ordinary Christian life. They assume that to help extend Christ's Kingdom is an optional matter and not obligatory. It must be pressed upon them that an intelligent and active missionary spirit is inseparable from a real Christian life; and that a man may well question whether he is living the Christian life — that is, having Christ live in him — if he is indifferent to the needs of over half the human race. The fundamental duty of the hour is well expressed in the following words of the resolution adopted by the Lambeth Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion: "To arouse the Church to recognize as a necessary and constant element in the spiritual life of the Body, and of each member of it, the fulfilment of our Lord's great commission to evangelize all nations." Christians must be led to see that it is their duty to keep informed concerning the Kingdom of Christ in the world — its field, its progress, its present-day triumphs, its problems and difficulties, its opportunities and its resources. The Church must be led to make the fulfilment of the command to disciple all nations the great business of this generation of believers.

The missionary church is a self-sacrificing church. The means given for evangelizing the world should correspond with the magnitude of the desired result. To mobilize and utilize the greatly enlarged force necessary to accomplish this purpose will require giving on a scale unthought of in the past. The Church, however, is abundantly able to supply all the money needed. If she is to respond as she should, her members both rich and poor must come to realize their responsibility as Christian stewards, not of one-tenth alone, but of all that they possess, and moreover, that they are under obligation to make not simply good use, but the best use of the property that they have, in the light of God's purposes for the world. If Christians would take the high, Scriptural ground of Livingstone, money enough would be released to enable the Church, so far as material resources are concerned, to meet every opportunity. "I will place no value," said he, "on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ."

The awful need of a world without Christ makes it incumbent on Christians to be more watchful and conscientious in expenditures. Luxury and materialism have become a serious menace to the Church, and are unquestionably obscuring its spiritual vision and hindering its evangelizing zeal. There should be among the followers of Christ a putting away of extravagance and superfluities so as to reduce the necessities of life to a standard which will not be inconsistent with the example and teaching of Christ and the requirements of an unevangelized world.

There is need also among all classes of Christians to-day of more heroic giving and of real self-denial on behalf of world-wide missions. Why should more be required in this respect of the missionary than of the member of the home Church? "If I as a foreign missionary," says Bishop Thoburn, "am expected to give up all things for the interests of the work, to count home and treasure and ease and personal comfort as nothing when the interests of the work are at stake, my brother in the United States who unhesitatingly assigns this standard of duty to me should be governed by a spirit precisely similar." Christians should rise to a higher plane of sacrifice than exists in the Church to-day. They need to be reminded of the conditions of discipleship which Christ imposed and be willing to forsake all for His sake and the Gospel's. Christian liberality stops short of the highest when it leads to no self-denial. Where-ever the Christian wins the victory over selfishness and avarice and renounces the thought of centering his affections on this world as his home, there is developed world-conquering power.

This call to self-denial and liberality comes to all who bear the name of Christ. To not a few it will mean to go out to preach Christ where He has not been named. To parents it will mean in many cases the giving up of children to the missionary service. To all who are unable to become missionaries it will mean giving generously of their substance, whether their possessions be little or great. Those who cannot go to the front should, if at all possible, support one or more substitutes there. Families should have their representatives on the foreign field. Each congregation of one hundred or more members should have, if possible, at least two ministers — a home pastor and another holding forth the word of life in some unevangelized land. If a Church cannot support its own missionary, two or more might unite for this purpose. This plan of having living links between the Christian communities at home and the mission fields is meeting with increasing favor. Each congregation should be ambitious to have some of the choicest young men and women in its membership become missionaries. Think of the inheritance to the churches they represented of names like Carey, Livingstone, Judson and Martyn. Rev. Hubert Brooke in a recent article' tells of a church of 300 communicants in England which within the past decade had thirty-two of its members volunteer for foreign service of whom twenty have already gone to the field and three are in training. In other words, one in ten of the membership offered themselves and one in fourteen have actually gone out.

A loud call comes to the rich in this day of unexampled opportunity. They are in a position to hasten greatly the extension of Christ's reign in mission lands. Has not the missionary enterprise reached a stage where large sums of money can be wisely expended upon it? The age of experimenting has passed. A science of missions based on one hundred years and more of experience is being developed. The leading missionary societies are conducted according to the principles and the methods which characterize all strong organizations. It is conceded that their funds are administered economically and wisely. Ex-President Harrison, in his opening address at the Ecumenical Missionary Conference, thus emphasized the desirability of large gifts to missions: "University endowments have been swelled by vast single gifts in the United States during the last few years. We rejoice in this. But may we not hope that in the exposition of the greater needs of the educational work in the mission fields . . . some men of wealth may find suggestion to endow great schools in mission lands? It is a great work to increase the candle power of our educational arc lights, but to give to cave dwellers an incandescent may be a better one." There have been comparatively few conspicuously great gifts devoted to building up the Kingdom of Christ in less favored countries. Who can measure what might be accomplished toward the world's evangelization if some of the rich disciples of Christ would, like Zinzendorf, devote their princely revenue and themselves to the promotion of this God-appointed work? Their time and thought will be fully as valuable and potent as their money. There is much force in the words of Mr. John H. Converse of the great commercial firm, the Baldwin Locomotive Works: "When business men apply to the work of missions the same energy and intelligence which govern in their commercial ventures, then the proposition to evangelize the world in this generation will be no longer a dream."

The poor and those of moderate means, as well as the wealthy disciples of Christ, should give of their substance toward propagating the Gospel. A work of such extent and urgency calls for the participation of the entire Church of God. Special efforts should be put forth to train in habits of systematic, proportionate and self-denying giving the vast army of children in the Sunday schools and of young men and young women in the various young people's movements of the Church. In this way a generation of intelligent and prayerful givers may soon be raised up who will carry forward the work in a manner commensurate with their opportunities. In a word, Christ summons all, old and young, rich and poor, to make their lives, including possessions, talents and influence, tell on the evangelization of the world.

The missionary church is a praying church. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Everything vital to the success of the world's evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands of missionaries and tens of thousands of native workers needed? "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest." Is a vast increase in gifts required to prosecute adequately the enterprise? Prayer is the only power that will influence God's people to give with purity of motive and with real sacrifice of self. Prayer alone will overcome the gigantic difficulties which confront the workers in every field. Nothing but prayer will strengthen the weak, tried and tempted native Christians, who have been raised up from lives of sin and degradation, and give them the evangelistic impulse. It is in answer to prayer that the Holy Spirit is poured out in mighty Pentecostal power on the workers and Christian communities in the far-off, needy fields. Hope and confidence should not be placed in the extent and perfection of organizations, nor in the experience which has been accumulated and the agencies and methods which have been devised in a long century of missions, nor in the unusual strength of the missionary body, nor in the multitude who have been gathered from every nation and race and faith into the native Church, nor in the wonderful resources and facilities of the home Church, nor in far-sighted and comprehensive plans, nor in enthusiastic forward movements and inspiring watchwords. It is easy to magnify human personality and agencies. Prayer recognizes that God is the source of life and light and energy. Let methods be changed, therefore, if necessary, that prayer may be given its true place. Let there be days set apart for intercession; let the original purpose of the monthly concert of prayer for missions be given a larger place; let missionary prayer cycles be used by families and by individual Christians; let the best literature on prayer be circulated among the members of the Church; let special sermons on the subject of intercession be preached. By these and by all other practical means a larger, deeper, wider spirit of prayer should be cultivated in the churches. The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest victories will be witnessed when individual Christians everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto God and day by day give themselves unto prayer. If added power attends the united prayer of two or three, what mighty triumphs there will be when hundreds of thousands of consistent members of the Church are with one accord day by day making intercession for the extension of Christ's Kingdom.

Mr. Robert E. Speer, in his pamphlet, "Prayer and Missions," which has done so much to awaken the Church to prayer, goes to the heart of the subject: "The evangelization of the world in this generation depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men; deeper, far, than the need for money; aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer. . . . The condition and consequence of such prayers as this is a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Nothing short of His own suggestion will prompt the necessary prayer to bring Him back again in power. Nothing short of His new outpouring will ever solve the missionary problems of our day."

It is essential that the leaders of the Church in the home lands as well as on the mission field regard the evangelization of the world as a primary obligation and devote themselves to its accomplishment. The present attitude of the Church and the plans of her leaders are certainly not consistent with a deep conviction that in our day all men should be given an opportunity to know Jesus Christ. The great duty of the Church to disciple all nations should be recognized as the supreme question of the time. For over a century there has been pioneer work. The letter sent out to pastors in 1897 by the representatives of the mission boards of the United States and Canada rightly insists that "now the time has come for the Church of God to arise and gird itself for the conquest of the nations for Christ. Let us count this Divinely-given task as no longer a side issue, but as the chief object for which the Church exists." Who can doubt for a moment that if the leaders of the Church at home really desired to have the world evangelized in this generation and set themselves to bring the hosts of God up to the task, it would be accomplished?

An enterprise which aims at the evangelization of the whole world in a generation, and contemplates the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of Christ, requires that its leaders be Christian statesmen — men with far-seeing views, with comprehensive plans, with power of initiative and with victorious faith.

While the call to evangelize was addressed to the whole Church a special responsibility rests upon the home pastor because he has been divinely appointed to lead the forces. He holds a key position. If he lacks the missionary spirit; if he is not fully persuaded that the cause of missions is the cause of Christ Himself, his church will not be missionary. As the pastor so the people, is generally true in relation to this subject. It would be difficult if not impossible to find a case of a pastor deeply and actively interested in missions who has not met with a real response from a goodly number of his parishioners. "Let the pulpit give its proper place to the subject that was the vision of prophets, the song of sacred poets, the consolation of the Redeemer, the labor of apostles, the ingathering of the Gentiles; and missions would have a new standing in the Church, a fresh development in the world." Where the pastor gives much missionary information to his people and systematically presses the claims of the world upon them, the people become missionary. His responsibility acquires added significance when it is remembered that the Church on the mission field will be a reflection of the Church in Christian lands. Its life will not reach and remain at a higher level than the life of the home congregations.

There are striking examples in all Christian countries showing what one pastor can accomplish who devotes himself with conviction and enthusiasm to the cause of the world's evangelization. The methods which such pastors have employed are reproducible by any pastor. The missionary pastor has abandoned the merely occasional missionary sermon, and makes missions the fibre and substance of his teaching. Much personal effort is put forth in his parish. The missionary work is thoroughly organized. Scriptural habits of giving are cultivated. The people are taught to offer continual prayer for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ. The awakening and maintaining of the spirit of prayer is recognized as the first duty. Missions have a prominent place in the pastor's public prayers and this exerts a powerful indirect influence. Moreover, he gives himself much to prayer on behalf of the world. Here lies the secret of his enthusiasm and influence. It takes spiritual energy to stir up spiritual energy. Only fire kindles fire.

If we are to have more missionary pastors the subject of missions must receive larger attention in the theological seminaries. Chairs of missions should be established and filled only by men possessing both scientific attainments and a passion for the world's evangelization. Students should be required to make an exhaustive study of the moral and religious condition of the unevangelized world, of the ground and history of missions, of the lives of great missionaries and of the methods of enlisting the fullest co-operation of the churches in the work of missions. Pastors should be taught to look on their churches, not only as a field to be cultivated, but also as a force to be wielded on behalf of the world's evangelization. No student should be counted worthy to assume the duties of the ministry who has not acquired a world-wide horizon and who has not caught the real missionary spirit, that is, the spirit of Christ.

The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions has been raised up for such a time as this. It is indispensable as a factor in the world's evangelization. It occupies a position of strategic importance, having assumed so largely the responsibility of cultivating for missions the student centers of Christendom. Already its organized work has extended to the universities, colleges and other institutions of higher learning in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Switzerland, the Protestant communities of France, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Such a union of the students of all Protestant Christendom, not to mention those of the unevangelized lands, must be regarded as both a preparation for and a promise of a greater work by the Church in the world. The Movement has only begun to realize its possibilities. Its plans must be made far more extensive and its work must be prosecuted with much greater energy in all these countries, if it is to do what the Church has a right to expect of it toward accomplishing the world-wide proclamation of the Gospel. It should see to it that no Christian student goes out into the world without having been brought face to face with the question of his responsibility to carry out the final commission of his Lord. All students who are to become leaders in the Church at home and abroad should be enlisted and guided in the scientific study of missions. Men and women of high qualifications should be enrolled by the thousands as volunteers for foreign missions, and all practical measures should be employed to insure their receiving the most thorough preparation. Only by carrying out such a comprehensive and aggressive policy will the missionary societies be supplied with a sufficient number of thoroughly qualified candidates to evangelize the world in this generation.