The Evangelization of the World in This Generation as a Watchword

The idea of evangelizing the world in a generation did not originate, as some have thought, with student volunteers for foreign missions. In substance, and often in practically the same phraseology, it has been urged in different generations by leaders of the Church both in Christian countries and on the mission fields. The Student Volunteer Movement, however, was the first body of Christians to adopt it as a watchword and to promote in an organized way its acceptance by all disciples of Christ.

In 1886-87, before the Volunteer Movement was regularly organized, Mr. Robert P. Wilder and Mr. John N. Forman, who served as its first traveling secretaries, went about the universities and colleges of the United States and Canada pressing upon students the possibility and duty of evangelizing the world in a generation as one of the motives for volunteering for missionary service. In 1887 all the volunteers who assembled at Northfield, representing many American and Canadian universities, issued an appeal to the churches, in which among other reasons why they had volunteered they mentioned the possibility of evangelizing the world in the present generation. When the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was formally organized in 1888, one of the first acts of its Executive Committee was the adoption of the phrase, "The Evangelization of the World in this Generation," as the Watchword of the Movement. From that time to the present the leaders of this Movement in North America have earnestly advocated the idea.

The leaders of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union of Great Britain, at the time of their Liverpool Conference in 1896, having for months given the subject most thorough consideration, adopted the same watchword. About a year later they prepared a memorial "to the Church of Christ in Britain" in which they appealed not only to Christians in general to take part in the evangelization of the world in this generation, but also to those "who are called to the holy office of guiding the counsels and action of the Church, to recognize [the] Watchword as expressive of the present duty of the Church, and to accept it as [their] missionary policy."

The leaders of the Volunteer Movement in America and Britain in adopting the Watchword did not understand that in doing so they were making it binding on each volunteer. This they knew they had no authority to do. They did accept it, however, for themselves; and adopted it for the Movement in the sense of making it a great aim of the Movement, toward the realization of which they as leaders would seek to guide its forces. To this end they have, from the time of its adoption, had as a prominent part of their policy the leading of volunteers and all other Christians to take it as a personal watchword. As a result, not only many student volunteers, but a great number of other Christians have accepted the evangelization of the world in this generation as a controlling principle in their lives. In a word, then, it was made the watchword of a movement in order that it might more widely and more effectively be made the watchword of individual lives.

In actual use the Watchword has proved to be remarkably effective. This is due to the fact that it is at once concise, comprehensive, definite, instructive, Scriptural, striking and inspiring. Objection has been made to its wording on the ground that it needs explanation, but this might be said of almost every watchword which has influenced large numbers of men. Any great duty ever urged upon the Church has required and has received explanation and defence. That this is not without its advantages is suggested by the following words of the Bishop of Newcastle in his address at the London Student Conference. "For myself," he said, "I think that it [the Watchword] did require, and that it has received, an adequate explanation. . . . It seems to me that you are perfectly justified in having a Watchword which challenges thought. If you had a Watchword which simply repeated a verse of Holy Scripture, I am afraid, that just as many familiar phrases are read and not realized, in like manner this Watchword might be passed over and not realized, too."

The Student Volunteer Movement has derived many advantages from the use of the Watchword. It has helped to concentrate the convictions, desires and purposes of a great number of Christians on the work of the world's evangelization. It has exerted a unifying influence among the volunteers. This means much in a movement which has become well nigh world-wide. As a rallying cry it has been of great value, affording a strong ground of appeal to men to become volunteers. It has attracted the attention of the Church, lifted its faith and moved it to greater sacrifice and prayerfulness. It has kept before the volunteers as well as other Christians the universality and urgency of their purpose. "It has imparted a steadiness of purpose, a unity of aim and a ringing note of hopefulness to the whole Union."

The Watchword has exerted a most helpful influence in the lives of individual Christians. By emphasizing Christ's command, it furnishes a powerful motive. By urging the responsibility comprised in a life time of service, it lends greater intensity to one's missionary zeal and activity. It prevents unnecessary delay. It leads to the study of what is involved in the evangelization of the world in a generation. It calls out enterprise, self-sacrifice and heroism, and stimulates hopefulness and faith. It brings to the individual the inspiration which results from union with many others having the same ideal and purpose.

Many testimonies regarding the value of the Watchword to the life of the Christian might be given. A prominent Christian worker says: "In my life the Watchword has become a passion and a controlling force. It has kept me from confining my prayers and efforts to any one country. It has prevented me from magnifying a corner of the world-field out of its proper proportion. It has given me a truer perspective in service, a bolder faith in God, and a broader love for all evangelical Christian denominations; since the co-operation of all is necessary for the realization of the Watchword. Moreover, it has increased my love for the Lord who not only suffered and rose again from the dead, but also made it possible that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name by the Christians of each generation to the unevangelized of their generation."

An Oxford man writes: "The Watchword has, I think, been the strongest call to consecration that has ever come to me. It does not of course set before us any standard or make upon us any demands which are not to be found in the love and commands of Jesus Christ. But it presents the ideal in such a definite and practical form as constantly to recall us from dreamily supposing that we are what we might be or are doing what we might do. We cannot reflect upon it without being startled from our apathy."

A recent graduate of Harvard, engaged in teaching, gives the following testimony: "The Watchword has helped me to understand my own duty and that of the Church. In many ways it is like the divine command, 'Be ye perfect.' Once having heard its uncompromising imperative one can never be satisfied with a narrower view of the world, or of the work set for earnest men to do. It is not narrow or exclusive. Rather it gathers into a sentence the duty of all the ages, bids us remember the uttermost as well as the nearest parts of the earth, and gives renewed zeal in view of the urgent need and opportunity which it portrays."

A worker among the young women of India, says: "At home the motto was to me a call to arms and the rallying cry of the 'faithful.' Since coming to the mission field, it has been to me that and much more. Face to face as never before with the powers of darkness, the motto has been a light shining in a dark place, forbidding despair and pointing to the glory which shall be revealed. For I believe with a deep faith that our motto is God-given and is but its own realization 'casting its shadow before.

A Yale man now in Christian work among students writes as to the influence of the Watchword on his life: "It breaks down denominational and national barriers and makes me feel a part of a great and united army of young missionaries who are working for a common end under a common Master. It is a spur to attempt great things for God. It lifts one out of a lack of expectation, arising from looking merely at things seen, to behold and lay hold of the reality of the unseen plan and power of God."

A Vanderbilt alumnus gives this expression as to the value of the Watchword: "I wish to bear emphatic testimony to the influence of the Watchword of the Student Volunteer Movement upon my own life. It was not possible for me to get to the foreign field within over fourteen years after my decision to go. During these long years of waiting there was no end of forces to weaken one's conviction of duty to the unevangelized world. This conviction the Watchword, on the other hand, intensified and did much to make a permanent and the controlling influence in my life. But the Watchword has never meant so much to me as since my arrival on the foreign field. The splendid vision of the Watchword is a needed inspiration in the face of the awful discouragements of mission work among the heathen and the call to urgency is a much needed spur to natural lethargy and conservatism."

An Edinburgh medical graduate affirms: "The Watchword has carried into my prayer life a thought of urgency which was not often in my mind so concretely before. ... It has supplied a concrete aim which has been operative in my thought when considering expenditure upon myself. It has served as a valuable point of appeal to others — arousing attention, stimulating investigation, stirring prayer and sacrifice. It has united me to many — known and unknown — holding the same ideal, and has thus brought me all the inspiration peculiar to a unity of purpose with many others. It has supplied a principle which has been a test of a very definite kind to my purpose, practices and aims."

It is hoped that missionary societies and other Christian organizations may accept the Watchword, not only as expressive of the duty of the Christians of the present generation, but also as one of their points of missionary policy. In the last analysis, however, the Watchword must be made the watchword of individual Christians, if it is to be realized. The Watchword must be regarded and treated by each Christian as though he were the only one to whom it had come. It belongs to each one to give himself to the evangelization of the world in his day with such energy and faith that, if a sufficient number of Christians could be induced to do likewise, the task would be achieved. No one should wait for the whole Church, or, indeed for any others, to realize their obligation and attempt to discharge it; but if he feels the pressure of the facts and recognizes the hand of God in this enterprise, he should throw himself into its accomplishment. Responsibility is individual, non-transferable, urgent. However much one may hide behind the attitude and practice of the general body of Christians, either of his own or of other generations, at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ he must stand and be judged by what he himself did to serve his own generation.

It should be reiterated that responsibility for the world's evangelization rests alike upon all Christians, and not merely upon students or any other special class or order. Its promotion is no more the duty and privilege of those who go to the mission field and of those who administer the work at home than it is of other Christians.

Each Christian should be on his guard lest he be deflected or hindered from discharging his responsibility to the unevangelized. The number of heathen, the serious combination of difficulties on the mission field, the lethargy and indifference of so many Christians, the lack of active interest among one's own associates, should not be allowed to keep any Christian from saying, "I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians," and, therefore, "as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel."

What is involved in taking as one's personal watchword the evangelization of the world in this generation? Far more than mere intellectual assent to the idea and nominal acceptance of it. More even than earnest belief in it and strong desire to see it realized. Knowledge, emotion and resolution are not substitutes for action. It is very dangerous for a man to become intellectually converted to a great idea and not practically. Nothing less is meant than making the Watchword a commanding influence in each man's life.

There are several particulars in which the Watchword should govern the Christian. In deciding upon his life work the Christian must let the Watchword have its true place, and not be afraid to settle the question in the light of the opportunity and obligation to make Christ known to all men. He should be ambitious to enter that particular work and field in which his life will count most for the world's evangelization. This decision, made conscientiously and fearlessly, will result in not a few going out to unevangelized lands as ambassadors for Christ. Others will be led to work in Christian countries as ministers and laymen, but for the same purpose — to give all mankind the opportunity to know Christ. The vital matter is that a man be willing and anxious to work where God wants him to work. If he is not willing to serve Christ everywhere he cannot serve Him rightly anywhere. The Watchword should influence also a man's preparation for his life work. The fact that the undertaking is difficult as well as extensive and urgent demands thorough preparation on the part of all who would do most to accomplish it.

The Christian who has taken the Watchword as a factor in his life will make a study of the great subject of world-wide missions. By regular and careful reading of missionary literature and in other ways he will seek to understand all that is involved in the realization of the Watchword, and to ascertain how he can do most to promote its realization.

The religion of Christ should be a great reality in the life of every man who adopts such a watchword. How inconsistent and unreal it would be to urge preaching Christ as the sufficient Saviour and rightful Lord of all men and yet not know Him in personal experience day by day as a triumphant Saviour and as the actual Master of one's life. There is no more direct or effectual way to hasten the evangelization of the world than to give Christ the absolute right of way in one's own life and to be filled and energized by His Spirit.

The Watchword summons the man who would come under its sway to a life of self-sacrifice. He must give up personal ease. His time must be economized for study, prayer and work on behalf of missions. By real self-denial, as well as by thrift and faithful stewardship, he will make his money exert the maximum of influence on the extension of the Kingdom of Christ.

Every one who feels pressed in spirit by this Watchword must also realize that he is called to a life of prayer. Like Eliot and Brainerd and Martyn and Pastor Harms he must know what it is to devote long hours to prayer. A missionary movement which would evangelize the world in this generation must acquire great momentum; and this can result only from more Christians giving themselves to the ministry of intercession.

The Christian who adopts this Watchword must devote himself with intensity and enthusiasm to its realization. He must not be satisfied with the little which he is now doing but only in doing all that he can. Let him be profoundly in earnest or else take some other watchword. Every mighty achievement in the history of the Church has been a triumph of men of genuine enthusiasm. Real Christian enthusiasm is not a product of the energy of the flesh, but of the Spirit of the living God. Such enthusiasm is constant, undiscourageable, contagious and irresistible.

If this Watchword has come to be a power and inspiration in one's life, it is one's duty to press it upon others. One of the best ways to insure its realization is to carry on a constant propaganda among Christians for the express purpose of influencing them to let it become a governing factor in their lives. If the Church is to be deeply moved by this idea, many, both ministers and laymen, by public addresses, by articles in the press and by conversation in the circles in which they move from day to day, must give themselves to its advocacy. From among them surely God will raise up some whom He will use mightily in rousing the Church to go forth to evangelize the world. It is impossible to measure what might be done by a few men who, catching a vision of the world evangelized, yield themselves wholly to God to be used by Him to realize the vision. Was it not one man, Peter the Hermit, who stirred all Christendom to unexampled sacrifice of property and life to rescue the Holy City from the Moslems? Did not God use Carey alone to awaken a sleeping Church and usher in the marvelous modern missionary era? Was it not Clarkson who was instrumental in quickening the conscience of a whole nation to abolish the slave-trade? Was it not Howard who, also single-handed and alone, laid bare before the eyes of the world the sad state and suffering of the prisoners of different lands and brought about reforms for the amelioration of their condition? So to-day, let not one, or a few, but many of those in all lands and among all races who acknowledge Christ as King arise and resolve, at whatever cost, to devote their lives to leading forward the hosts of God to fill the whole world with a knowledge of Christ in this generation.