Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions Part 9

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Number of | Number of Missionaries | Proportion of Province. | Industrial | Engaged in such | Total | Inst.i.tutions. | Inst.i.tutions. | Missionaries --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | __________|________________|________________________|________________

(c)

------------------------------------------------------------- | Number of | Number of | Proportion of Province. | Industrial | Native Agents | Native Christian | Missions. | Employed. | Workers Employed.

------------------------------------------------------------- | | | __________|_____________|________________|___________________

In some missions the proportion of missionaries and native workers so employed would be very small; in others they would be very considerable.

There is now a tendency to hand over some of the industrial work as it develops along commercial lines to Boards of Christian men who are interested in the social and spiritual aspect of the work.

In the province we must also consider union work, work done in common by two or more societies,[1] sometimes evangelistic, sometimes medical or educational training, sometimes the establishment, or enlargement of an educational or medical inst.i.tution; or sometimes, as in Kw.a.n.gtung in South China, several societies unite in a "Board of Co-operation". This union of societies for the better and more efficient performance of their work is a most important development of the last few years: important both to the workers on the field and to us at home. We ought, therefore, to have a short table to show what is being done.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Number of Societies | | Number | Co-operating in |Number of | of |--------------------------------| Societies |Remarks Societies|Evangelistic|Medical|Educational| Co-operating| and at Work. | Work. | Work. | Work. | in all Work.|Conclusions.

[Footnote 1: The larger and more important movements towards corporate union, such as those now taking place in S. India, China, and E. Africa, lie outside the scope of this survey until their completion affects their statistical returns. Then the importance of them will speedily appear.]

CHAPTER XI.

THE RELATION OF THE STATION TO THE WORLD.

We have now dealt with the survey of the station and of the province or small country, but the final end of missionary work is the attainment of a world-wide purpose. The Gospel is for the whole world, not for a fragment of it, however big. Missionary work cannot properly be carried on in any place except by means and methods designed with a view to the whole, and missions can never be properly presented to us at home so long as we are taught to fix our eyes on small areas; because the great characteristic of missions is their vastness. This is what is so uplifting and enn.o.bling in the work. Every little piece of mission work ought to be directed on principles capable of bearing the weight of the whole. We ought to be able to say, "The whole world can be converted by these means and on these principles which we are here employing in this little village". If the methods and the principles are so narrow that we can build no great world-wide structure on them, we can take little more interest in them than we do in the petty politics of some little parish at home.

We have then yet to demand that we shall be able to put every little station into its proper place in this larger whole, and to see how its principles and methods are illumined by the vision of the whole, being established with the design of accomplis.h.i.+ng the whole task. We turn then now to this larger view of mission work. The tables which we have drawn for a province or small country would enable us to compare the work in each area with another such area in the larger whole, and to judge whether we were unduly neglecting any; where the Church was strongest and where it was least established; where it was more capable and where it was less capable of taking over that work which rightly belongs to it, of extending its own boundaries, and of maintaining its own life. We should not send hasty missions here or there because some interesting political event attracts the eyes of men to this or that particular country, but on definite missionary principles, acting on a clear and reasonable understanding of the missionary situation in the world.

The commission of Christ is world-wide, the claim of Christ is world-wide, the work of Christ, the Spirit of Christ are all-embracing; and the work which missionaries do in His name should be all-embracing to. We should conduct all our work, and plan all our work, at home and abroad, with our eyes fixed on the final goal, which is for us, so long as we are on this earth, coterminous only with the limits of the habitable globe. We cannot be content to approach even the largest areas as though our action was limited by them. All our policy in every part should be part of a policy designed for the whole. If it is not designed to accomplish the whole it is not adequate for any part.

How then could we gain a vision of the whole, a whole composed of such vast and diverse parts? Obviously we must have for every country in which any missionary work is carried on some common returns, either those which we venture to suggest or others which some abler minds might suggest; but that they must be common to all, and fundamental in character, is obvious; and they must be reduced to proportions on a common basis, or comparison and combination will be impossible; and they must be as few as possible in order to avoid confusion.

We suggest, then, that if we had the four tables which follow we should possess a reasonable basis, sufficient for our present needs, especially since we suppose they would be supported by the tables for the different provinces, countries, and stations which we have already suggested, and they ought to be supplemented by surveys made by each society of its own work and by departmental surveys of medical, educational, industrial, and literary work made for the special direction of each of these branches. But for a first general view of the whole we propose:--

(1) A table showing the force at work in the area in relation to the population:--

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Proportion to Population.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Province| Popula-| Total | Chris- | Com- | | or | tion. | Foreign | tian | municants | Paid | Unpaid Country| | Mission-| Const.i.tu-| or Full |Workers.| Workers.

Area. | | aries. | ents. | Members | | --------|--------|---------|----------|-----------|--------|--------- | | | | | | ________|________|_________|__________|___________|________|_________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------

That would give us a general view of the force at work in relation to the work to be done and of the proportions between its const.i.tuent parts. Then (2):--

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Proportion of Paid | Proportion of | Workers | Unpaid Workers -------------------|------------------------|------------------------ Propor- | | Christian tion |-----------|------------|-------------|---------- Const.i.tu- of | | To | |To ency. Liter- | To | Christian | To |Christian ates. | Com- | Const.i.tu- | Com- |Const.i.tu- | municants.| ency |municants. |ency.

That would give us an idea of the character and power of the force. (3)

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Percentage | Percentage | | Paid | of Total | of Total | Missionaries.| Native | Foreign Funds| Native | | Workers.| Employed in. | Contributions | | | | Employed in.

-------------+--------------+---------+--------------+--------------- Evangelistic | -- | -- | -- | -- ----------------------------+---------+--------------+--------------- Medical | -- | -- | -- | -- ----------------------------+---------+--------------+--------------- Educational | -- | -- | -- | -- ----------------------------+---------+--------------+--------------- Other forms | -- | -- | -- | -- of work | -- | -- | -- | -- -------------+--------------+---------+--------------+---------------

That would give us relative emphasis on different forms of work.

(4)

-------------+---------------------+--------------+------------------ | Total Amount Paid | |Relation of Native Christian | to Native Evangel- | Total Native | Contribution to Const.i.tuency.| istic Workers In- | Contribution.| Pay of Workers.

| cluding all Pastors.| | -------------+---------------------+--------------+------------------ | | | _____________|_____________________|______________|__________________

That would give us some idea of the extent to which the native Christians support the existing work.

Now if we could form some idea of the force at work in relation to the country in which it is working; and some idea of the character of the force; and some idea of the relative emphasis laid on different forms of work, and some idea of the extent to which the native Christians support the work, we should, we hope, be able to form a reasonable estimate of the extent and progress of our efforts in the world. The whole number of forms would not be very large, for there would only be about 150 areas from which such forms would be required, and these could be combined so as to give us a view of the situation in the world such as the mind could grasp.

This is, we admit, rather a hasty and tentative expression of the way in which we might satisfy the present need; but it seems to us that the time is ripe for the consideration of this great subject, and we can think of no better plan than to propose tables, and then to leave others to criticise and amend them, or to suggest better ones, or better methods of attaining an object which few would deny to be desirable.

With proper tables, these or others, we should then be able to trace the meaning and results of each station which we founded and to put it into its place in a reasoned scheme of things, and that is the crying need.