An Untrue Charge by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 11, 1912

An Untrue Charge

By C. M. S.

It has been frequently charged by unbelievers and by the exponents of infidelity that the Christian missionary is a disturbing element in the country to which he goes. There may be some ground for this charge in the case of some calling themselves Christian missionaries, who have sought to impress their own national customs and ideas upon the people.

Our Saviour has not commissioned his followers to graft American or English or German ideas and customs upon the unevangelized peoples of earth; but to preach the gospel, to make known a Saviour from sin. It is not a certain brand of nationalized Christianity that the missionary is commissioned to teach. No matter from what country he goes forth, the true missionary of God has but one Lord to make known to the people, one gospel to declare, one baptism to administer, one hope to proclaim. If he becomes an advocate of American Christianity, or English Christianity, or a Christianity adjectived by any other national cognomen, he becomes a disturbing element in the country to which he goes. More than that, he misrepresents his Master, for Christianity is not American, nor German, nor English. To make Christianity American, is to make it less than Christianity. Any temporal adjective which we might apply to Christianity is belittling to it—an attempt to circumscribe and localize it, and rob it of its divinity.

Much of the disturbance which culminated in the Boxer uprising in China was the result of the mistaken zeal of some who had that nationalized notion of a missionary’s calling, especially that element which carried its nationality around with it, as the heathen carries his charm to protect from danger, and which obtrudes itself into the native courts to interfere with the decisions of the judges.

Paul declared to the philosophizing Corinthians that he had determined to know nothing among them “save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” and to do that even though they considered it foolishness. The practise of Christianity does interfere with the religious practises of heathen people. It is bound to do that, because there is no hope for them in those practises. But the teaching of the gospel, the true principles of Christianity, does not make the government of the country feel that the customs of another nation are being forced upon it to displace its own cherished customs. Barbarous customs, immoral customs, dangerous customs, will fall away from the truly converted native as surely as the leaves of a tree wither and fall away from its branches when the flow of sap that had nourished them is withdrawn. He can not continue the unchristian custom when Christ is in the heart molding his life.

The advocate of “national Christianity” goes to his mission field handicapped, and bound to be a disturbing element in the land, arousing suspicion and hatred, winning a few and hardening the many, and giving an untrue setting to the work and teachings of Christ. The true missionary goes forth a “pilgrim and a stranger” in this present world, because his “citizenship is in heaven;” the kingdom of his Master “is not of this world.” He goes forth wedded to no principles but the principles of Christ and his kingdom, advancing the interests of no kingdom nor nation save the kingdom of Christ. That is a disturbing element only in the sense that it makes no compromise with sin, and puts forth every endeavor to turn the sinner from his wicked ways to the perfect manhood of Christ. Such disturbance is legitimate; it is the purpose of the gospel in the world.

But in no other sense is the true Christian missionary a disturbing element, in spite of the charges brought against him by unbelievers and infidels. In heathen lands to-day are thousands of conscientious, self-sacrificing men and women who are doing the work of Christ as loyally and as truly as human hands and hearts can do it; and those who know them are not charging them with disturbance of the peace. The true Christian missionary knows that he is “doing a great work,” an everlasting work; and he can not cease it to “come down” into any plain where the enemies of that work are plotting its overthrow. Such enemies will use every possible device to turn the missionary away from his one great work; but he must not yield. The commission is plain, the gospel is plain, and the need of the work is great and pressing. The footprints of our great Pattern lead away from the things of this world to Calvary and the cross, and then away to that “far country” where he waits, watching over his work in the earth. So far as the true soldiers of the cross are concerned the charge that they are a disturbing element in the world is a

charge untrue. Elijah was not the disturber of Israel, but rather was it Ahab who had turned to the gods that were no gods and to sins that meant the ruin of himself and his people. Only through the message of the Christ and the messengers of his kingdom can come that peace which will cast out all discord, and put an end to disturbances of every kind for the individual and for the universe.

C. M. S.