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Those Lazy Missionaries

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 17, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 11.

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Those Lazy Missionaries

By Mary W. Riggs

“Good morning, ma’am; my name is Hunter, and I am traveling through the interior of Turkey, in the interests of the Blank Company, of Chicago. May I see Rev. Dr. Bailey, who I understand is the senior missionary in this station?”
“Yes, he is; but this morning he has gone down to Mezireh, three miles away, to see the vali (governor) about a permit for a man to remodel his house. The poor man, being in trouble, came to Dr. Bailey for advice, and Dr. Bailey, although eighty-three years of age, has gone on horseback to do what he can for the man.”
“Will you show me where Rev. Mr. Knox lives?”
“Yes, I can; but I happen to know that he is not at home to-day. He has gone to a village, three hours’ journey away, to show the boys on the orphanage farm how best to prepare the ground for the sowing of wheat. He will not be home till late this evening.”
“Is this a good time to see Rev. Mr. Chase, the president of the theological seminary?”
“I am sorry to say that he is not here just now. He had to go to the other side of the city to start the orphan rug weavers on a new pattern which he has just prepared, and to attend to a few other matters in the rug business. If you wait, you can probably see him at noon.”
“Where is Rev. Mr. Rice, the president of the college?”
“If he is not in his office, he is probably at the iron shop putting one of the machines in order; or he may have gone to see to something in the carpenter shop. It is hard to find him among all the shops of the self-help department of which he has charge. Perhaps he is in the printing-office. I will send this boy to find him.”
“Are the missionaries generally occupied with such things? I supposed I should find them preparing their sermons or calling on the people or having private religious conversations with the students.”
“You see there is no one to do these things unless the missionaries do them.”
“I should think they needed some mechanic or man with a business training to help them out. Isn’t there enough for the ministers to do without their doing this kind of work?”
“O, yes, plenty! But you see there is not enough money to send out both ministers and business men.”
“Now, I am a business man, and I never knew there was such a need for business men on the mission field. I have never thought much about missionary work, because I supposed it belonged to the ministry. If business men were in the missionary work, on the field, I mean, appointed by the board, we business men would take more interest, and we might even support one of them. I am really interested in this state of affairs. Are there no missionaries who are not ministers?”
“Yes, there are many physicians. And there are a few others who are most useful men. I have one in mind who made himself so indispensable to one of our stations, when he was a tutor in the college there, that the missionaries asked the board to appoint him as a regular missionary, and he is now one of the most important men there, though not a minister.”
“What kind of work does this man do?”
“He is the treasurer of both station and college, is dean of the college, and with his wife he has charge of the fifty youngest boys in the boarding department, making a home for them, being a father to them while they are away from their homes. Here comes Mr. Rice. From his appearance I judge he has been investigating the inside of the well which he recently had dug, and into which he is putting a pump worked by a windmill, which took much ingenuity and physical force to set up in place.”
“I am glad to have this new light on the work the missionaries have to do. When I get back to America, I shall tell people about it, and it seems as if we ought to manage to send out men of various kinds of training, so that the great principles of division of labor, which is so important in other lines of work, may be put in practise in sending the gospel message to all parts of the world.”—Mary W. Riggs, in Christian Work and Evangelist.