The Missionary and Civilization

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 18, 1912

The Missionary and Civilization

OPPONENTS of foreign missions are deriving scant comfort from recent books of travel which cover missionary fields. Professor Ross praised the Chinese missionary very highly in his recent book on China, “The Changing Chinese;” and now comes another traveler, Prof. Joseph King Goodrich, who, in the course of a work to be published immediately, “Africa of To-Day” (McClurg), gives the missionary the credit for whatever real enlightenment has reached the African native. Mr. Goodrich treats the missionary problem historically, shows the part played by England and America particularly in the carrying of good tidings to the native, points out the opposition of the missionaries to the slave-trade and later abuses of the natives, and concludes his survey in these suggestive words: “Sometimes it is the trader who is the absolute pioneer, in which case the later effort of the missionary is likely to be harder; and so it was in most of Africa. But there was no satisfactory evidence of the breaking away of darkness until there came those who brought the message from God, and also tried to put away the love of strife, so that there might be something of civilization in the highest plane. Gradually, throughout the great continent, it is becoming more and more evident that it is not the most military nation which leads the van, but that this post is held by those who strive for peaceful progress.”