It is only great people who acknowledge their mistakes, and it would be indeed surprising if, of all lines of work in the world, the missionary enterprise were the only one that never made a mistake. My own experience, after twenty-two years of missionary work in India, is that there is a glorious bright side, and we know that God's truth must ultimately triumph; but let us not shut our eyes to ugly facts, and thus hinder the great cause we so earnestly desire to prosper.
There are some who think so much has been done to evangelize India that but little remains, whereas only one per cent of her great numbers have as yet accepted Christianity, Protestants and Roman Catholics combined; and it is to be feared that only a small number of these are Christians in anything but name.
"But there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed." Luke 12 : 2. That nation or system that refuses to see its weak points will, sooner or later, come to grief. There are many missionaries who feel that things are far from satisfactory in the church of India. Many there are who bewail this condition in the field, but do not want to acknowledge it to the world at large; but the world hears of it anyhow, and thinks strangely of the missionaries who keep back a part of the truth. Many missionaries claim that the home churches are not strong enough to hear the dark side, and certainly this is true of not a few, but they will not be found among the spiritual ones—those that, as a rule, help missions. If everything were all right in heathen lands, there would be no need of missionaries; but it is because of the many wrong things that they are sent.
Those who work in the home missions know what difficulties there are to contend with, and is it to be supposed that we have any less on the foreign field? Laziness, avarice, deceit, and other forms of sin meet the Christian worker everywhere. So often since my return this year people have spoken to me of the great desire of the heathen to be saved, and how they were standing with outstretched hands begging for the Gospel, and it seemed a pity to have to disillusion them by stating the truth, that people in India are no more anxious to give up sinning than in this country. There is so much sentimentality about missions. Some one invented the phrase "romance of missions," but it can not be translated into any foreign language; for there is no such thing as romance in missions. It is a serious and difficult business, and every Christian should be burdened by it, for Christ gave the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation." It is not a thing we may do or not do, at our pleasure. It is not enough to be saved from doing wicked deeds, but we must also learn to do good deeds. How many will be condemned by those sins of omission! Matt. 25 : 31-46.
Orphans from India's Famine of 1897, Now Happy Inmates of an American School in Bombay.
While money is very necessary in carrying on missionary work, and much good can be done with consecrated money, yet far more necessary are the prayers of God's people. There are some who always take great comfort in a statement like that, but they must remember that the right kind of praying will be followed by giving; for true faith and works always go together. What is needed to-day is earnest, importunate prayer that the Holy Spirit may be poured out on all flesh; but first it is necessary to recognize God as revealed in the Holy Spirit as a blessed reality.
An earnest Christian woman said to me: "It is not right for missionaries not to tell us of the difficulties. It is not trusting us." How can friends in the home-land pray intelligently for the work, if they do not know the needs? A proper report of a work tells facts, be they good or bad.
One of the great causes of this unspiritual condition is due to the unconverted workers employed. Some will claim that, as a whole, they are as spiritual as those engaged in like work in the home-lands; but two wrongs do not make a right. God forbid that India should ever copy all the dreadful things that go on in the name of religion in the United States! O, that we may begin in time to be saved from such a condition! Much is done in the name of Christ that will not stand the test. There is too much glorying in grand reports—too much boasting of numbers and riches and earthly power. If God was angry with David for numbering his hosts (2 Samuel 24), surely He is not pleased with that church or mission that glories in the same. The struggle to show up grand results has much to do with the unspiritual state of the church in India.
While there are many earnest disciples of Christ in India, it is a sad fact that many come with mixed motives. The "heathen Chinee" has not more tricks than the heathen of India. There is a low caste, or outcast tribe, called sweepers, who, in some places, make trade of baptism. There are some earnest ones among them, but the majority need to be dealt with cautiously. They have no caste to lose, and some of them receive baptism every time a new missionary comes along who is not up to their tricks. There are some better caste men who do this, also. They claim they can get more help by posing as inquirers. It is possible to go out and baptize in one day hundreds of these low caste sweepers, if numbers are all one is after. But is it right to do so until they have shown their conviction of sin, and desire to give it up? There are unconverted workers who seem to think that their promotion depends upon grand reports. When I was new to the work, I was deceived over and over by some such agents. I reported work that did not exist, for I took their word for it. Then my eyes were opened to the great need of close supervision, and of having converted, helpers. Often I spoke of this state of things to other workers, but I was told that I was too critical, that the native church compared very well with the home church.
One of India's Child Wives.
Add to all this the fact that some native preachers are being instructed in so-called higher criticism, and we have a rather dark picture. Because some Christians reject the authenticity of parts of the Bible, the heathen rejects the whole; the keen oriental mind argues that if the Bible is of God it will contain no error, and he has no use for the remnants presented to him by the higher critic. How God's people do need to unite in prayer that only earnest, evangelical Christians may find their way to the foreign field! To send any other kind is worse than sending none. A great teacher has said: "The size and the age of an institution are not proofs of its real merits. There is danger of rot in things that are old and big. There is constant need of watchfulness of weak points, institutional and individual."
Years ago God laid before my husband and me the burden of industrial missions for India's Christians. The difficulties spoken of above, and others, too, had been confronting us, and we felt that one element in mission work was sadly lacking. The head and heart were being trained, but not the hand. We felt that workshops would be a good thing to test the sincerity of those who came with mixed motives, and a blessing for those who really were sincere. The Christian youth, too, were growing up indolent and, consequently, vicious, but there was no industrial training to speak of for them. In India to-day less than 2 per cent of all the children in missions are receiving manual training, and the remaining1398 per cent never will unless missionaries give them the opportunity.
When the recent famines of India left us with seventeen hundred orphans and widows, industrial departments for their support were opened up, which have developed into a whole mission, known as the Industrial Evangelistic Mission of Northern India. It is interdenominational and undenominational. Its aim is to rescue orphans and widows, and train them up in honest labor. When converts go out from these workshops and farms to spread the Gospel, as they certainly will, the call will be of God, and not as a means of livelihood. One such will win more souls to Christ than hundreds of hirelings; for conversion is by the Spirit, and the Spirit can not use unconverted agents. Consecrated laymen will be sent out to do the double work of teaching trades and preaching the Gospel. In the meantime, they who are in the mission will be urged to voluntary Gospel work—a thing as yet not often seen in India.—Christian Work.
