04 - A Man's Response to the World Appeal

CHAPTER IV. A MAN’S RESPONSE TO THE WORLD APPEAL The efficiency expert is a familiar figure in modern big business. His function is the checking up and scaling up of commercial enterprises. His one study is business organization, methods, management and output. His life is built around such problems as these: Are the capital and force at work in this business bringing adequate returns? What combinations are possible so as to reduce expenses without reducing returns? Is there waste? Is there duplication of effort? Is the product satisfactory as to quality and quantity? Is there anything the matter with the organization? Has the business too many officials or too few? Are there unimproved opportunities? Is the advertising all that could be desired? In short, his function is to study business with a view to securing a maximum of efficiency with the expenditure of a minimum of time, force and capital.

Why not apply the same methods and skill and intense application to the work of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? There is no business in the world comparable with it from the standpoint of immensity—there are hundreds of millions of people involved, and not a foot of soil where a man lives is excluded from the plan of Jesus Christ. There is no enterprise which promises such inspiring and enduring returns from the investment. Its complexity and baffling difficulties are a challenge to the passion for mastery that is central in every real man. Christian men might well ponder deeply and then take as a guiding principle in life that sentence of the late Mr. J. H. Converse of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, “When Christian business men devote the same skill and energy to Christian work which they now give to their private business concerns the proposition to evangelize the world in this generation will be no longer a dream.”

It may be well to approach the study of this final topic in the spirit of the favorite sayings of two famous modern generals. One of the principles of a great German tactician was, “First ponder, then dare.” The motto of another well-known general was, “Know your geography and fight your men.” It is of the utmost importance that there be developed in the Church of Christ such a militant temper as shall make it capable of carrying out the plans of Christ to naturalize Christianity in every land. It is an urgent necessity that Christ’s soldiers ponder world conditions in order that they may release their lives for the carrying of the gospel to the world. Men must know the geography of the kingdom of God if they are to apply the principles of strategy to the carrying out of the last command of Christ.

Some of the outstanding facts related to the evangelization of the world have passed in review in the preceding chapters. The time for action has come. What is needed now is not more rhetoric but more reality of conviction; not more facts, but deeper purpose. The crucial question in this whole discussion is how every man may relate himself in a practical way to the winning of the world to Christ. The carrying of the gospel to all the world is every man’s opportunity. There is no monopoly of a chance to serve in this war. This is the one opportunity which makes it possible for every life to influence the whole world. What then are the moral and spiritual demands which a world like ours makes upon men? The answer to this fundamental question takes us back to the principles stated by our Lord. How did he expect men to relate themselves to this, his world task? What were his missionary commands? Stated in their logical and chronological order they are:

“Lift up your eyes and behold the fields!”—Study.

“Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he thrust forth laborers into his harvest.”—Intercede.

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”—Give and Serve.

Reduced to their simplest terms then, the missionary principles of Jesus demand four things of men. If men relate themselves to the whole task of our Lord a fourfold program, in which every man will have a share, must be carried out in every church. A program of Education. A program of Finance. A program of Service. A program of Intercession.

It is one of the tragedies of language that the great phrases get frayed out with constant use. They lose their grip and their power to stimulate thought and action. For the sake of variety these familiar ways of expressing the missionary obligation are stated in a different way, yet so as to retain the fundamental principles enunciated above. The world to-day demands of men:

WIDENING HORIZON—STUDY UNWITHHOLDING CONSECRATION—MONEY AND SERVICE UNENDING PRAYER—INTERCESSION I. WIDENING HORIZON The hour in which we live makes it imperative that men study world conditions. It is almost impossible to keep pace with changing conditions and new opportunities unless one is constantly in touch with the progress of the Kingdom throughout the world.

There are at least seven good reasons why every man should plan to devote time to the study of missions.

1. Christ’s Missionary Program Includes Study (John 4:35). —If a man cannot be thoroughly loyal to Christ without active participation in the spread of the gospel in the world, it is equally true that a man is disobedient to the missionary call of Christ who does not study missions. Information is essential to intercession and intercession is the greatest human missionary force. “Facts are the fuel with which missionary fervor is fired and fed.”

2. Missions Is the Greatest Living Issue.—There is no question before the world to-day which involves such large forces, such multitudes of people and with such tremendous issues. There is nothing greater to which a man may relate his life.

3. The Study of Missions Is the Only Possible Way to Keep in Touch with World Progress.—In order to read the magazines and newspapers intelligently constant study of missions is necessary. Progress in our time is largely along Christian lines. The progress of the world is only another way of saying that Christ is increasingly possessing the world.

4. Men Cannot Be Qualified for Leadership Without Study. —There never was such an urgent call for leaders or such unlimited opportunities for the investment of talents as in our day in this greatest of movements. Real leadership is trained leadership and training involves study.

5. World Conquest Is the Biggest Business Proposition Before the Church.—The enterprise has in it all the elements that go to make big business so fascinating to strong men. Here is an opportunity not only of displaying the business talents which men have, but to display them in an enterprise which brings the most satisfactory returns to men in the way of the enrichment of their own lives. The keenest sagacity of business men is sorely needed in all the councils of the Church to-day, and in no place is the need more urgent than in the service of world-wide missions.

6. Investigation Will Suggest Definite and Practical Missionary Activities.—It is not enough to be sentimentally interested in missions. That day has gone by. The calls of our time demand definite and practical plans and methods and there are no members of the church who are in a position to render larger service than the business men.

7. It Furnishes Intellectual Outlook and Spiritual Uplook. —One of the great drawbacks of modern business life is that the horizon is narrowed and life made provincial. There is but little in ordinary business to furnish spiritual stimulus. A church service one day in seven is not sufficient to cause the springs of spiritual power in a man’s life to burst forth into activity. Here is a cause which brings the keenest intellectual and spiritual delight. The study of missions will give men a greatly enriched Bible because they will discover that it is the great missionary Book. This fact and the consequent intellectual and spiritual stimulus justify any amount of time spent in studying the program of Christ.

Studying the Church.—The Word, the World, and the Workman—these are both the sources of information and the objects for study. Not only must modern men study the world and the Word, but also the Church which is God’s appointed instrument for achieving his world purposes. One of the first problems confronting a man who desires to relate himself to the world program is the study of his own local church to see how he can make possible the relating of the whole church to the whole task in such a way as to release the full power of the whole constituency. This will necessitate careful study of the present missionary organization and life of the church to which each man belongs. He is now determined to become an efficiency expert in the matter of the world-wide propagation of Christianity. He will apply the same principles to this study that he applies to his daily business. In some cases it will be discovered that there is very little efficient organization, or if there are organizations, they will be found to be sadly lacking in a big and definite objective. They have been content if they have done as well this year as they did last, or if their record compares favorably with the record of a neighboring church. In other words, their achievements have been measured by some standard which has seemed a possible goal at the time rather than by the great and final aim of getting the whole task of Christ accomplished.

It is also often true that the church is not organized to reach the entire community in which it lives. One of the first duties will therefore be to relate the church in a vital way to the entire community. The church is not a field but a force with which to work the field. The field is the community, the state, the world! In some cases it will be necessary to create new machinery for this work. However, it is much wiser to use the existing organizations of the church if they can be made effective. The Missionary Committee.—The one type of organization in the local church which has met with most general approval by Christian leaders is what is called “The Church Missionary Committee.” Even where several distinct missionary organizations exist in the local church there is still urgent need for this committee for two very important reasons.

1. It unifies the missionary activities of the church. The most fruitful way of organizing the committee is to have representatives of all the existing missionary organizations upon it. The pastor should by all means be a member of this committee but ordinarily not the chairman. The committee should always be definitely appointed or at least confirmed by the official body of the congregation. By thus bringing together all the leaders of the various activities, a unified and well-articulated missionary program is made possible.

[Illustration: THE CHURCH MISSIONARY COMMITTEE ITS FIELDS (INNER CIRCLE) ITS FUNCTIONS (OUTER CIRCLE)]

2. The missionary committee represents the entire congregation. In the past it has been true that only a fraction of the congregation has been enlisted in definite missionary activities. Only small groups have been organized for missionary service. The men especially have been unreached. Obviously the first move to make if the church is to meet its full missionary responsibility is to plan to enlist the whole constituency. This committee should have enough meetings to plan a comprehensive policy for the entire congregation, including all the lines of activity indicated in the missionary commands of Christ to which reference has been made, also to check up results. A meeting for the whole congregation should be held each year at which reports are made and plans projected for the succeeding season. The pamphlets on the Missionary Committee and its work listed at the end of this chapter are earnestly recommended to the thoughtful study of every man who desires to relate himself effectively to the problem of making a missionary church. The policy outlined by the committee, after a study of these pamphlets, should be adopted by the official body, presented to the whole congregation, and explained at a regular church service. To make the preceding suggestions effective calls for a high type of ability and the conspicuous and continuous application of all those traits of character which have been developed in the business and professional men of the church.

II. UNWITHHOLDING CONSECRATION Your money and your life! What greater gifts can a man bring? God cares more for men than for anything else in the world. It is life laid down for him which gives joy to the heart of the sacrificial Savior. But money represents life—nay, it is coined personality. Millions of money beyond any previous gift will be needed before the world can be won. Here is the hardest personal battle for a multitude of men. After the personal battle is over others must be persuaded by the victor to share in the enterprise.

[Illustration: A PLAN FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY COMMITTEE] As a result of experience in thousands of churches in all parts of the United States and Canada it has been demonstrated that the Every Member Canvass is the most effective financial method now being employed by the churches. No program of finance in the local church is complete without an annual Every Member Canvass. The adoption of sound principles of stewardship, and life brought into deepening harmony with those principles is a part of the price of victory in this war. Such principles are essential to the development and enrichment of character and necessary if there is to be proper expression of character in doing the will of God.

There is hardly any outstanding question in the Church about which there is such confusion and therefore so nerveless an appeal as the subject of stewardship. It is a difficult question and an unpopular one. Inadequate thinking is very common and practise is even more inadequate than thinking both in pulpit and in pew. The fact that little constructive attention is being given to this subject by the leaders of the Church was well illustrated at one of the Silver Bay Conferences a few years ago. In a group of about seventy-five men, where the subject was under discussion, the leader of the conference asked how many of the men had ever read a book on Christian stewardship. Not more than one half of the men raised their hands. When asked how many had read a book on tithing not more than one fifth responded in the affirmative. If such a representative group of picked leaders is uninformed or uninterested in so vital a matter, the rank and file of the Church must surely need their attention powerfully called to the subject. The Bible gives a much larger place to the matter of giving than is generally supposed. Some one who claims to have counted the Scripture references says that giving is mentioned 1,565 times in the Bible. One of the significant things about the parables of Jesus is that thirteen of the twenty-nine have some reference to property. A group of men recently worked out a statement of the principles of stewardship and the methods of applying these principles to life. These principles are worthy of careful study and wide adoption. In May, 1912, they were adopted by the governing body of one of the denominations as the guiding principles and methods for that church.

Principles of Stewardship.—God is the Giver and is the Absolute Owner of All things.—This invincible conviction lies at the base of all correct thinking about stewardship. To commit oneself to the inspiring idea that God is the owner of all things is to take all bitterness and drudgery out of stewardship. When a man realizes what kind of a God he has, that he purposes his best for every man and wants him to know how rich and powerful and loving his Father is, the practise of stewardship becomes one of the enriching joys of life. The base-line of all geographical measurements is the level of the sea; prairies or mountains or canyons are all measured from this same base-line. It is a unit of measure. Likewise the ownership of God is the base-line for all measurements of truth about property. Having laid down and accepted this fundamental proposition that God is the owner of all there follows another truth or corollary, namely,

Under grace man is a steward, and the steward holds and administers that which he has as a sacred trust. Life is a trust, not a possession. We are stewards of money, not creators. Receiving a trust and rendering an account are inseparable. Responsibility and accountability are twin brothers.

God’s ownership and man’s stewardship are best evidenced by the systematic application of a portion of income to the advancement of the Kingdom. Giving should be regular. All educational processes are made effective by continuous repetition. The needs of the work are also regular and therefore call for regular contributions. This application of a portion of income should be stated. It is a definite transaction with a real personal God. It involves amounts, totals and increments. It should be worshipful, remembering who he is to whom we bring the returns of our labor, and in order that there may be the largest blessing every offering should be an act of worship. It should be sacrificial, bearing in mind that no fraction set aside can exhaust our responsibility or express the depth of true love for God.

Biblical and extra-Biblical history point to the setting aside of the tenth of the income as a minimum, and indicate a divine sanction of the practise and the amount. The tenth and Beyond is the Bible rule! The Old Testament emphasis is on the Tithe, the New Testament emphasis is on The Beyond. The Old Testament asks a tenth, the New Testament demands less but expects more. The one tenth tests our obedience, the nine tenths tests our consecration. The Old Testament principle is, “The tithe is the Lord’s.” The New Testament principle is, “He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.”

If the adoption of any principles of stewardship are to be adequate, every man must finally go the whole length as expressed in the words of Jesus just stated. The sooner this is done the better, but the full conception of stewardship breaks into life gradually with most men and a large majority begin by setting aside a small proportion of income. The adoption of a regulative principle, even though inadequate at first, is a powerful spiritual force in a man’s life. When the practise of systematic and proportionate giving is begun, the first important step is taken which often leads to complete devotion to God.

There should be careful, intelligent, personal, and prayerful consideration of the uses to be made of the money thus regularly set aside. This will require study not only of the local situation, but also of the missionary and benevolent work of the Church. This principle provides for a thorough-going educational process and is indispensable if the Church is to improve her great opportunity. Individuals, churches, nations cannot come to the highest efficiency without recognizing and accepting their world responsibility.

Consistent use of the balance of the income not set aside. All the preceding principles are undermined if a man does not adopt this last principle as a safeguard. It pries down deep into men’s lives and uncovers their secret motives. If men are to have an adequate program of stewardship, it must be adequate educationally, spiritually, and financially. It is believed that the six principles stated are adequate, in the sense just described, because:

1. These principles are taught in the Bible. They are a summary of the total message of the Scriptures on the subject and especially of the essence of the teachings of Jesus.

2. The testimony of history, both Scriptural and extra Biblical history, gives sanction to the principles stated and the amount set aside, always remembering that the New Testament emphasizes The Beyond.

3. These principles are accepted because of their effect on character. No life can grow rich and strong without increasing giving. God is much more interested in the making of a man than he is in the making of money and the adoption of sound principles of stewardship is vital to Christian character.

4. The adoption of these principles by Christians generally would meet the practical needs of our time for the spread of Christianity throughout the world so far as money can ever meet the needs of mankind.

Methods for the Application of These Principles to the Life of the Individual Christian.—The Actual or Constructive Separation of the Proportion of Income which complies with the foregoing principles. This does four things:

1. It preserves the integrity of the proportion set aside and guards against the evil of only estimating what is due.

2. It is a concrete and vital expression of the principle. Mere mental assent to a principle without practical expression is deadly to the spiritual life.

3. It provides regularly for the regular needs of the Kingdom.

4. It is the best antidote to selfishness. A pledge in writing, in advance, of the amounts to be applied to the regular work of the Church (current expenses, missions, and benevolences). These pledges should ordinarily be considerably less than the whole amount to be devoted during the year. A weekly payment of the amount so subscribed, deposited as an act of worship at a public service.

Payments from time to time, out of the sums set aside, but not previously pledged, to special causes as may be desired. The plan of keeping a separate “Lord’s Treasury” is recommended for those who cannot attend the services of the Church.

Free-will or thank-offerings. This method is a safety valve for those whose income is growing and who can easily afford to give large sums in addition to their regular offerings. God expects cash and consecration, gold and goodness, riches and righteousness to increase together.

“Give, give, be always giving, Who gives not is not living, The more you give The more you live, Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give self, Give love, give tears and give thyself, Give, give, be always giving. Who gives not is not living. The more you give, the more you live.” The propagation of the principles and methods of stewardship is an important part of the program of every individual Christian and of the Church Missionary Committee. Thorough agitation on the subject should always precede the annual every-member canvass. Many churches have received unprecedented spiritual blessings because of the adoption and practise of higher standards of giving. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the missionary appeal is one of the most powerful motives to stewardship. The appeal for the two should go together.

III. UNENDING PRAYER The sovereign summons to men is the summons to prayer. It is a call to use the great unused human resource of power. It is a call to every man to walk with the tread of a giant “an open but unfrequented path to immortality.” Other lesser calls must die out in us if the present spiritual world crisis is to be met. Practical men of business say that this is the work of the minister or the missionary, but Christ’s call to prayer was not limited to any group of individuals or to a special section of the Church. The men of our time are discovering that they have a wealth of talent of which they did not dream,—to bring things to pass by prayer. Intercession has ever been what Arthur Smith calls “The deeply buried talent.”

Let us in the beginning frankly face the fact that there is no call which involves more of unwithholding consecration than the life of intercession. There is no service which demands so much of a man, which digs down so deep into his life, which floods with such a searching light all the methods and principles by which men govern their lives. On the other hand let it not be forgotten that there is no human means of releasing such measureless forces among mankind. We are in the midst of a spiritual conflict, and prayer is the determining factor in that conflict. This involves not simply a prayer for ourselves in a few hurried sentences at night, when too tired to remember what has been prayed for when the words are said, not a few fragments of time given to this most important occupation, but prayer, central in life, having a clear space in which to live and breathe and yet not confined to times and seasons but mingling with the whole of life. Sadly it must be confessed that intercession is not yet the passion of our lives.

Prayer gives quiet confidence that things really happen when men pray. It is as vital as muscular force, as real as electricity. It wrenches men loose from their limitations and projects personality into distant lands. It is the lever of God to pry continents and dead civilizations up into newness of life. It is the power which helps to lift history out of its bed and puts it down into new channels where it belongs. It is of this force which John R. Mott speaks when he says: “The supreme question of missions is how to multiply the number of Christians who, with truthful lives and with clear unshaken faith in the character and ability of God, will, individually or collectively, or coöperatively as a church, wield the force of intercessory prayer for the conversion and transformation of men, for the inauguration and energizing of spiritual movements, and for the breaking down of all that exalts itself against Christ and his purposes.”

J. Campbell White says: “Prayer is the first and chief method of solving the missionary problem. Among all the methods that have been devised none is more practical, more fruitful than this. If we could get a definite group of people at home into the habit of supporting by prayer each missionary in the thick of the fight, by this simple method alone the efficiency of the present missionary force could probably be doubled without adding a single new missionary.” In bringing in a report on the place of prayer in missions, a committee of men at one of the conferences of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement submitted the following: “Prayer is the only element which can quicken information into inspiration, transmute interest into passion, crystallize emotion into consecration, and coin enthusiasm into dollars and lives. Resolved, that we seek by every means to convince every man that, whatever may be his contribution of money or service, he has not exercised his highest influence, performed his whole duty, nor enjoyed his highest privilege until he has made definite, believing prayer for missions a part of his daily life.” As we remember Jesus Christ, and recall the kind of tasks he has given his men to do, the kind of men he expects us to be, as we lift up our eyes and look into the upturned faces of the thousand millions of people who know not God and remember that we are the men who must bridge the racial gulf and capture the world for Christ, we may well be moved by a solemn sense of our responsibility. It is our duty not simply to nurse the wounded but to stop the battle. If we are to face our tasks with inflexible courage and a growing devotion we must cultivate the vital processes and bring to Christ the flawless wholeness of unshared hearts.

One of the old Greeks said that every speech must begin with an incontrovertible proposition. Three such propositions are stated here.

1. Prayer has Called Forth and Energized All the Great Spiritual and Missionary Movements of All Times. The history of the Moravian movement, of the great missionary awakenings in Germany, and the modern missionary uprising in Great Britain shows that they were all born and given power because of prayer. On this side of the Atlantic it should never be forgotten that the three great interdenominational movements which have had so much to do with the arousing of America to her missionary responsibility were all called forth by prayer, and whatever of vitality and power they have displayed still depends upon the energies of God poured forth in answer to prayer. The Student Volunteer Movement grew out of an unusual volume of intercession on the part, first, of a small group of individuals, and then of a conference assembled at Northfield in 1886. It was from a small group of men meeting for prayer and counsel in New York and later at Silver Bay on Lake George that the Missionary Education Movement came into being. It was in a prayer-meeting in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, on November 15, 1906, that the Laymen’s Missionary Movement began its career.

Two principles have been increasingly emphasized in all these movements, and men may well take them to heart and ponder them deeply before deciding that there is any other way in which they can exert so powerful a world influence as in prayer. These principles are:

God has accomplished most by the men who have adventured themselves most upon God.

Men must commune with Christ if they are to communicate Christ.

2. Prayer Finds a Way Out in Hours of Crisis. The history of the way in which victory has been achieved in the great spiritual crises of the world is a record of answered prayer. There is no more impressive picture in the Old Testament than that of Moses, the great leader of Israel, in the midst of a desperate battle with his hands lifted in intercession. When he wearied and his hands were withdrawn, Israel was defeated, but so long as his hands were upheld and there was an unceasing stream of intercession, Israel prevailed. Crowded into that one incident is one of the greatest single spiritual lessons which God would teach mankind. There is no other way than this to meet the spiritual crises of the world victoriously. The great battle of Jesus was not won at Calvary but in the garden in prayer. The crowded record of achievement in all the home and foreign mission fields of the Church is full of incidents of the truth of the principle just stated. Since it is the judgment of the missionary leaders of to-day that there never has been such an hour of crisis and opportunity in the world, then there never was a time when there was such need that men should covenant with God to wield the force of intercession. The victory which is achieved at the front of the battle will be commensurate with the volume of intercession in Christian lands.

3. Prayer is the Only Power that can Fill the Gaps in the Thin Line of Battle. The second study in this little book reveals the tremendous unmet need of the world. The line is very thin in many parts of the field, in many sections of the world it can be said to be nothing more than a picket-line. If qualified leaders are to be thrust out into these fields, if the Church is to recover the lost frontiers in the great cities and country districts of the home land and in the Mohammedan and pagan world abroad, if every man in the world is to be given an adequate opportunity in his lifetime to know our Christ, then the great crucial problem is how to multiply the number of those who will enlist as intercessors and then devote themselves to the enlistment of others until the whole Church is committed to this task. Is it too much to expect that every man in his place should have the spirit exhibited by Alexander Duff when he said: “Having set my hand to the plough my resolution was, the Lord helping me, never to look back any more and never to make a half-hearted work of it. Having chosen missionary labor in India, I gave myself up wholly to it in the destination of my own mind. I united or wedded myself to it in a covenant the bands of which shall be severed only by death.” May our Living Leader give to his men the spirit expressed by Edmund Burke when he said: “The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thought that never wanders: these are the masters of destiny.” In Ladd’s Rare Days in Japan, reference is made to a telegram received by Mr. Matsukata, the President of the shipbuilding company at Kawasaki, from Admiral Togo just two days before the battle of the Sea of Japan. Admiral Togo had received the following order from the Emperor: “Find and destroy the Russian fleet.” Because of the weight of his responsibility it is said that Togo ate or slept but little for several days after receiving the Emperor’s order. His mind must have been filled with thoughts such as these: “Where was the Russian fleet? Where could he find it? And if he did find it, how could he destroy it?” In those hours of anxiety he formed one plan and abandoned it, thought out another scheme and gave it up. Finally he determined upon his course of action and wired Mr. Matsukata, “After a thousand different thoughts now one fixed purpose.”

There are a thousand demands upon the time and strength of the modern man. They are bewildering and often conflicting. The Christian man is not less busy than the man of the world, and insistent calls are ringing in his ears every hour. The Church is increasingly needing his strength and leadership. The state calls, the city makes large drafts on his strength. What shall he do? What causes are most worth while? How shall he spend his energy and his money? What is the most alluring task? Let him choose the highest and the greatest way to spend his life. If the missionary principle is not unalterably entrenched in the citadel of your life will you not resolve before you put this book down that henceforth all life shall be built around the one purpose which is most worth while;—to let life run out to the end rich and deep and full in the plans of God for the world?

Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire, Speak through earthquake, wind, and fire, O still small voice of calm. In simple trust like those who heard Beside the Syrian Sea, The gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word Rise up and follow Thee.

“AFTER A THOUSAND DIFFERENT THOUGHTS NOW ONE FIXED PURPOSE.”

INDISPENSABLE LITERATURE FOR MISSIONARY COMMITTEES The Church Missionary Committee, Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

Manual of Missionary Methods, J. Campbell White, Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

What Can the Missionary Committee Do? Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

Essentials in an Adequate Plan of Missionary Finance. Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 1 cent each.

Prayer and Missions. A packet of nine pamphlets. Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 25 cents per packet.

Stewardship. A packet of thirteen booklets and leaflets. Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 50 cents per packet.

Forward Mission Study Courses “Anywhere, provided it be FORWARD.”—David Livingstone.

Prepared under the direction of the MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E. Armstrong, T. B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, A. R. Gray, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. Douglass, W. E. Doughty, W. W. Cleland, J. H. Poorman. The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a conference of leaders in young people’s mission work, held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was manifested at that conference for mission study text-books suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. These courses have been officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now being used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the United States and Canada. The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the various home and foreign mission fields and problems and written by leading authorities.

* * * * * The following text-books having a sale of over 1,200,000 have been published:

1. THE PRICE OF AFRICA. (Biographical.) By S. Earl Taylor.

2. INTO ALL THE WORLD. A general survey of missions. By Amos R. Wells.

3. PRINCELY MEN IN THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM. (Biographical.) By Harlan P. Beach.

4. SUNRISE IN THE SUNRISE KINGDOM. Revised Edition. A study of Japan. By John H. DeForest.

5. HEROES OF THE CROSS IN AMERICA. Home Missions. (Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton.

6. DAYBREAK IN THE DARK CONTINENT. Revised Edition. A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor.

7. THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF INDIA. A study of India. By James M. Thoburn.

8. ALIENS OR AMERICANS? A study of Immigration. By Howard B. Grose.

9. THE UPLIFT OF CHINA. Revised Edition. A study of China. By Arthur H. Smith.

10. THE CHALLENGE OF THE CITY. A study of the City. By Josiah Strong.

11. THE WHY AND HOW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. A study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown.

12. THE MOSLEM WORLD. A study of the Mohammedan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer.

13. THE FRONTIER. A study of the New West. By Ward Platt.

14. SOUTH AMERICA: Its Missionary Problems. A study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely.

15. THE UPWARD PATH: The Evolution of a Race. A study of the Negro. By Mary Helm.

16. KOREA IN TRANSITION. A study of Korea. By James S. Gale.

17. ADVANCE IN THE ANTILLES. A study of Cuba and Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose.

18. THE DECISIVE HOUR OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. A study of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John R. Mott.

19. INDIA AWAKENING. A study of present conditions in India. By Sherwood Eddy.

20. THE CHURCH OF THE OPEN COUNTRY. A study of the problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson.

21. THE EMERGENCY IN CHINA. A study of present-day conditions in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott.

22. MEXICO TO-DAY: Social, Political, and Religious Conditions. A study of present-day conditions in Mexico. By George B. Winton.

23. IMMIGRANT FORCES. A study of the immigrant in his home and American environment. By William P. Shriver. In addition to these courses, the following have been published especially for use among younger persons:

1. UGANDA’S WHITE MAN OF WORK. The story of Alexander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs.

2. SERVANTS OF THE KING. A series of eleven sketches of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer.

3. UNDER MARCHING ORDERS. The story of Mary Porter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard.

4. WINNING THE OREGON COUNTRY. The story of Marcus Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon country. By John T. Faris.

5. THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN. The story of George Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith.

6. ANN OF AVA. The story of Ann Hasseltine Judson. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard.

* * * * *

These books are published by mutual arrangement among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold at 50 cents in cloth, and 35 cents in paper; postage, 8 cents extra.

Transcriber’s Note:

* Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the original (bold).

* Pg iii Added comma after “race” in “Unity of the race”.

* Pg iv Added period after “66” in “a Common World Task, 66”.

* Pg iv Removed period after “CONDITIONS” in “AND OTHER GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS” for consistency.

* Pg 15 “thoroughgoing” and Pg 100 “thorough-going” left as printed.

* Pg 114 Added periods after listings “8” and “20”.