SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1929, Page 19 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

BY-PRODUCTS OF MISSIONS. (Rev. A. H. Collins.) “By . their fruits ye shall know them.’’—Matt, vii, *2O. Our Lord's rule of judgment is the soul of simplicity. The fruit of the tree is the distilled essence of the tree. The host form of government is ’that which produces the largest number of happy and efficient men and women; the best school is the school that produces the best pupils ; and the best church is the church which produces the best typo of manhood. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” I am prepared to rest the claim ,of Jesus Christ on the fruits of His teaching; and if you can supply a religion that results in better fruits than the Christian religion, l am ready to adopt it without quibble or evasion, I want you to apply that acid test to one, and that one the noblest form of Christian service. Can the foreign missionary enterprise of the church justify itself to the modern mind by an appeal to its fruits? Wo hear a good deal about the cost of the evangelisation of the nations, about the slow progress made, about the. lives laid down, and about thfe unrest in India and China caused by the presence of missionaries in these lands. Even nominally Christian people sometimes speak of missions in an apologetic way, and men who ought to know better regard missions as an expensive hobby of the warring sects, and ask, “Why this waste?” For my part, I cannot understand how any healthy Christian soul who confesses loyalty to Christ can be lukewarm towards foreign missions; for the visible and tangible results are such as to silence criticism and waken gratitude. In the presence of whole tribes, islands, continents, lifted but of the mire ami transformed into truth-loving, peace-seeking, God-fearing people there is little need for the language of apology. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” > THEIR VALUE TO THE EMPIRE. I make bold to affirm that, judged simply as a business proposition, missions arc worth more to the Empire than the cash costs of the work done. Even as a commercial asset, missions have paid, and paid handsomely, and when business men sneer and point to the waste in gold and in human life they need to be told that it is far truer to say that trade follows the Cross than to say that trade follows the flag. Carey in India, Livingstone in Africa, Griffith John in China, and Chalmers in New Guinea did more to open these lands to trade and provide markets for our commerce than armies and fleets and hosts of commercial travellers. Talk of being just before we are generous! We have been neither. We have not paid our honest debt to native races, even on a commercial basis and judged by no higher standard The opening of the East to the trade of the West by the missionaries of the cross has returned a thousandfold of all the investment made.

That, however, is not, the chief thing 1 want to say, and I would not let the missionary appeal down to a question of '■ expediency. The Duke of Wellington once met a young clergyman who knew of his Grace’s former residence in the East and his familiarity with Hindoo prejudice, proposed the question: ‘•Does not your Grace think it almost useless to preach to the Hindoos?” The Duke instantly replied: ‘‘Look, sir, to your marching orders: preach the Gospel to every creature.” And not until that commandment has been repealed are we free'of obligation. But the church of the homo lands owes more to foreign missions than India or China does. The home churches have received more than they have given. You remember the ofttold story of the traveller on the Alps, chafing the limbs of a fellow traveller, and in doing so saved himself from frost bit© and the deadly coldl In seeking to t save the nations, the church has not only saved, but greatly enriched, its own life. A FASCINATING CHAPTER. One of the most fascinating chapters ®f modern science is that which tells of the discovery of the fabulous value of the by-products of the industrial world. : Gas companies were formed to light the homes of the people and make the highways safe and pleasant, and they succeeded, and reaped the profits; but what to do with the waste! Coke and slag and coal tar accumulated, and what to do with them was tho problem. Then camo science to the rescue, and out of tho retort and the slag heaps, as with the touch of a magician’s wand, foods, medicines, perfumes, and analine dyes were extracted, and the shareholders reaped the profits of trade and the re. wards of philanthropy! A ton of coal, consumed in giving light and warmth, yielded by-products which more than covered tho original cost of the fuel! Missionary societies were founded to carry the light of the Christian Gospel to the dark places of the earth, and the founders had no thought beyond. But in tho pursuit of that purpose we have discovered that it is ‘•more blessed to give than to receive,” and we ourselves the better servo in serving others best. Beside the gains of commerce, the missionary enterprise has quickened the life of the church and liberalised the creed of tho church. IN THE EARLIER DAYS. When Carey went to India the churches of Great Britain were mostly Calvinistie, and the doctrine of election and reprobation left no room for world evangelism. Christ died for the elect, and tho rest of mankind were left to the “uncovcnantcd mercies” of God. The effect of this doctrine was seen in the remark made to Carey when he pleaded the claim of missions. “Sit down, young mam If God wants to save the world, He will do it without your help'.”' But that conception of God has passed away, and in its place wo have learned to think of God in His Fatherly relations to the whole world. Missions have given.us a larger, lovelier, conception of God the universal Father. Further, missions have given a new and nobler idea of man, his nature, his spiritual capacity and destiny. Low views of God and low views of man always go together. Where God is cruel, man is degraded, and human life is cheap. We have not yet entirely escaped contempt of the native races, which finds expression iii “nigger” and “the liilie yellow man,” and part of the 'trouble in India and China is due to this. Wo don't, even yet believe that “God ’ hath made of one blood ail men.” Dr.

Forsyth points out hovV nations, as they rise in the scale of moral values, rise * from killing to using, from' using to converting, and from converting to redeeming. First they say to the native races, “Go to perdition”; next, “Come into our service”; then, “Come into our church”; and, finally, “Come to our Christ.” First war, next slavery, then proselytism, then redemption, and the Christian missionary has heralded the change of attitude by his doctrine of human brotherhood. NEW CONCEPTION OF THE GOSPEL This also needs to be said, Missions have given us a new conception of the ' Gospel. “There was a time,” says Dr. Dale, “when the stress of the argument on behalf of Christian missions was rested on the dark and appalling destiny which was supposed to menace without discrimination the whole heathen world. It was believed that were drifting; generation after generation, without solitary exception, to adamantine chains and penal fires.” *■ That' was the belief of the 'first missionaries and of the churches which sent them. .It is not ®pur belief. Ours is a Gospel, not a Doomspel: glad tidings of great joy and not dread tidings of great misery, and it is practical contact with the heathen world, in seeking their spiritual rescue, that, has wrought the blessed change. . Who can set a price on the value of this liberalising of the church’s doctrine of God and man and the Gospel? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Missions are the life blood of the church. Our self-preserva-tion depends, on obedience to the Great Commission. Wo must preach or perish. We must evangelise or fossilise. We must be a church with loins girt and lamps burning or the secular world will gird us and carry us whither it will. But the case -is not yet fully stated. WHAT FINALLY MATTERS. People ask whether it matters what a man believes, and the answer is that what a man really believes is the only thing that finally matters. It is through great beliefs in God, our splendid ideals of man, and our ruling ideals of the Gospel that churches grow and nations advance. The changed conceptions of doctrine have profoundly affected the life an activity of the churches. For one thing, missions have wedded the church to the central facts of the Gospel, for contact with the heathen world has taught us that only these central things meet the desperate need; and ‘‘the church that is not evangelistic in its spirit will soon cease to be’ evangelical in its doctrine.” Not to care fqr lost men means that we don’t care for Christ’s example or Christ’s authority. The author of that remarkable book, “The Christ of the Indian Road,” supplies a concrete example. He was invited to speak to Moslem students at Cairo. Of this task he says: “I.had turned to ancient Egypt for an answer to the problems of life, and they showed me a book of the deaxl. I turned to the living Egyptians, and they showed me a dead book. So when I stood before the throng of students and others that faced mo night after night I knew my message—a Divine Person. There have been times when I have looked up into the face of God and told Him that I could not go back to India without something big, that I refused to face this non-Christian world without a Gospel —a Gospel not mere a great ethic or a beautiful character, but a Gospel of Redemption. A Gospel that would make bad men into good men, selfish men into unselfish .men, distracted, uncertain men into men of mighty conviction and certainty, godless men into God-filled men. And to make it more concrete, I asked my Father what message^l had for,lndia unless He could then and there give to the desperately needy soul, with whom I was praying and struggling, what that soul needed. That soul found God gloriously and fully. Life had touched life. The fleece was wet. Every fibre of my being know, as I stood before these befezzed audiences that thronged the hall each night, what they needed. They needed just what I needed —Life, and Christ was that Life.” DESPERATE SPIRITUAL NEED. That witness does not stand alone; it is the unanimous testimony of men and women on the mission fields of the world, and it is a great, confirmation of-the I church’s faith in the sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ to meet the desperate’ | spiritual need. I cannot dwell on the fact that the missionary enterprise has made the church a fellowship of prayer, or the equally evident fact that it -has taught the church to spell “sacrifice” a little more worthily. The evangelisation of the world drives us to our knees and evokes sacrificial giving in gold, and inli ves tliat are more golden than gold. Who that knows the facts will question that missions have produced a new order of Christian chivalry, for, after a long acquaintance with missionaries, I declare that they are tho pick and. flower of the world’s- saints and heroes, and if a movement may be judged by the gifts and the lives it calls to its side, then foreign missions need no other proof. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” ■