March 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
148
F rom P ersia to P olynesia Mr. Powell, who writes under the heading, “Unsung Heroes I have Known,” states that he has observed the labors of mission aries in every great field from Persia to Polynesia, from Congo to China Seas. “It irritates and angers me,” he writes, “to hear missionaries and their work condemned and derided by persons who are speaking from malice or ignorance. I am a roving writer, and my job takes me to the four corners of the earth. That’s why I can speak first hand about so many missionaries. “Though maligned, misrepresented, miserably underpaid, often desperately lonely, frequently facing death from disease, savage animals, or still more savage men, the missionary has pur sued the tasks assigned to him with a courage and devotion which merit the admiration of every right-thinking person, and the gratitude of every Government having colonial possessions. “Yet I once heard missionaries spoken of as ‘sniveling, sanc timonious milksops’! It is to laugh. . “Far from being meek and submissive, as he has been painted, the average missionary, as I have found him, is a hard- as-nails, tough-as-rawhide, two-fisted he-man. “It was Dr. Grenfell, the slim, smiling, quiet-mannered man, whom King George some years ago made a Companion of the Bath, an honor usually reserved for victorious generals and emi nent statesmen. When he came out of Labrador, 34 years ago, the conditions which existed along that desolate shore were appalling. Poverty and disease were unchecked. Today, thanks to his indomitable courage and indefatigable energy, all that is changed. Schools and hospitals have been built, and an industrial home, where the natives are taught various trades, has been erected; power plants, carpenter and machine shops, radio sta tions have sprung up ; cooperative stores have been established. The four specters of the frozen North—scurvy, anemia, con sumption and starvation—have been routed.” T HE obligation of the tithe in the dispensation is quite a problem to many sincere Christians. Not a few persons have written us, asking whether we had anything from our pen on the subject. They wonder whether a man is a legalist who follows the law of the tithe in his giving to the Lord. In reply, we might say, Yes, and No. If a person gives the one-tenth solely because the Law says so, then, without a doubt, he is a legalist. If he gives.the one- tenth because of his love for his Lord and for want of a better rule for systematic giving, we would then say, No. For instance, nine of the ten'commandments of the deca logue are enforced in the New Testament. Is a man a legalist because he keeps those nine com mandments? By no means. He keeps them, not because the Law of Moses says so, but because Christ and the Apostles say so. But in any event the law of the tithe must never be converted into an iron-clad rule. And if ■Grace is better than Law, and it is, then Grace ought to lead us to do voluntarily a little more than the Law exacted by compulsion. Beloved, please do not disgrace your pro fession as a Christian by being guilty of thinking that the believer under Grace should be more selfish than the Jew under Law. And who would be willing to judge the Lord Jesus of lowering the standard of a single grace or virtue, not even the grace of liberality or giving ? The very sug gestion of such a thing is an absurdity. The New Testa ment standard is never arid in no sensé lower than that of the Old Testament standard. Êk Shou ld Christians Tithe?
Unsung Heroes o f th e M ission Field -RIDICULING missionaries has been a favorite pastime with some people in recent years. The number of critics has been increased by the emphasis on what is called “the self- determination of races.”' Newspapers and periodicals have been lavish ypith their space to permit certain notorious unbelievers to give vent to their opinions of missionaries. , It is a singular fact that within the past few months strong defense of missionaries has been raised up in most unlikely places. Notable among these testimonies is one by T. J. Jones, Educational Director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, appearing in “Current History” (July), and another by E. Alexander Powell in the “American Magazine” (Nov.). Mr. Jones, whose observations of foreign mission work have been drawn principally in Africa, says : “It is true, of course, that some missionaries are queer, some narrow and dogmatic, and that some have been used by selfish exploiters. There have undoubtedly been about the same pro portion of errors and failures in foreign missions as in the schools,’the churches, the Governments and the business organi zations *of Europe and America. “Among the well-known missionaries still working in Africa is Dr. Robert Laws of Livingstonia. This vigorous .Scotchman of thorough education and first-rate ability entered the wild and unknown sections of Nyasaland over SO years :ago. Disease, famine, witch doctors, tribal warfare and slave raids were all rampant in the oppression of the native people, who were com pelled to hide themselves in caves and other inaccessible places. Laws and his associates went prepared to help along all lines essential to sound tribal life—in the development of the country and people in agriculture, industry, health, education, morals and religion. T he H ope of N ative D evelopment “While the Livingstonia Mission is one of the notable achievements of present work in Africa, practically every African colony has missionaries and mission organizations that have some or all of the features of the work already mentioned. The Southern Presbyterian and Methodists, the American and British Baptists, the Disciples Mission on the Equator, and several other organizations, are teaching the native people to make more effec tive use'-afi-the-soil, to build better houses, to read and Write, to care for the body and mind and spirit. In the Portuguese colonies Congregationalists and Methodists have learned the native lan guages, studied the native manner of life and befriended the people. The missionaries of these colonies are now the most substantial hope for native development, In the French colonies numerous missions are valiantly helping in the education and ■general improvement of the natives. Through the active coopera tion of the British Government, very numerous missions in the British: colonies are rendering an increasingly large and vital service in education and civilization. “Condemnation of missionaries by economic and political exploiters'j will be generally accepted as evidence in favor of mission influence. It is the'emphatic testimony of the two Afri can education commissions,', of which the writer was Chairman, that missionaries.»were,¡invariably opposed to all forms of injus tice to the native people; “Thè answer to the question ‘Why Missionaries ?’ is that they personify the ever-deepening desire of human beings to be helpful to neighbors whether they dwell next door or across the s|eas. Whatever their errors, missionaries have been the pioneers of international friendship. Long before this day, when it is tpe vogue to meet representatives of other peoples at Geneva, the missionaries have gone out among those people to learn their languages, to know their manner of life, to help them in any possiblfi.direction.” ........ .
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