124
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
March 1930
A Changing World and the Unchanged Message B y R ev . R. H. G lover
HE were profoundly impressed, on a recent revisitation of the Orient, after an absence of some years, by the changes that are sweeping over its lands and peoples. Take China for example, the mission field best known to us by reason of previous years of residence and labor there. We found the China of twenty or even ten
Loss or G a in —W h ic h ? Is not all this very encouraging? From certain points of view, yes. But from the missionary viewpoint, not necessarily or unconditionally so. The devil has not de camped along with the old evil practices. He has simply adapted himself cleverly to the changed conditions by introducing, in place of the old, a whole series o f new __________________
y e a r s a g o no longer existing. The old country and its people are taking on a strik ingly new aspect. The adoption of Western i d e a s and modes of liv ing is increasing apace. In city after city we saw the old narrow streets converted i n t o broad, well-paved t ho r o ugh f a r e s , lined with modern stores displaying all kinds of Wes tern goods. Many a venerable c i t y wall, which had stood unchanged f o r a thousand y e a r s or more, has been leveled and b e e n made into a boulevard for motor vehicles.
vices and tempta tions in the shape of foreign rum, narcotics and cig arettes, harlotry and lewd picture s h o w s , immoral and a t h e i s t i c books and a host of other impor tations of a like damning nature. And if the emis saries of t h e s e things are allowed to outdo the mes sengers of t h e Cross in taking advantage of to day’s n e w facil ities and means of access, t h e n had it been better far for those unhappy lands if the old conditions h a d never given place to the new. Let none of us
H unan B ible I nstitute , L eaders and A ssistant L eaders of the B iola E vangelistic B ands 1929-30.
----- Several of the hitherto most back ward provinces of the far interior now boast hundreds of miles of excellent motor roads connecting all their prin cipal cities. It can be only a very short time until over land travel throughout that vast country will be com pletely revolutionized^a prospect which has its very obvious bearing upon missionary work. But k was not only new methods of transportation that we witnessed. New dress, new ethics, new social and moral ideas, new commerce, new industry, and new educa tion were everywhere in evidence, while a drastically new political system was in process of being tried out—with what success only time can tell. We saw the queue dis carded, footbinding condemned, torture of prisoners on trial forbidden, even idols thrown aside and temples reno vated and converted into schools or lecture halls, and their grounds into public recreation parks. We touched more lightly the other Oriental countries on this particular tour, but the glimpses we got of them showed changes of the same drastic nature taking p la c e - in Japan, in Korea, in the Philippines, in India, in Egypt and in the Levant—as in China. The whole missionary world is in the ferment of a complete material and social reconstruction.
be deceived into imagining that even the commendable changes of a material character which have been cited are in themselves capable' of bringing to the people of the Orient that spiritual renovation which is their crying need. Motor cars, electric lights, airplanes, fountain pens, thermos bottles and a thousand other such things, whether singly or in combination, will not lead a single 'Chinese or Indian or Arab one step nearer to the Saviour. On the contrary, we fear these innovations have contributed to the making of thousands less susceptible to the Gospel than they were before. C ivilized H eathenism In a large and most imposing Buddhist temple built partly with American materials, richly decorated and lighted by electricity, we watched a Chinese family of up-to-date Western dress and education alight from their handsome motor car and prostrate themselves before the idol shrines along with ignorant peasant folk in homespun garments and bare feet. Here was advanced civilization stalking hand-in-hand with degrading idolatry. It was just another reminder that civilization, with all its concomitants, is no solution to the needs of the Far East. We found at the heart of the new Orient the same
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