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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
brought up under liberalistic influences are difficult to win for the liberalistic church of their elders. The Unitarian church membership recruits itself large ly, in some sections almost wholly, from the ranks of evangelical churches, that is to say from those who had been won for Christianity through evangelical influ ences but have made shipwreck of faith. The cause for this interesting fact is in cidentally given by Professor Edward Caldwell Moore, as follows: “The true course is apparently to have religion and then to liberalize it. It is seemingly futile to have liberalism and then seek to inject religion into it.” In other words: If you desire th a t young people embrace religion, do not preach to them liberalism, for if they become liberalis tic in thought, you will find it difficult to arouse in them a real religious inter est. But after they have become re ligious, you may liberalize them and still hope th a t they will remain religious and be willing to take upon themselves the duties of membership in a church. Nowhere, apparently, has th e attempt to liberalize evangelical churches been more successful than in Japan. It has been known for some tim e th a t the young Christian church of Japan has to a considerable extent fallen prey to the systematic modernizing endeavors made by Unitarians and other liberals. The official representative of The U nitarian in Jap an has recently made the asser tion th a t Japanese Christians in “ ortho dox” mission „churches are now as a class thoroughly liberalized. As early as 1890 the magazine The U n itarian was started in Japan, and another, the Shinri (T ru th ) as an organ for propa gating th e higher criticism . This movement shook' tbe Japanese Church to its foundations.. For a t the same tim e a movement took place w ithin th e Church in th e same direction, questioning the inspiration of the Bible and asking for a revision of the Creed. Some doubted various fundamental doc-
be obeyed. Today missions are justified and supported by looking forward and seeking to meet the (social) needs of the future. Humanly determined programs are being substituted for dogmatic de crees in the work of the churches. This is genuine democracy. The missionary enterprise is rapidly being conceived as a democratic social program rather than as the rescue of a few individuals from the divine wrath. To reconstruct the social life of a people in all its phases is the end of the gospel. Education is coming to be a primary means of accom plishing the missionary task. In a word, when the m issionary enterprise is. seen to be a democratic religious movement, it gives to Christianity a task of supreme importance.” Professor George A lbert Coe, of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, says on this point: “The modern foreign m issionary movement sta rted out as an effort to rescue individuals from sin by preach ing. It is now transform ing itself into co-operation w ith the socially construc tive forces of th e peoples to th e end th a t th e level of the whole civilization may be raised. Educative processes th a t form th e social stand ard s are becoming basal in m issionary strategy .” Another object included in the modern view of missions is stated by Gerald Birney Smith: “One of the supreme tasks of the church (both in the -West and East) in a democratic age is to make universally accessible th e histori cal interpretation of the Bible” i. e. the liberalistic religious views. In other words, the defenders of moderism con sider it the church’s business to spread the new theology. Liberalism’s Weak Point It may be worth while, in this con nection, to inquire into the causes for the difficulties which liberal churches find to persuade those of liberalistic v iew s'to identify themselves w ith a lib eral church. Children who have been
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