The Fundamentals - 1910: Vol.6

19 The Superintending Providence of God In New Zealand Marsden had first to lay foundations, pa- tiently and prayerfully, and showed great faith in the Gospel. Judson and Boardman, in Burma, found among the Karens a people whom God had mysteriously prepared, though a sub- ject and virtually enslaved race. Old Calabar was the scene of triumph over deep-rooted customs and age-long superstitions; in Persia, the blessing came upon an educational work attempted single-handed among women and girls. William Duncan in his Metlakahtla reared a model state out of Indians hitherto so fierce and hostile that he dared not assemble hostile tribes in one meeting. The re- vival in the English universities is especially memorable as the real birth-time of the Cambridge Mission Band and the Stu- dent Volunteer Movement which crystallized fully twenty-five years later. In Egypt the transformation was gradual, de- pendent on teaching as much as preaching, but it has made the Nile Valley one of the marvels of missionary triumph. In China the most marked features were the influence of medical missions and the raising up of a body of unpaid lay-evan- gelists, who itinerated through their own home territory. On the Euphrates the conspicuous feature was the organization of a large number of self-supporting churches on the tithe sys- tem—sometimes starting with only ten members—w ith native pastors. At Aniwa three and a half years saw an utter sub- version of the whole social fabric of idolatry. In Japan the signal success was found in the planting of the foundations of a native church, and the remarkable spirit of prayer out- poured on native converts. In Formosa, Mackay won his victo- ries by training a band of young men as evangelists, who with him went out to plant new missions. At Banza Man- teke, Richards came to a crisis, and ventured literally to obey the New Testament injunctions in the Sermon on the Mount— for example, “give to him that asketh thee.” In Uganda it was the new self-surrender and anointing of the missionaries, and reading of the Scriptures by the unconverted natives, on

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker