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July 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Christian Education and the Prospective M issionary B y R ev . F ord L. C an field
said will apply to all mission fields. By the right kind of a Christian Education course is meant one which recognizes' the Bible as the inspired Word of God given to us that we' may be led into salvation through faith in the Lord and Sav iour Jesus Christ, and that these truths of salvation can only be im parted to any mind by the operation of the Spirit of Truth, but which also takes, cognizance of all that the Holy Spirit may use in our knowl
HE young missionary was overjoyed at receiving an invitation from one of the villages back in the hills to pay a visit to its hand ful of Christians. Accord
Mr. Canfield and his wife- gradu ated from the Bible Institute o f Lo's Angeles in 1918, after which they spent six years' as missionaries in China. Returning on furlough, they took our Christian Education Course as post-graduate work. Herein, Mr. Canfield tells o f the value of this course ■ to him personally.
ingly one of the Christians came in to down for him, and as he rode over the s t e e p trails,- whatever his thoughts of a Christian Education course, he wished he could have had a little training in how to stick on a mule with only a Chinese pack sad
edge of the laws of the mind and of teaching. These, after all, are but His laws. Such a course will aim to help one, in reliance upon Him, to work along the line of these laws in imparting the Word of God that others may be brought to a saving knowledge of the* Saviour and to an intelligent following of Him as Lord. No course, however good, can make a successful worker for Christ in any field of His service unless there is in the life the experience of His saving power and the true desire; in submission and yieldedness to the Lord Jesus, to be a vessel unto honor which He may indwell and through which He may work. Granted these in the missionary candidate, such a course should fit one in four important ways. In the first place, with the emphasis such a course wotdd place upon the necessity of knowing the pupil, it would help the young missionary, as he arrived on his field, to a more intelligent study of -the people among whom he feels called of God to labor. “How is the view point of this people different from our own?” “What is the background of their thinking, especially about spiritual things?”: “How are their customs different from ours?” “What is their mental capacity compared to the people I am used to?” The missionary, of all people seeking to make the Lord Jesus Christ known, should think of these things constantly, and being trained to think along these lines by such a course, cannot but be a better teacher or preacher of the Word of God in a foreign land. The im portance of knowing the people, thinking and acting in their way and from their viewpoint so far as one can do that and be true to Christ, is not even secondary to the ability to speak well their language. Devoted men and women of God, who have learned the language but who have failed in this other point, have been greatly hindered in their ministry and usefulness on the foreign field. G ives A pproach to Y oung P eople In the second important way, it would prepare the prospective missionary for work among children and young people. Such a course would include a study of the child from the beginner to the adult, the unfolding of his physical, mental and social life, his characteristics, possibilities and needs, the aim constantly in view being to lead the child to Christ and the development of a nor mal Christian life. What an opportunity in China, for example, , with her nearly one hundred million children
dle over which his bedding had been slung.' At nightfall the few Christians gathered for evening worship. They were simple people., None of them had ever been to school a day in his life. Two or three had learned to read a little since becoming Christians. The missionary had given himself to prayer and thought about a suitable message. He felt led to bring to this group the teaching of John 1 :12, 13 : “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name : who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of thè flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Praying the while that the Spirit of God would enlighten their minds, the young worker, after they had read and repeated together these two verses, fought by means of questions, which he thought were simple enough, to help them to see God’s truth. “What right is given to those who receive Him?’’? “Whose children do those who re ceive Him become?” “What does it mean to receive Him?” “Of whom are those who receive Him begotten?” But these questions were all too abstract for these almost illiterate farmers of China. As he rode home next day there was an oppressing sense of failure in the heart of the missionary. The thought came to him, “If we could only have an educated church, it would be different !” and surely, given an equal consciousness of having been cleansed in that fountain of His blood, given an equal desire to follow and serve Him as Lord, the educated church would be a better witness than the illiterate church. What the young man failed to see, however, was the measure in which he was straitened in himself. Although he was seeking to teach the won drous truth of the Bible and was relying, too, upon the Holy Spirit to speak through him and use God’s Word, he was not taking his audience into account. He had not adapted his teaching to a style that their minds could easily grasp. He was shooting over their heads. He had failed to recognize the important teaching principle, “Know your pupil as well as your subject.” E x per ience P roves t h e N eed It is only from the viewpoint of such practical expe rience that one would venture to write anything about the value of the right kind of a Christian Education course to the young man or woman looking forward to the for eign field. One has to confess, too, that he is drawing from a knowledge of China only ; but he believes what is
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