^ NEA^ PRpGRAmt

tibr<xvy of Che t:heolo0ical ^tminary

PRINXETON . NEW JERSEY

FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER

BV 2060 .W6 1895

Wishard, Luther D. b. 1854.

A new programme of missions

^jj^ Co6uca^

A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

i FED 6 1959

A NEW PROGRAMife»^!:i^ OF MISSIONS

A MOVEMENT TO MAKE THE COLLEGES IN ALL LANDS CENTERS OF EVANGELIZATION

BY

LUTHER D. WISHARD

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

Rev. RICHARD S. STORRS, D.D.

^

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York Chicago Toronto

1895

Copyright, 1895, By Fleming H. Revell Company.

INTRODUCTION

I HAVE read with very great interest what Mr. Wishard has written, and what he proposes to pubHsh, on the relation of the Students' Christian Movement here and abroad to the evangeHzation of the world. I have been profoundly impressed by his statement of facts, by the conclusions which he draws from such facts, and by the bright and vast outlook into the future which his book suggests.

I most earnestly commend it to the thoughtful and devout attention of those into whose hands it may come, surely believing that the blessing of God will go with it to every mind and heart which it shall reach and stir, and that money and men will be powerfully attracted by it to a Chris- tian work already of so large a reach, and, for the future, of such immense and shining promise.

Richard S. Storrs.

Brooklyn, N. Y., March 19, 1895. 5

**/« the great Eternity which is beyond, among the many marvels that will burst upon the soitl, this surely will be one of the greatest, that the Son of God came to redeem the world, that certain indi- viduals were chosen out from mankind to be the first-fruits of the new creation, that to thej7i was committed the iticonceivable honor of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to their fellow-creatures still in darkness, and that they did not do it. Centuries were allowed to move sloiidy by, ivhile myj-iads of the lost race ivere passing into that mysterious atid azvful Eternity without the knowledge of Him who died for them. Those choseti ones in each age 7oho knew Him were not without love and loyalty. They did glorify Him in their lives and sometimes by their deaths. They defended His truth ; they cared for His poor; they gathered for His worship. But — btit — the one grand propose of their existence as the living spiritual Church, that they should be %vitnesses unto Him ' unto the uttermost part of the earth,'' that they should 'preach the gospel to every creature^ — this they failed to fulfil ; it scarcely occurred to them that they had to fulfil it. Here and there an individual among them 7uould rise to a conception of his calling; a Raytnond Lull or a John Eliot would spend and be spent for the perishing heathen ; but the Church, the spiritual Church, was asleep. At last some few members of it awoke. They stirred up others. The evangelization of the world was under- taken. Yet hoiv feebly ! And all this while, the Lord, whose promised advent they professed to look and lotigfo?-, 7vas tarrying because the wo7-k was not done that tnusi be done before His return. In Eternity, we repeat, will any feature of the Fast be niore start- ling than this?''

Eugene Stock.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. A Proposed Solution of the Problem How to Enlist a Force for the World's Evangeliza- tion 9

II. The Solution Illustrated by Students' Chris- tian Movements in the West 17

III. The Solution Illustrated by Christian Work

among Students in the Far East 29

IV. The Beginning of a Christian Movement in

the Colleges of Mission Lands 45

V. Progress of the Movement 57

VI. Elements of Permanence in the Movement . . 77 VII. A Threefold Appeal 91

A PROPOSED SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

HOW TO ENLIST A FORCE FOR THE

WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION

" Were not the great Refonners of every kingdom in Europe natives of the kingdom refortncd? Had not Gerfnany its Luthers and Melanchthons ? Switzerland its Bezas and Calvins? Eng- land its Crajimers and Ridley s ? Scotland its Knoxes and Mel- villes ? Suppose, for example, that he whose voice, once raised in the center of Germany, shook the Vatican, dissolved antichristian confederacies, and in its echoing responses has since reverberated round the globe ; suppose that even the mighty Luther himself had landed on our Scottish shore, think you that betiueen his com- parative ignorance of the minute idioms of our tongue, and com- parative inacqtiaintance with the national and provincial pecii- liarities of the people — think you that even HE cotcld have become the Reformer of Scotland? No ! It pleased that God who never has made a superfluous display of supernatural power, to raise up and qualify one who, from the very dawn of his being, had been steeped into all the peculiarities, domestic and social, civil and religious, which constitute the incommunicable national charac- ter of a people, one who, having grown up to manhood saturated with these peculiarities, could instinctively or intuitively, as it were, touch a hundred secret chords in the hearts of his country- men, with a thrilling power which no foreigner could ever emu- late. In a word, it pleased Him who always most wisely adapts His instruments to their intended operation to raise up and qualify a John Knox to be the Refortner of Scotland. So, in like manner, must we conclude, from the analogy of history and providence, that WHEN THE TIME SET ARRIVES, THE REAL REFORMERS OF

Hindustan will be qualified Hindus. As in every other case of national atuakening, the first impulse must come from abroad ; its onward dynamic force must be of native growth. The glimmering lights that usher in the dawn may sparkle from afar in the western horizon ; but it is only in its 07vn firmament that the Sun of Reformation can burst forth in effulgence over a benighted land.^^

Alexander Duff.

10

A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

A PROPOSED SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM HOW

TO ENLIST A FORCE FOR THE WORLD'S

E VANGELIZA TION

One of the most cheering signs of promise of the world's speedy evangelization is the wide and thorough discussion of the fundamental problems involved in the sublime enterprise. Prominent among these problems are the sup- port of mission churches; division of territory; distribution of the missionary force ; denational- ization of Christianity, or such divestment of the gospel of accretions acquired by contact with the various peoples professing it as will insure its pres- entation in its primitive simplicity; the place of

12 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

prayer in missions ; the Holy Spirit's leadership ; financial support ; and the enlistment of a force sufficient for the world-wide preaching of the gospel. This last question is singled out for special discussion here. Two methods of enlist- ing the force are to be considered.

In the first place, the Church's membership and wealth are sufficient to furnish and maintain an army of missionaries of such numbers as to provide a missionary for every two thousand per- sons in non-Christian lands. The Church's ability to do this is undoubted, but the probability of its doing it is scarcely conceivable. The under- taking to furnish the one billion people in non- Christian lands with even one third as large a pro- portionate force of missionaries, including women and other lay agents, as there are ordained min- isters in the United States calls for an army of five hundred thousand, or one in eighty of the forty million evangelical communicants of Chris- tendom. After one hundred years' agitation of the foreign mission cause, we are furnishing only about ten thousand, or one in four thousand of

A PROPOSED SOLUTION 1 3

the Church's membership for its foreign work. We are certainly not likely to increase the force fifty-fold within a generation or even a century. Again, the financial outlay involved in the sup- port of so vast a force would exceed six hundred millions annually, or upward of twelve hundred dollars a year per missionary. While this vast sum is far within the Church's resources, it so far exceeds its present annual contributions as to leave little doubt as to the response that would be made to such a demand. It was only with the greatest difficulty that the nearly forty million church members in Europe and America were persuaded to dole out the pittance of fourteen million dollars for the support of the foreign work for 1894 — less than thirty-five cents per capita for a year; less than one mill a day. If this insignificant sum is all that can be secured after a century of missionary appeal it is not likely that the individual members of the churches will rise to five cents a day very soon, small as that amount is. The above method of solution of this missionary problem needs but to be analyzed

14 A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

to be rejected. The acknowledgment is made with deep humihation, but in all candor it must be made.

Inasmuch as it is clearly beyond the bounds of probability that the church will furnish the rank and file of an army of foreign missionaries ade- quate to the speedy preaching and teaching of the gospel to every creature, it is probable that it can be relied upon for a force of at least thirty thousand leaders for the enterprise. These lead- ers, wisely distributed, would afford a station manned by a half-dozen missionaries at the center of every group of two hundred thousand people ; and there is no doubt that this force, assisted by the newly Christianized people associated with it, can fully explain to every creature the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Nor can the financial outlay involved in supporting this moderate force be considered an insuperable obstacle. So far from being extravagant, it is not even generous. Thirty thousand missionaries can be supported at a cost of thirty-six millions of dollars annually — less than ninety cents a year,

A PROPOSED SOLUTION 1 5

or a quarter of a cent a day, from each church member. If, therefore, eighty church members may not be expected to send and support one of their number at a cost of five cents a day, surely every group of thirteen hundred may be looked to for the support of one of their number at a cost of a quarter of a cent a day each.

The large and generous method considered first is dismissed all the more readily because of certain well- ascertained facts which suggest the feasibility of accomplishing the evangelistic en- terprise on the more economical scale proposed. The latter method, however, involves the enlist- ment and training of a force of evangeHsts on the foreign field. This really seems to be the only solution to the problem. If it is only one of many solutions, it deserves candid investigation ; if it is the only solution, it demands the most prayerful consideration of every student of mis- sionary problems, of every foreign missionary, of every financial supporter of the missionary cause, of every one who ever prays, ''Thy kingdom come." The solution proposed is this : convert

1 6 A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

the colleges of foreign mission lands into strong- holds and distributing centers of Christianity; make them academies of the church militant to train leaders for the present crusade of evangel- ization, which it is hoped may be the last. This method of solution is not an untried one. It has been employed to a considerable extent by the Church missionary boards and their representa- tives almost from the very beginning of the mis- sionary century now closing.

II

THE SOLUTION ILLUSTRATED BY STUDENTS' CHRISTIAN MOVEMENTS IN THE WEST

17

''I have often thought that one of the great objects God had in view in instituting the Young Men's Christian Association was to attract from the world into the Church of Christ commercial young men^ and men of education and culture; and then, having bi-ought them to the Saviour and united them to the churches of Christ, that they should be prepared to go forth to the ends of the earth, I have desired this with all my heart.''''

Sir George Williams.

*'/ have long since ceased to pray, * Lord Jesus, have compassion upon a lost world. ' / remember the day and the hour ivhen /seemed to hear the Lord rebuking ?ne for making such a prayer. He seetjted to say to me, * / have had compassion upon a lost world, a?id nozv it is for you to have compassion. L have left you to fill up that which is behind in Aline afflictions in the flesh for the body''s sake, which is the Church, I have given My heart ; give your hearts.'' "

A. J. Gordon.

i8

II

THE SOLUTION ILLUSTRATED BY STUDENTS' CHRISTIAN MOVEMENTS IN THE WEST

The feasibility of making the student centers of the world centers of evangelization finds abun- dant support in the part which certain communi- ties of Christian students have already performed in modern church history throughout the West and in the far East.

Most conspicuous among these was the Oxford Holy Club, or Methodists, as certain Oxford students nicknamed the society of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and their associates. The members of that society were derided and scoffed at in Oxford ; but who can doubt that there was joy in the presence of the angels in heaven when the birth of that student brotherhood was announced ? A very small room in Lincoln College was quite 19

20 A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

large enough to furnish a meeting-place for all of the Methodists in the world in 1730; but Eng- land could be pretty densely populated now with the present and former members of the one divi- sion of the army of salvation headed by John Wesley.

The haystack meeting in Williams College prayed into existence the American Board, the first American foreign missionary society, the in- spiration of whose life and service has raised up scores of other missionary boards and agencies.

The Williams students also set in motion a train of influences which culminated in the formation of the Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian As- sociation, the largest students' fraternity in the world. The supremacy of this fraternity among college organizations in its aim, extent, and achievements, and its intimate relationship to the fundamental question under consideration, demand for it more than passing notice.

The deepest spiritual movement in the history of Princeton College began on the Day of Prayer for Colleges in 1876. The revival overflowed to

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE IVEST 21

other institutions which were visited by the students. Letters were also received from other colleges requesting prayer. The spiritual activity awakened by the revival was propagated along the line of a better organization of the Christian society of the college. Thus without any pre- determination, and in the most natural way pos- sible, the two fundamental and distinguishing features of the present world-wide Christian movement among students were recognized and employed — namely, thorough organization of the Christian forces in college, and intercollegiate cooperation. It was soon decided to perpetuate these features upon an extended scale. Corre- spondence was accordingly entered into, a na- tional conference of students was held, and the Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian Associa- tion was born.

The aim of the movement is to make the col- leges Christian in the most positive and aggressive sense ; in other words, it is to lead every student to do his whole Christian duty to his fellow- students, to his country, and to the world.

22 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

In the cultivation of the college field the students conduct prayer-meetings, Bible classes, evangelistic services, and maintain a thorough system of individual work. To make the college a center of spiritual life in the community where it is located, meetings are held in mission chapels, district school-houses, almshouses, jails, hospitals, and among the neglected classes in cities. Evan- gelistic tours are made in some sections during summer and winter vacations, and the gospel is preached to young men and others in villages and country communities which are rarely visited by prominent evangeHsts. A special movement is also in progress to urge the claims of the ministry upon college men.

One of the most thoroughly emphasized and organized features of the Association is its foreign missionary department, which is designed to bring students face to face with their obligations to the world's evangelization. Meetings are held to study missionary fields and problems, and to pray for the Church's speedy fulfilment of Christ's last command. The missionary department of the

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE IV EST 23

Association has expanded into the Student Vol- unteer Movement for Foreign Missions.

To stimulate the colleges in these activities there is a system of intercollegiate codperation, consisting of pubHcations, correspondence, con- ventions, and visitation by graduates and stu- dents. This vast and varied enterprise is con- ducted by traveling secretaries under the direction of state and international executive committees.

The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations has from the beginning pursued a course of inquiry from year to year as to the effects of the organization in influencing the lives of individual students and the character of institutions. These annual investigations have been recorded and preserved with such care that it is possible to speak with considerable accuracy of the results of the movement. It appears that the Bible is studied far more than at any former period, both in voluntary classes and as a text- book in the college curriculum. The compiled statistics of conversions indicate that over twenty- five thousand students have during the past eigh-

24 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

teen years confessed Christ as Lord and Saviour. Fully seventy-five thousand men have been en- rolled in the membership of the Association, and have thus been in training for the work which many of them are now doing in the varied enter- prises of the church; thirty-two hundred men are reported as having been influenced through their connection with the Association to devote them- selves to the ministry. If the conversion of fifty thousand persons in one generation can be traced to the work of a band of men who were led into the ministry as the result of one revival in Yale during Timothy Dwight's presidency and under his preaching, what estimate can fully express the influence of the Association upon this generation through the ministry of even one half of these thirty-two hundred men? It was the opinion of President McCosh that the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions is the greatest missionary revival since the first century. Al- though less than nine years have elapsed since this movement was fairly launched, at least seven hundred students whose names are on its muster-

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE IVEST 25

roll have gone to the front under commission of the Church's missionary boards. The Student Missionary Volunteers have written on their stan- dard the stirring watch- cry, " The evangelization of the world in this generation!" and have lifted their standard so high that the sacramental host throughout the world can see and follow it to victory.

The significance of this great Christian renais- sance in the universities is forcibly illustrated by its extent. In America it has attained national dimensions, including about five hundred institu- tions in nearly every state, with a membership exceeding thirty thousand students. It became international early in its history, when the Univer- sity of Toronto started the Canadian contingent, which now extends from Prince Edward Island to Winnipeg. It crossed the Atlantic ten years ago and entered the University of Berlin. The Ger- man university students have held annual Chris- tian conferences since 1890, the last of which effected a permanent national organization with an executive committee, which is represented this

26 A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

year for the first time by a student who is visiting the universities for the purpose of stimulating and organizing the activities of the students. For several years previous to his entrance upon his present important service the German Secretary was successfully engaged in forming classes for Bible study in the gymnasia. When one recalls the supreme part which German students took in the greatest reformation of the Church's history, the present students' movement in the land of the Reformation awakens the deepest interest and liveliest expectations.

During the summer of 1889 a Christian gather- ing of students in Japan sent a cable greeting to a similar gathering of students in Northfield, Mass. The message, " Make Jesus King," was suggested by the gathering of the men of Israel around David at Hebron to make him king over all Israel. The message awakened great enthu- siasm at Northfield, and was sent across the At- lantic by mail to a student of Upsala University, Sweden. He received the message in a dor- mitory of Christiania University, Norway, and

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE IVEST 27

read it to a group of students. It made a pro- found impression. *' Is it possible," they ex- claimed, '' that in Japan, a country which was opened to the gospel less than a generation ago, there is now a national movement of Christian students, with a national assembly of five hun- dred men, whereas here in Scandinavia, where the gospel has been preached for centuries, the students are doing little or nothing in an organ- ized way to promote its spread ? " After prayer- ful consultation it was decided to call a conference of the students of Sweden, Norway, and Den- mark. The conference assembled in the summer of 1890. A second one was held during the summer of 1892. These gatherings have already exerted a marked influence upon the lives of many men in the Scandinavian universities.

After a number of preliminary gatherings with growing attendance, the students of Great Britain and Ireland have formed a strong national union, composed of all the leading universities of the United Kingdom. The general scheme of local and national organization closely resembles that

28 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

in America. From the vigorous and thorough manner in which the leaders of the British movement are prosecuting the enterprise, there is no doubt that it will occupy from the beginning a foremost place among the national movements of Christian students which are forming around the world.

The European movement, while but fairly- launched, has already yielded such results as to justify the faith of its projectors that it would rally the young men of Britain and the Continent to their part in the present era of world-wide missions. The students in Great Britain alone who have volunteered for missionary work are numbered by hundreds, and the British Secretary reported a year ago that fully ninety percent, of the volunteers who have completed their period of preparation are already on the foreign field.

Ill

THE SOLUTION ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTIAN

WORK AMONG STUDENTS IN

THE FAR EAST

29

"/« order to occupy a front rank as Christian preachers, onr young men mnst receive a first-class education. Ten years'" ex- perience in Japan has given us a strong conviction that the best possible method to evangelize her people is to raise up the native agency, and such an agency can be only secured by imparting the highest Christian culture to the best youths to be found. It may be a costly %uork, but it will surely pay well at the end. The better educated can do a larger work. Better-qualified preachers can or- ganize self-sustaining and self -propagating churches much better than the ill qtialified. So, impaj'ting a broad culture to our best youths will be a most indispensable j?teans to win and prepare thon for the Master's work.''''

Joseph Neesima.

"Some years ago a spiritual darkness had spread over the Syrian missions, and we began to long and pray for the advent of the Holy Spirit. We had a prayer-tneeting of the students of the Syrian Protestant College. There were over eighty students pres- ent. I represented the state of things in the college and out of it^ and then asked the students to spend a season in silent prayer. After they had raised their heads I said, 'Now every one of you who is resolved to give his life to the cause of Christ and his coun- try, rise.'' Sixty of those students rose as by a common impulse, and the revival of religion that commenced in that prayer-meeting spread all through the country; and there were gathered in that single year juore converts to the Church of Christ than had been gathered in the six previous years."

George E. Post.

30

Ill

THE SOLUTION ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG STUDENTS IN THE FAR EAST

Is this movement capable of adaptation to the students in foreign mission lands? The mere proposal of this idea has kindled a lively hope in the hearts of foreign missionaries. None have watched more eagerly than they the spread of the movement throughout America, and its auspicious beginning in Europe. They believe that if the students of the Christian lands of the West can be brought into close contact with those of the East who are just hearing of the gospel, the former will impart to the latter the missionary spirit which is the crowning characteristic of the great Christian uprising in the West, and that a service will thus be performed which will equal any service ever rendered to the cause of foreign missions. 31

32 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

To repeat the proposition already submitted as a possible solution to the problem of the enlist- ment of a force sufficient for the world's speedy evangehzation, let it be expressed thus : we have organized in the colleges of Christian lands a Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Mis- sions; let us organize in the colleges of non- Christian lands a Student Volunteer Movement for Home Missions. The former will raise up the foreign, the latter the native contingent of the missionary army.

It has been intimated that Christian societies of students have already played so important a part in church history in the far East as to encourage the effort to associate them with the Church's en- terprises in all non-Christian lands. The facts supporting this statement call for careful exami- nation. The following incidents were fully con- firmed by the writer during an extended tour of investigation in foreign mission lands.

The Sapporo Believers in Jesus. — About twenty

' years ago President Clark of the Massachusetts

Agricultural College went to Japan for the pur-

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IM THE FAR EAST 33

pose of founding a similar institution in the prov- ince of Hokkaido, in the northern island of the empire. In conference with officials of the edu- cational department he was expressly forbidden to teach the Bible to the students. He promptly informed the officials that he would not undertake the proposed enterprise if this requirement were to be enforced. The officials were so impressed with his manifest ability for the important undertaking which had brought him to Japan that rather than lose his services they withdrew their opposition to his teaching the Scriptures. He accordingly carried the enterprise to a successful issue, which detained him in Japan for only a year. During the year he conducted through an interpreter a class for Bible study. The students were pro- foundly moved by the sacred truth, and before President Clark's departure he had the satisfac- tion of seeing thirty-two of his students accept the doctrines of Christianity and confess Christ as their Saviour. They immediately formed a society called " BeHevers in Jesus," which finally developed into a church — one of the first organ-

34 ^ NE^ PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

ized in Japan. A building was erected, largely at the expense of the members, and a charter member of the society was the efficient pastor six years ago. At that time one fourth of the stu- dents in the college were professing Christians, and the city of Sapporo was more fully per- meated with Christianity than any other com- munity visited in all Asia. A letter from the society, soon after its organization, to the students of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, de- scribing the purpose of the society and expressing a desire for mutual sympathy and cooperation, first suggested the idea of embracing the students in foreign mission lands in the Christian move- ment then recently organized in America.

T/ie Kiunamoto Band. — While the incident above described was occurring on the northern island a still more interesting chapter of modern church history was being made in an institution in the city of Kumamoto, in the southern island of Japan. In 1871 an American teacher was called to this institution. Whether or not the school was founded for the express purpose of

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE FAR EAST 35

raising up an intelligent opposition to Christian- ity, it is very certain that that was the desire of many of its leading patrons. In view of this fact it is difficult to account for the failure of the di- rectors to investigate the religious belief of the teacher before employing him. This matter was, however, entirely overlooked, and before many weeks had passed the board was surprised and chagrined to find itself bound by a five-years' contract for a large salary to a man who was an avowed behever in Christianity and had a forcible way of defending his faith. They could not can- cel the contract, however, without surrendering the salary ; and inasmuch as the teacher mani- fested no disposition to inaugurate aggressive Christian work, they made no attempt to remove him.

After some months had passed he invited the students to visit his home once a week for Bible study. This invitation was at once strongly op- posed by the parents of the young men. In the midst of the controversy, however, a Gamaliel arose and suggested that in order to intelligently

36 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

oppose Christianity the students must be in- structed in its principles. His counsel prevailed. A Bible class was formed and maintained for several years. To all human appearances, the seed was sown on stony ground. For months and even years the teacher instructed, argued, and pleaded in vain. The seed, however, was taking root. One young man became so deeply impressed by the truth that he cautiously con- fided his sentiments to another, and to his joy- ful surprise met with a sympathetic response. The two found upon inquiry that other men were secretly cherishing the same convictions. In a short time Christianity became the all-absorbing theme of private conversation; and the number of those who avowed themselves as satisfied with its divine character increased to about forty.

Public confession was a serious matter. It would be followed by disruption of the school, separation from the man who had led them into the Hght, and many other trials. It was a bitter cup, a baptism of fire. They shrank not, how- ever, from the trial. Having heard the voice of

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE FAR EAST 37

Christ, they were willing to stand up, as did Paul in Damascus, and confess Him at any cost. One morning late in January, 1876, they went in com- pany to the top of Flowery Hill, which overlooks the city; and after a long season of prayer and Bible study and conversation, in which they nerved one another for the coming ordeal, they entered into a solemn covenant to confess their faith in Jesus Christ. '' Having taken the step, we came down the hillside with great joy," said one of their number in describing the meeting. " As we started, one of our number, pointing to the city and plains at our feet, exclaimed, ' Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill can- not be hid.' " Little did those students reaHze at that time, however, what a light they were kindling, what an important part they were des- tined to have in building the City of God in their country. They returned to the city and an- nounced their decision, and the excitement which followed was not one whit less intense than they had expected. It is doubtful if Kumamoto has been more greatly agitated since the Restoration

38 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

— even by Saigo's rebellion, which centered there a few years later. That the men who had been looked upon as the future deHverers of the prov- ince from the hated religion of the hated foreign- ers had embraced that religion was almost more than the Japanese could endure. They argued, entreated, threatened, commanded their sons to abjure their newly declared faith ; they confined them to their homes as prisoners, in order to separate them from one another ; they made them perform the most menial services; tears, prom- ises, everything that could be conceived except severe personal violence was done to dissuade them from their course. Only a very few of the youngest of the band, however, were terrified into submission to the will of their parents.

The school being disbanded, the teacher wrote to Joseph Neesima, who had recently established the Doshisha College in Kyoto, asking whether he would receive the students and complete their education. President Neesima replied assuring the young men of a warm welcome. About thirty of them entered the college, and fifteen of

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE FAR EAST 39

them completed the theological course. By their splendid scholarship they anchored the institution in the confidence not only of the Japanese church, but of the government itself. They made it one of the leading Christian colleges in all the East, and it made them a band of the strongest and most devoted Christian men in the Empire. Many of them are to-day filling important positions of leadership in the churches ; and without them it would be hard to see how one of the leading churches of the empire — the Congregational — could have attained its present membership and influence. When, centuries hence, Japan's Schaffs and Niebuhrs shall write the history of early Christianity in the Sunrise Kingdom, the names of certain of that band will shine Hke stars of the first magnitude in the galaxy of the illustrious names of those who planted Christianity in their nation.

A Revival in the Doshisha. — About twelve years ago the students of the college became somewhat skeptical in regard to the personality of the Holy Spirit. They said in substance to their

40 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

teachers : " You have described to us the won- derful workings among the peoples of the West of One who is called the Holy Spirit. You tell us how at times His influence is mightily felt in great congregations; how He sweeps the hearts of people with an invisible power; how great numbers are overcome with the sense of sin, and surrender their wills to God. We have never seen anything like this in our country. We think there must be some mistake. You must have unintentionally misled us in regard to this matter. Certainly if there be a Holy Spirit He can have little personal interest in the Japanese." Along with these doubts and questionings there sprang up considerable skepticism in regard to the Word of God ; and it is needless to say that this skep- ticism was accompanied by an increasing indiffer- ence to spiritual things, and an intense religious coldness. The missionaries were deeply troubled. One of their number, the Rev. Dr. J. D. Davis, wrote a number of letters to colleges and theo- logical seminaries in America, requesting special prayer for the college on the Day of Prayer for

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE FAR EAST 4 1

Colleges, in January. He said nothing whatever to the Japanese about what he had done. No special meetings were held, nor was anything done in Kyoto which might account for the remarkable scenes which followed.

One night, as the students were gathered in one of the dormitories, they fell into conversation about Christianity, as was their custom, and be- gan to deplore the spiritual lifelessness which per- vaded the institution and to recall with yearn- ing the delightful spiritual experiences which they had formerly enjoyed. A spirit of prayer took possession of them. The influence extended throughout the dormitory, in which there was scarcely any sleep during the night. The un- converted were impressed, and before morning a deep work of grace had spread through the col- lege. It continued for days and weeks, until almost if not quite every student in the college became a professing Christian. A deputation of students was sent among the churches through- out the region, and wherever they went they kindled fires. Never since that memorable ex-

42 A NEIV PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

perience has there been any serious doubt in that community concerning the personaHty and work of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to note that the letters received by the colleges and semina- ries in America awakened deep interest in behalf of the students in the Doshisha, and that earnest prayer was offered in many places for them.

A large volume of church history could be composed of the acts of Christian students and the influence of missionary colleges. Not a sin- gle one of the more than fifty graduates of the college in Tungchow, China, founded and con- ducted for over a quarter of a century by the eminent missionary Rev. Dr. Calvin W. Mateer, has left the college unconverted. These men are, with scarcely an exception, filling places of wide usefulness, and are making their lives tell upon the advancement of Christianity in China. Some of the influential ministers in the churches of India were converted in the institutions founded by the pioneer in Christian education, Alexander Duff". It is estimated that Pasumalai College, in Madura, South India, has sent out over five hun-

STUDENTS' MOVEMENTS IN THE FAR EAST 43

dred Christian workers during the last half-cen- tury. Such illustrations as the above leave little doubt of the value of Christian colleges In the work of evangelization, and the desirableness of such an organized movement as will multiply and fortify these strongholds of defensive and ag- gressive Christian warfare.

IV

THE BEGINNING OF A CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN THE COLLEGES OF MISSION LANDS

45

" We need in India the life, the fire, the methods to hi eh the Young Men's Christian Associations are giving to the young men in America. We need organized effort all alo7ig the line. In our great cities there is abundance of material to work upon and to work with. Our colleges, our universities, 07ir schools, all give you abundant scope. Send us out one of your best trained general secretaries; trained in the school of failure as well as in that of success, ihat we may know that he will endicre. Let him be a man of experience and spiritual power, of hopefulness and tact. With him send us five other men to be general secretaries in the five capitals of India — Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad, Lahore. In those cities they will fitid universities, colleges, high schools, in all of which there are young men who can be grouped together in the Associations using the English language.

'* There is no need for organizing new societies to send these men forth. Let it be the genuine outgrowth of the Young Men^s Christian Associations. Let each large city Association support its oivn representative in some foreign field.''''

Jacob Chamberlain.

46

IV

THE BEGINNING OF A CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN THE COLLEGES OF MISSION LANDS

Less than four years after its organization it was believed and asserted that the Christian movement in the American colleges is too vast in its possibilities for good to be Hmited to any country or continent, and that the movement which had spread from Princeton to the leading colleges of North America would enter the old universities of Europe and be planted in the new missionary and government colleges of Asia and the Dark Continent and all missionary lands. It did not enter into the minds of the most sanguine advocates of the enterprise, however, to conceive of the rapidity which was destined to mark its progress. While we in America were pondering the steps best adapted to its introduction in the 47

48 A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS

East, the movement started almost spontaneously in Ceylon, China, and Japan. The fact that the movement in those countries began under the direction of Messrs. Sanders, Beach, and other missionary teachers was an earnest of the princi- pal part which the missionary body was destined to perform in extending it.

The encouraging reports from the newly or- ganized Associations prepared the committee intrusted with the supervision of the work in America to entertain a call from the missionary body in Madras, one of the leading educational centers in India. The steps leading up to this call so fully illustrate the need of special evange- listic work among students, and the adaptation of the Association to the foreign field, that some special account of the matter is important.

For several years the missionaries of Madras had been considering the expediency of securing a missionary to the students of the city. While there was general agreement that an important field was thus presented, and one in great need of cultivation, it was difficult to determine the

BEGINNINGS IN MISSION LANDS 49

auspices under which the new missionary should work. If he should come as the representative of any single missionary society he might not be equally acceptable to all of the denominational