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ART. VII.-THE MISSIONARY-SHALL HE BE DE

NOUNCED OR DECORATED?

THERE is evidently some difference of opinion in the public mind on this subject. There are some who, strange to say, give him little or no credit for his work's sake or for the personal heroism and devotion of his consecration. He is serving his divine Master in a spirit of fine loyalty, and is seeking the best good of men, yet there seem to be those who either will not, or cannot, appreciate his rôle. This may be because his mission is unique, in its unworldliness, and thus likely to be misunderstood, or it may be due to ignorance of what he is accomplishing or inability to rightly estimate its significance. Those who know him best, however, and have discovered the import and practical benefits of his work, take quite a different view of his person and his mission. Current literature constantly yields fresh testimony in confirmation of these statements. The service which missionaries have rendered as the promoters and sponsors of political order and world civilization has already received much attention, and numerous quotations in manifestation of this may be found in the missionary literature of recent decades. A few, referring especially to the influence of missions as a force in civic and social progress and an instrument of the higher civilization, may be counted sufficiently new to be regarded as twentieth-century tributes, and as such will be inserted here. The late Colonel Alfred E. Buck, United States Minister to Japan, stated shortly before his death that, in his judgment, "modern civilization in Japan owed more to missionaries than to all other agencies combined." The late Mr. Denby, our former Minister to China, spoke of missionaries as "meriting all the support that philanthropy can give them." His commendation he declared to be "full and unadulterated." He pronounced them to be "benefactors of the people among whom their lives are spent, and forerunners of the commerce of the world." Sir Ernest Satow, in an address at the opening of the Anglo-Chinese Museum and Library at Tientsin, February 27,

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1904, paid a warm tribute to missionary work in China, stating that he regarded "missionaries as altogether the most admirable and useful class of foreigners that came to China, since their sole object was doing good, and in his experience they invariably did it." The British Consul at Hankow, Mr. H. E. Fraser, expresses himself as desirous of aiding in the extension of the London Society's work in Central China, which he declares to be (and this testimony was given after the Boxer disturbances) "a means of removing Chinese prejudices against foreigners, and of raising the people to a higher plane of morality and conduct." The Commissioner of Customs at Nanking, in his Report for 1900, makes the following statement: "It would be impossible to overestimate the amount of valuable work, educational and medical, which is being performed by [missionary] societies in Nanking; and that the efforts made on their behalf are appreciated by the natives is, I think, to be seen from the very friendly feeling which is generally exhibited toward foreigners."

The late Sir Alexander Mackenzie, after thirty-six years of Indian service, remarked: "There is no reason whatever for doubt or disparagement of mission work. Sir Andrew Wingate, who has been long familiar with India, speaks of missionaries as "among the most powerful civilizing agents that England has sent forth." Sir William Mackworth Young, formerly LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab, who has been associated with the government of India for more than thirty-eight years, states that in his judgment "the strength of our position in India depends more largely on the goodwill of the people than upon the strength and number of our garrisons, and for that goodwill we are largely indebted to the kindly, self-sacrificing efforts of the Christian missionary in his dealings with the people. I can recall the names of some few officials in India of whom I could say that I was sure that they had the affection of our Indian subjects; but I can mention the names of many missionaries who are regarded with supreme affection by the natives of India. The character and conduct of Christian missionaries in India have placed the administration under a debt of deep gratitude, and this should never

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be forgotten by those who are unable fully to appreciate their efforts in the cause of evangelization." With this coincides the testimony of Lord Reay, formerly Governor of Bombay, who declared that the missionaries are the "best auxiliaries the Indian Government has." The late Sir John Woodburn and Sir Andrew Fraser, both Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal, have testified repeatedly and warmly to the same effect. After traveling from one end of India to the other, and visiting various missions representing numerous societies, Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall testifies to finding among Indian missionaries "those who went far toward realizing my ideal of statesmanlike grasp on large questions of policy, joined with Christlike self-devotion to the care and consolation of individuals. If I were looking over the Church at large in search of typical illustrations of what a servant of the Lord Christ should be, in breadth of view, power of initiative, dignity of behavior, and sweetness of spirit, I should look hopefully among the modern missionaries of the Gospel. The missionary, to be appreciated, should be seen on his own ground." Mr. Joseph Kennedy, of the Indian Civil Service, late Commissioner of Bardwan, Bengal, declares as his firm belief that "the missionary has played, and will always play, a most essential part in the material as well as the spiritual development of India." The Indian Government, in its plans for placing memorial tablets on historic buildings, has included the houses where Carey, Martyn, Schwartz and John Wilson resided-clearly a tribute to the value of the lives of those distinguished missionaries and to the part they have played in the history of modern India. Mr. Hamilton King, Minister of the United States to Siam, speaks with enthusiasm of the benefits of missions in that country.

The Hon. J. F. G. Foxton, Home Secretary of Queensland, after a tour among the aborigines, reported himself as "so much impressed by the work done by the missionaries in raising the whole status of the black, and making his life better and happier, that his Government intends to give the missions to the natives in future all the assistance in its power." The testimony of the Rt. Hon. Sir H. M. Nelson, President of the Legislative Council

of Queensland, may be added. "There can be no doubt," he observes, "that the readiness with which the natives have accepted our laws has been to a large extent due to the labors of the missionaries." Earl Beauchamp, formerly Governor-General of New South Wales, has declared that in his opinion "missionaries are indispensable” as co-laborers in their own sphere with government officials in perfecting an ideal imperial policy. We rarely find a more striking testimonial than that of Mr. Le Hunte, former Lieutenant-Governor of New Guinea, who, at a public meeting in Australia, remarked, referring to the history of New Guinea, that he "would venture to say that the Government owed everything to missions. He wished he could make them fully realize what the missions meant to the administration. It would have to be doubled, perhaps quadrupled, in strength if it were not for the little whitewashed houses along the coast where the missionaries lived. Every penny spent by the missionaries saved pounds to the administration, for the missions brought peace, law, and order."

The former Chief Justice of Fiji, Sir Henry Berkeley, declares that in those lands "the beneficent influence of Christianity is apparent everywhere." He refers to them as being "as civilized as any part of the King's dominions." Sir William Macgregor, who, as a high official of the British Government in the Western Pacific, knew the work of missions in Fiji, was largely instrumental in securing the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Glasgow University for the late Rev. Frederick Langham, of the Wesleyan Mission in Fiji, who did a memorable and scholarly service in Scripture revision. Lord Selborne, at a public meeting in support of the Melanesian Mission, held at Oxford, February 28, 1904, stated that during his experience in the Colonial Office and in the Admiralty he had received repeated testimonies from officers of the Navy "that the civilizing effects of the Mission had been wonderful." He expressed in the same address "a profound contempt," which, as he declared, he had "no desire to disguise, for those who sneered at missions." The late Marquis of Salisbury, at a missionary meeting in London, held about two

weeks later, remarked that "even from a statesman's point of view the missionary was very useful, and useful in the highest sense. In all departments of life the missionary there [in Africa] was essential to progress." The distinguished scientist Wallace, in speaking of missions in general among the Pacific Islands, declares that "they have assisted the Government in changing a savage into a civilized community in a wonderfully short space of time." In the same strain Mr. F. T. Bullen writes, in "The Cruise of the Cachalot," that "in consequence of their labors the whole vile character of the populations of the Pacific has been changed," and Mr. Louis Becke, a novelist of the South Pacific, expresses himself as deeply appreciative of the work of the missionaries of the London Society at Samoa. He gives great credit also to the native missionaries whom they have trained, and who have labored in the interests of religion and civilization in neighboring islands. The late Senator Hoar, referring especially to Hawaii, has spoken in terms of great admiration of the work of missions in those islands, and of the missionaries as "the servants of civilization and piety."

The British Civil Commissioner in Zululand, Mr. Saunders, states as his view that "all civilization and progress among the natives is due in very great measure to mission work." Lord Cromer, of Egypt, has repeatedly expressed his appreciation of missionary service and his desire to promote its success. Sir Harry H. Johnston remarked at a meeting at Ealing March 10, 1904, referring to Uganda and Nigeria, in both of which he had served in an official capacity, that he "had never been able to side with those flippant persons who said that the untutored savage was happier in the pre-missionary days." "No one," he continued, "who knew anything of Africa as it was before it was touched by Christianity could entertain that idea for a single moment." Captain Alfred Bertrand, in a lecture on the Zambesi and his recent explorations in that region, said that his observations "showed him that the work of missions was the apology of Christianity in its fullest sense." At the time of the official inauguration of the completion of the Congo Railway from Matadi to Stanley Pool, a Russian official, who represented the Emperor

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