Part 11

This church conducts five boarding-schools for boys, with 169 scholars; eight boarding-schools for girls, with 263 scholars; and four theological schools, with 52 students. This body has done a great deal of hard, substantial work, and has enjoyed a fair degree of the popular favor. During these late reactionary years, when other missions have made little progress, its growth has continued uninterruptedly. The Nippon Sei Kokwai is presided over by five bishops, four of whom are English and one American. Two are located in Tokyo, one in Hokkaido, one in Osaka, and one in Nagasaki.

_Baptists_

There are four Baptist societies doing mission work in Japan: the Baptist Missionary Union (United States), the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Church of America, and the Southern Baptist Convention. There is no organic union between them, but the first- and last-named bodies work together. The four bodies unitedly have 92 missionaries, 14 native ministers, 68 native catechists, and 2327 members.

They have one boarding-school for boys, with 14 students; six boarding-schools for girls, with 205 students; and two theological schools, with 21 students.

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The Baptist missionaries laboring in Japan are an able, hard-working, evangelical body of men, and there are some good, strong native Baptist ministers.

_Lutherans_

The Lutheran Church began mission work in Japan only four years ago, and as yet her mission is small. It is supported by the United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South (United States). The Lutheran Church in the United States has occupied a peculiar position. A large per cent. of the emigrants from the Old World are of Lutheran antecedents. Hundreds of thousands of them have come over and settled in the West, and the energies of the American Lutheran Church have been largely expended in caring for these unhoused and unshepherded sheep of her own flock. It seems that Providence has allotted to her this special work. No other church in America is carrying on home mission work on so large a scale, among so many different nationalities, and in so many languages. Because of the great home mission work that has naturally fallen into her hands and demanded her men and money she has not engaged in foreign work as extensively as some other American bodies.

And yet the American contingent of this old {189} mother church of Protestantism has a foreign-mission record of which she is not ashamed. She has supported for many years a mission on the west coast of Africa, at Muhlenberg, that is by universal consent the most successful mission in West Africa. She is also supporting two large and successful missions in India.

The Lutheran mission in Japan was begun as a venture. The after development of the work has amply justified the wisdom of the undertaking. It is not the purpose of the Lutheran Church to antagonize any of the bodies now at work in Japan, but rather to stand, amid all the doctrinal unrest characteristic of Japanese Christianity, for pure doctrine, as she has always done. It is her purpose to teach a positive, evangelical Christianity.

The working force of the mission consists of 2 missionaries and their wives, 2 native helpers, and 1 Bible-woman. The field occupied is small. There is only one station, and that is in the city of Saga, on the island of Kyushu. Much work is done in the surrounding villages and towns from Saga as a center. It is not the purpose of this mission to use large numbers of men and great quantities of money, as some others have done. It purposes working intensively rather than extensively. It attempts to devote all of its time to evangelistic work, and does not engage in {190} educational work further than theological instruction.

Although the missionaries came to Japan in 1892, the station was not opened until 1893. Since that time about 55 converts have been baptized.

There are numerous small Christian bodies at work, such as the Scandinavian Japan Alliance, the Society of Friends, the International Missionary Alliance, the Hephzibah Faith Missionary Association, and the Salvation Army. There are also three liberal bodies working here, generally classed as unevangelical: the Evangelical Protestant Missionary Society, the Universalist mission, and the Unitarian mission.

The English and American Bible and tract societies have ably seconded these missionary bodies by the circulation of large numbers of Bibles, tracts, and various kinds of Christian books. The value of their work can hardly be estimated. The American Bible Society, the National Bible Society of Scotland, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Tract Society, and the London Religious Tract Society have all had a part in the work.

Such is a brief enumeration of the Christian forces at work in Japan. With so large a body of consecrated workers and so much missionary {191} machinery, it seems that the work of evangelization ought to go on rapidly. A great deal has already been accomplished, as the figures given above show. A native church of 40,000 people is no mean prize; but this is only the smallest part of the work of the missions. They have created a Christian literature, disseminated a certain knowledge of the gospel among the people, and in a hundred different ways indirectly influenced the life of this nation. Japanese missions have been a brilliant success.

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XI

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MISSION WORK IN JAPAN

For mission work, as for every other calling in life, some men are naturally adapted, others are not. Those by nature fitted for the work will in all probability have a reasonable degree of success, while no amount of zeal or spiritual fervor can make successful those not so fitted. It is true to a large extent that missionaries are born, not made.

How important it becomes, then, that mission boards and societies should carefully consider the qualifications of all applicants before they are sent to the mission field! How necessary it is for all those contemplating work in certain fields, before offering their services to the boards, to examine whether their qualifications are such as to justify an expectation of a reasonable degree of success in those fields!

For the benefit of the various missionary {193} societies that are annually choosing and sending out new men to Japan, as well as for the advantage of those who contemplate offering themselves for work in this field, I will put down a few thoughts on the necessary qualifications for successful mission work here.

These may be roughly classified as physical, spiritual, and mental.

PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS.--I regard physical qualifications as of supreme importance. Many of my readers will think that the spiritual should precede the physical, but with this opinion I do not agree. Health is absolutely essential to successful work; deep spirituality, while greatly to be desired, is not so essential. Many men have failed on the field and have been forced to withdraw because of a lack of physical qualifications, while few have failed for lack of spiritual qualifications. I think it is true that young men who when in college and seminary appear to be almost consumed with missionary zeal and enthusiasm, who are pointed out as examples in spirituality, and who are burning with a desire to get into the foreign field, do not make as good missionaries as some others. Men who pledge themselves in youth, and who, actuated by a wild enthusiasm, which has more zeal than knowledge, urge themselves upon the mission boards, do not do as good work as those chosen {194} by the boards themselves, who may never have considered seriously foreign work before the call was extended to them. Enthusiasm and zeal are good things in their place, but they are apt to lead men to extremes. People who enter mission work simply because they are filled with a burning enthusiasm and zeal are not likely to stay as long or work as well as those who enter upon the work with more hesitation, after careful deliberation and a counting of the cost.

Wallace Taylor, M.D., of Osaka, Japan, himself an experienced missionary of the American Board, says: "I should advise that men be chosen for their physical and mental adaptation and ability rather than for their burning zeal for the foreign work. To maintain health and be a successful missionary a man must possess more judgment than enthusiasm and more discretion than zeal. Enthusiasm and zeal are good qualities in a missionary, but to these you must add that which is better--judgment, wisdom, and self-control. The burning fire shut up in the bones, that cannot be controlled, only consumes vital energies and speedily produces failing health. We need men who can stand and face the white harvest and the many calls to work, and yet with cool deliberation preserve their strength for future work. We want men sent for their cool deliberation and self-control rather than for their {195} burning zeal and enthusiasm. We need men who are intellect rather than a bundle of nerves. A nervous, excitable, uneasy person will fret and wear himself out in from six months to three years in Japan."

It is desirable, then, in the first place, that the missionary be a sound physical man. No one should be accepted by a mission board for work in Japan who cannot secure a policy in a reliable life-insurance company, and it would be well if the medical examination were made by an examiner for such company. The examinations made by a physician appointed by the mission boards are usually mere farces, for the desire to go as a missionary frequently covers up many physical weaknesses and prevents a thorough examination. The examination should therefore be made by a disinterested medical man, who will not be influenced by such motives.

It seems hard to subject candidates for mission work to such rigid examinations, and perhaps refuse to send them because of some small physical defect; but the interests of the work make it imperative. Otherwise the young missionary will, in all probability, break down and have to go home in three or four years, before he has been able to do any active work. The experiment will have cost the board a large amount of money and a loss of several years, and the {196} missionary some of the best years of his life, probably making of him an incurable invalid. In so serious a matter as this the boards cannot afford to be swayed by sentiment. Nothing but sound business principles should be followed.

The same physical requirements should be made for the woman as for the man. She, too, should be subjected to a medical examination, and any serious defect in her constitution should cause her immediate rejection. It seems hard to subject the wife to this test, as she is not a missionary in the strict sense of the term, and to many the requirement will be distasteful; but for their protection, and for a judicious use of consecrated funds, the boards should require it. A little thought will show that the failure of the wife's health is just as disastrous for the mission as the failure of her husband's. It cripples his efficiency while on the field, and ultimately drives him home. Most boards operating in Japan have not made this requirement, and as a consequence many missionaries' wives are in poor health, and as many men have had to return home because of the failure of their wives' health as for any other one cause.

The mission boards should not appoint too young men to work in Japan. It is well known that young men cannot endure so well as older ones change of climate and hard work. Those {197} who are physically and mentally immature will very probably be unable to bear the strain. In general, no one should be sent out under twenty-five years of age, and it would be safer if all who came had attained the age of thirty. Against this it is argued that a young person will acquire the language more readily than an older one, and this is doubtless true. But health is of first importance.

SPIRITUAL QUALIFICATIONS.--Although I consider spiritual qualifications after physical ones, I nevertheless regard them as of great importance. It is highly desirable that every missionary be a deeply spiritual man, fully consecrated to the cause of Christ. The consecration needed in the missionary is little different from that needed in the home pastor. If he has given himself and all that he has to Christ, he will be ready to work for Him anywhere. Those who come to the mission field without such consecration, expecting the grandeur of the work to beget it, will be bitterly disappointed. In many instances contact with heathenism weakens more than it strengthens consecration. The societies should require that those who are to do spiritual work should be consecrated, spiritual men.

The missionary should be sound in the faith, should clearly discern and readily accept the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and should {198} be able to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials, tenaciously holding to the former, while allowing liberty in regard to the latter. He will encounter many strange things in his new environment; many of his pet theories will be exploded, and he will meet much that will try his faith. His belief in the essentials of Christianity should be so strong that even if his views undergo a change in non-essentials he shall not be shaken at the center. He must be able to defend his faith against its enemies, as well as to impart it to those to whom he is sent. To do this his own hold upon it must be firm and unyielding.

The missionary should have a positive, not a negative, faith. His position should continually be one of offense, not of defense. His faith must be aggressive and dominant in its hold upon others, must be both persuasive and constructive. He must be sure of the faith in which he trusts, and must be positive in his presentation of it to the world.

It is especially important that the missionary's doctrinal development be full and rounded. He should see all the doctrines of the Christian system in their proper relation to one another, and should give due importance to each. A one-sided, eccentric man, who has struck off from the main line of doctrinal development and is on a {199} side-track, having exalted some one phase of the Christian teaching or life to the exclusion of others, is not fitted for mission work. He can be used to better effect at home, because there he is continually under restraining influences, while here there are no restraints. For this reason what would be only a harmless eccentricity at home may result in great mischief abroad. Those who are to found the church in Japan, to shape its theology and its life, should be well-rounded men, who will not unduly exalt any one doctrine, but who, having a comprehensive view of the Christian system, will give due importance to every part.

It is very important that prospective missionaries fully count the cost, and be prepared beforehand to endure patiently the trials and hardships that will be sure to meet them. No one should go out without having carefully considered all of these things, and gained the full consent of his heart to endure them. If the cost has not been counted, and the work willingly entered upon with a full knowledge of its hardships and difficulties, the encounter of these upon the field is apt to result in disappointment and dissatisfaction.

Every missionary should be a lover of humanity, even in its lowest and most degraded forms. It is useless for us to attempt to persuade and influence non-Christian men if we do not love {200} them. The audiences we address may not be moved by our logic or rhetoric; our most eloquent sermons may have no effect on them; but practical illustrations of our love for them will always meet with a hearty response. Love is the key that opens all hearts. "Faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

To love refined Christian men and women is easy, but to love humanity in its more degraded forms is hard. And yet the missionary must be prepared to love an alien race, that regards him with coolness and distrust. He must be ready to associate with lowly people, amid humble and immoral surroundings, and to be patient, kind, and loving to the most degraded. No one who has not lived on the mission field and associated freely with the people knows how hard this is. Such love will win more men to Christ than eloquent preaching or most careful instruction. The man who possesses a large amount of it, other things being equal, will meet with success.

The missionary should, as far as possible, present in his own character all Christian graces. He will be looked upon as a product of the faith he represents, and will exercise more influence by his life than by his words. He must not be impatient, quarrelsome, or wilful, and, above all, he must not be proud. Constant association with an inferior race is apt to beget a haughty, {201} domineering manner, and the missionary needs to be especially on his guard against this. He may present no striking defects of character, else his faith will be held responsible for them. Peculiarities and faults that are known to be merely personal at home are regarded in the mission field as the result of a bad religion.

It is very important that the missionary be an attractive man, possessed of personal magnetism. He should by nature draw men, not repel them. Although hard to define, we all know what this power is. Let a little child come into a room where two men are sitting. It will readily go to the one, but no amount of coaxing will induce it to go to the other. The one possesses an innate power to attract, while the other repels. Where the personal element plays so important a role it is essential that the missionary possess the power to draw men.

MENTAL QUALIFICATIONS.--Hardly less important than physical and spiritual are the mental qualifications. A mediocre man cannot do good work in any mission field, least of all in a field like Japan. None but strong men should be sent out. In former years, when the science of missions was little understood, it was thought a waste to send a man of unusual intellectual endowments, because an ordinary man could do the work just as well; but the boards have wisely {202} abandoned that policy. Experience has clearly demonstrated the wisdom of sending the very best men that can be had.

In the first place, the prospective missionary to Japan should have as complete and thorough a mental training as possible. A full academic and theological course is highly desirable. He should know how to reason logically and profoundly, and should be a skilled dialectician, able to meet the native scholars on their own ground. The subtle philosophies of the East, which he will daily encounter, can only be dealt with by a man thoroughly trained. The atheistic and agnostic philosophies of the West are spread over all Japan, and the missionary must be able to combat them.

Another reason why the missionary should be as highly educated as possible is that large numbers of the Japanese people are highly educated, and a man of poor ability and training cannot command their respect. Education is to-day being diffused more and more throughout Japan, and the missionary must work among an educated people. It is necessary that he feel himself to be at least the intellectual equal of all with whom he comes in contact.

In order, then, successfully to combat the subtle philosophies of the East, to show the fallacies of the prevalent skeptical philosophies of the {203} West, and to command the respect of the people among whom he labors, the missionary to this land should have a thorough intellectual training.

Linguistic talent is another essential, and especially so in Japan. No one should be sent here who is deficient in this. This language is perhaps the most difficult of all spoken languages for an Occidental to acquire. It is so thoroughly unlike any of the European languages that the student must change his view-point and learn to look at things as the Japanese do before he can make much progress. To master it one must study both Japanese and Chinese. While a fair linguist can, by hard work, preach with comparative intelligibility after three years of study, a complete mastery of the language is the work of a lifetime.

If any one contemplating mission work in Japan remembers that he was a poor student of languages at college and made little progress in them, let him feel assured that he can probably serve the Lord better at home. I state this matter strongly because just here is where so many missionaries fail. There are men who have been here ten or fifteen years and yet who experience great difficulty in constructing the smallest sentence in Japanese. Such men are not useless; in certain departments they serve well; {204} but they would probably be of more use at home. At least one third of all the missionaries in Japan, if called upon to make an extempore address in Japanese, would be found wanting. In view of these facts, how important it becomes that only those men be sent out who have a reasonable expectation of learning the language!

Along with natural linguistic talent, the prospective missionary should have a large amount of perseverance. Nothing but persistent, slavish work through many years will enable one to speak Japanese well; and no one should come here who is not willing to stick to an unattractive task until it is accomplished.

It is of primary importance that the missionary have a large endowment of common sense. Nothing else will make up for deficiency in this. It alone gives power to adapt one's self to a new environment and to live under changed conditions. The demands upon common sense here are much greater than at home, because the conditions under which we live are so different, and the practical questions that daily meet us are so numerous. Dr. Lawrence finely says: "At home so much common sense has been organized into custom that we are all largely supported by the general fund, and many men get along with a very slender stock of their own. But on the {205} mission field, where Christian custom is yet in the making, the drafts on common sense would soon overdraw a small account."

A knowledge of music will be found of great assistance to the missionary, the more the better. He will often have to start his own hymns, play the organ, or direct the music. He may have to translate hymns and set them to music, or even compose tunes himself. Good church music is now so essential in worship that every missionary should have a knowledge of it. But this qualification, while highly desirable, is not indispensable.

The missionary also needs to a great degree the power of self-control. He should be a cool, conservative man, able to govern himself under all circumstances. He must not be moved to excessive labor by the present needs of the work, but must exercise self-restraint, husbanding his strength for future tasks. One of the most difficult things to do is to refrain from overwork when the need of work is so apparent. But the missionary must consider the permanent interests of the work ahead of its temporary needs.

To sum up the desired intellectual qualifications: a missionary to Japan should have a good mind, well disciplined by thorough training; an abundant supply of common sense; linguistic ability, and the power of self-control.

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There is one other qualification, that can hardly be classed under any of the above heads, i.e., _the missionary should be a married man_. The vast majority of missionaries in the field to-day are unanimous in this judgment. The experience of the various mission boards and societies also confirms it, and they are sending out fewer single men each year.