The Kingdom Without Frontiers the Kingdom Without Frontiers
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THE KINGDOM WITHOUT FRONTIERS THE KINGDOM WITHOUT FRONTIERS A MISSIONARY SURVEY BY THOMAS MOSCROP 'Great is His kingdom, and of His dominion there is no frontier.' lsA. ix. 7 (Syriac lectionary), ~Dllb'oll ROBERT CULLEY 25-35 CITY ROAD, AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. FiltST EDITION Marek .r9ro TO THE TREASURERS AND SECRETARIES OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY WITH MUCH ESTEEM 5 PREFACE THE purpose of this volume is to give such a statement of the facts of the foreign missionary enterprise, and such a survey of its operations, as will encourage those who support it to give themselves with greater zeal to 'the furtherance of the gospel ' amongst non-Christian peoples. The writer, in the course of missionary advocacy, has been asked repeatedly-by enthusiastic sup porters, by earnest seekers for knowledge, and by coldly critical people-to answer questions, the answers to which involved just such inform ation as is here given ; and he is assured by others having a similar experience that there is much in this work that is likely to meet the needs of those who want to know the facts. The literature of Missions is now immense, and it is growing rapidly-this is, in itself, a proof of the growth of the enterprise-and it is obvious that much must be left out in a general work like this ; but it is hoped that compression of facts will not have destroyed their living interest. Just as there is always value in the advocacy of the 'real, live missionary,' so is there much need for the living book on Missions. This 7 8 PREFACE work seeks to state and interpret the facts of the enterprise in a way that will help to impress their meaning more fully upon the consciousness of the Church. The writer has been a student of Missions for a quarter of a century, and for several years he was a missionary in an Eastern land. These qualifications are entirely insufficient for an adequate setting forth of the story of Missions, but he trusts they may be regarded as a sufficing justification for attempting to give such a general survey as is contained in this volume. Indebtedness to many writers is revealed throughout. The treatment of the subject made wide consultation of authorities necessary; and wherever possible acknowledgement is made. To his friend the Rev. Arthur Triggs, the writer is under special obligation for help in proof-reading and for valuable suggestions. THOMAS MoscROP. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGB I. THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE ENTER- PRISE II 11. THE WORLD - OUTLOOK : THE PRESENT POSITION 31 III. SPECIAL SIGNS OF SUCCESS 62 IV. WORLD-WIDE SOCIAL RESULTS So v. THE CLAIMING OF THE FUTURE 108 VI. CRITICISM AND TESTIMONY 136 VII. THE RETURN-VALUE OF MISSIONS 166 VIII. POSTPONED AND NEGLECTED ENTERPRISES, 194 IX. PRESENT PERILS AND URGENCIES, 219 X. SPECIAL AND CREATED OBLIGATIONS .. 241 XI. PRIMARY MOTIVES AND OBLIGATIONS 265 XII. THE UNIVERSAL EPIC 285 9 The Kingdom Without Frontiers CHAPTER I THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE ENTERPRISE THE record of missionary effort from the first century until now is a record of the further acts of Jesus and of His witnesses. In every age there have been some elect souls with vision and courage, and, though· the accomplishment of His purposes has tarried, there has been pro gress sufficient to justify the saying that history is an excellent cordial for the drooping courage. Harnack shows the early Christian movements in progress, with the reasons for them ; and in 1 summing up he says : ' I. The facts of the case justify the im pression of the Church-fathers in the fourth century that their faith had spread with in conceivable rapidity. ' 2. Seventy years after the foundation of the first Gentile church in Syrian Antioch, Pliny wrote in the strongest terms about the spread 1 Expansion of Christianity, ed. 1908, vol. ii. p. 335. II 12 THE KINGDOM WITHOUT FRONTIERS. of Christianity through remote Bithynia, a spread which in his view already threatened the stability of other cults throughout the province. '3. Seventy years later the Paschal contro versy reveals the existence of a Christian federa tion of churches stretching from Lyons to Edessa, with its head quarters at Rome. ' 4. Seventy years later still the Emperor Decius declared that he would rather have a rival emperor than a Christian bishop. ' 5. And ere another seventy years had passed the cross was sewn upon the Roman colours.' The cross, at first and for long a thing of shame, was thus lifted up in honour and was counted among the glories of life. It was this that led the historian to say : ' That Christianity should have become the religion of the Roman Empire is the miracle of history, but that it did so is the leading fact of all history from that day until now.' 1 Through the centuries since there has always been some continuance of the enter prise, sometimes even the great missionary epoch, and every century has its shining name of mis sionary and martyr. Christ has always, in some way, gone on with that which He began to do and to teach. There have always been the living truth and the living witness. Yet the ' all nations ' endeavour remained, for the most part, an unregarded programme until the modern and world-wide opportunity came. Fol lowing the fifteenth-century Renaissance, the six- 1 Dr. Freeman. THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE ENTERPRISE 13 teenth century saw the way opened East and West from Europe, the Bible given to the nations, the invention of printing, the purer evangel made possible. by the Reformation, and the Roman Church stimulated to missionary endeavour by its losses and by a wider opportunity in the easier communications with the East. And then fol lowed the slow growth of the missionary enterprise in Protestantism, the movements in Germany towards world-wide evangelism, the Danish missions, and the sending forth of Ziegenbalg and Schwartz, the noble Moravian movement; and the Evangelical Revival with all that followed of organized effort for the evangelization of man kind. And as to-day we lift up our eyes round about and see, we are reminded of the saying in Kingsley's Hypatia: 'The great flood would have its way then.' Taking another glance back, we see that the facts coming from the centuries, so far as they can be put into figures, are these: At the end of the second century : 2 millions of Christians. At the end of the tenth century: 50 millions of Christians. At the end of the fifteenth century : roo millions of Christians. At the end of the eighteenth century: 200 millions of Christians. At the end of the nineteenth century: 500 millions of Christians. It took ten centuries to reach fifty millions ; I4 THE KINGDOM WITHOUT FRONTIERS in the next five centuries as many were added as in the first ten; in the next three twice as many as in the first ten; in the next century six times as many as in the first ten, and three times as many as in the first fifteen. 1 Again, two hundred years after Christ one out · of every one hundred and fifty of the world's population was a nominal Christian; now one out of every three.• Further, two-thirds of the world's population-1,000 mil lions-are under the rule of Christian powers. And if we inquire further as to the expansion of Christendom we find that- In 1600 Christian nations possessed 7 per cent. of the earth's surface and non-Christian 93 per cent. Now non-Christian nations possess 18 per cent. of the earth's surface and Christian nations 82 per cent. So that in the last three hundred years Chris tian nations have increased their area of possession from 7 to 82 per cent.; the non-Christian have decreased from 93 to 18 per cent.• To-day-shall we not say in the purpose of God ?-Christianity is the religion of the dominant nations, Japan excepted, and it powerfully influences all. And yet, once more, it is very significant that during the nineteenth century alone, whilst the population of the earth remained nearly station- 1 Gulick, The wowth of the Kingdom of God, 2 Lightfoot, Historical Essays, p. 81. a Gulick, Ibid. THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE ENTERPRISE I5 ary, th~ European peoples increased from r70 millions fo 500 millions, and that this increase is likely to go on, whilst the rest of the world, so far as can be seen, is destined to remain stationary. Such is the suggestive statement of the eminent statistician, Sir Robert Giffen, 1 All this means that in Christendom there has been a great and significant expansion, and that the world is moving towards a future in which Jesus Christ will be supreme. The nineteenth century was the century of the greatest expansion, the great missionary century. When the century dawned the world-prospect was not encouraging. ' Three of five great continents and two-thirds of a fourth were sealed against God's messengers and God's truth. The missionary was rigorously excluded from the whole Roman Catholic world, from the whole Buddhist world, from the whole Mohammedan world, from nearly all the Pagan world, and only admitted to parts of the Brahmanical world by ·· the sufferance of the rulers of the day.' 1 But providential preparations were already in progress that were to culminate in a great missionary century, as a prelude to a greater still. The energies of the Kingdom were astir, and the breezes from Calvary were blowing.