INTELLECTUAL UPLIFT BY MISSIONS

[s. 349] : A few preliminary postulates must stand at the outset of even a brief discu ion of this topic. Thus it is freely granted that in all mi ion lands other factors coming from without besides Christianity exert an intellectual influence upon the people; and it is often difficult to differentiate between the work done by mi ionaries and that accomplished by the Christian civilization which enters with them, or precedes their coming. Again, it is evident that thus far Protestant mi ions, which are alone being considered here, have been numerically but a small factor in the life of most non-Christian nations. Thus, in China, in 1900, there were some 140,000 Chinese to every Protestant mi ionary residing there, and the native Protestant counted only as one to about 400 of his countrymen. A third postulate has to do with the grades of society affected. As will be shown, the intellectual influence of mi ions varies largely with the original status of the people to whom mi ionaries are sent. Finally, it should be remembered that the very aim of mi ions differs from that of commerce or Industrial Training Intellectual Uplift political conquest in that Christianity has as its sole object the salvation and uplifting of the community. The very nature of the system thus nece itates the elevation rather than the degradation of society. For the present purpose a threefold cla ification of mi ion lands will suffice to show the varied intellectual effects of mi ions upon non-Christian peoples. I. The lower races, many of them savage, and the rest barbarous, have naturally been most extensively influenced on the intellectual side through mi ionary effort. 1. The very presence of the mi ionary and his belongings constitute an intellectual quickening. Before his ship reaches the land, if it happens to be an unvisited island of the South Seas, its appearance suggests that he came from heaven and was borne on the wings of the wind to these and this gives rise to questionings. In more advanced countries, as soon as he lands, shores, he is an obj ect of intellectual curiosity. He brings with him the garb and furnishings of the Occident, many of them being new to the natives. In countries where there is no native pre , go ip supplies its place, and hence the story of his po e ions and their uses spreads through large regions and is everywhere the subject of remark and wonder. 2. His study of the language is a new impulse to discu ion and thought. He asks questions concerning their native tongue which never occurred to them. Other queries are raised by him which tax the knowledge of the wisest of savage peoples. 3. In those races where there is no written language, an unspeakable impulse to intellectual development is imparted through the introduction of the alphabet. In some 100 languages this wonder-working proce has been wrought and from the New through the mi ionary; He brides, where the “talking chip” with its speaking characters aroused wonder, to the heart where the introduction of alphabetical writing was regarded as little short of miracle, there is a remarkable impulse given to thought through the introduction of writing. A little later, when the same mi ionary produces the first printed literature of a tribe or a nation, this intellectual influence is widened and strengthened. In this latter proce , especially among the nations where there is already a rude form of written speech, the language is greatly enriched by new ideas and the more systematic use of an already existing tongue. 4. A concomitant of the two proce es just mentioned is the enlistment from among the people of a body of the best educated men obtainable as evangelists and teachers. When mental culture becomes indigenous, it raises men to a position of intellectual predominance and awakens desires in the minds of multitudes of Even those who have never studied an others. hour feel the contagion of this transformation of a few. 5. Education is especially nece ary to the program of mi ions among the lower races. In many cases it is the very first work of the sort So simple a matter as the use ever attempted. of a picture to enable the mi ionary to explain what is being taught those who are studying, raises the onlookers far above their former posiThus, on one of the tion of mental sluggishne . great African lakes, when this proce was first employed, it took much time for the older ones of Africa, Intellectual Uplift to see a picture and only gradually were the dog, ox, etc., made out. While education in these countries is usually elementary, it is for that very reason more widely pervasive than in cultured countries, since among the lowest races the only po ibility for education is found in the mi ion school. Tho religious instruction is the main aim, the elements of science are taught; and thus the rude philosophy of nature races, which has as its explanation the so-called superstitions of animism, fetishism, etc., is gradually displaced, and true knowledge for the first time shines upon the people. 6. The Bible, or those portions of it which are usually translated at an early stage of the enterprise, aside from its religious value is, likewise, a very strong intellectual stimulus to the ma es. Its varied contents, its practical doctrines affecting the daily life, and the portion of the earth which forms its background, are a help to breadth of view and a step toward international unity. Just as all western countries have the Bible as a common heritage, and as its institutions have insensibly influenced them, thus bringing them together, so as an intellectual bond the Bible first unites savage or uncivilized tribes to a higher civilization. 7. The Christian boolcs which are numerously prepared act upon the few as a strong motive to leaven others. Teaching the alphabet and simple reading is the key to religious truth, and you sands gain po e ion of the key who do not enter into the religious treasures which it was They the primary purpose to open to them. have, neverthele , come to a position of intellectual enlightenment which would not have been brought to them from commercial or anti-religious sources. 8. In these countries of lower development it frequently happens that the mi ionary is the pioneer and abettor of commerce and trade. Elements of material culture are thus indirectly the fruitage of his efforts, and there can be no large development in this direction which is not at the same time a stimulus to the intellect. While it is true that there are dangers in this direction such as are seen in the cultured countries of the old world, they do not so greatly affect peoples just emerging from the savage or barbarous state. 9. The stimulating intellectual forces above named are broadly scattered in this cla of races. Comparatively few such races have an intensive work done among them, but the very fact that the mi ionary found them without a developed mind has made his presence a more marked factor in the national or tribal life. The cultured races of the old world are, on the one hand, le open to the intellectual influence of mi ions than the races just named, while at the same time they furnish better material Here, therefore, the work ia for development. more intensive than extensive in its character, considering the amount done by a single mi ion I I. ary. 1. The mi ionary brings not merely a new religion to these peoples, but also new theories of life which constitute the basis of enlarged intellectuality. The discu ion between a mi ionary and a Brahman in India, or between representatives of Christianity and Buddhism in Japan, quickens the thought of hundreds of onlookers who carry away with them the main arguments of the disputants. These are in turn talked over by new groups of interested listeners. Moreover, a prominent theory which the mi ionary is likely to defend is that of the nece ity for knowledge on the part of every believer of the new religion. This gives the first impulse to the education of women, and implants or strengthens the desire to learn in many from lower walks in life. 2. A new science brought to such nations and empires frequently occasions a revolution in prevailing theories. China’s literati have been, astounded, tho not outwardly manifesting interest, at the rational explanation of an eclipse or the arguments adduced to prove the rotundity of the earth. One remembers what a revolution it caused in the minds of those boys who constituted Dr. Duff’s first school in India, when he gave them their first le on in English based upon the unimportant word O-X. Upon those simplest letters of the English alphabet he hung truths which burst in a moment the bonds of ignorance. Superstition must always abound until a true philosophy of the external world is made known to a people, and the simpler explanations of its phenomena often fly with great rapidity from lip to lip. 3. Mi ionaries have also carried into this cla of countries new means of intercommunication. Tho their languages had hitherto been committed to writing and a considerable literature may have existed, the mi ionaries introduce ready impartation of ideas through the publication of periodical literature and interesting tracts and books. Thus the Christian Literature Society of India, through its present and earlier organization, has stimulated Hindus to similarly impart in form a- Almost the sole influence in the earlier history of mi ions in China, India and Japan, leading to the rapid development of native periodical literature, came from the work of mi ions. 4. Such literary efforts, however, cannot long be carried on without the production of a reformed language. Just as the New Testament in the early Christian Church enriched the cla ical Greek, and as the literary efforts of Dante affected Italy, and Luther’s translation of the German Bible enriched that tongue, so to-day China is coming into the po e ion of a form of the Mandarin which is hardly conceivable, had there been no mi ionaries in that country. The same is true in all lands of this cla , since before the coming of the mi ionary there has been an aristocracy of letters which selfishly kept to itself a monopoly of learning, with the result that the language was far above the comprehension of the ordinary people. 5. The more rational method of teaching, and the scientific material brought to these nations through the schools established, have been an tion. impetus toward intellectual life. Turkey and Egypt owe to mi ionaries the stimulus which compelled them in self-defense to establish schools in great numbers. While in India the government has aided native schools, it has done it largely through mi ionaries, both by encouraging them to enter the work and by its grants in-aid. It is to be remembered also that in such an empire as Japan the educational system owes more to a mi ionary. Dr. Verbeck, and to Joseph Neesima, a native apostle of Christian education, than to almost any other source, tho Mr. Fukuzawa advocated it, in private life, and in later years the Government a umed the guidance and expense of educational reform. 833 6. Only through mi ions have the lowly and despised cla es in the community been touched intellectually through education. In Mohammedan countries, as well as in great empires like India and China, women and girls have not hitherto been considered as fit subjects for intellectual culture. The Christian school aims to reach these strategic factors in society quite as much as it does to educate boys and men; so that in India to-day and in Mohammedan countries the educated women and girls are the product almost wholly of mi ionary schools. III. Tho there is a question in the minds of many authorities on mi ions about the wisdom of conducting Protestant mi ionary work in nominally Christian lands, most of them Papal countries, mi ions do exist among such peoples. Here the intellectual contribution of mi ions is naturally le marked than in the two cla es previously named. 1. The representative of Protestant ism who comes in contact with a perverted or le developed form of Christianity must naturally spend much of his time in discu ion. He must give a rais on d’Hre for his presentation of Protestant ism. His opponents are often keenly intellectual, and even where they are not well educated they strongly present the claims of their ancestral faith. Listeners are keenly alert and their thought proce es are quickened as never before by the arguments adduced. 2. The stimulus coming to the native pre through the publication of Protestant literature Even in the in those countries is helpful to all. shadow of the Vatican, where the Scriptures are now being published, in periodicals and in the vernacular, at a low rate and under Papal sanction, it is hardly probable that it would have been done were it not for the strong Methodist work In South America carried on in the Holy City. and Mexico it has been especially true that Protestant ism has imparted a wide stimulus to the thought of the people. 3. Mi ion schools in Papal lands have been an unexpected help to education, particularly in Latin America. The work done in Sao Paolo, Brazil, has influenced education in that extensive republic, and in le degree other institutions in South America, Mexico, Austria and Spain have been an intellectual ble ing to the people. Probably nothing in the latter country has been so helpful as an object le on as the Institute for Girls under the charge of the late Mrs. Alice Gordon Gulick. 4. Protestant efforts in these lands have developed a native leadership of wide influence. Diaz in Cuba is an illustration of many who in Latin America and in the Philippines have come to a position, not only of religious influence, but of mtellectual power. IV. A few illustrations of the positions above taken wiU indicate the ‘extent to which tribes and nations are indebted to the intellectual uplift of mi ions. 1. A few instances are adduced of communities which have been most thoroughly leavened by the Gospel and its accompanying intellectual life. The Hawaiian Islands, now a part of the United States, are both intellectually and spiritually the product of the American Board’s work. Schools were quite as much emphasized as in New England, and they became the foundation of present-day Hawaiian society and the stepping stones to her present political position. The Intellectual Uplift Fiji Islands, which in the childhood of many now living were without mi ionaries and the abodes of cannibal cruelty, are not only the banner country of the world in the matter of churchgoing, but in 1901 the Wesley ans alone had 1,473 At schools, accommodating 28,491 scholars. that time the entire population of the colony was only 117,870, so that about one-fourth of the entire number of inhabitants were studying in the schools of one Protestant mi ionary society. The Karens in Burma are another illustration of a despised race, hardly deemed worthy of an education, who, through the efforts of the American Baptist Mi ionary Union, were brought to an intellectual and spiritual condition which is most remarkable, the Karen schools of the Union having in 1901 some 13,049 scholars. Uganda, too, in the very heart of Africa, owes its marvelous intellectual progre of the past few years to the educational work accomplished by the Church Mi ionary Society. An even stronger illustration is derivable from the history of mi ions in Madagascar, where, until recent times, the representatives of the London Mi ionary Society have been almost the sole educators of the entire people. 2. Figures may give a better view than the above illustrations of what is actually being accomplished in intellectual lines through Protestant mi ions. Beach’s Geography and Atlas of Protestant Mi ions, the statistics of which are mainly those of 1900, gives the number of educational institutions conducted by Protestant mi ions as 24,728, in which there were 1,127,853 This included instruction in pupils or students. a variety of educational institutions, from the kindergartens to the full-fledged universities. Dr. Dennis’s Centennial Survey of Foreign Mi ions, which gives the condition at the end of 1899, states that the entire Bible had been translated by mi ionaries into 99 languages or dialects, while the entire New Testament had been Portions rendered into 121 additional tongues. of the Bible had been translated into 236 other tongues, making the total number of mi ionary There versions of a part or all of the Bible, 456. were, according to the same authority, 159 mi ion publishing houses and printing pre es, with an output for the year reported of 381,166,106 pages. This included 379 periodicals published by the mi ionaries, which were general or religOne can imagine the intelious in character. lectual as well as the spiritual value of suoh a It does not suggest, how record as the above. ever, the intellectual stimulus imparted, which can best be realized by a comparison of sections of the same country or tribe, which have been reached by mi ions, with other portions not so In Burma, the Karens, who are intel touched. lectually below the Burmans, have been so benefited by the mental and religious instruction received that they now outstrip in many The respects their naturally stronger neighbors. same is, to a le degree, true of certain low castes in Northern India, who, through teaching, have become the peers of those several degrees higher In China, the late viceroy, in the social scale. Li Hung-chang, applied to a Christian educational institution for all its graduates, promising to permit them to observe Sunday, tho living in These men are from the a Sabbath le land. lower ranks in life, who were desired merely because of their intellectual attainments, and were thus preferred to native scholars po e ing International Medical International Service high degrees. Christianity has in mi ion countries been especially a quickener of thought, so that the traditions of ages or generations are replaced with the science of the West, and Uvea have been changed to correspond with this new light. INTERITATIONAL MEDICAL MISSIONARY BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION (Battle AND While this A ociation is Creek, Mich., 1893): denomination ally connected with the Seventh Day Adventists, its work is not sectarian. The object for which it was formed was to “erect and manage homes for orphan children and for friendle aged persons; hospitals and sanitariums for the sick poor and others; to establish dispensaries and medical mi ions at home and abroad; to provide visiting nurses; to educate mi ionary physicians and nurses; to provide for the needy poor, and to promulgate the principles of health and temperance.” Fields: India (1897) 2 stations, 1 outstation, 10 mi ionaries, 1 hospital. Africa (1896) 4 stations and 2 outstations, 13 mi ionaries, 3 hospitals and dispensaries. Austral asia (1896): 10 stations and 9 outstations, 19 mi ionaries, 10 hos Ocean i a (1893): 4 stapitals and dispensaries. tions, 8 mi ionaries, 4 hospitals and dis pen Hawaiian Islands West Indies (1895): saries. 1 station, 1 mi ionary; (1896): 4 mi ionaries, Guiana (1895): 3 1 hospital and 1 dispensary. stations, 4 mi ionaries. Mexico (1894) 2 stations and 1 outstation, 15 mi ionaries, 2 hospitals and dispensaries. Europe (1900): 1 station, 2 mis:: —: sionaries. INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY (New York, 1881): In the spring of 1881 a meeting was held at the house of Dr. T. A.Sabine, New York City, to consider the formation of an organization similar to the Edinburgh Medical Mi ionary A ociation. Six persons were present: the Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., three physicians, one lawyer, and a busiGeo. D. Kowkoutt, M. D., explained ne man. the character, scope and aim of the proposed work, and it was at once decided to organize a society to aid and train candidates, of either sex, for service as medical mi ionaries under any evangelical mi ionary society. The society thus organized has since then served all sections of the Christian Church under a strictly interdenominational constitution. Besides the original undertaking of the Society, the generosity of an individual has enabled it to establish a “Place of Rest” for mi ionaries and other Christian workers, together with a summer training school for mi ionary candidates. The seat of the Society and its home for medical students is in New York, but the Place of Rest and summer school are on the property belonging to the Society at Goshen, Ma ., a summer resort 1,500 feet above sea level. The aid given to medical students who are preparing for mi ionary service is based upon the plan of aiding for last bills only, after the student and his family or friends have done what they can for his support. Since the organization of the Society nearly 150 medical students whom it has aided have been sent to the foreign field by various mi ionary societies, and its former students are now laboring in Syria, Persia, India, Ceylon, Burma, China and the New He brides. INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION 334 (1884): The founder of this unique organizatioa was the Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., of Rochester, N. Y. After a isting at a series of mi ionary meetings at the campground at Niagara Falls, Ont., where he had stipulated that all the speakers should be mi ionaries, he conceived the idea of an organization of mi ionaries of all denominations the world over, who should come together once a year to talk over the varied phases of their work, compare notes, and profit by one another’s succe es or failures. The project was laid before an a embly of mi ionaries who were on furlough, and met with an enthusiastic response. A simple constitution was drawn up, and the title, “International Mi ionary Union,” was given to the new organization. Foreign mi ionaries of both sexes, of any evangelical denomination, are eligible for membership, whether on the active or retired list, as well as all mi ionaries under appointment. The sole condition of membership is that the mi ionary must be in good standing with his Board. The entire dues of the members consist of an initial fee of fifty cents; there are no yearly dues. In 1896 the tfnion had grown so rapidly that it became nece ary to organize more fully, and the constitution was revised. Its officers consist of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and librarian, with a board of control and an executive committee appointed to act as occasion may require. For several years the annual meetings of the Union were held at different places, but in 1890 Dr. Henry Foster, of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, Clifton Springs, N. Y., suggested that thereafter all the annual meetings of the A ociation should be held at that place, offering free entertainment to all members of the Union durThis gene ring the week of the annual se ion. ous offer was accepted, and the following year Dr. Foster erected a beautiful and commodious tabernacle on the sanitarium grounds for the use of the Union so long as it should hold its meetings at Clifton Springs. With an initial membership of forty, the Union now has over 1,200 members. In 1902 many young men and women under appointment to the foreign mi ions’ field were present. Consequently, special cla es were held for them, and opportunities arranged for them to confer with experienced mi ionaries from the fields to which they were going. This proved so valuable that it is now to be made a permanent feature of the annual meetings of the Union. These annual meetings are held for one week, beginning the The Union has no first Wednesday in June. income; a collection is taken on the one Sunday of the year when it is in se ion, to defray the expense of the publication of the annual report, the International Mi ionary Index, and of notices, etc. 352