v&o REPORT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOREIGN MISSIONS. PRESENTED AT THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION HEI.D AT DETROIT, MICH. February 28 to March 4, 1 894- JOHN 12 TO 18 BORNMAN & printers LARNED ST. DETROIT SON EAST i Report of the Executive Committee OF THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. I. The Purpose It is taken for granted by the Executive Committee that all of the Move- the members of this Convention are familiar with the origin, ment. history and progress of the Student Volunteer Movement down to the time of the First International Convention, held at Cleveland just three years ago this week. Before reviewing its development for the last three years, or considering its present condition, let us fix clearly in mind the main objects of this Movement. They may be stated as follows: 1 . To lead students to a thorough consideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them as a life work. 2. To foster this purpose, and to guide and stimulate such students in their missionary study and work until they pass under the immediate direction of the missionary societies. 3. To unite all the volunteers in a common, organized, aggressive movement. 4. The ultimate, yet central purpose, is to secure a sufficient number of volunteers, having the right qualifications, to meet the demands of the various mission boards — and even more, if necessary — in order to evangelize the world in the present generation. 5. Essentially involved in all this, is the further object of the Move- ment — to create and maintain an intelligent, sympathetic, active interest in foreign missions among the students who are to remain on the home field, in order to secure the strong backing of this great enterprise by prayer and money. Such are the positive objects of the Movement. It is hardly necessary, therefore, on the other hand, to add that it is not an organization to send out missionaries. Its members all go to the fields through the regular missionary societies. Moreover, the Movement does not usurp the functions of any other missionary agency ; it simply seeks to supplement helpfully all existing mis- sionary organizations. That such is the case is shown by the increasing number of indorsements which the Movement has received from those mis- sionary secretaries and missionaries who are most familiar with its work. 4 II. The Field This is a student movement. The universities, colleges, and its theological seminaries, medical schools, normal schools, Cultivation, training schools — in short, all institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada, constitute its field. It is true that individual volunteers jire doing a great deal of work in churches and in Christian organizations among young people; but the field for the cultiva- tion of which the Movement holds itself in a special sense responsible is the student class of North America. It alone among missionary agencies has complete access to this peculiarly important class. This Movement was made possible by the preparatory work and influence of the four great student organizations of this continent, viz.: The Inter- collegiate Young Men’s Christian Association, the Intercollegiate Young Women’s Christian Association, the American Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, and the Canadian Intercollegiate Missionary Alliance. The Volun- ? teer Movement is an organic department of these agencies. In this way it has a far more direct and favorable approach to the great body of students than it could possibly have in any other way. Since the Cleveland Convention the field has been cultivated more thor- oughly than during the early years of the history of the Movement. This has been made possible by multiplying the agencies of supervision. The following constitute the principal means employed for the cultivation of the field : 1. The Traveling Secretary. This agency is the most potent because the Traveling Secretary comes in personal contact with the field. It has been employed since the inception of the Movement in 1886. The position is usu- ally held for one year only, and by some student volunteer who is nearly ready to go to the foreign field. Mr. W. H. Cossum, of Colgate University, con- tinued in the work after the last convention until the close of that college year, and then sailed to China, where he is doing a strong work. The year following, Mr. J. C. White, of Wooster University, held this position, and is now in India opening up a promising work among the fifteen thousand students at Calcutta. Mr. F. A. Keller, of Yale, was Traveling Secretary in 1893-94. He devoted a part of his time during the same year to office work. He is now completing his studies preparatory to entering the foreign field. Mr. D. W. Lyon, of the McCormick Theological Seminary, at present occupies the important post of Traveling Secretary. 2. The Corresponding Secretary is also an important factor in the culti- vation of the field. By correspondence and special reports he is able to keep in helpful touch with all the institutions having volunteers. Mr. Walter J. Clark, of Union Theological Seminary, was the first man called to give his entire time to this work. This marked one of the advanced steps made possi- ble by the Cleveland Convention. Mr. Clark filled the position over a year, and then went to India, where he is already carrying on a successful work. During the few months which Mr. Keller succeeded him he introduced a number of advanced features suggested by his study of the Movement in the colleges. Mr. J. W. Angell, of Wooster University, rendered special and helpful 5 assistance for a few months. Mr. H. B. Sharman, of Toronto University, has been Corresponding Secretary since last summer, and has brought the office department to an even higher state of efficiency. 3. Corresponding Members and other special visitors have rendered exceedingly valuable service by visiting colleges or representing the Move- ment at conventions. It will be impossible even to summarize all of this work, as it has not all been reported. The list, however, should include among others the following : Miss Eloise Mayliam, who made a tour among the women of a number of colleges of the North ; Mr. James Edward Adams, who made a special tour among the colleges of Iowa and Indiana; Messrs. Horace Tracy Pitkin, Sherwood Eddy, and Henry Luce, 4 who have carried on a thorough and extensive visitation among the institu- tions of New England, New York and New Jersey; Messrs. Lyon, Tomlinson, Mitchell and Kennedy in Illinois; Mr. Binkliorst in Michigan; Mr. Hotton in Wisconsin; Mr. Marshall in Nebraska; Mr. Strong in Kansas; Mr. Hill in Kentucky; Dr. Drew in Virginia; Mr. Kinsinger in Ohio; and Mr. Moore in Pennsylvania. 4. Secretaries in connection with the college department of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations — international, state, and metropolitan — have given a great deal of time (in the aggregate more than any A other agency) and thought to the planting and developing of this movement. 5. The monthly organ of the movement — The Student Volunteer — although only recently entering upon its second year, has become one of the most use- ful agencies employed by the Committee to keep in touch with the volunteers, and to keep the aims and methods and results of the Movement before the Church. The first suggestion of such a paper came from a minister in Cleve- land who attended the sessions of the Convention; but it is due to Mr. Keller that the idea was carried into execution. 6. In connection with the college students’ summer conferences during the last two years, there has been developed another plan for promoting a more thorough cultivation of the field. Missionary institutes designed to train vol- unteers for the leadership of the missionary interests of their respective institu- tions have been held. By this plan men, who are authorities on the most approved methods of developing missionary interest, have been scattered abroad over the college field. 7. The International Conventions of the Movement, though very infre- quent, are destined, if we may judge at all by the influence of the Cleveland Convention, to do incalculable good not only in establishing the Movement in institutions of learning, but also in defining its relation to the various mission- ary activities of the Church. Although some of the most difficult problems which con- III. Problems. fronted the Movement three years ago have been solved, we are brought face to face with a few which remain. These can also be solved if the delegates of this Convention set themselves resolutely and prayerfully to the task. 6 1. A close and constant supervision of all the volunteer hands of the United States and Canada is absolutely essential if this Movement is to be a per- manent, a growing, and a fruitful one. Over the larger part of the field which has been entered, such supervision has not been maintained. This is due to the fact that the supervising force has not been large enough to cover the entire field in any given year. Such supervision is rendered necessary by the con- stantly and rapidly shifting character of the student population of our institu- tions. As a result of our inability to cultivate the whole field each year, it has been necessary to work one year in one section and the next year in another. In some cases we have been obliged to leave whole groups of colleges for as long as three years without a visit. The natural result must necessarily be disastrous. 2. Closely akin to the problem of securing a more thorough supervision of the bands is that of keeping in closer touch with isolated volunteers, and helping to maintain and increase their interest. This includes that large class of volunteers who are obliged to stay out of college or seminary for months or years at a time, for financial, or other reasons. Cut off from the volunteer band and the missionary library, and surrounded often by influences which are calculated to deaden his interest in missions, the volunteer is in great danger of having his missionary purpose weakened and diverted. 3. Another problem confronts us in some quarters, and that is the diffi- culty of holding volunteers after they enter the theological seminaries. If they leave college with a strong purpose and are thoroughly grounded in missions, the question of holding them does not present insuperable difficulties. But even in such cases it is a real problem to preserve the faith and enthusiasm of volunteers who enter institutions where, to quote a prominent Board Secretary, “ from the beginning to the end of the course the whole presumption in the teaching and attitude of the faculty is that the men are all going to stay at home.” Add to this the constant pressure brought to bear upon them by home churches, and the solution of the problem is not simplified. In medical schools the difficulty is indeed more serious owing to the crush of work, their absence of missionary, and often even of religious spirit, and a lack of strong Christian student organizations. 4. How to bring the volunteers into closer touch with the missionary societies is another unsolved question. That there has been an increase in applications to the societies during the last few years, taking them as a whole, is very clear. The increase has been marked in the case of some denomina- tions, and yet it is by no means what it should be when we consider the number of volunteers. The responsibility of the Movement does not cease until the volunteers are brought into direct communication with their respec- tive Boards. Nor does it cease entirely then. This suggests yet another difficulty. 5. The financial obstacle is to-day one of the greatest in the pathway of many volunteers. Within the last few weeks several missionary societies have indicated to us that they have more men who want to go abroad than 7 they have money with which to send them. There are, it is true, other boards which are in greater need of men than of money. Then, again, we have heard that there are at least one or two boards, which, while they have no sur- plus of money, yet state that they will let the financial barrier stand in the way of no suitable candidates who are anxious to go. But even where the financial problem is the thing which prevents volunteers hastening to the fields, the Movement cannot free itself entirely from responsibility. It is our duty as volunteers to co-opcrate with the missionary boards in every way within our power in a determined effort to remove this hindrance. It has been our purpose in this connection simply to state the most serious problems that stand before the Movement. Our object has been to stimulaie thought among the delegates of this Convention who, we repeat, are in a position to do more towards solving them than any others can possibly do. Further on we shall indicate some lines of policy which, properly carried out, will greatly hasten their solution. There are perils as well as problems attending the advance IV. Perils. of the Student Volunteer Movement. This is true of every organization which is new, aggressive and full of life. These perils should be clearly apprehended, and a united effort made by the volun- teers to guard against them. In the beginning, notice the perils with reference to the volunteer declara- tion. (1). First among them is the peril due to misunderstanding the mean- ing of the volunteer declaration. For several years what now' corresponds to the declaration was known as the volunteer pledge. It read: “ I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to become a foreign missionary.” The first traveling secretaries who used the so-called pledge interpreted its meaning in these words: “ I am fully determined to become a foreign missionary, unless God blocks the way.” All the other regular secretaries who subsequently employed it interpreted it in the same way. Notwithstanding the clear inter- pretation of the official representatives of the Movement, some others who used it unofficially gave it a different meaning. Moreover, some who heard it rightly interpreted were still confused by its statement. After the Cleveland Convention, the Executive Committee, for a full year, carried on through its members and the traveling secretary an examination in all parts of the field. As a result they reached the conclusion that the wording of the original so-called pledge could be changed to great advantage. Accordingly, the members of the Executive Committees of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, and of the newly organized Student Volunteer Missionary Union of Great Britain, met at North - field in the summer of 1892, and, after exhaustive discussion, unanimously agreed to change the wording from “ I am willing and desirous, God permit- ting, to become a foreign missionary,” to “ It is my purpose , if God permit , to become a foreign missionary Moreover, they decided to abandon the use of the expression volunteer pledge, and adopted in its place the expression volun- teet declaration. This Change was made because the phrase “ If God permit ” renders it impossible to characterize the declaration as a pledge according to the common and accurate use of the word pledge. A man who signs the vol- unteer declaration signifies by the act that with the light that he then has he forms the definite and clear-cut decision that he will he a foreign missionary. To this end, he turns his face in that direction He not only decides, and turns his face, but he begins to adapt his course of study and special outside work to his newly chosen life work. He not only begins to do this, but he continues steadfastly in that direction. At the proper time, he applies to the missionary agency under which he desires to go to the field. This is stating the man side exclusively. It is working out these words of the declaration: “It is my purpose to be a foreign missionary.” But there is another side' which is involved in the words “ If God permit.” This phrase precludes the volunteer’s taking his life into his own control. He is still under the direction of God; for he will not become a foreign missionary unless God permits. The Holy Spirit may delay him, may turn him one side, may temporarily, or even permanently, block his way. While it may be true that some volunteers have abandoned their original purpose for other than providential reasons, it is obviously wrong to subject volunteers who have been providentially kept from going to the field, to the charge of having broken a vow. Is it not simply maintaining that when a man signs the volunteer declaration he cannot expect any further leadings of the Holy Spirit concerning his life work? It is im- possible to read any such meaning into the volunteer’ declaration. Let us guard therefore, against the peril of having the declaration misunderstood. It is not, on the one hand, simply an expression of willingness to go anywhere for Christ; and, on the other hand, it is not an iron-clad pledge or vow to go to the foreign field whether God wants us there or not. It means what it says, “It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.” I begin and continue steadfastly to carry out that purpose formed in His presence and for His glory. If by walking in this path of duty the Holy Spirit leads me unmistakably into another path I shall leave the present one — and not till then. (2). The second peril in connection with the volunteer declaration comes from the wrong use of it. We must guard against its use by men who misun- derstand it, or who cannot make its meaning clear. We must guard against its being used with those who for one reason or another are not in a position to understand its full significance, or are obviously unfitted for foreign service. We must guard against its being used at the wrong time, in the wrong place, or under wrong circumstances. All experience in connection with this Move- ment shows that the declaration should be used only under the manifest guid- ance of the Spirit. Before leaving this matter of the declaration the Committee wish to record once more their firm belief in it. The fact that it has been misunderstood at times, or that it has been wrongly used, does not shake their confidence in it; for the fact still remains true that without it there could have been no Move- ment. Beyond this, the Committee believe in the declaration because it leads 9 men to make a definite decision; because it helps to hold men who have decided; because it puts a man in a position to do more for missions while he is securing his preparation than he possibly would or could do otherwise; because it puts a deep central purpose into his life which means greater power; and because it is the testimony of secretaries and missionaries that men who by this means were led to reach their decision early are, as a rule, more settled in their convictions, and better prepared when the time comes, to go abroad than the men who do not decide until about the close of their professional course of study. 2. There is also a peril in connection with the number of volunteers. The number of students who have volunteered at one time and another is indeed remarkably large. This fact has often led members of the Movement to boast, and to depend more upon the numbers than upon the Holy Spirit’s power. This peril has been aggravated by an unwise and misleading use of the numbers. Unconsciously, our friends have been our worst enemies in this respect. How many noted speakers and editors have stated time after time that there are five, six, or seven thousand men and women in this Movement who are ready to go to the field at once if the Church could send them? This is not true. While there may have been many thousands who have signed the declaration, the Executive Committee has within the last year decided not to count as members of the Movement those of whom it has and can obtain no trace. The Committee has been unable to get accurate record of more than 3200 volunteers. The large untraced contingent comprises chiefly those who volunteered within the first two years and a half of the life of the Move- ment, during which period it was not organized and had no oversight Quite a number have been lost trace of since in sections or colleges which have had little or no supervision and band organization. Moreover, it must still be kept in mind that a majority of the volunteers of whom the Movement has record have not completed their course of study. A recent investigation has made this very plain. To avoid creating further misunderstanding it is earnestly recommended that all friends of the Movement in their statements concerning it dwell not so much on the numbers who have taken the initial step (unless it be made very clear what those numbers mean) as upon those facts which show the fruit- age made possible by those who have made the decision. In saying this the Committee would not give a discouraging impression. True, there has been a shrinkage in the number who have volunteered, but it is due not to the princi- ples and methods of the Movement, but to a lack of clear emphasis of those principles, and to a failure to employ those methods ; and this is due in turn to inadequate supervision, and also to the fact stated before, that the Movement was not organized for nearly three years. There has been very little shrinkage indeed among the men enrolled during the last few years,— much less, in fact, than might be reasonably expected. But after all, the greatest cause for grat- itude in connection with such a Movement is not so much the fact that so many have enrolled, as the facts showing what those who have volunteered have 10 achieved under the Spirit in their colleges, in the home churches, and on the foreign field. 3. Some members of the Movement have been providentially prevented from going to the foreign field, it may be temporarily, or it may be perma- nently. These have often been characterized as hindered volunteers. There is a decided peril with reference to this class. The volunteer who considers himself hindered should be very sure that he has been hindered by the Holy Spirit, and not by friends, or self, or sin, or satan. It is not an easy gauntlet that the volunteer must run in order to get away from a land where he is needed into the one where he is needed most. Let no volunteer mistake the logical results of ignorance and indolence for the staying hand of God’s Spirit. We mean simply this — that it is a comparatively easy matter for a man to regard himself providentially hindered if he does not keep adding fuel to the missionary flame. In this connection the question is now and then asked: Why has such a volunteer abandoned his purpose to be a missionary? A number of such persons have been interviewed. In some cases the way had been obviously blocked by God. In all other cases the giving up of the mis- sionary purpose could be traced directly to neglect on the part of the volunteers to study missions, to pray for missions, and to work for missions. To any volunteer, then, who may consider himself hindered, we would say: Be very careful not to miss God’s plan. Test your sincerity most thoroughly. Keep the missionary fires burning by every possible means. In addition to this, apply to a missionary society. The examinations are very thorough. Counsel with the secretaries about personal difficulties and doubts. They will not let you make a mistake. If after applying these and other tests the volun- teer is led to see that he is for the time being hindered, let him not be depressed. Rather than lose his interest in the Movement let him redouble his efforts and devote his life on the home field to backing up this mighty missionary enterprise as singly and earnestly as he would have done had he been privileged to hasten to the front. Above all, let hiin never wholly abandon the hope of having the way opened some day to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named. 4. A fourth peril is seen in the tendency in some places to form a breach between the students who are volunteers and those who are not. In a majority of such cases the volunteers have been chiefly responsible. This peril has already manifested itself in connection with the Movement in Great Britain; and we can do no better than to quote from the last report of their Executive the following recommendation. “That whilst the zeal of volunteers be encour- aged, care be taken that no tone of superiority be assumed over those who are not volunteers.” The men who consider it their duty to spend their lives on the home fields have as much responsibility resting upon them for the world’s evangelization as those who go abroad. If the message about Jesus Christ is to be taken all over the earth in our lifetime, it is absolutely imperative that the entire body of Christian students of this generation see eye to eye and work as one mind. IJnited we stand and succeed, divided we fall and fail. It is right that record be made of what the Spirit hath V. Results. wrought both in and through the Movement. Among a multitude of definite things which have been accomplished, brief reference is made to the following : — 1. Since the Cleveland Convention the Movement has been extended to the colleges of the Pacific Coast and of parts of the Southern States ; also to some new colleges of Canada. Up to the present time we have record of 477 different institutions in which volunteers have been enrolled. It is safe to state that this Movement has entered more institutions than any other student organization. 2. Not only has the Movement entered the colleges and professional schools, but in them it has exerted a remarkable influence. Unquestionably it has deepened the spiritual life of the institutions. Those who have traveled most among students bear testimony that the most spiritual colleges they visit are those which have been most intimately touched by this Movement. But the most distinctive influence has naturally been on missionary lines. In hundreds of institutions the Movement has reiterated the last command of Christ; it has vividly set forth the awful need of the world, and proclaimed with conviction the responsibility resting upon this generation of students for the evangelization of the world. The words “missionary” and “missions” "mean something entirely different to the student mind from what they meaut eight years ago, even in a majority of the denominational colleges and divinity schools of the United States and Canada. Narrow and contracted ideas are fast giving way to new and enlarged conceptions of the grandeur, the transcendent possibilities, and the divinity of this greatest work which confronts the Church of God. Through the influence of this Movement, the missionary department of the College Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Asso- ciations has been carried from comparative weakness to as high a state of efficiency as that of any other department. 3. There has been a striking increase in the number of students who expect to be missionaries. Take the young men of the colleges for example. Accurate reports show that there were over three times as many men in the colleges last year who were expecting to be foreign missionaries as there were in 1885—86, the year before this Movement started. If the comparison were restricted to that portion of the college field which has received most attention from the Movement, the increase in number of candidates would have been over five-fold. In the light of facts covering our leading seminaries, it is safely estimated that there are now over 50 per cent more theological students who plan to be missionaries than there were ten years ago. In several semi- naries the increase has been far greater. 4. The Movement has inaugurated and is earnestly prosecuting an educational campaign on missions among the colleges and seminaries. It has been the chief factor in starting a series of regular monthly missionary meet- ings in about two hundred institutions which did not have them before. Furthermore, it lias very greatly improved the character of such meetings in 12 institutions where they were already being held. More important still, in some respects, are the weekly band meetings for a systematic and thorough study of missions. When this agency entered the field there were less than ten such study groups in the United States and Canada. Now there are at least one hundred and thirty-six. In connection with these band meetings the Movement has prepared and introduced several courses of progressive mission- ary studies. These are being successfully used by a larger number of bands each year. It is interesting to note that the three series of missionary Bible studies have been used more widely than all others combined. All this marks a great advance; for over four years ago there was not in existence any specially adapted outline courses of study for a mission band. Another and a most fundamental feature of the educational work of the Movement has been the planting and enriching of missionary libraries in our institutions. In over one hundred institutions which had practically no missionary books three or four years ago, there are now good working collections. Some of the lead- ing theological seminaries of the United States had no modern missionary works whatever until they were secured through the influence of the volun- teer band. The same thing is also true of a large number of the colleges. In the aggregate, thousands of dollars worth of missionary literature has been placed within reach of students within the last three years. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the service the Movement has rendered to missions on these practical educational lines. 6. At the Cleveland Convention it was reported that the colleges and seminaries combined had contributed during the preceding year about $15,000 to foreign missions over and above what they had previously given. Under the influence of the Movement this amount has been steadily increasing, until last year the colleges alone gave over $25,000 more than they gave before the Movement was started. The returns from the seminaries are not sufficiently full to enable us to give exact figures. It is a conservative estimate to say that the colleges and seminaries combined gave to foreign missions over $40,000 last year. This came almost entirely from between 80 and 90 institutions which are each supporting, or helping to support a missionary. This sum, considered in itself, does not mean much ; but its influence on two lines means a great deal. In the first place, when churches learn that such a college or seminary is supporting a missionary, it will lead them to see the possibility of their doing even more than the students. A number of churches have been influenced to do this on learning these facts about the sacrifice of students. A more important influence, however, is that coming from educating the students themselves in habits of systematic aud proportionate giving. The colleges and seminaries have in them the ministry of the future. They will not forget the object lesson of the support of a missionary, but will reproduce it in their churches and young people’s societies. 7. How many volunteers have sailed, is a question which should be answered in the record of the results of this Movement. We have the names of €38 who are now in mission lands. In all probability there are a number