3V 3177 .W47 A3 1899 
 Wheeler, Wilmot Henry. 
 Self-supporting churches anc 
 how to plant them 
 
REV. C. H. VVHEELKR. 
 
SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES 
 
 -AND- 
 
 HOW TO PLANT THEM. 
 
 Illustrated by the Life and Teachings of 
 
 REV. C. H. WHEELER, D. D. 
 
 For Forty Years Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. 
 at Harpoot, Turkey. 
 
 A Book for Christian Workers at Home and Abroad. 
 
 BY W. H. WHEELER. 
 
 Introductions by Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D. D. 
 And by Rev. James L. Barton, D. D. 
 
 BETTER WAY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 Grinnell, Iowa. 
 
A WORD TO THE READER. 
 
 Please read and criticise this little book with great care; for 
 the theme which it discusses is a vital and far-reaching one. 
 Then, if from time to time you can send the writer some of the 
 results of your own studies of method, I will try to make the 
 discussion in later editions still more complete and worthy of 
 the great and good man whose doings and teachings constitute 
 nine-tenths of the book as it now stands. 
 
 Yours in Christian love and fellowship, 
 
 W. H. Wheeler. 
 Grinnell, Iowa, Aug. ii, 1899. 
 
 Copyright 1899. by W. H. Wheeler. 
 
 Printed at the Herald Office, Grinnell. Iowa. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 By Rev. James L. Barton, D. D., 
 
 Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
 The author of this book is the son of Dr. Wheeler, 
 whose life it commemorates. The son had unu- 
 sual opportunity to study the life and work of his fa- 
 ther; for they were associated together for three 
 years (1888-1891), at Harpoot, Turkey, where Dr. 
 Wheeler lived and labored for forty years.* While 
 there, he was a close observer and student of mis- 
 sionary methods and policy, both historically and 
 theoretically. The result of these observations and 
 the conclusions to which they have led the author, 
 are embodied in this work; which is more distinctly 
 a study of mission methods than a mere biography 
 of Dr. Wheeler. 
 
 Attention is called especially to the chapters upon 
 self-support [Chapters Twelve to Fourteen] which 
 embody much that is historical, presenting many un- 
 answerable arguments for the application of the prin- 
 ciple to all mission work both at home and abroad. 
 It is, of course, understood that precisely the same 
 methods which were .employed in the Eastern Tur- 
 key Mission, and which are to-day in most success- 
 ful application there, cannot be put into practice in 
 
 *The first seventeen years of the author's life were also spent at home in 
 Turkey, and added many important matters of detail.— Ed. 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 exactly the same way in every other field. The con- 
 ditions of the people, their ability, their social sur- 
 roundings, their divergent characteristics, all have a 
 bearing upon the subject and must be considered by 
 the missionary. It cannot be denied, however, that 
 the principle and policy of self-support on the part 
 of native institutions and work is the only true 
 method for the successful prosecution of missionary 
 work and the only one that insures permanency and 
 independence. 
 
 The book is commended to all active missionaries, 
 — to the ofificers of missionary societies, — and to all 
 others who are interested in the question of mission- 
 ary policy and methods, as containing data and sug- 
 gestions which cannot fail to be suggestive and val- 
 uable. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D. D. 
 
 Hamlin and Wheeler were two Maine boys, sev- 
 enty and eighty years ago; one born in Oxford 
 County, 1811, and the other in Penobscot County, 
 1823. They were far apart, but they were foreor- 
 dained to the same work, in the same empire, and 
 to preparatory studies in the same institutions, Bow- 
 doin College and Bangor Theological Seminary. 
 
 This did not bring their fields of labor into the 
 same vicinity, for one was on the Bosphorus, the 
 other on the Euphrates; one on the west side of the 
 empire, the other on the east. But both were work- 
 ing for the same people, the Armenians; and both 
 these Maine boys had a healthful, earnest, laborious 
 youth, fitting them to "endure hardness," as good 
 
 soldiers, in the battle of life. But, as Hamlin has 
 
 written of himself in "My Life and Times," we will 
 drop him here, and attend only to Wheeler, except 
 as illustration may demand a reference from one to 
 the other. 
 
 Wheeler's father kept a hotel, before the Maine 
 Law had existence; and but for the excellent mother, 
 there would have been no college on the Euphrates. 
 But the mother's influence was predominant; not 
 only all pervasive, but ever pervasive. As a son to 
 his father, he was obedient, active, useful, intelli- 
 
6 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gent. But on two points, his convictions of duty 
 and his father's will came into conflict. He refused 
 to carry rum, brandy, or other alcoholic drinks to 
 hotel guests, and endured severe penalties with the 
 most obstinate courage, rather than yield this im- 
 portant point; telling his father he would do every- 
 thing else, but would never help make men drunk; 
 and the boy prevailed, for he had right and God on 
 his side. 
 
 It was the same with regard to attending certain 
 religious meetings. The boy told the father that he 
 would submit to any punishment he chose to inflict; 
 but he should attend religious meetings. And he 
 did; and the father gave it up. This, surely, is the 
 stuff out of which heroes are made. It is suffering 
 for righteousness' sake, without any earthly defender 
 whatever, [except a noble mother.*] 
 
 From early life, he was a conscientious boy. If 
 he knew a thing to be wrong, he would not do it. 
 He was also regarded as a religious boy; though it 
 was not until his fourteenth year that he openly gave 
 himself to Christ as his Master; and thenceforth he 
 knew no other master. 
 
 He determined, without much delay, to strike out 
 for an education, in order to become a preacher of 
 the Gospel. With assistance from the Education 
 Society, he struggled through College and Seminary. 
 But on leaving college, he made haste to pay back 
 every dollar that he had received. This was char- 
 acteristic of him; and by teaching school for three 
 years, he accomplished his object. — He had paid for 
 
 *See body of book. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 his education by his own efforts; though greiteful 
 for the temporary aid he had received. 
 
 When he finished his course at the Theological 
 Seminary, he would gladly have given himself to the 
 foreign missionary work. But he felt that he must 
 make a home for his mother, and so he was settled 
 for three and a half years over the church in Warren, 
 Maine, where his earnest and successful ministry is 
 still gratefully remembered by survivors not a few.* 
 — In the meantime, his mother having been offered 
 a pleasant home with a daughter, he offered himself 
 to the American Board, and was sent to Harpoot, on 
 the Euphrates. Here was the field for the man, and 
 the man for the field. 
 
 In the Harpoot region, but little missionary- work 
 had as yet been done. For though the fearless and 
 indefatigable Dunmore had driven the Gospel plow- 
 share through the hard soil, he had not stopped to 
 sow and reap. — Here Mr. Wheeler, while learning 
 the language, surveyed the field; and saw poverty, 
 oppression, grinding taxation, ignorance, supersti- 
 tion and Moslem outrages that made the blood of 
 freedom boil. But his life's work was to be with 
 the Armenian people, whom he soon found to be an 
 exceedingly interesting people, capable of a large 
 Christian development. 
 
 As to the policy of the mission, he decidedly had 
 the lead; but his very able and admirable coadjutors, 
 Messrs. Allen and Barnum, knew how to work with 
 him, and to carry out with divine skill the measures 
 he proposed. 
 
 ♦See letter from Warren church, in Appendix. 
 
8 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There were two principles that must be and were 
 governing principles in the Harpoot mission. One 
 was that of "vernacular education," so called; the 
 other, that of "self-support," for churches and 
 schools. 
 
 The former principle worked well for a time; [for 
 it was not meant for permanent application.] But 
 the school naturally grew up into a college; and al- 
 though Mr. Wheeler had denounced the college 
 system, [when prematurely introduced] nothing 
 showed the sincerity and strength of his character 
 more than the readiness and unquenchable zeal with 
 which he [later on] connected the Harpoot city ed- 
 ucational institutions with College Hill; so that hun- 
 dreds in primary studies are in the college system, 
 and numbered as college students. — Marsovan Col- 
 lege was also at its birth; and the Bebek Seminary, 
 though reduced to the vernacular grade, was grow- 
 ing right up into a college as rapidly as possible; 
 and Dr. Anderson could not prevent it; till at last 
 there are eight colleges in the Turkish empire. 
 
 But Mr. Wheeler thought his western brother al- 
 most insane, in [so soon] developing education up 
 into the college grade; and made known his views, 
 in nervous English. But Divine Providence gave 
 the West a chance to help the East in keeping pos- 
 session of College Hill, and so the East and the 
 West came together, and there was "no more sea," 
 and no mountains between them!* 
 
 But Mr. Wheeler's great and distinguishing work, 
 
 *For a fuller discussion of this whole subject see "The Teaching of Eng- 
 lish" and "Arguments Pro and Con," in Chapter Fifteen. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. g 
 
 and one in which he had no peer, was the applica- 
 tion and development of the principles of self-sup- 
 port in all the works of education and evangelization. 
 The people, however poor, must support their insti- 
 tutions of every kind. It required great nerve to ap- 
 ply and enforce this principle among a people so 
 poor, so oppressed, so unused to do anything for 
 themselves, and so destitute of what we consider the 
 comforts of life. But he was right. And he proved 
 so clearly that the success of the evangelical work 
 depended upon the application of this principle, that 
 he became its apostle. He proclaimed it. He 
 preached it on all occasions. He demanded of mis- 
 sionaries that they should adopt this principle as the 
 governing one of all their measures. This they were 
 often slow to do; doubtless, in some cases, too slow. 
 But their work had been established under very 
 different circumstances. The first converts in the 
 Ottoman Empire were often imprisoned and cruelly 
 beaten. Sometimes they were ejected from their 
 own shops and houses, and their property destroyed. 
 It was thus absolutely necessary to relieve such by 
 immediate and energetic [but temporary] measures, 
 in order ts save the imperilled lives which their per- 
 secutors hoped would perish under the weight of per- 
 secution. Even in a single night, thirty evangelicals 
 were once driven from their homes, at about 9:00 
 o'clock — an hour* after the oriental bed-time — out 
 into the streets of Galata; their persecutors intend- 
 ing that they should have no refuge, but the awful 
 police prisons, among imprisoned robbers, thieves, 
 and murderers. But swift relief saved them; but it 
 came from without. 
 
10 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The first churches in the Western Turkey field orig- 
 inated in circumstances that made the idea of self- 
 support [quite as soon as Mr, Wheeler expected it] 
 absurd. There was grand endurance, and the quiet 
 taking the loss of all things for Christ's sake, out of 
 which these first churches sprung. And, but for this 
 history, no church in Harpoot could have been 
 formed; and Mr. Wheeler's western brother was in- 
 timately associated with two churches that became 
 self-supporting before any church in Harpoot. 
 
 But it is true that, generally, the brethren in the 
 western field, when the poor churches came out of 
 great tribulation into freedom, were not so decided 
 for self-support as they should have been. They 
 needed the inspiriting, preaching and example of 
 this apostle of self-support; and the whole mission- 
 ary world has been inspired by it. In this direction, 
 his life has been of priceless value to the mission- 
 aries of the Church of Christ throughout the world. 
 
 But he also received, as well as gave. For his 
 principle of vernacular education and his entire ex- 
 clusion of English, were given up [sooner than he 
 had expected;] and gradually, step by step, as the 
 force of things demanded it, the whole system of the 
 western brother was adopted; not from him, but from 
 the force of circumstances [which meanwhile had 
 changed very materially*]. And so the East and 
 the West met together. And in view of what had 
 been accomplished, under impossible difficulties, the 
 two Maine boys with whitened beards could say to- 
 gether; "We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, 
 
 ♦See Chapter Fifteen. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. ii 
 
 which art, and wast, and is to come: because thou 
 hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned!" 
 
 I have written the above in regard to Mr. Wheeler, 
 without any knowledge of the book, to which it stands 
 as introduction.f 
 
 Cyrus Hamlin. 
 
 Lexington, March, 1899. 
 
 tNor did these two good and great men, though such true friends, ever fully 
 "know" and understand each other. But this only makes their many points 
 of agreement and sympathy all the more significant; for both were mighty 
 pioneers, working slowly from different points of view toward the same great 
 central truths. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTERS I TO V.— INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler's boyhood and college life. Experiences as a young teacher. 
 Finding a wife. Studying for the ministry. His philosophy of life. Pastor- 
 ate at Warren, Maine. Reasons for not going abroad. The young pastor at 
 work. The slavery question. Pastoral calls. Setting others to work. De- 
 cides to go to Turkey. A mother's advice. Difficulties in the way. Good- 
 bye to America. Arrival in Turkey. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DECIDING WHAT TO DO; AND HOW TO 
 DO IT. 
 
 Choosing a field. How far to let others choose for you. Proper regard 
 for health. Going to Harpoot. Beauties of nature. Blessings in disguise. 
 Reasons for not preaching to Mohammedans. Helps in learning the lan- 
 guage. Importance of touring, or itinerating. The missionary as explorer. 
 The missionary as friendly visitor. Shall the missionary sell books? Teach- 
 ing men how to read. Four ways of preaching. Benefits of persecution. 
 Shall we punish evil doers. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 
 
 Importance of having a right creed, and using it wisely. The Bible, and 
 how to use it. Lessons from nature and experience. Depravity. Man's 
 need of a Savior. Christ our friend. Love for one's neighbor. Prayer. 
 Future life. Future punishment. Success and failure. 
 
14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER AND 
 THE LESSONS IT TEACHES. 
 
 Clearness of perception and ways of increasing it. Definiteness of pur- 
 pose. Practicalness and how to keep it. Wisdom, and how to get it. Long- 
 ing to do right. Courage. Humility; normal and abnormal. Self-reliance. 
 Perplexity. Perseverance. Hopefulness, and how to renew it. A heart 
 full of love, love that makes men patient. Finding the bright side, and 
 speaking of it. Forgetting one's self. A longing to save soiils; or a special 
 liking for one's work. Need of business ability. Need of traveling secre- 
 taries or superintendents. Ability to lead. Home life. Faults. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Changing one's mind. Winning men by example. Importance of study- 
 ing character more closely. How to deal with prejudice. How to make dis- 
 cussion profitable. How to distinguish essentials from non-essentials. Im- 
 portance of preaching a positive gospel. Not rules but principles. The im- 
 portance of reaching leading minds; and how to do it. How much touring 
 shall we do? And how large a district shall we cover.? Not having enough 
 outstations or preaching centers. How many missionaries should there be 
 at each station? Too few at some stations; too many at others. Four 
 stages of missionary work. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PLANTING CHURCHES; AND TEACHING 
 THEM HOW TO WORK. 
 
 Planting churches. Conditions of church membership. Local and union 
 churches. Pastorless churches. Self-supporting churches. Self-governing 
 churches. Large and small churches. Teaching churches how to work. 
 Native home missionary societies. Native foreign missionary societies. 
 Ecclesiastical organizations. Cooperation of native and foreign workers- 
 formal and informal; its benefits and dangers. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS; AND 
 HOW TO TRAIN THEM. 
 
 How many native helpers shall we have? How to get the best men. What 
 to teach them. How much to teach them. How long to teach them. The 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15 
 
 student after graduation. The location and number of missionary semina- 
 ries, or theological schools. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES; OR THE 
 PROPER USE OF MONEY. 
 
 Bearing one another's burdens. Bearing each his own burden. "But the 
 people are too poor." "But can't they give one day's work a year?" "And 
 can't they give two?" and so on. Reasons why even the poorest should be 
 asked to give something, in work or money. How soon can a self-helping 
 church be formed? How soon may such a church be ordinarily expected to 
 become self-supporting. To whom should mission grants be made? Should 
 the churches have a common treasury? Making all grants conditional? How 
 to circulate a subscription paper successfully. Building churches, schools 
 and parsonages; and how to pay for them. How to deal with churches al- 
 ready formed on a wrong financial basis. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT CONTINUED; A FEW MORE 
 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 Paying too high salaries. How to tell whether a salary is too high. Why- 
 pay any salary at all? Relying too much on unpaid workers. When should 
 medical aid be free? and when not? Why not give books and tracts free? 
 Helping support students, male and female? when wise and when not? 
 About orphanages. About helping the poor in general. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT CONCLUDED; A STILL 
 LARGER OUTLOOK. 
 
 The privilege of giving. A blessing lost and found. Giving too much and 
 not enough; and whereto draw the line. In partnership with God.— Hard 
 times in 1861; and what came of it. Giving more and more gladly. Boarding 
 round and swapping labor. How soon shall new comers be asked to give? 
 and why ? Retrenchment and how to face it. Being grateful for hard times. 
 How to deal with unsuccessful stations. Annual meeting majorities. How 
 to make American donors more enthusiastic. Special contributions so-called. 
 Statistics of self-support at Harpoot since 1861. A very cheering glance at 
 other missions (covering a period of nine years). A comparison of different 
 boards.— A few last words: as to misunderstandings and abuse; as to the 
 need of pruning; as to the need of more definite comparative statistics, cov- 
 ering a period of years; and as to the need of expert financiers, with more or 
 less veto power. 
 
i6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FOUNDING COLLEGES: ITS BENEFITS 
 AND DANGERS. 
 
 Religion and education, how related. Importance of common schools. 
 How to get the best native teachers. When to stop stuffing the memory. A 
 true philosophy of education. When to found a college. Should it have an 
 endowment? and why.? Pressing self-support. Why not make the schools 
 all free? Ways of developing character. Bible classes; and how to make 
 them interesting. Helping pupils one by one. How to prevent rationalism. 
 College discipline and choice of trustees. Lessons in energy and accuracy. 
 Experiments in industrial education. Lessons in thinking. A new way of 
 awarding prizes. Proper limits of industrial education. The children's 
 corner. The teaching of English. The American fever. Going to Europe 
 or America for an education. Raising up ministers. Training Christian 
 laymen. Educating the public. Mr. Wheeler as an educator. A look into 
 the future. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 General Remarks. Learning to pray. Learning to read. Training 
 preachers' wives. Training mothers. Training teachers. Opening the 
 doors still wider. Becoming a college. Religious influences. Kindergarten 
 work in Turkey and Japan. An important word as to money matters. 
 House to house visitation. 
 
 CHAPTERS XVII AND XVIII. 
 GROWING OLD; AND GOING HOME. 
 
 The blessings of old age. The lessons of old age. The massacres of 1895. 
 Final return to America. Meaning of these massacres. Across the ocean. 
 Last days in America. The lesson of this life. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Memorial address by Rev. James L. Barton.— Memorial services held in 
 Harpoot. A tribute from the Warren church, forty years after Mr. Wheeler 
 left it. 
 
 ALSO A VERY FULL INDEX. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 MR. WHEELER'S BOYHOOD AND COL- 
 LEGE LIFE. 
 
 [As will be seen by an examination of the Table of Contents, the first five 
 chapters of this book and the last two (or about one-eighth of the whole) are 
 simply biographical; while chapters six to sixteen (or seven-eighths of the 
 whole) are devoted almost exclusively to a study of Dr. Wheeler's Ways of 
 Doing Missionary Work, which is of course the more important part of the 
 book.— We hope then that most of our readers will turn at once to Chapter 
 Six and read the story of Dr. Wheeler's manhood before they do that of his 
 boyhood and youth; leaving the earlier chapters for that narrower circle of 
 personal friends to whom even a man's boyhood is full of interest and signifi- 
 cance; because they have already known and seen and loved the man himself 
 personally and intimately.] 
 
 Crosby Wheeler, aftervvard.s named Crosby How- 
 ard Wheeler, by one of his college classmates, was 
 born in the little town of Hampden, Maine, Septem- 
 ber 8, 1823, on the banks of the beautiful Penobscot; 
 his grandfather Wheeler having been a general in 
 the Revolutionary army, and one of the earliest set- 
 tlers of the town where Crosby was born. 
 
 His father, Joel Wheeler, was a man of shrewdness 
 and ability, both in business and in the reading of 
 character; and his boy inherited many of his best 
 traits, and was always proud of them; and yet it was 
 his mother who left the deepest impression on his 
 character and life; for she was an earnest, far-seeing 
 Christian; but the father was not. With this dear 
 mother he went willingly to prayer-meeting and 
 
 (17—2) 
 
i8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 monthly concert, even though the boys on the street 
 jeered at him, saying, "You are tied to your mother's 
 apron strings." For fortunately that mother had so 
 mingled gentleness, fairness and authority, that her 
 boy really thought that she knew best. And wher- 
 ever Crosby went, his mother's influence went with 
 him; and mother always knew just where her boy 
 was going, for he never went without her approval. 
 
 And so, it came to pass that though the boy's fa- 
 ther kept the village tavern, and often left the boy 
 in charge, he never knew the different kinds of liq- 
 uor except by their looks and smell and the names 
 on the bottles; and a time came when, though still 
 a boy, he flatly refused to sell another drop; for he 
 felt that prayer and liquor selling could no longer 
 go hand in hand. And his father was kind and 
 shrewd enough not to try to force the issue; though 
 it meant a serious loss in his business as hotel keeper. 
 
 It was in boyhood too, that Mr. Wheeler's con- 
 scious Christian life began, the circumstances being 
 somewhat as follows: — Crosby had been very sick, 
 so sick that the papers of a neighboring town re- 
 ported him as dead. But instead of being dead, he 
 was busily preparing for life. Yet it seemed to him 
 that he was alone in the world; and he could not 
 realize that God is love. Then it was that he re- 
 membered his mother's teachings and experience, 
 and sought the Saviour who had so often helped her; 
 and Jesus did indeed open his eyes and show him the 
 Father; and from that time on, even to his dying 
 day, his love for God and man grew steadily stronger 
 and more tender, even though he was forced at times, 
 
MR. WHEELER'S EARLY LIFE. 19 
 
 like David of old, to be a man of war, and like Jesus 
 himself, to rebuke severely some of those whom he 
 loved best. 
 
 Il was at this time that he formed the acquaintance 
 of the Rev. Benjamin Tappan, D. D., and learned in 
 Dr. Tappan's study and prayer meeting, and from 
 his daily life, some of the sweet truths which he was 
 later on to take to foreign lands; for the pastor loved 
 the boy, and understood him; and, even when he hid 
 behind the post in prayer meetings, would often find 
 him out, and give him somethmg to do for the Saviour 
 he was learning to love so greatly. And so, through 
 a long and eventful life, Crosby and Crosby's chil- 
 dren learned to look up to Dr. Tappan as a little 
 better than most men, and as a sort of father and 
 pastor, wherever they might go. 
 
 That this boy of whom we are writing was also a 
 student, our readers will easily guess; and no one 
 will be surprised to know that as a small boy he 
 chose a picture book in preference to a pair of shoes, 
 though his fun-loving father afterwards gave him 
 both; nor will they wonder that he often studied by 
 the light of an open pine-knot fire, when he could 
 not afford to buy a tallow candle. For Crosby loved 
 study; and promotions came to him in quick suc- 
 cession; since he not only learned his own lessons, 
 but also listened closely to much of what was said 
 in higher classes, especially in mathematics, which 
 he dearly loved. 
 
 And so it came to pass that the tall, pale-faced 
 boy was ere long chosen assistant teacher in the 
 
20 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 school where he was himself a pupil; and with the 
 help of his pastor, Dr. Tappan, was able to help sup- 
 port the family and still enter the Freshman class of 
 Bowdoin College in 1843. 
 
 Here he soon came to be known as an earnest, 
 active Christian, a friend and adviser of those who 
 were in trouble, and a successful opponent of hazing 
 and all sorts of college meanness and ungentleman- 
 liness; and even consented once to take a leading 
 part in resisting the powers that be, when he felt 
 that they had greatly v^^onged the students in some 
 disputed point. 
 
 For such resistance some of his teachers never for- 
 gave him, believing in the divine right of teachers 
 and parents to be obeyed, whether right or wrong. 
 But others, more manly, admitted the students' right 
 to protest, and were more careful next time there 
 was friction to talk the matter over frankly with the 
 students, instead of trying to straighten it all out 
 by a mere blind use, or rather misuse, of mere au- 
 thority. 
 
 Yet while such dramatic incidents as these are the 
 ones that in after years stand out most strikingly, 
 the most significant part of college life is deeper and 
 quieter. For it was at the saw-horse and the saw- 
 mill; in the class-room and at the boarding club table, 
 and above all in the silence of his own room that 
 this young man was learning to commune with God 
 and with his fellow men. For no true man is ever 
 really alone; but, wherever he may be, is learning 
 or else imparting something that will help to make 
 life richer and better. 
 
MR. WHEELER'S EARLY LIFE. 21 
 
 And so it happened that in college and in vacation 
 school, in spending money and in earning money, in 
 learning and in teaching, alike, the work of growth 
 went on; and even "half-mast pants" and dead lan- 
 guages were among the forces that helped to shape 
 him for his future life. For to him all learning and 
 all experiences were only a means to an end; that 
 end being to make life better; or as he loved to state 
 it, in the words of the catechism, "To glorify God 
 and enjoy Him forever." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXPERIENCES AS A YOUNG TEACHER. 
 
 During the last term of his senior year, though still 
 continuing hiscollege work, Mr. Wheeler took charge 
 of a large fitting school at Litchfield, Maine, attended 
 by pupils of all ages from twelve to twenty-five. 
 Here he was so successful in arousing enthusiasm, 
 that one of the classes which he fitted for college, 
 came back and spent their Freshman year at the 
 Institute; though this compelled their labor-loving 
 teacher to have classes from six in the morning till 
 nine at night. Surely such overwork was not wise; 
 and yet enthusiasm, even at high cost, is better than 
 that littleness of soul into which many a man has 
 fallen in his eagerness to "take good care of his 
 physical health." And though we are glad that in 
 later years Mr. Wheeler learned to take better care 
 of his health, we cannot but be proud of the man 
 who could arouse such enthusiasm as this. 
 
 Speaking of this period in his life a pupil writes: 
 
 His scholars both loved and feared him; for he took much 
 interest in their welfare, but was also very strict: and would 
 not tolerate laziness or carelessness, feeling that it was better 
 for a pupil to leave school, if need be, rather than go on pois- 
 oning his own life and the whole school by deliberate and per- 
 
MR. WHEELER'S EARLY LIFE. 23 
 
 sistent carelessness. I well remember how he once made our 
 class in Latin Grammar sit in their seats all through recess, 
 because of a poorly learned lesson; — and these were not mere 
 boys and girls, but young men-and women, most of them from 
 eighteen to twenty-five years of age. Yet most of his pupils 
 felt that he rebuked them for their good, and soon caught his 
 enthusiasm, and entered heartily into his plans for the improve- 
 ment of the school. 
 
 One case in particular I well remember; that of a boy who 
 was so lazy he would not study, and so hot tempered as to be 
 ax:ontinual source of trouble in the school. Finally, all other 
 means failing, the teacher took him to a neighboring barn and 
 whipped him soundly; the result being that the boy became 
 one of the most industrious, cheery and kindly pupils in the 
 whole school! 
 
 Another pupil was the mate of a ship, who wished 
 to spend a few months in study, and among other 
 things to take up navigation, of which he already 
 knew the routine rules but not the theory. The 
 busy teacher had never studied navigation; but in- 
 stead of saying so, and excusing himself, he simply 
 bought a book and kept ahead of his pupil; though 
 on one occasion it took him all night to work out a 
 problem which happened to be exceptionally diffi- 
 cult. Thus was he slowly fitting for a life in which 
 there would be many hard and perplexing problems 
 to be solved. For goodness alone never made a suc- 
 cessful missionary, and never will; "sanctified com- 
 mon-sense,"* pluck and originality being just as ne- 
 cessary for a good missionary, as for a good leader 
 and organizer in any other kind of work. 
 
 But great reformers and teachers need homes and 
 helpmeets, even if Bacon is foolish enough to deny 
 
 *A favorita saying of Dr. Wheeler's. 
 
24 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 it;* and so it is pleasant to know that here in Litch- 
 field Mr. Wheeler first met the one who, through a 
 long and happy life, made, home for him, a home in 
 which he could rest and grow strong, when the bur- 
 dens of public life threatened to be too heavy, or were 
 in danger of making his life too one-sided. For the 
 strongest men are the ones who most need homes; 
 and a true home life only deepens a man's love for 
 the world outside. 
 
 But who wasitthatso bewitched theyoung teacher? 
 It was a silent, thoughtful girl, timid, but plucky, 
 who sat with others on that Latin bench, of which we 
 have spoken, and it was the way in which she once 
 apologized in a Spanish class for being unprepared 
 that first made the young teacher think her different 
 from other girls, and better suited to help him in the 
 larger life-work on which he was even then slowly 
 entering. And for nearly fifty years from that day 
 on, my father found in Susan Anna Brookings, and 
 Susan Anna Wheeler, a source of strength and inspi- 
 ration, which years of Christian growth and service, 
 side by side, only made tenderer and deeper. For 
 they learned more and more to agree, even in the 
 things where they had lovingly "agreed to dis- 
 agree." 
 
 And though they were not perfect, either of them, 
 they were "going on toward perfection;" and a grow- 
 ing home is always a lovely home. For both were 
 ever eager to be true, and both had learned to pray; 
 and so their home became a "house of prayer"; and 
 
 *In his essay on Marriage. 
 
MR. WHEELER'S EARLY LIFE. 25 
 
 this it was that made and kept it pure and helpful; 
 for even love is weak without God's help.* 
 
 *It is pleasant to remember that it was this p:ood wife's zeal for missions 
 that years after, aided by her brother, Hon. W. W. Brookings, opened the 
 way for Joseph Ward to come to Yankton; and so led on to the founding of 
 Yankton College, in South Dakota; while she herself took part in founding 
 another college eight thousand miles away in Turkey.— Surely a pleasant 
 link between the work of home and foreign missions which time is slowly 
 bringing into such close and many-sided bonds of likeness and of love. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 STUDYING FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 After spending a little more than two years at 
 Litchfield, Mr. Wheeler entered the Theological 
 Seminary at Bangor, Maine, in the fall of 1849. ^^^ 
 as we have already seen, he had been working too 
 hard; and for a while his seminary course was dark- 
 ened by a fear that he had entered God's ministry 
 uncalled. But good old Dr. Pond, professor of 
 theology, advised him to be a little more careful of 
 his health, and spend more time iti resting; telling 
 him the story of a man who found in the potato field 
 the hope which he had lost in his study. — And rest 
 did once more bring back the Christian hopefulness 
 which too much study had dimmed; though all 
 through his life he was at times tempted to over- 
 work, and overwork sooner or later always brought 
 on depression. But even to the last, humble, hon- 
 est rest would again restore the balance, though it 
 could not always repair the wasted nerves; for even 
 when God overrules our folly for good he does not 
 wholly remove the pain till its mission of helpfulness 
 is accomplished. 
 
 At about this time the lady who had charge of the 
 Students' Home connected with the Seminary, was 
 
 26 
 
MR. WHEELER'S EARLY LIFE. 27 
 
 obliged to leave, and Mr. Wheeler's mother was 
 asked to come from Hampden and take the place. 
 This gave him a chance to spend three more years 
 at home with the mother whom he so much loved, 
 and who had done so much for him in years gone by. 
 For it was beautiful to see the love between these 
 two, so tender and thoughtful, both at home and 
 when they went abroad. And not only did Mother 
 care for his health and clothes and make him rest 
 and "be good;" but even his sermons were often 
 read aloud to her for criticism and approval. 
 
 HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 For right here comes in a peculiarity of the man; 
 it was not abstract doctrines which he talked over 
 with his mother and wife, it was sermons and pas- 
 toral problems; — What shall I do? and What shall I 
 say? and not What shall I believe? or How shall I 
 prove it? Forhe feltthat the more important truths 
 of life were very simple (more simple in fact than 
 they really are) and the only perplexing question in 
 his mind was how to get men to apply them. 
 
 But while he thought too lightly of any attempt 
 to look more fully into the philosophy of life and 
 truth, — feeling that the speculative method was 
 worthless, and the inductive method too vast and 
 dangerous to deserve his praise, — it still is true that 
 right at this very point lay one of the strongest traits 
 of his whole life; for, in his passionate eagerness to 
 help in Applying Truth To Daily Life, he be- 
 came, — in spite of his fear of philosophy, — one of 
 the founders, or rather great developers, of a new 
 
28 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 and better philosophy of missions. And at the very 
 time when he was solemnly warning others against 
 the dangers of philosophizing, and calling it useless 
 and unpractical, he was setting them an example of 
 true and really practical philosophizing which is des- 
 tined to leave its mark, not only on foreign missions, 
 but on the schools and churches of his native land 
 as well. 
 
 For the world is changing, for better and for worse; 
 and the tests which he applied in sifting things, both 
 old and new, will, in slightly altered forms, throw 
 much new light on some of the more perplexing 
 problems of our own church life, and of that larger 
 social and educational life of which the church is 
 but a part, though an important one. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PASTORATE AT WARREN, MAINE. 
 
 Thus three more years passed by; and in 1852, at 
 the age of twenty-nine, we find him ready for a new 
 form of ministry, namely that of preaching the gos- 
 pel of Christ to lost and lonely men. Yet even here 
 two roads divide; for some devote themselves chiefly 
 to sacred oratory and some chiefly to pastoral work; 
 very few clergymen ever really excelling in both. 
 For a really first-class pastor is seldom a very ora 
 torical speaker; though he may be an earnest and 
 helpful talker. 
 
 Of these two paths our readers can easily guess 
 which one it was that Crosby Wheeler chose; — it was 
 that of simple pastoral work, his conception of pas- 
 toral work being, not simply pleasant social calls, but 
 definite attempts in public and private to rouse his 
 people to more earnest and more definite work for 
 Christ, as individuals and as a church.* 
 
 ♦But he worked very quietly; and "slow and sure" was his motto in getting 
 started, though not in execution. Hence it is a curiously interesting fact 
 that to some who knew him in these early years only as a faithful and quiet 
 but energetic worker, his wide grasp of truth and evident power over men 
 later on in life was a great surprise. For though brilliancy generally ma- 
 tures early; history shows that genuine insight, in its larger and deeper forms 
 is for the most part a plant of much slower growth, and seldom matures till 
 
 later on in life. 
 
 29 
 
30 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 With this aim in view he accepted a call to the 
 pastorate of the Second Congregational church of 
 Warren, Maine, the First Church having gone over 
 to Unitarianism a good many years before; and here 
 he remained till the time of his departure for Turkey 
 in 1857. And near here, at Woolwich, Maine, — on 
 the 27th of December, 1852 — he was united in mar- 
 riage to Susan Anna Brookings, of whom we have 
 already spoken, and who for forty-four years stood 
 by his side as a helpmeet indeed and a true fellow- 
 worker in God's vineyard. 
 
 Then two days later came the ordination services, 
 in which the young pastor claimed that his wife had 
 a part, as truly as he; for he believed that they were 
 really joint pastors of God's flock, though his part 
 of the work might be a little more public than hers. 
 And thus began a pastorate which was to further fit 
 them for a still wider field abroad. 
 
 REASONS FOR NOT GOING ABROAD. 
 
 Even then they loved the foreign field, but they 
 did not feel that it would be right for them to think 
 of entering it; though later on God's providence 
 called them to the very work for which they were not 
 fitted then. 
 
 And oh how often would it be better for us, if we 
 were thus willing to wait God's time; for there is 
 little doubt but what their whole future usefulness 
 would have been lessened had they gone abroad too 
 soon. For though we would by no means assert 
 that no one should go abroad till they have had ex- 
 perience in a home pastorate, we certainly can affirm 
 
PASTORATE AT WARREN. 31 
 
 that no one, not even the most consecrated, should 
 go till God's Spirit very plainly whispers "Go" and 
 "Go now." 
 
 THE YOUNG PASTOR AT WORK. 
 
 But to come back to Warren, where the young pas- 
 tor and his wife were to spend the next four years, 
 we find ourselves in a prosperous New England town 
 of about two thousand inhabitants, among whom were 
 a goodly number of ship owners, land owners, law- 
 yers, doctors, retired merchants and well to do farm- 
 ers; but not as many poor people as there are in 
 most towns. So that the atmosphere of the town, 
 though exceptionally thoughtful, was also more con- 
 servative than most towns, and sermons that would 
 draw out from one good brother a hearty "God bless 
 you" and a warm shake of the hand, would make 
 another brother come forward with just as emphatic 
 and plain-spoken a rebuke; and, — as often happens 
 in this strange world of ours — those who had thought 
 the matter out most carelessly, or else been most influ- 
 enced by mere unconscious prejudice, were often the 
 most severe and persistent in their condemnation. 
 
 But the young pastor could bear even undeserved 
 rebuke patiently, so long as it did not take the form 
 of positive interference with what he felt to be his 
 duty; and in the lives of even his most short-sighted 
 critics he could generally see some traits that were 
 true and lovely, and in his own teachings and doings 
 they too could see so much of truth and sincerity 
 that the pastor's influence steadily increased; — so 
 that foreign missions and anti-slavery, Christian giv- 
 
32 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ing and Christian voting, home missions for those 
 who never come to church, and more church work 
 for those who do, — were among the causes that in 
 those four years gained ground and prospered in 
 that quiet pastorate; though the pastor and his wife 
 worked very quietly and were seldom heard de- 
 nouncing the evils of their times. 
 
 For among reformers of equal ability and earnest- 
 ness, the least pugnacious ones are generally the 
 ones who really do most good; even though some 
 good men may teach the contrary: and even in Mr. 
 Wheeler's later life it was, for the most part, the 
 terrible plainness of his rebukes, rather than their 
 needless frequency or persistency, that made him 
 such a terror to evil doers, and to good men when 
 they too got to thinking themselves or their church 
 or their methods infallible, and so were unwilling to 
 listen in a truth-loving spirit to friendly criticism. 
 
 Then if the rebuke seemed to have done no good 
 he would leave them to repent in solitude; while for 
 the penitent ones there would break forth a flood of 
 tenderness, and a host of inspiring hints and helps 
 which made growth easier, and proved that even the 
 occasional rebuke had come from a heart that was 
 full of love. 
 
 THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 
 
 But one of the instances in those early years in 
 which he did speak out plainly and forcibly, though 
 not very often, is of such great interest that we can- 
 not refrain from mentioning it here, — namely, the 
 slavery question. — For strange to say this was still 
 
PASTORATE AT WARREN. 33 
 
 one of the unsettled issues of the day, — the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, in its new and more stringent form, hav- 
 ing just given to the debate an added bitterness in 
 little minds and an added earnestness and urgency 
 in great ones. And many good men, both in and 
 out of congress, were on the wrong side of the ques- 
 tion; some from cowardice, some from timidity, 
 some from short-sightedness and some from selfish- 
 ness. 
 
 For a lurking selfishness sometimes finds room 
 even in the hearts of men whose better life justifies 
 us in calling them good, though strangely blind and 
 inconsistent. And so men were perplexed and 
 tempted; and many good men allowed themselves 
 to vote and talk on the pro-slavery side of the ques- 
 tion, attributing to poor health and indigestion and 
 the devil the prickings of conscience and the lead- 
 ings of God, from which they could not escape. For 
 conscience never argues with a man, and can be eas- 
 ily ignored; though it can never be silenced. 
 
 And so the battle of principles went on; and even 
 in Warren, Maine, way down in Puritan New Eng- 
 land, pro-slavery sentiments were exceedingly strong. 
 
 But could the young pastor do any thing? Was 
 it his duty to take sides? Yes, so soon as he saw 
 clearly which way was right; but no sooner. For the 
 pulpit which refuses to touch political issues, in which 
 there is a clearly recognizable right and wrong, does 
 by so doing, simply doom itself to degradation and 
 powerlessness. 
 
 And so it came about that on a certain fast day 
 (in 1853 I believe it was) the young pastor stood up 
 
 (3) 
 
34 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 in his pulpit, and, using the words of Isaiah, told his 
 people that they ought to "loose the bands of wick- 
 edness, undo the heavy burdens and let the op- 
 pressed go free"; though freely admitting that the 
 problem could not be worked out quite as easily as 
 some extreme abolitionists would claim. For he 
 believed that even in fighting slavery, firmness 
 should not be mingled with bitterness and haste. 
 
 The pastor realized that this sermon might cost 
 him his pulpit, and told his wife so before he deliv- 
 ered it; and great indeed was the tempest of mingled 
 joy and wrath that it stirred. But many pro-slav- 
 ery men were in their hearts anti-slavery; and even 
 the real friends of slavery had to admit that their 
 pastor was not a blind abolitionist, even though he 
 was an abolitionist; and so in Warren, as in thou- 
 sands of other towns in this great land, the cause of 
 right gained ground more and more rapidly — though 
 cowardly concessions in congress, and the unneces- 
 sary bitterness of many anti-slavery workers outside 
 made inevitable that final bloody conflict which 
 wiser leadership in congress and out of congress 
 might, and probably would have prevented. 
 
 PASTORAL CALLS. 
 
 But though the pastor could thus plead and rebuke 
 in public, this quiet little pastorate, was more espe- 
 cially notable for many quieter experiences, which 
 equally revealed the man and his conception of pas- 
 toral work. For even on wash-day he would rise 
 early and help his own wife with the wash, and then 
 hurry out to catch others at their back doors and in 
 
PASTORATE AT WARREN. 35 
 
 their workday clothes, that he might talk over the 
 problems of life more freely, and might get more 
 light on some problems of self-improvement and 
 town-improvement which it is hard to discuss profit- 
 ably in a parlor, or with fine clothes on. 
 
 Then too he often took his wife with him when he 
 went out calling and often talked religion, — not 
 because he was a pastor and thought he ought to do 
 it, — but because he was so enthusiastic over it that 
 he could not help doing it. And you will always 
 find that many who ordinarily steer clear of relig- 
 ious conversation, like to hear such a man talk of his 
 favorite theme; for his religion is apt to be simple 
 and cheering, while that of other good men only 
 irritates and perplexes them. 
 
 But though religion was sure to get in somehow, 
 warm and bright, it was often "Elder Wheeler's" 
 pleasant face and quick retorts in other lines that 
 made him welcome, even where his ministerial hat 
 and coat would have almost shut the door in his face; 
 and some people who thought ministers great loaf- 
 ers, and ministerial work very easy, concluded that 
 even ministers sometimes work hard, and do work 
 just as well worth doing as that of doctors, lawyers 
 and farmers. 
 
 And how good it is to know that all over this broad 
 land there are such house to house workers for God, 
 even though some of them are not as successful and 
 wise as they might be. For pastoral work is not as 
 easy as it seems; and a mere vague, general wish to 
 do good will never make a successful pastor; neither 
 will mere brains and learning; for to the warm and 
 
36 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 tender heart and well stored memory, there must be 
 added a long and careful and sympathetic study of hu- 
 man nature, as seen in close and lovmg contact with 
 men, women and children, — and this some so-called 
 ministers sadly lack. 
 
 SETTING OTHERS TO WORK. 
 
 But the most successful pastors are not simply pas- 
 tors, advising and uplifting individuals by their own 
 personal efforts; they are also leaders and organizers; 
 who know how to set other men to work, simply in- 
 spiring and superintending them, and thus accom- 
 plish vastly more work than they themselves could 
 ever do alone, without this host of underleaders and 
 fellow workers. 
 
 Such also is the ideal missionary — and even the 
 un-ideal missionary, if he has a clear conception of 
 the way in which the most good can be accomplished; 
 and it is interesting to see how in this home pastor- 
 ate the instincts of leadership, which so strongly 
 marked Mr. Wheeler's later life, were beginning to 
 show themselves. To illustrate this, one instance 
 will suffice. 
 
 The Bible Society had sent one of its agents to 
 canvass the town. But, No, said Mr. Wheeler, we 
 who know the town can do this work better than you 
 can, and can find a blessing in doing it. And so the 
 matter was laid before the two evangelical churches 
 of the place. Baptist and Congregational; and right 
 in one of the busiest seasons of the year enough 
 horses and buggies and canvassers were found to 
 make a canvass of the whole town, and of all the re- 
 
PASTORATE AT WARREN. 37 
 
 gion round, — the two pastors superintending the 
 work and also going out together, in the same car- 
 riage, to take a hand in the canvass and make pas- 
 toral calls. Thus was the young pastor fitting for 
 a still wider Bible distribution, and for the longer 
 and more romantic and dangerous tours, to which he 
 was to devote so large a part of his time and strength 
 for the next twenty years of his life. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR TURKEY. 
 
 But even in the humblest and most self-distrust- 
 ing men success in one kind of work often reveals a 
 fitness for some more difficult task, to which the 
 voice of duty soon after calls them; and thus was it 
 that Mr. Wheeler now felt that he ought probably to 
 enter the foreign mission field. 
 
 He had long loved the foreign work, had long 
 read of it and prayed for it, and when in college and 
 in the seminary had longed to go in person; but the 
 way had not been open and the clear and final call, 
 "Go Now" had not yet come. And though he did 
 not now feel any better fitted for missionary work 
 than he had felt before, for he was by nature self- 
 distrusting, — at times morbidly so, — yet there had 
 grown up in his soul a more and more definite idea 
 of the importance of foreign missionary work, and 
 of what it was to be a foreign missionary; and he be- 
 gan to feel that perhaps he ought to give his life to 
 that great but difficult work, knowing that many, 
 who could not or would not go abroad, would gladly 
 take up the work at home, which he expected to 
 
 lay down. 
 
 38 
 
DEPARTURE FOR TURKEY. 39 
 
 But would his wife approve? Yes, for even in 
 girlhood she had dreamed of missionary work, and 
 wished that her father would give all his money to 
 missions! and now that the question came, Will you 
 give yourself instead? she was ready to do so, if duty 
 clearly called. And yet she advised her husband 
 to go and talk the matter all over with his widowed 
 mother before deciding. And so he left home one 
 morning to visit that other home, where he had spent 
 so many happy years. For wherever an honored 
 mother lives is always home, even when you your- 
 self have never lived there. And walking in just 
 before noon he told his surprised mother the object 
 of his visit. 
 
 That her heart was glad I doubt not, for she had 
 long secretly hoped that her son might some day be 
 called to this great work. But there was also pain, 
 and a deep and crushing sense of the greatness and 
 difficulty of the work on which her son proposed to 
 enter. So that all she said was, "Let us make this 
 a day of fasting and prayer, and not decide till even- 
 ing." And in silence and alone mother and son each 
 sought for help, till finally at evening the mother 
 put her message into words, simple but sweet: "My 
 son, you better go"; laying her only son thus gladly 
 on God's altar, though undoubtedly with an aching 
 heart. For sometimes the things we most long to 
 do, and are most blessed in doing, cost our weaker 
 natures a vast amount of pain. 
 
 But oh how richly she was rewarded. For she 
 lived to see her son a leader and teacher and helper 
 of men in many lands; and, years after, on her dying 
 
4o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 bed, she sent this message to him; "Tell Crosby 
 that God gave me but one boy, — an only son, — and 
 it is the happiest thought of my dying hour that he 
 is a missionary." 
 
 And yet, in looking back over the years to that 
 sacred scene, and to all that came after, we cannot 
 but feel that mother and son would both have found 
 life's burdens lighter, and its harvest home even 
 richer, had they but learned to fight life's battles a 
 little less silently than they did on that eventful day 
 of prayer. For God meant that even in our greatest 
 conflicts we should if possible get some help from 
 human friends, sitting silent, or almost silent, by our 
 side, or where we can easily and often call them in 
 to help; and prayer was never meant to take the 
 place of human help, but simply to supplement and 
 complete it. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 And yet the decisions of that day of fasting and 
 of prayer were right, even if the soul conflict had 
 been greater than it need have been; and the son 
 went back to Warren fixed in his purpose to go as a 
 foreign missionary, if the mission board would ac- 
 cept him; and ere long he had been Accepted as a 
 missionary of the A. B. C. F. M.* and appointed to 
 Turkey. 
 
 *This society, "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions," represented at that time only the Congregational and New School 
 Presbyterian churches of America; but was first formed at a time when no 
 other foreign missionary society existed on this western continent; hence its 
 quaintly far reaching name. Hereafter we shall speak of it simply as "The 
 Board" or the "American Board." 
 
DEPARTURE FOR TURKEY. 4i 
 
 But there were rou^^h places to be crossed by the 
 young pastor and his wife, even before they reached 
 the wild Atlantic, and the rough mountain roads of 
 Turkey. For first of all the church for which they 
 had worked so lovingly declared that they ought not 
 to go; those that loved them most using the argu- 
 ments of affection which it is so hard to resist; while 
 others, — who honored and admired their pastor, 
 though they did not understand him, — said more 
 harshly that he had no right to leave a field where 
 God had given him so much influence. But he 
 showed them that even in a foreign land he could 
 still help them and they help him; and that the call 
 of duty brings only blessing to those who heed it,* 
 
 So at last they sadly consented to the calling of a 
 council for the dissolution of the pastoral relation; 
 and on the first of July, 1856, the sweet toned bell of 
 the village church announced that the council had 
 met, and that the pastor with his church's consent, 
 was to be promoted to a higher, but more dif^cult 
 field of work. 
 
 But, all through the years that followed, that pas- 
 tor and his wife felt that those four quiet years at 
 Warren were among the most eventful of their lives; 
 for there they gained a deeper insight into human 
 nature, a clearer conception of what a church should 
 be, and a deeper, larger sympathy for the home 
 churches and pastors — whose work is in some ways 
 so much easier, and in some ways so much harder 
 than that of a foreign missionary. 
 
 *See Tribute from Warren Church, Forty Years after Mr. Wheeler Left It. 
 (In Appendix.) 
 
42 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Here too they learned how much of self-sacrifice 
 and economizing an average contribution to foreign 
 missions represents; and so were doubly anxious to 
 be prudent and wise in spending the churches' 
 money in foreign lands. 
 
 But a kind Providence permitted still other delays. 
 For soon after his resignation of the pastorate, his 
 only child, a little girl of three summers, was taken 
 seriously ill, hovering for a long time at death's 
 door; and then his wife was attacked with a malig- 
 nant form of typhoid fever, which left her an appar- 
 ent wreck; so that some thoughtless critics said that 
 it was a judgment on them for thinking of going out 
 as foreign missionaries! And a council of physi- 
 cians said that, even if Mrs. Wheeler rallied, she 
 would probably be an invalid for life. 
 
 But not so thought the brave wife; for even in her 
 delirium she said "I shall not die." While the old 
 black nurse who risked her life to take care of her 
 was so beautifully sure that she would get well, that 
 the dear pastor's wife learned from her an added 
 lesson of trust; and also learned better than ever be- 
 fore to detect true loveliness in places where an un- 
 trained Anglo-Saxon eye fiinds it at first hard to 
 recognize. 
 
 GOOD-BYE TO AMERICA. 
 
 But at last a day came when the sick one could 
 say to her husband, **I.went almost to the gates of 
 heaven; but God said: *Your work is not yet done; 
 go back.' " And later on a day came when the dear 
 wife could be taken home to "Mother's;" that the 
 
DEPARTURE FOR TURKEY. 43 
 
 last days before leaving for Turkey might be spent 
 at home; all of ihem feeling that this might be the 
 last time that they would ever be together on earth. 
 
 The days passed quickly by; the last evening at 
 home came and went; and then the last night (spent 
 in battling with the croup and with fears that little 
 Emily might have to go to a better land than 
 Turkey;) and then the silent breakfast, almost un- 
 touched, and last of all the goodbye. But this we 
 must not describe, only to say that the brave mother 
 sent her only son away without a tear; for she be- 
 lieved in God and in a home above, and had thought 
 of them so often and so lovingly that now her heart 
 was comforted and made strong, even in a moment 
 so full of pain. 
 
 A few days later, on the fifth of January, 1857, the 
 Henry Hill sailed out of Boston harbor, bound for 
 Smyrna, and bearing a precious cargo of eleven mis- 
 sionaries* and a lot of New England rum. 
 
 But plus four and minus three makes only plus 
 one. Surely then it is not strange that even missions 
 are sometimes unsuccessful. And yet, in spite of 
 rum, and in spite of mistakes, both at home and 
 abroad, missions are a success; and a blessing to 
 other lands and to the church at home. Let us 
 thank God for this; and then go on to make them 
 better; if we can. 
 
 ♦The missionaries were: Mr. and Mrs. Jackson Coffing, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Chas. F. Morse, Mr. and Mrs. George H. White, Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Win- 
 chester, Miss Dodd and Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. I need hardly add that 
 ocean steamers were then considered too costly for missionaries, and even 
 passenger ships for Turkey were rare; so that missionaries had to take what 
 they could get. 
 
44 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 The voyage was a rough and stormy one; but 
 these eleven Jonahs were light of heart, for they were 
 flying to duty, not from it; and like most missiona- 
 ries could enjoy a hearty laugh even in Neptune's 
 troublous realms. 
 
 Here too were formed some friendships which 
 were a source of strength and comfort e'en down to 
 oFd age; for missionary friendships, once well formed, 
 are apt to be very lasting, — so deep and so absorb- 
 ing are the themes about which such friendships 
 center. 
 
 ARRIVAL IN TURKEY. 
 
 Thus for sixty days they talked and laughed and 
 prayed together, and often sang together the songs 
 of Zion and of home, till at last Smyrna was reached, 
 and they were soon parted, each to go to a different 
 field, though all working for the same Master. 
 
 But we must go with the three whose fortunes we 
 have set out to follow: namely; Rev. C. H. Wheeler, 
 "missionary," Mrs. S. A. Wheeler, "assistant mis- 
 sionary," and a little girl, of whom the printed rec- 
 ords make no mention at all. But following the 
 truer lead of common folk, both at home and abroad, 
 we will think and speak ot them as two missionaries;* 
 — and their little girl, Emily, we will call an "assist- 
 ant missionary"; for such she surely was; as are all 
 who help to make the missionary's home life brighter 
 and more intelligible to the people among whom he 
 lives. 
 
 ♦Though, for statistical purposes, a further division into "male mission- 
 aries," "unmarried ladies," married ladies, etc., is of course necessary. 
 
DEPARTURE FOR TURKEY. 4$ 
 
 First of all our travelers went to Constantinople; 
 and thence to Trebizond, on the Black Sea, where 
 they were to spend two months, in studying the lan- 
 guage and awaiting further instructions from the 
 Annual Meeting of the Mission, which vvould meet 
 in May. Here we find Mr. Wheeler's ideas of mis- 
 sionary policy developing rapidly on some points, 
 which his trained eye could see even before he knew 
 the language. For the missionary who cannot cor- 
 rectly read men, even before he reads their language, 
 is surely doomed to littleness and failure; unless 
 this power be developed, or rather awakened and 
 trained in him; as it often can be awakened, even 
 where it does not seem at first to exist. 
 
 Here, then, in the home of his own sister and 
 brother, Mr. and Mrs. O. P. Allen, we will leave him 
 and his family; while we turn aside to take our first 
 lesson, from his lips and from his example, as to mis- 
 sion policy in general, and How to Choose a Mission 
 Field, in particular. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DECIDING WHAT TO DO; AND HOW TO 
 DO IT. 
 
 CHOOSING A FIELD. 
 
 In logical order and in chronological, one of the 
 first questions which a man should answer in decid- 
 ing whether to be a missionary or not is this: Just 
 what is the object of missionary work? But believ- 
 ing that this question cannot be helpfully answered 
 in a single sentence or paragraph, we shall leave the 
 story of Mr. Wheeler's life to answer it more fully 
 later on; and turn at once to another question, How 
 and why he chose the field he did? — and also take 
 up some hints which he was wont to give to others 
 on this important theme. 
 
 First of all, then, he believed that a man should go 
 where he can do most good; and that wherever he 
 can do most good he will be sure to get most good. 
 And so, when at last the fit time came, and he saw 
 clearly that he could do more good abroad than at 
 home, it was with a glad heart that he went, although 
 he dimly knew that it must be a harder field than the 
 one he was leaving. 
 
 LETTING OTHERS CHOOSE FOR YOU. 
 
 Secondly, he believed that "every soul should be 
 
 subject to higher authorities," yes even a free Amer- 
 
 46 
 
DFXIDING WHAT TO DO. 47 
 
 ican missionary; and that in his times, as in Paul's, 
 "existing forms of authority were ordained of God," 
 (Rom. 13:1.) Hence he did not believe in saying, 
 "I will go to such and such a place or nowhere;" 
 unless the call to that one spot were a most excep- 
 tionally strong and clear one. For he believed that 
 the missionary boards and their chosen agents are 
 likely in most cases to be the ones best posted as to 
 the points where there is the greatest need and the 
 most hopeful opening. Hence when they said, 
 "Would you be willing to go to Harpoot?" he said 
 **Yes"; — though Harpoot was to him at that time 
 one of the least attractive fields in all Turkey, and 
 one to which he had secretly hoped he would not be 
 
 sent. 
 
 REFUSING TO OBEY. 
 
 But though he believed in being "subject to author- 
 ity," he also realized a little more keenly than most, 
 that those in authority are sometimes badly mistaken 
 in matters of vital importance to the work at large, 
 or to the future usefulness of individual missionaries; 
 and that in such cases it may be the right and duty 
 of one who clearly sees that they are mistaken to 
 resist "the rulers," out of regard to a still higher 
 authority, — namely God's*. 
 
 Hence, when just before appointing him to Har- 
 poot, the mission proposed sending him to another 
 station, "because so many boxes had to be shipped 
 
 ♦Paul, in Romans thirteenth, was discussing the general law of obedience 
 to authority (vs. i and 2) and to civil authority in particular (vs. 3 to 6) with- 
 out mentioning exceptions one way or the other; and even Nero's govern- 
 ment was entitled in most matters to such obedience as he advises. But we 
 are discussing the exceptions; rare, but undeniable. 
 
48 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 from there to missionaries in various parts of Persia/' 
 the young missionary said, 'I shall return to America, 
 if that is all the work you have for me to do; for some 
 local merchant could do that work as well as I, and 
 at far less cost to the American churches.* Why 
 then should I turn aside from the higher work for 
 which I long, and have so carefully prepared myself 
 — to simply handle boxes?' 
 
 PROPER REGARD FOR ONE'S HEALTH. 
 
 Still another ground for which he felt that a mis- 
 sionary would be justified in refusing to go to a field 
 was in cases where a locality was so unhealthy, that 
 the cost in precious lives seems unjustifiably great. 
 For, said he, since there are so many fields white for 
 the harvest, surely it is better to live and work for 
 Christ than to rashly make haste to die for him. 
 Though he never included in this category a man 
 who like Livingstone sacrificed life and health in 
 making an opening where others could work safely 
 later on; and where the opening could never be made 
 in any other way. 
 
 He also strongly urged people not to enter a field 
 however "rich in historic memories" it might be, 
 where actual experience has proved the work to be 
 beset with difficulties which make any large results 
 utterly improbable. P'or, though "even one soul" is 
 justly precious, he felt that the five or ten or one 
 hundred souls, which you might have saved some- 
 where else, and the one or two or ten churches which 
 you might have helped plant somewhere else, are 
 
 *A suggestion afterwards adopted by the mission 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 49 
 
 certainly just as precious, and likely to count for 
 more in heaven, and in the regeneration of earth, 
 than the "one soul" of which we sometimes hear so 
 much; and jtist as likely to contain a Paul, a Luther 
 or a Moody. 
 
 GOING TO HARPOOT. 
 
 Harpoot That name sounds familiar now to 
 
 many ears; and makes us think of a large and well 
 established work. But when Mr. and Mrs. Allen 
 and Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler started for Harpoot in 
 1857,* the place was one of the newest and least 
 known stations of the American Board, where one 
 lone missionary, Mr. Dunmore, who went there only 
 two years before, was working on amid many dan- 
 gers and much fierce opposition. And in the very 
 letter in which he asked for help, Mr. Dunmore had 
 written, "I may any day be killed like a dog in the 
 streets." 
 
 And yet the people were being roused; the very 
 bitterness of their opposition proved it. But was it 
 the opposition of a blind and hopeless selfishness, 
 like Saul's when he persecuted David? or was it a 
 misguided and ignorant love, like that of another 
 Saul (of Tarsus,) when he too persecuted good men? 
 This was no easy question to answer. But still an- 
 other question troubled the new missionaries as they 
 traveled inland — as to whether even those who had 
 come out as protestants were really such at heart. 
 
 For it seemed to them that money had been spent 
 
 ♦To be joined a year later by Rev. H. N. Barnum. 
 
 (49—4) 
 
50 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 too freely; and many men must have come for the 
 money's sake, rather than the Gospel's. An^ time 
 proved that some had, especially some of those who 
 were counted "leading protestants," 2.n^ some of the 
 paid helpers. Though the too free use of money had 
 done the most harm at a more unexpected point; 
 namely in encouraging a spirit of obstinate littleness 
 and selfishness in the hearts of those who were evi- 
 dently real truth-seekers, but very ignorant ones. 
 But of this we shall speak more fully later. 
 
 But there was a bright side to the picture as well. 
 For Mr. Dunmore's earnest, energetic and loving 
 Christian life, and his vigorous proclamation of Bible 
 truth had made many true friends for the Gospel, 
 and had roused in others a healthy curiosity to know 
 about it. For gospel truth, when proclaimed by a 
 man who loves and lives it, always has power; even 
 when faulty ways of working prevent it from having 
 as much power as it might have had. 
 
 But, as we have said, the opposition was fierce; so 
 fierce that the Sivas missionaries strongly advised 
 the new comers not to go any farther. But they 
 felt that duty called them to Harpoot, and so they 
 went; though it was thought best that they should 
 enter the city as quietly as possible; and they did 
 not even dare to send word to Mr. Dunmore that 
 they were coming, lest the news should some how 
 leak out, and a hostile mob should meet them by 
 the way. 
 
 Thus, on the last day of July, 1857, did they enter, 
 as quietly as possible, unannounced and unwelcome 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 51 
 
 (except to a persecuted few) the city which was to 
 be their home for thirty-nine years, and the school 
 where God was to train them for a large and lasting 
 service in his kingdom. 
 
 But God was there; and the call of duty had been 
 plain. For they had wisely "tarried in Jerusalem" 
 till it was» — waiting prayerfully, thoughtfully and 
 diligejitly for the promised power from on high. But 
 now the power had come, or rather the first endue- 
 ment of it; and they were ready for active work; 
 and their field lay before them. 
 
 BEAUTIES OF NATURE. 
 
 But what was the field? First of all it was Har- 
 poot city and the near villages. For standing on 
 Harpoot hill, and looking to the south, one sees scores 
 of villages nestling in the plain below; till at last the 
 Taurus Mountains, eighteen miles away, complete a 
 picture of rare beauty and loveliness; one on which 
 the tired missionary's eyes must have often gazed, 
 when his soul was almost too full of thoughts which 
 he could not utter. For all of us are poets in our 
 deeper life. 
 
 Then, turning to the north, and looking over a 
 more broken country, we see still other villages, and 
 the dark Euphrates twelve miles away — with the 
 dreary, robber-haunted and snow-capped Anti-Tau- 
 rus in the distance. And when, at certain seasons 
 of the year, this vast and varied scene is haunted with 
 clouds, chasing each other from hill top to hill top, 
 or burying the plain in one vast sheet of beauty, or 
 climbing and hiding even the highest mountain tops, 
 
52 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. ' 
 
 — then indeed the place becomes unspeakably beau- 
 tiful.* For God has many ways of comforting and 
 resting those who need His help; and beautiful 
 scenery is one of the most wonderful of them all. 
 
 But the Harpoot field is not limited by these moun- 
 tains; for among them and beyond them, there are 
 some twenty other cities and hundreds of other vil- 
 lages which must look for their gospel light to the 
 work centering in Harpoot. 
 
 BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE. 
 
 Such was the parish committed to three male mis- 
 sionaries and their wives. Surely a rather large 
 field. But in this very largeness lay the grandeur 
 of their opportunity, and one of the most distinctive 
 features of a wise and far-seeing foreign missionary 
 policy. For missionaries who do little or no touring 
 and organizing, but simply settle down to evangeliz- 
 ing one little town, or even one big town, are doing 
 so small a work as to hardly deserve the name of 
 missionary; unless they have succeeded in gathering 
 round them a body of workers from many different 
 towns, whom they not only educate but also turn 
 into skillful and earnest missionary workers and 
 leaders. 
 
 Here we are, then, in Harpoot, or rather here are 
 the young missionaries whose story we are following, 
 just returned from their first tour, which was made 
 soon after they reached there. And we cannot but 
 
 ♦This whole description of the scenery around Harpoot is for the most 
 part given in Mr. Wheeler's own words; and beautifully illustrates how keen 
 was his enjoyment of the scenes which he describes. 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 53 
 
 be glad that they were sent to a comparatively new 
 field, where they could initiate improvements in the 
 world's way of doing missionary work, without com- 
 ing too seriously in conflict with earlier methods of 
 work, which it was their duty and privilege to sup- 
 plant. Just as in the wheat fields of the West the 
 reaping machines of today are rapidly supplanting 
 others, which were justly a wonder twenty years ago, 
 — though poor when compared with the ones now 
 in use, for the invendoii of ivhicJi the old reapers have 
 themselves prepared the ivay. 
 
 And all through the history of missions, this same 
 quiet gain from generation to generation is a most 
 cheering feature; though sometimes we find single 
 workers here and there who get a long way ahead of 
 their times, and seemingly, — but only seemingly, — 
 leave no impression on the world's progress as a 
 whole. 
 
 And yet we cannot wonder that some who had long 
 worked in the old ways, and did not believe that any 
 improvements were necessary, or possible, were 
 rather glad that this new and lively missionary, who, 
 talked rather too much to the point, was sent to so 
 distant a station, nineteen days journey away; 
 (though it was only 750 miles from Constantinople; 
 350 by land; the rest by sea.) 
 
 Nor can we wonder that one of the best of them 
 remarked later on: "We shall have to send these 
 disturbers of the peace home." For good men often 
 forget that, from one point of view, even our Lord 
 Jesus Christ was not a man of peace; for he himself 
 says, "Think not that I am come to send peace on 
 
54 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 earth; I came not to send peace; but a sword," 
 (Matt. lo: 34). 
 
 But the disturber of the peace was not sent home; 
 and his work went on. Though I venture the opin- 
 ion that even sending him home would not have 
 stopped his work. For such men are not easily 
 stopped; and a truth, once clearly seen, takes too 
 strong a hold on them to be choked out; even 
 though its ripening may be delayed. 
 
 REASONS FOR NOT PREACHING TO MOHAM- 
 MEDANS. 
 
 But of the various races which inhabit this region, 
 which ones are the missionaries to work for? The 
 Christian races? (Armenians and Syrians?) or for 
 the Mohammedan races? (Turks and Koords?) 
 Why, of course the latter, you say. But the mis- 
 sionaries said. No. 
 
 For the political power of Mohammed was then, 
 and still is, too great and too cruel to make such mis- 
 sionary work wise, so long as there are many more 
 promising fields to which the missionary can turn. 
 For surely, even in saving souls, the worker should 
 turn to the most promising of two fields; if he can- 
 not occupy them both. Hence it is that mission- 
 aries in Turkey have generally given most of their 
 time and strength to work among the Christian races 
 of that land, and not among the Mohammedans.* 
 
 ♦And yet it is a curiously interesting fact that when missionaries first went 
 to Turkey, in 1820, it was with a vague hope that they might also do some- 
 thing for the "Mohammedans, Pagans and Jews," as well as the Christians. 
 But ot Pagans there were none found in the country; while the Jews were 
 found to be too opinionated to be reached; and the Mohammedans too much 
 hedged in by mental sluggishness and the danger of almost certain assassi- 
 nation, if they were to openly profess Christianity. 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 55 
 
 But why send missionaries, asks some one, to those 
 who are already Christians? Simply because, in the 
 deeper sense of that word, many who professed to be 
 Christians were not Christians at all; and even those 
 who were true Christians were very weak and ignor- 
 ant; so that great gain would come to them, and to 
 Christ's kingdom on earth, if they could be taught 
 to know Christ's teachings more fully, and follow in 
 his steps more truly, than they ever could have done 
 without the help of our missionaries. Though Mr. 
 Wheeler also believed that "in giving to them a pure 
 gospel, we are taking the shortest and surest way of 
 giving it ultimately to all the different races and 
 tribes among whom they are scattered, in Turkey, 
 Russia and Persia."* 
 
 LEARNING THE LANGUAGE. 
 
 But turning aside for a moment to a matter of 
 detail, let us take a look at Mr. Wheeler's method of 
 learning the language. For to some young mission- 
 aries it is sure to prove suggestive and helpful. 
 
 We find that first and most important of all, he 
 kept himself in close and frequent contact with the 
 people; bound to say something true and friendly, 
 even if he could not say what he would most like to 
 say. Thus he succeeded in gradually overcoming 
 that timidity and fright which so often serves as a 
 serious hindrance to those who are trying to master 
 conversationally a new language; and made himself 
 really at home with those simpler idioms and gram- 
 matical forms which occur hundreds of times even in 
 
 ♦TenjYears on the Euphrates, p. 60. 
 
56 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 a few hours of simple, choppy, but correct conversa- 
 tion, such as children use as a stepping stone in learn- 
 ing to reproduce their mother tongue with such won- 
 derful exactness. 
 
 Secondly, he made out in English lists of words 
 which he wished to use, and got his teachers to give 
 him the simplest Armenian equivalents for them; 
 and would then use these in his writing and talking 
 in preference to the commoner but less inspiring 
 words and phrases which his teachers and text books 
 would otherwise have given him at the outset. 
 
 Thirdly, he was not afraid of being laughed at; and 
 asked every one to help correct his mistakes, which 
 were sometimes certainly very funny; knowing that 
 a friendly laugh will fix a correction in the memory 
 far better than a mere lonely effort of the will, or a 
 labored attempt at abstract memorizing. 
 
 And, fourthly, as to polished, literary Armenian, 
 he knew very well that to get that too soon would 
 only be a drawback on his usefulness as a missionary; 
 for polish, too soon acquired, greatly lessens the 
 vitality and power of one's style, even in writing and 
 speaking one's own native tongue; and he knew that 
 in learning a foreign tongue the evil results of too 
 much regard for polish would be still greater. And 
 yet, in order to acquire thorough accuracy, without 
 polish, he did spend much time in writing simple 
 sentences, letters, sermons, prayers, and even trans- 
 lations of hymns into Armenian, generally choosing 
 some theme of real interest to himself — that he 
 might gradually learn to think and feel in the new 
 language, without translating from English; and 
 
DFXIDING WHAT TO DO. 57 
 
 might also get his teachers to point out and correct 
 his mistakes. 
 
 But perhaps the most pleasing picture of all is 
 that of Mr. Wheeler going from shop to shop, and 
 village to village, to sell Bibles and Testaments and 
 Primers, and two-cent Gospels, and one-half cent 
 tracts, in the language of which even he himself 
 knew so little; and then sitting down to teach some 
 one else the alphabet, which he himself had learned 
 only a few weeks before. Is it any wonder that such 
 a man got others to reading and thinking; and suc- 
 ceeded in remembering what he himself had learned, 
 without that endless succession of forgettings which 
 ordinarily makes the learning of a new language so 
 slow and uninteresting? — No, it is not strange; for 
 tools that are in daily use for teaching and uplifting 
 souls are sure not to get rusty as easily as those 
 which are simply meant for use sometime in the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF TOURING. 
 
 We now come to one of the most important, but 
 also most difficult, parts of missionary work; namely 
 touring or itinerating. For like Jesus and his apos- 
 tles, every live pioneer missionary has to spend a 
 great deal of time in going from town to town and 
 village to village, to scatter the good seed. And to 
 such touring Mr. Wheeler and his associates owed 
 in no small measure that largeness of success which 
 so strikingly marks the results of their labors. 
 
 In the first fifteen years of Mr. Wheeler's mission- 
 ary life we find him spending more than half of his 
 
58 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 time in touring from town to town, without counting 
 the great amount of store to store work, which he 
 did in Harpoot city. And not until he had right 
 around him in the city itself a busy hive of workers 
 
 gathered from all over the Harpoot field come 
 
 there to be specially trained for service ^did he 
 
 reluctantly consent to do less general touring; and 
 become the head of a school, while others took up 
 the outside work which he laid down. — And we can- 
 not but feel that even in this new work, in which 
 God so plainly blessed him, his sheaves would have 
 been still greater, and his soul more wholly satisfied, 
 had he and his assistants a little oftener deserted the 
 college to spend a week or two among the churches; 
 so as to keep in more perfect harmony with them 
 at every point. 
 
 But even to the last he loved to point out how 
 large a place touring filled in our Lord's earthly min- 
 istry; often reminding his classes of the significance 
 of such passages as Matt. 9:35, Mark 1:39 and 6:6 and 
 Luke 13:22 and of many others; where we read that 
 he went from city to city and village to village, 
 "teaching" and "preaching" and "healing." And 
 that in speaking of his own mission, he does not 
 simply say that he came to save the lost, but that he 
 came to ''seek and save" them, (Luke 19:10.) — Then 
 again we find Christ sending out the twelve, "two 
 and two," "to preach that men should repent" (Mark 
 6:7, 12;) and at still another time he sent out the 
 seventy, "as lambs among wolves," to tell men that 
 'the kingdom of God had come very near to them', 
 (Luke 10: I, 3, 9.) 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 59 
 
 But most of all did Mr. Wheeler love to dwell on 
 Christ's great commission, to "Go and teach all na- 
 tions," asking whether we can be said to be fulfill- 
 ing the spirit of this commission, if we preach only 
 in one town, when we might be preaching with equal 
 and greater effect in ten? For surely we are some- 
 times narrow and small minded in our zeal to be 
 thorough. — Nor are we excused by the fact that 
 some evangelists and missionaries go to the other 
 extreme, and simply plant the good seed without 
 any attempt to keep the weeds from growing up 
 around it. For one extreme does not excuse another; 
 though it may slightly palliate it. But of this we 
 shall speak more fully later on. (See index.) 
 
 Then, coming down the stream of history a little 
 farther, he would speak of the Apostle Paul, whose 
 apostolic tours took him to so many lands, and were 
 so carefully planned for the planting of permanent 
 churches. But of this also we shall speak later. So 
 we can pass on, down through history; and wher- 
 ever we find great religious leaders, successfully 
 starting a far reaching religious reform, we still find 
 them having abundant recourse to touring, as one of 
 their most important helps; or, in other words, such 
 men have always been careful to plant the good 
 seed in many different places, so that, even if it 
 were choked out in one place, it might live on in 
 another. 
 
 And furthermore, where this has not been done, 
 you will find that even revivals of great power have 
 often been followed by periods of great darkness 
 and deadness. We do then sincerely hope that in 
 
6o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 the missionary work of the future this duty of tour- 
 ing will be more widely recognized; and that mis- 
 sionaries who are willing to settle down and spend 
 all their energies on one single town, or group of 
 towns, will be made to feel that that way of working 
 is neither economical nor right, on heathen soil, and 
 is also sure to lead them and their converts into a 
 great many unfortunate ruts and mistakes. 
 
 For that which a settled pastor in a thoroughly 
 Christian community ought to do, a missionary ought 
 not to do; because he cannot find in any one town 
 enough men who are willing to hear and really profit 
 by his message; and can also greatly multiply his 
 power by committing the single towns to competent 
 native assistants at a very early day. (See Chapter 
 Eleven.) 
 
 THE MISSIONARY AS AN EXPLORER. 
 
 It is curious and surprising even here in Christian 
 America, to see what a difference there often is in 
 the social, moral and religious atmosphere of two 
 towns, only a very few miles apart. And this same 
 difference often exists between different towns on 
 mission soil: one town being quick to welcome the 
 gospel, or to persecute it in mere well-meaning ig- 
 norance, ( iTim. 1:13;) while another, near by, seems 
 to persecute it only in bitterness, or remains year 
 after year hopelessly, doggedly indifferent. And 
 right here lie some of the most important benefits 
 of touring; for it keeps the missionary from being 
 discouraged; and also shows him which points to let 
 alone, and which ones to visit still oftener in person 
 or by deputy. 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 6i 
 
 For one of the most far reaching laws of all life 
 and history is that "Whosoever hath, to him shall be 
 given; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be 
 taken away even that which he hath;"* such being, 
 in God's kind providence, the surest and best way of 
 giving foolish freemen a chance to repent. 
 
 Hence to such exploration as this the Harpoot mis- 
 sionaries gave much time. So that seeing my father 
 make maps, and hearing him ask men where they 
 came from, and what sort of a place it was, and then 
 starting out to see for himself; such are some of the 
 earliest memories of my childhood; to which I ought 
 perhaps to add the solemn and yet merry gatherings 
 in which the experiences of each tour were discussed 
 — first in a station meeting, where fathers, mothers 
 and children were gathered together — and then, 
 later on, in a more formal and business like way; 
 though as a boy I often found some excuse for look- 
 ing in on them, to see what they were doing: — and 
 I well remember being sometimes astonished that 
 my father should speak so freely and informally in 
 such an august assembly, where such hard and awful 
 problems were being discussed. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY AS A FRIENDLY VISITOR. 
 
 Going a step farther, we find the missionary going 
 out among the people as a friendly visitor from house 
 to house. For though his day times, when at home, 
 were generally full of other more congenial work, 
 such as selling books, holding meetings, giving ad- 
 vice, (very definite and personal) visiting schools, 
 
 ♦Matt. 13:12 and 25:29, Mark 4:25, Luke 8:18, and 19:26. 
 
62 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 seeing people from out of town, etc., etc.; when even- 
 ing came he was willing to start out to make social 
 calls, alone or with my mother; and some times I was 
 allowed to go with them. 
 
 At such times what impressed me most was the 
 dark and deserted streets, the swinging lantern, the 
 street dogs my father had to push out of the way 
 with his cane, and lastly the fact that my father was 
 a very tall man and a missionary ! But of what the 
 missionary said and did after he reached his destina- 
 tion I must not attempt to write; for such rather 
 formal calls never had to him or to me the charm 
 that they have for some, and I am sure I should not 
 do the subject justice. 
 
 But, though, Mr. Wheeler did give some time to 
 such more or less formal calls, and greatly honored 
 those who were willing and able to make such visit- 
 ing a regular part of their work, he himself 
 
 felt called to a more searching and less formal style 
 of utterance, both in public and in private, such as 
 we shall have occasion to speak of later on. And 
 even in more formal visiting, we have always noticed 
 that those missionaries (both female and male) are 
 most successful who always give their entertainers 
 something to DO; and then later on call around to 
 see how well they are doing it. 
 
 And yet, whenever a missionary's wife has a heart 
 full to overflowing of love, it is pleasant to see how 
 her face, her presence, her dress, her smile, her hus- 
 band and her children do all of them help to uplift 
 the people around her; when as yet she can talk only 
 four or five words of the unknown tongue which she 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 63 
 
 has set out to learn. And however many interrup- 
 tions she may have in learning the language, exper- 
 ience shows that she will be most successful in over- 
 coming the difficulties, and in doing good, if in sim- 
 ple, informal ways (reading, singing, praying and 
 talking) she keeps herself in close sympathy with 
 the daily heart life of the mothers and sisters and 
 little children around her. 
 
 "SHALL THE MISSIONARY SELL BOOKS?" 
 
 "But shall I sell books?" asks the missionary. Of 
 course not, say some. Of course not, said the good 
 people of Harpoot, when Mr. Wheeler set out, book- 
 box in hand, to sell Bibles and Testaments, Primers 
 and Gospels, Hymn Books and tracts, in the market 
 places of Harpoot. For they said the missionary's 
 time was too precious, and he would also lose his 
 dignity, if he were to go through the markets, sell- 
 ing books. 
 
 But "No" said he, "if that is true, then the sooner 
 I lose my dignity the better it will be for you and 
 for me. For how else am I to come into such close 
 contact with men? And how else am I to get such 
 good chances to give men advice which they need, 
 but would never give me a chance to give otherwise? 
 And how else can I so surely make them remember 
 my message, and pass it on to others, as by giving 
 it to them partly in print? 
 
 And so he attached great importance to the sell- 
 ing of books, remembering how in the days of the 
 Reformation Wycliffe's copyists, and Luther's press- 
 
64 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 es had greatly multiplied the power of the written 
 and spoken word.* 
 
 And delightful it is indeed to see how often the 
 work in some hostile or unheard of village would 
 open up in response to a single Bible or Testament, 
 that had gone there before the missionary, to pre- 
 pare the way for him; while still others would send 
 for a missionary, or else come to some missionary, 
 and say, "Won't you explain this book to me?" and 
 still others, who dared not come near the missionary's 
 home, would get a Bible and secretly study it for 
 months together before they found courage enough 
 to take an open stand. 
 
 And not only did the missionaries sell books in 
 Harpoot city, but they also sold them all over the 
 great field committed to their care; and when Mr. 
 Wheeler started out on his tours, he always carried 
 with him a goodly supply of books to be used in 
 reaching and teaching and training men. 
 
 And not only did he sell books himself, but col- 
 porteurs were also sent out to sell them from town 
 to town; just as in the times of Luther and Calvin 
 great numbers of "pious peddlers, laden with precious 
 
 *D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation" (Vol. Ill; p. 75) states that 
 of Luther's German New Testament alone fifty-eight editions were sold in 
 eleven years; and on another page (p. 83) he states that from 1521 to 1595 
 sixty-seven editions of Melancthon's "Commonplaces of Theology" were 
 sold, without including translations. And yet these are but two out of hun- 
 dreds of works published and circulated by the reformers, (see p. 103) when 
 as yet schools were but few and far between. And even the Romanist theo- 
 logians were forced, in desperation, to publish a translation of the New Tes- 
 tament (Luther's version with a few alterations) and this the people were 
 allowed to read! (Ibid. p. 77.) 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 65 
 
 books, passed from town to town, and house to house, 
 knocking at every door."* 
 
 And furthermore the missionaries succeeded in 
 forming Bible Societies in many of the surrounding 
 cities and villages; and many are the donkey loads 
 of Bibles and other good books that have gone out 
 from Harpoot city to these local societies, to be sold 
 by them, as a most effective help in bringing men 
 to Christ. For here too, as in the case of touring, 
 we find an important help to effective missionary 
 work, of which many missionaries, in many lands, 
 have made vigorous and fruitful use; though some 
 have sadly neglected it, greatly to their own loss. 
 
 But why should a missionary spend any of his 
 precious time in peddling books and tracts, when 
 natives of the country can do the work just as well? 
 
 To this question Mr. Wheeler gave several an- 
 swers, (i) Because in the earlier stages of one's 
 work they cannot do it just as well; and even in the 
 later stages they will not do it as well, if the mission- 
 ary gives them the least excuse for feeling that it is 
 the work of mere underlings, "mere peddlers" in the 
 low, small sense of that word. 
 
 (2) The missionary should sell books, because it is 
 one of the most effective ways of finding out men 
 who are secretly longing for help. 
 
 ♦D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation," Vol. Ill, pages 103 and 104 
 and footnote; and p. 437. 
 
 (5) 
 
66 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 (3) It not only enables him to find such men, but 
 also to give them, without any rudeness or intrusion, 
 just the help they need. For the book in their 
 hands, for which they have just paid, will often en- 
 able you to speak freely of almost any subject under 
 heaven on which you feel that they need a word of 
 advice. 
 
 (4) The man who buys your book, and Pays For 
 It, will think of your spoken message much oftener 
 and more definitely. 
 
 (5) He will be more likely to pass on the good 
 word to others; and the Biblt or Gospel or leaflet 
 which you have sold will often go where you cannot 
 go yourself, and would not even be allowed to fol- 
 low. 
 
 (6) You will find that this close, intensely personal 
 contact with men will teach you many things about 
 human nature, (and how to help it,) which you can- 
 not learn as fully or as deeply by more general and 
 formal contact. Though for most of these blessed 
 results, there is one condition, namely that you study 
 each case most carefully and prayerfully; and never 
 take a single cent of a man's money, unless you are 
 satisfied that the book you ask him to buy is one he 
 really needs and can understand : and that he feels his 
 need keenly or at least honestly enough to make sure of 
 his getting out of it some real help, and enough help to 
 make him really grateful to you at heart for having 
 sold him the book; though in some cases he may try 
 to, cover up his gratitude outwardly. Then book 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO^DO. 67 
 
 selling becomes a grand occupation, and one to be 
 proud of; and one that helps to rouse and perfect 
 all that is noblest in the bookseller's own life, and 
 also in the life of his customers. 
 
 TEACHING MEN HOW TO READ. 
 
 But the comical part of it all is that Mr. Wheeler's 
 book selling was in a country where not more than 
 one man in fifty knew how to read; even the priests 
 and choirboys often learning their whole ritual, in a 
 long forgotten tongue, by ear and not by sight. For 
 even the Bibles that they kissed and the sacred songs 
 which they chanted were in the Ancient Armenian 
 tongue, which very few of the lower clergy or of the 
 common people could understand. And so it came 
 to pass that the missionary's frequent question, "Gar- 
 tal kee-des?" "Do you know how to read?" seemed 
 like a broad joke and led on to much lively and 
 helpful discussion; for the missionary had to prove 
 that common men, and even women, ought to know 
 how to read, often proving that they could learn, by 
 giving some plucky man in the crowd his first lesson 
 in reading. Then they were quite willing to buy 
 Primers and Testaments, or perhaps a whole Bible, 
 in the hope of learning to read it soon. 
 
 And a curious fact it is that most of the books 
 sold in the earlier years of his missionary life were 
 to just such men as these; men who could not read 
 a single line, till the missionary set out to sell them 
 a book, and gave them sample readings from it, and 
 a first lesson to get them started, with the promise 
 
68 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 of a teacher, for a few weeks, if they would help 
 pay his board.* And so deeply were the mission- 
 aries impressed with the need of teaching men to 
 search the Scriptures for themselves, that the most 
 impressive part of a sermon on the Bible often was 
 to see how many of the congregation would promise 
 to invest from six to twelve cents apiece in a Prim- 
 er, or "Key to the Bible," as it was called, so as to 
 learn to read that Bible for themselves. 
 
 Thus were thousands started in searching the 
 Scriptures; and the missionary's earnest talk became 
 the starting point of a long series of lessons with 
 the Bible as text book; for even the Primer was full 
 of Bible verses, and short little prayers for the peo- 
 ple to memorize. And to this day, whenever •! see 
 a Primer in any language under Heaven, it seems to 
 me almost a sacred book, so deep and so uplifting 
 was the conception of knowledge, and the proper 
 use of knowledge, that my father's talks impressed 
 upon me. 
 
 FOUR WAYS OF PREACHING. 
 
 We now come naturally to another part of the 
 missionary's work, namely, that of presenting truth 
 in a more or less formal way. This need not always 
 take the same form; for with one man it may be the 
 power of an evangelist when standing in the pulpit; 
 
 ♦Though later on, in cases where there was some boy or girl in town who 
 could give the lessons, and no better teacher could be found, the mission- 
 aries sometimes paid a tiny salary to these young teachers for giving the 
 needed lessons, the pupils themselves saving up their pennies for the more- 
 costly Testament and coarse print Bible, which would be needed as soon as 
 the Primer was fairly mastered. 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 69 
 
 with another it may be the power to rouse and hold 
 men in informal, but lively discussion; with a third 
 more timid nature it may be the power to comfort 
 and advise little groups of men or women more 
 quietly, but just as effectively; while a fourth may 
 prefer to meet inquirers one by one, and may have 
 so much power in helping them as to really reach 
 and impress just as many souls in a life time as he 
 who day after day addresses thousands. 
 
 But in all of these cases there must be the power 
 to interest; and not only that, but also power to help 
 men in making their daily lives stronger and better. 
 And if any man finds in himself nothing but orator- 
 ical power, — that is to say a power to interest and 
 entertain men, without some definite after helpful- 
 ness — Mr. Wheeler would have strongly advised 
 such a one not to go out as a missionary; for on 
 missionary soil he would do more harm and much 
 less good than he can do here in the home land. 
 
 But let us look more closely at the four ways 
 of working, spoken of above; namely, formal pulpit 
 addresses, informal and lively discussions, both pub- 
 lic and private, quiet talks to small groups, and giv- 
 ing advice to men, one by one, in private. Un- 
 doubtedly many an earnest pastor and missionary 
 excels more or less in all four of these ways of 
 working; and yet it will be found that generally they 
 are preeminently successful in only one of them. 
 
 And as we look out over the mission field, it is 
 pleasant to see how strikingly this diversity of gifts 
 is illustrated; and how easy it is to single out those 
 
70 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 who excel in each of these varied ways of working — 
 all doing the Master's work, though doing it so dif- 
 ferently. 
 
 But to which group did Mr. Wheeler belong? In 
 answer to this inquiry, all who knew him at all inti- 
 mately would probably say that he was strong in all 
 four; but that he most excelled in informal discus- 
 sion and debate (before crowds both large and 
 small) and secondly in private advicegiving. — True, 
 he sometimes became so deeply impressed with the 
 sweet and solemn poetry of an occasion that he 
 would become rhythmical in thought, and musical 
 in utterance, and at such times the people would lis- 
 ten almost spell-bound; but generally he preferred a 
 safer though less striking method of talking, and 
 gave men bread and meat, instead of cake and 
 cream; for he well knew that what men most need 
 is those simpler truths of life which bring peace and 
 strength and a slowly deepening gladness, but are 
 not specially entertaining, when first heard or talked 
 about. 
 
 Hence his conception of preaching was a very 
 simple one, and included any sort of conversation 
 or address which would make gospel truth more at- 
 tractive and helpful to his hearers. And this also 
 made him more careful to use only such arguments 
 as his hearers could comprehend; and not to press 
 even these any farther than was necessary to make 
 them stop and think. For he felt that an otherwise 
 helpful argument may be spoiled by giving a man 
 more than his intellect or his pride can stand. 
 
DECIDING WHAT TO DO. 
 
 Benefits of Persecution. 
 
 But among the blessings promised the followers 
 of Jesus is persecution ( Mark 10:30) and we are told 
 to "rejoice and be exceeding glad, when men perse- 
 cute us and say all manner of evil against m?, falsely 
 for Christ's sake;" and some of the hottest of this 
 persecution, though by no means all of it, comes to 
 most missionaries very early in their missionary life. 
 What light does Mr. Wheeler's life throw on this 
 important subject? 
 
 Well, for one, he soon discovered that in some 
 cases persecution is not wholly "false" (Matt. 5:11) 
 and may in part be due to the fact that good men 
 have well-meaningly but wrongfully trespassed on 
 the rights or weaknesses of others; and hence he 
 learned early in his missionary life to guard against 
 this error very carefully. 
 
 Secondly he loved to remind us that persecution 
 is sometimes due to the utter heartlessness and self- 
 ishness of one's persecutors; and that in such cases 
 the less we have to do with them the better (Matt. 
 10:23). But that in other cases persecution is sim- 
 ply due to the mistaken zeal of really true-hearted 
 men, who have only misjudged you; and that quiet 
 perseverance in well-doing will generally bring such 
 as these around to your side sooner or later; some 
 communities and persons, who were at first among 
 the most bitter persecutors of the young missionary 
 and his colleagues, having become later on excep- 
 tionally faithful and earnest fellow-workers in God's 
 great vineyard. 
 
72 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Thus persecution taught him a larger charity for 
 good men, and a larger prudence in letting alone 
 those who were persistently bad and heartless; while 
 it also brought him nearer and nearer, day by day, 
 to his Saviour, and to that heaven "where all is 
 love." 
 
 SHALL WE PUNISH EVIL DOERS? 
 
 But is it right for the missionary to ever appeal 
 to the hand of law for protection, when persecuted? 
 To this question, which has often been asked, Mr. 
 Wheeler replied unqualifiedly, "Yes," whenever such 
 an appeal would tend to rouse the public conscience 
 and would be clearly recognized as just by at least 
 a part of the community. But he believed that 
 other remedies (Matt. 18:15 to 17) should be tried 
 first; and that we should be careful not to make our 
 appeal to law in a spirit of mere haste or retaliation. 
 And, furthermore, he also felt that it was best, gen- 
 erally, to appeal to the ecclesiastical superiors of a 
 wrong-doer (for a sort of arbitration) rather than 
 to the civil courts of law. 
 
 Hence petty lawsuits were to him hateful, even 
 as they were to the great apostle to the Gentiles 
 (I Cor. 6:7) who himself, in larger matters, hesitated 
 not to appeal to the hand of law for protection, 
 whenever such appeal could be of any avail.* 
 
 *As to Matt. 5:38-42, we should remember that Christ is simply correcting 
 a commou misconception of verse 38. which made it an excuse (or mere re- 
 veng-e; so that all it can fairly be made to teach is that we should not carry 
 self-defence and law too far; lest they degenerate into mere hatred and self- 
 ishness. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A RIGHT CREED AND 
 USING IT RIGHTLY. 
 
 But the missionary must have a message, for a 
 missionary without some message would certainly 
 be an absurdity. And he must also have a creed; 
 for a man without a creed, true, or untrue, or half- 
 true, is an impossibility; though his creed may be 
 chaotic and worthless. Hence the question what a 
 missionary believes is an exceedingly vital one, es- 
 pecially in times like these, when there is so much 
 dispute as to just what beliefs are the most helpful 
 and well grounded. 
 
 For we live in a generation in which many a well 
 meaning man, both in business and in the ministry, 
 has made a total or partial wreck of his life's useful- 
 ness through not knowing just what to believe; or 
 else not knowing how to use the little, or the much, 
 that he did believe; and we feel sure that many will 
 be helped by a brief statement of Mr. Wheeler's 
 creed, and of the way in which he used it. — For no 
 creed, either orthodox or heretical, (Acts 24:14) will 
 ever save a man from failure, unless he is careful to 
 
 use it wisely. 
 
 73 
 
74 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 For though Mr. Wheeler often reminded us that 
 the men who have been most successful in making 
 the world better have all been followers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ; he was also careful to remind us that 
 there are many pygmies and weaklings in the Chris- 
 tian camp, men who are powerless to help others 
 and are themselves groping in the dark much of the 
 time; and that carelessness in thought or over-refine- 
 ment in mere abstract questions of doctrine, would 
 be both alike equally sure to land us in the dark. 
 
 Let us then see what were, in his estimation, some 
 of the corner-stones of Christian doctrine, without 
 which no man's life can be strong and healthy, and 
 able to really uplift his fellow-men, trying to do it 
 in words which even a perplexed theological student 
 cannot fail to understand. 
 
 For even the Bible sometimes becomes a dark 
 and perplexing book, because of the way in which 
 we misunderstand some seemingly simple word or 
 group of words, over which some teacher, living or 
 dead, has unwittingly thrown a flood of darkness. 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 First of all then, we find that Mr. Wheeler had a 
 strong love for the Bible and its teachings. And so 
 great was that love and respect that he was always 
 trying to work into his own life and character all 
 the parts of which God's spirit had shown him his 
 need; and yet was willing to cheerfully let alone the 
 parts which perplexed him, or seemed as yet to 
 meet no need in his own or his people's life. For 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 75 
 
 he always judged the book as we do our best friends, 
 by the parts which he understood and not by those 
 which were more or less obscure or perplexing. 
 
 And thus it came to pass that, though his own 
 creed was one that Prof. X. would have called very 
 orthodox, he had a wonderful charity for men whose 
 views on inspiration he could not accept; provided 
 only they had that deeper Christian common-sense 
 and humility which enables a man to gradually out- 
 grow and correct even a very faulty creed. "And 
 pray, how does Christian common-sense differ from 
 any other?" Well, as to that, we never heard him 
 say; save that "sanctified common-sense," as he 
 called it, is only found at all largely in men whose 
 hearts and brains are full to overflowing of love for 
 Christ, and that even in such men it is sometimes 
 sadly deficient. And yet I think we shall get a 
 pretty clear idea of what he meant by it as we fol- 
 low his life, and see in how many ways it showed 
 itself both in the things he said and did, and in 
 those he left unsaid and undone. 
 
 NATURE AND EXPERIENCE. 
 
 But as to the book of nature and the teachings ot 
 Christian experience, of which we now hear so much, 
 both of these seemed to him sealed books, or, rath- 
 er, very puzzling ones, even when open; and yet, 
 judging men by their fruits, he was always glad, if 
 others could find in nature and in life what he found 
 most clearly and most surely revealed only in Scrip- 
 ture. Thus it is that diverse men, with diverse gifts 
 and diverse limitations, do, when true, join hands in 
 
76 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 showing our Christian faith in many different lights, 
 suited to many different minds and different states 
 of even the same mind; for I believe that even my 
 father rose above his occasional moods of great de- 
 pression more by a desperate appeal to the Jesus by 
 his side than by any recourse to the written words 
 or teachings of that same Jesus, recorded for our 
 edification, so. long ago. 
 
 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 
 
 Human depravity! Yes, that some men are unde- 
 niably depraved, and all men have some depraved 
 tendencies in them; such was my father's belief; 
 though I never succeeded in getting him to under- 
 take a systematic explanation of this sad but unde- 
 niable fact. For he felt that he could not explain it. 
 But it made him very earnest and practical in his 
 attempts to save and help men, and in his preaching 
 to them of the gospel of Christ. And of one thing 
 he was sure; that no man can ever do much toward 
 really saving men, either at home or abroad, if sin 
 and wrong doing seem to him a small matter. 
 
 "But," said some objectors, "some things which 
 you call sinful and wrong others call right." To this 
 he would simply reply, "But does that make them 
 right?" and then would hasten on to a more search- 
 ing and really vital question, "But how about the 
 things which even you admit to be wrong and sinful? 
 Do you struggle against these as you should?" — 
 And thus would he silence hypocrites and quibblers; 
 and bring a deeper conviction of sin to those who 
 were honestly seeking for truth. For though some 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. ']^ 
 
 men have dealt with sin too harshly, and others have 
 made a sad failure in attempting to explain it, thus 
 much is and always must be true, that conviction of 
 sin is the starting point* of the Christian life in all 
 its purer and higher forms; and this Mr. Wheeler 
 felt very keenly, though he clearly recognized the 
 fact that it need not be at all excitable or tragic. 
 
 MAN'S NEED OF A SAVIOUR. 
 
 But Mr. Wheeler oft reminded us that it is not 
 enough for us to simply realize that man is sinful 
 and prone to wrong. Many a heathen teacher of 
 ethics has done this, and solemnly advised men to 
 do better, and still has accomplished almost nothing; 
 for man, though free in the deeper sense of that 
 word, is practically so weak and wilful and ignorant 
 that mere ethical preaching, with the religious ele- 
 ment left out, leaves him almost as much in the dark 
 as ever; until the Fatherhood of God and the broth- 
 erhood of man are clearly enough recognized to 
 make a new man of him in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Hence the successful missionary must point out 
 to men this Fatherhood of God (as revealed in the 
 life and teachings of Jesus) and this brotherhood of 
 man, as revealed in Christ's doctrines, and in the 
 church which he came to plant. Just how he does 
 this matters little, if only he really does it; for I 
 have noticed that the followers of Jesus testify in 
 more ways than the church as yet clearly recognizes, 
 and that some are evidently His followers whom we 
 are wont to class as outsiders. And I know that 
 
78 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 this thought was at times a great comfort to my 
 father. 
 
 But nevertheless the fact remains that men need 
 to be told, and often told, of Jesus, and of the Fa- 
 ther whom He came to show unto us more clearly; 
 and so Mr. Wheeler was very earnest in preaching 
 "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," "to the Jews a 
 stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but 
 unto them which are [ready to be] called the power 
 of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1:23-24,) 
 For even Christ did not call every one, but only 
 those who are "weary and heavy laden," and "who- 
 soever is willing." 
 
 "But just what was his theory of the atonement?" 
 asks some one. Well, as to that I do not know; for 
 the fact that Jesus saves men was more to him than 
 the explanation how — Yet on two points he was very 
 clear; namely, that in the work of saving men Christ 
 co-worked with God, and not against Him; and sec- 
 ondly, that elaborate explanations only tended to 
 perplex people, both in the pulpit and in the class 
 room. For the deepest things of God are always 
 most easily understood, and most easily seen, if so- 
 called explanations are not indulged too freely. 
 
 CHRIST AS A FRIEND. 
 
 But perhaps one of the sweetest phases of his mis- 
 sionary life was his reliance on Jesus as a friend, and 
 a daily helper and comforter for those who have al- 
 ready entered on the strait* but windmg way that 
 leadeth unto life, (Matt. 7:14.) 
 
 ♦Old English for narrow. 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 79 
 
 Doubtless a clearer, truer theology than we now 
 have will some day prove that Christ's mediatorial 
 work, and his work as friend, are but different 
 phases of the very same work; but at present our 
 vision is so dim that in order to think clearly and 
 truly we are often obliged to speak of them as dis- 
 tinct, though springing from the same great heart of 
 love. But Jesus is our Friend, and not simply our 
 Saviour; he not only died for us, but lives for us; 
 and the ripest, happiest Christians are those who 
 live nearest to him. 
 
 This truth a devoted missionary can generally 
 grasp in its fullness more easily than most people; 
 for in studying so constantly the needs of others, 
 and that in a lonely foreign land, he is oftener re- 
 minded of his own need; and led to come oftener to 
 the one who says, "Come unto me all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden and I will give you rest;" and 
 who also said, "Lo 1 am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world." 
 
 And so he often came to Jesus, and bid others 
 come; and he and his colleagues gathered round 
 them a body of simple but earnest Christians; whose 
 faith was lovely to see, though not perhaps quite as 
 well fortified as it should have been against that 
 honest credulity into which even true faith some- 
 times turns for awhile. For even our Lord lets his 
 followers sometimes stumble and fall, when they get 
 to following him or any one else a little too thought- 
 lessly and childishly. But, even when they fall, 
 they are still his children; and sure to rise sooner 
 than those who have not loved him so much. 
 
8o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Hence my heart is made glad as I see how closely 
 the Harpoot churches are clinging to Christ, in the 
 times of sore trouble which have come upon them 
 of late. 
 
 THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. 
 
 •'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Such 
 is another article of the Christian creed, which is, 
 indeed a source of strength and loveliness in every 
 truly Christian life, though not as great a power in 
 some lives as in others. 
 
 But, as Mr. Wheeler understood and practiced it, 
 the test question was not, How much do you love 
 your neighbors? (for some he loved more and some 
 less than he loved himself.) But, rather, How true 
 and pure is your love? and the Bible injunction, sta- 
 ted in plainer but less striking English, is "Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor in the same way that thou 
 lovest thyself;" i. e. just as truly and just as purely; 
 thus making of Christ's words a really inspiring ideal, 
 and not a mere extravagant impossibility. 
 
 For to say that we ought to love our neighbors 
 just as truly and purely as we love ourselves is 
 grandly true; and no man can ever find his happy, 
 natural peace in life till he does it. Just as no man 
 ever finds perfect peace till he learns to love his 
 worst enemy, just as truly, though not just as much, as 
 he loves his best friend. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Then, going on but one step farther in our attempt 
 to explain this man's success, we come to his belief 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 8i 
 
 in prayer. "Of course he believed in prayer," says 
 some one; "all Christians do." But unfortunately 
 all Christians do not. For to some Christians, who 
 really believe in God, prayer is an unreal thing; and 
 they no more expect any orood to come of it than 
 they would from a letter telling the President of the 
 United States or the Queen of England about their 
 private perplexities and sorrows. But Mr. Wheeler 
 really believed in it; and though the philosophy of 
 prayer may have sometimes puzzled him a little, as 
 it once in a while puzzles us all, he got so many fa- 
 vorable answers to prayer, and so many sweet and 
 comforting refusals, that he learned more and more 
 how sweet a thing it is for man to draw near to God. 
 
 And yet to him prayer was seldom, "Oh Lord, 
 give me what I want;" but rather, "Give me the 
 blessings, whatever they may be, which thou hast 
 been keeping for me, until such time as I should be 
 hnngry enough to ask for them in a trusting and 
 teachable spirit." And how many such blessings 
 there are, uncalled for in the waiting rooms of heaven. 
 For prayer and trustfulness (or faith as it is gener- 
 ally called) are in their higher forms rare virtues, 
 even among those who in a lower and weaker sense 
 are true followers of Christ. For even very weak 
 faith makes us followers of Jesus; but only great 
 faith makes us enter at all fully into the joy of our 
 Lord, and into that power which comes to those who 
 dare to ask for and accept the many special blessings 
 which come only when specially asked for, moment 
 by moment. 
 
 (6) 
 
82 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 The Future Life. 
 
 Then next there came Mr. Wheeler's belief in the 
 future life; for though we find this belief in many- 
 lands and many faiths, it is only among the follow- 
 ers of Jesus that it comes in as a clear, strong, in- 
 spiring force, in which even the humblest can take 
 comfort; and it is only since Jesus came that men 
 have at all generally learned to think of heaven as 
 a home (John 14:1-3) a place where friends will 
 meet again to commune with one another in sacred 
 restfulness and love. 
 
 But Jesus has told us that in our Father's house 
 are many homes; and if it were not so he would have 
 told us; and the more the Christian church studies 
 this unseen world of which Jesus spoke, the strong- 
 er and more universal grows the conviction that in 
 some way, to us as yet unknown, this heavenly 
 world lies around us all the time — and not simply 
 in childhood, as. Wordsworth sang — or in some dis- 
 tant future, as many a theologian has thought. 
 
 And so the missionary often thought and spoke of 
 heaven as a little child would speak of home; and 
 made men long for home and rest, even when itseemed 
 to them that they were too tired to be good. And 
 yet is not a longing for home a longing to be good? 
 Yes, only in a less complete form; and when the 
 prodigal begins to long for home, then is his heart 
 turning toward God and the right; although he may 
 not know it as yet, and may be an exceedingly weak 
 and ignorant follower at first. 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CREED. 83 
 
 Future Punishment. 
 
 But our experiences of this life, and all the deeper 
 intuitions of the soul, point to yet another sad truth 
 of which the missionary must speak, and speak 
 plainly, if he is to be a true messenger of helpful- 
 ness, and make men see sin in all its real enormity; 
 — and that is the doctrine of punishment, both past, 
 present and future. 
 
 "But will fear make men good?" No, it will not. 
 But fear will inake men stop and consider: and thus 
 give the sweet influences of love a chance to find 
 entrance into many a heart which would otherwise 
 have remained closed. 
 
 And so it came to pass that the missionary spoke 
 of sin and punishment, side by side, and with great 
 definiteness. For he knew that many a man attributes 
 to bad luck \\\^ past evils that have grown out of his 
 own wrong-doing; and so hopes that, by some perverse 
 luck, he will escape {xom future punishment as well, 
 however blindly or recklessly selfish he may be. 
 To such as these the missionary spoke of punish- 
 ment very plainly; and not only of present punish- 
 ment, but also of future punishment, beyond the 
 grave. For strange to say many a man, who admits 
 that sin has brought a curse on his life thus far, does 
 nevertheless hope that, by some strange magic, 
 death is going to set him free from it all; — while 
 Mr. Wheeler went so far as to claim that even 
 heaven will not suddenly blot out all the scars and 
 aches of sin, but simply give men perfect peace of 
 mind, and then put before them higher and higher 
 
84 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 reaches of Christian happiness, to be gradually at- 
 tained by heavenly growth. 
 
 "But did he believe that the future punishment of 
 sin would in any or all cases be endless?" I think 
 he did; as a logical inference from some parts of his 
 creed; and as an inference from some Bible verses, 
 which he saw not how to explain in any other way. 
 
 But, nevertheless, on one point he was explicit; 
 namely that we have no right to make this doctrine 
 of endless future punishment a test of a man's fitness 
 for foreign missionary work; for, said he, the argu- 
 ments on which it rests, and the verses which seem 
 to teach it, though to me sufficient, are not equally 
 clear to one who feels that the word eternal has been 
 misunderstood. And when certain prominent ad- 
 vocates of future probation were mentioned, he was 
 inclined to feel that the trouble with most of them 
 was too little Christian consecration; or else a ten- 
 dency to dwell too much on unhelpful and perplex- 
 ing matters of mere theology and speculation, rather 
 than acceptance or non-acceptance of the doctrine 
 in question. — And wherever new theology men have 
 failed, both at home and abroad, I think it will gen- 
 erally be found that a lack of practical wisdom and 
 insight has always been a leading cause of their fail- 
 ure, whatever we may think of their theology. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 
 
 But what sort of a man should a missionary be? 
 This question we cannot, of course, answer here at 
 at all fully, for many different kinds of workers are 
 needed on the foreign field, even as they are at 
 home. And yet a brief study of Mr. Wheeler's 
 character will surely throw some important light on 
 the problem; and will also help us in better under- 
 standing the work he did, and how he did it. 
 
 CLEARNESS OF PERCEPTION; AND HOW TO IN- 
 CREASE IT. 
 
 We notice then, first of all, that Mr. Wheeler had 
 great clearness of perception; and tried not to med- 
 dle with matters which he could not see clearly. 
 And to our readers who can see clearly in matters 
 pertaining to farming, or botany, or dress-making, 
 or home missions, but fail to see into foreign mis- 
 sionary problems as clearly, he would have said, 
 "By all means stay at home, and do not go as for- 
 eign missionaries." For well do we remember often 
 hearing him say that it is far better that a man 
 should be a first-class carpenter, or teacher, or doc- 
 tor, than a second-class minister or missionary; for 
 
 he will do more good; and enjoy life better. 
 
 85 
 
86 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But how did he cultivate, or rather develop, this 
 power to see things clearly? — Of course it was 
 in part inherited. But it was evident that he had 
 greatly increased it by a careful adherence to the 
 following two rules: 
 
 First: Be sure you are ri^ht; then ^o ahead. 
 Second: Don't ^o ahead, till you are sure. 
 
 True, these rules did not make him infallible; for 
 like the rest of us he was 'human, and sometimes 
 forgot to live up to them. But he did live up to 
 them often enough, both in great matters and in 
 seemingly small ones, to make a marked difference 
 in his power of grasping a subject, and really over- 
 coming a difificulty, and doing it for the most part 
 wisely. For though I have seen a great many peo- 
 ple who believed in "Push," or "Go-aheadativeness," 
 just as much as he did, I have seen few who as per- 
 sistenlly and watchfully applied his second rule, 
 "Not to go ahead, till you are sure." And what was 
 the result? The result was that they were just as 
 energetic, when in the wrong as when in the right; 
 and so kept tearing down the very good that they 
 and others had built up. 
 
 His second rule, "Don't go ahead till you are 
 sure," also helped to keep him out of the ruts; for 
 in a quiet, thoughtless way* each day's plans had to 
 undergo a special revision, before they were put in 
 
 *The mind's best work is often done most thoughtlessly; even as an artist 
 often sees what is true and beautiful, and makes it his own, and yet cannot 
 explain it, or even describe it till long after. For the seeing faculty and the 
 naming (or thinking) faculty of the mind are not at all coextensive. 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 87 
 
 practice; so that he kept making little improvements 
 and corrections, which in the long run, made a vast 
 difference in the largeness and trueness of his re- 
 sults. 
 
 But still another way in which his clearness of per- 
 ception showed itself was in a marked absence, at 
 most times, of that morbid over-thoughtfulness, so 
 common among good men, which makes them worry 
 themselves and others with a host of rules and bur- 
 dens, which they suppose to be "duties," but without 
 any sufficient reason. All of these Mr. Wheeler ^^/z- 
 erally brushed aside with the simple but wise remark, 
 That the heavier and more perplexing burdens of 
 life and thought are God's burdens and not ours; 
 and we do wrong in taking them on ourselves, how- 
 ever well-meaning we may be in doing it. And that, 
 when God wishes us to take up a burden, he always 
 shows us clearly how to begin, and gives us the neces- 
 sary strength and courage for the task. 
 
 Here also we should like to notice one curious re- 
 sult of Mr. Wheeler's clear perceptionsin mostthings: 
 he was a man who often had to stand painfully alone, 
 for a while; for he kept getting ahead of others. 
 And yet the very people who at first disagreed with 
 him would often come to agree with him, in the main, 
 after a while. For a truth once clearly pointed out 
 often convinces at last the very ones who at first scout 
 it as untrue. 
 
 DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE. 
 
 Then next came definitenessof purpose and energy; 
 both of them greatly intensified by the clearness of 
 
88 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 perception and carefulness to be right of which we 
 have spoken. But these traits are also found in many 
 men whose perceptions of truth and duty are far 
 from clear. Hence we must look for a safety valve 
 elsewhere. 
 
 PRACTICALNESS: AND HOW TO KEEP IT. 
 
 We shall find it, I think, in the fact that Mr, Wheeler 
 was, all through his life, in such constant and 
 healthy contact with others; and whenever a mission- 
 ary, or pastor, or other reformer finds himself in dan- 
 ger of becoming dreamy and unpractical or morbid, 
 he should make haste to put himself in closer con- 
 tact with the practical every day life of men around 
 him, and this danger will be greatly lessened. 
 
 WISDOM AND HOW TO GET IT. 
 
 But while a vague indefiniteness of purpose, either 
 in the form of heaviness or dreaminess, is something 
 a missionary should carefully guard against, we 
 should remember that he also needs that still higher 
 gift which we ordinarily call wisdom; and that this 
 is something more complex and many-sided than 
 common, every day practicalness; though such prac- 
 ticalness is certainly an important element in it. 
 
 But we never need despair of attaining to such 
 wisdom; for he whose life is full of watchfulness 
 and prayer, willing to go when duty calls, but careful 
 never to go uncalled, is sure to grow in wisdom as 
 the days go by. For to him that hath shall be given, 
 yet more abundantly. Such is God's sweet law of 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 89 
 
 recompense and growth. — And yet it is curious to 
 see how, in even so beautiful a life as Dr. Wheeler's, 
 the wisdom comes to men more abundantly along 
 some lines than along others, according to the lines 
 along which they do most watching and praying. 
 
 A PASSIONATE LONGING TO DO RIGHT. 
 
 Here too comes in his longing to do right; for it 
 was very marked, though for the most part free from 
 that morbid over thoughtfulness, of which we have 
 already spoken. (Page 87.) 
 
 But why speak here of so simple and obvious a 
 matter as longing to do right? Simply because I 
 believe that many good people will confess on in- 
 quiry that at times they are strongly tempted to say, 
 •*Oh, it matters not, if I do wrong in minor matters." 
 But as a matter of fact it does make a fearful differ- 
 ence, even after the sin has been confessed and re- 
 pented of. Hence I believe it will do us good to 
 remember that this man whom we so love and honor 
 felt deeply the need of always resisting quickly and 
 firmly this subtle temptation of which we have 
 spoken. , 
 
 And so eager was he to do right, that he could 
 more easily than most men be nobly inconsistent, by 
 living above his creed and above his theories; when 
 at some perplexing point thesehappened to be faulty. 
 For of inconsistency there are two sorts: one, where 
 we live above our honest beliefs, this is a virtue; and 
 the other, where we live belozv them; which certainly 
 is a vice; for though both indicate a slip somewhere, 
 in one case the slip was made yesterday, and is be- 
 
go SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ing partially corrected today; while in the other the 
 truth was seen and accepted yesterday, and is being 
 only lost sight of and ignored today. 
 
 COURAGE. 
 
 But he was also a man of rare courage; and hard 
 indeed would it be to think of a really successful mis- 
 sionary in whom this element of character was not 
 marked. And yet the courage of which we speak is 
 not simpy courage in the face of physical danger, 
 that beautiful courage which even the timidest may 
 have in moments and days and years of suffering, 
 though this our missionary had. But, that higher, 
 rarer courage in resisting the unjust demands of oth- 
 ers, which even among missionaries is sometimes 
 lacking, or, rather, deficient. 
 
 And that such lack of moral courage seriously les- 
 sens a missionary's usefulness, I need not prove by 
 argument; for most of those who are deficient in 
 courage admit that it lessens their usefulness, when 
 they give way to cowardice. "Why then do they 
 ever yield?" This question I will answer by asking 
 another. Why does an ill fed man grow faint and 
 weak? Simply because he cannot help it. So too 
 with courage; — and the secret of Mr. Wheeler's 
 courage was the constancy with which, in a simple, 
 informal way, he communed with God and heaven, 
 thus gaining the needed strength. And whenever 
 any one comes nearer to God "in spirit and in truth," 
 I have always noticed that his courage slowly in- 
 creases, and becomes an all pervading and uplifting, 
 though quiet force — all through his daily life. Thus 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 91 
 
 was it of the one of whom we write; thus has it been 
 with many another of God's heroes; though even 
 they were weak as other men, when they forgot this 
 higher life, under the cloud of some passing preju- 
 dice or guess, 
 
 HUMILITY, NORMAL AND ABNORMAL. 
 
 Then, curiously contrasted to courage, comes an- 
 other trait, namely, humility; and along with that 
 its complementary trait of self-confidence. And 
 how did the humility show itself? It showed itself, 
 not in being willing to be tyrannized over, when re- 
 sistance would be of some avail; for this is only 
 weakness. But in being willing to learn from any- 
 body, even his most severe and unfriendly critics; 
 and, secondly, in being willing to do even the hum- 
 blest and most seemingly, menial service, for others' 
 good, vviien love pointed him out as the one best fit- 
 ted to do it; or providential leadings called for it, 
 even as they called so loudly to the Levite and the 
 Good Samaritan, long ago. 
 
 For littleness is not a virtue, though often mis- 
 taken for one; but teachableness and servefulness 
 are; and in these it is that true humility shows itself, 
 often most clearly in the strongest and most self-re- 
 liant natures. 
 
 But some critics will tell us that of all men Mr. 
 Wheeler was one of the least teachable. And why? 
 Simply because he would not accept the mere un- 
 proved assertions of any man, when contradicted by 
 his own more extensive studies of life and of human 
 
Q2 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 nature. For to him the traditions and theories of 
 the elders were sacred only so far as he found them 
 helpful in doing the Lord's work. But his humility 
 showed itself in this, that when any man spoke from 
 actual knowledge, and not mere theory, of some 
 matter which he really understood, Mr. Wheeler 
 was one of the quickest and heartiest to recognize 
 the fact, and profit by what he taught. Surely this 
 is teachableness. And this is a trait which every 
 missionary needs. 
 
 SELF-CONFIDENCE AND PERPLEXITY. 
 
 Then came self-confidence, — a trait often wanting 
 in humble people; but one without which humility 
 is sure to be morbid and misdirected. For the 
 man who cannot rely on himself, in the things he 
 does see clearly, will soon be a blind follower of the 
 blind. For the blindest would-be leaders are always 
 most persistent and most eager to get followers, and 
 assert their right to lead. 
 
 Yet we should remember that Mr. Wheeler's self- 
 confidence was strong, for the most part, only when 
 he knew that he was Nearer Right at Some Vital 
 Point than those who were opposed to him. For in 
 relatively minor matters those who disagreed with 
 him were doubtless often nearer right than he; and 
 it was pleasant to see how often he met them half 
 way. But this habit of always trying to see the 
 Main Point, the Vital Point first, before he studied 
 any other, was a great help to him, all through his 
 missionary life. For curiously enough our greatest per- 
 plexities are generally about non-essentials : about mat- 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 93 
 
 ters which Need Not and Should Not be decided 
 today; and when the missionary or student or law- 
 yer or business man consents to leave these fascinat- 
 ing non-essentials one side, he finds even the most 
 perplexing problems greatly simplified and cleared. 
 
 PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 That no missionary can ever be a success, if he 
 lacks perseverance, need not be said; nor that per- 
 severance will make one industrious. But it is worth 
 our while to inquire how Mr. Wheeler managed to 
 get so much of this important virtue. 
 
 We find the explanation in two things: firstly^ 
 that informal but very marked nearness to God, of 
 which we have spoken under Courage; and, second- 
 ly, his habit of not going ahead till he was sure of 
 his ground. For these two traits would be pretty 
 apt to make even a very humble and self-distrusting 
 man persevering and self-reliant. For lives like his 
 are always full of paradoxes; which to some minds 
 seem like contradictions. 
 
 HOPEFULNESS; AND HOW TO RENEW IT. 
 
 Then came his hopefulness; for most of the time 
 he was a very hopeful man. And fortunate it is that 
 he was; for courage alone is never enough; and 
 many a brave true heart has been completely crushed 
 for lack of hope. For not only must we be willing 
 to face danger and pain; but we must also be able 
 to Rise Above Them; and mere resignation, unac- 
 companied by hope, is at best but a pitiable half- 
 virtue; while courage, without a well grounded hope- 
 fulness, is but rashness. 
 
94 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 What then was the secret of this man's hopeful- 
 ness? It was in large part that trust in God of 
 which we have spoken. But also a certain healthy 
 littleness, in times of great darkness, which made 
 turn aside to little tasks and little joys, when the 
 great ones grew dim; though he did not close, for a 
 single moment, his soul's eyes to the larger tasks 
 which he wisely left for a while undone, and seemed 
 to have wholly forgotten. In this heroic willingness 
 to almost forget at times the things he most loved, 
 lay a wonderful source of power and recuperation; 
 and happy indeed is the man who at such times can 
 trust God greatly and wisely enough, to leave it all 
 to Him, and turn contentedly to humbler duties, un- 
 til the light comes back again. 
 
 FULLNESS OF LOVE. 
 
 But our Father in Heaven is a God of Love; and 
 the nearer we come to him the surer we are to be like 
 him, and to have our hearts ever full of love. For 
 he who goes on a mission without a loving heart, will 
 find in it no romance; the romance coming only to 
 those whose eyes are daily opened and purified by 
 love. Hence was it that he of whom we write found 
 in the work so much of sweetness and of gladness. 
 For he loved the people for whom he worked; yes 
 even when he sometimes rebuked them sharply; and 
 love it was that showed him just what rebuke to give 
 and how much to give. For he did know how to stop; 
 and how to help the very men who thought him an 
 enemy, because of the sharpness of some needed 
 rebuke. 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 95 
 
 So that a friend once said to him, "Mr. Wheeler, 
 I can cut men up as well as you can; but I don't 
 succeed in putting them together as well. Pray 
 what makes the difference?" What answer my 
 father gave I do not know; but if I were to answer 
 for him, judging by my father's life, I should say 
 
 that probably Mr. did not have quite enough 
 
 respect for the inner, choked up manhood of the 
 men he cut to pieces, and this it was which made it 
 hard for him to put them together again. For my 
 father's genuine respect for the inner, potential man- 
 hood of even fallen men was wonderful to see; even 
 when he most heartily despised their conduct, and 
 felt obliged to say so. — Thus was it that he won 
 them. 
 
 A LOVE THAT MAKES MEN PATIENT. 
 
 Of another characteristic of his love this is also 
 the best place to speak; namely that it was not an 
 ideal, abstract love for man in general, or for the 
 heathen, or for men and women whom he had never 
 seen; but rather a strong, though silent love for in- 
 dividuals, old and young, lovely and unlovely, just 
 as he found them round about him day by day. 
 True there were some he could not help much; and 
 some he could not understand; but in his quiet, far- 
 seeing way, he nevertheless tried to help them oc- 
 casionally, or at least not to misjudge them, and 
 often succeeded. 
 
 How different is such a love from the sentimental 
 shallowness of a certain lady who wanted ever so 
 much to go as a missionary but "just hated her 
 
96 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 neighbors, and knew she couldn't help any of them." 
 And Dr. Wheeler's message to you and me would 
 be: "If ever you find the slightest hint of such a 
 feeling in your heart, be sure and stay right here at 
 home, in cruel 'hateful' America, and learn to love 
 your neighbors here, even those who love you least, 
 and then, and not till then, should you think of try- 
 ing to teach the heathen of Jesus and his love." 
 
 FINDING THE BRIGHT SIDE; AND 
 SPEAKING OF IT. 
 
 Nor can I go on till one other trait has found 
 mention: — He loved to praise people. 
 
 But what a rare trait this is; and how often are we 
 foolishly afraid to praise others, even when we ad- 
 mire them most. But this folly Mr. Wheeler had 
 somehow outgrown; though I know not who it was 
 that was entitled to the credit for this glad change, 
 or rather for this strange survival of one of the love- 
 liest traits of childhood. But however that may be, 
 the trait was there; and many a time did it come in 
 to cheer and help some weary one in the hard and 
 lonely battle to be good. 
 
 And only one exception do I know to this rule of 
 his of freely praising others, when they deserved it, 
 and that was this: He gave the praise only to those 
 who were in need of encouragement; but carefully 
 postponed it when there was danger of its breeding 
 vanity, as there sometimes is. But his genius for 
 helpfulness showed itself in this, that he so often 
 caught people, both old and young, when they did 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 97 
 
 need encouragement, and then gave his praise so 
 heartily. 
 
 FORGETTING ONE'S SELF. 
 
 And, lastly, his love was an unselfish love; by which 
 we mean, not a self-neglecting love, (though such it 
 sometimes was) but a self-forgetting love. And 
 happy is the man who trusts in God enough to be 
 willing and able to forget himself in the intensity of 
 his devotion to God, and to his fellow men. And 
 how sadly a really Christian life, even on mission soil, 
 can be marred and crippled and disappointed, if al- 
 most unconsciously, and yet really, it lets a few grains 
 of selfishness creep into its daily life; a little willing- 
 ness to step on others, because we do not like them, 
 or because they interfere with our plans and our com- 
 fort. But even selfishness can be cured, when a con- 
 secrated heart wakes up to confess its need, and fight 
 the battle prayerfully and often; and so no one need 
 be discouraged. 
 
 A LONGING TO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 But still another trait stands out clear and strong 
 when we try to fully understand and explain this life; 
 namely, a passionate longing to save souls. "But 
 do not all true Christians have this?" — No, they do 
 not. For there are men just as good as Dr. Wheeler, 
 whose chief conscious ambition in life is simply to be 
 successful farmers; and others whose chief conscious 
 ambition is to be successful business men; and still 
 others whose uppermost longing is to be artists; and 
 others, almost as good, who seem to have no special 
 
 (7) 
 
98 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ambition in life, and are easily content with whatever 
 kind of work falls to their lot. 
 
 Now against such men as these we have not one 
 single word to say; for we know that down in their 
 heart ot hearts they often love men just as truly as 
 Mr. Wheeler did; and use their money, their farms 
 and their art just as truly for the good of others as 
 he did his tongue and pen. But we would strongly 
 advise such men and women not to go out as mis- 
 sionaries; for there is not one chance in ten of their 
 succeeding. And it is a sad waste of human life 
 and money to put a born farmer or artist in a place 
 where what is really needed is an enthusiastic teach- 
 er and leader and adviser of men. 
 
 And as for the men who have no special tastes, 
 and like one kind of work almost as well as another, 
 they certainly are a helpful element in society at 
 large; but they are certainly not cut out for pioneers 
 and leaders; and make very poor missionaries. 
 
 But, says an objector, "did not Mr. Wheeler go 
 into money-raising and house-building and ditch- 
 digging just as vigorously as into anything else?" 
 Yes, as vigorously, but not as enthusiastically; for 
 it was only because the work must be done, and he 
 saw no one else to do it, that he threw himself into 
 it so lovingly, though often reluctantly; though iri 
 small doses such work was undoubtedly a real rest 
 to him, after the more intense though more congen- 
 ial work of directly edifying men. 
 
 "But should not a missionary love art and beau- 
 ty?" Yes; and many a time have we known mis- 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 99 
 
 sionaries to seek in poetic description, in painting, 
 in instrumental music, in botany, in geology, and in 
 silent communion with nature, the rest for weary 
 nerves and troubled thoughts which they so greatly 
 need at times. But in all these cases, art was the 
 secondary thing; and not in any way the ruling pas- 
 sion of the life. For the moulding of character was 
 to them a far more absorbing and inspiring purpose; 
 and one in which they displayed far more of skill 
 and power. 
 
 NEED OF BUSINESS ABILITY; AND STRICTER 
 BUSINESS SUPERVISION. 
 
 And,yet that a missionary requires business ability, 
 in addition to his zeal for winning souls, is a point 
 that no one will dispute; though we seriously doubt 
 whether the importance of such ability has as yet 
 been properly recognized. And from lack of such 
 ability results a great deal of loss. For though money 
 invested in foreign missions brings in each year a 
 richer and richer harvest of results, and is in the main 
 wisely invested, yet any one well acquainted with its 
 inner workings, will admit that there is waste at some 
 points. 
 
 That such waste has often been inevitable, Mr. 
 Wheeler admitted. But he claimed that more of it 
 might be prevented; his remedy for a large part of 
 it being the fuller recognition of the importance of 
 business ability as an element in the selection of mis- 
 sionaries; and, secondly, more prompt restraining of 
 workers already on the ground who displayed a 
 marked lack of such ability. For his wrath at the 
 
loo SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 unbusinesslike and shortsighted way in which some 
 good men would spend the churches' money, was at 
 times exceeding hot; and he scouted the idea that 
 because we are Congregationalists, and all "good and 
 consecrated men," therefore we ought to be left to 
 do about as we please with the Lord's money. 
 
 "But are not missionaries restrained from using 
 money unwisely?" Of course they are; but not suf- 
 ficiently. — Hence Mr. Wheeler felt strongly that mis- 
 sionaries who were found lacking in the ability to 
 manage money matters wisely should be promptly 
 recalled. 
 
 NEED OF TRAVELING SECRETARIES.^ 
 
 But let me venture to suggest another remedy, 
 less drastic, though more novel; namely, the ap- 
 pointment of two more secretaries for our Board; 
 and then that the five secretaries be located as fol- 
 lows: One as secretary for China and Japan; one 
 as secretary for India and Ceylon; one as secretary 
 for Turkey, and only two at Boston; the first three to 
 live abroad, and not at Boston; and I believe that 
 within three years there would be enough saving of 
 what are now inevitable wastes to much more than 
 compensate for all added expense; and that inside 
 of fifteen years the amount of work accomplished 
 with a given outlay of men and money could be 
 very nearly doubled. 
 
 For pray, how could Gen. Grant have succeeded 
 if he had tried to manage his campaign in detail 
 when seven thousand miles away from the scene of 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. loi 
 
 action? And yet that is just what the Board is 
 often compelled to do today. 
 
 But says- some one, "We are not Methodists; we 
 do not want a lot of bishops." Neither do I. But 
 I once knew a man named N. G. Clark, and, taking 
 him as a type, I simply ask, do you pretend that 
 the missions of the American Board would have 
 been more successful without his advising and res- 
 training and encouraging hand at the helm? Ah 
 no; and the most successful missionaries of the 
 Board with almost one voice would cry out, No! 
 And yet all we claim is that he could have done his 
 grand work far better had he been on the ground, 
 and not worked at such a fearful disadvantage of 
 distance. 
 
 And furthermore, as I look out over this broad 
 land, I find right in the bosom of the Congregation- 
 al church a body of "Bishops" (state superinten- 
 dents and secretaries so-called) who, with but few 
 exceptions, are wonderfully successful in advising 
 the churches and pastors, to whom financial aid is 
 given from outside. And yet these men are Con- 
 gregationalists, and this is a free country and a re- 
 public! What fearful inconsistency! And yet it is 
 history; and it is right it should be so. Only the 
 question is, When will our foreign missionary socie- 
 ties go and do likewise, and profit thereby? 
 
 But says someone, "The missionaries are them- 
 selves superintendents. Why have another superin- 
 tendent over them?" To which we simply reply. 
 You already have three superintendents at Boston 
 and all we claim is that five could do the work still 
 
102 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 better, provided three of them were located abroad. 
 And, secondly, the fact that an army has plenty of 
 lieutenants and generals does not lessen, but rather in- 
 creases the need of a leader in chief for all within a 
 certain radius; and however many foremen a work- 
 shop may have, a general superintendent is still 
 necessary. 
 
 And we should also remember that missionaries 
 are human, like all the rest of us, and are sometimes 
 sorely tempted to settle down and do things on a 
 small scale, simply because it is easier; and at such 
 times the presence, near at hand, of some more ex- 
 perienced adviser is a great comfort and blessing. 
 For that which he has learned from his elders, and 
 from longer experience, he can pass on; and so the 
 world grows wiser and stronger, as each new genera- 
 tion of missionaries is brought into closer and more 
 living contact with the generations that are gone by. 
 
 But says another objector, "The annual meeting 
 of each mission is the best medium for settling all 
 disputed or perplexing points of policy." To which 
 we simply reply that, instead of being the best place, 
 it is one of the worst places in which to settle many 
 of the more delicate and yet extremely vital points 
 of uncertainty and misunderstanding; for such ques- 
 tions can only be settled in private, and where one 
 party looks upon the other as a recognized official 
 superior, and not simply as the representative of an 
 annual meeting "majority." which experience shows 
 can often be tipped the other way next year. 
 
 And furthermore, many of the points where young 
 missionaries most need advice, and most crave 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 103 
 
 skilled leadership, are points of detail, and questions 
 of method, with which an annual meeting has little 
 to do — and which even a superintendent would not 
 find out without a little friendly, but searching in- 
 quiry. 
 
 Thus have we ventured to suggest a remedy for 
 an evil over which we know that Dr. Wheeler's 
 heart often ached sadly. Vaster than the one which 
 he proposed, but far less drastic; though of course 
 his remedy will also have to be used at times, and 
 doubtless has been often used. And were my 
 father here today, on these western prairies, I be- 
 lieve he would give a startled but hearty approval 
 to his boy's plan; though on one point I am sure he 
 would insist; namely, that the secretary from each 
 country should be chosen from among the mission- 
 aries to that country, and that the missionaries 
 should also have the privilege of nominating two or 
 three candidates each, from the first three of whom 
 a choice should be made. — Thus I leave it; a little 
 seed; planted in memory of one I love, for a work I 
 greatly love; and in due season it will bear fruit. 
 Of this much I am certain. 
 
 ABILITY TO LEAD. 
 
 The talent for leadership takes many different 
 forms; some displaying it most markedly in art, 
 some in literature, some in the class room, and some 
 mostly on the platform; while others show it most 
 markedly in active life. Without this talent for 
 leadership a missionary would indeed be a failure; 
 and so it comes to pass that wherever we find wide 
 
104 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 awake missionaries this talent displays itself mark- 
 edly; and in Mr. Wheeler's case it was so marked as 
 to sometimes seem for the moment the sole secret of 
 his success. But such a conclusion would miss the 
 mark sadly; for great leaders are full as apt to be 
 great deceivers as great helpers; and in his power to 
 Help Men lay Mr. Wheeler's chief glory. And yet 
 one secret of this higher power was the lower, but 
 indispensable gift of leadership. 
 
 And whence came this gift? Doubtless from a 
 variety of sources; and yet chief among them we 
 shall find his habit of coming quickly to the main 
 point and hitting it on the head, good and hard. 
 For it was perfectly wonderful to see how fast he 
 could dodge minor points, or else knock them over, 
 and come to the main question in dispute. For like 
 a skilful general he often took in the whole situa- 
 tion at a glance, and knew pretty accurately at the 
 very start just what to expect, and how to go to 
 work. 
 
 And when he saw a man describing a difficulty 
 too fully, he was quite apt to interrupt him with the 
 question: "But do all these details make the main 
 point any clearer? Then why discuss them?" — 
 "But," remarks some one, "you cannot always get 
 at the main point. What then?" Why then you 
 certainly ought not to say much. For at such times 
 nine-tenths silence and only one-tenth talk is a far 
 better solvent than nine-tenths talk and only one- 
 tenth silence. 
 
 And here too we notice a power, common to all 
 the world's greatest leaders; he could at times stand 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 105 
 
 still and wait and watch for more light, at the very 
 time when weaker minds would have felt that a pos- 
 itive decision must be made one way or the other. 
 A?id the light always came after a while : though it 
 did sometimes upset pretty badly some of his tenta- 
 tive plans and hopes. 
 
 And still another point of interest is the curious 
 fact that quite often he could carry men's con- 
 sciences with him and get them to do as he advised, 
 even when their intellects were still unconvinced; 
 i. e., when they still supposed (theoretically) that he 
 was mistaken. Such followers as these were of 
 course rather poor ones, as they were apt to make a 
 good many blunders, and were also too timid to be 
 the best of workmen. But fortunately most of his 
 conversions were of a sort where conscience and in- 
 tellect were both convinced; and so were lasting 
 and hearty. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY'S HOME LIFE. 
 
 But "the missionary should also have a home," 
 says Mr. Wheeler, "a retreat to which he can return 
 to be refreshed and cheered when depressed and 
 dispirited by the bodily and mental fatigues of out- 
 side missionary labor."* And he realized the need 
 of such a home; because his own was such a rest and 
 
 ♦Ten Years on the Euphrates, p. 65 — Those who wish to see a very curious 
 argument on the other side, based largely on the fact that missionary wives 
 make the work much more costly (!) are referred to the Annual Report of 
 the A. B. C. F. M. for 1842, pp. 42 to 44; though in some ot his later works 
 this same writer manfully admits that he was badly mistaken in his reason- 
 ing, and that missionary wives are a great blessing, even if they are rather 
 costly. 
 
io6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 cheer to him, especially at those inevitable moments 
 when it seemed as if no one outside understood him. 
 For such moments are sure to come to all of us, even 
 the strongest. 
 
 But I shall not try to describe that home; for our 
 literature is full of pictures of lovely homes; and in 
 their deeper essentials all true homes are similar, 
 though never alike. Yet of the many things that 
 come to my mind I must speak of a few, which though 
 not specially picturesque, will perhaps be helpful 
 and interesting to young missionaries who are build- 
 ing up a home in some lonely foreign land, and find 
 themselves at times in real danger of being dwarfed 
 by some of the influences by which they are sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 The first thing that impresses me in the memory 
 of that home is the place that Family Prayer held in 
 it. I will not describe just how it was conducted; 
 for that is not essential; and I have seen it conducted 
 very differently in different homes, with equal help- 
 fulness. But the essential point was this; he and 
 my mother and their children did meet every day at 
 the family altar to ask for divine help, or else to give 
 thanks for help already given; and at such times he 
 spoke of only such things as specially interested him 
 and them then and there. Hence his prayers lacked 
 that vagueness and flatness which too often charac- 
 terizes the prayers of really good men, and makes 
 them less helpful to the leader and to all who join. 
 
 Once more do I remember how often he read 
 aloud of an evening, or on the afternoon of some 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 107 
 
 half day set apart for rest. Sometimes it was the 
 Life of Christ and sometimes the Life of Paul; some- 
 times the history of the Netherlands, or of Jesuit 
 Missions, and sometimes the latest news from China 
 and Japan; and sometimes the London Times or the 
 Boston Recorder; and sometimes right along for 
 hours, though oftcner only by snatches, — a sentence 
 here and there — but always interspersed with plenty 
 of comments and queries as to my mother's opinion. 
 Thus was the home life enriched, and even the 
 young folks made to feel that life was full of large 
 problems to be solved; and that it made a great dif- 
 ference whether they were worked out right or not. 
 
 Then next am I reminded of his love of study; 
 first of all his Bible study, to which he gave a little 
 time every morning when at home; and, secondly, 
 his more general studies, to which he turned when- 
 ever he found his grasp of other work growing too 
 nervous or weary, or lacking in its usual clearness. 
 And yet to call it "study" seems almost laughable, 
 so different was his idea of study from that of many 
 who spend a life-time in study, only to end off by 
 being as full of "learning" as a Thanksgiving turkey, 
 and about as ignorant. 
 
 But, to my father, studying, or rather "reading" 
 as he called it, meant not a stuffing of his memory 
 for some future examination day, but simply a catch- 
 ing and fixing hints, inspirations and thoughts, which 
 gave him food for still further thought and action. 
 And thus he grew rich. For from life, men, books, 
 newspapers, letters and nature he was ever drinking 
 in and shaping and re-shaping the food he needed. 
 
io8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And yet, as I look back and see what a student 
 he really was, I am more and more impressed with 
 his great wisdom in refusing to spend a single 
 moment on study which simply makes a man more 
 "learned," without giving him any added inspiration 
 and clearness of vision for the duties of today. 
 
 Thus was he a philosopher, even though philos- 
 ophy was the one study which he most despised, 
 because of its many absurd and misleading methods; 
 and in the dangerous but necessary investigations 
 of modern thought, many a student will yet find, in 
 the life of this missionary, the mingled inspiration 
 and restraint which shall make his own studies of 
 philosophy and life as truly simple and practical as 
 were Mr. Wheeler's studies of missionary policy 
 and the art of helping men. 
 
 But not only did this missionary love to "read 
 about the great men and heroes of the Christian 
 church and of the world," he also loved nature; and 
 on his beautiful though inexpensive Arab horse he 
 loved to race among the hills where his field of 
 labor lay spread before him, but in a restful way; 
 while "Mamma" trotted along on a meek white 
 donkey, and others from the station, some on horses, 
 some on mules, and some on donkeys, made a merry 
 crowd of missionaries, as merry as those who long 
 ago went to Canterbury town, though not as reck- 
 less. 
 
 And thus might we run on indefinitely; for gossip 
 like this is pleasant. But to properly understand 
 the special meaning of this man's life, and of the 
 
THE MISSIONARY'S CHARACTER. 109 
 
 things he taught and did, we must turn at once to 
 other topics. For even as a boy it was his **policy" 
 that most deeply impressed me, next to his char- 
 acter; and this policy I wish to explain as fully as 
 his spoken and written words and remembered ac- 
 tions make possible; for here it was that he most 
 sought for light, and added most to men's knowl- 
 edge of the ways of God. 
 
 And yet one word more I must say, in closing, of 
 that home in which the man rested and grew strong. 
 Perhaps the most striking feature of it all was the 
 quiet tenderness which pervaded it, even from the 
 earliest years of my recollection, and even when in 
 sadness of heart he had to whip his little boy. He 
 was not demonstrative; it always seemed to me rath- 
 er that he was too silent much of the time; but he 
 was nearly always tender, and willing to let his love 
 show, very plainly, though for the most part in a 
 very undemonstrative way; and of this I have always 
 been glad; for a "policy" without a warm heart back 
 of it would be a very poor thing, however good it 
 might be in the abstract. 
 
 HIS FAULTS AND HIS EXAMPLE. 
 
 But did he not have any faults? Yes; and any 
 one who reads this book through attentively will see 
 that we do not claim that the missionary was infal- 
 lible or faultless. But the study of a man's strong 
 points is ordinarily more helpful than the study of 
 his faults, provided the faults are touched on occa- 
 sionally, and the good points are spoken of enthusi- 
 astically, but not in terms of mere eulogy. 
 
no SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But what we do claim is that Mr. Wheeler was ex- 
 ceptionally true, in his motives, and in the larger out- 
 lines of his thought; and also in the details of mat- 
 ters which he looked into at all closely; and that his 
 trueness at these three points was what brought him 
 success, a success that was truly wonderful. And 
 what we have tried to do, in planning and writing 
 this book, is to explain that success; so as to make 
 it easier for others to go and do likewise, by learning 
 from him even as he learned from Christ and Paul 
 and Luther and Wesley; or rather learning with his 
 help to better understand both Christ and Paul, and 
 the things they taught. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 
 
 We now come to some lessons from experience, 
 taken in part from Mr. Wheeler's oft reiterated 
 teachings, and in part from his more quiet practice, 
 which we believe will be helpful to many a new be- 
 ginner; though we cannot help hoping that they will 
 also be helpful to such older missionaries as are 
 gifted with those large powers of insight which en- 
 able a man to keep on learning from others, how- 
 ever well informed and successful he may be him- 
 self. 
 
 We will first of all discuss a few general princi- 
 ples bearing on the missionary's own conduct, and 
 on the most effective ways of using the forces at his 
 disposal; after which in successive chapters we will 
 take up the Planting of Churches, the Training of 
 Religious Leaders, the Proper Use of Money, 
 Founding Schools and Colleges, and various other 
 problems which need not be enumerated here. 
 
 CHANGING ONE'S MIND. 
 
 Beginning first of all with some lessons which 
 seem trifling, and yet are in reality indispensable to 
 large success, we find that Mr. Wheeler was a man 
 
 III 
 
112 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 who dared to change his mind. But let no one sup- 
 pose that he was fickle; for a fickle man changes 
 his mind foolishly and blindly, ever throwing away 
 today the results of yesterday's hard work. But 
 the changing of mind of which we are speaking now 
 is one which brings a man each time a little nearer to 
 the truth: and makes one's plans and ideals broader 
 and truer and more complete, as the years go by. 
 
 Surely this is not fickleness; but simply growth. 
 And yet there are men who call it fickleness; and 
 there are men who are so afraid of seeming fickle 
 and inconsistent that they never grow, and are never 
 made one whit wiser by experience. 
 
 And yet even a well considered change of mind 
 has its dangers, in the meeting of which I believe the 
 following cautions will be helpful, cautions which I 
 have often heard my father give to new beginners: 
 
 First; be careful not to change your mind without 
 sufficient reason; secondly, do not change it too sud- 
 denly; and, thirdly, see to it that your new thoughts 
 and plans are not mere reversals of the thoughts 
 and plans of yesterday; but only broader and simpler 
 and more complete statements of the same vital 
 truths. And if at times this involved some incon- 
 sistency, it was nearly always the inconsistency of a 
 man who is nearer right today than he was yesterday; 
 and such inconsistency is not athingto be ashamed of. 
 
 WINNING MEN BY EXAMPLE. 
 
 Then next we find in Mr. Wheeler's life how much 
 depends on a missionary's own personal character 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 113 
 
 and example. For often, when people thought his 
 teachings nonsensical, something in the man's life 
 contradicted them, and made them willing to follow 
 his lead far enough to find out for themselves that 
 he was right. And though it does not follow from 
 this that very good people will make good mission- 
 aries, no matter how few brains they have; this much 
 is true, that, (given the brains and consecration,) a 
 really lovely character in detail will multiply many 
 fold the usefulness of the worker; while an unlovely 
 and selfish vein running through the life will greatly 
 lessen its usefulness, even when the unlovely one is 
 really consecrated to the Master's service; for "great 
 indeed is the power of a consecrated Christian life;" 
 and great the weakness of one in which some "little 
 faults" are allowed to live on unconquered, because 
 they seem so little. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING CHARACTER MORE 
 CLOSELY. 
 
 Again we find that he was careful not to judge 
 men simply by their talk, or by their willingness to 
 take up some of the lighter crosses of the Christian 
 life. For even when men's good intentions are sin- 
 cere, they may often be so ill considered and shal- 
 low as to soon die down again, and come to naught, 
 for a while at least. 
 
 Hence he was slow to count up converts, though 
 quick to welcome each new comer, and shrewd and 
 eager to quickly lead him on to a more complete 
 taking up of the cross of service and the crown of 
 love. 
 
 (8) 
 
114 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And, furthermore, by carefully noting his hearers, 
 he learned, after a while, to divide them very quick- 
 ly into four classes: First, hypocrites; secondly, 
 persons actuated by mere honest curiosity; third, 
 honest truth seekers, who are as yet only at the in- 
 quirer's stage; and fourthly, those who may proper- 
 ly be counted on as fully convinced and brought 
 over to the Lord's side. — And this habit of care- 
 fully determining a hearer's standing, before saying 
 much to him, made it easier for him to tell just what 
 message would be most helpful in each case; for he 
 firmly believed that even truth may be spoken in 
 such an ill-timed way as to do little if any good. 
 
 Another interesting illustration of this constant 
 desire to judge men justly was the almost tender 
 respect which he showed for some who he felt were 
 on the wrong road, and yet were at heart real truth 
 seekers. And while we cannot say that he always 
 succeeded in being just to such as these, we can say 
 that he at least tried to be just, and you will find 
 that of some good people even this much cannot be 
 said; for they seem to glory in being unfair in their 
 criticism of others. 
 
 HOW TO DEAL WITH PREJUDICE. 
 
 Another simple but far-reaching lesson which Mr. 
 Wheeler learned from experiednce was the art of 
 dealing with honest prejudice. And the art as he 
 understood and practiced it seemed to be this: — If, 
 in the belief of another, along with much error, there 
 was some real truth, he would try in some simple, 
 cordial way to recognize and admit that truth; and 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 115 
 
 then go on to show how that truth would naturally 
 lead on to still others, which they had forgotten or 
 overlooked. Thus would he win them; taking their 
 erroneous views as the starting point for something 
 higher and more consistent; instead of foolishly ig- 
 noring the little they already knew. 
 
 To illustrate this method of dealing with preju- 
 dice, let us consider for a moment, two pictures; 
 one taken from history, and the other from Mr. 
 Wheeler's own life. The first of these is from the 
 life of St. Paul and is one to which Mr. Wheeler 
 often referred with great delight. — Paul was 
 preaching in Athens to a crowd of heathen on Mars' 
 Hill (Acts 17:22) and thus he spoke: "Ye men of 
 Athens, I can see that ye are in all things more God 
 fearing than most; for, as I passed by and beheld 
 your sacred places, I even found an altar with this 
 inscription — 'To the Unknown God.' Whom there- 
 fore ye worship, without knowing him, — him do I 
 declare unto you." Such was Paul's method; as we 
 also see from his epistles, and from other addresses 
 in the Acts, — And now for an illustration from Mr. 
 Wheeler's own life. 
 
 He was trying to address an excited crowd of 
 people, who often kissed the Holy Bible on their 
 altar, but knew very little of its contents, and 
 thought the missionary an infidel. And what did 
 the missionary do? He simply took up that Holy 
 Book and kissed it; and like magic the crowd be- 
 came silent and attentive, and were willing to hear 
 the missionary a-s he expounded to them the teach- 
 ings of the book which he had kissed in their pres- 
 
ii6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ence. And, by thus kissing it, he put himself in a 
 position where he could go on and show them that 
 reading it daily was better than kissing. 
 
 And even when a prejudice seemed wholly wrong, 
 the missionary was careful not to step on it need- 
 lessly, either by word or deed; and in discussion he 
 would make a special effort to find some other start- 
 ing point on which they could agree, thus making 
 the discussion more helpful. And so he won and 
 impressed many a man whom a less charitable or 
 more pugnacious person would have needlessly 
 grieved and driven away. 
 
 But when the people's prejudices called for con- 
 cessions which would be harmful to them, or to a free 
 and healthy development of the missionary's own 
 deeper life, then Mr. Wheeler was one of those who 
 would not yield an inch; but would either silently 
 disregard the prejudice; or administer a searching 
 rebuke, if it were shown in too aggressive a way. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE DISCUSSION PROFITABLE. 
 
 The habit of often shifting the ground of a discus- 
 sion of which' we have just spoken was one of the 
 most persistent and helpful of Mr. Wheeler's whole 
 life. Yet it should be remembered that he never let 
 the discussion shift at random, or shifted it himself 
 from a mere desire to dodge difificulties; but simply 
 from a determination not to debate for a single mo- 
 ment on any subject which the other party was not 
 willing to discuss fairly, or was evidently incapable 
 of seeing clearly. So that whenever he shifted the 
 ground of a discussion, or suddenly turned from de- 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 117 
 
 bate to a scathing rebuke of some conceited and dis- 
 honest debater, who insisted on talking, but would 
 not talk fairly, — even his opponents generally ad- 
 mitted that he had good reasons for so doing, and 
 were generally willing to admit it openly.* 
 
 HOW TO DISTINGUISH ESSENTIALS FROM 
 NON-ESSENTIALS. 
 
 But, says some one, how are we to distinguish es- 
 sentials from non-essentials? This question is not 
 an easy one to answer, nor are we likely to always 
 succeed in distinguishing them as fully as we would 
 like to do. But it is a question which we should 
 know how to answer pretty clearly and correctly, 
 even from the very first, and with greater and great- 
 er clearness as the years go by; for right here it is 
 that many a worker, both at home and abroad, has 
 made shipwreck of his own life's usefulness, and has 
 brought great injury to himself and others. 
 
 Taking up the question then biographically, and 
 trying to find in a closer study of Mr. Wheeler's 
 own life an explanation of his skill in distinguish- 
 ing essentials from non-essentials, we find two 
 
 *I wish to add here my private opinion, based on a study of my father's life, 
 and also on other data, that such informal discussions as these will generally 
 be found far more helpful in missionary work, both home and foreign, than 
 talks or addresses where only one person talks on uninterruptedly, except by 
 hostile persons, for twenty, thirty or forty minutes. For elaborate mono- 
 logues are coming to be less and less of a power in the real shaping of an aver- 
 age man's opinions, in any matter where his opinions and yours radically 
 disagree, 
 
 Mr. Wheeler's rule of never debating either in public or in private with a 
 man who was too dishonest or conceited to be fair is also well worthy of spe- 
 cial note. For such debates only tend to make men forget the main issue and 
 run off onto others which are comparatively of very little importance or no 
 importance at all. 
 
ii8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 traits that go a long way toward explaining it. 
 One was his habit of never deciding a question 
 wholesale. — His instinct seemed to be to cut up 
 any large or difficult question into a great many lit- 
 tle ones; and then he would get so absorbed in the 
 accurate solution of each of these that it often 
 seemed as if he had forgotten the main point. 
 But when at last each of these minor questions was 
 clearly solved (or else clearly seen to be non-essen- 
 tial) then he would come back with startling sud- 
 denness to the main issue, of which these lower 
 questions were only vital parts. — And then could 
 he see clearly enough to solve many a perplexing 
 problem which, had he attempted to solve it earlier, 
 would only have led him into still greater perplex- 
 ity. 
 
 But side by side of this habit of never deciding 
 wholesale, lay another of great importance, without 
 which he would have been sadly crippled in many 
 an exciting crisis; namely, a seeming utter disregard 
 of the shortness of time, whenever a careful study 
 of the situation showed that the longest way round 
 was the only sure way of getting home. And yet 
 he generally got there, and got there in better shape 
 than others who had not the courage to go so slow- 
 ly. For God and nature are strangely kind to the 
 man who would rather do a little work well than a 
 lot of work poorly; and generally reward him by 
 letting him accomplish more than those who prefer 
 to take a short cut, even though not quite sure that 
 it is right. 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 119 
 
 But no, says some one, Mr. Wheeler, instead of 
 being slow to decide hard and perplexing questions, 
 was very quick and even hasty in his way of decid- 
 ing them. To which we simply reply, then you do 
 not know your man. For though he was quick to 
 act, when his mind was once made up; and may also 
 have been very quick in deciding some matters 
 which to others were perplexing and hard, I can 
 freely say that, whenever he himself was perplexed, 
 h.e was one of the slowest of men in arriving at a 
 decision that I have ever seen. • 
 
 Was he then infallible? No, certainly not; for he 
 was evidently mistaken at times. But it is grand 
 to see how this beautiful sensitiveness to truth, and 
 unwillingness to go ahead blindly, when he was not 
 sure of his ground, did often save him from mis- 
 takes, or else enable him to find and correct them, 
 when he had already made them. 
 
 But, going a step or two farther, we find still other 
 points in Mr. Wheeler's character which throw light 
 on this art of distinguishing essentials from non-es- 
 sentials. — One is that he had very little to say, 
 most of the time, about "non-essentials." — It was 
 simply "more essential" and "less essential," so that 
 most of the "non-essentials" were not suddenly dis- 
 covered to be such, but only gradually^ as day after 
 day, and year after year, a careful study of the 
 question, "What had I better do today?" showed 
 that there were always some things more important 
 to be done than others, a7id just what these things 
 were. 
 
120 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And, secondly, he came to realize more and more 
 clearly as the years went by that some things which 
 may be essential tomorrow are not essential today; 
 while others that are essential today, may not be 
 essential tomorrow. And, furthermore, that many 
 things which are essential and helpful for one 
 nation or individual may be non-essential or even 
 harmful for another. So that the need of choosing 
 carefully each day the things that are most essential 
 for that day's good came to be a very clearly recog- 
 nized one in his whole life, keeping regularity from 
 deteriorating into stagnation and irregularity from 
 turning into lawlessness. 
 
 THE WHOLE PROBLEM IN A NUT-SHELL. 
 
 But this question of essentials and non-essentials 
 leads on to another; namely this: Are there not 
 some things that are essential everywhere? and how 
 is a missionary to tell what these are, in first going 
 among an unchristian people, or one whose Chris- 
 tianity is very faulty? This question we have al- 
 ready answered quite fully under "The Missionary's 
 Message" and "Laying Foundations." But there is 
 also needed of a more general answer, one that will 
 briefly sum up the whole question in a single sen- 
 tence of almost axiomatic clearness and simplicity 
 — Mr. Wheeler's own statement of it being some- 
 what as follows: Give them at first only such things 
 as they Most Need, taking care not to give too 
 much. 
 
 Then will your work count, and be a help to them 
 in getting later on from you and from others such 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 121 
 
 other helps as they may also need. For man's 
 needs are many; but the deeper ones must be met first : 
 then the lesser one. And he who overlooks men's 
 deeper needs in his zeal to relieve lesser ones, will only 
 drive them farther off from peace and God. 
 
 "But what do men most need?" — We may sum 
 it all up in a very few words; namely, that we some- 
 how convince them that God is love; and that we 
 are his children; and so to be trusted (as, for ex- 
 ample, in medical missionary work). Then comes 
 the slow and hard, but sweet task, of teaching them 
 also to be like him. 
 
 Such is our message in its three most essential 
 parts; only we should be careful in trying to win 
 their confidence to use only such simple Quiet 
 helps as will be least likely to make them forget, 
 even for a single second, their heavenly Father, and 
 his wish that they should be like him. For just 
 here it is that missionaries have sometimes erred 
 most sadly; stuffing the poor unchristian or young 
 Christian brain with such a variety of learning and 
 superficial civilization that the need of being good 
 and true, unselfish and lovely has been lost sight of; 
 and the poor, disappointed people have failed to 
 get that deeper change of life and heart of which 
 these should have been only the after fruits, the 
 "meat" but not the "milk." 
 
 And yet in all these cases we should remember 
 that there is no antagonism between civilization and 
 the gospel, or between learning and religion; but 
 simply an inability of weak and darkened races to 
 digest the strong, rich food of higher education and 
 
122 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 civilization, until they have been Toned Up by the 
 sweeter and simpler and more vital food of a gospel 
 of love and duty; first seen and heard, and then put 
 in practice for many a long and happy year, like the 
 years of childhood, and early manhood and woman- 
 hood. 
 
 For as to you and me the larger problems of ma- 
 ture life brought new struggles of which our child- 
 hood was ignorant, so does "higher education," so 
 called, bring fierce struggles and temptations into 
 every life; and it is wrong to let any one plunge into 
 deep water too soon. For intellectual swimming is 
 more difficult than physical; and the dangers of 
 drowning are vastly greater, resulting as it does in a 
 life-long blindness or else badness, produced by too 
 much undigested learning. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF PREACHING A POSITIVE GOSPEL. 
 
 But going on with our narrative, we find yet an- 
 other trait which contributed greatly to Mr. Wheeler's 
 success as a missionary. He preached an intensely 
 positive gospel most of the time. Not what we ought 
 not to do, but what we ought to do; not what we 
 ought not to believe, but what we ought to believe; 
 not the vices but the virtues: and when men's vices 
 were pointed out, it was not in the dramatic way 
 which is too common now days, but sadly, and in 
 words that appealed to the conscience rather than 
 the imagination; so asto prepare the way for the more 
 pleasant work of urging and explaining at length 
 some positive and inspiring duty. 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 123 
 
 And so he learned to dwell long and lovingly on 
 the more simple and oft needed truths of the Chris- 
 tian life; and but little on the inconsistencies and 
 errors of the beliefs which he hoped to displace by 
 something better. For he often used to say that he 
 who simply knocks down Buddhism or Brahminism 
 or Gregorianism does not thereby make men better; 
 but may simply make them infidels and atheists, who 
 have even less regard for truth and right than they 
 had before. 
 
 While he also tried to keep in mind the fact that 
 some forms of littleness and ignorance cannot be 
 wholly overcome except by years and even gener- 
 ations of growth; and so should be criticised more 
 gently than other faults that come more directly un- 
 der the control of the will. 
 
 NOT RULES; BUT PRINCIPLES. 
 
 A missionary who had no rules, or who had them, 
 but did not enforce them, would indeed be a weak- 
 ling and a changeling, tearing down his own work 
 almost as fast as he built it; and many a missionary 
 can doubtless trace some of his bitterest disappoint- 
 ments and failures to some moments of weakness in 
 which the wish to be obliging has made him set aside 
 temporarily some well-considered rule of procedure, 
 which experience has proved tobe essential to healthy 
 growth. 
 
 But while the missionary should have rules, con- 
 scious and unconscious, (asthis book abundantly tes- 
 tifies)and should never lightly set them aside, there 
 is a still higher truth which he must ever keep in 
 
124 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 mind; namely that there are many things for which 
 no rules can wisely be given, but only some simple 
 and far reaching principle of truth and duty, in the 
 light of which questions of detail must be settled by 
 each one for himself. 
 
 "But why not reduce them to rules?" Simply be- 
 cause your- rules would be so complicated, or else so 
 full of mistakes, that they would do more harm than 
 good, killing out that healthy individuality which 
 makes the life of one man or one nation so strikingly 
 different from that of another. And so deep is this 
 law of difference, or individuality, that it often hap- 
 pens that "rules and plans" which would be a help 
 to you and me would be a positive hindrance to the 
 Christian life of the people for whom we are working. 
 
 Hence Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues were very 
 careful not to lay down many set rules for their con- 
 verts; provided only they conformed to the deep law 
 of godliness and love which the missionaries had 
 come to proclaim. And it is pleasant to recall how 
 emphatic Mr. Wheeler was in saying that the gospel 
 of Christ was not a loaf of bread, baked in your way 
 or mine, but simply a leaven suited to all climes, and 
 capable of adapting itself to many different civiliza- 
 tions and purifying them all, without making them 
 all alike. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF REACHING LEADING MINDS. 
 
 We now come to a matter of great importance in 
 the effective and economical planning of missionary 
 work; namely, the desirability of reaching and influ- 
 encing just as many leading minds as possible. For 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 125 
 
 any one can see that he who converts a hundred lead- 
 ers of men in five or ten or twenty years will have 
 laid a far broader foundation than he who simply 
 converts an equal number of ordinary men in the 
 same time, most of whom are not endowed with any 
 special giftof leadership, or any special skill in reach- 
 ing other lives. 
 
 For alike in heathen lands and in Christian, in 
 Orient and in Occident, in truth and in error, no 
 movement becomes strong and aggressive till it has 
 won to itself a goodly number of leading spirits, 
 gifted with that peculiar make up which makes them 
 natural leaders of men, wherever they go, both before 
 and after conversion, though they are not always 
 great talkers, and may work so quietly as to attract 
 very little attention. 
 
 But such men are rare; and only a few of them are 
 to be found in any one community. Yet these are 
 the ones whom the missionary needs to reach, if pos- 
 sible. The question is. How can he do it? 
 
 First of all we answer. He cannot do it by settling 
 down and becoming simply a faithful pastor or city 
 missionary in some one community. Such is the les- 
 son of history; such the lesson of the life of which 
 we are speaking. 
 
 Had Christ settled down to simply preaching in 
 Capernaum or Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost would 
 never have seen its three thousand converts. For it 
 was not Peter's preaching, but the fact that Jesus 
 himself had long preached throughout all Galilee 
 and Judea, and at three successive passovers besides, 
 
126 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 and had called into active service twelve chief as- 
 sistant spirits, and at least sixty or seventy others 
 (Luke lO-i); — this it was which made so many 
 ready to hear and quickly repent, when the day of 
 Pentecost was fully come, and Jesus' life was more 
 fully understood in the added light of his death and 
 resurrection. 
 
 So also with Luther in his university at Witten- 
 berg; he had around him a mass of restless students, 
 monks and pressmen, leading spirits from many dif- 
 ferent places, all eager for more light, even before he 
 began to speak to them. Hence was his message 
 mighty and quick; or, rather, a great deal more 
 mighty than it would have been had he simply 
 preached to the people of some one town. 
 
 So too was it in the early years of the Harpoot 
 work; for the missionaries did not labor long and 
 patiently to win only a handful of hardened sinners 
 in some one or two communities; but labored ear- 
 nestly for a few souls in each of many different 
 towns, namely, those who were already "hungering 
 after righteousness;" and then, through these, they 
 reached the more hardened and reckless ones. Nor 
 should we forget that such men as these are often 
 reached better by books, (supplemented by quite 
 regular, but not too frequent, question and answer 
 talks) than they would be by more formal address- 
 es, or more persistent following up. 
 
 And, secondly, we should remember that the real 
 leaders in any community or town, that is the real 
 spiritual leaders, are not generally the smartest 
 men; or the best educated; nor are they necessarily 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 127 
 
 the so called religious teachers of the community. 
 For the smart men are too often smart and shallow,' 
 and utterly lacking in spirituality; and the best edu- 
 cated men are apt to be ones whose very learning 
 has blinded them to the deepest needs of human 
 nature; and as for so called religious leaders, most 
 of them — in heathen and dead-christian lands — and 
 many of them even in our own land, hold their of- 
 fice simply through some gift of speech, or love of 
 dignity which marks them out as religious hin- 
 drances, and not as leaders. 
 
 Hence it is that the missionary need not be 
 troubled, if these classes often let him alone, or 
 listen only in a cold or hostile way. The only ques- 
 tion being whether he can find any, who, though 
 distrusting him at first, as an outsider, do still seem 
 to love the message that he brings. If so, he has 
 reached the class he seeks, and has a chance to do a 
 far reaching work for Christ and men. 
 
 Nor is this any slur on city missionary work, or 
 on simple pastoral duties. For when Christianity 
 has once become a well known power in a commu- 
 nity, then city missionary work can be done to so 
 much better advantage that its usefulness will be 
 just as great as that of work done on the foreign 
 field, provided the two are done in ways that are 
 equally wise and natural. But when gospel work 
 first begins in any land, strictly city missionary 
 methods cannot give the largest returns, either in 
 numbers or quality of converts, 
 
128 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 How Much Touring Shall We Do. 
 
 This brings up the further question, how much 
 touring or itinerating shall we do? and how shall we 
 plan it so as to get the best results? This question 
 is an exceedingly important one. For while all 
 missionaries believe in touring, theoretically, the 
 temptation to neglect it, in practice, is very strong; 
 and it is also evident that some missionaries make 
 a far greater success of it than others. As to the 
 question, how much shall I do? Mr. Wheeler's prac- 
 tical answer, in his more active years, was that he 
 gave about half of his time to touring and half to 
 home work; though the largest part of this home 
 work was also for outsiders, and not for the people 
 of the town where he lived. 
 
 For men soon learned that the missionaries, though 
 avoiding too much mere bread and butter hospital- 
 ity, which makes the missionary's house a mere con- 
 venient hotel, were always glad to see them, and 
 talk over the work in the towns whence they came. 
 And for those choice, though rough clad souls to 
 whom bread and butter would be no temptation, I 
 well remember that bread and butter hospitality 
 was also ever open; and well do I remember the in- 
 terest with which I as a boy used to listen to the 
 table talk of these "brethren," and notice how my 
 father always turned the conversation to some topic 
 of real and often stirring interest, so stirring that 
 they and he would sometimes even forget to eat. 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 129 
 
 And, even in later years, when he had a large 
 school, collegiate and preparatory, on his hands, his 
 love for touring remained and asserted itself; though 
 in his latest years he felt that it would have been 
 better had he given it a more fully recognized place, 
 even at the cost of seeming to neglect some parts of 
 his school work. And in this I think he was right; 
 for even in so strong and practical a life as his, years 
 of confinement to mere school work did tend in 
 some ways to a less clear grasp of some of those safe- 
 guards without which even the best of schools tends 
 to become more or less unpractical in some of its 
 details, and thus less perfect and satisfactory. But 
 of this we shall speak later. Only let me here re- 
 peat and pass on Mr. Wheeler's lifelong conviction 
 that every preaching missionary should give a large 
 part of his time to touring; and the growing convic- 
 tion of his later years that even educational mission- 
 aries, both male and female, whose main work is in 
 connection with some school, should also break 
 away from their school work at times, and broaden 
 their love for man, and correct their sprouting prej- 
 udices, by a closer contact with common every day 
 life and every day people. 
 
 And let us not forget that ten missionaries, each 
 spending five months of the year in active touring, 
 will accomplish far more than if the work were so 
 divided that most of the touring was done by num- 
 bers one to five, while most of the home work was 
 left to the others. For touring is a necessary tonic, 
 or rather food, without which no missionary can 
 
 (9) 
 
130 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 maintain a clear and thoroughly well balanced grasp 
 of the great but perplexing problems in the solution 
 of which he must day by day take a leader's part. 
 So that while some will properly make more of a 
 specialty of touring than others, it still remains true 
 that every missionary, even the newest comer, should 
 be gently compelled to take a hand in this most im- 
 portant branch of work, both for his work's sake 
 and his own. 
 
 HOW LARGE A DISTRICT SHALL WE COVER IN 
 TOURING? 
 
 One of the most hotly disputed questions in all 
 missionary work remains yet to be answered, and 
 comes next in order. How large a district shall 
 the missionary cover in his touring? — To this ques- 
 tion the wildest answers have been given, some even 
 claiming that all we need to do is to give each per- 
 son a chance to hear the gospel once or twice; and 
 that we should then go hurrying on from place to 
 place, so as to give each creature a chance to hear 
 the gospel offer at least once. But if I thought that 
 the Bible, fairly interpreted, taught any such doc- 
 trine, I should simply feel obliged to say, "Well, for 
 once the good book is mistaken." 
 
 But when we come to look at the matter soberly, 
 we find no such teaching. For no preacher or pro- 
 claimer of the gospel, or of any other deep and 
 many-sided message, can be said to have really done 
 his duty, uutil he makes his message plain enough, 
 by putting it in many different lights, for men to 
 really understand its meaning. 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 131 
 
 And to suppose that Christ's second coming is to 
 be hastened by any preaching of the gospel which 
 men cannot be expected to really understand, is as 
 absurd as the old Roman Catholic doctrine that 
 praying in Latin would save men's souls, wherever 
 they might be. 
 
 For pray tell me. How many of us would be Chris- 
 tians today, if we had heard of Christ and his gos- 
 pel only once or twice? or even a hundred times? 
 And if Christ meant that his disciples should go hur- 
 rying with post haste from town to town, and land 
 to land, it is certainly strange that so many of his 
 apostles did not know it, but remained for many a 
 long year in Palestine; — and that he himself should 
 have so carefully lifnited his own labors to one small 
 country, only eighty miles long. 
 
 And, furthermore, those who are tempted to think 
 of evangelizing the world as simply a lot of well- 
 meaning, earnest talk, regardless of results, should 
 remember that the command, as given in Matt. 28: 
 19, clearly excludes such an idea; for we are told to 
 "make disciples of all nations," not simply to talk 
 to them; and in the 20th verse, "teach them to ob- 
 serve my commandments" certainly means more 
 than "tell them about my commandments." 
 
 And if appeal is made to the example of Paul, we 
 need only remember that in nearly every commu- 
 nity where he worked there was already a nucleus 
 of devout. Godfearing Jews, many of whom had 
 doubtless heard of Christ long before, as from year 
 to year some of their number went to Jerusalem to 
 
132 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 attend the passover. Hence his work was more 
 that of an evangelist and reformer and organizer, 
 teaching those who already loved the Father to love 
 the Son as well; and to love their Gentile neighbors 
 more; rather than that of a mere foreign missionary 
 in the modern sense of that word. And yet Cv'^en he 
 often staid for months and even years in the same 
 place; and had special assistants, such as Timothy 
 and Titus, to follow up and complete the work which 
 he himself had begun. 
 
 J. HUDSON TAYLOR'S OPINION. 
 
 Coming then to more practical solutions of the 
 question, I take pleasure in being able to quote from 
 J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, a 
 statement which puts one part of the case very 
 clearly. He says*: "It is most desirable that the 
 itineration be systematic; and that the same centers 
 be visited again and again. — Short visits are [ordi- 
 narily] best at first; but longer and more frequent 
 ones will become desirable as time progresses." 
 And such was the practice of the Harpoot mission- 
 aries; and, so far as I know, such also has been the 
 practice of most other missionaries in whose success 
 the Christian world has had special occasion to re- 
 joice. 
 
 Only we should remember that very small centers, 
 towns of one, two and three thousand inhabitants, 
 are often just as hopeful for such work as ours, as 
 are the larger towns and cities; and hence should 
 
 ♦London Missionary Conference of 1888, Vol. II., p. 32. 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 133 
 
 never be overlooked, till by actual testing we find 
 which are the most promising. 
 
 But if visits are to become both "longer and more 
 frequent," as time goes on; the question arises, How 
 is this to be brought about? 
 
 One answer is that there should be a steadily in- 
 creasing number of native workers; some giving 
 most of their time to touring, and the remainder to 
 rest and study; and some giving only a few weeks 
 each year to touring, and the rest of their time to 
 settled pastoral work in some one community. 
 And such was the practice of the Harpoot mission- 
 aries; who, as we shall see later on, began very early 
 the selection and training of consecrated though un- 
 learned men to do the work of native pastors and 
 exhorters; and encouraged them to take a hand in 
 the work of exhortation, and of slowly evangelizing 
 neighboring communities. 
 
 As a further solution of the problem, Mr. Taylor 
 also suggests that there should be a gradual increase 
 in the number of missionaries; and it is curious to 
 see that such was also the answer first proposed by 
 Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues. For in 1858, 
 when Diarbekir, Arabkir and Harpoot were all three 
 occupied by missionaries, we find them asking for 
 two more missionaries for Palu;* whereas (as a mat- 
 ter of fact) it was found, later on, that the work in 
 and around all these four centers could best be man- 
 aged from Harpoot alone, and with only three or 
 four active male missionares. 
 
 ♦See Missionary Herald for 1858, p, 279. 
 
134 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But how then could they make "longer and more 
 frequent" visits to their outstations? — First, by em- 
 ploying more native workers (as suggested above;) 
 and, secondly, by gradually cutting off the less 
 promising and less truth-loving communities. Such 
 was the method followed by the missionaries at 
 Harpoot; and such is the law of nature and of grace, 
 as expounded by Jesus Christ himself (Luke 8:i8) 
 — And why? Simply because the most wilful sin- 
 ners are most likely to repent at last, if left alone to 
 their own unhappy selves, for a good long time; and 
 the missionary is also less likely to deteriorate into 
 a mere pointless talker, if he insists on hunting in 
 the highways and hedges till he finds each day some 
 who are really glad to be invited to the King's 
 supper. 
 
 NUMBER OF TOWNS VISITED EACH YEAR. 
 
 But still the question, just how many places can 
 be profitably visited in a year, when first going over 
 the ground, remains partly unanswered; for the mis- 
 sionary who generally spends three or four days at 
 a place, as the Harpoot missionaries seem to have 
 done, will not of course reach as many places in six 
 or eight months as one who visits a new town each 
 day or two: and furthermore he who spends only 
 six or eight months touring will not reach as many 
 places as if he had *'lived in tents the year round," 
 (as some have done). 
 
 Of this last sort of touring the most remarkable 
 instance we have come across is that of the Rev. 
 R. R. Meadows, of the Church Missionary Society, 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 135 
 
 who says* that with a force of three missionaries, 
 and seven native helpers, from the South Tinnevelly 
 district in Southern India, he and his companions 
 •'used to visit fourteen hundred villages in North 
 Tinnevelly over and over again, all of them at least 
 twice a year, and many of them a great many more 
 times than that." And so far as we are able to 
 judge at this distance, their work seems to have been 
 greatly blessed; though we ourselves should not 
 dare to spread out quite so far, and know that Mr. 
 Wheeler favored visiting less places, and staying 
 several days in a place, and spending a part of the 
 time each year at some central point, trainmg up re- 
 ligious leaders for the permanent occupation of the 
 most promising towns at the earliest possible date.|l 
 
 While then no better general rule can be given 
 than that which we have quoted above from Hud- 
 son Taylor, we may properly add a few side hints 
 and cautions which will help to make the matter 
 plainer. 
 
 (i) The work of touring, even when systematic, 
 may be carried on so blunderingly as to accomplish 
 almost nothing. But this occurs only when the 
 worker lives and talks in a pugnacious and disputa- 
 tious way, rather than in one of patient, out-reach- 
 
 ♦London Missionary Conference, 1888, Vol. 2, pp. 39 to 41. 
 
 IIBut even for the least promising towns (spiritually) and for the most non- 
 central and little, we believe that a systematic visitation from neighboring 
 churches, and at rare intervals, by a missionary, should also be planned for; 
 so as to gather in a few of the choicest and most willing souls even here, and 
 make them feel that they too are invited. And in such work as this the 
 Harpoot churches and missionaries were ever forward; though the Tinne- 
 velly missionaries seem to have done it more systematically, and thus more 
 effectively. 
 
136 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ing love; or else, secondly, when he assumes that 
 the mere name of Jesus, without any knowledge of 
 his life and character and simpler teachings, is go- 
 ing to win and save men, as if it were by magic. — 
 To these two classes failure is inevitable; to all other 
 lovers of Jesus more or less success is equally sure. 
 
 (2) While all should tour, more or less, each 
 worker should be free to choose the special sort of 
 touring in which he individually can do the best 
 work; though experience, and conference with his 
 brethren, may show him that some of the forms of 
 work which he first inclined to choose are not really 
 the best, and can be exchanged for better ones. 
 
 (3) Every missionary should have a hand in the 
 slow but early selection and training of proper lead- 
 ers for pastoral work later on, as distinguished from 
 evangelistic work; hence presumably should not 
 spend all his time in touring. 
 
 (4) The sooner a beginning can be made in or- 
 ganizing groups of local Christian workers for sys- 
 tematic home missionary work, the greater will be 
 the final harvest; provided the work is carefully and 
 wisely done. — Of this we shall speak more fully 
 later. 
 
 (5) And, finally, many a missionary who has 
 made a sad failure of touring; and of all other sorts 
 of missionary work, will find the way to success 
 open when he begins to spend less time in address- 
 ing crowds, and less in trying to prove theoretically 
 that Christianity is better than heathenism or self- 
 seeking, and more time in simply hunting up hungry 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 137 
 
 souls and bringing them inch by inch nearer to 
 Christ, without telling them at first whereto the 
 sweet and narrow way of love leads later on. For 
 the the theory of right and the theology of right 
 often perplex men, when the thought of simply ''do- 
 ing right,'' "with help from above," draws them 
 nearer and nearer to the unseen God and Saviour, 
 whose name as yet they know not, or, rather, ut- 
 terly misunderstand. 
 
 And although my father believed most heartily in 
 addressing large audiences, when they could be had 
 in a quiet, attentive mood, and was earnest and suc- 
 cessful in addressing such audiences — it still seems 
 to me that the most memorable and instructive pirt 
 of his life was his skill in uplifting souls one by one, 
 and keeping a discussion, either public or private, 
 from running off into unhelpful and untimely chan- 
 nels, or becoming a mere wrestle for superiority in 
 debate. 
 
 NOT HAVING ENOUGH OUTSTATIONS. 
 
 Speaking of touring suggests yet another impor- 
 tant problem; namely that of permanent outstations. 
 And by outstations we mean, any place, where reg- 
 ular religious work is being carried on, for at least a 
 part of each year, by some resident native helper; 
 but not including places which are simply visited 
 several times a year, or are in the circuit of some 
 helper who lives elsewhere, but visits them regularly 
 every week or two.* 
 
 *In such eases the place where the helper works most would be the outsta- 
 tioD, and these others would only appear in the list ot places for stated 
 preaching. 
 
138 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 It is pleasant to see how the importance of having 
 a goodly number of such outstations is being more 
 and more widely felt, all over the missionary world. 
 For when a missionary settles down to simply labor- 
 ing in one or two stations (or in a very few outsta- 
 tions) the danger of his getting into ruts is very great; 
 and, furthermore, those who see him oftenest are 
 often most jealous of his superiority, (Matt. 13:57 
 and 58.) and most likely to be over-sensitive to his 
 faults; while those who meet him less often are bet- 
 ter able to do him justice, and give his message due 
 weight. And perhaps most important of all is the 
 opportunity which a large outstation work gives for 
 that reaching of leading minds of which we have al- 
 ready spoken, (page 124). 
 
 Hence one of the most noticeable signs of prom- 
 ise which we detect in looking back over the early 
 history of the Harpoot work is the steadily increas- 
 ing number of outstations which we find them occu- 
 pying, for at least a part of each year, the average 
 number of outstations being as follows: 
 
 1855 and '56 One outstation. 
 
 1857 to '59 Six outstations. 
 
 i860 to '64 Thirteen *' 
 
 1865 Eighteen ** 
 
 1866 *Twenty-eight " 
 
 1867 Fifty-four 
 
 1868 to '75 Sixty-nine 
 
 1876 to '85 ||Sixty-one 
 
 1886 to '95 Fifty-six 
 
 *In this year Arabkir and its six outstations were put under the care of 
 Harpoot. 
 ||For explanation of this fall see chapter on "Founding Colleges." 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 139 
 
 Surely these figures point to a vigorous and far 
 reaching work; and testify to some of the fruits of 
 that systematic and extensive touring of which we 
 have already spoken; and of that careful and early 
 training up of faithful, and spiritually minded, 
 though comparatively illiterate, native helphers of 
 which we shall speak later on. 
 
 But let us turn now and take a look at all the mis- 
 sions of the Board, to see how here also there has 
 been a steady growth in the relative number of out- 
 stations occupied from year to year per missionary. 
 
 Here are the figures: 
 
 From 1852 to '57 there was only one outstation 
 for every three and a third male missionaries! 
 
 From 1858 to '60, one outstation for every one 
 and a third missionaries. 
 
 1861 to '65, 1.3 outstations to each missionary. 
 
 1866 and 7, 
 
 3- 
 
 1868 to '79, 
 
 3-3 
 
 1880 to '84, 
 
 4.15 
 
 1885 to '90, 
 
 4.9 
 
 1891 to '96, 
 
 57 
 
 Surely this also is a promising sign of growth; 
 and yet taking the figures for 1896, and arranging 
 them by missions, we find that this growth is very 
 unequally distributed; for in some missions each 
 male missionary superintends on an average the 
 work of five, ten, fifteen, twenty and even twenty- 
 five outstations; while in others there are only two, 
 three or four outstations to each missionary; and 
 in some even less than one outstation per mission- 
 ary. 
 
140 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Surely these last are not laying their foundations 
 broad enough; and are not properly utilizing the 
 converts God has given them as a means of reaching 
 stillothers. For, according to their own showing, 
 they have quite a good many "church members" 
 and other "adherents"; and surely some of these 
 might be used to advantage as lay workers, or as 
 regular preachers, in scattering the good seed more 
 widely and less expensively. For experience shows 
 that one foreign missionary with four or five care- 
 fully inspired and beloved and superintended native 
 workers can easily do more work than two or three 
 missionaries could do, without such help; and do it 
 at much less cost. 
 
 HOW MANY MISSIONARIES SHOULD THERE BE 
 AT EACH STATION? 
 
 We now come to another point to which the Har- 
 poot missionaries attached a good deal of impor- 
 tance; namely, that no mission station can be prop- 
 erly manned with less than three male missionaries. 
 — This point, in just the form in which Dr. Wheeler 
 stated it, may not be strictly true; but this much at 
 least seems clear, that ordinarily, other things being 
 equal, the stations where two or three male mission- 
 aries work together are more likely to lay their work 
 out on a large scale, and reap a larger harvest of 
 success. — While missions in which the missionaries 
 are more scattered, seem, so far as we are able to 
 judge, to do the work on a much smaller scale; and 
 run a much greater risk of settling down into mere 
 local city missionaries or pastors, which, as we have 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 141 
 
 tried to show under "Touring" and "Reaching Lead- 
 ing Minds," is always unfortunate, as the more far- 
 reaching work is what the foreign field most needs. 
 It is also noticeable that there has been a change 
 in this respect in the missions of the Board. The 
 average number of missionaries at each station from 
 1836 to '66, being about 1.5 to each station; while 
 the average number for the last ten years is 2.01 for 
 each station, showing a marked tendency to place 
 more men at a station than formerly. Or taking it 
 by missions, we find five missions with thirty-four 
 missionaries that seem to strongly favor the one man 
 plan; for they have thirty-one stations for their 
 thirty-four men. While fifteen other missions, with 
 nearly five-sixths of the inissionaries of the Board, 
 favor having more men at a station; for they have 
 only 66 stations for 163 men, which gives an average 
 of 2.47 men to each station. — Clearly then public 
 opinion, in the missions of the Board, is strongly op- 
 posed to the one man plan; and if it has any special 
 benefits, they are wholly local, or else have been 
 very generally overlooked. We should be glad to 
 have those who still believe in the one man plan, 
 once so common, tell us which it is? 
 
 HAVING TOO MANY MISSIONARIES AT SOME 
 STATIONS. 
 
 But there is also another extreme to be guarded 
 against, namely having too many missionaries at a 
 station; this being an error into which prosperous 
 and important stations are specially likely to fall; 
 and one which the home Board, through its secre- 
 
142 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 taries,, needs to guard against most carefully. — For 
 when a station gets too many missionaries four things 
 are almost sure to happen. 
 
 First, the missionaries find it a great deal harder 
 to plan their work so as to really give each one a full 
 man's or woman's share of ivork that really needs to be 
 done, and do7te by a foreigner. 
 
 Secondly, it becomes harder to overcome that in- 
 evitable friction between energetic souls, which can- 
 not be properly overcome, unless each can easily lay 
 hands, without too much planning, on plenty of good 
 hard work which the missionary is sure he or she 
 ought to do. Then will each one be enthusiastic, 
 and full of congenial work, into which they can enter 
 most heartily; and friction can be easily overcome; 
 or else made a source of mutual blessing, rather than 
 the hindrance which it too often is. 
 
 Thirdly, in a station where there are too many mis- 
 sionaries, there is more danger of the missionaries 
 doing themselves many things which could be more 
 wisely committed to the hands of the missionaries' 
 native helpers — who need the practice of doing just 
 such work, and in the end could learn to do it just 
 as well (under missionary leadership) as the mission- 
 ary would do it himself, provided the work is really 
 suited to the needs of the people and place. 
 
 And, fourthly, a station too strongly manned with 
 workers from abroad is sure to absorb some workers 
 who are More Needed Elsewhere in the Lord's 
 vineyard. And whenever a prosperous mission or 
 station calls for "more men" or "more women," the 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 143 
 
 First Question to be asked and answered is, Could 
 they not get along without the extra man or woman 
 and still do just as great a work in essentials, if they 
 were to modify some of their plans and ways of work- 
 ing, so as not to need so many costly, foreign work- 
 men? 
 
 For experience shows that with us all the tempta- 
 tion is to cry, "Oh for more time, more hands, more 
 helpers," when really our most urgent need is More 
 Skill. Nor is this a slur on any one; for under 
 proper pressure, and with a little outside help, the 
 most skilful workmen are always the ones who are 
 best able to become yet more skilful, and thus lead 
 on toward a more and more perfect understanding 
 of the problem of missions, and the best ways of do- 
 ing missionary work. 
 
 For the more we study Dr. Wheeler's life, and the 
 lives and doings of scores of other missionaries, the 
 more deeply are we impressed with the fact that 
 missionary work is a growing work; one in which 
 the workers are ever making new discoveries, and 
 working out new problems for the benefit of those 
 who come after them; — and we should be careful 
 not to let bigness of work and manyness of mission- 
 aries interfere for a single moment with that steady 
 growth in skill, which is so marked a feature of the 
 best missionary work all over the world. 
 
 For, as in a first class fruit farm, or flower garden, 
 great care is taken not to have too many flowers or 
 apples or peaches grow from any one root, just so on 
 mission soil the best results will be attained, if the 
 missionary is careful not to branch out into new lines 
 
144 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 of work too rapidly. Yet, like all other successful 
 men, he finds it hard to remember this; and needs a 
 little kindly restraint; until he shall have clearly jus- 
 tified his larger and more costly plans. 
 
 FOUR STAGES IN MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 And now, in closing the discussion, let us once 
 more take a bird's eye view of the whole field. We 
 shall find missionary work in four stages; the exper- 
 imental or pioneer stage, the unsuccessful stage, the 
 active or progressive stage, and the finishing stage. 
 
 In the first of these, the experimental stage, a 
 whole district may properly be committed to a single 
 missionary's care; for the simple reason that exper- 
 iments are generally most instructive and econom- 
 ical, when not made on too large a scale. Precision 
 and accuracy of observation counting for more than 
 the bigness of the experiment. 
 
 But even such pioneer missionaries should be 
 members of some more settled station, not too far 
 away; and should return there from time to time for 
 the change of work, and change of atmosphere, 
 which they so much need, to keep themselves in 
 touch with other aggressive Christian workers. 
 
 In the second stage, which we have called the un- 
 successful stage, most of the work in a given district 
 should probably be still left in the hands of one man; 
 as a single doctor, after properly consulting with 
 others, can generally do more for a dangerously sick 
 community than two or three doctors could, taking 
 turns, — But even here the missionary doctor, so to 
 speak, should have his home and headquarters at 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 145 
 
 some station where he can often consult at great 
 length with other colleagues, engaged like himself 
 in some form of missionary work. 
 
 Then comes the active, or progressive stage, when 
 the work is well started, and a healthy hunger for 
 righteousness and knowledge has been fairly wak- 
 ened. At this stage the best work can be done, if 
 two or three missionaries have coextensive jurisdic- 
 tion over the same field; each having, if possible, 
 some special line, and yet all co-operating in the 
 more general parts of the work. 
 
 Of hints for this stage of the work, this book is full. 
 We may then pass on to the fourth, or finishing stage. 
 — To this stage apply very emphatically all the cau- 
 tions as to not sacrificing quality to bigness, by mak- 
 ing "improvements" too rapidly, or mere learning to 
 truly helpful scholarship, of which we have spoken 
 in other parts of the book. 
 
 But the question for most of us is not, How to fin- 
 ish the work? but How to bring it steadily nearer to 
 completeness and purity. This done, the finishing 
 stage will surely come in due time, and bring its own 
 needed light with it. 
 
 And, finally, however much it may be best that 
 the different missionaries should subdivide the work 
 between them, and in the experimental and unsuc- 
 cessful stages should even divide up their fields of 
 labor (though residing together) — it still remains 
 true that a few well manned stations will accomplish 
 vastly more for Christ and the world than a much 
 larger number of weak ones; and the number of oc- 
 
 (10) 
 
146 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 cupied stations in a mission should be strictly de- 
 pendent on the number of available men, and not on 
 the merely apparent benefit of seeming to hold our 
 own in a lot of "important centers," many of which 
 we cannot man properly. Though as mere substa- 
 tions, to be often visited by some missionary with a 
 view to future occupation, if best and possible, these 
 points might be profitably and economically culti- 
 vated. For the gains of such a plan would vastly 
 outweigh the slight loss of time and prestige which 
 would result from joining them temporarily or per- 
 manently onto some stronger station, and changing 
 the mouse's head into a lion's tail. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PLANTING CHURCHES; AND TEACHING 
 THEM HOW TO WORK. 
 
 That the object of Christian missions is the con- 
 version of men to Christ, and putting within the 
 reach of all men the richness of love and peace 
 which such conversion implies, is undoubtedly true. 
 — But when it comes to converting men, we soon 
 find that here, as elsewhere, some ways of working 
 are more successful than others; producing a purer 
 and stronger type of Christian life, and one that is 
 more likely to hold its own and be a self-propagat- 
 ing power for good in years to come. And among 
 the earliest and most important of these lessons is 
 the discovery, made long ago, and applied so suc- 
 cessfully in the early Christian church, that union is 
 power; and that believers, by joining hands, can ac- 
 complish far more than by working singly, or each 
 one independently. 
 
 Thus originated the Christian church, when once 
 the Jewish church, in which Christ worked, had, as 
 a church, despised his message and forced a sepa- 
 ration. 
 
 In form it has changed from time to time, and is 
 undoubtedly destined to change even more in years 
 147 
 
148 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 to come than it has changed thus far; for the needs 
 of one generation and one epoch are not in all re- 
 spects the same as those of another, and a very- 
 slight change of form often makes an institution 
 seem very different to a hasty observer. 
 
 But this much will always be true of every living 
 church, wherever found, and however changed in 
 polity or plan; it will always be a body of Christians 
 closely joined together for Christian work, especially 
 those forms of Christian work of which the outside 
 world does not recognize the importance. 
 
 Such churches must be formed wherever the mis- 
 sionary goes, as soon as enough truly converted 
 men are found to do the work, and share the bless- 
 ing. And any failure to organize such churches is 
 sure to result in the partial loss of a great deal of 
 good seed, which might have been made to yield an 
 abundant harvest. 
 
 Thus far Mr. Wheeler agreed closely with others. 
 But early in his missionary life we find him joining 
 a body of earnest thinkers and workers who were 
 bold enough to claim that as yet missionary churches 
 had not been organized on quite the right basis, and 
 so were much weaker than they need be. And 
 in so saying he seems to have voiced the opinion of 
 a majority of the more progressive missionaries of 
 the Board all over the world, at that time. But in 
 the power to find out remedies and apply them, and 
 in the knack of overcoming difificulties, he seems to 
 have far surpassed most of his contemporaries; and 
 hence it is that his finished life is such a rich mine of 
 suggestion and example for the use of others gifted 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 149 
 
 with less inventive power, but equally impressed 
 with the need of improvements. While those who 
 are like him gifted with inventive power, will also 
 find in his thoughts and methods much that will help 
 them in going even farther than he himself has gone. 
 
 CONDITIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Coming then to the details of church organization, 
 the first point on which we find his example specially 
 instructive is the great care which he and his col- 
 leagues exercised, in forming their churches, to favor 
 the admission of only those who gave the clearest 
 evidences of a change of heart, and of a genuine 
 longing to become more like Christ. In this their 
 practice was not at all distinctive, for hundreds of oth- 
 ers have been just as careful; but the point is one of 
 such extreme importance that it needs to be ever 
 kept at the front; and even those who are most care- 
 ful will find themselves at times strangely tempted 
 to lower the bars — in the interests of what seems to 
 be a '"larger charity," but is in reality only a blinder 
 and more short-sighted charity. For it is sure to 
 bring disaster to the church as a whole and also to 
 every individual who is admitted to its membership 
 too hastily. 
 
 For any man who is not clearly on the Lord's side 
 is only injured by being admitted to a fellowship 
 which assumes that he is a Christian, when he is not. 
 While the occasional keeping out of some true 
 Christians who do not yet give clear enough evi- 
 dence of conversion, will do them no harm; if they 
 are only treated just as tenderly and fairly outside as 
 
150 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 they would be inside, and are made to feel that they 
 will be welcome, as soon as their lives afford the de- 
 sired evidence. 
 
 LOCAL CHURCHES VERSUS UNION CHURCHES. 
 
 Going a step farther, we find that instead of form- 
 ing a lot of weak, local churches Mr. Wheeler and 
 his colleagues adopted the plan of forming union 
 churches; in which members from many different 
 localities joined, the church being naturally located 
 at some point which furnished a sufficient number 
 of members to make a strong, live nucleus.* 
 
 Thus were the benefits of church fellowship real- 
 ized at a very early date, without the serious evils 
 which come from organizing weak and helpless 
 churches, without proper leaders and without any 
 proper realization of the importance of Christian in- 
 dustry and self-consecration as a sine qua non of 
 Christian peace and blessing. 
 
 MAKING THE SACRAMENTS TOO PROMINENT. 
 
 For in the Orient, even more than in the Occi- 
 dent, the mere externals of religion (baptism, church 
 membership and the Lord's supper) are in constant 
 danger of becoming substitutes for godliness, in- 
 stead of helps to godliness; and for that reason 
 should be steadily kept in the background, until the 
 deeper facts of godliness and goodness and self-con- 
 secration have been properly emphasized and put in 
 practice, in a manly, self-sacrificing way. And so 
 
 •At one time the Harpoot city church had in this way members from nine 
 different places; many of which afterwards became centers of independent, 
 local churches. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 151 
 
 the missionaries were careful to offer the sacraments 
 of baptism and the Lord's supper only to those who 
 were willing to go beyond mere professions and be- 
 gin to work heartily and give generously for the 
 gospel work in their midst; thus insuring to the 
 churches a more healthy and vigorous growth. For 
 this naturally led on the following simple rule: If 
 you want full and formal recognition as Christians, 
 you should first come together and choose some 
 one to act as your pastor and helper and servant in 
 these things; for we, like Paul, feel ourselves called 
 to the work of simple evangelizing and preaching 
 (i Cor. 1:14 to 17), rather than to work which a set- 
 tled pastor could do so much better than we.* 
 
 PASTORLESS CHURCHES. 
 
 Hence we find the Harpoot missionaries laying 
 great stress on the importance of furnishing every 
 church with a properly trained native pastor. But 
 why? Simply because experience the world over 
 shows that any social movement without recog- 
 nized leaders soon dies out, or becomes very weak. 
 And why a native pastor? Why not a foreign pas- 
 tor (i. e. a missionary?) 
 
 First, because missionary pastors are too costly; 
 secondly, because they are too scarce; thirdly, be- 
 cause they can do far more good as general leaders, 
 starters, trainers and organizers; fourthly, because 
 
 ♦And our Lord Jesus, though evidently approving of baptism, seems to have 
 also felt that it should not be made too prominent; for we are explicitly told 
 that "Jesus himself baptized not;" though his disciples did (John 4:1 and 2.) 
 Certainly a most instructive picture; both in what it teaches as to the im- 
 portance of baptism and also its relative unimportance, and the danger of 
 making too much of it. 
 
152 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 experience shows that even a very illiterate native 
 understands many of the detailed every day wants 
 and temptations of the people far better than even the 
 ablest, kindest and best educated missionary any 
 where round; and finally, because the constant re- 
 sponsibility and joy of training up and selecting 
 leaders from their own number, and from their own 
 sons and daughters, is a constant inspiration to the 
 churches, without which their life would be sadly 
 crippled and dwarfed. 
 
 Surely these five reasons, carefully weighed, will 
 clearly prove the importance of relying on native 
 pastors rather than on missionaries for the detailed 
 pastoral care of individual churches on missionary 
 ground. And theoretically this is pretty generally 
 admitted; though practically a close observer can 
 see that many missionaries still fall more or less in- 
 to the old error of themselves settling down into 
 mere pastoral work, to the great detriment of the 
 people they are working for. 
 
 And yet, although the apostle Paul was so careful 
 to ordain elders in every church, (Acts 14:23 and 
 Titus 1:5,) missionaries in the early part of this cen- 
 tury seem to have very generally supposed that their 
 churches could not be safely committed to the care 
 of native pastors; and in 1839 we find an officer of 
 the Board writing thus of the Sandwich Islands: 
 "There is not one person among the twelve thou- 
 sand native church members who is sufficiently edu- 
 cated and experienced to be ordained as pastor of 
 the smallest native church."* 
 
 ♦Report for 1839, p. 172. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 153 
 
 And thirty years later, in 1869, Dr. Anderson 
 writes: "It is only a few years since the discovery 
 was made that native pastors form an essential ele- 
 ment in native churches." Only we should call it a 
 rediscovery, rather than a discovery. For without 
 it the early Christian church could never have 
 spread and worked as it did. 
 
 Of course native pastors will make some mistakes, 
 which the missionary would not; and the problem 
 of how to best train native pastors and helpers for 
 their work has not as yet been fully solved; but even 
 with such faulty training as we have been able to 
 give them now, they greatly multiply the mission- 
 ary's power, and have been most abundantly blessed 
 of God. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 We now come to the doctrine which probably 
 more than any other has made the work in Harpoot 
 famous in the history of missions; namely, the as- 
 sertion that, in any properly conducted missionary 
 work, the native churches must be taught to take 
 upon themselves the support of most of their gospel 
 institutions — and the practical demonstration that 
 the churches can be taught to do this far more rap- 
 idly than had commonly been supposed possible. 
 At scores of other points the Harpoot mission policy 
 is full of suggestiveness, and of evidences of a large 
 and clear insight into many things; but her most 
 distinctive message, the one in which she has dif- 
 fered most from other stations, is the way in which 
 she has plead for self-support, and shown that teach- 
 
154 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ing the people to give is not a mere matter of dol- 
 lars and cents, — but a vital element in Christian 
 growth, and one without which no church can ever 
 be strong and healthy. 
 
 But as the question is a large and complicated 
 one, we reserve it for discussion in a later chapter, 
 only calling attention to it here that no one may 
 read this chapter without also reading the other. 
 
 CAN THE CHURCHES RULE THEMSELVES? 
 
 Any one who reads this book through will not be 
 surprised to learn that Mr. Wheeler also believed in 
 letting self-supporting churches rule themselves; 
 and in this we cannot but feel that he was right. 
 For a well-grown church will learn wisdom much 
 faster by experience (pleasant and unpleasant) than 
 it will by being simply kept in leading strings. 
 
 And even before a church reaches full self-sup- 
 port, he believed in letting it, for the most part, 
 manage its own affairs; considering that an oc- 
 casional veto power for use in extreme cases and 
 the moral right to protest, suggest and plead, was 
 all that it was ordinarily necessary for the mission- 
 ary to use. — Thus were the churches taught to think 
 and plan for themselves, both singly and as a united 
 body; and the times of trial from within and from 
 without through which they have since passed seem 
 to show strikingly the good effects of this policy, 
 though also revealing some incidental defects which 
 need correcting; but to have given the churches less 
 freedom would only have made these defects great- 
 er, and not less. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 155 
 
 Though it probably is true that the missionaries 
 should have more carefully maintained their own 
 independence in their own affairs; for letting you 
 manage your affairs, and heartily welcoming your 
 suggestions as to mine, does not involve your right 
 to manage mine; and we are inclined to think that 
 time will show that, in their zeal for cooperation, 
 our missionaries abroad have of late years some- 
 times forgotten this important distinction. But of 
 this we shall speak later. 
 
 LARGE AND SMALL CHURCHES. 
 
 But shall we favor the formation of large churches? 
 especially in important centers? To these ques- 
 tions, under existing conditions, Mr. Wheeler gave 
 an emphatic negative for an answer; having noticed 
 that large churches are apt to lose in spirituality 
 what they gain in size.* Nor did he favor having a 
 fine church building, "because the Jesuits have one, 
 and we must keep up our prestige," as some have 
 done. For a little church, even middling full of 
 spirituality and love, will influence the community 
 more than a large one that has entered the wild, 
 blind race for bigness, wealth and fashion. — And, 
 curiously enough, if we leave out a few exceptional- 
 ly rich churches, the statistics of our American 
 churches seem to show that, even in the much 
 boasted matter of benevolence, very large churches 
 ordinarily give \qs?> per member ihdiU. smaller churches, 
 provided the smaller churches are not so small as 
 to be positively weak. 
 
 *The test question being, not How many lovely Christians are there in 
 your church? but What proportion of your members are such? 
 
156 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Hence he favored the dividing of churches, far 
 more than uniting them; considering even the union 
 churches of which we have spoken as a mere tempo- 
 rary expedient, to be subdivided as soon as possible; 
 even as a gardener often subdivides his choicest 
 plants, and gets in consequence a larger harvest of 
 beauty and of sweetness. 
 
 TEACHING CHURCHES HOW TO WORK. 
 
 We now come to another point to which Mr. 
 Wheeler attached great importance, namely, that 
 every church should be a body of Workers, each of 
 whom has a special work to do for the Master. 
 
 Nor did he think of this service as consisting sim- 
 ply, or chiefly, in the more public duties, such as help- 
 ing in church work, supporting church institutions, 
 etc.; but rather as including all the details of every- 
 day life and work. And although we cannot but 
 feel that he did not sufficiently realize how many be- 
 wildering difficulties beset this path of daily service, 
 nor how often ignorance and not perversity (I Tim. 
 1:13) is the cause of men's stumbling and falling, yet 
 this much is certain; that the thought of daily ser- 
 vice, as a test of Christian character, was one on 
 which he dwelt very frequently; the thought of it in- 
 spiring and thrilling his life, in all its stronger and 
 nobler moments; and almost haunting it in some 
 weaker moods, — so searching, and so many-sided 
 was it. 
 
 And in this thought of serving others, day by day, 
 lay one of the prime causes of hisusefulness and pow- 
 er; and we believe that it is along this line that the 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 157 
 
 church will enjoy its largest growth in years to come; 
 though the blessing cannot become at all general, 
 until those who believe in a higher Christian life 
 learn to speak of it more quietly and wisely; and are 
 more careful to avoid extravagant and strained inter- 
 pretations of scripture. 
 
 For as I look back and see how steadily my father 
 believed in this higher daily life; and urged men to 
 press on toward it; I am impressed with the quietness 
 with which he did it; thus avoiding many needless 
 mistakes, and making it harder for hypocrites to 
 gain influence in the churches by counterfeiting this 
 higher life.— And as his life was full of this thought, 
 so too is this book; in which we have tried to catch 
 and reproduce the atmosphere of that life. 
 
 And yet where we have praised and admired, we 
 cannot but add one word of criticism; that the truth 
 for which Mr. Wheeler lived and pleaded so earnest- 
 ly and so concretely, may be seen as clearly and 
 fully as possible by those who come after, and may 
 be appliecl more easily. And the criticism is this: 
 The churches, or rather the individual members, 
 were not helped in finding a sufficient variety of 
 ways of serving the Lord. It was too often taken 
 for granted that the love of God once planted in a 
 human soul will enable it to find plenty of ways of 
 expressing that love, and expressing it wisely. But 
 such is not the case; for a dull man generally makes 
 a dull Christian; a hasty man makes a hasty Chris- 
 tian, and a weak man makes a weak Christian. For 
 Christianity does not suddenly make the man all 
 over; it simply gives him a life-long and mighty lift 
 in the right direction. 
 
158 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Hence do we look forward with great eagerness 
 to a time, not far distant, when true pastoral work, 
 as distinguished from mere preaching and social 
 calls, shall become more of a skilled profession, 
 both here and in foreign lands. — And when that 
 time comes, the ideal for which Mr. Wheeler plead- 
 ed so earnestly will be more fully realized in this 
 and other lands. 
 
 And as we see in God's church and world changes 
 going on which perplex and trouble us, let us re- 
 member that, however much of human perversity 
 may enter into them, they all have a deeper meaning] 
 and point, in a groping and blundering way, to some 
 real need in human nature, as now situated, which 
 we have not yet succeeded in meeting as fully as we 
 should. 
 
 LOCAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 But coming back again to problems more simple, 
 and less vast, we find that early in the history of the 
 Harpoot work Local Home Missionary Societies were 
 formed in a good many towns for the circulation of 
 the Scriptures and the preaching of the Gospel; the 
 object of these societies being not the raising of 
 money to send others, but the sending out of volun- 
 teers from their own number to visit neighboring 
 towns and cities, ten, twenty and even thirty some- 
 times going out for such work, from a single town, in 
 a single week. 
 
 Thus were Saturday afternoon and Sunday busy 
 days indeed for these good workers; who like the 
 priests of old (Matt. 12:5) had to find their rest on 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 159 
 
 some other day of the week. And in this way the 
 good seed was scattered much more rapidly, widely 
 and effectively than it could have been, had the work 
 all been done by the missionaries, or by such few 
 paid workers as they could find and wisely employ. 
 For many a man who can testify for Christ by word 
 of mouth occasionally, and do it very well, would make 
 poor work of it, if placed where he must give all or 
 most of his time to the same work. 
 
 But as time went on, and some became much more 
 skilful than others in the presentation of truth, there 
 came an inevitable change; and many, who in earlier 
 years had dared to talk freely to any one and every 
 one, became more timid and silent. Nor was the 
 change one to be regretted; for a time had come, 
 in the progress of Christ's kingdom, when such silent 
 witnesses were even more needed than talkative 
 ones. 
 
 And yet there would have been a loss, had not 
 many of the churches begun at this time to contrib- 
 ute of their sons and their daughters, their money 
 and their prayers, for a more formal kind of home 
 missionary work, — namely, the sending of mission- 
 aries, from their own number, to Koordistan, one of 
 the most neglected corners of their own country. 
 Thus was the missionary spirit kept alive; though 
 we cannot but feel that it would have been better 
 still, if in addition to this work in Koordistan they 
 had taken a more active part in watching, advising 
 and helping financially some of the weaker Christian 
 communities right in their own midst. 
 
i6o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Native Foreign Missionary Societies. 
 
 We have also been sorry to see how little the 
 churches of the Board, either in Turkey or anywhere 
 else, now give for strictly foreign missionary work 
 in other parts of the world. The story is well worth 
 telling. — Way back in 1848, we find the native 
 Christians, in mission lands, contributing about 
 $1650.00 a year to the treasury of the Board; China 
 contributing money for use in Turkey, and Turkey 
 sending its offering for use in China. But ten years 
 later, in 18^8, we find the native Christians giving 
 only ;Si300.00. While after another period of ten 
 years, in 1868, we find a still farther falling off, they 
 having contributed only $900.00 for the Board's 
 work in other lands; and in 1877 only $6oo.oo; while 
 in 1889 it had fallen still lower and was only about 
 $500.00.* — And yet in the meanwhile the number 
 of native churches had increased many fold; so that 
 $500.00 meant relatively less than $50.00 would have 
 meant forty years before. 
 
 And pray why this curious change? and why this 
 great falling off? One reason is not far to seek. 
 In 1848 the idea of self-supporting native churches 
 was hardly dreamed of, except as an ideal for some 
 distant future. But in 1858 it was being dreamt of, 
 and in 1868 there were in the missions of the Board 
 many single churches that were wholly self-support- 
 ing; and many other communities in which a good 
 beginning had been made toward self-support; and 
 
 *We take 1877 and '89 instead of '78 and '88 because we are unable to get 
 figures just ten years apart. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. i6i 
 
 since then the number of wholly or largely self-sup- 
 porting Christian communities has steadily increased; 
 
 — and so the missionaries fell into the natural mis- 
 take of supposing that in order to make self-support 
 possible and easy, they ought to excuse the people 
 from contributing for work in heathen lands. 
 
 But even though this mistake was a natural one, it 
 would be most unfortunate if it should become per- 
 manent; for our mission churches, like the churches 
 of the homeland, need the broadening and uplifting 
 that comes from taking a hearty brotherly interest 
 in other lands, and other climes, far away from home; 
 
 — and the habit of giving, according to their ability, 
 for this larger work would tend to make them more 
 grateful for the help that comes to themselves, and 
 better able to understand the reasons why the Board 
 has to be so careful not to spend too much on any 
 one mission or station; and is so often obliged to re- 
 ject requests which in themselves would be perfectly 
 proper, if only the need in other lands were not so 
 urgent. 
 
 And even self-support would make more rapid 
 progress than it has, if this privilege of giving for the 
 heathen were oftener pressed home upon the churches 
 we form. For a church which simply looks out for 
 itself and its own wants and needs, soon becomes too 
 sluggish and short-sighted to do even that much 
 properly. 
 
 Hence we believe it would be a great help if at 
 every station there were formed two little societies; 
 a Home Missionary Society and a Foreign Mission- 
 
 (II) 
 
i62 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ary Society, with branches at every outstation, to 
 collect and pass on missionary news, and at least once 
 a year send a money offering to each of these causes. 
 For even an offering of mites would bring a blessing, 
 if it were made in love; just as truly as one made up 
 of loving pounds and eagles. 
 
 Nor should the two societies be united. For we 
 believe that even in heaven we shall find division of 
 labor, some angels making a specialty of one kind of 
 work and some of another, though there will not be 
 any rivalry between the different workers, as there 
 sometimes is here. And two wee, but enthusiastic 
 societies, each working for the work it understands 
 best, will accomplish more than one bigger society, 
 whose leaders cannot be as enthusiastic, because of 
 their having on their hands two different kinds of 
 work, which they do not understand equally well and 
 thereiore cannot bG equally enthusiastic about; such 
 are the inevitable limitations of human vision. — 
 Though if the ladies or brethren of any one commu- 
 nity really prefer a union society, (i. e. if the workers 
 and givers really prefer it) we certainly ought not to 
 object. 
 
 Nor are such local missionary societies, home and 
 foreign, needed only in certain classes of churches. 
 For the weakest churches, financially, need them as a 
 source of inspiration and cheer; while large and pros- 
 perous churches — who are in danger of depending 
 too much on a few rich friends, inside the church or 
 outside of it — need them even more, to save them- 
 selves from the slow but fatal decay, or else mere 
 spirit of luxury, which such prosperity is apt to en- 
 gender. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 163 
 
 Ecclesiastical Organizations. 
 
 Coming next to the matter of ecclesiastical organ- 
 izations, we need not stop to prove that some sort 
 of organization is needed to give to the churches 
 the benefits of a closer union and fellowship with 
 each other; or that quarterly or annual or semi-an- 
 nual gatherings for prayer and conference may be 
 made exceedingly helpful. 
 
 Yet in the details of organization we do find sev- 
 eral points of note on which Mr. Wheeler laid em- 
 phasis, most of which can be better discussed under 
 the head of cooperation. — But one will have to be 
 spoken of here; namely, his belief that missionaries 
 should not be voting members of any local, eccle- 
 siastical organization, but simply friendly visitors 
 and advisers. His reason for so thinking was that 
 in the long run missionary influence would correct 
 their mistakes more effectually than missionary au- 
 thority, or veto power, or votes. 
 
 And when we remember that some of these 
 churches had already reached full self-support when 
 first formed, and all were rapidly approaching self- 
 support, we cannot but feel that this policy was 
 right; especially when we remember that in any case 
 of serious difference of opinion, public protest and, 
 if need be, resistance on the part of the missionaries 
 would count for more in the long run, than any at- 
 tempt to nip the matter in the bud by mere parlia- 
 mentary tactics; especially if the opposition leader 
 were an outsider and a foreigner (i. e. a missionary) 
 however beloved that missionary might be person- 
 ally. 
 
i64 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Co-Operation of Native and Foreign Workers.— 
 Its Benefits and Dangers. 
 
 But this only leads on to the larger question of co- 
 operation, on which so much has been said and 
 written of late. Let us try to look at the matter 
 quietly; for it is one in which excitement and haste 
 only make the confusion greater, instead of remov- 
 ing existing difificulties. 
 
 First of all, then, it is clear that even in the earliest 
 stages of his work a missionary should often inform- 
 ally consult his assistants and neighbors; just as any 
 energetic business man often consults on some spe- 
 cial points even the least of those in his employ. 
 Of course the outcome of such consultations cannot 
 be safely used till it has been sifted and verified; but 
 for one who asks his questions respectfully, and tries 
 to learn something helpful from each reply, such 
 consultations are exceedingly helpful; ever adding 
 to his own experience some of the best results of 
 the experience of those around him. 
 
 In this sort of consultation the Harpoot mission- 
 aries were ever pre-eminent; and to this day I can 
 well remember with what a hearty ring my father 
 ever consulted those around him; though seldom 
 forgetful of the fact, that after getting all the light 
 he can, the missionary must himself make the final 
 decision in most matters. 
 
 But next we come to the question of how to co- 
 operate, in more advanced stages of the work, with 
 pastors, preachers and teachers who are wholly or 
 partially independent of the missionary. — Let us 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 165 
 
 first discuss the case where the native churches and 
 workers are wholly independent; such for example 
 as the internal management of church affairs. Has 
 the missionary in such cases wholly abdicated his 
 right as a Christian man, to sometimes interfere in 
 extreme cases, however unwelcome his interference 
 may be to some parties? 
 
 Practically my father's answer was, No; emphatic- 
 ally, No; though I never remember to have heard 
 him answer the question theoretically. But well do 
 I remember the pluck and vigor with which he oc- 
 casionally came to the rescue of an oppressed minor- 
 ity, in some independent church; and we cannot but 
 feel that if missionaries were to more emphatically 
 assert, in words and in practice, their right to thus 
 sometimes interfere, as men not as bishops, the effect 
 on the native churches would be more wholesome, 
 and some evils which the missionaries now find it 
 hard to counteract could be met more successfully; 
 such for example as the wine-drinking epidemic 
 which at one time wrought so much mischief in the 
 Harpoot field. 
 
 But the question will be asked. Should not the mis- 
 sionaries gradually commit to the hands of native 
 workers many matters which at first were managed 
 wholly by the missionaries themselves? Yes; cer- 
 tainly. But the father should not wholly retire from 
 business, simply because he has taken his son into 
 partnership; and he should have it distinctly under- 
 stood that he is still the head of the firm, though 
 ordinarily leaving the management of some parts of 
 the business to his son. Then will the son do better 
 
i66 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 work, through being under a slight restraint all the 
 time. 
 
 But the question arises, to whom shall this work 
 be committed? or, in other words, Who is the junior 
 partner? The natural answer seems to be: Those 
 native churches which through their contributions 
 and prayers have really begun to take up the burden 
 which the missionaries hope in due time to lay 
 down; in other words the officers of the local Home 
 Missionary Society, Education Society, Foreign 
 Missionary Society, etc. — Such are our junior part- 
 ners, or rather the executive committees to whom 
 the work is to be committed more and more, if they 
 be found competent and faithful. 
 
 But right here a danger arises which seems often 
 to have been overlooked; namely, that these our 
 junior partners should be looked upon, not as ad- 
 visers chiefly, but as active assistants and workers, 
 to whom definite parts of the work are to be grad- 
 ually and tentatively committed; the missionaries 
 simply acting as court of appeals and final decision 
 in cases of dispute. But as a matter of fact we find 
 that these cooperative committees are far too often 
 treated as if they were formal councillors and advis- 
 ers to the missionaries, and not simply honored as- 
 sistants — a relation which, if made too prominent, 
 tends strongly to generate mere conceit and false 
 dignity, without really developing that executive 
 skill which in the long run makes men humble, and 
 at the same time more and more fit for the full su- 
 perintendence of the Lord's work in their own land 
 later on. 
 
PLANTING CHURCHES. 167 
 
 For the position of active assistant and partner, 
 though seemingly less honorable than that of coun- 
 cillor, is really more conducive to growth in manli- 
 ness and usefulness and knowledge. 
 
 But, says someone, the idea of cooperation and 
 partnership, as here presented, will result in much 
 friction. To which we simply reply that the mis- 
 sionary who hopes to do really good work without 
 some friction is doomed to disappointment. For 
 even the Lord Jesus did not succeed in doing that. 
 And if your plan of cooperation is one calculated to 
 develop in your churches and in their agents a lov- 
 ing and business-like activity for Christ, the friction 
 will be only occasional and temporary ; and less and 
 less as time goes on. For in their stronger and 
 clearer moments, all your more sincere workers will 
 love and honor you, however much they may grum- 
 ble in their weaker moments. 
 
 Nor should the missionary forget that, brought 
 up from infancy in constant and close contact with 
 a larger and richer and purer civilization, it is no 
 mere assumption for him to act the part of leader in 
 chief; if he is at all fitted by natural endowment for 
 the position he holds as representative of that larger 
 western life. And it is only by humbly, but firmly 
 maintaining his right to lead, that he can bring to 
 the people whom he loves the help they need; and 
 fit them for larger things later on. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS; AND 
 HOW TO TRAIN THEM. 
 
 We have already spoken of the importance which 
 Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues attached to the na- 
 tive pastorate; and of their encouragement of a spirit 
 of self-reliance among the churches, and other "Con- 
 gregations" that crowned their labors. And in later 
 chapters we shall have occasion to speak of the rais- 
 ing up and training of still other sorts of leaders, 
 both male and female. But in this chapter we 
 wish to speak more especially of religious leaders, 
 both pastors and preachers, and of some of their 
 ways of selecting and training such. 
 
 That the missionary himself should not settle 
 down to mere pastoral work; but should, as far as 
 possible, train others to do the easier parts of the 
 work which he wishes to see accomplished, devoting 
 himself meanwhile to the more difficult and far-reach- 
 ing task of selecting and training his assistants, and 
 superintending and leading them on in their ever- 
 widening work, — this much has been pretty gener- 
 ally admitted. For such a plan of work multiplies 
 the missionary's power many fold, both in quality 
 and in quantity, and gives to his work a depth, vital- 
 
 i68 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 169 
 
 ity and permanence which it could never have had, if 
 he had relied for his results simply on his own direct 
 personal efforts. 
 
 For he soon finds that many a very humble and 
 unlearned brother can proclaim the Gospel mes- 
 sage almost as effectively as he can himself, and 
 sometimes even more effectively; though not as 
 well able as he is to gather up and organize the 
 results. 
 
 For many a man who is powerless to do anything 
 unaided; often displays wonderful energy and skill 
 in Christian work, when once thoroughly wakened 
 by some one else, to whom God's providence has 
 given a wider experience and insight. Thus was it 
 that Christ relied on his twelve apostles and on the 
 "seventy;" thus also did Paul ever surround himself 
 with other workers; and Luther, Wycliffe, Wesley, 
 Booth, F. E. Clark and many others, have done the 
 same; and thus accomplished more, each in his spe- 
 cial line. 
 
 True, some of these grand movements have in 
 them some very serious defects; but these defects, 
 instead of be.ng increased, are, on the contrary, 
 greatly lessened by the use which is made of the 
 inborn gift of leadership which God has given so 
 much more abundantly to some men than to others. 
 
 Hence it is pleasant to see how rapidly the idea 
 of Missionary Leadership has gained ground dur- 
 ing the past sixty years, that is to say since 1837, 
 which is the earliest year for which we have been 
 able to get statistics. 
 
I70 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Taking then native helpers of all classes (i. e. all 
 engaged in religious work of some sort,) we find 
 that in the missions of the American Board there 
 were from 1837 to ^^5^ more missionaries than there 
 were native helpers; or about four missionaries to 
 every three native helpers. But from that time on 
 the ratio is reversed; 
 
 For from 1852 to '56, there were 1.5 native help- 
 ers to each American male missionary. 
 
 From 1857 to '65, there were 3.9 native helpers to 
 each missionary. 
 
 From 1866 to '75, there were 6 native helpers to 
 each missionary. 
 
 From 1876 to '85, — 9 native helpers to each mis- 
 sionary; — 
 
 And from 1886 to '95, — thirteen. 
 
 Surely a most remarkable and promising growth; 
 though here as elsewhere some missions are far 
 ahead of others, and a few missions of long stand- 
 ing seem rather backward in this matter, as statistics 
 plainly show. Though perhaps the most striking 
 evidence that some missionaries fail to properly ap- 
 preciate the importance of training up plenty of na- 
 tive assistants, and Working Mostly Through 
 
 Them is the fact that their talks and letters are 
 
 so full of what they themselves are doing, in person, 
 for the masses round them; but seldom refer, except 
 in a very incidental way, to the less picturesque but 
 more important work of selecting, training, advising, 
 superintending and consulting their native assist- 
 ants, to which they ought to be giving so large a 
 part of their time and strength. 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 171 
 
 How to Get the Best Men. 
 
 But coming again to the question in detail of se~ 
 lecting and training men for the Gospel ministry, the 
 first sub-question that arises is, Who are the best 
 men? and how are we to find them? To this im- 
 portant question we find in the experience of the Har- 
 poot missionaries several helpful answers. 
 
 First, that "smart" men, so called, are seldom the 
 best ones to employ in introducing the gospel to a 
 people; for such men, even when not shallow and care- 
 less, are nearly always more given to simply enter- 
 taining the people than they are to educating and 
 training them in the common-place duties and hopes 
 of daily life. 
 
 Secondly, they were careful to choose men who 
 were already leading spirits among their acquaint- 
 ances. Not mere ecclesiastics; for these are seldom 
 real leaders; and even when they do lead, are apt to 
 be very unprincipled. For they soon found that the 
 true leaders of a community were generally men of 
 middle age, whose opinion carried weight, even be- 
 fore they became Christians. For the most careful 
 thinkers in any community are always leaders of its 
 better elements, whatever their trades may chance to 
 be. 
 
 Thirdly, they were careful to choose men whose 
 influence in most matters had been on the right side, 
 even before conversion. For while conversion may 
 change Saul into Paul; or a wild robber chieftain into 
 a humble follower of Christ, in spite of the blood that 
 stains his hands; or a grasping money-maker into a 
 
172 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 great philanthropist; experience always shows that 
 there was before, in each of these lives, a vein of true 
 but half choked nobility, planted there by God, and 
 used by Him in preparing them for their larger work 
 later on. (See Acts 26:9, I Tim. 1:13, Rom. 10:1-3.) 
 For though God's spirit often converts thoroughly 
 mean and little men, He never makes them leaders 
 in His church. 
 
 Fourthly, they tried to get men of real spirituality; 
 men to whom the very thought of God and love and 
 duty, and of prayer, temptation and sin, was sure to 
 bring a thrill of joy or pain; and not mere goody- 
 goody men, "born good," or rather born insipid, and 
 called good, simply because they have not life enough 
 in them to feel the temptations that fall to the lot 
 of most men. For though these last may make 
 pleasing figure-heads, and helpful members of soci- 
 ety, they make very poor leaders and teachers in 
 life's large battles. And they justly felt that a few 
 live and thoroughly trusty men were more to be de- 
 sired than a larger number of less live and trusty 
 ones; for experience seems to show that even one or 
 two untrustworthy and incompetent men, instead of 
 "helping just a little," will positively interfere with 
 the work done by others who are more reliable. 
 Though this does not exclude little men; provided 
 they be true enough to faithfully fill a little place. 
 
 Fifthly, they insisted on waiting till they could 
 get men of real piety; i. e., men who were already 
 converted. For otherwise many a good man would 
 be spoiled by being stuffed with learning too soon; 
 while others would only be better fitted to serve the 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 173 
 
 devil skilfully. And strange to say, illiterate but 
 
 intelligent and true-souled adults, of middle age, 
 when once converted, are apt to make better workers, 
 and a more abmidant supply of workers, in the pioneer 
 stage, than boys kept for a long period of years in 
 the missionary schools, in hopes of fitting them for 
 preachers and pastors. For boys brought up in 
 heathenism, are apt to be upset morally and men- 
 tally by a course of book-learning which to us seems 
 extremely elementary and harmless, or even indis- 
 pensable. To which should be added the further 
 remark that your work is sure to be sadly delayed 
 and needlessly straitened, if you have to wait for a lot 
 of boys to grow up; to find even then that many of 
 them are not cut out for leaders at all\ while others 
 prefer honest money-making to preaching; and so, 
 soon leave your employ. 
 
 But, says some one, how could they ever get started 
 if they were not willing at first to work with uncon- 
 verted helpers? The answer is, that they preferred 
 to stand all alone for awhile, rather than run the risks 
 of crippling the Lord's work by taking the wrong 
 kind of men into partnership. For one talkative 
 hypocrite (or even one great blunderer) is often 
 enough to cripple a whole church, if he is once in- 
 side its fold; and even one case of cholera, too near 
 home, may cause a great many needless deaths. 
 
 Then, sixthly, they were wise and far-sighted 
 enough to employ at first some very unlearned men, 
 so far as book-learning is concerned; and some of 
 their finest foundation laying was done by just such 
 men as these. For we should remember that life it- 
 
174 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 self is a school, even in the darkest of earth's cor- 
 ners, and some pure souls stand very high in this 
 school, even when of books and so called sciences 
 they as yet know not even the A B Cs. — And, even 
 in later years, there always were some quiet corners 
 where such rough and unpolished diamonds could 
 be used to good advantage. 
 
 Seventhly, they were careful not to take too young 
 men; for they soon found that men from twenty-five 
 to thirty-five years of age generally made better 
 workers than younger ones. For such men, though 
 slower to learn, are nevertheless more quiet and 
 steady; and less likely to be upset by the new and 
 strange ideas which close contact with the mission- 
 ary inevitably rouses, more or less. And they are 
 also apt to be more wise and skilful in the work of 
 winning and training souls. Surely here is a lesson 
 worth remembering; for it is hard for us to realize 
 how intoxicating is new knowledge, when given to 
 an inexperienced young person too suddenly, with- 
 out a proper chance to digest it. 
 
 And even in enlightened America, we would prob- 
 ably have less mere rambling talks in the pulpit, and 
 less mere purposeless declamation, if young minis- 
 ters, both pastors and evangelists, were expected to 
 spend more of their time and strength in the simpler 
 and more obscure parts of pastoral work instead of 
 coming so early and so often before their people as 
 full-fledged public leaders and teachers, privileged 
 to speak long and often, in tones of authority, "be- 
 cause they are ministers." For neither smartness 
 nor consecration will make a good professor out of 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 175 
 
 an inexperienced young doctor; or a really good 
 preacher out of an inexperienced young theologue; 
 though in the humbler, slower and less showy parts 
 of either profession, even the most inexperienced 
 man may do really helpful work; if sensible enough 
 to let alone some cases, and often ask advice from 
 his elders in others. And meanwhile, in dealing 
 long and closely with individuals, he learns how to 
 really lead and uplift masses; or else how to let them 
 alone and work on honorably in private. 
 
 Then, eighthly, they were careful to keep testing 
 their men after they had chosen them; sending them 
 out every Saturday for a Sabbath's work in some one 
 of the near villages; and also planning their course 
 of study so as to oblige each student to spend the 
 best part of the year — the four winter months — in 
 active personal work among the people, — first as 
 teacher, and later on as both preacher and teacher 
 combined. And even in later years, when the semi- 
 nary terms were longer, and their students all came 
 from the lower schools and from the College, no one 
 was admitted to the Seminary till he had been care- 
 fully tested as a teacher, colporteur or lay worker. 
 
 But says some one, Did the Harpoot missionaries 
 always succeed in properly applying these various 
 tests and conditions? — Of course not; for their ideal 
 was a very high one. But one fact stands out clear- 
 ly all through their history, namely that their hon- 
 est attempt to apply such severe and varied tests re- 
 sulted in their having an exceptionally large and 
 consecrated body of workers; among whom were 
 less poor men, and more extra good ones, than 
 would otherwise have been possible. 
 
176 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 What to Teach Them. 
 
 After choosing the right men, the question still re- 
 mains to be answered; what shall we teach them, in 
 order to fit them for their work as leaders of God's 
 flock? To this question no detailed answer need 
 be given here; for on the main points there is a 
 pretty general agreement the world over. — But just 
 a few words will not be out of place. 
 
 It seems then rather odd to be told, as we are, 
 that in early years the only book knowledge re- 
 quired for admission to the Theologial Seminary at 
 Harpoot was the power to "read and write and 
 cipher a little," and a "good knowledge of the gos- 
 pel story"; and that the students had to take lessons 
 in geography, spelling, etc., after entering the semi- 
 nary! But these were things which could not be 
 learned in the school of life, of which all of them 
 had been honored pupils, though not graduates; and 
 so had to be taught here. 
 
 But going on to matters more strictly theological, 
 we find that they always gave the most prominent 
 place in the whole course to Bible study; and it does 
 my heart good to see how intensely practical most 
 of this Bible study has been. For the world is be- 
 ginning to find that even the Bible can be studied 
 and taught in such stupidly unnatural ways as to do 
 almost no good at all, and even a great deal of harm. 
 — And this the Harpoot missionaries seem to have 
 realized pretty clearly; and so were markedly suc- 
 cessful in impressing upon their pupils the spirit of 
 God's word, rather than a mere string of abstract 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 177 
 
 doctrines, which would only perplex the mind rather 
 than edify. 
 
 And well do I remember the intense enthusiasm 
 with which Mr. Wheeler entered into this work of 
 Bible teaching; making the class room seem more 
 like an exceptionally wide awake prayer meeting 
 than any other class room I ever entered. For the 
 whole atmosphere seemed to be pervaded with the 
 one thought that "man's chief end is to glorify God 
 and enjoy Him forever." 
 
 Then, later on in the course, came a class in ser- 
 monizing, which I well remember attending at one 
 time as an honorary boy pupil, — Mr. Wheeler tak- 
 ing an interest in this class second only to his inter- 
 est in the classes for Biblical exegesis. 
 
 And besides the classes in sermonizing, both ex- 
 tempore and written, there was also constant prac- 
 tice in composition. But if we may venture a criti- 
 cism, it would be this: that these "thinking lessons" 
 were not detailed and simple enough. — For many 
 a man who can string words and sentences together 
 with a good deal of rhetorical skill and earnestness, 
 is weak in the power to really think correctly, and ex- 
 tricate himself and others from the sloughs of per- 
 plexity and fallacy into which we all of us so often 
 fall. And we cannot but feel that some of the dis- 
 appointments and anxieties which afterwards beset 
 and limited their work might have been greatly less- 
 ened, if these earlier leaders had been more care- 
 fully trained in the art of really clear and accurate 
 thinking, instead of being so often content with 
 simply repeating earnestly the teachings of others. 
 (12) 
 
178 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And even in the field practice of which we have 
 already spoken, when they went out to preach Sun- 
 days and vacations, we cannot but feel that they 
 needed more help in the detailed and accurate study 
 of human nature face to face than was usually given 
 to them. — True, they were often accompanied by 
 more experienced native workers, and were often vis- 
 ited and advised in their work by the missionaries. 
 But in a great many important matters of detail it 
 was taken for granted that "common sense" would 
 lead them all right, without special training. But 
 as a matter of fact such is not the case, either in Tur- 
 key or in America; and I do not hesitate to say that 
 a careful course in observing human nature more 
 closely, and thinking about it more accurately, would 
 double the usefulness of most gospel workers, both 
 at home and abroad. 
 
 But hurrying on in our glimpse at the course of 
 study, we come to just one more matter of which we 
 must take time to speak, namely the lessons in phys- 
 ical culture and the true dignity of labor! 
 
 The students needed better health, for they were 
 not used to so much confining study; and the mis- 
 sionary longed for better roads out into the quiet 
 country; and thinking that of course the students 
 would be glad to help, and thus turn an honest pen- 
 ny in addition to their weekly allowance, Mr. 
 Wheeler one day sent for the students to come and 
 help him build an improved road round the moun- 
 tain side. 
 
 But only two came! And then it was found that 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 179 
 
 they thought such work too undignified for young 
 clergymen; even with a missionary to "boss the job" 
 and do more digging than any one else. 
 
 But the missionaries were Yankees and would not 
 be worsted quite so easily as that m a good cause; 
 so they simply announced that after that the weekly 
 allowance would be less, but that those who wished 
 could earn something additional by working an 
 hour a day in the missionary's labor gang, with the 
 missionary as chief digger; and so after a while 
 manual labor became quite respectable, and the stu- 
 dents had healthier bodies and healthier minds, and 
 the city better roads. 
 
 HOW MUCH TO TEACH THEM. 
 
 But once more changing our point of view, we 
 come to another matter to which Mr. Wheeler and 
 his colleagues attached great importance; namely, 
 the need of so planning the course of study, as not 
 to upset your students' mental and moral balance. 
 
 For that learning does sometimes upset men and 
 women morally and mentally, making them less 
 true and less clear sighted, the records of colleges 
 and seminaries and universities the world over, do 
 most abundantly prove. Of course this moral up- 
 set may be at times due to the utterly faulty char- 
 acter of the teacher; but the point we have to con- 
 sider here is quite another one; namely, that even a 
 first class thanksgiving dinner may temporarily up- 
 set a person's digestion, mental or physical; and 
 that such over-eating, kept up day after day and 
 week after week, may even produce serious chronic 
 disorders. 
 
i8o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But where is the safety line? the line where healthy 
 growth is assured, and the evils of mental dys- 
 pepsia avoided? — Is it after two years of study? or 
 four? or ten? Does it exclude Greek and Hebrew? 
 or include them? and does it justify the free teach- 
 ing of English? or should all studies be vernacular? 
 These are all hot questions on mission soil; but all 
 of them misleading. For in different stations and 
 at different stages of the work they should all be 
 answered differently. 
 
 For the real test lies deeper down and is The 
 Daily Effect on Character of the Lessons 
 Taught and Learned. For a close and competent 
 observer, judging his pupils singly, soon finds that 
 each study, yes even algebra and calculus, makes 
 each pupil perceptibly better or worse, nobler or 
 meaner, as the days go by; and that what is a help 
 to one is an injury to another. But going a little 
 farther he also soon finds that some students are in- 
 jured by the study of A, some by the study of B, 
 and some by the study of C; while few if any are 
 injured by a study of D. Under these circumstances, 
 he must of course give the preference to D; so long 
 as circumstances remain unaltered and a uniform 
 course is required. 
 
 Of course this is not an easy test to apply; nor 
 did the Harpoot missionaries always apply it with 
 unerring accuracy. But they did apply it as best 
 they knew how; and soon learning that too little in- 
 tellectual stimulus was safer than too much, they man- 
 aged very successfully to keep the spiritual side -of 
 their work foremost through all the years of their 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. i8i 
 
 work, though not quite as successfully in later years 
 as in earlier; for a college is a more complex and 
 puzzling organism than a theological seminary. 
 
 But their wisdom in not starting the college earlier, 
 and their marked though faulty success in taming it 
 when it did come, do them great credit; and both 
 alike illustrate their grasp of this important principle. 
 But of this we shall speak later. 
 
 But coming back to the seminary question we find 
 them day by day and year by year feeling carefully 
 the pulse of their school, and of each individual pu- 
 pil, and stopping the giving of stimulants whenever 
 there was the least tendency to intoxicate, or to rouse 
 a spirit of mere self-seeking; for such a spirit is surely 
 out of place in men supported by the churches, even 
 when it does not degenerate into mere selfishness. 
 
 Then too they were ever careful to call a halt in 
 study, whenever it lessened a man's sympathy for the 
 people he must help. Or to quote the words of the 
 late W. F. Williams, they strove to turn out men "so 
 well educated that their people could look up to 
 them; but not so, rriuch so as tq be out of sympathy 
 with them, or unhappy among them." And in this 
 they succeeded most wonderfully. And moreover 
 it was pleasant to see how often the danger of sus- 
 pension, or an actual suspension of a year or two, 
 would be the straw which would tip the balance in 
 favor of health, and make good workmen out of some 
 who we^re before in dangerdf losihg tlieir bilance and 
 self-control. ' '^'^ '^••^^- '2n^7r;i ,i:n/ 
 
 CfiJ TQj ',nin2 i-f^-'i ^--n >: 3T3riJ /jtI'^Wz 3ud JSffi j£ cnozp. 
 
i82 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 How Lon^ to Teach Them. 
 
 As to the length of the seminary course at Har- 
 poot, it was originally two year?, of seven and a half 
 months each, with a long four months' vacation in 
 the winter, so as to give them a chance to do personal 
 work among the people at a time of year when the 
 people and their children were most at leisure, and 
 thus most accessible. 
 
 Later on the course was four years, and the stand- 
 ard of admission much higher; though from first to 
 last the missionaries seem to have been keenly alive 
 to the fact that too much mere book-learning is worse 
 for a man than too little; and so were very slow in 
 raising their standard. 
 
 But why is it that too much learning is a thing to 
 be so carefully avoided? And is it not true, as some 
 have asserted, that Mr. Wheeler was really an enemy 
 of education, in all the earlier years of his life; and 
 a very stubbornly inconsistent friend of education in 
 all his later years; because of his being so careful 
 not to go too fast? And is not knowledge a good 
 thing? 
 
 Yes, surely knowledge, unmixed with poison, is 
 good; but when given to a weak or sickly mind too 
 rapidly, or rather too indiscriminately, it produces 
 fever and delirium as truly as does well cooked food 
 when given to one whose stomach is not ready for 
 it. And, furthermore, even when the ill effects 
 seem at first but slight, there is no real gain; for the 
 mind fails to grasp the real truth, the truth to which 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 183 
 
 the words were meant to point, and so learns to 
 work blindly rather than intelligently. For at such 
 times simple, routine work, mental and physical, ap- 
 plying what little we already know, is far better for 
 us than any attempt to get new knowledge by fur- 
 ther study of books. 
 
 AS TO THE SUPPORT OF THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. 
 
 As to the support of these students, the policy of 
 the missionaries was to give them each a small 
 weekly allowance, part of which was conditional on 
 their helping in the manual work spoken of above 
 (page 178) this allowance being made small enough 
 to barely cover the expenses of a very simple way 
 of living. But some one may ask, Why pay them 
 anything? Why not make them support themselves? 
 To this there are two answers; first, because most of 
 them were such poor men in money ways that they 
 could not have supported themselves and gone on 
 with a regular course of study, without taking a 
 much longer time than was best, where so many 
 fields were already white for the harvest and waiting 
 for reapers. And, secondly, the few who might 
 have paid their own way, had already made as real 
 and painful a sacrifice in giving up a profitable and 
 wealth promising business, that to put upon them the 
 added sacrifice of rapidly using up their small savings 
 would have been unjust indeed, and very short 
 sighted. 
 
 But we should also remember that these were 
 all picked men, pledged to devote themselves to 
 
i84 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 gospel work, if found suitable; and sure to be soon 
 "sent home," as per contract, if found unsuitable; 
 and also sure to spend at least three or four months 
 every year while in the seminary, in active service 
 at points where trained leaders were needed at once; 
 and at the end of two, three or four years, able to 
 give their whole time and strength to the work. 
 
 THE STUDENT AFTER GRADUATION. 
 
 We ought next to say a word about the way in 
 which the missionaries dealt with these men after 
 graduation; for on mission soil, even more evidently 
 than in Christian America, graduation is only a great 
 commencement. 
 
 And yet we need not go into many details, for 
 other parts of the book are full of them; but only 
 call attention to the general fact that, if these choice 
 young men are to do good work, and really do their 
 best, they will need close and constant supervision, 
 for they like us are human, and need both inspira- 
 tion and restraint. Otherwise many an important 
 duty will be overlooked or aeglected, sometimes be- 
 cause of human ignorance, and sometimes because 
 of human weakness; for these haunt even the best 
 of men, when forced to stand alone, even in a good 
 cause. 
 
 And then once more am I reminded of the way in 
 which the missionaries at Harpoot thought of their 
 native helpers as brethren beloved; and treated them 
 as such, even when they had to rebuke and restrain 
 them sharply, as an elder brother would restrain a 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 185 
 
 younger. And although, as a boy, and later on as 
 a man, I have spent nineteen years in Harpoot, and 
 have watched it closely from a distance for even a 
 longer time, I never saw there, with but one excep- 
 tion, the spirit of looking down on the people which 
 I have since learned does sometimes exist even in 
 some missionary hearts. And I have no doubt this 
 hearty respect which the Harpoot missionaries felt 
 for the people among whom they labored was one of 
 the many seemingly little things, which taken to- 
 gether accounted for their large success; though any 
 one of them taken alone would never have brought 
 such a harvest. 
 
 The missionaries were also careful to have from 
 time to time short summer schools for the encour- 
 agement and further training of such of their helpers 
 as could attend; though these do not seem to have 
 been held quite as often as might perhaps have been 
 well. And we are inclined to think that they ought 
 also to have required from each of their helpers, ex- 
 cept those who had passed into the employ of wholly 
 self-supporting churches, a simple semi-annual or 
 quarterly examination of some sort, only taking care 
 to let each one choose for himself just what line his 
 studies shall take; that thus along side of the gentle 
 compulsion of an examination, there might be great 
 freedom as to the special problems in life, Scripture, 
 or history which each one would choose for his quar- 
 ter's study, provided he gave ample proof of having 
 done plenty of careful, detailed and accurate work on 
 his special problem. 
 
i86 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 As to the Location and Number of Missionary 
 Seminaries. 
 
 As to the location and number of missionary sem- 
 inaries, there are three points which^re of sufficient 
 general interest to be worth mentioning. The first 
 is that they should never be located at a point, how- 
 ever central, where the student would have to live 
 or dress in a way much, if any, more costly than 
 that of the well to do middle class in his own native 
 district. To us in America where the middle class 
 in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and at all 
 intervening points live and dress nearly the same 
 (though not at equal cost) this seems a wholly un- 
 necessary point to make. But in the Orient, where 
 ways of living vary greatly from district to district, 
 it is a point of great importance; for habits of fine 
 living and dressing, once acquired, are hard to lay 
 aside; and yet do strongly tend to lessen the average 
 man's willingness to settle down once more among 
 a poorly dressed and roughly fed people; though 
 these may be the very ones among whom he has 
 spent nine-tenths of his life, and among whom he 
 would today be happier than in his fine clothes and 
 restless search for better living. — On this point the 
 conflict in early years was at times very hot, but 
 finally this much was pretty generally agreed to. 
 
 Then, secondly, it has been quite generally ad- 
 mitted of late, by many missionaries at least, that 
 each station should, if possible, have from time to 
 time, small "station classes" of men likely to become 
 ministers later on; and that a little time may profit- 
 
NATIVE PASTORS AND HELPERS. 187 
 
 ably be spent each year in starting these men in 
 their systematic studies, with a view to testing them, 
 and fitting the best of them for a fuller course of 
 study later on, at some regular seminary. 
 
 But it is also quite generally admitted, though at 
 times a little reluctantly, that stations which wish 
 their men to take a full theological course should 
 not ordinarily attempt to do all the work at home. 
 For three seminaries with fifteen pupils each would 
 cost the American churches nearly three times as 
 much as one seminary with forty-five pupils, with- 
 out any likelihood of their really doing any better 
 work, if as good. While in station classes, the at- 
 tempt should be to simply give glimpses of life, and 
 a few ideas as to methods of study and self-culture, 
 with frequent examination of the results of private 
 study on character and life, rather than to teach 
 very much in the class room proper. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES; OR THE 
 PROPER USE OF MONEY. 
 
 And now we come to the subject on which Mr. 
 Wheeler's life and writings throw more new light than 
 on any other one subject in the whole range of mis- 
 sionary thought; namely the wise and unwise use of 
 money in missionary work, both at home and abroad. 
 
 BEARING ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS. 
 
 But first of all the question arises, and has often 
 been asked of late. Why should money be used at all 
 in missionary work? 
 
 The answer to this question is found when we come 
 to applying that beautiful teaching of Scripture (Gal. 
 6:2) and of nature, "Bear ye one another's burdens, 
 and so fulfil the law of Christ." For life would be 
 sad indeed, were there not in it so many chances to 
 help in bearing others' burdens and to get others to 
 help in bearing ours. — Home, Friendship, Love, 
 Father, Mother, words like these all point back to 
 burden bearing; and from love of burden bearing, 
 and a wise burden bearing, comes all their sweetness 
 and beauty. For burdens rightly borne only make 
 life richer and sweeter for us all. 
 
 Hence do we find that money, the tool which so 
 
 often lightens the burdens of home, is also some- 
 
 188 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 189 
 
 times needed to lighten the burdens of missionary 
 work, for the missionary, and for his converts in for- 
 eign lands; enabling him to devote more time and 
 strength to teaching men; and enabling them to en- 
 joy Christian privileges which, without such neigh- 
 borly help, would have been unattainable at first. 
 
 BEARING OUR OWN BURDENS. 
 
 But truth is always double, each truth being lim- 
 ited and deepened by some other truth which limits 
 and fulfils it, though seeming at first to only contra- 
 dict it. And thus it is that side by side of the pas- 
 sive privilege of letting others bear some of our bur- 
 dens for us, is the active one of bearing our own 
 burdens, as soon as we are able to do it; and also 
 helping to bear the burdens of others, who at some 
 one point happen to be weaker than we are, and so 
 to need our help. And on this duty of self-reliance 
 and self-help, and helpfulness toward others, wise 
 fathers and mothers insist very early, when as yet 
 their children seem incapable of helping anyone. 
 And Scripture is also full of verses touching upon 
 this duty; such as: Galatians 6:5, "For every man 
 shall bear his own burden;" or II Thess. 3:10, where 
 the apostle says plainly: "We commanded you that 
 if any man would not work neither should he eat." 
 
 And again: "We beseech you brethren work 
 
 with your own hands, as we commanded you," 
 I Thess. 4: 10, II. — Also that "the Lord loveth a 
 cheerful giver" (II Cor. 9: 7), and that 'Ht is more 
 blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35.) 
 
igo 
 
 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 The Duty of Giving. 
 
 Yet though Scripture and experience are so em- 
 phatic in condemning a lazy man, or one who too 
 long lets others bear too many of his burdens for 
 him, and so clearly points out the privilege and 
 duty of giving for others' good, yet this is one of 
 the duties which many missionaries have almost ut- 
 terly failed to inculcate and properly enforce upon 
 their converts, — thus loading their churches down 
 with a lot of weakling, over grown babies, and a 
 good sprinkling of hypocrites. 
 
 For, though a too free use of foreign money does 
 not turn all one's converts into hypocrites, it does 
 seriously cripple them all, and deprive the native 
 churches of their vitality and power to move and 
 uplift those round about them. 
 
 But before going on to discuss the evils of a too 
 free use of others' money, and the ins and outs of 
 self-support, as illustrated by Dr. Wheeler's life, we 
 wish to point out a deeply interesting and significant 
 Bible coincidence which connects the duty of self- 
 consecration and property-consecration very closely 
 with the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. 
 — Here it is: 
 
 Bear ye one another's 
 burdens and so fulfil 
 The Law of Christ. — 
 Gal. 6:2. 
 
 Remember The Words 
 of the Lord Jesus, how 
 he said. It is more bless- 
 ed to give than to re- 
 ceive. — Acts 20:35. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 191 
 
 Thus do two of the most inspiring watchwords of 
 a large Christian benevolence both come back vivid- 
 ly to Jesus Christ himself; and thus stlf-support also 
 comes back to him. And how? Simply by point- 
 ing out the oft forgotten fact that our Oriental 
 churches are as truly entitled to the blessing of 
 which Christ here spoke, as we are; and if we, in 
 our short-sighted generosity, deprive them of this 
 blessing of giving, by leaving them too few burdens 
 to bear, we simply wrong them and bring great sor- 
 row and pain into their lives and our own — even as 
 many a loving parent has had occasion in later life 
 to regret bitterly the way in which their own too 
 hasty unselfishness has only made their children 
 more selfish and unhappy. 
 
 Oh let us not repeat this sad mistake on a larger 
 scale; and then wonder why Christ's kingdom is so 
 slow in coming! 
 
 But turning to questions of detail we find that 
 through the efforts of Mr. Wheeler and of a com- 
 paratively small number of like spirits, it has at last 
 come to be pretty generally admitted that native 
 churches can do something toward their own sup- 
 port; and that some time or other each church 
 ought to become wholly self-supporting; and later 
 on we hope to give some clear statistical proof that 
 there is a wide spread and steady gain in the prac- 
 tical grasping and applying of this difficult truth to 
 mission churches. 
 
 But a close study of the problem also shows that 
 in the practical details of self-support and mission- 
 ary finance there are many perplexing problems to 
 
192 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 be solved, and some very serious difficulties to be 
 overcome. Hence in this chapter we shall enter 
 into the study of many details, proud that the Har- 
 poot missionaries should have so carefully worked 
 out these matters of detail, on which success so 
 often depends. — Our materials we gather in part 
 from Dr. Wheeler's published writings; in part from 
 the things which he and his colleagues did; and in 
 part from hundreds of conversations in which we 
 were fortunate enough to hear Mr. Wheeler discuss 
 various points of mission policy. 
 
 "THE PEOPLE ARE TOO POOR." 
 
 First of all then, at the very outset of the whole 
 discussion, we meet the objection that "the people 
 in many districts and towns are too poor to support 
 their own teachers and preachers." And the objec- 
 tion is one which is so plausible at first sight that 
 thousands have been deceived by it; and even he 
 who afterwards became such an earnest and success- 
 ful champion of self-support admits frankly that he 
 too was deceived by it, for a while, and did not try 
 to make the people do as much toward self-support 
 as would have been good for them. But fortunate- 
 ly in Harpoot this mistake was discovered early 
 enough to correct it, ere it could do much mischief. 
 
 That people in mission lands are often very poor 
 no one will deny; but the question is. Are they so 
 poor that we have any right to depive them of their 
 self-respect? and of the gladsome feeling that they 
 too have a share in supporting God's work at home, 
 and in sending the gospel to other lands? For how- 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 193 
 
 ever small that share may be it always brings a bless- 
 ing, if the little be but given in love. And as we 
 shall see later on, even those who are too poor to give 
 money can give work, thus enabling each one to give 
 something. 
 
 BUT ARE THE PEOPLE REALLY TOO POOR? 
 
 But let us come right down to figures and see what 
 this argument of poverty amounts to; and in order 
 to do this and show also to what wild extremes it has 
 been pressed, we will simply quote the words of a 
 missionary to India, who really thinks he is a friend 
 to self-support. He says, "It would take a thousand 
 Christians in our field to furnish half of a native min- 
 ister's support." (!) 
 
 We will admit that this statement is the wildest we 
 have ever seen; and yet it is a sad fact that a good 
 many missionaries do secretly hold views almost as 
 absurd.- And hence it will be well worth our while 
 to look into even so extreme a statement a little 
 more fully. — If then it would take a thousand native 
 Christians to pay one half their minister's salary, it 
 would take two thousand to pay the whole; or al- 
 lowing three Christians to a family, it would take 660 
 families.* — Now then supposing each family to give 
 in money, food, cloth or shelter the equivalent of just 
 one working day each year, what do we get? We 
 
 *If by "a thousand Christians" Dr. meant a thousand heads of fam- 
 ilies or bread winners so called, then to pay the whole salary would require 
 two thousand families instead of 660, a statement even more extravagant 
 than that given above. But wishing to argue as fairly as possible, we have 
 assumed that by "Christians" he means church members of either sex. 
 
 (13) 
 
194 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 get a minister who is twice as well off financially as 
 the average of his congregation. Or supposing each 
 family to give the equivalent of two days' work (or 
 one 150th of their income,) we have a minister who 
 is four times as well off financially as the average of 
 his congregation; and so on up. Surely this is non- 
 sense; for while it is undoubtedly true that a relig- 
 ious leader should live better than the poorest and 
 most unfortunate of his people, if he is to do good, 
 strong, vigorous work, it is even more true that you 
 are almost certain to cripple him, or greatly weaken 
 him morally and spiritually, if you give him a salary 
 much above the Average of what his people earn; for 
 his early training and theirs, and his needs and theirs, 
 are in most respects the same; and a larger salary 
 would only make him more selfish, not more useful. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT PROVED POSSIBLE. 
 
 But now let us turn the question round, and ask 
 how many live, well-trained Christians it would real- 
 ly take to pay one half of a minister's salary, sup- 
 posing that minister's salary to be just equal to the 
 average income of his people, here again remembering 
 that the minister has, or ought to have, a family to 
 support, which means quite a good deal of sewing, 
 mending, washing, cooking, laying in of supplies, 
 etc., etc, all of which can be done in part by others, 
 if some of his congregation are not able to pay their 
 share in cash. 
 
 If each family, then, contribute one tenth of their 
 income or labor to the support of their minister, his 
 whole salary could be paid by ten families, or a half 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 195 
 
 of it by five. Nor need there be any additional 
 expense for church music, church building, church 
 renting, etc., or anything except the pastor's salary. 
 For so small a church certainly could and should go 
 back to the sweet old apostolic custom of meeting 
 at the house of some beloved sister or brother to 
 talk over the ways of God with men (Acts 1:13, 20:8, 
 12:12; Rom. 16:3-5; Col. 4:15, etc.) and doubtless 
 could and would often meet even in more sweetly 
 simple ways, as did some women of old, (Acts 16:13.) 
 where Paul and Silas found them by the river side.* 
 Nor would they need a separate schoolmaster; for 
 surely the pastor of so small a church could and 
 should give a part of his time to teaching; and would 
 thus be saved from many of the temptatious that 
 come to young doctors, lawyers and clergymen, who 
 are not almost compelled by circumstances to work 
 hard and long. 
 
 Or if each family contributed one twentieth (five 
 per cent) of their income, the whole salary could be 
 paid by twenty families, or half of it by ten. Which 
 would be giving to the Lord one whole working day 
 each three weeks. And surely a body of Christians 
 who are too stingy to do this, and do it cheerfully, 
 should not be honored by forming them into an inde- 
 pendent local church, and giving them a pastor all 
 their own. For such mismanagement would only 
 deepen the tendency toserve the Lord half-heartedly, 
 
 ♦And even if a special "meeting- house" or meeting room were thought nec- 
 essary, one suited to the needs of so young a church could be rented or built 
 at very small money-cost; if a large part of the contributions were paid in 
 days' labor, as has often been done, not only in Turkey, but also in civilized 
 America. 
 
196 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 or only in name. And as for starting a full fledged, 
 independent church (as distinguished from a branch 
 of a union church) with less than ten families, it 
 would certainly be unwise. For such a church would 
 be too easily upset by the death, removal or back- 
 sliding of a very few members; and in such matters 
 it is always safer to run the risk of going a little too 
 slow rather than too fast. 
 
 Remembering then that the native pastor is not a 
 commander in chief, or a major general, but only the 
 leader of a very simple community; and also re- 
 membering that he should not be too far removed 
 from them, either socially or intellectually, we find 
 that, so far as poverty is concerned, the problem of 
 self-supporting native churches is not as difficult, even 
 in a very poor community, as it at first seems to be. 
 For the best leader for such a community will be one 
 who from childhood has lived as poorly as they live, 
 only more unselfishly and nobly. 
 
 Yet while we feel that this objection of poverty 
 has very little weight, save as one of those difficul- 
 ties in the way which all good movements have to 
 overcome, we are far from supposing that the theo- 
 retical removal of it makes everything plain sailing. 
 
 HOW SOON SHOULD A CHURCH BE FORMED? 
 
 Passing on then to difficulties which are really more 
 serious, we come first of all to the question. How 
 soon should an independent local church be formed? 
 To this the Harpoot missionaries gave a markedly 
 financial but practical answer; "Not until there are 
 enough true Christians, and other hopeful inquirers, 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 197 
 
 to pay at least a half of the pastor's salary;" and as 
 ten families could easily do this, as we have already 
 shown, (page 195) this requirement was certainly not 
 an unreasonable one. 
 
 But still the question will arise, should they make 
 a money test so prominent in a matter that at first 
 sight seems to be wholly spiritual? The answer is 
 that they were far-sighted enough to see that no 
 church can long maintain a healthy spiritual life, if 
 organized on a short-sighted and unbusinesslike ba- 
 sis; and so after applying the spiritual tests and cau- 
 tions of which we have already spoken, in Chapter 
 Ten, they were careful to insist on this money test as 
 an added essential to a permanent and thriving work. 
 
 But the question may properly be asked. What be- 
 came of their converts and inquirers when as yetthere 
 were not enough for a church. The answer is that 
 the converts were advised to join some neighboring 
 church (see Union Churches, page 150;) and could 
 also receive help in supporting some unordained man 
 as preacher or chatechist, even though they could not 
 as yet pay half his sdAdiVy, provided they were willing 
 to do a reasonable amount toward their preacher s sup- 
 port. Though after the eventful lessons of 1861* the 
 missionaries seem to have wisely avoided holding 
 regular and long continued preaching services in any 
 outstation, until some resident was found, deeply 
 enough interested to help, at least a little, in bearing 
 the expenses of such preaching, and thus make sure 
 of the work's starting on a healthy, hearty basis. 
 But furthermore that this "regular preaching" should 
 
 ♦See Chapter Fourteen. 
 
198 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 always be by some one whom the people could hope 
 after a while to wholly support; lest too much more 
 costly preaching, native or missionary, should make 
 the people discontented with a less showy preacher 
 later on. 
 
 HOW SOON SHOULD A CHURCH BECOME WHOLLY 
 SELF-SUPPORTING? 
 
 Another question that arises is. How soon should 
 a church become wholly self-supporting? The Har- 
 poot answer to this question was that ordinarily a 
 church should be able to become wholly self-sup- 
 porting within five years from the time when it was 
 first formed, one-fifth of the Board's original grant 
 to the church being cut off each year, if something 
 evidently exceptional did not happen to justify a 
 longer continuance of the Board's help. Nor did 
 this necessarily assume that the church would double 
 in five years; but rather that growth in numbers and 
 in generosity, taken together, should and would 
 make such a decrease possible and best, provided 
 each church was formed with a definite understand- 
 ing on the part of the members that they were to 
 give more each year. 
 
 And yet on this much disputed matter the most 
 essential points are certainly clear and simple; 
 namely, that each station and missionary society 
 should recognize more clearly the folly of forming 
 weak churches that have not at least made a gen- 
 uine and hearty beginning toward self-support; sec- 
 ondly, that they should set some definite limit to 
 the amount of help which they are willing to give; 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 199 
 
 SO as to create a sort of public opinion; thirdly, that 
 this limit should be such as to require some good 
 hard work and self-denial on the part of the people; 
 and, finally, that there should be a definite under- 
 standing that in all ordinary cases the amount of 
 help given from abroad will be decreased each year 
 as rapidly as possible, ''so that the Lord's Tnoney may 
 go to other more needy communities in this and other 
 lands!' 
 
 A careful examination of the figures given on 
 pages 194 to 196 does, it seems to me, show that the 
 "one-half rule" is none too strict, especially when 
 we remember that even the poorest need the bless- 
 ing of feeling that God has a partner's share in all 
 they earn. But even those who dare not take such 
 high ground should at least insist on a beginning 
 being made, and on a gradual decrease of the money 
 help given; otherwise no amount of mere preaching 
 of self-support can ever do any good. For actions 
 speak louder than words. 
 
 And while it is undoubtedly better that we should 
 go too slow than too fast; one thing is certain, that 
 simply standing still and letting matters drift is ut- 
 terly wrong. For every unguarded payment of 
 money on our part, makes it harder for the people 
 to ever overcome the besetting sin of covetousness, 
 and become real co workers with God.* And if in 
 
 ♦This fact is strikingly illustrated by Dr. Luther Gulick, when giving some 
 of his reasons for feeling utterly dissatisfied with Gospel work in Italy some 
 years ago. He writes: "The Free Church has had a year of unusual pros- 
 perity; that is, they have had very large receipts of money from England 
 and America, and have consequently done less for themselves than last 
 year." (I) Yet this is by no means a solitary instance of the bad effect of 
 reckless giving. • (over) 
 
200 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 exceptional cases missionaries fail to recognize this 
 much, surely we have a case where compulsion 
 should be used by the home board; or else the work- 
 er dismissed for incompetence. For even good 
 men have no right to waste the churches' money, 
 through a disastrously short-sighted misuse of that 
 money, however well-meaning their folly may be. 
 
 TO WHOM SHOULD THE MISSION GRANT BE MADE? 
 
 Following still further the question how to most 
 wisely help a dependent church, we find the mis- 
 sionaries insisting that the church itself shall fix the 
 pastor's salary; and furthermore making their money 
 grant to the church, instead of giving it directly to 
 the pastor himself; the effect of this policy being to 
 bind pastor and church more closely together, and 
 also greatly lessen the liability to get the salaries 
 too high. For the churches, realizing that the whole 
 salary must soon be paid by themselves, were more 
 careful not to offer too much; and the pastors, real- 
 izing this same fact, were more careful not to ask or 
 expect too much; and were also softened by being 
 oft reminded of where their salaries came from, and 
 of how much love and sacrifice they represented on 
 their people's part; thus going on very evidently to- 
 ward a truer self-consecration, and a tenderer, deep- 
 er love for the people whom they were to serve. 
 
 Here too we should explain what Dr. Wheeler meant by covetousness; it was 
 not miserliness, nor was it stinginess; but simply excessive love of money, 
 and a wish to spend it all, as far as possible, on one's self and one's family — 
 like the man who asked the Lord to bless "me and my wife; my son John 
 and his wife; us four and no more." — That man was undoubtedly covetous; 
 though he may not have been stingy. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 201 
 
 Should the Churches Have a Common 
 Treasury ? 
 
 Here too is the best place to speak of another 
 matter; namely, that the missionaries were careful 
 to advise each church to pay its own bills, instead of 
 having a common treasury out of which all salaries 
 were paid. For the average man will give far 
 more, if he knows his money is going right straight 
 to the pastor or preacher he loves, and that the loved 
 pastor is depending on it, than he will if he knows 
 that his money is going into some general treasury, 
 which will then pay the salary and make up all de- 
 ficiencies, if he happens to give less than usual, or 
 less than he might have given, with alittle extraeffort. 
 
 MAKING ALL GRANTS CONDITIONAL. 
 
 But the missionaries soon found that even good 
 men need strict rules; and that unbusinesslike habits 
 tend strongly to encourage selfishness and laziness; 
 and so were shrewd and wise enough to make and 
 enforce another rule; namely that all mission grants 
 should be conditional on the people's first paying 
 their part of the month's salary. 
 
 But says a short-sighted objector, this was unfair; 
 for it would only result in starving out an innocent 
 man, because of his people's neglect or selfishness. 
 But that is not true. For if the pastor had done his 
 duty, and the fault really lay with the people, every 
 one knew that the missionaries would gladly give that 
 pastor work in some more deserving community, or 
 in pioneering. — So that no faithful one need suffer. 
 
202 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But just here another objector turns up and says it 
 would be unfair to the church to thus deprive them 
 of their pastor; for their failure to pay, or pay in full, 
 mi^ht be due to a serious failure of crops, or some 
 other like cause which would partially excuse it. 
 To which we simply reply, that such exceptional 
 cases would of course call for an exceptional com- 
 promise; but do not in any way affect the wisdom of 
 the general law. 
 
 "WHOM HE LOVETH HE CHASTENETH." 
 
 But some will go even farther and claim that, even 
 when the people's non-payment of their part springs 
 from a blame-worthy neglect, it would still be better 
 for the missionary to pay his money and then "argue 
 with them in a brotherly way," instead of quietly 
 inviting the good pastor to go and work elsewhere, 
 and thus "crippling the work at an important center." 
 
 To which we reply that the world is already too 
 full of young men and young women and young 
 churches that have been ruined or weakened for life 
 by a short-sighted unwillingness on the part of their 
 parents to sometimes chasten them in love; while the 
 cases are comparatively few where a firm but gentle 
 and really loving insistence on their being true to 
 themselves and others has ever permanently discour- 
 aged or even seemed to injure any church, or young 
 man or young woman. And the missionary parent 
 who lets a lazy church ride astride his neck will soon 
 find that he is their helpless slave and misleader, 
 rather than their leader and teacher. While he who 
 dares to punish zvill seldom have to do it\ and, when 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 203 
 
 he does do it, will have the joy of soon seeing marks 
 of genuine repentance, in nearly every case where 
 punishment has to be administered. 
 
 And even in the rare cases where a community 
 persists in its wrong doing, and prefers money to 
 manliness and honesty and love, it is better for the 
 world, better for all the surrounding churches, and 
 better even for that community and church that the 
 church should die, and be replaced later on by a bet- 
 ter one, that is not rotten to the core. 
 
 WHO SHALL CIRCULATE THE SUBSCRIPTION 
 PAPER? 
 
 But when we come right down to the question why 
 missionaries who believe in self-support have so often 
 failed in really enforcing it, we find still another point 
 at which they have often failed, namely in an unwill- 
 ingness to take right hold and start the wheel a roll- 
 ing, by good, hard, hand to hand work. 
 
 And we feel sure that had not Mr. Wheeler, in be- 
 half of the missionaries, been willing to circulate in 
 person the subscription paper in the first church 
 which they ever brought up to self-support, — Har- 
 poot station would never have made such wonderful 
 strides in planting independent churches as we shall 
 have the pleasure of recording later on. For the 
 battle was a hard one, and without Yankee pluck and 
 wit and wisdom, right at the fore front ot the battle, 
 there would have been little likelihood of their suc- 
 ceeding so soon, or so markedly. 
 
 "But do you mean to say that the missionary should 
 always circulate the subscription paper in person?" 
 
2o4 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 No, I do not. But when the ice is to be broken for 
 the first time, especially in the teeth of your own or 
 your predecessors' previous mistakes, then nothing 
 but Occidental pluck, supported by a firm faith in 
 God and clear convictions of duty, can ever get the 
 movement started. For the little hitches and the 
 great hitches to be overcome, the selfishness, the 
 inertia and the honest misconceptions, are indeed ter- 
 rible at first. But when the work is done, then your 
 reward begins, and it is a great one. For when the 
 frost of covetousness has once been overcome, many 
 a violet and snowdrop and crocus begins to blossom 
 in homes and hearts which selfishness and short- 
 sighted love had till then kept cold and desolate. 
 Thus was it at Harpoot; thus will it ever be. 
 
 Let us then briefly review a few of the misconcep- 
 tions which the missionary has to meet and conquer 
 in the first campaign, though these are only samples 
 of a mighty host. 
 
 MISINTERPRETING SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Well, first of all, one man, or rather one large 
 group of men, will honestly or dishonestly, quote 
 that much abused Bible verse, Matt. io:8. "Freely 
 ye have received, freely give;" forgetful that only 
 two verses farther on Christ himself says, "The 
 workman is worthy of his meat," and so may claim 
 it from the people among whom he is working. 
 "Freely" thus referring not to the fact that he gets 
 no wages; but rather to the fact that he gives gen- 
 erously such things as he has. So that this verse 
 which bids the pastor give of his love, and prayers 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 205 
 
 and experience generously, is also a reason for the 
 other man's signing the subscription paper gener- 
 ously (instead of not signing it at all) thus freely 
 giving of his money for the support of a good cause. 
 
 ACCUSING THE MISSIONARY OF INSINCERITY. 
 
 Then again another class claimed, generally be- 
 hind the missionary's back, that he was simply try- 
 ing to feather his own nest, by saving the Board's 
 money to spend it on himself. For these, when 
 found out, as they were pretty apt to be after a 
 while, a sound thrashing, administered in words in- 
 stead of blows, was the best possible treatment; 
 for they were cowardly hypocrites, trying to make 
 a place of honor for themselves in God's church, 
 without caring a whit for God's law. In all such 
 cases the missionary's daily life sufficiently answer- 
 ing the charge; and the rebuke being simply meant 
 to break the influence of the deceiver over more 
 pure minded men, who from love of money might 
 be tempted to follow his lead. 
 
 "LET THE MINISTER SUPPORT HIMSELF." 
 
 Then next came the class, alas too common, even 
 in Christian America, who could see no reason why 
 they should help support the minister. "Why not 
 let him support himself, as I do?" — to whom the 
 missionary had to expound I Cor. 9: verses 7, 11, 13 
 and 14, showing them that the minister was sup- 
 porting himself, as truly as they were; and that his 
 salary was something which the people owed him, 
 {for service done\) though he did claim that the rich 
 
2o6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 were in duty bound to give enough to lighten the 
 cost of church blessings to the poor of the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 "I AM TOO POOR." 
 
 Then came another class of well to do, or even 
 rich men, who admitted that the pastor was a good 
 man, doing a good work, for which he was certainly 
 entitled to pay; but claimed that they personally 
 were too poor or too straightened in business to 
 give much; and so asked to be excused; or else let 
 off with a ridiculously small subscription. 
 
 With these the argument took many different 
 forms, all the way from tender pleading and serious 
 joking to sharp rebuke and public protest. For 
 these were generally men high in social standing, 
 and some of them even professed Christians, and 
 men whose evil example, if connived at, would mis- 
 lead and upset many a poorer, humbler man. 
 
 One illustration of the jocose style of argument 
 which Mr. Wheeler has put on record, is so quaint 
 as to be worth repeating. A certain rich man who 
 always took a prominent seat in the pewless church, 
 having for himself a special reserved cushion, tried 
 to play the poverty dodge. But Mr. Wheeler was 
 equal to him. He simply said, "All right, only we 
 shall have to assign you a poor man's seat with a 
 box of dirt to sit on. Then others won't take of- 
 fense at your not giving anything."* But the man 
 concluded that on the whole he better give. 
 
 ♦Oriental houses and churches often have a dirt floor all over; while some 
 are boarded at one end and dirt at the other, where no one sits, except when 
 there is an unusually large crowd. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 207 
 
 Then came the man who declared, that in the old 
 Armenian church he never gave as much as the 
 missionary was now asking him to give. To which 
 the missionary simply replied, well then you better 
 go back to the old Armenian church, if a cheap re- 
 ligion is all you care for. Or you might even turn 
 Turk; for the Turks w'lW pay yoii for doing that. — 
 But this remark seems almost too grim; unless per- 
 chance the man was a consummate hypocrite, and 
 needed a fearful probing. 
 
 Then at other times he would take the "poor 
 man" at his word and begin to point out laughingly 
 to the surrounding crowd some of the evidences of 
 poverty in his daily expenditures, this, for generous 
 rhinded men, who only needed a little uplift to win 
 them, being a most effective argument. 
 
 Then last of all came one rich man, already with- 
 in the church, whom the other native brethren were 
 so anxious not to grieve, that they offered to pay 
 his subscription for him, if the missionary would 
 only let him off. And reluctantly the missionary 
 did it; only to feel afterwards, when too late, that 
 from that day the man was doubly hardened, and 
 never really became a follower of Christ. 
 
 But there were others who were really poor, very 
 poor; but still needed the blessing that comes from 
 entering into partnership with God; and soon came 
 to feel that the one or two cents a week which they 
 could pledge was indeed a great privilege. And, 
 among rich and poor alike, it was found that enter- 
 ing into partnership with God made life brighter 
 and honesty easier, for all their work now seemed 
 sacred. 
 
2o8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Still Other Difficulties. 
 
 But the missionarj^'s work was exceedingly hard; 
 and sometimes he would come home all tired out 
 and say, "I can't stand this any longer." But, 
 nevertheless, after a few hours of rest he would slip 
 out and go at it again; and so the work went on. 
 
 Yet I cannot wonder that he wearied of it sadly, 
 and was at times too harsh with some stiff necked 
 ones. Yet far better thus than that he should have been 
 too easy; for the lessons he taught them were greatly 
 needed and were full of blessing; even if at times 
 they were a little too roughly taught; and even 
 though the missionary was sometimes very stern, 
 one fact was very widely known: This money raiser 
 had a warm, kind heart and really loved the poor] a 
 requisite which should never be lost sight of in 
 choosing your money collectors; for a cold and sim- 
 ply formal collector will do more harm than good 
 and make men honestly hate your church, or at 
 least carefully avoid it.* 
 
 Then later on came the discouraging time when 
 some who had begun giving wanted to be excused 
 from giving any more; and some really did insist on 
 stopping, because the root of the matter was not in 
 them (Matt. 13:20-21). But meanwhile a much 
 larger number had learned to love to give; and so 
 the good work went on; till the church which had 
 at first given half its pastor's salary reluctantly, was 
 
 *Nor should the subscription list ever take the form of a tax or dun on 
 church members, determined by a church finance committee; but should in 
 most cases be privately settled between each collector and donor, as a free- 
 will offering in which Christians and unchristians are all alike invited to 
 join, for their own good, Privately. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 209 
 
 willing, yes, glad, for the most part, to give all. 
 After which time other half self-supporting churches 
 began to spring up in rapid succession, and then to 
 go on like the Harpoot city church toward full self- 
 support. For the ice was broken; and public opin- 
 ion was strongly on the side of self-support. 
 
 And let me call attention here to the fact, to 
 which I shall revert again later on, that though Mr. 
 Wheeler be leved most heartily in self-denial and 
 self-sacrifice, he oftener emphasized \.\\q privilege of 
 giving, and this it was that made his teachings on 
 this subject take so deep a hold on all who came 
 under his guidance. 
 
 Then too the giving to which he accustomed the 
 people was systematic, definite and frequent; not 
 so much, once for all, or once a year, but some; defin- 
 ite sum each week, until a change of income made 
 an increase possible or a decrease mevitable; thus 
 making the giving a great deal easier, and the bless- 
 ing a great deal richer and deeper. And his ex- 
 perience and the experience of the Harpoot churches 
 clearly illustrated the fact that, while generosity in 
 money matters is no proof of conversion, it is a 
 great help in deepening and perfecting the Chris- 
 tian life of those who are already converted, and 
 also of those who are almost persuaded. 
 
 BUILDING CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND PAR- 
 SONAGES. 
 
 Now let us turn to another matter which must often 
 come up for consideration in a successful mission sta- 
 tion; namely the building of churches, schools and 
 (14) 
 
210 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 parsonages. For here too we find that Mr. Wheeler 
 and his colleagues soon came to have a pretty clearly 
 defined policy, well worthy of study, though it will 
 not take long to outline it. 
 
 First of all, then, all grants for building, like those 
 for salaries were conditional on the people's first do- 
 ing what they agreed to, though they might be, and 
 I think generally were, paid in installments; so much, 
 "when the walls are up," and so much on completion. 
 
 Secondly, they generally, if not always, felt that 
 most of the cost of building should be borne by the 
 people; the mission board simply coming in to tip 
 the balance; in most cases the Board's grant being 
 not more than a third, fourth, or fifth of the whole; 
 though I am unable as yet to find any general rule, 
 save that I think that in later years the missionaries 
 were less free in giving than they were at first, real- 
 izing more clearly the danger of letting mere exter- 
 nals get ahead of the real growth of the church itself. 
 
 Thirdly, they did not favor building fine churches 
 to attract the crowd; feeling that a plain but neat 
 edifice, well filled with earnest truth seekers would 
 do more good than a finer one only half full, or filled 
 in part at least with mere pleasure-seekers; and, more- 
 over, that occasional rebuilding and enlarging was 
 safer and healthier for the spiritual growth of a church 
 than building large at first; a too costly church build- 
 ing both on mission soil and at home often proving 
 more of a hindrance than a help to a church's growth 
 and usefulness and to all other churches that are near 
 enough to come under the spell of its fine and showy 
 edifice. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 211 
 
 Fourthly, that all churches, schools and parson- 
 ages, in the building of which the Board had a share, 
 should be built in simple, oriental style, from plans 
 and estimates approved and corrected by a mission- 
 ary, so as to prevent costly blunders. 
 
 And, fifthly, they seem generally to have care- 
 fully avoided buying or building school rooms, 
 chapels and preachers' houses at the Board's ex- 
 pense outside of Harpoot station, where the college 
 and theological seminary and missionary residences 
 necessarily involved much building and buying. 
 But in their outstations their policy seems to have 
 been to rent; and if they could not rent, then sim- 
 ply rely on occasional visitations, meanwhile spend- 
 ing most of their strength elsewhere, at points where 
 the gospel was welcome enough to make renting 
 possible, and not too costly. And though I am 
 sorry to say that I cannot as yet lay my hands on 
 any systematic discussion of this topic by Mr. 
 Wheeler, either in writing, in print or in memory, I 
 think we can see pretty clearly, even without this 
 help, some of the reasons for their doing as they 
 did and renting instead of buying property. 
 
 Firstly, because, in case the town later on turns 
 out to be an unpromising one, the sale of said build- 
 ings is almost certain to involve a large money loss; 
 being, as it would be, a forced sale, in a hostile com- 
 munity, by an alien, non-resident owner, all of which 
 points involve serious drawbacks. 
 
 But, secondly, buying or building in a town in- 
 volves great risk of the missionary's persisting in 
 occupying the place, and hoping against hope, when 
 
212 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 he might be working to much better advantage in 
 some other town. 
 
 And, finally, even if the work proves thoroughly 
 successful, the missionary's ownership of a chapel, 
 school house or preacher's house in the town de- 
 prives the early converts of one of their easiest and 
 most helpful lessons in self-support and self- 
 consecration, namely the opportunity to supply 
 some sort of homely shelter, at their own cost, 
 or in their own homes, for the teacher, the school 
 and the infant church. And if the opposition at 
 any point is so blind and bitter that a preacher's 
 house even cannot be rented, then surely thai is not 
 a place where a missionary or helper could wisely 
 settle; for it will always be found that under such 
 conditions mere occasional visits make a deeper and 
 healthier impression, and a better entering wedge 
 than permanent occupation. 
 
 HOW TO DEAL WITH A CHURCH ALREADY 
 FORMED ON A WRONG FINANCIAL BASIS. 
 
 But how are we to deal with a church or body of 
 churches, already formed on a wrong financial basis? 
 To this question Mr. Wheeler gives us a very defin- 
 ite answer. For the first church which he and his 
 colleagues ever brought to self-support, and the one 
 in which he himself went about with a subscription 
 paper, as told above, was just such a church; i. e. a 
 mere charity church, formed by an earlier mission- 
 ary, before Messrs. Allen, Barnum and Wheeler 
 even entered the field. Then, a few years later, 
 they had the task laid upon them of bringing up to 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 213 
 
 self-support several other churches which had been 
 transferred to Harpoot from a neighboring station 
 and had learned to rely on the Board for nearly 
 everything; — and, although the missionaries them- 
 selves were almost disheartened at the prospect, it 
 was pleasant afterwards to look back and see how 
 soon these churches also fell in line, now that public 
 opinion among good men, both inside and outside 
 of the church, had come to see what an important 
 and blessed thing it was to thus hasten on towards 
 self-support, in a spirit of love and self-consecration. 
 Of course, in the case of such churches, some 
 slight compromises had to be made for awhile; for 
 rules were made for men, not men for rules. But 
 when they found that they must rely on poor village 
 pastors for the communion, not on the missionaries; 
 and were in other ways treated like sick churches, 
 not like well ones, all but one of these weak churches 
 took the necessary steps toward self-support, and 
 ceased to be the burden which the missionaries feared 
 they would be. Though the best results of the self- 
 supporting policy were seen in the way in which new 
 churches and new communities were being quickened 
 into life all over the land. For, though the quicken- 
 ing was less in some communities than in others, 
 and the struggle against laziness and selfishness 
 harder among some shiftless peoples than among 
 others, the general effect was always the same; 
 and the missionaries came to realize that insistance 
 on self-help zvas most needed at the very points where 
 it was hardest to enforce. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT CONTINUED; A FEW 
 IMPORTANT DETAILS. 
 
 PAYING TOO HIGH SALARIES. 
 
 Going on now to discuss some further questions 
 of detail which have often perplexed missionaries 
 and crippled them in their work, we come to the 
 question of salaries. For one of the surest ways of 
 utterly Spoiling a good workman is to give him too 
 high a salary; while one of the surest ways Qi simply 
 crippling him a little is to give him too small a salary. 
 
 But so far as our observation goes, missionaries 
 and missionary boards are such kind hearted peoole 
 that they err oftener on the side of giving too much 
 rather than too little. Hence the first question that 
 we must discuss is that of paying too high salaries. 
 
 And that missionaries have sometimes erred in 
 doing this, will be sufficiently illustrated for my pur- 
 pose by a quotation from an official document, 
 nearly forty years old; (The report of the A. B. C. 
 F. M. for 1859, p. 58) which informs us that "The 
 
 majority of the church members in B support 
 
 their families upon less than 4000 piastres per year; 
 
 and few, if any, have an income of more than 6000; 
 214 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 215 
 
 while their preacher receives 10800;" and then goes 
 on to inform us that this was but a sample case in 
 that region, and that the preacher s salary was paid 
 mostly by the missionaries. 
 
 But this we are glad to say was long ago, when 
 Dr. Wheeler was as yet a young man, just beginning 
 with others to lead on the fight for a wiser use of 
 money; and in most parts of the world things have 
 changed a good deal since then. And yet we dare 
 say, that even then, in spite of such serious blunders, 
 each dollar sent abroad accomplished more for 
 Christ and the world than it could have accomplished 
 had it been spent in America. For some lessons of 
 world wide importance can be learned only by ex- 
 perience; and better learned abroad than at home. 
 
 And yet mistakes, however instructive, need cor- 
 recting; for only when corrected do they reveal a 
 truth; hence the importance of the problem we are 
 discussing. Nor should we forget that even now 
 missionaries are doubtless often tempted to repeat 
 on a less startling scale the same mistake of paying 
 too high salaries to their native helpers; while mis- 
 sionary boards, both home and foreign, are also in 
 danger of injuring their work by sometimes paying 
 too high salaries and at other times no salary at all! 
 Let us then try to state clearly the principles by 
 which Mr. Wheeler and others in Turkey, India, 
 Africa, China, Japan, America and elsewhere have 
 sought to work out this perplexing problem. For a 
 perplexing one it certainly is. 
 
2i6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 "Why Pay any Salary at all?" 
 
 First of all we find them frankly admitting and 
 asserting that most men cannot do good work for 
 the Lord on an empty stomach, or with an anxious 
 brain. Hence they admit and assert that mission- 
 aries and native workers will do better work, if we 
 can guarantee them enough of a salary to enable 
 them to meet their more urgent daily needs, preserve 
 their health, bodily, mental, and spiritual, and, by 
 strict economy also supply themselves with the more 
 common comforts of life around them, comforts 
 which are really necessary for preserving good health, 
 though the connection is so subtle that many people 
 fail to see it. 
 
 BETTER PAY TOO LITTLE THAN TOO MUCH. 
 
 But secondly, we find them asserting that it is far 
 safer and better that a salary should be too low than 
 too high; for too low a salary only involves hard- 
 ship, delay d^nd partial loss : while the paying of too 
 high a salary involves in many cases a positive 
 blight on some parts of the worker's higher, deeper, 
 spiritual life. Some of course are wise enough and 
 good enough to detect this danger, and quickly pay 
 the surplus back to the Lord's treasury in some 
 other form; as did Wm. Carey, who out of a yearly 
 salary of fifteen thousand pounds sterling paid him 
 by the East India Company, for teaching Bengalee, 
 Mahratta and Sanscrit in one of their Indian col- 
 leges, was wise and unselfish enough to devote all 
 but forty pounds of it to missionary work.* 
 
 *He did the work of three professors and received the salary of three, 
 even ordinary professors receiving five thousand pounds a year! 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 217 
 
 But, unfortunately, even among good men and 
 women, Hindoos, Armenians and Americans, such 
 men are the exception aad not the rule. For, if we 
 get more than is good for us, we are almost sure to 
 keep or spend most of it for ourselves. 
 
 PROPER USE OF TRUST FUNDS. 
 
 Thirdly, they have pointed out the fact that salaries 
 paid out of trust funds, raised for benevolent pur- 
 poses, by donors scattered far and wide, should 
 never be as high as the same man could get in other 
 forms of work, or as settled pastors get from the 
 churches that enjoy and support them, often more 
 bountifully than is for their good. For knowing 
 pretty definitely from whom his big salary comes 
 puts a settled pastor under bonds of gratitude, 
 which the agent of a society is not apt to feel as 
 keenly. Hence the danger line is much sooner 
 reached in society work. 
 
 This point Dr. Wheeler made very emphatic; for 
 he soon saw how demoralizing was the thought that 
 "the Board is rich and can easily afford to pay me 
 a little more." For he knew that the Board's 
 money, much of it, came from very poor people; 
 and that the man who felt justified in trying to grab 
 all he could get of it, was, either wholly mercenary, 
 or else temporarily unfitted for Christian service by 
 a bad attack of money-fever, which so often ruins 
 even well-meaning men, if not checked promptly. 
 
 And well do I remember how many of the sweet- 
 est "Thank yous" of his later life came from men 
 whom he had sternly but lovingly checked at this 
 very point. 
 
2i8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Putting on Airs. 
 
 Fourthly, Dr. Wheeler was quick to suspect that 
 a teacher or preacher was being too highly paid for 
 his work, when he began to put on airs, and think 
 himself so much belter than the people among 
 whom he worked that he could no longer enter into 
 their simpler joys and sorrows. And these sus- 
 picions often proved true. 
 
 And so, whenever he and his colleagues saw any 
 signs of a mercenary spirit, or a tendency to give 
 the love of money too large a place in one's thoughts 
 and motives, they felt sure that the man's salary 
 was already too big, and acted accordingly. For 
 they felt that it was better that the salaries they 
 paid should be so small as to seem a positive draw- 
 back rather than that they should be large enough 
 to tempt mercenary and self-seeking men. For 
 experience shows that a very few mercenary workers 
 will soon taint nearly the whole flock; and all of 
 their fellows in the ministry. 
 
 MAKING EVERY DOLLAR COUNT. 
 
 Fifthly, Dr. Wheeler and others have very prop- 
 erly called attention to the importance of Christian 
 economy in this matter of salaries. For surely the 
 Lord's money should be so spent as to accomplish as 
 much as possible with the amounts at our disposal; 
 and ten good workmen at^ say 5 Xs a month (fair 
 living wages) would certainly do more good than 
 five at 10 Xs a month, or seven at 7 Xs apiece. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 219 
 
 Willing Self-Denial. 
 
 But, says some one, "You cannot get good men 
 by simply paying average living wages, less than a 
 smart man could get elsewhere;" to which Dr. 
 Wheeler would have replied, Brother you are sadly 
 mistaken; for all over the world we find that most 
 of God's best workers are doing the very thing which 
 you declare to be impossible, and are proud to work 
 on small profits for the sake of doing more good 
 than they could in other more financially profitable 
 lines of work; and you ctrtainly are not getting a 
 proper hold on men's hearts and consciences, if you 
 have not succeeded in finding and employing such 
 men as these. And furthermore, you should remem- 
 ber that many of your best workers are not "smart 
 men" at all, and could not make more than living 
 wages anywhere. And while too great poverty is a 
 burden under which only men of rare genius and con- 
 secration can survive and prosper; a moderate degree 
 of poverty is a load which many a man will gladly 
 take up for Christ's sake, and find a blessing in 
 doing it. 
 
 FIXING SALARIES. 
 
 But after all what was the net cash result of all 
 these cautions, when reduced to dollars and cents? 
 Well, that's a hard question to answer; for Mr. 
 Wheeler and his colleagues always answered it in 
 piastres, and answered it differently for different 
 outstations, and different workers, after a minute 
 study of each case, in and out of "station meeting," 
 But I think I can give an approximately correct 
 
220 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 generalization from the many cases which I have 
 had a chance to watch. It was that the minister, if 
 lucky enough to have a fairly economical wife, 
 should be able to live a trifle better than the average 
 middle class of the community which he represents; 
 for only thus can he properly represent it, either as 
 pastor or as missionary to some other land. 
 
 And though they were careful not to dispute the 
 right of any church to pay a beloved pastor more, if 
 it thought best, they themselves were careful not to 
 pay high salaries out of the treasury of the Board. 
 And I think that we shall find, that whenever our 
 colleges, churches or missionary societies pay some 
 of their employees exceptionally high salaries for 
 the sake of getting men of "marked ability," they 
 are very apt to get men who are sadly unfit for all 
 the deeper and more spiritual parts of their work; or 
 at least crippled in this work by the excessive dig- 
 nity and fear of giving offence which a too big salary 
 engenders even in very true-hearted men, for even 
 the best of workmen are apt to deteriorate in power 
 to purify and help men, when their salaries pass 
 beyond a comfortable living point. 
 
 MISSIONARIES' SALARIES. 
 
 And now just a word about missionary salaries in 
 particular, in answer to some questions which are 
 often asked nowadays. 
 
 First; why do not missionaries live more nearly 
 as the people do among whom they work? Be- 
 cause most of them very properly feel that the aver- 
 age American way of living is better for them and 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 221 
 
 for their children; and have a perfect right to feel 
 so and insist on living as an average American lives. 
 And any man who claims that they should cripple 
 their own thought life and their children's home 
 life, in hopes of helping some one else's home, by 
 so doing, has sadly mistaken the true nature of 
 duty; for self-sacrifice (or a willingness to suffer for 
 others) and self-injury are two very different things; 
 and duty never calls for the latter. Nor would such 
 self injury really increase the missionary's power to 
 help the people among whom he works; for the 
 missionary's nervous and spiritual vitality would be 
 lessened by it far more than his ease of access to the 
 people would be increased. 
 
 "But how can missionaries consistently receive 
 higher salaries than they pay their native helpers?" 
 Our reply is that they need more to keep up their 
 health of mind and spirit (and to some extent of 
 body too;) for they represent a more high strung 
 race; and all the mighty forces of heredity, plus 
 those of education, from infancy up, call for more 
 varied, and far reaching and costly helps. 
 
 And so the test given on page 220 entitles them 
 to a higher salary, provided their help is really needed, 
 that is to say when the work which they are doing 
 cannot be done in part or wholly by less costly 
 native workers. Only in applying this test it 
 should never be forgotten that the missionary, though 
 living in Asia or Africa, is still a citizen and repre- 
 sentative of America; (see page 220) and to do his 
 best must live as wide awake Americans of the mid- 
 dle class live; or he will soon cease to be a really 
 
222 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 representative American, and in so doing will also 
 lose his fitness to be a missionary. For it is the 
 genius of American life ringing through all his 
 nerves and brain that fits him for being a mission- 
 ary and doing a work which even the best of his 
 native helpers could not do at present; not because 
 they are inferior men, but because they are such 
 different men, and children of a very different civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 And yet, in accordance with the law of economy 
 given above, on page 218, all this implies three 
 things; first that the missionary should never do 
 himself what some native of the country can do as 
 well; secondly, that he should not spend any of his 
 time nnd strength on matters of merely secondary 
 importance; and, thirdly, that missionaries who 
 lack the real American genius for leadership (except 
 in a latent form) should either come home, or else 
 make haste to develop that gift, if it is in them. 
 For mere undeveloped and unused gifts do not enti- 
 tle an American to any larger salary than natives 
 get for the same kind of work. 
 
 But this raises still another question, which is often 
 asked in real perplexity, though, of course, oftener 
 asked with a dishonest sneer, "Is there then any 
 real self-sacrifice in foreign missionary work?" To 
 such an inquirer we would reply, just go and try it 
 for four or five years, till the novelty is all gone, 
 and unless your heart is pretty full of love, you will 
 get very sick of it and want to stop. For bread and 
 butter and sauce, and pictures and books and car- 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 223 
 
 pets do not take the place of restful and congenial 
 surroundings; and however much a missionary may- 
 love and respect and admire the people among 
 whom he or she labors, you will nearly always find 
 in the missionary's life an undertone of loneliness, 
 which points very strongly to self-sacrifice and pain; 
 though it is for the most part a loving, cheerful and 
 happy self-sacrifice. 
 
 And we should also remember that there is no 
 virtue in self-sacrifice alone, but rather well-mean- 
 ing folly ; except whefi some good comes of it. Hence 
 a wise missionary will take care of himself, as care- 
 fully as he does of his horse, and of his other tools. 
 For only thus can he do as good work as he should. 
 
 NATIVES EDUCATED ABROAD. 
 
 But how about natives who have been abroad for 
 an education? Should these receive higher salaries 
 than those who have not been abroad? Yes, gener- 
 ally; provided going abroad has not spoiled them, 
 as it so often does. But even here the same tests 
 apply as those given above (page 220); for the for- 
 eign education, if really helpful at all, simply fits 
 them for leadership in some larger and wealthier 
 community, where they will naturally need a larger 
 salary. But foreign travel and study seems almost 
 never to waken in them that large organic or organ- 
 izing power which entitles them to employment as 
 regular missionaries; showing how wonderfully 
 strong are those gifts and limitations of heredity 
 and birth of which we ordinarily think so little. 
 
 And even in Japan we cannot but feel that it 
 
224 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 would have been better for the work had the hon- 
 ored Neesima been made counsellor in chief rather 
 than one of the commanders in chief. But however 
 this may be, the general fact is a most undeniable 
 one; though it does seem strange, when we remem- 
 ber what noble and true men many of these native 
 leaders are, and how gifted they are in most lines. 
 
 RELYING ON UNPAID WORKERS. 
 
 But from the paying of too high salaries the mis- 
 sionary world, or rather some parts of it, are now 
 swinging to the opposite extreme of not paying any 
 salaries at all! and we are told that Christ and Paul 
 and Barnabas had no salaries, and were strictly and 
 literally self-supporting; therefore we and our native 
 helpers should be the same. — That certainly sounds 
 like good reasoning; but fortunately most mission- 
 ary societies are shrewd enough to see that there is 
 a fallacy in it somewhere, in so far as it applies to 
 the missionary himself, though few as yet have ven- 
 tured to point out the fallacy that also lurks in the 
 statement that our native brethren should be strictly 
 self-supporting in the sense of not having any sal- 
 ary. Let us then look into the matter more closely. 
 
 First, as to apostolic practice? It is undoubtedly 
 true that Christ himself had no salary paid by any 
 board or society; but nevertheless he evidently oft- 
 en received contributions from others, as we see 
 from Luke 8:1-3; and had a treasurer, Judas, (John 
 12:6,) who was not supposed to spend the money 
 without his orders (John 13:27-29). Then surely 
 he was not self-supporting, in any narrow and liter- 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 225 
 
 alistic use of that word; though he certainly gave 
 to the world far more than it ever gave to him, and 
 was in a higher, truer sense self-supporting, if ever 
 any one was. 
 
 Then when we come to the seventy and the 
 twelve we find that when Christ first sent them out 
 for trips, in their own native land, (Matt. 10:5 and 
 Luke 10:1) he told them to "Provide neither gold 
 nor silver nor brass in their purses" (Matt. 10:9 and 
 Luke 10:4) but rely on the hospitality of the towns 
 they visited, "For the workman is worthy of his 
 meat" (Matt. 10:10). Surely this was not self-sup- 
 port, in any narrow sense of that word. 
 
 But, later on, when the time had come for them to 
 go out into all the world and preach the gospel, he 
 said: "But now let him that hath a purse take it 
 and likewise his scrip" or wallet (Luke 22:36). 
 Surely this points to the need of rhore foresight 
 when entering a foreign land than some have exer- 
 cised; and as for the vague assurance often given 
 that "we will probably be able to send you some 
 help," this puts matters in a different light, but still 
 leaves them in needless and wearing uncertainty; 
 thus adding one more to the inevitable burdens and 
 uncertainties of missionary life. 
 
 But, turning again to the history of the early 
 church, we come to Paul; and here the champions 
 of extreme ideas seem at first to have their own 
 way; for we are told that he worked hard at tent- 
 making, day and night, ministering to his own neces- 
 sities, and to those that were with him (Acts 18:3 
 and 20:33-34 and I Thess. 2:9). But Paul was a man 
 (15) 
 
226 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 of exceptional energy, and to take his mere private 
 conduct as a general rule for everybody would indeed 
 be absurd; for a strain which such men can stand 
 would crush, or else sadly cripple most men. And 
 Paul himself evidently realized this; for in his epis- 
 tles he argues Very Strongly for the right of relig- 
 ious workers to some sort of a salary, (I Cor. 9:7-14 
 esp. V. 14) and he himself condescended to grate- 
 fully accept money help "time and again;" from the 
 church at Philippi, while he himself was laboring 
 elsewhere (Phil. 4:15-19 and 10-14 and II Cor. 11:9). 
 
 Surely such a man would have favored the forma- 
 tion of missionary societies to further and hasten 
 the day of the Lord, by enabling the worker to 
 devote his whole strength to the work; and, I say it 
 reverently, perhaps Paul's own beautiful letters, so 
 full of truth and power, would have been less full 
 of things "hard to understand" (II Pet. 3:15-16) if 
 he had not been obliged to spend quite so much of 
 his precious time and strength in making tents. 
 
 And we should also remember that Paul labored 
 in countries whose civilization was about the same 
 as that of his native land; which made self-support 
 a much easier matter, especially as the Greek lan- 
 guage was more or less common to them all. 
 
 And now one step more in early church history. 
 How about the local elders, which Paul was careful 
 to have placed over each church? (Acts 14:23, Titus 
 1:5 etc.) Did these have salaries? I cannot think 
 they did; for the great difficulty of the duties laid 
 upon them does not seem to have been properly 
 recognized, no one as yet realizing that an elder, to 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 227 
 
 be thoroughly competent and successful, must give 
 his whole time and strength to the work. And so 
 we freely admit that the apostolic churches proba- 
 bly did often and perhaps always start in with un- 
 paid leaders, who made their living in some other 
 way. 
 
 But this plan evidently gave way, after a while, to 
 a better one, more like that of Christ himself, who 
 spent three long years in training his assistants for 
 service. And furthermore the churches' having so 
 long relied on half-trained leaders, whose work 
 must ordinarily have been done more or less in a 
 hurry, undoubtedly accounts in part for some of the 
 serious errors which so soon crept into the early 
 church, and finally resulted in the backset of which 
 the Middle Ages furnish so sad a history. 
 
 The plan of relying almost wholly on unpaid na- 
 tive workers, which Dr. Nevius in China and others 
 elsewhere have recently tried so extensively, seems 
 then to us to be very ill adapted for use as a perma- 
 nent solution oi the question of self-support; unless 
 the people are taught to pay a slowly increasing 
 weekly salary to their leader, so as to enable him to 
 spend a steadily increasing amount of time each 
 year in Gospel work and Gospel study. For oth- 
 erwise they themselves will ere long weary of his 
 crude and more or less hasty talks, talks which at 
 first did them real good, but have long since been 
 outgrown; and thus he will slowly but steadily lose 
 his hold on the community at large. Oh how often 
 has this happened, even with a salaried minister, 
 whenever a minister has lacked leisure or sense 
 
228 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 enough to keep himself growing by a patient and 
 earnest study of life and its problems. 
 
 Arid, furthermore, the people themselves, getting 
 their good things too easily, are sure to be less grateful 
 for them. For, although free public libraries and 
 lectures are helpful to a community which is in 
 other ways being made to carry its part of the 
 load; a community which gets all its best things 
 free will soon cease to appreciate them; and, in any 
 community, the things which we help in sustaining 
 or spreading by contributions of work or money 
 (including tax-paying) are always the ones which 
 we love most, and get most out of.* 
 
 Here, too, mention should be made of another 
 argument sometimes urged in favor of not paying 
 any salaries at all; — namely that it lessens the dan- 
 ger of the missionary's surrounding himself with a lot 
 of merely mercenary attendants. To which we 
 need only reply that, if you are careful not to pay 
 too high salaries, always giving your workers a little 
 less than they could earn elsewhere, rather than a 
 little more, and also taking care to give them plenty 
 to do, this danger will almost wholly disappear; for 
 small pay and plenty of good hard work are not a 
 very tempting bait to hypocrites, or even to Chris- 
 tians of the more self-seeking sort; and salaried 
 men, thus protected and helped, make by all odds the 
 
 *So that we are not at all surprised to read the following manly confession 
 from a station where this plan has been extensively tried: "The problem of 
 remedying this evil (of irregular attendance on Sunday services) is one of 
 the gravest questions before the station." While eight years later the same 
 station reports: "The number of church members who can be depended on 
 for regular attendance is very small, especially in the outstations" (where 
 the evil effects of this plan would naturally be felt the soonest.) 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 229 
 
 best workers in the long run for all positions which 
 heavily tax a man's time and strength. 
 
 But, says someone, Do not Mr. Wheeler's teach- 
 ings on self-support naturally lead on to these more 
 extreme views? No, they do not; for what he 
 pled and fought for so earnestly was Self-Support- 
 hig Churches, not self-supporting ministers and mis- 
 sionaries. For ministers and missionaries who do 
 good honest work are, and always have been, self- 
 supporting, no matter who paid their salary, just as 
 much so as any other man, in any land, who ever 
 worked for a salary or fee. But a chtirch that 
 allows its native religious leaders to work for it, 
 without giving them any honest equivalent out of 
 its own pocket is not at all self-supporting; though 
 not quite as badly off as one that relies too much on 
 foreign charity. For unnecessary charity from 
 one's own neighbors and kinsfolk, though degrading, 
 is not as degrading as when it comes from strangers. 
 While really necessary charity does not degrade at 
 all, if properly given, and not too long continued. 
 
 Hence in simply getting started, the Harpoot 
 missionaries used unpaid help a great deal. But 
 they were careful, just as soon as possible, to get 
 matters onto a more permanent and business-like 
 basis; so that both the people and their leaders 
 might be in less danger of backsliding. 
 
 BUT HOW ABOUT MEDICAL MISSIONS? 
 
 Passing on now to Medical Missions, the question 
 arises. How far is it possible to make these also self- 
 supporting? and how far is it desirable? On this 
 
230 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 point, we unfortunatety have not yet found any 
 statement of Dr. Wheeler's; but we can easily see 
 what are its natural bearings on the larger problem 
 of establishing self-sustaining native churches, to 
 which Mr. Wheeler gave so much thought. 
 
 First of all then we can probably agree that free 
 medical advice, and in some cases free medicine, 
 may be a legitimate entering wedge in the earliest 
 stages of missionary work, among an unenlightened 
 people. Though even here some medical mission- 
 aries have expressed the opinion that at least a 
 nominal charge should be made for medicines and 
 bottles, to prevent people's pretending to be sick, 
 simply for the sake of getting a bottle; and also to 
 lessen the likelihood of their throwing the medicine 
 away unused, and expecting the doctor to cure them 
 by some sort of magic. 
 
 But after the people once find that the foreign 
 doctor is really trustworthy and skilful, we cannot 
 but feel that some charge should be made to all 
 except the poorest; and that in the course of a very 
 few years medical missionary work should become 
 wholly self-suoporting. For if the people are not 7nade 
 to pay for that of which they clearly see the value, hoiv 
 can we expect them to pay at all willingly or generously 
 ■for those higher things, of zvhich the value is not as evi- 
 dent at first sight to a careless or short-sighted ob- 
 server? 
 
 And, furthermore, we should remember that, 
 with such large numbers of patients as the mission- 
 ary has, the cost per head would be very slight, and 
 even this much need not be asked of all. For, in 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 231 
 
 accordance with the beautiful principle pointed out 
 in Gal. 6:2, the more well to do could and should 
 pay in part for the treatment and medicines given 
 to their poorer neighbors. 
 
 But, says an objector, "Then your missionary dis- 
 pensary and hospital will cease to be a missionary 
 institution, and become a mere money-making af- 
 fair. — To which we need only reply that for a skilled 
 physician to give his whole time to charity work, 
 barely paying expenses, is certainly not a very 
 money-making affair; nor would even Turks, Hin- 
 doos and Chinamen think it such, even if he charged 
 enough to pay running expenses and provide a sim- 
 ple living for himself. Nor would the spiritual 
 purpose of his work be obscured or weakened, when 
 they saw the missionary physician's daily life, and 
 heard the prayers and simple exhortations of the 
 doctor and his assistants; and also saw how little 
 he asked as compared with others, most of whom 
 are far less skilful than the missionary himself. 
 For even Chinamen and Hottentots will respect a 
 man more, if he does not sell his services too cheap. 
 
 But perhaps the most frequent objection urged 
 against making the people pay for medical help is 
 that Christ healed men free of cost, and why should 
 not we? But as we have already shown, Christ's 
 command "Freely ye have received, freely give 
 (Matt. 10:8) does not at all forbid the taking of pay 
 in some form; for in the tenth and eleventh verses 
 of the very same chapter he clearly shows that he 
 thought the good men of the towns visited ought to 
 help pay the costs of the work; and doubtless he 
 
232 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 himself was often "paid" in part for his services in 
 healing and teaching in this same markedly oriental 
 way, as he traveled from town to town with his 
 twelve apostles and others who were studying the- 
 ology and medicine under his care! 
 
 So that the plan which we have proposed seems 
 to be the very same one which Christ himself rec- 
 ommended and practiced, namely that of letting 
 one hospitable Jew carry another Jew's burden, one 
 Chinaman another Chinaman's burden, out of love 
 for a common Master; and taking it for granted 
 that in every town visited there would probably be 
 some "worthy man" who would be willing to carry 
 a part of the burden and that each poor man who 
 is at all worthy of special help, would be sure to 
 have a circle of friends who will gladly help pay 
 his expenses at so inexpensive a hospital. 
 
 And if any one asks, "Why substitute fees for 
 hospitality? a sufificient answer would seem to be 
 that a modern doctor's expenses are greater than 
 those of a miracle working apostle, and Christ's 
 reasoning would thus justify us in asking the people 
 to pay these greater expenses just as he said they 
 ought to help m paying the lesser ones of his time 
 (Matt. 10: 9 to ii); though like him we should lay 
 the burden mostly on those best able to bear it and 
 not equally on every one. 
 
 MAKING MEDICAL WORK TOO PROMINENT. 
 
 And furthermore that medical missionary work, 
 wholly or mostly free, may be pressed too far seems 
 also to be clearly shown by the reports of our mis- 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 233 
 
 sionaries in North China, who have made medical 
 work exceedingly prominent in their field. 
 
 For from 1883 to 1887 they report on an average 
 one conversion to every 118 patients treated; but 
 from 1888 to i8q6 only one conversion to every 174 
 patients; and for 1897 ^^^ 1898, only one conversion 
 to every 267 patients treated; and yet meanwhile 
 the number of patients had increased from eleven 
 thousand to seventy thousand a year; the average 
 from '83 to 'Sj being 11713; the average from 'S6 to 
 '96, 40709; and the average for '97 and '98, 70780. 
 Surely these figures seem to show that these sick 
 folk and the public at large are less grateful and 
 less thoughtful, as a class, now, than thty were fif- 
 teen years ago when hospital comforts were harder 
 toget. While in the Foochow mission, where hospital 
 and dispensary work has been pressed more slowly 
 and absorbed less precious missionary time, we find 
 the work is actually growing faster than in North 
 China, in spite of the fact that there are less than 
 half as many foreign missionaries and only a little 
 more than a third as much foreign money for use in 
 the mission. F'or while North China reports the 
 goodly number of 1459 conversions for the past six 
 years; Foochow goes ahead of her and reports 1559, 
 and the ratio between conversions and hospital and 
 dispensary patients drops from i: 176 down to 
 1:65, even though the number -of patients treated 
 was steadily but Slowly increasing all the time. 
 While Foochow mission also takes the lead in self- 
 support, in number of native pastors and preachers, 
 in number of schools and number of pupils, and al- 
 
234 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 so number attending church each Sunday. Nor 
 can it be claimed that Foochovv's gains are simply 
 accidental or spasmodic; as will be shown by the 
 following table which certainly seems to prove that 
 for at least nineteen years her methods of work have 
 been more fruitful of conversions than those fol- 
 lowed in North China. 
 
 Average Yearly Accessions to the Church by 
 Confession of Faith — Per Missionary.* 
 
 N. China. Foochow. 
 From 1880 to '82, 1.4 2.1 
 
 " 1883 to '85, 2.6 2.8 
 
 " 1886 to '88, 2.1 2.4 
 
 " 1889 to '91, 2.3 3.3 
 
 " 1892 to '94, 3.8 4-5 
 
 " 1895 to '97, 37 12.3 
 
 And for 1898, 4.6 12.8 
 
 Surely then North China ought to make her hos- 
 pitals and dispensaries a little less free; that by thus 
 increasing the average manliness and self-respect of 
 her patients, she may bring them and their friends 
 nearer to the kingdom of God; and we are glad to 
 see in the reports for 1897 ^"'^ 1^9^ that in some of 
 her stations a beginning at least has been made in 
 this direction, and that a smallfee charged by Dr. 
 Ingram of the Tungcho hospital has already dimin- 
 ished slightly the number of patients at that station, 
 but "has on the whole increased the benefits" of 
 treatment. While the report from Pauting-fu in- 
 
 *Including all American workers, both male and female, married and un- 
 married; for all alike ijre really missionaries, and about equally costly to 
 the American churches. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 235 
 
 forms us that "the charc^ing of a small fee in certain 
 cases has worked well, eliminating certain undesirable 
 cases and making the patients value their treatment 
 more highly." All of which is certainly cheering 
 and significant; though we venture to prophesy that 
 a still further gradual increase in the charges will 
 still further increase the good results; and bring 
 still others to light in the work at large and the 
 mission's way of doing it. 
 
 SHALL BOOKS AND TRACTS BE GIVEN FREE? 
 
 To this question the almost universal answer fifty 
 years ago seems to have been, why of course you 
 will give them free, so as to get more people to read 
 them. But experience gradually convinced men 
 that this reasoning was faulty; and that books given 
 gratis generally remained almost wholly unread, so 
 that it is now pretty generally felt that this way of 
 doing missionary work is altogether too costly and 
 ineffectual for general use. 
 
 Hence the free distribution of Bibles, Testaments 
 and other books has largely given place to the wiser 
 practice of selling them at cost, or even below cost 
 in many cases; but nevertheless sellmg, and not giv- 
 ing them away. And what is the result? A de- 
 crease in the circulation of books? No, a large in- 
 crease ; iox missionaries who with difficulty succeeded 
 in distributing hundreds of books free years ago 
 (because they could not get money enough to buy 
 them) are now able to sell thousands* with indubi- 
 
 *The total book sales from the Harpoot book, room for the first ten years 
 were "35,091 volumes, besides tracts." Later statistics I have not yet been 
 
 (over) 
 
236 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 table evidence that the books are far more widely 
 and eagerly read than formerly. For those who 
 have paid for them naturally try hard to get their 
 money's worth out of the books they buy, instead 
 of simply glancing over them in a hurried, careless 
 way. 
 
 Thus was it that my father's "book room," with its 
 great piles of books, came to be a mighty help in 
 making men lend their dollars and cents to the 
 Lord, and not simply their ears; and my memory 
 goes back with ever increasing pleasure to the 
 thousands of Bibles, Testaments, Primers, Song 
 Books, etc., that used to go out from those conse- 
 crated walls, where religion and business, prayer 
 and song, Latin lessons for me and ABC lessons 
 for others, and Bible lessons for us all, were min- 
 gled together in orderly irregularity, as opportunity 
 
 able to get. — Though from Shanse, China, Rev. M. L. Stimson (now of 
 Micronesia) sends the following interesting report for 1886: Days spent in 
 touring of all sorts, 219; days spent in purely evangelistic touring, 140; 
 average daily book sales wlien touring. 27, not including tracts. Which makes 
 a total of about 4000 books sold by this one missionary in five months of 
 touring! Surely an interesting record and one that strikingly illustrates 
 how widespread the art of reading must be in China. While for 1887 Rev. 
 Chas. R. Hager of Hong Kong reports six or eight months spent in touring 
 and 84 Bibles, 100 Testaments, 13,443 Gospels and 15,000 tracts and calendars 
 as sold by himself and his assistants. 
 
 While of another large and costly mission whose growth in Church member- 
 ship and self-support has been and still is a great deal slower than that of 
 other missions of the group to which it belongs, we are not surprised to find 
 in an early report this official statement, made by one of their own number: 
 "The sale of Bibles and tracts has not been carefully reported; * * * 
 and the sales have been small; one of the reasons for not developing this 
 work being a reluctance to employ men with mission funds for a purpose 
 whose result is not manifestly large and useful." And now more than ten 
 years later they are paying for their mistake in the relative slowness of 
 growth of which we have spoken; though their earnestness and skill in other 
 lines of work has partially remedied the evil effects of not pressing book- 
 sales as they ought to have done. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 237 
 
 offered; the rest of the world being shut out only 
 for a little while early each morning, when my 
 father was alone with God. 
 
 And here let me quote a striking testimony from 
 India, one out of scores which might be quoted 
 were it necessary. Says the Rev. John Murdock, 
 writing of India:* "Formerly tracts, and some- 
 times even octavo volumes, were given away freely. 
 But the opinion is now almost universally held in 
 India, that, except in a few special cases, gratuitious 
 distribution should be confined to leaflets and very 
 small tracts." 
 
 But my father claimed that even tracts should 
 not be given away free, except in rare cases; and 
 soon found greatly to his delight that these also 
 grew more precious, as men were forced to admit 
 their worth, by a promise to return them! For 
 when men found that tracts were only "lent," not 
 given away; they began to read them more curiously 
 and promptly, and then were thankful for a chance 
 to also buy the ones they liked best. Surely this 
 piece of Yankee red tape was an odd one; and yet, 
 if you will stop to think of it, you will find that even 
 you and 1 generally read things that are "lent" to 
 us sooner than we do those that are given to us out- 
 right. And so it came to pass that in the Harpoot 
 field, tracts were sold, and widely sold too, and 
 more carefully read than ever before. 
 
 ♦London Missionary Conference, vol. 2, page 321. 
 
238 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Giving Books to the Poor. 
 
 But how about giving books to the poor? As to 
 these Mr. Wheeler's rule was that, if any individual 
 or group of individuals, would certify that a man 
 was poor, and back up their testimony by giving 
 one-third of the cost of a book, the missionary 
 would himself give another third, thus leaving only 
 one-third for the man himself to pay. Thus were 
 the undeserving poor kept from undeserved and 
 useless favors, and from getting books to use for 
 waste paper; though even the one-third might be 
 paid in work, if the poor man was willing to so pay 
 it in some of his many idle hours. 
 
 Perhaps we should also add that he kept on hand 
 a small supply of second-hand and damaged books, 
 and broken or subdivided, frameless slates, to lower 
 a poor man's bills still further; though he was care- 
 ful not to follow a certain missionary's advice who 
 said, "Give when you cannot sell." For he well 
 knew that every man who had bought a book, and 
 paid for it, would be tempted to despise his own 
 book, and think himself a fool, when he found that 
 other men, by being a little more stingy, could get 
 a book for nothing. 
 
 He also succeeded in forming many local soci- 
 eties for selling books; and greatly rejoiced when 
 he saw their agents coming for more. Colporteurs 
 were also employed; and to some extent he suc- 
 ceeded in getting local merchants to buy and sell 
 books, on their own account; though here his suc- 
 cess no way equalled that of some workers in Cey- 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 239 
 
 Ion; for Dr. Murdock, quoted above, tells us that in 
 1888 there were in that country about seventy travel- 
 ing native book sellers, who bought books from the 
 tract societies to sell again on their own account.* 
 Surely a most interesting record. 
 
 And would it not be worth while if in our pub- 
 lished statistics of work done each year by various 
 missions the following items were also added more 
 regularly than is now customary; total number of 
 books sold and total number given away; total num- 
 ber of tracts or leaflets sold and total number given 
 away; and lastly a rough estimate of the total num- 
 ber of pages sold and total nnmber given gratis. 
 For this would enable us to get a little clearer idea 
 of just how much seed-sowing was being done; even 
 when as yet the harvest is far distant and open con- 
 versions but few and far between. 
 
 HOW ABOUT HELPING STUDENTS? 
 
 Of grants in aid to students, when in the theolog- 
 ical seminary, we have spoken fully enough in the 
 chapter on Training Religious Leaders (page 183 ). 
 So that all we need say further is that the cautions 
 given on page 214 as to paying too high salaries 
 apply here as truly as anywhere. 
 
 But when we come to the question of aiding boys 
 in common schools, high schools and colleges, we 
 find that the Harpoot missionaries did but little of 
 it and that little mostly in the form of lowered 
 tuition, or some garment out of the missionary's 
 wife's benevolence bag. And their reason for do- 
 
 *London Conference, vol. 2, page 322. 
 
240 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ing so little was not that the supporting of such 
 pupils would not do good; but simply that so much 
 more good could be done by investing the same money in 
 other forms of Christian work. Surely a good reason. 
 
 But girls in the female seminary, afterwards the 
 Female Department of Euphrates College, the Har- 
 poot missionaries felt justified in helping more 
 freely, as a help in overcoming oriental prejudices 
 against the higher education of girls; though even 
 here they were pioneers in self-support, having 
 early introduced the habit of making a part of the 
 pupils pay something for their board, as well as for 
 tuition; till now the larger part of the girls in the 
 boarding department are wholly or nearly self-sup- 
 porting; some supporting themselves by teaching, 
 from time to time; others by work in some mission- 
 ary family, for which the missionary pays in person; 
 while most are very properly supported wholly or 
 mostly by their fathers, some of whom actually said 
 and thought a few years ago that "a woman has no 
 soul." 
 
 A few were also allowed to sign notes, promising 
 to pay in future years and most of these have been 
 redeemed;* while in the matter of school books 
 many are aided by a Loaning Library, founded 
 years ago by the missionary children of the station. 
 
 •Though experience shows 4hat in most cases these notes should be paid 
 up from time to time by teaching, before a girl is allowed to go on and grad- 
 uate, or pile up a very big debt. For then the temptation to go and get 
 married is apt to prove too strong for some! and housekeeping too costly for 
 the husband to feel justified in paying the debt!— And. wherever possible, 
 prepayment of at least a part (in work or money) is better than mere 
 note-taking; this remedy being a good one only in exceptional cases, and 
 for small sums, to be soon paid. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 241 
 
 For the use of these books one-fifth of their value 
 is paid by pupils too poor to buy books for them- 
 selves. 
 
 And even in this matter of female education, as 
 in that of selling books, instead of giving them 
 away, we have no doubt that a more careful insist- 
 ence, the world over, on girls' paying a reasonable 
 amount for their privileges, would only result at the 
 end of five years in our having more pupils of the 
 sort we need, and more by actual count, for every 
 thousand dollars spent, than we have now. 
 
 A WORD ABOUT ORPHANAGES. 
 
 Here is the most natural place to say a word 
 about orphanages, and their proper relation to mis- 
 sionary work in general; for misconception at this 
 point would be sure to result in injury to the cause 
 of Christ, both at home and abroad. 
 
 I think then that we may say without hesitation 
 that ordinarily the founding and running of orphan- 
 ages is no part of a missionary's work; for the sim- 
 ple reason that he can in other ways reach more 
 people; and more of those who are the natural, born 
 leaders of each community. And few missionaries 
 will deny that money wisely spent in general mis- 
 sionary work ordinarily accomplishes more of per- 
 manent good than the same amount spent on orphan 
 asylums. 
 
 But must we then abandon our orphanages inTSit- 
 key or India? or condemn the missionaries for hav- 
 ing started them? Not at all; for in God's permis- 
 
 (16) 
 
242 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 sivc providence, things were so changed in Turkey 
 by the recent massacres and in India by recent 
 famines that for awhile the simple giving of shelter 
 in some form to homeless, starving thousands, be- 
 came one of the most urgent and sacred privileges 
 and duties of all missionaries who could get the 
 needed money, without neglecting their other work. 
 And the same providence that sent so many of 
 these helpless and homeless ones to our doors, also 
 made it inevitable that some of them should remain 
 under our care for a good many years to come. 
 
 But the question is, How shall they be supported? 
 Shall we turn over to this orphan work the pennies, 
 dimes and dollars which we have been wont to give 
 for general missionary work? No, we should not; 
 for such exceptional calls of duty seldom justify us 
 in abandoning work already begun? What then 
 shall we do? We must do two things; first of all 
 get some of our friends who believe in philanthropy, 
 but do not believe in missions, to join with us in 
 this work of caring for orphans; and, secondly, we 
 should make each year a little extra offering, from 
 our own unmassacred homes, for those who have no 
 homes, and have providentially fallen to our own 
 care. — Then, as the years go by, and our orphans 
 one by one grow older, the orphanages should one 
 by one be closed, or else transferred to the care of 
 their own countrymen; we, meanwhile, turning into 
 more strictly missionary channels even more money 
 and more love than we used to give before the mas- 
 sacres to the work at large; so as to hasten on still 
 more rapidly God's kingdom of love; and indirectly 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 243 
 
 help more orphans than we could possibly help by 
 any longer giving directly to orphan asylums. 
 
 BUT HOW ABOUT HELPING THE POOR IN 
 GENERAL? 
 
 But how about helping the poor in general? How 
 far should the missionary do it, especially when 
 some of his converts, or perhaps all of them, are 
 reduced at once to the poor list by the very act of 
 joining him? This seemingly simple question is 
 really one that has perplexed missionaries a good 
 deal, and not without cause; for it is not quite as 
 simple as it seems. We take pleasure then in put- 
 ting on record Mr. Wheeler's views on this subject; 
 not because of their novelty, but because of their 
 clearness and practical importance. 
 
 First of all, then, he claimed that the giving of 
 such help, on any large scale, either in the form of 
 work or gratuities, would soon result in getting a 
 sprinkling of self-seeking, and even hypocritical 
 men into the missionary's small circle of adherents, 
 enough to seriously cripple his work. And that the 
 helping of converts at all generally to money or 
 work would also cause outsiders to so seriously mis- 
 understand the missionary's work and the motives 
 of his converts, as to make many a man honestly 
 despise the Gospel unheard, and even refuse to look 
 into it as soon as he otherwise would. 
 
 Secondly, he claimed that charity is least likely 
 to do any harm, and most likely to do its legitimate 
 work of comforting and savmg, when giver and re- 
 ceiver are on nearly the same plane socially (though 
 
244 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 not financially;) and, if possible, bound together by 
 ties of close and mutual intimacy and love. 
 
 Hence he claimed, thirdly, that in all ordinary 
 cases native Christians should be taught, — yes, lov- 
 ingly, gently compelled — to look to their own peo- 
 ple and neighbors, protestant and non-protestant, 
 for charity, when charity was really needed; frankly 
 and very emphatically, but kindly saying, 'Brother, 
 sister, for me to undertake to help you in this mat- 
 ter would simply be a curse to you and to those of 
 your neighbors who can and will help you, when 
 once clearly convinced that you need and deserve 
 help, and that that rich missionary over there won't 
 give it. Meanwhile, in other ways, with God's help, 
 I and my colleages will try to prove clearly that 
 we love you, and can give our lives for you, and 
 many a most costly treasure of thought and sympa- 
 thy, even when we cannot wisely give you money;' 
 — and he had the saisfaction of finding that, after a 
 period of suffering and hunger, all really worthy 
 and Christ-following converts did find work and 
 food among the very persecutors and neighbors 
 who had at first threatened to starve them out, and 
 really meant to do so. 
 
 Where then does missionary charity come in? 
 Only at two points; first, when local givers are pow- 
 erless to meet the crisis, because of its utterly over- 
 whelming nature, as in times of massacre, famine 
 and plague;* and, secondly, when the charity is so 
 
 *Even as our Lord Jesus seems to have never used his miraculous bread 
 multiplying powers except in very rare emergencies, (Matt. 15:32 and Mark 
 6:35-36,) and even then to have sternly rebuked the mercenary thoughts 
 which his kindness awakened in some minds (John 6:26, 27 and 66; and inter- 
 vening verses). 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 245 
 
 richly deserved, and so slight in money value, that 
 its value as a love-token is sure to stand out clearly 
 enough to prevent misunderstanding. 
 
 And thus is a missionary put in a place where he 
 too can gratify that tender and often childish, yet 
 not wholly improper longing to do money favors, 
 which is so marked in all unselfish natures. Though 
 he is also put under heavy bonds, to God and man, 
 not to do it hastily and unwisely, or too often\ lest, 
 in seeking to help his brother man, he only injure 
 him. 
 
 Nor is he justified, even then, in using the Board's 
 money, which was given him in trust for other pur- 
 poses; but must draw on his own pocket book, and 
 on outside contributions, given specifically for that 
 object. Thus, and thus only, can he be kept from 
 using money help too freely among a people nearly 
 all of whom are sadly poor; but who for the most 
 part need the Gospel far more than they do a little 
 more bread and butter; and who can also get free 
 bread and butter, when needed, far more safely 
 from sources nearer home. 
 
 SHORT SIGHTED PHILANTHROPY. 
 
 And whenever missionaries are carried away with 
 a passion for charity, we have always noticed, both 
 in reading and in personal experience, that from 
 that day on they begin to grasp less clearly and less 
 truly the larger problem of how to uplift races, 
 communities and individuals, so as to make charity 
 less and less necessary as the years go by. 
 
246 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Nor should the missionary's wage list for carpen- 
 ters, washer-women and ditch diggers be run up to 
 any fancy scale, though he should always pay good 
 living and growing wages; which can best be deter- 
 mined by seeing what the local market price for 
 labor is In Good Times. 
 
 But why not pay more than this ? Simply be- 
 cause the man who pays more than that lessens the 
 amount of missionary work which he can do with 
 ten, a hundred or a thousand dollars, without at all 
 lessening the social snarl which compels ditch diggers 
 and others to be conterit with such very plain living. 
 Whereas all true missionary work tends strongly 
 and even rapidly to disentangle this very snarl, and 
 bring to the poor people better wages and a better 
 knowledge of how to make those wages go a long 
 way. And well do I remember how my father used 
 to rejoice, as he saw how the wages of common day- 
 laborers were slowly rising round about him, as 
 their skill and general efficiency increased from 
 year to year; and how almost proud he was to think 
 that he, as employer, supervisor, rebukcr, praiser 
 and missionary, had had a hand in bringing about 
 this change, so suggestive of other social changes 
 in which he too had an important part. 
 
 But, says some one, why object to a missionary's 
 at least furnishing his converts with work? Are not 
 free labor bureaus a good thing? Yes, when they 
 offer help in finding work to all alike, regardless of 
 religious beliefs, provided a man be faithful and com- 
 petent; for then they do not turn out hypocrites, 
 as they always do, when restricted only to religious 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 247 
 
 converts. But such labor bureaus belong to the 
 department of general philanthropy, and not to that 
 narrower sphere of strict missionary work, through 
 which the missionary can at present best serve the 
 people among whom he lives so long as he has not 
 time and strength for everything. 
 
 Nor did Mr. Wheeler object to a missionary's 
 ordinarily selecting his personal servants and em- 
 ployees mostly from the Christian community slowly 
 forming around him. This of course is highly nat- 
 ural and proper; for most (though not all) of the 
 more competent, faithful and congenial workmen 
 are sure to be in that community. — But when it 
 comes to be understood that everyone who becomes 
 a Protestant is almost sure of a job, which he could 
 not get as an outsider, then comes in that greedy, 
 grasping spirit, to which Mr. Wheeler so strongly 
 and wisely objected. 
 
 But are there not exceptional cases in the very 
 earliest stages of one's work when a missionary 
 must support a convert "for the sake of keeping him 
 from starvation?" Yes, perhaps so; but then only 
 off and on for a few days and weeks at a time and 
 provided the convert is honestly, humbly, forgiv- 
 ingly and diligently working to break down preju- 
 dice and find something to do elsewhere. For if 
 the persecuted one is really a Christian, and eager 
 to win and help and forgive his neighbors and rela- 
 tives, some of them are sure to relent after a while 
 and give him work, when once they find that the 
 missionary does not feel justified in permanently 
 shouldering him. 
 
248 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Confessing Christ in Simpler Ways First. 
 
 And far better is it that our converts should for a 
 while almost starve, rather than settle down into a 
 state of unmanly dependence on the missionary; 
 which would dwarf their Christian life, and their 
 intellect as well, and almost put an end to all higher 
 influence for good which they might have had over 
 their own people. 
 
 Nor should we forget that in most cases it is far 
 better that our converts should confess Christ in 
 their lives, and in informal conversation, for quite a 
 while before making any formal, public confession, 
 or seeking baptism. For in this way they will be 
 more likely to attach proper importance to Chris- 
 tian living; and more likely to win their friends and 
 neighbors to Christ; and less likely to incur that 
 excessive bitterness of persecution, which a too 
 great hurrying of simply formal confession is sure 
 to arouse. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT CONCLUDED; A STILL 
 LARGER OUTLOOK. 
 
 BUT WHY SHOULD THE PEOPLE GIVE ? 
 
 This question we have already answered from a 
 good many different points of view; but for the 
 sake of greater clearness and emphasis we will an- 
 swer it once more. Why give? Because thus only 
 can they ever enter at all fully into the gladness of 
 the gospel which they have received. For "it is 
 more blessed to give than to receive," as Jesus him- 
 self has said (Acts 20;35); ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^s do- 
 ing all he can to help support a good cause gets 
 ten fold more good out of it than one who simply 
 sits back and lets others do the work and pay the 
 bills. Then too the chances are that a church 
 which remains too long on the dependent list will 
 ultimately die of sheer loss of vitality, the people 
 not even caring to hear a gospel for which they 
 have never done a single thing, worth mentioning. 
 While those who give gladly, each according to his 
 ability, find themselves refreshed and strengthened; 
 even when the burden is heaviest. 
 
 That this uplifting influence is often very marked, 
 
 the history of the Harpoot churches gives abun- 
 249 
 
250 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 dant evidence, as also does the history of every other 
 church, where giving unto the Lord becomes a real 
 enthusiasm; for renewals of life and light always 
 come oftenest to the churches that give most gener- 
 ously. — Not most largely, mind you, but most gen- 
 erously; for one church may give ten times as much 
 as another, and still not give half as generously; 
 and two men may both give tithes, and both give 
 them in love, and still one give far more generously 
 than the other, because his total income is so small 
 that the remnant is much smaller than his neigh- 
 bor's; or better still because the love which he puts 
 into his gift is so much greater. 
 
 For God, in making up his accounts, evidently 
 adds in the love, of which the church treasurer too 
 often takes no account. 
 
 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD. 
 
 Then too, among the incidental, or rather the un- 
 noticed benefits of loveful giving, for a good cause, 
 is honesty; for many men are partly honest who are 
 far from being strictly or wholly so. But, as a 
 plain man in the Harpoot field once put it, "Now 
 that I've gone into partnership with God, I feel as 
 though I must be more honest; for I cannot give 
 him dirty money." Nor is it at all strange that the 
 good man felt as he did; for the thought of being 
 one of God's junior partners, a willing co-worker 
 with him in all we do, is certainly a most inspiring 
 and restraining thought, and more and more so as 
 the nearness becomes more complete, and the little 
 changes of plans to which it leads become more fre- 
 quent, and less and less annoying. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 251 
 
 How Much Should People Give? 
 And When Should They Be^in to Give? 
 
 But, passing on, we come to two other questions 
 of far reaching importance; namely: How much 
 should the people give? And when should they 
 begi7i to give? 
 
 Perhaps these questions will at first seem too 
 vague to be worth asking; or too general to be ca- 
 pable of any but a very abstract and pointless 
 answer. But I hope to prove, by a simple appeal 
 to Mr. Wheeler's experience, that both questions 
 can be answered, and answered satisfactorily; and 
 that no missionary can do much toward pressing 
 self-support till he catches the spirit of these two 
 answers; a mere theoretical belief in self-support never 
 being sufficient. 
 
 FORTY YEARS AGO; OR HARD TIMES IN 1861, AND 
 WHAT CAME OF THEM. 
 
 Going back then forty years to the time when 
 Messrs. Allen, Barnum and Wheeler first began 
 work together at Harpoot, we come to a time when 
 these missionaries believed in self-support ideally, 
 and were pressing it vigorously at some points; but 
 nevertheless thought that most of their outstations 
 were too poor, or else too weak spiritually, to do 
 anything toward self-support as yet. And so, fol- 
 lowing the generally accepted policy of those times, 
 they were themselves paying all the chapel rent, 
 preachers' salaries, and preachers' house rents in 
 most of their outstations, and, in some of them. 
 
252 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 even the cost of lighting and heating — when lo, 
 hard times set in for missionaries; for the war of 
 the rebellion was rapidly approaching in the home 
 land, and contributions were falling off rapidly; 
 while a still greater fall was anticipated later on.* 
 
 Well, what did the missionaries do ? First of 
 all they began cutting down salaries, and closing 
 some of their day schools, justly feeling that these 
 schools were of less urgent importance than the 
 more strictly religious parts of the work which they 
 had undertaken. But that was not enough; and so 
 they began slowly and sadly cutting off what seemed 
 to them their least promising outstations and help- 
 ers, expecting ere long to have to cut off others; 
 when lo, a most unexpected reaction set in, and the 
 good seed which they themselves had planted sud- 
 denly budded, and brought forth most unexpected 
 fruit. 
 
 *The average yearly receipts of the Board from 1845 to '62 
 were as follows: 
 
 1845 to 1851, $259,000. 
 
 1852 to 1856, 308,000. 
 
 1857 to 1859, 357.000- 
 
 i860, 430,000. 
 
 1 86 1 and '62, 340,000. 
 
 ($90,000 less than in i860, and $17,000 less even than the average receipts 
 for 1857, '58 and '59.) 
 
 And this was the time, (1861,) when Harpoot took so long a 
 step forward toward grasping the full secret of self-support; 
 and was probably one of the most eventful epochs in the 
 whole history of their work. — After 1862 contributions began 
 rising again; but Harpoot had learned the lesson of greater 
 economy and wisdom; and never unlearned it; though perhaps 
 not grasping it quite as clearly at some times as at others. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 253 
 
 "For a Protestant brother from a village which 
 they were expecting to leave unsupplied called on 
 them and, deploring the prospect, said that, if it 
 would be any help to them, he would be willing to 
 board a student from their theological class; if they 
 would only send one. The student he asked for 
 was also found to be willing to go, on these terms, 
 for ^1.60 a month; and the missionaries felt that it 
 would never do to abandon a really hopeful field, 
 for lack of funds; when to occupy it would cost so 
 little. And so the man was sent. 
 
 "Then in another large village, which they had 
 decided to give up, the only Protestant in the place 
 came and offered to board the teacher, and furnish 
 a room in his own house for the day school and the 
 Sabbath services. 
 
 "This set the missionaries to thinking; — and made 
 them feel that perhaps Providence was showing 
 them a plan by which they might avoid the necessity 
 for such disastrous retrenchments. So they pro- 
 posed the same plan to all their outstations; and, in 
 nearly every case, secured a pledge for the board of 
 the helper, or its equivalent, board also including 
 house rent in most cases. Thus, with the reductions 
 in salaries already made, they succeeded in retain- 
 ing nearly all their helpers, both preachers and 
 teachers." 
 
 These facts we gather from a letter by the Rev. 
 H. N. Barnum, D. D., in the Missionary Herald for 
 March, 1862, with only a very few slight additions 
 from other sources. 
 
254 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Giving More and More Gladly. 
 
 And from that day the good work went on, faster 
 and faster; and the missionaries, who had before 
 only asked the poorer communities to pay for "fuel 
 and lights," and had not even dared to do this much in 
 some cases, became bolder and more farsighted; and 
 began to preach and enforce more constantly the 
 duty of consecrating to God the things that we love 
 most, never counting that any one had given enough 
 unto the Lord; until he reached a point where the very 
 thought of giving would fairly make his face shine. 
 
 Thus was another problem solved; and, by attempt- 
 ing larger things for God than they or their neigh- 
 bors had ever dreamed of attempting before, and at- 
 tempting them in wise though very simple ways, they 
 accomplished more. 
 
 For he who consecrates his daily earnings to God, 
 will find his whole life happier, even though he has 
 to give up some minor comforts, which he might 
 otherwise have had. — So that even the poorest na- 
 tive Christians were richly blessed, in giving of their 
 poverty for the support of God's workers in their 
 midst. 
 
 BOARDING ROUND AND SWAPPING LABOR. 
 
 And the boarding round and labor swapping plans, 
 to which so many of our own fathers and grandfa- 
 thers owe their early education, was found to work 
 successfully as an entering wedge for self-support on 
 foreign missionary soil as well; though there, as here 
 always sure to be outgrown in course of time, when 
 
THE PROPER USE:0F MONEY. 255 
 
 once a people learn to give freely of their substance 
 to the Lord. — But as an entering wedge, they did 
 grand service; and will again and again be found help- 
 ful, in any land where money is too scarce or too 
 blindly cherished to be given freely at first. 
 
 Of course boarding round has its drawbacks; but 
 from the days of Christ and his apostles down to the 
 time of Wesley and the pioneers of the west, and 
 even in proud New England, not many years ago, 
 hospitality has often opened the way, where money 
 seemed too precious to be given, or the Gospelioo un- 
 important to be worth paying for outright.* And 
 from personal experience the writer also knows that 
 even in modern America a traveling missionary may 
 often greatly lessen his expenses, and place his 
 books in more homes than otherwise by a simple 
 exchange of bread and butter and shelter for some 
 of the choicest of the little books he carries with 
 him. Thus did my father do in the distant Orient, 
 thus have I often done in this far distant Occident; 
 and many of the most instructive and delightful 
 glimpses of home life I have ever had have come to 
 me in this way. 
 
 For the man who opens his home to you, out of 
 regard for the message you bring, will almost surely 
 open his heart too, if he loves the message you bring; 
 and frankly discuss many an important theme, even 
 if he does not as yet love your message very much. 
 
 ♦Nor should we, in this connection, forget that in the Orient general hos- 
 pitality is a duty and privilege more widely felt, and more often needed, than 
 in our own more mature and more silent western life; hence the special fit- 
 ness of this way of working for use in Oriental lands. 
 
256 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Writes a missionary from another part of Turkey, 
 who had just spent several months in Harpoot: 
 "The village work in the region about Harpoot is a 
 mystery, a marvel to me, * * * * the people 
 in their poverty do so much to sustain the gospel 
 among themselves; and purchase Bibles and other 
 books to an extent which, before my own eyes, is 
 incredible."* 
 
 But had that missionary seen the intense enthu- 
 siasm with which Mr. Wheeler would often set out 
 in earlier years to sell a five cent primer or a twenty 
 cent Testament, the book sales would not have 
 seemed so strange. Nor are the money contribu- 
 tions at all surprising, when we remember how high 
 and soul-inspiring were the ideals to which these 
 Harpoot missionaries pointed, when fairly compelling 
 men to give, as an evidence of their love, and a' 
 means of deepening that love. 
 
 FIRST LESSONS IN GIVING. 
 
 And the picture is to me a very beautiful one, when 
 I remember that, as soon as a man had been seen at 
 the chapel for three successive Sundays, my father 
 felt justified in calling on him "to see how much he 
 loved the minister." And even Nicodemuses, who 
 never came near to the preacher publicly, were often 
 asked to help a little, as a sacred privilege and duty; 
 which often resulted in their appearing at church 
 publicly and fearlessly soon after, to hear the preach- 
 er whom they were helping to support, while he in 
 turn was helping to support them in a still higher 
 sense. 
 
 ♦Missionary Herald. Vol. 6i, page 175. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 257 
 
 And I doubt not that even in heathen countries 
 many a man has been led on to a deeper interest in 
 Christian meetings and Christian living by being first 
 asked to help support a Christian school-master or 
 hospital or opium-eaters' refuge, of which the merits 
 were evident even to heathen eyes. For the surest 
 way to turn honest curiosity into something deeper and 
 more lasting is to make haste to set your hearer to work 
 doing something for others. — Nor should we forget 
 that even love of truth often changes to discouraged 
 indifference or at least to dogged reticence if not 
 turned soon enough into some form of active love 
 and self-denial for others. 
 
 Thus did Mr. Wheeler work on and on; though 
 at times almost discouraged for awhile. For he soon 
 discovered that even the poorest are made richer 
 and happier by giving of their toil and substance to 
 the Lord, until their souls are fairly thrilled with the 
 thought of giving, and of being God's fellow work- 
 ers; and that no man, however poor, is in danger of 
 giving too much, till he reaches a point where it is 
 with genuine regret that he admits that he ought 
 not to give any more. 
 
 Unwilling givers there doubtless were, men who 
 had to be forced into giving, so as to prevent them 
 from demoralizing the churches which they pre- 
 tended to love; though Mr. Wheeler was careful to 
 have most of the money come from willing givers, 
 and from really godly hearts. 
 
 But it is wonderful to see how few unwilling givers 
 there were; and how many, even of these, were 
 (17) 
 
258 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 made to see it in such a light that their giving be- 
 came the first step into the kingdom of heaven; for 
 most of them, after the first great struggle, were 
 glad that a man had turned up who could deliver 
 them, in Jesus' name, from the hell of covetousness. 
 And even the few unwilling givers were a little 
 nearer heaven, and a little more likely to get there 
 sometime, than they would have been without his 
 help; for he nearly always touched some true motive, 
 even in the most unwilling giver; and scorned money 
 which did not bring with it at least a wee bit of love 
 and conscientiousness. 
 
 Thus was it that our missionary answered the 
 double question, How much should the people give ? 
 and when should they begin to give ? and his answer 
 was certainly a very beautiful one, and full of far- 
 reaching truth and power. And any missionary 
 who answers it as he did, and becomes enthusiastic 
 (i) in giving, and (2) in 7naking others give, will be 
 pretty sure of success in his pressing of self-sup- 
 port. For this way of looking at it makes self- 
 support a very simple and yet attractive duty; and 
 even duty grows easier, when its inner loveliness 
 and meaning is clearly seen. 
 
 And although the people often said and felt that 
 this apostle of self-support was one of the sternest, 
 strangest teachers they had ever seen, they also felt 
 and said that he was one of the tenderest and kindest, 
 and one to whom they owed a debt of almost un- 
 speakable gratitude. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 259 
 
 Giving One Tenth. 
 
 Here also is the place to mention the movement 
 for giving tithes, of which so much has been writ- 
 ten. Of the blind preacher who rediscovered its 
 helpfulness, and of the rapid spread of the move- 
 ment, we need not speak here; for our book is 
 already larger than we meant to have it. But we 
 do wish to point out the real secret and power of 
 the tithing movement. 
 
 It is not that John Concordance proved at all con- 
 clusively that all men ought to give one tenth of 
 their earnings to the Lord; but that he did awaken 
 them to the startling, awe-inspiring thought that 
 God not only gives all we have; but claims back a 
 part for himself. — What part? Let each decide 
 for himself. But let him decide honestly; prefer- 
 ring to give too much, rather than too little. For if 
 he happens for a while to give too much, God's bank 
 invests it safely for him. But if he gives too little, 
 a veritable blight is sure to fall on all that is sweetest 
 and most satisfying in his own life. 
 
 Thus was the thought of partnership with God, on 
 which the missionaries had insisted, made all the 
 clearer, and more vivid; for when the question was 
 once fairly put, many were willing to frankly admit 
 that a tenth to the Lord was surely none too much; 
 though the deeper thought of thorough self-conse- 
 cration, of which the seeds had been so carefully 
 planted some years before, was what chiefly gave the 
 new movement its power. And yet it is probably 
 true that John Concordance made the idea of duty 
 
26o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 more prominent in this matter of giving, while in the 
 missionaries' presentation X.\\t privilege of giving had 
 been made more prominent; and doubtless, to get 
 the best results, we must combine both thoughts; as 
 thousands were glad to do, when to the missionary's 
 more searching plea the more vivid one of John Con- 
 cordance was added later on. 
 
 HOW TO FACE RETRENCHMENT. 
 
 But the lesson which Harpoot station learned 
 from the severe retrenchments of 1861 and '62 sug- 
 gests the problem of retrenchments in general, and 
 whether our missionaries might not more generally 
 turn them into sources of blessing. That, like 
 Harpoot, many another station can look back to 
 some day of hard times and retrenchment as one of 
 the most eventful and blessed in its whole past ex- 
 perience, we have no doubt. In fact we have come 
 across explicit testimony to that effect often enough 
 to show that Harpoot's experience is not excep- 
 tional; though probably more marked than most. 
 And yet it certainly is not common; and the ques- 
 tion arises, Why not ? 
 
 And why is it that so many missionaries are badly 
 crippled by times of retrenchment ? We believe 
 that it is because they fail to grasp at all fully that 
 wonderful truth that "All Things work together 
 for Good to them that love God." And oh how 
 great it is. And how helpless the devil is, or rather 
 might be, before such a truth as this; for there is in 
 it only one condition, and that is love for God. — 
 But do not all missionaries love God? Yes; but they 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 261 
 
 do not love him enough; for evidently the more we 
 love him, the greater will be the blessing which it will 
 be possible for him to give tcs. 
 
 And lucky it is for us that our money does some- 
 times run short; for some lessons can be first learned 
 better in hard times than in fair; and much that we 
 attribute to the meanness of man and the machina- 
 tions of the devil is in reality due largely, though 
 not wholly, to the overruling hand of God, whose 
 love for man is too tender and too far-seeing to 
 make possible that morbid dread of sometimes giv- 
 ing needed pain by which we are so often crippled. 
 
 And the harder the times are financially the more 
 careful we should be to hunt up and study the 
 bright side of everything, and to press forward 
 along the lines of self-support and Christian manli- 
 ness among our churches and congregations; for the 
 hard times are the very thing that will help us in doing 
 this\^ and with God's help even hard times can be 
 made just as helpful as what we call good times. 
 And oh how those words of Dr. Barnum's ring in 
 our ears; — "So we proposed a long step forward in 
 self-support to all our outstations; and in nearly 
 every case secured a pledge for the board of the 
 helper, or its equivalent." (And this too from con- 
 gregations who till then had done almost nothing 
 towards self-support.) 
 
 And yet the men who did this were not then Doc- 
 tors of Divinity, or better still Veterans in Mission- 
 
 *Writes a missionary from China, "I look upon this stringency and re- 
 trenchment, [when money help from America was running short,] as one of 
 the greatest blessings to the native church that is possible." 
 
262 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 ary Service, but simply young and inexperienced 
 missionaries; and strange to say the plan which they 
 proposed, and which called forth such general ap- 
 proval, and such lasting results, was proposed to them 
 by two plain villagers, whose names are not even re- 
 corded on the pages of history, though they too must 
 have been rare men, known to God, if not to us. 
 
 For the angels of God never bring such hints to 
 common men; but only to those who in silent love- 
 liness have long walked with him, and learned of 
 him, in other matters less difificult and less evidently 
 great. 
 
 BEING GRATEFUL FOR HARD TIMES. 
 
 Had we more leisure, we could hunt up and repro- 
 duce here many purely historic illustrations, from 
 many different lands, showing how hard times and 
 retrenchment have often furthered the Lord's cause, 
 when missionaries have seen in them a call for more 
 pluck and financial self-reliance, instead of a mere 
 excuse for wailing. For while blues are certainly 
 natural; we should remember that they are a natural 
 disease, and not a sign of health; and are best cured 
 by silence, rest and prayer, followed by an energetic 
 deepening of our plans, rather than by mournful let- 
 ter-writing. 
 
 Then why not oftener fill our letters with words 
 like these: 
 
 In spite of reduced appropriations, we have succeeded in 
 keeping open all but ten of our forty-five preaching places. 
 For under the pressure of hard times our people are giving 
 more liberally than formerly; and even these ten will probably 
 be helped by a little fasting; for they do not yet feel the need 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 263 
 
 of divine help as deeply as they should. — But the question is, 
 When are we going to reach the new fields all around us? 
 This question really troubles us sometimes; but we suppose 
 the answer is, Just as soon as God sees that we are ready for 
 the new work; but no sooner. 
 
 Or again: Hurrah for retrenchment! It has already re- 
 sulted in two more of our churches entering the self-supporting 
 list, making eight churches in all, during the last four years. 
 
 Or the following: One year ago, after hearing of the Board's 
 straits, we called together a meeting of all our churches and 
 pastors, and laid the matter before them, dwelling most espe- 
 cially on the crying need of the darker corners of the earth, 
 and on our privilege of helping them by gladly giving up a 
 part of the help we have been wont to ask. The result was 
 the foundation of a local home missionary society, to help our 
 weaker churches with money and advice, properly mixed, 
 wherever they are willing to do all they can, and simply need 
 a little more to finish off with. And we are glad to say that 
 the results have been enlarged contributions, and greater 
 earnestness and regularity in giving all over our field. So 
 much for hard times. 
 
 While Miss Pauline Christian Thankwell might 
 write: 
 
 Two years ago we informed our girls that all PupiU who 
 Paid less than half their board Jtiust spend at least eight months 
 every year at home, and spend a part of their time doing some 
 sort of simple home missionary work among their neighbors 
 and playmates, thus learning to pass on to others what they 
 themselves were getting at school; while those that paid more 
 than half, but not all, must also spend some time at home 
 doing the same kind of work; and moreover that even full 
 paying pupils would not be admitted for more than half a year 
 at a time, unless we were satisfied that they too were entering 
 heartily into such work as this during vacations. And oh, 
 what a blessing it has been to our school; for without asking a 
 cent more from the Woman's Board we have been able to have 
 23 per cent iuore scholars, all the year round; while our total 
 
264 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 enrollment has increased one half ; even those who stay only 
 four months seeming to grow in grace and loveliness and 
 intelligence just as fast as they did before, when they spent 
 nine months every year at school ! Then too the parents, 
 both full paying ones and assisted ones, are in most cases 
 more grateful than they were formerly. 
 
 Such at least was the spirit in which Mr. Wheeler 
 and his colleagues faced the problem of hard times 
 and retrenchment; though time, distance and fire 
 have made it impossible for us to quote his exact 
 words, as we should like to have done. 
 
 But all who have seen him work can testify that 
 hard times seemed to only make him stronger, not 
 weaker; for he generally succeeded in prayerfully 
 waiting long enough, before acting, to clearly see 
 God's hand in it all; and so he could not lose heart. 
 
 CUTTING DOWN SALARIES. 
 
 But coming back to details once more, there is 
 one other point just here on which Mr. Wheeler's 
 views are well worth mentioning; he believed most 
 heartily in a general cut down of salaries when the 
 money in the Lord's treasury runs low; and would 
 not have excepted a single salary from Boston to 
 the farthest corner of the world; but would rather 
 have had them all alike cut down temporarily; for 
 if the strain be not too long continued, all alike will 
 find a blessing in being obliged to help in bearing 
 it; and if any one, either high or low, refuses to help 
 in tiding over such a crisis, surely he is out of place 
 in the employ of a rnissionary board; for even one 
 self-seeking man, too near, will sadly lessen the use- 
 fulness of all who are obliged to work with him. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 265 
 
 How to Deal with Unsuccessful Stations. 
 
 But when we get to a point where the inevitable 
 .cut down means inevitable loss to the work, then he 
 felt that we should discriminate more than we do 
 between successful and unsuccessful stations and 
 outstations and not simply cut down about the same 
 all over a mission. — Now we are well aware that 
 missionary societies do always make a difference, 
 and often a marked one, at this point. But never- 
 theless Mr. Wheeler felt that in many instances the 
 unsuccessful station or outstation was dealt with far 
 too gently. For whether the ill success of a station 
 or outstation be due, (i) to the locality itself, or (2) 
 to the blunders of previous missionaries, or (3) to 
 ^^._the blunders of those now on the ground, it still re- 
 mains true that very little money or labor can wisely 
 be spent there till some pioneer or reformer, with 
 exceptional energy and skill, but very little money, 
 succeeds in getting things straightened out, so as to 
 warrant larger expenditures later on. 
 
 For m missions, as in farming, the world is too 
 large, and too full of good land to justify us in cul- 
 tivating poor fields; or ones which experience shows 
 that we do not understand how to manage. 
 
 ANNUAL MEETING MAJORITIES. 
 
 But such points as this cannot of course be set- 
 tled, even tentatively, in annual meetings where the 
 missionaries themselves are the judges; for even 
 missionaries are human, and every missionary is apt 
 to think his work just as worthy of enlargement as 
 any other, claiming that his past ill success proves 
 
266 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 nothing; hence Mr. Wheeler generally felt that, 
 though annual meetings are certainly desirable for 
 other reasons, their recommendations on money 
 matters were of very little intrinsic value and even 
 apt to be positively misleading, unless confirmed at 
 every point by the judgment, privately expressed, 
 of those whom the Board knows to be competent 
 judges; for experience abundantly proves that a man 
 may be a really good missionary in most matters, 
 but a very poor judge in matters of missionary 
 finance. 
 
 All of which points clearly to the need of local 
 superintendents, for each mission, or group of mis- 
 sions, of which we have already spoken, (page lOO), 
 though we do not think Mr. Wheeler ever fully 
 realized that this was what his exceedingly poor 
 opinion of the financial wisdom of annual meetings 
 legitimately led to. 
 
 RAISING MONEY IN AMERICA. 
 
 But a friend of Dr. Wheeler's, one of the happy 
 company who crossed the ocean together in the 
 Henry Hill over forty years ago, tells us that we 
 ought to put in something about the duty of the 
 home churches, and the best ways of interesting 
 them in foreign missions. And as Mr. Wheeler 
 certainly was very successful in interesting people 
 in his work; and also raised thousands of dollars 
 for the general work, and for the endowment of 
 Euphrates College; a few words on that subject will 
 not be out of place. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 267 
 
 If then our readers will turn back to page 254 they 
 will easily see that the law of generosity, to which 
 Mr, Wheeler appealed in trying to make men give, 
 applies just as well to America as it does to Turkey; 
 and that if men keep on giving more and more 
 generously, till giving becomes a positive enthusi- 
 asm, the inevitable outcome will be larger contribu- 
 tions; and we believe that the church is slowly 
 waking up to the fact that our most generous givers 
 of life and love and property are also the happiest 
 people among us. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE AMERICAN DONORS MORE 
 ENTHUSIASTIC. 
 
 But the question inevitably arises, How can we 
 hasten this awakening, and make men realize that 
 giving to foreign missions is one of the mvestments 
 which brings back the quickest and surest returns 
 of happiness and growth? To this question Mr. 
 Wheeler's answer seems to have been, Don't appeal 
 very much to mere pity; for pity seems to be a 
 rather secondary virtue in most natures, especially 
 in masculine ones; but rather convince people that 
 something is really being done, and Well Done; 
 then love of man and love of success will join hands 
 to strengthen and deepen their love for the work; 
 and, as their interest deepens, their contributions 
 are also sure to grow larger and more frequent. 
 
 If then we wish to win business-men who are pro- 
 foundly impressed with the need of being business- 
 like in everything, we must convince them that we 
 too are working in a business-like way ourselves. 
 
268 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 It is not enough to simply prove that we are doing 
 good; for there are thousands of people who are do- 
 ing good in the world to whom we would never 
 dream of giving our money. But we must convince 
 them that we are doing good skilfully, and greatly; 
 so that they will feel even without our saying it, 
 "This man or woman can do more good with my 
 money than I can." Then will the money begin to 
 flow in; and keep on flowing, so long as this convic- 
 tion lasts. For, to him that hath, shall be given;" 
 such is the stern but beneficent law of life as ex- 
 plained by the Master himself; and to him that hath 
 much shall much be given. 
 
 Hence it was Mr. Wheeler's intensely business- 
 like way of pressing self-support abroad that made 
 his appeals at home strong and convincing. And 
 any missionary who gets a clear, strong hold on 
 self-support, as a working principle in missionary 
 life, will be sure to find willing hearers and helpers 
 in the home land as well. 
 
 And even in times of financial depression good, 
 strong, live articles telling of the tact and success 
 and business-like insight of our best missionaries in 
 meeting the emergency will call forth a quicker and 
 wider response from most hearts than pathetic ap- 
 peals ever can. For though we pity the man, who 
 says his work is "going to pieces under his very eyes;" 
 we also feel that there is little use in helping him; 
 for he will be pretty apt to break down again tomor- 
 row, even if we help pull him through today. And 
 so we too are disheartened by the very plea that was 
 meant to rouse us. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 269 
 
 Special Contributions -So Called. 
 
 Here also it will be well to speak just a word in re- 
 gard to a matter of which we do not remember to 
 have heard Mr. Wheeler speak, but which on account 
 of its rapidly growing importance certainly needs 
 to be mentioned; namely, How far missionaries 
 should be allowed to receive and spend money for 
 "special objects,'" for which the home board is not 
 able or else is unwilling to make appropriations? 
 
 In defence of this practice we are told that donors 
 have a perfect right to do what they please with their 
 own money. Well, yes, if they really try to make a 
 wise and proper use of it. But unfortunately that 
 does not hit the nail on the head; for the real ques- 
 tion is whether they have any right to employ an- 
 other's paid agents in spending their money for them 
 in ways of which the missionary's real employers, 
 (who pay all his expenses) disapprove. This sure- 
 ly putsthe matter in quite another light. — And soon- 
 er or later all our missionary boards will have to 
 make it their rule that no such money shall be re- 
 ceived or spent by their agents, without the permis- 
 sion of the home board; and will have to see that 
 the asking of permission is not simply formal; for 
 sometimes the permission should be wholly withheld; 
 and at other times given only with certain restric- 
 tions. 
 
 Of course such restrictions and prohibitions should 
 not be too frequent; but if our boards are to really 
 have a clearly defined plan of work; a few enter- 
 prising money collectors or money donors should 
 
270 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 not be free to utterly upset that plan, by a too free 
 use of money; for the mere fact that "the money 
 was not taken out of the treasury of the Board" is 
 no guarantee that it is being wisely spent, or will 
 not seriously interfere with the wiser plans of more 
 careful workers in the same mission. 
 
 And although some few unreasonable and short- 
 sighted missionaries and donors ^ill of course take 
 permanent offence; and some others feel hurt for a 
 while; the general success of the work, and the 
 amounts contributed for that work, would both be 
 furthered in the long run by a wise and respectful 
 but firm assertion of the right of the majority, to 
 decide how freely money shall be spent by the paid 
 American agents of our churches; so long as these 
 agents get their funds and backing mostly from the 
 churches at large. 
 
 For while every man should be free to choose his 
 own master; it does not follow that he should be 
 free to serve two masters, whose plans and methods 
 conflict. 
 
 WAYS OF SUPPORTING MISSIONARIES. 
 
 And while it is certainly well to have our churches 
 and colleges specially interested in some one mis- 
 sionary from whom they hear oftener and more 
 directly than from others, we very seriously doubt the 
 wisdom of letting them assume the support of that mis- 
 sionary ; for they are sure in Many Instances to fur- 
 nish their pet missionary with more money and 
 more boxes than he or she really needs for a wise 
 carrying on of the work. For the temptation to 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 271 
 
 spend money too freely in a good cause is one of 
 the sorest temptations to which foreign missionaries 
 are ever subjected; and foreign missionary work can 
 freely or gotten too easily; and $400,000 spent tinder 
 the strict supervision of a feiv picked leaders ivould do 
 more toward planting a really permanent and healthy 
 work tha?i $600,000 spent by missionaries each of whom 
 gets all he asks for; and then inevitably spends it too 
 never be much of a success where money is spent too 
 freely. 
 
 For this movement for individualizing the sup- 
 port of missionaries is sure to seriously cripple 
 our mission boards in their attempts to properly re- 
 strain missionaries who are inclined to spend money 
 too freely; while also discouraging those whose 
 work is less showy; but just as good. — Nor is this 
 way of doing likely to bring about any permanent 
 increase in donations, as Secretary Leonard of the 
 Methodist Board of Missions has well pointed out;* 
 for when death, resignation or inability to write 
 interesting letters once breaks the link, it is very 
 hard to interest them again in some one else; and the 
 power to write newsy and picturesque letters is one 
 that many of our best missionaries utterly lack; for 
 they have not the gift of tongues, though they do 
 have the gift of winning souls. 
 
 Yet there is one redeeming feature in this plan of 
 work. — It does often get people personally inter- 
 ested in some one missionary or station, and so be- 
 comes in some cases the starting point for a still 
 broader and deeper interest in the work at large. 
 
 ♦International Missionary Index, 1898, p. 57. 
 
272 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 But this does not in any way justify the financial 
 unwisdom of the plan as now in vogue; for, if each 
 state and local society were allowed once a year to 
 invite some one missionary, in whom they are al- 
 ready specially interested, to act as their honorary 
 president* and adviser in missionary matters, many 
 a warm friendship would spring up and many an 
 added dollar be given for the good cause, without 
 any of the cramping, irritating and unsettling effects 
 of the present plan of work. Only you should be 
 sure and tell your missionary friend all about your 
 society, church, town and state, and what you have 
 and have not done thus far, that he or she may know 
 how and what to advise you; and let it be under- 
 stood beforehand that most of what you raise with 
 your president's help will go to the work at large, for 
 which he pleads and not to him personally or even 
 to his special corner of this work; the reasons for 
 this rule being kindly but firmly explained by the 
 missionary to the church or society with which he 
 works. Then Will Both Giver and Receiver 
 Work More Wisely and Steadily, Even if the 
 Money Raised Is not at First Quite as Much. 
 
 A FEW IMPORTANT STATISTICS. 
 
 And now a word as to results in Harpoot, so far 
 as these can be given in mere statistics. We find 
 that in 1894 and '95, just before the massacres, || the 
 
 *0r vice-president. 
 
 llOf results since the massacres we are unable to speak statistically; 
 though we do know that the spirit of prayerfulness and earnest striving after 
 self-support still lives on in the Harpoot churches in spite of the crushing 
 blows which have fallen on them, and undoubtedly delayed the full triumph 
 of self-support. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 273 
 
 single station of Harpoot had under its care fitty- 
 four different outstations, with the following show- 
 ing of work and workers: 
 
 Regular Preaching Places, 54 
 
 Pastors and Preachers, 42 
 
 Teachers, 94 
 
 Other Helpers in Religious Work, 19 
 
 Total Number of Workers who Give their Time 
 
 Wholly or Mainly to the Work, 155 
 
 Number of Churches, 26 
 
 Number of Regular Congregations not yet 
 
 formed into Churches, 28 
 
 Number of Church Members, 2005 
 
 Number of Sunday School Scholars, 4419 
 
 Number of Professed Protestants, • 10446 
 
 Number of Common Schools, 68 
 
 Number of Schools of Higher Grade, (Includ- 
 ing one College and one Theological Sem- 
 inary), II 
 Total Number of Schools, 79 
 Total Number of Pupils, 4269 
 Of Whom 1458 are Girls. 
 
 Benevolent contributions of the people for one 
 year: 
 
 For Preaching, ^3592 
 For Churches, School Houses and Parsonages, ;^2266 
 
 For Teachers' Salaries and Tuition, S3471 
 
 For Missions, Home and Foreign, $ 388 
 
 For Other Purposes, ;S3548 
 
 Making in All, ;^I3265 
 
 (18) 
 
274 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Or, going back farther, and comparing the amounts 
 given by the people for religious and educational 
 work with the amounts sent from this country for the 
 same kind of work, (including missionaries' salaries, 
 and all monies spent by the trustees of Euphrates 
 College) we get the following interesting figures: 
 
 From 1857 to '61 the people gave so little that the 
 missionaries made the mistake of not reporting it at 
 all. 
 
 But in 1862 and 3 the people's contributions 
 amounted to $?>.% each year for every one hundred 
 
 dollars sent from this country $ 8.95 
 
 Then in 1864 they gave. ;?>22.65 
 
 While from 1865 to '71 they gave on an 
 
 average $^S-7^ 
 
 After which comes a gap for which we have 
 
 no figures. 
 But for the years 1886 to '90 we find once 
 more that their average yearly do- 
 nations have gone up to S93.62 
 
 While from 1891 to '94 they gave on an aver- 
 age each year $96.07 
 
 A GLANCE AT SOME OTHER MISSIONS. 
 
 Surely these figures are significant and encourag- 
 ing. And yet, though we are proud of Harpoot, 
 our hearts are most cheered by the less striking but 
 equally significant proof which we find that all over 
 this wide world, wherever mission work is done, the 
 cause of self-support and self-consecration is slowly 
 but steadily gaining ground. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 275 
 
 That we may see this more clearly, let us look 
 at a few sample statistics from other lands, so care- 
 fully condensed and grouped that their meaning can 
 be seen at a glance. 
 
 We turn then first of all to the other missions of 
 the Board, and taking each mission as a whole, be- 
 cause we have no figures in regard to single stations, 
 and taking a period of nine years (1888 to 1896 in- 
 clusive,) so as to be sure and not be misled by 
 merely temporary variations, we get the following 
 results: 
 
 We find, first of all, that in four of the newest and 
 smallest missions of the Board, so little importance 
 seems to have been attached to the detailed and sys- 
 tematic and early culture of a self-supporting spirit, 
 and self-supporting habits, that like the Harpoot mis- 
 sionaries of long ago (1857 to '61) they have failed 
 to report native contributions with anything like reg- 
 ularity; one mission having apparently reported this 
 important item only twice in nine years! — And yet 
 all four of these missions are at least fourteen years 
 old, and ought certainly to have something definite 
 to report each year, as evidence that their eight 
 churches, 231 church members and 941 adherents are 
 making a begmning in the acquisition of that self- 
 supporting spirit without which a church can never 
 be strong and healthy. And we doubt not that these 
 missions have done more in wheat, corn, oil, cash and 
 muscle than their statistics seem to indicate; and yet 
 we cannot help hoping that some friendly pen will 
 impress upon them a little more clearly the impor- 
 tance of making an early beginning, and of carefully 
 
276 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 comparing and reporting each years contributions. For 
 self-support is a virtue which requires long and care- 
 ful culture for its proper development; and the earlier 
 the training begins and the more systematic it is, the 
 richer will the blessing be.* 
 
 But leaving these missions, we come to a fifth one, 
 Japan, in which the missionaries seem to have made 
 the curious mistake of not reporting the religious 
 and educational contributions of their churches when 
 once they became self-supporting; so that while the 
 native churches have in reality been giving more 
 and more each year, the statistics seem to indicate 
 that they are giving less and less. 
 
 But fifteen of our most promising missions yet 
 remain to be heard from. How fares self-support 
 in these? Are the people proving and deepening 
 their love for the Gospel, and for Christian educa- 
 tion, by gradually taking upon themselves a larger 
 and larger proportion of the cost of supporting 
 them? Yes, in all but one of them they are; and 
 in some the progress has been so great and steady, 
 and in others so steady (though small) as to be very 
 cheering. 
 
 First of all then we find one mission field, the 
 Sandwich Islands, which may be counted wholly 
 self-supporting; for the people give for foreign mis- 
 sions each year more than we send to them. 
 
 *In one of these missions, some at least of whose missionaries we know to 
 be hearty and successful workers for self-support, the total reported native 
 contributions (in dollars) for the nine years run as follows: Nothing, noth- 
 ing, 72, 48, 151, 60, nothing and 5; which plainly shows very careless report- 
 ing; or else that the good work of some stations is sadly neutralized by 
 others. Which is it? Or is it both? For surely it is natural and proper 
 and well worth while that the American churches should want to know just 
 how much each station and mission does for itself. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 277 
 
 Then next there comes a group of seven missions, 
 in which the people have for these nine years been 
 coming steadily and some of them very rapidly 
 nearer to self-support; the average gain in these 
 seven missions, for the whole period of nine years, 
 being 86 per cent. These missions are Central Tur- 
 key, European Turkey, Austria, Zulu, Foochow, 
 Mexico and North China. 
 
 Then come three more missions, "nine to eleven," 
 which have gone a good long ways toward self-sup- 
 port, each of them giving ^33.00 or more per year to 
 supplement each Sioo.oo sent from this country; 
 the only drawback being that their growth in giving 
 has' not been quite as steady as that in the first 
 seven missions. And yet even these have gained 
 in nine years all the way from 18 to 50 per cent. 
 These missions are Spain, Western Turkey and East- 
 ern Turkey, taking Eastern Turkey as a whole. 
 
 Then come numbers twelve to fourteen (Ceylon, 
 Madura and Micronesia) which do not make quite 
 as good a showing; though in all of these there has 
 been a gain for the last two or three years; and one 
 of them, Ceylon, certainly stands high in the total 
 amounts given, though there is very little increase 
 for the nine years in the actual amount; and a posi- 
 tive falling off in the relative amount. We are also 
 informed that Ceylon gets a good deal of unreported 
 financial help from other sources, which lowers its 
 relative rank in the matter of self-support. 
 
 In regard to Micronesia (Number 14) we should 
 also add that there is good reason for thinking that 
 the statistics do not doher justice; through an un- 
 
278 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 fortunate failure on the part of the missionaries to 
 report at a fair market valuation contributions of 
 oil, wood, bread, muscle etc., given by the people in 
 support of their native pastors, and for church 
 building and parsonage building purposes. For 
 their published letters report much greater liberality 
 than their statistics seem to indicate.* 
 
 Then comes Marathi, the only one of these fifteen 
 missions where self-support seems to be going back- 
 ward; for certainly her reports are not favorable. 
 Yet even here the backset may be only temporary, 
 and is undoubtedly due in part, though not wholly, 
 to recent famines. 
 
 With this one exception, then, all the larger mis- 
 sions of the Board are in the successful list; and 
 some of those which we have put down as unsatis- 
 factory have in a very unsystematic way been doing 
 something for self-support, as may be seen from their 
 letters. 
 
 So that the outlook is a cheering one; and yet we 
 do believe that a little more systematic effort along 
 these lines will accomplish still more in the years to 
 come; and greatly increase the amount of good that 
 can be done with each one hundred dollars raised in 
 this country. Especially if each station is furnished 
 each year with a bird' s-eye view of its standing for the 
 past nine or ten years, as compared with every other sta- 
 tion. For a mere comparison of missions, though 
 
 *To do full justice to our native churches, rooms furnished rent free for 
 use of teachers, preachers, schools and regular chapels should also be in- 
 cluded in such reports, at a fair rent valuation, though not rooms which are 
 thrown open for simple social gatherings only once a week; for such rooms 
 can always be secured rent free, and involve very little self-denial. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 
 
 279 
 
 helpful, is not at all satisfactory; for one backward, 
 careless station may wholly cover up the good work 
 of another. — We now give the statistics in detail. 
 
 Average Amount Contributed in Each Mission by 
 the People Themselves, for the Support of Religious 
 and Educational Institutions, Home and Foreign, to 
 Supplement Each One Hundred Dollars Spent on 
 Said Mission by the Board. 
 
 
 
 Average 
 
 Average 
 
 Average 
 
 
 a S2 
 S2 
 
 m 
 
 Name 
 
 for 
 
 for 
 
 for 
 
 
 u >» 
 
 SJ 
 
 of 
 
 three y'rs 
 
 three y'rs 
 
 three y'rs 
 
 
 a« 
 
 g 
 
 Mission. 
 
 1888-90. 
 
 1891-93. 
 
 1894-96. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Q 
 
 S'S 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '6a 
 
 I 
 
 Sandwich Islands 
 
 Wholly 
 
 Self-Sup 
 
 porting. 
 
 See explanation 
 
 
 2 
 
 Central Turkey 
 
 1Q.85 
 18.11 
 
 26.78 
 
 39-07 
 
 given above. 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 European Turkey 
 
 21.79 
 
 22.81 
 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 Austria 
 
 8.01 
 
 13.94 
 8.31 
 
 20.63 
 11.28 
 
 Note A. 
 
 157 
 
 5 
 
 Zulus 
 
 5.14 
 
 
 119 
 
 6 
 
 Foochow 
 
 4-23 
 
 5.14 
 
 9.00 
 
 
 113 
 
 I 
 
 Mexico 
 
 3.85 
 
 
 7.21 
 
 Note B. 
 
 87 
 
 North China 
 
 .39 
 
 .89 
 
 Note C. 
 
 128 
 
 9 
 
 Western Turkey 
 
 22.70 
 
 19.69 
 
 34.13 
 
 
 50 
 
 10 
 
 28.43 
 
 26.67 
 
 33-64 
 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 Eastern Turkey 
 
 27.27 
 
 2S.63 
 
 32.94 
 
 See explanation 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 Ceylon 
 
 44.69 
 
 35.59 
 
 42.34 
 
 given above. 
 
 
 13 
 
 Madura 
 
 13-70 
 
 8.85 
 
 11.32 
 
 Note D. 
 
 
 14 
 
 Micronesia 
 
 S.24 
 
 3.44 
 
 4-45 
 
 See explanation 
 
 
 15 
 
 Marathi 
 
 6.05 
 
 5.03 
 
 3-51 
 
 given above. 
 
 
 A^(?/* ./4. — Notice how fast number four (Austria) is gaining on number 
 three (European Turkey). 
 
 Note B. — In numher seven, (Mexico) there is a slight fall the last three 
 years; but as it is very slight and was due to exceptionally large contribu- 
 tions in 1893, we do not feel justified in shutting her out of the honor list. 
 
 Note C — As to number eight (North China) the amounts thus far given 
 are very small, but the increase from year to year for each of the nine years 
 is so steady, that we will watch for future developments in this mission with 
 great interest. 
 
 Note D. — This mission reached its lowest point for nine years in 1891, 
 and has been slowly coming up ever sinoe. 
 
28o SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 A Comparison of Different Boards. 
 
 A comparison of the work of twenty-eight differ- 
 ent foreign missionary boards in this country repre- 
 senting Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, 
 Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Christians, etc., etc., 
 and various divisions of these. North, South, Re- 
 formed, etc., — for a period of seven years, 1890 to 
 '96, also shows that most of these societies are gain- 
 ing in the matter of native self-support, and some of 
 them gaining very rapidly; though our statistics are 
 not quite complete enough for print. 
 
 Yet even here some societies show a tendency to 
 sit back on their laurels and say, we have done 
 enough; though a detailed study of their work shows 
 very plainly that they might do more; for in matters 
 like these one success only makes a still higher suc- 
 cess possible and obligatory, until full self-support 
 is reached, first for individual churches and later on 
 for whole countries. 
 
 And both men individually and societies as a 
 whole are in constant danger of making the bright 
 spots in their work an excuse for overlooking and 
 almost forgetting the weaker parts; which surely is 
 not good policy, however "natural" it may be. 
 
 And we also find some societies that have just 
 reached the spasmodic stage, reporting a little one 
 year, a lot the next and none the third; and so on 
 up and down. Though even this shows which way 
 public opinion is setting; and that the importance 
 of doing something, and reporting it, is being more 
 widely felt than formerly, when even our largest 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 281 
 
 societies made no attempt to report this important 
 item with any regularity. 
 
 Then, finally, as to the work of English and Con- 
 tinental societies, we have not at this distance been 
 able to get any statistics for comparison; but in re- 
 ports from single missions, and in general state- 
 ments of policy, unaccompanied by statistics, we 
 find evidence that here also the cause of a self-con- 
 secrated and self-reliant native Christianity is stead- 
 ily gaining ground, even in lands where the people 
 are the poorest. 
 
 A FEW LAST WORDS. 
 
 And now we have come to the close of the one 
 central topic, "Self-Supporting Churches and How 
 to Plant Them Successfully" on which Mr. Wheel- 
 er's life threw more new light probably than on any 
 other single topic in the whole range of missionary 
 thought. That he handled it with a master hand 
 few have ever dared to deny; and we feel sure that 
 in years to come, when the history of missionary 
 methods shall be written, his name will be sure to 
 come in at this point for very special mention. Not 
 because no one else had the same thoughts; but be- 
 cause no one else worked them out into rules and 
 actions as fully and as accurately, or dared to face 
 so publicly the obloquy of championing what at 
 first was a very unpopular cause. 
 
 For, bewitched by a strange misinterpretation of 
 the example of the early Christian church, mission- 
 aries and laymen alike all over the world were in 
 those early years suspicious of anything that seemed 
 
282 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 to make the gospel less free; forgetting that even 
 Christ never made it wholly free but said, "Take up 
 thy cross" and "Bear my yoke," and then I can bless 
 you. True Christ did not ask for money, except in 
 the form of hospitality; for he did not need much 
 then, and all he needed came unasked; and further- 
 more all his followers were giving regularly to another 
 church, (the Jewish,) from which the time had not 
 yet come for them to separate. 
 
 But the principle remains the same; whatever the 
 "yoke" may happen to be; and sometimes the giving 
 of money is an even heavier cross than bearing per- 
 secution, or any other form of painful goodness which 
 a kind Father asks us to undertake for his sake. 
 
 And surely Jesus, who called on one young man 
 to give up all, and follow him; and then let the young 
 man go away sad, rather than change the conditions, 
 (Mark 10:17-22;) andatanother time praised so high- 
 ly the woman who put her all into the Lord's treas- 
 ury — surely he is not going to disapprove of apian 
 which calls on men to give a little money to the Lord; 
 and then blesses them more and more richly the more 
 they love to give. 
 
 AS TO MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND ABUSE. 
 
 "But was he not often roundly abused by some very 
 good men?" Yes; because all men are naughty at 
 times; and some men a good deal oftener than oth- 
 ers. "For the good that I would I do not; but the 
 evil that I would not, that I do;" as Paul so plainly 
 tells us. 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 283 
 
 But when your little girl occasionally abuses you 
 for enforcing the law of duty, you remember how 
 sweetly and humbly, though silently, she apologized 
 last time she abused you, and how these spells are 
 becoming less and less frequent; and so you are com- 
 forted, and made very firm but tender. 
 
 And surely, in India, China, Turkey or America, 
 wherever pastors or missionaries are ever abused, 
 they can take comfort in this thought. For, after 
 leaving out a very small sprinkling of hypocritical 
 wolves in sheep's clothing, every really love-taught 
 missionary will find that his naughty children do love 
 and honor him, in spite of some pretty violent abuse; 
 and that they love him more and more as time goes on. 
 
 And though a freer use of money would doubtless 
 lessen the abuse; it would not increase the love ; and 
 would not bring more souls to Christ or heaven, 
 even if it did make the church rolls grow faster. So 
 let us not be discouraged; but simply look forward 
 and backward and inward to those things in our 
 lives which show that clouds cannot last forever, if 
 we ourselves are true and slowly growing truer. 
 
 AS TO THE NEED OF PRUNING. 
 
 And now in closing this part of the discussion let 
 me call attention once more to the need of occa- 
 sional pruning. For no vine can ever be fruitful 
 without a good deal of pruning; for not only must 
 dead branches be wholly removed; but even live 
 ones must be pruned more or less when their growth 
 tends to becomes one-sided and unhealthy. Even as 
 
284 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 plants have sometimes to be deprived of light and 
 heat, or heat and moisture, so as to prevent their 
 exhausting their vitality in a too morbidly rapid 
 growth. 
 
 The good missionary, then, must be a good sur- 
 geon; and one who is not afraid to use the knife; 
 though careful not to use it recklessly, — But why? 
 Simply because a failure to use it may doom a 
 church to death by gangrene and blood-poisoning; 
 which a timely bit of loving surgery would have 
 prevented; and the missionary who dares not run 
 the risk of leaving "an important center" without 
 either preacher or teacher for a while, if need be, 
 when they obstinately refuse to do their part, toward 
 paying their leader's salary, will simply pay for his 
 cowardice and folly by seeing that "important cen- 
 ter" cursed ere long with a church which is dead, and 
 so wholly incapable of further growth; or else so 
 worldly and self-seeking as to be a good deal worse 
 for the Lord's cause than no church at all. 
 
 For the question that God asks, the question that 
 history will ask is not, "How many churches have 
 you?" but "How many live, healthy churches?" 
 Though in the long run the healthiest churches will 
 also be the largest in their total combined member- 
 ship. 
 
 But this fact an over-timid man is apt to forget; 
 and as for quality, "Church member" and "Chris- 
 tian" seem to him almost the same; and so he goes 
 sadly astray. Hence it is that some good men ac- 
 complish so little. And hence, too, it comes that 
 all of us succeed in accomplishing more, whenever 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 285 
 
 our courage and insight are increased by a more 
 perfect trust in God, and a more careful study of 
 human nature, or in other words, by a more con- 
 stant use of Christ's farewell motto: "Watch and 
 Pray." 
 
 I do not deny that sometimes, though rarely, a 
 community of inquirers breaks up and never forms 
 again, when they find that there is a cross to be 
 borne and an idol to be cast down. Yet even for 
 such as these an evident and undisguised backslid- 
 ing is better than for them to go on thinking them- 
 selves followers of Jesus, when really they love 
 money more than they do God; as Christ plainly 
 showed in his treatment of the rich young man; and 
 there is a sad comfort in the strange truth, alike 
 scriptural and natural, that for persistent wrong- 
 doers a total cutting off is often the only possible 
 way of ever bringing them to repentance. (See for 
 example that strange but beautiful verse, I Cor. 
 
 5:5)- 
 
 But perhaps the most trying situation of all is when 
 the missionary cannot do anything toward self-sup- 
 port without admitting that his own past policy has 
 been radically wrong. But even in such a case, the 
 sooner he admits it, with tears in his eyes, the sooner 
 will matters straighten out, and his own peace of mind 
 return. Nor will he lose one whit of the respect of 
 his people. For a growing man is one we all respect, 
 even if he does have to admit that some of yester- 
 day's plans were faulty, and that today's, though cer- 
 tainly better, are probably still far from perfect. — For 
 such men are always helpful and always uplifting. 
 
286 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 As to the Need of More Definite Comparative 
 Statistics. 
 
 A word should also be spoken just here as to the 
 need of more definite comparative statistics in money 
 matters, if the less far-sighted among our noble band 
 of missionaries are ever to be brought up to really 
 wise ways of using money in the Lord's cause; for it 
 is very easy for even the best of men to forget that 
 money unwisely used is sure to give rise to many 
 other evils; so that they tear down day by day with 
 one hand what they so carefully build up with the 
 other. 
 
 And pray, how will statistics -help? Is there any 
 magic in statistics? No, there is not. But when 
 carefully boiled down and Reduced To Ratios, and 
 then tabulated so as to compare at a glance the ra- 
 tios of Five or Ten Successive Years and five or 
 ten or fifty different missions or stations in different parts 
 of the world, then statistics do indeed become most 
 startlingly significant of growth or decay in the mat- 
 ter of general self-consecration on the part of our 
 churches. 
 
 For whenever a church or mission fails for any long 
 period of years to make some progress toward a 
 manly and vigorous self-support, experience always 
 shows that at some vital point that church or mission 
 is weak, needlessly weak, with a weakness that might 
 have been cured had it but been seen more clearly 
 by those nearest the scene of action. And here it is 
 that the mortifying and encouraging power of com- 
 parative statistics comes so strongly into play. — For 
 
THE PROPER USE OF MONEY. 287 
 
 such statistics of all the different stations of any one 
 mission board, all reduced to ratios, so as to be com- 
 parable at a glance, would put some stations in each 
 mission on the strong list, and others on the "weak 
 but growing list," and others on the stand-still or 
 backsliding list, so evidently as to set all to thinking 
 more earnestly and more definitely for the reason of 
 it all. (See for example the statistics on pages 274 
 and 279.) 
 
 But to simply state, as is now customary, that the 
 native Christians of one community gave one hun- 
 dred dollars, while those of another gave fifty, is to 
 throw but very little light on the merits of these 
 two stations; for the church that gave fifty may 
 really be a great deal nearer self-support than the 
 one that gave a hundred. Or, to take another case 
 from real life; when of two missions in the same 
 country one reports book-sales amounting to 240CX) 
 volumes a year; and another reports 25000; it is 
 perfectly natural that we should think of both as do- 
 ing good work. But when, long after, it occurs to 
 us that the first of these missions has only two male 
 missionaries, while the other has about twenty, 
 it flashes across us that one is doing exceptionally 
 fine work in this sort of seed-planting, while the 
 other is doing relatively almost nothing. Thus 
 completely upsetting our first conception. But all 
 this misunderstanding might have been prevented 
 had the reports read thus: 
 
 Total sales, 24000, 25000 
 
 Average sales for each superintend- 
 ing male missionary, 12000, 1250 
 
388 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Nor is it enough to say that anyone who wants to 
 can sit down and figure out these ratios; for those 
 who need them most of all are the very o?tes who will 
 not do it\ and for each missionary to do it for him- 
 self would also involve a most unnecessary waste of 
 time; for ratios, though full of meaning, when once 
 found, are very slow things to work out on any 
 large scale. 
 
 Nor should we forget that our business instincts 
 and duties and our spiritual ones are so closely re- 
 lated that the missionary whose financial methods 
 are the wisest is, almost sure to be, all things con- 
 sidered, the strongest spiritually. 
 
 NEED OF EXPERT FINANCIERS. 
 
 And as our mission boards, Congregational, Meth- 
 odist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc., come to more 
 closely scrutinize and compare the financial wisdom 
 or unwisdom of various groups of missionaries, they 
 will also be sure in time to select in each mission or 
 locality some one man as acknowledged financial 
 leader and adviser, with the understanding that 
 ordinarily no expenditure of mission money will be 
 authorized till that expert has given his approval to 
 the plan. 
 
 For, as Mr. Wheeler used to often remark, the 
 leaving of such matters to a mere mission vote is 
 simply absurd; for each good missionary is sure to 
 have some pet scheme of his own to press through; 
 and so would be very apt to deal too gently with 
 the well-meaning, but ill-timed schemes of others. 
 But of this matter we have already spoken fully 
 enough elsewhere, (pages 99 and 265.) 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FOUNDING COLLEGES; ITS BENEFITS 
 AND DANGERS. 
 
 RELIGION AND EDUCATION HOW RELATED. 
 
 If we closely examine Christ's great law of love, 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself," we find in it, by implication, a 
 third element, namely the natural right and duty of 
 a man to love himself; out of which grows the in- 
 stinct of self-improvement, of which selfishness* is 
 but a hideous and vain perversion. 
 
 Thus far in our study of Mr. Wheeler's life we 
 have fixed our attention almost wholly on his way 
 of teaching those truths which bear directly and 
 evidently on men's duties to God and each other. 
 Now we must turn to see what he did to help men 
 in that other field of mere self-culture, of which the 
 final aim is not always as clear or as easy to change. 
 Here we shall find him battling with quite a differ- 
 ent group of problems from those we have thus far 
 considered; sometimes successfully, and sometimes 
 not, but nearly always adding something towards a 
 more complete solution of the problem of missions 
 to which he had devoted his life. 
 
 ♦Injuring others in hopes of benefiting one's self. 
 
 (19-289) 
 
290 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Importance of Common Schools. 
 
 We find then that early in their missionary life 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler and their missionary associ- 
 ates were deeply impressed with the need of helping 
 the children; and giving them early in life those 
 glimpses of truth, and habits of thought, without 
 which a self-reliant and truth-loving manhood is 
 hard to attain. 
 
 But they also realized that simple common schools; 
 though necessary as one element in missionary work, 
 are nevertheless of wholly secondary importance; 
 and should never be relied o?i as a substitute for active , 
 aggressive missionary work among adults, some of 
 whom can always be reached without the aid of 
 common schools, in a community that is really 
 ready for systematic seed sowing; for though adults 
 are harder to find and get hold of than children, 
 they furnish nevertheless, when found, a broader 
 and surer foundation for permanent work. 
 
 Is then the salvation of children less important 
 than that of adults? No; but if you do not spend a 
 proper amount of time in saving the adults, nine- tenths 
 of what you do for the children will soon be choked out\ 
 or buried so deep that God alone can see it; a fact 
 which enthusiastic missionary teachers are too apt 
 to forget. 
 
 HOW TO SELECT THE BEST NATIVE TEACHERS. 
 
 But coming now to a more detailed examination 
 of the policy of Mr. Wheeler and his associates in 
 regard to common schools, (and also schools of 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 291 
 
 higher grade,) we find first and foremost of all, the 
 rule that no teacher should be sent out at missionary 
 expense who was not also fit, morally and religiously, 
 to do evangelistic work for individuals, and to con- 
 duct simple, informal evangelistic services, when- 
 ever and wherever he could find a few willing hear- 
 ers; and that each worker must spend a part of his 
 time in just such personal work as this. 
 
 MAKING THE PEOPLE SUPPORT THEIR OWN 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 And furthermore we find that even in later years, 
 when many young men and women were sent out 
 from Euphrates College to act simply as teachers, 
 mostly or wholly at the people's expense, it was only 
 when the work in a community was so well estab- 
 lished that the preacher or pastor needed all his time 
 and strength for more purely religious work, and so 
 called for an assistant; the only other exceptions to 
 this rule being when a preacherless community were 
 so eager to have a school that they were willing to 
 take the whole responsibility, and also furnish a room 
 rent free, warm it themselves, and pay from the very 
 start a generous and steadily increasing sum toward 
 the teacher's salary, the teacher in such cases gener- 
 ally being some young person from their own com- 
 munity, who had spent three, six or perhaps twelve 
 months in study at Harpoot, and hoped to return 
 there again later on, if found competent and worthy; 
 even this Harpoot visit being paid for largely or 
 wholly by the young teacher's own parents, though 
 tuition at Harpoot was of course low and the board 
 which these parents furnished naturally very plain. 
 
292 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 How different this policy from that of another 
 missionary worker in the Orient, who writes; "The 
 
 people of have sent a delegation asking for us 
 
 to open a school in their town; and if we only had 
 ;S250.oo we would at once start one, for the opening 
 is certainly a most promising one." 
 
 To which Mr. Wheeler would probably have re- 
 plied— .Give me ^250.00 and I will start ten or twelve 
 such schools, more promising than yours; for people 
 who are too stingy to furnish a simple school room 
 free of rent and to pay a good share of the teacher's 
 salary, will not let their children get much good 
 from the school.* 
 
 ONLY A CHRISTIAN CAN TEACH CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 But secondly we find that Mr. Wheeler and his 
 colleagues felt very strongly that even assistant 
 teachers, (i. e., those who teach without preaching) 
 should always be young men and women whose life 
 and character carries with it a truly Christian tone 
 or atmosphere. For Mr. Wheeler and his col- 
 leagues had no faith in that extraordinary philoso- 
 phy which believes that lessons in reading, writing 
 and arithmetic will purify the infant mind, almost 
 regardless of the teacher's private character. For 
 poison is poison, even though it be mixed with the 
 best of bread; and a cold, selfish, self seeking teach- 
 er, or one who honors not God, can never open a pu- 
 
 *And even in well established Christian communities it was generally 
 thought best that the same room should serve as school room and chapel, 
 until the people reached a point where they could build a separate school 
 room without overtaxing themselves, or receiving from the Board money 
 which was more needed elsewhere in this hungry, sin-sick world. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 293 
 
 pil's eyes to see and love the truth which he himself 
 has never seen with any clearness, and never learned 
 to love. 
 
 SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME IN SCHOOLS. 
 
 But, thirdly, Mr. Wheeler claimed that the pioneer 
 missionary himself should not spend much time 
 in school-rooms, though visiting them frequently. 
 And why? Simply because he soon saw that of all 
 the different branches of pioneer missionary work, 
 that to be done in schools was the easiest, and so could 
 be most safely left to carefully chosen assistants, 
 while the missionary devoted himself to the more 
 difficult task of convincing and convicting and con- 
 verting adults, while simply superintending tht. school 
 work carefully and Planfully, but not too timefuUy. 
 — Nor did he wait prayerfully for the adults to come 
 to him, but rather Went prayerfully to where he 
 could find them, wherever that might be. 
 
 "But did Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues always 
 succeed in getting and keeping only such teachers 
 as had a clearly Christian influence?" No; they 
 did not; and some of the saddest breaks in their 
 wonderful success as missionaries are traceable to 
 an occasional lowering of the bars at this vital 
 point; or rather to a too patient tolerating of an 
 unchristian spirit in some of their helpers, who were 
 at heart true, but were weak and misleading. And 
 yet, as I look back over the years, my heart is filled 
 with wonder and gladness, as I see how seldom they 
 made this mistake, and how frankly they confessed 
 their error, when once they clearly saw it. 
 
294 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 When to Stop Stuffing the Memory. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues were also unani- 
 mous that whenever education, so-called, began to 
 puff up a boy, or man, or community, then educa- 
 tion had either gone too fast or too far, and a halt 
 had better be called; that the stoma.ch might have 
 a chance to rest, and feed on simpler food. Here 
 too they did not always act quite as promptly as 
 they should have done; but such a possibility of 
 suspension, or expulsion, hanging as it did over the 
 head of every pupil, did certainly have a most 
 salutary effect in making their pupils stop and con- 
 sider; and digest their thoughts more carefully. 
 And when some unlucky community lost its school 
 for a while, or some lofty-headed youth had to go 
 home suddenly, "to rusticate," the event was one 
 sure to be noticed and long remembered by others 
 to whom the same temptations came though in a 
 lesser degree.* 
 
 This same principle of not overloading the mind, 
 especially minds unused to the intense life of the 
 west, also led to a careful limitation of their courses 
 of study; and to their not offering their pupils more 
 than a very limited amount of hard-to-be-digested 
 knowledge, or rather learning. For pure knowl- 
 edge is always power, and always helpful; but learn- 
 ing, so called; is often a hindrance, rather than a 
 help, to individuals and peoples, through their in- 
 
 *Nor were these suspensions and expulsions simply for gross immorality or 
 insubordination; for even persistent unfaithfulness was often considered 
 suflacient ground for sending a pupil home; and very properly so; for to such 
 pupils school work is not a help but an injury. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 295 
 
 ability to understand or digest it, and thus find in it 
 the knowledge it contains, or rather is meant to 
 suggest. 
 
 A TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 
 
 How then, says some one, did Mr. Wheeler's phi- 
 losophy of education differ from that of the Jesuits? 
 The answer is that an honest Jesuit, if such there be, 
 deliberately keeps men in ignorance, or else teaches 
 them what he believes to be false, in hopes of help- 
 ing them; while Mr. Wheeler simply insisted strenu- 
 ously that young and inexperienced minds should 
 be fed on life's simplest and most vital truths; and 
 not on those more complicated and less vital ones 
 which often throw even well trained intellects into 
 hopeless perplexity and confusion. 
 
 Thus while the Jesuits say, "Let us do evil that 
 good may come;" St. Paul and his enthusiastic ad- 
 mirer cry, "We feed you with milk and not with 
 meat; for hitherto ye have not been able to bear it, 
 neither are ye now able." (I Cor. 3:2 and Heb. 5: 
 12 to 14.) 
 
 Or, going still higher, they appeal to the words of 
 Christ himself, who said; "I have yet many things 
 to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now," 
 (John 16:12.) Surely this is not Jesuitism; and yet 
 it is a doctrine for the saying and enforcing of which 
 Dr. Wheeler has been condemned oftener perhaps 
 than for any other one opinion he ever held, many 
 even thinking him an enemy of education. 
 
296 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Reasons for Founding a College. 
 
 But how could such a man consistently be the 
 founder of a college? This question may be easily 
 answered, if we take a glimpse at Mr. Wheeler's 
 inner life; for there the explanation lies. 
 
 He found that his children in Christ were growing 
 intellectually much faster than he had at first sup- 
 posed possible; in fact rather faster than was wholly 
 natural or healthy; and when he found that they 
 must plunge into the sea of modern science deeper 
 and sooner than he had expected, he said, I will go 
 with them to help them in facing the dangers of this 
 great deep to which an unforeseen duty calls some, 
 and vanity lures others; and so he became as earnest 
 in helping men keep their mental balance in study 
 as he had been in helping them to conquer stinginess. 
 
 He did not like the work as well', he knew that he 
 could not do it as well\ for there was less to guide 
 him in the pages of life and history. But he saw 
 that the work must be done; and that he could do it 
 better than anyone else who was likely to offer; and 
 so he undertook the task, laying aside once for all, 
 his lifelong wish to go once more to "the regions 
 beyond," as a pioneer in purely religious work. And 
 God blessed him in this great sacrifice; and yet, 
 almost to his dying day, there was a tinge of regret 
 that such work had consumed so large a part of his 
 time. 
 
 But saving men from mental shipwreck, if you can 
 do it, is certainly a privilege and a duty; and a 
 Christian college, free from the moral risks of for- 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 297 
 
 eign travel, and from the vanity-engendering influ- 
 ences of a long stay in a city as worldly and as far 
 away from home as Constantinople, was the remedy 
 he proposed and executed. 
 
 And did he succeed? Not wholly; for right under 
 his own eye and fatherly influence a few grew skep- 
 tical, and others grew vain and puffed up. But 
 when we see how many young nien and women, and 
 young boys and girls he helped turn into healthy 
 channels of action, thought and life, then his success 
 seems most cheering; especially as the school he 
 founded still lives on, and is sure to do for many 
 years to come the same kind of work that he planned 
 for it. 
 
 And yet I am sure that even to his dying day his 
 cry would have been and was, "Oh do not go into 
 higher education so called till you have laid your 
 religious foundations deep and strong, and learned 
 how to prevent your school work from simply turn- 
 ing out infidels and conceited fools. For life's deep- 
 est truths are all very simple; and these are the ones 
 that men need to know first of all, both in America 
 and on mission soil." 
 
 Writes Mr. Wheeler in 1871, "Henceforth we shall 
 need less money, but more prayer; for this finishing 
 of the work is in some respects even more perilous 
 than was its beginning. For no one not in actual 
 contact with the mass of minds about us can realize 
 into what a ferment of excitement and expectation 
 the gospel has thrown them. They need, wish, 
 expect and demand a thousand things which they 
 
298 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 cannot have now. * * * * Yet we are encour- 
 aged by the reflection that these things must needs 
 be in such a work of awakening and reform as that 
 which is here going on." 
 
 And it did not take him long to see that the prob- 
 lems raised, and the new temptations and ambitions 
 felt, were altogether too subtle to be met unaided 
 by the local churches, without recourse to the church's 
 treasure-house of history and science, so dangerous 
 and yet so essential, when once a soul reaches that 
 age of restlessness and temporary doubt through 
 which all strong natures must pass, sooner or later, 
 in their way to perfect manhood. 
 
 GROWTH OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 Hence it was that the Normal School which had 
 been started in 1869 to meet the growing demand 
 for teachers was under his leadership gradually ex- 
 panded, and finally united with the "Female Semi- 
 nary" under the general name of "Armenia College," 
 afterwards changed to Euphrates College, the first 
 name having proved displeasing to the Turkish gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 And, under his general leadership, the work of 
 expansion gradually went on, till in all departments 
 the average number of pupils each term came to 
 number between five and six hundred; about a hun- 
 dred in the college departments proper, male and 
 female; about one hundred and fifty in the college 
 high schools, male and female; and the rest in 
 lower grades; most of those in the higher classes, 
 and many of those even lower down, being picked 
 boys and girls from all over the Harpoot field. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 299 
 
 It should here be mentioned that over the Female 
 Department, the president claimed no authority, 
 save that of suggestion; justly feeling that the Ameri- 
 can ladies in charge were amply competent to plan 
 for themselves, after hearing what the station had 
 to propose and suggest; save that in money matters 
 the station vote was naturally supreme, though even 
 here "the young ladies" and the missionaries' wives 
 seemed generally to be the real deciders behind the 
 throne — one of the earliest memories of my boy- 
 hood being the markedly respectful and frequent 
 way in which my father and others would consult 
 "the ladies," while we children sat still and took it 
 all in, there in that distant Orient, where woman is 
 supposed to know so little. 
 
 RAISING AN ENDOWMENT. 
 
 Thus it was that in 1875 *^ became evident that an 
 endowment should, if possible, be raised for the 
 proper carrying on of the work. And why? Simply 
 because Mr. Wheeler and his associates justly felt 
 that money given for general missionary work should 
 not for any great length of time be turned off into 
 mere educational channels, in which it is so easy to 
 squander thousands and thousands of dollars with 
 no adequate return. 
 
 For, said he. If I can convince those who have to 
 give the money that my school is of enough impor- 
 tance to make them give it themselves, why then, 
 well and good; but for the churches' money to be 
 turned aside into costly educational ventures by a 
 mere vote of the station, mission, or even of the 
 
300 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Home Board, would open the way for far too many 
 costly experiments, and too many relatively un- 
 profitable investments of the Lord's money. 
 
 For in educational work failure to do any real good 
 ( worth speaking of) is far easier than in general mis- 
 sionary work from house to house or town to town; 
 even though the results of educational work are 
 more tangible and showy than those of more strictly 
 religious work. 
 
 And so he set out to raise the money by a direct 
 appeal to individuals and churches, telling them 
 plainly that he wanted only what they could give in 
 addition to their regular gifts to the work at large. 
 And when earnest souls in America found how care- 
 fully the work had been planned, and how far each 
 dollar would go, and how much the school was 
 needed, they were glad to give what he asked; though 
 not a few mean and stingy Christians had also to be 
 met and endured, before the requisite number of 
 generous and truly Christian ones were found. 
 
 And so economically was it all planned that 
 ;^4500.00 would endow a full professorship; and 
 $1500.00 to S2500.00 a principalship in any one of 
 the lower schools; while assistant teachers in the 
 various schools cost the stockholders only the year's 
 interest on from $700.00 to $1700.00 a year; and yet 
 in many cases these were good, and even high sala- 
 ries for the Orient; the startling originality of the 
 plan being simply that he saw the utter folly of kill- 
 ing the deeper life of his college by paying too high 
 salaries, realizing that consecration is even- more 
 important than exceptional ability, though both are 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 301 
 
 desirable, and were abundantly found in the corps of 
 teachers which he gathered round him as the years 
 went by. 
 
 But, says some one, why have any endowment at 
 all? — Simply because he saw that the need which he 
 was trying to meet was one which would go on in- 
 creasing and deepening as the years went by; and 
 become more and more difficult to satisfy, without 
 some central school of learning, with which to start; 
 even as in the history of our own country Christian 
 colleges, when not managed too blunderingly, have 
 played so important a part in the development of 
 our civilization. 
 
 And here too let us notice how carefully Mr. 
 Wheeler followed up donors to the college; not be- 
 cause he wanted more money from most of them; 
 but because he felt that he owed to them and the 
 great cause of missions a debt, even as a mercantile 
 company tries to pay regular dividends to its stock- 
 holders. 
 
 Hence was it that so many of them loved him so 
 warmly and so personally; for not only did he for- 
 get himself, but he even seemed to forget his college 
 in his intense zeal for the Master's work at large, 
 and for the souls of those to whom he was talking 
 or writing. 
 
 PRESSING SELF-SUPPORT. 
 
 While Mr. Wheeler realized that schools of learn- 
 ing of the higher grade must have endowments to 
 insure their permanence, and that missionary col- 
 leges must go abroad for the bulk of their first en- 
 
302 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 dowments, (simply taking care not to make these 
 any larger than is necessary for a healthy Begin- 
 ning*) he also realized, as fully as ever, the need of 
 making the people pay something for their educa- 
 tional privileges from the very start; knowing that 
 thus only could he keep the college from being 
 flooded with a host of lazy loafers or self-seekers, 
 and make its alumni grateful enough to cheerfully 
 add to its endowment later on, as need should 
 arise. 
 
 And so the man who in early years would never 
 address a crowd who would not give attention in 
 return; and later on would not furnish Sunday 
 preaching to a community who would not give free 
 barley to the preacher's donkey; nor a free school, 
 for any length of lime, to a community who would 
 not furnish a school room rent free; or a permanent 
 preacher to those who would not help pay his sal- 
 ary; this same man insisted that from the first all 
 pupils, from the college down to the kindergarten, 
 must pay something in cash, work, chickens or home- 
 made socks, as an evidence of their appreciation of 
 the costly privileges offered them;|| to this the only 
 exceptions being cases where a third party came in 
 to pay the tuition of some widow's child, or some 
 family where an over-thoughtful father had too 
 
 *This is probably the chief reason why he afterwards abandoned the 
 thought of having a law and medical department in connection with the 
 college, both of which were a part of his original plan. 
 
 l|In schools conducted by the native brethren, in Harpoot and its outsta- 
 tions a small tuition fee was also generally asked of all except the poorest, 
 the tuition fee actually seeming to make teachers, scholars and school com- 
 mittee all do better work through a deeper sense of the need of doing good 
 work. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 303 
 
 many promising chilren, but too little money. 
 Though even in such cases the hand of charity 
 brought most blessing, and least harm, where the 
 benefactors treated their gifts as a loan, to be paid 
 back in some real, though simple equivalent of work, 
 such as mother or father or child could easily pay, 
 if really willing to do so. 
 
 And furthermore it was his custom, as the grades 
 advanced, and the lessons taught became more a 
 luxury and less a necessity (except for the earnest 
 and thoughtful few) to insist more and more strictly 
 on this matter of self-support; knowing that a little 
 education is helpful to almost anyone, if given with 
 any sort of discretion; but that much education of 
 the booky sort can be safely digested only by earnest 
 souls, that will work for it and pay for it heartily 
 and patiently: so that the tuition grew higher and 
 higher as the grades advanced, and was less often 
 cut in two, even for the poor, and less often paid by 
 some third party. Though even here chances to 
 teach school somewhere, or sweep or chop wood or 
 run errands or do extra housework were carefully 
 husbanded for those most in need of encouragement 
 and help; and occasionally, though not very often, 
 notes were taken for part tuition in some of the 
 higher grades, with the understanding that they 
 were to be paid by teaching in some village school 
 in the course of two or three years. 
 
 And likewise in the boarding department, nearly 
 all the scholars were expected to pay their own ex- 
 penses. Careful arrangements were also made for 
 some to board themselves, with the help of dried 
 
304 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 bread, prepared meat, cheese, wheat, rice, etc., 
 brought from home at short intervals, "when the 
 folks came to town;" thus enabling many a boy to 
 live almost as well, or almost as poorly, as he would 
 at his own village home, and still enjoy the privi- 
 leges of a city school, without loss of his self-re- 
 liance. 
 
 ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 "But," say some critics, "free schools in America 
 have not harmed our people; why then should not 
 missionary schools also be free; as ours are in 
 America?" Simply because our American schools 
 are not really free; for by taxes already paid by his 
 relatives, or by taxes which he himself expects to 
 pay "when he gets rich," every enterprising scholar 
 in our American schools manages to save and deepen 
 his sense of self-respect and self-reliance. 
 
 And even our richest colleges and universities, 
 which are very properly partly free, are obliged in 
 sheer self-defence to charge tuition, and make en- 
 trance and promotion dif^cult; for the sake of keep- 
 ing out as far as possible, ambitious but ungrateful 
 and unpromising loafers. 
 
 As an illustration of the benefits of such sifting, we 
 may mention the fact that the college preparatory 
 department at Harpoot, though charging more than 
 other rival schools of the same nominal grade, did 
 nevertheless draw a more promising class of boys 
 and girls, both poor and well to do, than any of 
 these rival schools; and generally larger numbers as 
 well. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 305 
 
 The College Printing Press. 
 
 Here too we may fittingly speak of the printing 
 press, given by friends in America, which helped in 
 so many ways in the early years of the college. 
 First, as a help to self-supporting students; second, 
 as a help in greatly reducing the cost of some much 
 needed text books; and thirdly, as a very marked 
 source of inspiration and quickening to many who 
 heard of it and saw it. But although, under Mr. 
 Wheeler's shrewd management, the press was a help 
 and a source of some added revenue, it may be 
 doubted whether in most mission stations such a 
 venture would be a wise one, unless other printing 
 presses are'whoUy inaccessible; as it would be apt 
 to swallow up altogether too much precious mission- 
 ary time; and also become a source of financial loss 
 to the mission, rather than of revenue; both of 
 which evils Mr. Wheeler escaped only by exception- 
 al quickness in such work, and by a native business 
 tact in which even first class missionaries are quite 
 often lacking, the power to earn money and the 
 power to earn men not always going together. 
 
 But at last this press came to an untimely stillness, 
 the government having taken offense at it and sealed 
 it up, besides imposing a fine of S250.00 on Mr. 
 Wheeler for running it without formal legal authori- 
 zation, which would not have been given, even if 
 asked. But even after paying this fine, so unjust 
 and so exorbitant for an Oriental country, the press 
 fund still had a neat little sum left to help in build- 
 ing a new and enlarged female seminary in 1882; 
 
 (20) 
 
3o6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 and waits once more for a chance to speak again in 
 its own native tongue of paper and ink; for strange 
 to say, even the massacre, which destroyed so 
 much, happened to leave the press uninjured. 
 
 WAYS OF DEVELOPING CHARACTER. 
 
 But these studies in self-reliance, and the best 
 ways of developing it, where it does not exist, and 
 of preserving it where it does, lead on naturally to 
 still higher problems; for the question comes up. 
 How can we most effectually strengthen a student's 
 hold on those deepest truths of life, love to God and 
 active love to men, without which education will be 
 only a drag on his real success and happiness in life? 
 
 To the proper answering of this question Mr. 
 Wheeler devoted some of his most earnest thought 
 and most painstaking toil; finding in it some of the 
 sweetest results of all his labors; and yet, as the 
 years went by, he became more and more keenly 
 conscious that he had not succeeded in solving the 
 problem as fully as he had hoped to do, or rather 
 wanted to do. Let us then notice closely just what 
 he did do, and what he did not, and what the results 
 were; for the problem is a most important one, and 
 one on which even his most unfinished thoughts and 
 plans will throw much light. 
 
 PRAYING FOR THEM ONE BY ONE. 
 
 We find then deepest of all, a habit of often pray- 
 ing by name for the school, and for individual 
 teachers and pupils; not as if he were coaxing God 
 for some unwilling gift, but rather as if he were sim- 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 307 
 
 ply expressing his trust in God, and asking for 
 blessings already ofiered conditionally, and also ask- 
 ing God to help him in doing his part more faith- 
 fully and skilfully; and thus it was that his prayers 
 brought him very near to those he prayed for; 
 though even he was wise enough not to pray for 
 everyone. For, some he felt that he could not 
 help, at least not in any special way; and knew it 
 was not wrong to leave them wholly to God, who 
 could understand and help them, even if he could not. 
 
 THE PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF EACH TEACHER. 
 
 Then, secondly, he attached great importance to 
 the personal influence of his teachers, as a help in 
 winning the pupils to Christ and to a Christly life; 
 and here he was greatly blessed; for generally the 
 personal influence of his teachers was most uplifting 
 and godly, not only in a general, negative way, but 
 in a very positive one. Though in his wish not to 
 seem uncharitable or harsh he did occasionally tol- 
 erategrossunfaithfulness in some of his helpers, which 
 for a while cost him and the school very dear. For 
 such things are strangely contagious. And yet, if 
 I were to sum up in a single sentence the cause of 
 the success of this school, it would be, Because of 
 the personal character of the men who were at the 
 helm, from the president way down to the youngest 
 assistant teacher. For a true man, full to overflow- 
 ing of trueness, may make mistakes, even pretty 
 serious ones, and still retain his steady power to up- 
 lift and truly educate those who fall under his influ- 
 ence; while a less true man loses his influence by 
 mistakes that are seemingly very trifling. 
 
3o8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Bible Classes; and How to Make Them 
 Interesting. 
 
 Thirdly, he attached great importance to Sunday 
 Schools under the lead of some of his most earnest 
 and skilful teachers; and to daily Bible lessons, 
 during the week, in all grades, from the highest to 
 the lowest; and the good results of these many Bible 
 classes, under many different teachers, were marked 
 and interesting; for most of the scholars came to 
 feel that religion and morals were of course matters 
 for daily thought and study; just as we daily eat 
 nearly the same kinds of body food for thirty, forty, 
 seventy years, and with almost unceasing relish, if 
 we do it properly. 
 
 But pray how did his best teachers keep these 
 numerous Bible classes, coming as they did every 
 day through the whole course, from becoming ex- 
 ceedingly monotonous and dull? By simply letting 
 them become starting points for homely, informal 
 conversations, back and forth, on any and every 
 subject which could throw light on how to make life 
 better and truer at any point where men are ever 
 tempted or perplexed; provided the temptation was 
 one that was likely to come to those there assem- 
 bled; and provided any one there present could 
 really throw some light upon it. — Thus did the 
 classes often become exceedingly helpful; and two 
 teachers might take up exactly the same book, in 
 Old Testament or in New, and still draw from it les- 
 sons as varied as were the tastes and circumstances 
 of their lives, and of the boys and young men be- 
 fore them. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 309 
 
 Helping Pupils One by One. 
 
 But, while we can speak highly of these daily 
 Bible classes, and of the good they did, we feel com- 
 pelled to point out one serious defect, or rather in- 
 completeness in Mr. Wheeler's estimate of these 
 classes and of the work they could do. He did not 
 clearly enough recognize the fact that a man or boy 
 may be truly convinced of many important truths, 
 and really try to live up to them, and still make a sad 
 failure of it all; and so he did not plan to help the 
 boys in overcoming secret faults as systematically 
 as he should have done. 
 
 But how could this defect have been remedied? 
 We believe that the most effective remedy would 
 have been to expect each pupil to report at frequent 
 intervals privately to some experienced and sympa- 
 thetic teacher, a few typical successes taken from 
 his own daily life, and also any failures about which 
 he might feel the need of special advice. Thus 
 would the missing link of personal hand to hand 
 contact of individual souls have been more fully sup- 
 plied; for public, class-room advice and sympathy 
 however wise can never take the place of a word of 
 advice or cheer fitly spoken, where none but God 
 can hear. 
 
 As we have already seen, and shall see again later 
 on, Mr. Wheeler himself was remarkably skilful and 
 earnest in just such personal work as this; and I hap- 
 pen to know that some of his leading teachers were 
 also skilful and earnest in the same kind of work; 
 but such talks were only occasional, accidental and 
 
310 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 generally too long, whereas they had better have 
 been quite frequent y regularly expected and generally 
 very short; for then would they have taken a deeper 
 and surer hold, through resembling more closely 
 that which is deepest and most effective in the up- 
 lifting contact of father and child. 
 
 RELYING TOO MUCH ON MERE BELIEF. 
 
 Here too is the proper place to speak briefly of 
 one other slight but real defect in Mr. Wheeler's 
 way of teaching; he relied a little too much on mere 
 belief; by which we mean "an acceptance of some 
 statement or opinion simply or chiefly on the testi- 
 mony of some one else." 
 
 Now that earth's noblest and most clear-seeing 
 minds are always willing to accept things thus on 
 mere belief, no close observer can long doubt; but 
 we also find that such minds are ever busy confirm- 
 ing and correcting these beliefs by a persistent and 
 careful use of their own sifting and observing powers, 
 mindful that even the teachings of Scripture may be 
 misunderstood and misapplied, through some slip 
 in the hearer's own mind. 
 
 Hence Mr. Wheeler himself was a most persistent 
 though silent critic of the theologies of the past, 
 that he might thus come nearer to the grand, central 
 truths to which they all point more or less accu- 
 rately. But as a teacher he was so haunted with the 
 fear of infidelity and rationalism* that he was always 
 a little inclined to repress free thought on some 
 themes, even when there was no tendency to conceit 
 
 *An excessive reliance on mere blind logic or inference. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 311 
 
 or recklessness or guess-work to justify such re- 
 pression. — Hence some who might have been won 
 and convinced were not; and worse still, some of his 
 pupils and some of the mission's best churches were 
 a little too easily misled, when later on honest but 
 short-sighted zealots turned up with some new doc- 
 trine which seemed to have almost as good Scrip- 
 ture authority (logically) as the ones which Mr. 
 Wheeler himself had taught; though not anywhere 
 near as full of the pith of Christian helpfulness and 
 Christian power. 
 
 A CURE FOR RATIONALISM. 
 
 But fortunately even here his pupils could see 
 that the man who was afraid to let them inquire 
 quite as freely as was natural and best, had never- 
 theless himself carefully proved or tested many 
 things; and generally held fast only that which was 
 best, (I Thess. 5:21;) and so his Bible classes be- 
 came a center for free but chastened thought, such 
 as always makes men stronger and truer, in spite of 
 any incidental defects which there may be in its 
 make up, when judged in the light of some still 
 higher and completer thought, to which this thought 
 itself has given birth, inspiration and tone. 
 
 For in spite of an occasional slight dogmatism 
 (born of an incompleted insight and of fear for those 
 he loved) he did really grasp the deepest of all anti- 
 dotes to doubt and rationalism, namely a genuine 
 love of truth and a refusal to knowingly follow up 
 any train of thought or discussion for one single 
 moment, when for any reason, known or unknown, 
 
312 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 that thought or discussion ceased to be he helpful 
 and uplifting in its effects on himself and on his 
 hearers. 
 
 SHOULD ATTENDANCE AT PRAYER MEETINGS 
 BE COMPULSORY. 
 
 And, lastly he attached great value in the uplift- 
 ing of his school to that old-fashioned but ever reju- 
 venating institution, the prayer meeting; though he 
 probably erred in making attendance at one prayer 
 meeting a week compulsory. For prayer meetings 
 are very different from simple, brief and earnest 
 morning prayers; or a lively class room discussion on 
 Bible themes; and are more apt to repel the uninter- 
 ested when made compulsory. And even among 
 earnest Christians, there seem to be some who pre- 
 fer less public ways of exchanging Christian thought 
 and uniting in Christian prayer; so that to these also 
 an average prayer meeting is a weariness, rather than 
 a help. 
 
 So that while the prayer meeting is steadily be- 
 coming more and more helpful to one class of Chris- 
 tians; it is for another class being slowly displaced 
 by more private meetings, at home and elsewhere, 
 wherever men may meet to talk with God. But 
 this fact Mr. Wheeler was loth to admit, having him- 
 self found public prayer-meetings a source of great 
 inspiration and blessing, all through his life. Hence 
 his insistence on attendance at the weekly prayer- 
 meeting, of which we have spoken; though the 
 prayer-meeting which he most loved was naturally 
 one in his own home at which attendance was wholly 
 voluntary. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 313 
 
 Though we are also inch'ned to think that a more 
 careful and systematic following out of the sugges- 
 tions given on pages 309 to 311 would have ulti- 
 mately so quickened and vitalized the prayer-meet- 
 ings as to make voluntary attendance almost uni- 
 versal. 
 
 COLLEGE DISCIPLINE AND CHOICE OF TRUSTEES. 
 
 But passing on we come to yet other matters of 
 importance to which we must refer, and among them 
 that of college control, or the question who shall 
 control a missionary college, endowed by funds from 
 abroad. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler's conviction that it should not be 
 controlled by its students, he showed clearly enough 
 when he once firmly refused to remove a sentence 
 of indefinite suspension from the unrepentant class 
 of 1891, when that class refused to take a certain 
 study, instead of respectfully referring their griev- 
 ances to the president and faculty for investigation 
 and adjudication. 
 
 But, going a step farther, beyond this rather obvi- 
 ous law of discipline, he also believed that in the 
 larger outlines of its work, and especially in money 
 matters, such a college should be under the control 
 of a board of trustees in America, with the local 
 missionaries as their representatives, instead of be- 
 ing controlled by representatives of a people who 
 had as yet done very little toward paying the ex- 
 penses of the institution (i. e. raising its endow- 
 ment) and, furthermore, could not be expected to 
 be as cautious or as much under the restraint of 
 
314 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 powerful precedents as American trustees would be. 
 Though even here he was far-sighted enough to see 
 that even Americans, when long resident in the Ori- 
 ent, do inevitably lose some of their Yankee firmness, 
 and so arranged that no final decision in money mat- 
 ters could ever be made except by the board of 
 trustees in America; though even they were not free 
 to act on matters of salaries, grants, etc,, without a 
 recommendation from the local missionary trustees 
 to start with; each of these two bodies thus restrain- 
 ing the other from a too free or imprudent expen- 
 diture of college funds. 
 
 Surely this was better than that morbid wish not 
 to seem too strict which sacrifices thousands of dol- 
 lars of the churches' money to unrestrained Oriental 
 ambition, for fear that they will think that we con- 
 sider ourselves wiser than they. 
 
 Yet he was careful to arrange that so soon as 
 Oriental Christians began to really contribute at all 
 largely to the college endowment, they should be- 
 gin to have a proportionate hand in its government; 
 for then he believed that they would more freely 
 realize the need of caution in expending the money 
 left to their care. 
 
 But in those cases where Oriental trusteeship has 
 worked disaster, sometimes more and sometimes 
 less, no such restriction has I believe ever existed. 
 
 LESSONS IN ENERGY AND ACCURACY. 
 
 Another important help in developing character 
 and making the college what it was, was the example 
 of energy and general accuracy in essentials, set be- 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 315 
 
 fore the students by their president; and also the in- 
 formal tests of intelligence to which he ever and 
 anon subjected them. For he loved to fall in on 
 them unawares and give them hard questions to test 
 their quickness and insight, rather than rely simply 
 on formal, routine examinations, in which a good 
 but dull memory often counts for even more than 
 insight and real knowledge. 
 
 For he felt that, without the power to use one's 
 wits, mere increase of learning would only dull the 
 mind, or else upset it; and that it was better that 
 they should spend their time in doing easy but im- 
 portant things well, rather than in doing more showy 
 and learned things poorly, or in a merely routine way. 
 
 And yet, in common with many other great men, 
 Mr, Wheeler did not properly realize how much of 
 his own general accuracy and grasp had been de- 
 veloped, or rather matured and brought into full 
 play, only by years of intensely close and systematic 
 effort on matters of detail, seemingly of little prac- 
 tical importance; hence he did not lay sufficient 
 emphasis on compelling the students to be syste- 
 matic in their lessons in accuracy and insight; allow- 
 ing the promotions from grade to grade to depend 
 far too often on mere memory work, regardless of 
 real insight. 
 
 Hence the passion for genuine accuracy and in- 
 sight, which was often quite marked among the 
 lower grades, tended lo gradually decrease as the 
 grades advanced; a mere blind passion for learning 
 too often taking its place; though to the very last 
 
3i6 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler's early lessons and powerful personality, 
 and frequent stirrings up tended to greatly lessen, 
 and in individual cases, almost wholly eliminate this 
 unfortunate tendency. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Here too mention should be made of an interest- 
 ing experiment in industrial education made, under 
 Mr. Wheeler's direction, by some of his assistant 
 teachers. It was to get the boys in the lower grades 
 to bring once a week any article in clay, wood, tin, 
 paper, etc., which they had made during the previ- 
 ous week, with the understanding that at the close 
 of each term simple prizes would be given to those 
 whose collection of articles showed the most skill 
 and industry, or the most improvement; and exceed- 
 ingly interesting was the native talent brought to 
 light, and the steady growth in skill and enterprise 
 and wide-awakeness shown by each successive week's 
 collection of articles, any article which could not be 
 brought to school being simply reported publicly, 
 and then entered on a book for use in the final award 
 of prizes. 
 
 LESSONS IN THINKING. 
 
 And in like manner the best of each boy's boyish 
 thoughts and observations, on boyish themes, were 
 brought and read aloud in the class room, for criti- 
 cism and respectful discussion; and then some of 
 the best of each boy's thoughts were selected by the 
 teacher, and copied and signed by the boy himself 
 in a little book for circulation among the other boys; 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 317 
 
 that thus their eyes and ears might be more open to 
 notice and study more closely the things of interest 
 which they had seen and heard; for the things which 
 a boy has observed or thought out for himself mean 
 to him a thousand-fold more at first than the vaster 
 and higher thoughts of which his books are full; and 
 will in time prepare him to appreciate the book 
 thoughts as well. 
 
 And we cannot but think that this sort of work 
 systematically encouraged, in its most simple and 
 childish but healthy form, would arouse even in the 
 school boys of China an interest in school work to 
 which most of them seem as yet to be strangers, ex- 
 cept when roused by political ambition.* 
 
 Thus, without any costly ventures in manufactur- 
 ing, the boys' individual tastes both mechanical, ar- 
 tistic and literary, were slowly developed and dis- 
 covered|| under the inspiring thrill of a friendly com- 
 petition, in which every boy in school had some part 
 of his own choosing, suggested either by his own 
 wits or the example of others around him. 
 
 *For in 1898 our four Chinese missions with 12756 reported adherents and 
 44og church members had nevertheless only 2255 boys and girls in their 147 
 schools (common, boarding and high); or twice as many church members 
 and live times as many adherents as they have children in their schools. 
 Surely a strange picture ot Chinese lethargy; and a good chance to try Yan- 
 kee thinking lessons such as we have suggested above. Will not some of our 
 Chinese missionaries kindly try them and let us know how they work? 
 
 ||ln most cases a pupil's tastes have to be patiently developed, like sprout- 
 ing seeds, long before either he or his teacher are conscious of their pres- 
 ence, or able to give them a name. Hence is it that the most important part 
 of the developing of a faculty often comes before its discovery. 
 
3i8 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 A New Way of Awarding Prizes. 
 
 It is also pleasant to see how the prizes were given 
 in these industrial and literary competitions. The 
 first three or four prizes were in money, contributed 
 by the various teachers; the rest in beautiful picture 
 cards of many different shapes and sizes and grades; 
 the rule being that each boy who deserved any praise 
 at all should have a card, but that those highest in 
 rank must have first ciioice, while the whole school 
 school looked on with keen interest to see whose 
 name would be called next and what he would 
 choose. 
 
 Thus every boy in school, with but four or five ex- 
 ceptions, out of some one hundred and twenty boys, 
 got some praise, though very properly the largest 
 and brightest pictures, which were all put at one end, 
 fell to the most industrious and the next best, to the 
 next best group and so on; and it was very evident 
 that the fiftieth prize was as real a help to its owner 
 as the first; for it reminded him pleasantly of the 
 fact that he was not seventieth, and rather exasper- 
 atingly of the fact that he was not fortieth; though 
 he might be a boy who would never dream of being 
 first or second or tenth in the class, and so would 
 not be helped at all by an offer of prizes for only 
 the best two or three scholars in the class. 
 
 PROPER LIMITS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 In this little experiment we also find several charac- 
 teristics of all the various experiments at industrial 
 improvement which Messrs. Wheeler and Allen made 
 from time to time in the course of their missionary 
 life in Turkey. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 319 
 
 First, the experiments were not made with the 
 Board's money, which no missionary has any right 
 to risk for a single moment in such work. Secondly, 
 they involved no serious risk to the missionary him- 
 self; for they were inexpensive experiments, or else 
 paid for in advance by some enterprising Oriental 
 who could afford to risk the money; and thirdly, 
 they were nearly all simple attempts to improve 
 slightly on existing industries, instead of trying to 
 introduce wholly new ones. While last, but not 
 least, they involved very little expenditure of mis- 
 sionary time or strength. 
 
 Surely, within such limits, industrial experiments 
 in tomatoes, sweet corn, potatoes, plows, threshing 
 machines, fanning mills, church lamps, church trum- 
 pets, (to call men to church,) church bells of very 
 small size, communion sets, cabinet organs, etc., are 
 all proper and helpful; and only rest the weary mis- 
 sionary and edify his people; the trouble with indus- 
 trial ventures generally being, first, that they are 
 apt to be too costly a way of doing good, even when 
 successful; and, secondly, that they involve financial 
 risks of failure so large, relatively, that no mission, 
 or board, or missionary has any right to invest in 
 them the churches' money, unless it was specially 
 given with that end in view by the original donors. 
 
 But fortunately men who could wisely run an in- 
 dustrial school on any large scale are generally men 
 who can interest other business men in their plans, 
 and thus get the money they need; and yet such in- 
 dependent ventures are always exceptionally risky, 
 and should not be encouraged, unless their founders 
 
320 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 give very indubitable evidence of not being mere 
 long-tongued enthusiasts. 
 
 THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. 
 
 But in a study of Mr. Wheeler's work as an edu- 
 cator the question inevitably thrusts itself to the 
 front, Why did he pin a kindergarten and primary 
 grade onto a college? 
 
 To this question I have never heard Mr. Wheeler 
 give any definite answer; and I seriously doubt 
 whether he himself ever clearly knew just why he 
 did it; save that a clear but unaccountable sense of 
 duty evidently led him into doing it. While an in- 
 tense love for children similar to that which our 
 Lord seems to have felt, made the work exceedingly 
 pleasant; and I believe he also dimly realized that 
 some of the deeper problems of healthy missionary 
 education could be worked out successfully only in 
 these lower grades; and that he and his corps of 
 teachers needed the constant, restraining, eye-open- 
 ing, naturalizing and softening influence of close and 
 sympathetic contact with a large body of children. 
 And it was exceedingly pleasant to see how in his 
 own life these lower grades did gradually draw out 
 and perfect the softer elements of his character; 
 elements which in strong and aggressive natures are 
 apt to get dulled by constant leadership of large 
 masses of adult minds. 
 
 For, dividing his life roughly into two parts, we 
 may say that the first half he was primarily a leader 
 and moulder of large masses of mind, while in the 
 latter half the close and prolonged study and dis- 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 321 
 
 cipline of single minds was the more prominent fea- 
 ture; thus making his leadership more complete, 
 and his policy a more symmetrical whole, and better 
 suited for others to copy and understand. 
 
 For in years gone by many had supposed that 
 like the Spartans of old he cared but little for the 
 individual, and thought only of the church and state, 
 or some abstract ideal of self-support; and so they 
 were inclined to discount this ideal. But when 
 they found how patiently and skilfully he could 
 work for individuals as well, individuals who were 
 soon to scatter far and wide, then this tyrant, this 
 giant, this worshiper of self-support, came to be seen 
 in a truer light and mtn began to be less afraid of 
 his larger ideals. And so both parts of this busy 
 life contributed equally to the furthering of Christ's 
 kingdom, and of the ideals for which Mr. Wheeler 
 had striven so long. 
 
 And when the gathering in shall come, we believe 
 that the seed which was cast upon the waters in 
 these later years will be found to have brought forth 
 just as abundant a harvest as the more tangible re- 
 sults of earlier years; for in both he displayed won- 
 derful wisdom and insight, though his natural tastes 
 enabled him to make a more complete success in 
 the first than in the second; for men's thought-life is 
 a more baffling field of culture than is that less com- 
 plex social life which we now call the church. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. 
 
 Another question on which there has been much 
 dispute is as to whether English should be taught at 
 (21) 
 
322 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 all in mission schools? and if so, how soon? and how 
 extensively? But so far as I know, no one, not even 
 Dr. Anderson, has ever claimed that a time would 
 never come when it could be properly taught; and 
 so the question narrows itself down to two, namely: 
 How soon shall English be taught? and how exten- 
 sively? 
 
 As to the first of these questions, (How soon?) 
 Mr. Wheeler, in common with Dr. Anderson, was of 
 the opinion that much harm had been done in the 
 various missions of the Board by introducing English 
 too soon; and thus rousing great political and finan- 
 cial ambitions before the religious tone of the com- 
 munity was strong enough to prevent such ambi- 
 tions from working needless disaster to individuals, 
 and a great scarcity of wide-awake religious leaders 
 for the community. 
 
 Hence in all the earlier years of his missionary 
 life he was a persistent opponent of the teaching of 
 English in mission schools in Turkey. 
 
 But when at last the religious work was well estab- 
 lished, and he found himself surrounded by a goodly 
 number of vigorous, earnest churches, and saw the 
 community well impregnated with Christian senti- 
 ment and Christian ideals, then he consented to 
 gratify the natural though dangerous craving for 
 English, which till then he had firmly resisted and 
 postponed as something untimely and premature. 
 Though even in later years he was sometimes tempt- 
 ed to feel that he had acted too hastily and yielded 
 too much; though probably the real trouble was not 
 that he had introduced the study of English too 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 323 
 
 soon or too extensively, but only that the net-work 
 of moral safeguards with which he surrounded each 
 pupil's life had not been quite complete and varied 
 enough. 
 
 But, if, after so many years of purely gospel work 
 and gospel success, the introduction of English well 
 nigh turned the heads of the whole community, 
 pray what would it have done if introduced earlier? 
 It would have well nigh blighted the spiritual work 
 which it was meant to strengthen. — So at least 
 claimed Mr. Wheeler; and pointed, with rather con- 
 vincing directness, to the very small spiritual har- 
 vest in many another field where higher education 
 and English had been given a prominent place, when 
 as yet there was no strong Christian public sentiment 
 to control it. 
 
 And if any one were to undertake privately the 
 disagreeable task of making a careful statistical com- 
 parison of the work done by missionaries who give 
 education a front seat with those who only allow it 
 a back seat, and even then only on good behavior, 
 we believe that the results would be a vindication of 
 Dr. Wheeler's views. For both numerically, and in 
 spiritual depth and vigor, the advantage would be 
 found to be nearly always on the side of those who 
 look on much book-learning as a dangerous thing, 
 unfit for babes in Christ, and doubly dangerous for 
 such as know Him not at all. 
 
 But such comparisons would not be edifying, if 
 put in print; for they would in most cases arouse too 
 much bitter discussion of questions of mere detail 
 and personal competence. 
 
324 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Arguments Pro and Con. 
 
 And yet, as long as one of the earliest and ablest 
 and most successful champions ot that policy which 
 gives English and Science and Literature a promi- 
 nent place in early missionary work has recently 
 come forward and publicly attacked Dr. Anderson 
 and his educational policy, a brief examination of 
 his arguments will not be out of place. 
 
 First of all then, he claims* that "the wants and 
 capacities of the mind" call for a freer impartation 
 of knowledge than Dr. Anderson favored. To which 
 Mr. Wheeler used to reply that these so called wants 
 are often wholly morbid and unhealthy, and need 
 restraining rather than gratifying; and that so called 
 knowledge which unbalances a man's moral equilib- 
 rium is surely a little above his present "capacities" 
 even though he come of a race destined in time to 
 rule the world. 
 
 Secondly, Dr. Hamlin argues that Dr. Anderson's 
 policy would "make Protestant pastors inferior every- 
 where to Jesuit missionaries, who all speak foreign 
 languages and have the Papal history of the church 
 by heart." 
 
 To which Dr. Wheeler would have replied. If you 
 cannot defeat the Jesuits without acquiring that shal- 
 low, unbalanced polish for which they are so justly 
 infamous and pitiable in spite of their learning, or 
 rather because of it, then you better not try to defeat 
 them at all; for in a contest of mere polish and 
 learning, a dishonest and tricky man will nearly 
 
 ***My Life and Times," by Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., page 414. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 325 
 
 always get the advantage; but a clear head and a 
 true heart will worst him de facto, even if not in 
 argument; as our experience at Harpoot abundantly 
 illustrates. So that what we first need and most 
 need is men who are well pruned and thoroughly 
 waked up, rather than well stuffed with learning. 
 
 But, thirdly. Dr. Hamlin argues that Dr. Ander- 
 son's policy caused 'great and general dissatisfaction 
 in the Armenian Protestant community and a cessa- 
 tion of heartfelt cooperation.' To which Mr. Wheeler 
 used to reply with searching directness. Well, no 
 wonder, since you have once started them on the 
 wrong track and given them a taste of that most 
 dangerous of intoxicants, undigested learning; and 
 furthermore he used to point out the fact that the 
 discontent was least and the heartfelt co-operation most in 
 those parts of Turkey where Dr. Anderson s policy was 
 ?nost strictly enforced. Surely such facts as these 
 count. 
 
 And as to the "untold mischief" wrought by Dr. 
 Anderson's "revolutionary system," Mr. Wheeler 
 would have remarked that the pricking of puff balls 
 and blisters is hardly "untold mischief;" and that 
 substituting the more essentials of character for the 
 less essentials of mere excessive learning is hardly 
 "taking the back track in education." 
 
 Nor is it fair to speak of a system as having "ut- 
 terly broken down and passed off the stage," be- 
 cause at last some of our leading missions have 
 passed the stage of childhood and need the higher 
 education and the English which at an earlier stage 
 would only have underminded their vitality. 
 
326 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And yet these two men, (Dr. Hamlin and Dr. 
 Wheeler,) who disagreed so sharply on a fundamen- 
 tal matter of mission policy, were personally the 
 warmest and most congenial of friends; and it is 
 beautiful to remember how all through the years, 
 even down to old age, each strengthened and sup- 
 ported the other in the Many Things on which 
 they could agree. 
 
 THE AMERICAN FEVER. 
 
 But, as has already been implied, even after such 
 careful foundation laying, higher education at Har- 
 poot brought with it some serious disappointments 
 and drawbacks. Let us look at some of these. 
 
 Perhaps first and foremost of them all in promi- 
 nence, though not in importance, is the American 
 fever, which soon broke out and continued to increase 
 as the years went by; or in other words, a more and 
 more abundant exodus of wide-awake young and 
 middle-aged men and women, but especially the for- 
 mer, to the land of promise, called America. 
 
 But why call this a disappointment? Because it 
 has for a while at least greatly reduced the number 
 of wide-awake leaders and workers in the various 
 local communities, and even produced a slight, ac- 
 tual falling off in the number of available pastors, 
 preachers, and teachers in the Harpoot field, the 
 scarcity being more marked and unfortunate in the 
 higher offices than in the lower. 
 
 So that for a long period of years it has been true 
 that new openings could seldom be thought of; the 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 327 
 
 local churches and the missionaries having all they 
 could possibly do to barely hold the positions which 
 they had already taken. Surely this was disappoint- 
 ing; and probably showed that even at Harpoot the 
 secret of a thoroughly well balanced higher educa- 
 tion had not yet been fully grasped. 
 
 And yet, on closer examination, we shall find that 
 this great exodus was not wholly bad for the local 
 churches, as Mr. Wheeler and his colleagues were 
 often tempted to think; but rather a very crude and 
 faulty good thing. 
 
 For after a while some of these young men came 
 back to be earnest, quiet leaders in their own com- 
 munities, as merchants, doctors, teachers and pas- 
 tors; though many never returned; while still others 
 returned only to be a curse and a stumbling block 
 to all who came under their influence. 
 
 But perhaps a more important, though unnoticed 
 gain was that missionaries and churches alike were 
 saved from the temptation to mistake too rapid 
 growth for healthy growth, and were forced to spend 
 their energies in deepenmg and perfecting the work al- 
 ready, done, instead of simply adding to it. So that in 
 God's providence what seemed to be a set-back 
 proved to be a blessing, though not one without 
 some incidental drawbacks and a great deal of pain. 
 
 For undoubtedly the exodus to America was ex- 
 cessive, and brought with it much temporary pain 
 and loss, which ought, if possible, to have been 
 averted; and can be averted in other lands, as the 
 best methods of introducing higher education come 
 to be more clearly understood. 
 
328 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Goin^ to Europe or America for an Education. 
 
 Here too mention should be made of the problem 
 of going abroad for an education; which may be 
 stated thus, "Shall young men in mission lands be 
 encouraged to come to Europe or America for an 
 education?" To which Mr. Wheeler replied with a 
 most emphatic "No;" except in evidently excep- 
 tional cases. 
 
 For experience shows that such foreign educated 
 young men seldom come back to do any sort of 
 missionary work for their own people; and even 
 when they do come back, are apt to be all out of 
 sympathy with the deeper needs of their nation; 
 and simply eager to advance them rapidly in worldly 
 prosperity regardless of anything deeper and more 
 lasting. 
 
 And furthermore it has been found that every 
 man, picked up and educated by some kind but 
 short-sighted friend in England or America, soon 
 plants the seeds of restlessness and discontent in 
 the hearts of at least five or ten more, each of whom 
 hopes that, if he can somehow get to America, he 
 too will find some friend to shoulder him and give 
 him an education. And so it comes to pass that 
 two or three thousand dollars a year invested in edu- 
 cating "ten promising young men" in America plants 
 discontent in the hearts of some fifty or a hundred 
 others; and finally, in the course of five or six years, 
 turns out just one or two good workers for Christ, at a 
 total cost of ten or twelve thousand dollars, and 
 sometimes not even as many as that. Surely this 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 329 
 
 is not economy; but the blindest sort of short-sighted 
 charity; except in those evidently exceptional cases 
 of which a few are on record, and most noticeably 
 that of Joseph Nesima. 
 
 But says some one, Are not young men from China 
 and Japan and Turkey entitled to the privileges and 
 scholarships of our American colleges? Yes, most 
 certainly they are, if they can get them on their 
 merits for scholarship and not simply because they 
 come from a foreign land and are willing to make 
 big promises as to what they are going to do in the 
 future, when they once get a costly education. For 
 nowhere on the surface of the globe does the pru- 
 dent encouragement of real merit do any harm to 
 anyone; for the lazy ones know they can never at- 
 tain to such honors by mere luck; and the indus- 
 trious know that even they can attain to them only 
 by hard and faithful service in lesser fields. 
 
 RAISING UP MINISTERS. 
 
 Another disappointment, implied above, but wor- 
 thy of more special mention, was the fact that not 
 very many relatively of the graduates of Euphrates 
 College ever entered the Christian ministry; where- 
 as Mr. Wheeler had secretly hoped that a great 
 many would make that their first choice. 
 
 But at this distance of space and time, with a 
 massacre in between, we are unable to furnish any 
 satisfactory statistics on this important point. And 
 furthermore some years ago, when we might easily 
 have collected such statistics, it hardly seemed worth 
 while, for two reasons; firstly, that while few college 
 
330 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 seniors were entering the Christian ministry, there 
 were quite a goodly number from the lower classes 
 who were turning aside from literature and general 
 science to enter the humbler but higher calling of 
 the ministry; justly feeling that for most of them so 
 much general science and learning would hardly be 
 necessary, or even helpful, just at present; for a 
 good minister instinctively feels that he must not 
 get his head too full of miscellaneous learning, but 
 rather turn to the study of life in the concrete, just 
 as soon as he has got his powers fairly under control. 
 
 TRAINING CHRISTIAN LAYMEN. 
 
 And secondly, when you find that a boy is not in- 
 clined to be a professional reformer of men, or at 
 least cannot be a good one, it is surely better to 
 make a first-class Christian merchant or teacher of 
 him, rather than let him go on unaided and be a 
 second rate unchristian merchant, or a fourth rate 
 unchristian nothing. And yet this was just what 
 Mr. Wheeler was doing; he was seizing the restless 
 young minds around him, and making fine Christian 
 men of most of them, — teachers, merchants, doc- 
 tors, lawyers, etc. — even though he did not succeed 
 in imbuing most of them with that higher Christian 
 enthusiasm and heroism of which his own life was 
 so full; but which is not any too common even in 
 Christian America. It is then hardly to be won- 
 dered at that even so earnest a man as Mr. Wheeler 
 did not see more of it in a land just waking from 
 centuries of ignorance and oppression. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 331 
 
 And yet in single souls, one here and one there, 
 both among his graduates and among undergradu- 
 ates, and all through the churches, which he and his 
 colleagues had planted, there did burn the light of 
 purest heroism; as was seen very plainly when the 
 massacres came, and as was seen in less striking, 
 but more conclusive ways, in all the long years be- 
 fore and since that sad event. 
 
 MAKING PROMOTION CONDITIONAL ON 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 And yet it is probably true that if he had stub- 
 bornly refused promotion to certain students, who 
 passed good examinations in mere abstractions, but 
 were stubbornly blind to the deeper lessons of life 
 and duty, and of that school, and had said to them, 
 "This institution must be a Christian school; and we 
 wish no blind men in its higher grades; and none 
 even in the lower grades who are not willing to be 
 cured of their blindness" — it is probable, I say, that 
 if he had taken such ground as this, even with such 
 drawbacks as he had to face, he might have seen 
 twice yea thrice as many of his pupils entering some 
 form of directly, intensely soul-saving work. 
 
 For a very few lumps of ice will strangely cool off 
 a wholeclassroom of warmer-hearted men; and it was 
 sad to see how often some respectable and so called 
 ••moral" but loveless and heartless self-seeker did 
 thus cool off some of the higher classes by his chill- 
 ing and deadening presence. Surely this was kind- 
 ness misplaced; for it did not save the wolf, but did 
 greatly injure the lambs; and yet even these wolves 
 
332 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 in sheep's clothing were so closely watched, and so 
 diligently persecuted with truth and kindness, that 
 even they did far less harm than they might other- 
 wise have done; so that, in spite of them, the results 
 were large and cheering. But how much larger 
 they might have been without them. 
 
 And doubtless, even in our American colleges, a 
 time will come when in the best of them some such 
 test of promotion will be required; so that a persis- 
 tently mean and selfish man can get no promotion 
 there; or even one who shows in the class room the 
 slightest tendency to argue in tricky, insincere and 
 unfair ways. 
 
 For no such man can ever be a power for good 
 among his fellows; and the less mere book learning 
 and polish he gets, with our help, the better; for he 
 will only use it in misleading others and ruining his 
 own soul.* And yet even such men and boys gen- 
 erally have a deeper, better life, and can ordinarily 
 be brought to terms, and made to change their ways, 
 when they once find that the lovely privileges of a 
 wide-awake social atmosphere cannot be shared, ex- 
 cept by a change of life. 
 
 EDUCATING THE PUBLIC. 
 
 But this college president of whom we have been 
 speaking was also a vigorous, magnetic and con- 
 vincing speaker; though relying more on the intense 
 truth and importance and clearness of what he said 
 
 ♦Only we should be careful to make the promotion really conditional on 
 character; and not on mere professions of any sort, of the sincerity of which 
 one's daily life does not give abundant and satisfactory evidence. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 333 
 
 than on any oratorical or rhetorical ornaments of 
 any sort. To this fact hundreds of audiences all 
 over the eastern and middle western states can tes- 
 tify; for he seems to have been a speaker whom it 
 was hard for men to forget, after once coming under 
 his spell. While in the distant Orient thousands 
 wondered at the man who could be so tender and 
 yet so stern; so earnest and yet so quiet; and so im- 
 posing in public and yet so easy to approach as 
 soon as he stepped down from the pulpit stairs; for 
 even boys and girls and timid oriental women seemed 
 never to be afraid of Mr. Wheeler, except when 
 they had a guilty and unrepentant conscience. 
 
 And he also loved to serve the good cause with 
 his pen; first by brief, nervous, pithy letters to pri- 
 vate persons, whom he thought he might in some 
 way help, especially to fellow missionaries in other 
 lands and to friends of the work in the home land, 
 these last often enclosing a circular letter, or report 
 of work done, in addition to some things more per- 
 sonal. Then next, he and his good wife loved to 
 to write newsy, tell-tale and frequent letters for the 
 papers in the home land; thus helping to keep their 
 friends in sympathy with the work abroad, and also 
 helping to keep their own hearts in closer sympathy 
 with the home churches.* 
 
 And, lastly, he and his wife loved to write books, 
 having between them sent out seven books about 
 Turkey and six books for Turkey, each of which, in 
 
 *But this gift of easy, rapid, newsy letter writing is one in which some 
 good missionaries are emphatically lacking; and we should be careful not to 
 expect it of them, if we wish them to do really good work, free from exces- 
 sive and useless wear. 
 
334 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 its day, was widely read, though some of them are 
 now out of print. The list is as follows: 
 
 Ten Years on the Euphrates; or Primitive Mission- 
 ary Policy Illustrated. American Tract Soci- 
 ety, 1868. 
 
 Letters from Eden; or Reminiscences of Mission- 
 ary Life in the East. American Tract Society, 1868. 
 
 Grace Illustrated; or A Bouquet from our Mission- 
 ary Garden (by Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler). Congre- 
 gational Publishing Society, 1876. 
 
 Little Children in Eden, 1876. 
 
 Odds and Ends; or Gleanings from Missionary 
 Life. Congregational Publishing Society, 1888. 
 
 Daughters of Armenia (by Mrs. Wheeler); Amer- 
 ican Tract Society, 1876. 
 
 Missions in Eden; by Mrs. Wheeler, 1898. Flem- 
 ing H. Revell & Co. 
 
 Commentary on Matthew, in Armenian. 
 
 Book of Simple Prayers for Home Use (and for 
 those who feel that they don't know what to say), 
 in Armenian. 
 
 Simple Catechism for Children, in Armenian; 
 printed on his own press at Harpoot. Very popular 
 and widely scattered even among Gregorians. 
 
 And finally several text books for use in the pre- 
 paratory departments of Euphrates College, though 
 also widely used elsewhere. 
 
 Besides which Mr. Wheeler was also the responsi- 
 ble publisher or financial manager of a very large 
 edition of a beautiful Armenian Primer, edited by 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 335 
 
 Miss Maria West; and of an Armenian translation 
 of Dr. Goodell's sermons, first published in Turkish. 
 
 REASONS FOR WRITING THIS BOOK. 
 
 But, says some one, how happens it that the views 
 of mission policy here explained differ in some re- 
 spects from those published in "Ten Years on the 
 Euphrates," and are at so many points more com- 
 plete than those there given? The answer is that 
 that work, as its name implies, covers the experi- 
 ence of only ten years of missionary service, while 
 this covers forty; that that was written at almost 
 fever heat by a man who realized but dimly how 
 revolutionary and far-reaching were the reforms he 
 was advocating; and thirdly, "Ten Years" was writ- 
 ten by a man who had such a curiously excessive 
 confidence in the power of mere "common-sense" 
 to guide men aright, and such an excessive distrust 
 in his own wisdom that he failed to mention, or at 
 least to properly emphasize, many vital points of 
 detail which had contributed markedly to his own 
 success, and to that of his missionary colleagues at 
 Harpoot. 
 
 And furthermore, as a pioneer work in a new and 
 untried field of thought, it quite often misrepre- 
 sented the writer's own real views and methods, 
 making him seem a more one-sided and severe man 
 than he really was. For, in his intense eagerness to 
 convince men of those parts of his life's message 
 which had been oftenest challenged and misunder- 
 stood, he failed to mention clearly and often enough 
 
336 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 those deeper, but less distinctive parts, in which his 
 own methods and aims resembled those of other 
 men. 
 
 And the same was true of his more public con- 
 versational utterances on these themes; they were 
 nearly always called forth in the heat of debate, and 
 misrepresented the man, as he really was in daily 
 life. For had he not had a deep and earnest and 
 tender Christian life, the mere preaching of self-sup- 
 port would never have given him such wonderful 
 influence over both men and churches. 
 
 But in private conversation at home, and with 
 congenial friends outside, the fullness of his thought 
 came out in a more symmetrical form; so that with 
 the help of such conversations, and a careful study 
 of the things he did, (since actions speak louder 
 than words,) we have tried to give the more com- 
 plete picture of his thoughts and plans, which he 
 himself was too self-distrustful and hurried to give. 
 
 MR. WHEELER AS AN ADVISER OF INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 Nor will our picture of Mr. Wheeler's educational 
 policy be complete till we have glanced briefly at 
 his achievements as an adviser of individuals, to see 
 how far he excelled in this important branch of 
 Christian activity, which is doubtless destined in 
 time to become a distinct profession, wholly apart 
 from that of the public ministry. 
 
 Well, as for himself, he considered that he had no 
 gifts at all in this line, as will be seen from the fol- 
 lowing remarks taken down almost word for word 
 at a time when we happened to be discussing that 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 337 
 
 exceedingly instructive and suggestive book, Boyd's 
 "Life of Philip Doddridge;" published by the 
 American Tract Society. Said he: 'Doddridge 
 had a skill in influencing men which I have never 
 had; for the power to wisely prescribe for individu- 
 als, as he did, and the power to simply state general 
 principles as I do, are two very different gifts; and 
 so I have always avoided attempting to minutely 
 guide individuals, fearing that I might do more harm 
 by it than good.'* 
 
 And yet the very skill with which he ordinarily 
 knew what general principles to give, and what ones 
 to leave out, did in reality mark him as a master 
 hand at advice-giving, the very art which he claimed 
 that he did not understand. For surely a skilful 
 advice-giver must be one who can accomplish his 
 purpose and get men on the right track, without 
 saying very much, and without ignoring the ability 
 of his hearer to make the final decision for himself. 
 — And Mr. Wheeler's whole life was full of just such 
 words as these, words meant to cheer or save some 
 single soul in need. 
 
 MR. WHEELER AS AN EDUCATOR. 
 
 And when in years to come the art of helping 
 individual souls in trouble comes to be more fully 
 understood, and more skilfully practiced, than it is 
 today, I believe that his name will stand high among 
 the number of those who laid the foundations for 
 this new subdivision of ministerial work. 
 
 ♦From a conversation held January 5, 1890. 
 
 (22) 
 
338 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 True, he sometimes failed to state his general 
 principles simply enough, and often assumed that 
 they were clearer and easier to understand and apply 
 than they really were; and yet no one in trouble 
 could meet that off-hand, tender and rough mis- 
 sionary, without feeling a deeper love for truth, 
 and a stronger longing to find and catch it some- 
 how; and such a longing is never in vain; and to 
 some souls it is almost a guarantee of success, so 
 strong is the inspiration that it brings. 
 
 And hence it is that we feel compelled to rank 
 him high as a teacher of individual men; though we 
 still feel that in his power to lead and organize 
 masses of men lay the greatest secret of his life's 
 success, and the most lasting memorial of his use- 
 fulness. 
 
 As a teacher he was great, exceptionally so; and 
 yet it was the greatness of one who had an ill-dis- 
 guised contempt for much of the'work he was com- 
 pelled to do. But as an organizer, as a founder of 
 churches and a student of social methods he was at 
 his best, and towered like a giant above most men, 
 though he himself knew is not. For he often won- 
 dered why others could not see some things as 
 clearly as he saw them. 
 
 But now that he has seen them, and made them 
 plain, we believe that many another man will be 
 able to carry on the work which he began. Though 
 curiously enough about all he accomplished dur- 
 ing the first twenty or thirty years of his teaching 
 was to get a great many missionaries to admit that 
 his theories were correct, though they could not see 
 
THE FOUNDING OF COLLEGES. 339 
 
 how they were ever to be worked out practically 
 anywhere outside of Harpoot ! But fortunately that 
 day is slowly passing away; and from simply talk- 
 ing about self-support and the best methods of 
 higher education ideally, men are beginning to ac- 
 tually put them in practice; and so the good work 
 goes on. 
 
 A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 
 
 But the question still arises, May not a time come 
 when higher education (Astronomy, Physics, Law, 
 Philosophy and Languages) will prepare the way 
 for the gospel m many a heathen community? Yes, 
 most assuredly; but not till our schools of learning 
 are themselves pervaded from top to bottom with a 
 Controlling Christian atmosphere. But to get 
 and maintain such an atmosphere, even in a Chris- 
 tian community, requires no small amount of genius; 
 and to do it in a college, unsupported by Christian 
 surroundings, would indeed require the rarest of 
 gifts and far more skill in teaching than any one yet 
 possesses. 
 
 A SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY. 
 
 But, said a critic from India, if we do not offer 
 our young men the best sort of a general education, 
 scientific and literary, without much regard to char- 
 acter, (so long as they are not openly immoral) we 
 shall lose many of our best men, and simply cripple 
 our work. To which Mr. Wheeler was wont to 
 reply, Your practically godless college will really 
 cripple your work far more than the loss of any 
 
340 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 number of promising young students. For these 
 very students, with their undigestible learning, will 
 be its worst enemies and hindrances. And, secondly, 
 you will not lose your best men; but simply your 
 smartest and most merely tonguey ones; for the 
 really strongest men, those best able to win and up- 
 lift their fellows, will stick by you, if your humbler 
 school is full of that energy and accuracy and in- 
 sight and love which is so intensely attractive to 
 true and healthy natures, and so uplifting to those 
 who are only half true. 
 
 And right here came in the beautiful consistency 
 of the man in all his deeper thought; for while to 
 the very last he opposed higher education wherever 
 and whenever it came in too soon, or in unhealthy 
 and misleading forms, still he himself was one of its 
 wisest champions whenever it could come in so as 
 to really be a help; his own mistakes being generally 
 those of incompleteness rather than untrueness. So 
 that even those features of his work which we are 
 compelled to criticise become the suggestive start- 
 ing point for others which are more complete. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 
 
 But Mr. Wheeler was also a champion of female 
 education; and in common with his colleagues, male 
 and female, worked so earnestly for the advance- 
 ment of this important branch of missionary work, 
 that no account of his life would be complete with- 
 out a mention of it; though we need not repeat points 
 already spoken of, except when some new light is 
 thrown on them by the female department; and 
 would also remind the reader that this chapter is 
 simply a record of things which Mr. Wheeler helped 
 in doing, rather than a record of those in which he 
 was in any sense a leader or chief originator of the 
 plans adopted. 
 
 Yet in giving a true and helpful picture of educa- 
 tional work at Harpoot, and of the policy there fol- 
 lowed, it supplies a most important link; for even 
 here the definiteness of plan and aim and the insist- 
 ence on self-support which we have seen elsewhere 
 stand out clearly, both in the early history of the 
 ''Female Seminary," so called, and in the later his- 
 tory of the "Female Department of Euphrates Col- 
 lege." Let us then take a brief glance at each of 
 these, and also at the still wider "work for women" 
 of which they were only a part. 
 
 341 
 
342 SELF-SUPPQRTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Learning How to Pray. 
 
 Going back then to the earliest days of the mis- 
 sion, we find the missionaries firmly insisting that 
 women had souls, and that a woman's soul was worth 
 as much as a man's; for both points were disputed, the 
 second being disputed by not a few even in Chris- 
 tian America. And even when these points were 
 theoretically admitted, the men thought nothing of 
 crowding the women out of their half, or rather third 
 of the church, till one day Mr. Wheeler arose in his 
 wrath and put down a pole to divide off the women's 
 section; and let it be known that he should insist on 
 the men staying to the right side of that pole, that 
 the women might have a fair chance on the left, and 
 just as good seats as the men had. 
 
 For oriental etiquette said that none but elderly 
 women need go to church anyway; and that even 
 these should sit way off in the back part of the 
 church, or if possible in a gallery by themselves. 
 
 "But young women ought to stay at home and 
 take care of the children." Oh no, said the mis- 
 sionaries, bring them all to church; letting the older 
 children sit up front under the speaker's charming 
 eye, and the younger ones side of their mothers or 
 fathers, which ever happens to know best how to 
 keep them quiet; and, if the baby cries, simply sit a 
 little nearer the door, so that you can take it out 
 occasionally ! And so in many of the churches the 
 children's circle around the pulpit, and the babies* 
 circle around the door, were very noticeable fea- 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 343 
 
 tures, and helpful ones, even though some of the 
 little ones fell fast asleep and dreamt of heaven in- 
 stead of singing of it. 
 
 LEARNING TO READ. 
 
 But women and girls should also learn to read 
 said the missionaries ! Whereat even the women 
 themselves stared in incredulous amazement. But 
 when they found that missionary ladies who could 
 not even talk Armenian could read it,* and that 
 some of the more plucky of their own number had 
 actually learned to read, and seemed to enjoy it 
 hugely, and make better wives and daughters, in- 
 stead of worse ones, the tide slowly turned in favor 
 of female education of a very elementary sort. 
 
 Though in one community the turning came in a 
 rather unexpected way. For when the brethren at 
 Palu found that the missionary rebuked them for 
 not getting their wives to come with them to church, 
 and also to learn to read, they went home and 
 whipped them to make them obey and come! so that 
 next time the missionary visited that place, he found 
 the women all in their places, and really quite zeal- 
 ous in learning to read ! Surely this was an oriental 
 way of doing it, and one at which Mr. Wheeler was 
 quite shocked; though he sometimes laughingly re- 
 marked that even in Christian America it might be 
 better if husbands and wives would sometimes thus 
 punish each other, (only without using the sticks.) 
 
 *The first girls' school in that whole region was one taught by Mrs. 
 Wheeler, before she herself could do much at talking the language. 
 
344 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 Here also mention should be made of a device, 
 quite often resorted to in early times, which was to 
 send out enterprising children from the schools to 
 give short reading lessons to many mothers and 
 older sisters, who could not get courage or time to 
 come to school themselves, but still did want to 
 learn something; though, as the work advanced, 
 these wide-awake little teachers seem unfortunately 
 to have been almost wholly displaced by Bible 
 women, instead of being simply supplemented and 
 superintended hy them. 
 
 TRAINING PREACHERS' WIVES. 
 
 But ere long another want was felt, namely that 
 of a class for preachers' wives; for in the orient, even 
 as in the Occident, every preacher's wife is either a 
 drag on his usefulness or a help in increasing that 
 usefulness; and the missionaries soon realized that a 
 heavy, sleepy and utterly ignorant wife would be a 
 serious drawback to the young middle-aged men 
 whom they were selecting and training as pioneer 
 preachers and pastors. 
 
 Hence arose the Female Seminary, or class for 
 preachers' wives, and for others definitely pledged 
 to devote themselves for a season or else for life to 
 some sort of work for others, either as teachers or 
 as pastors' and teachers' wives; for the time had not 
 yet come when even the most devout would consent 
 without a struggle to let their children marry a wan- 
 dering and homeless preacher of the glad tidings of 
 Christ. But thus pledged to serve the Lord actively 
 in some way^ in token of gratitude, many ere long 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 345 
 
 made up their minds to let their daughters marry 
 these dreaded preachers; till at last, preachers be- 
 came almost too popular in the matrimonial world, 
 and were offered wives from even the most worldly- 
 families. But fortunately they were generally wise 
 enough to refuse them; for the careful training which 
 brought them honor had also brought them wisdom. 
 
 BEING CAREFUL NOT TO ADMIT TOO MANY 
 PUPILS AT FIRST. 
 
 But the objects for which the Female Seminary, 
 so called, was founded were not exhausted by a 
 mere wish to raise up better preachers' wives; for 
 another purpose, namely the uplifting of that whole 
 people's ideals of manhood and womanhood also lay 
 back of it. 
 
 But realizing that this is a thing which can be 
 done only by example, and not by mere numbers, 
 the missionaries were careful not to admit too many 
 prospective mothers to their school; realizing that a 
 few choice and really lovely mothers could do more 
 good by their example and influence than a much 
 larger number chosen less carefully. 
 
 Hence admission to the Female Seminary (whose 
 pupils were none of them as yet wholly self-support- 
 ing) was a privilege offered to but few, outside of 
 the class spoken of above; and soon taken away 
 even from these lucky ones, if they proved incapable 
 of entering into the real spirit of the school. And 
 right here we find one of the most important lessons 
 to be learned from the early history of female edu- 
 
346 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 cation at Harpoot; for even as sixty or seventy 
 years ago there was a mania for educating thousands 
 of boys free, at the Board's expense, so now we are 
 in danger of falling into a similar wholesale educa- 
 tion of girls at the expense of the good women of 
 England and America, hoping thus to do much 
 good; but forgetting that truth, like corn and flowers, 
 should not be scattered at random, but rather planted 
 for the most part in some field, in which we and our 
 under-Ieaders can probably keep down the weeds 
 fairly well, as the months and years go by. 
 
 For the world at large can never be blessed by 
 our corn planting or truth planting until they are 
 willing to join v/ith us in the hard work of keeping 
 down the weeds, wherever the corn is planted. 
 
 And so what seemed the hard-hearted folly of the 
 missionaries in turning away so many poor girls 
 whose fathers were worldly and stingy, and still 
 others who were too young to make good teachers, 
 or too dull to make good leaders among their sex, 
 enabled them to do deeper and better work, and at 
 last wake up the hungry outsiders to really weeding 
 and cultivating their own homes and lives more dili- 
 gently in hopes of some day sending some of their 
 choicest to that wonderful school on the hill. 
 
 For as soon as it was noised abroad that a miser's 
 daughter could not get in there, and that even a 
 generous man's daughter could not get in, if she 
 were lazy or self-seeking; but that even the poorest 
 could get in somehow, if their outside privileges had 
 been well used; — when these things became known, 
 there arose a wide-spread passion for better homes 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 347 
 
 and better girLs, and better girls' schools and girls' 
 corners in boys' schools; so that instead of having 
 forty or fifty girls, studying at Harpoot at American 
 expense, to go out and simply become helpless 
 brides in unchristian homes, there were in the course 
 of a very few years thousands of homes, all over that 
 wide field, competing for the honor of raising up a 
 daughter worthy of admission to the school where 
 only choice girls could ever go, and girls whose 
 fathers and mothers appreciated a good education 
 well enough to do all they could toward paying for 
 it and giving their girl a good chance to use it after- 
 wards. 
 
 So that by a persistent limiting of their numbers 
 at first, they finally reached and thoroughly roused 
 at least ten or twenty times as many girls and 
 mothers and fathers as they could possibly have 
 reached by starting in on a larger scale, and making 
 the terms of admission easier than they did. 
 
 And in comparing different schools, this same 
 fact will be often illustrated; for it will be found 
 that the ones which have the fewest pupils are often 
 doing the most good, because a larger proportion of 
 their pupils become leaders in the commmtity after grad- 
 uation', the test being not, "How many nice, Chris- 
 tian girls are there in this school?" but, "How many 
 pupils are there here who are by nature fitted to be- 
 come leaders in some form of active Christian work? 
 and are definitely preparing for such leaderships — 
 and a hundred dollars spent in training and support- 
 ing Bible women or pastors' wives will do far more 
 good than the same amount of money spent in sup- 
 
348 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 porting and training a lot of nice girls in school, 
 who have no idea of ever becoming leaders, and 
 might be helped at far less cost in their own homes 
 and by women of their own race. Though even 
 men, women and girls not all fit for leadership 
 might, with propriety, be welcomed to our station 
 classes for laymen provided they were willing to 
 bring with them food enough to pay their board 
 while there. For then even one week's outing 
 would bring a life-long blessing, without lessening 
 in the least that spirit of self-denial and self-reliance 
 without which our native churches and native Chris- 
 tians can never be strong and healthy.* 
 
 RAISING UP CHRISTIAN TEACHERS. 
 
 But, as the years went by, a time came when 
 preachers' wives no longer needed to go to school 
 to study reading, writing and geography, for the 
 younger generation of preachers were able to get 
 wives who had learned all these things before; and 
 the number of married women in the school steadily 
 decreased. But meanwhile, the demand for young 
 lady teachers had steadily increased; so that gradu- 
 ally the school became more and more markedly a 
 normal school, for raising up young-lady teachers, 
 most of whom could never become pastors' and 
 preachers' wives; for there were not enough pastors 
 and preachers to marry them. 
 
 *But, strange to say, there are some cases on record where the members 
 of these station classes, male and female, though supported by the mission^ 
 were not even professing Christians! Surely a strangely unprofitable use of 
 mission money, and altogether too costly and pauperizing a -way to get a 
 few converts : even when the studies taught are so simple as not to have 
 any intoxicating or demoralizing effect, of the sort spoken of elsewhere. 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 349 
 
 This naturally brought with it many minor chang- 
 es; and most marked of all an increase in the num- 
 ber of pupils whom the missionaries were willing to 
 admit, and could admit without any lowering of 
 their standards as to character, intelligence and self- 
 support. 
 
 Side by side of this increase in numbers, also 
 came a marked advance in general scholarship, and 
 in courses of study; for many of these young women 
 knew more on entering the school than did some of 
 their predecessors on leaving it. But the spirit of 
 the school remained the same, and also its immedi- 
 ate purpose, namely, to raise up Christian work- 
 ers, few being as yet admitted who did not expect 
 to enter upon some form of active Christian service, 
 for a while at least, though many would of course 
 ultimately settle down into private life as farmers' 
 wives, merchants' wives, etc. 
 
 OPENING THE DOORS STILL WIDER. 
 
 But as the benefits of female education came to 
 be more widely felt, and the people became more 
 and more willing to carefully train their daughters at 
 home and pay their bills at school, the missionaries 
 felt that at last the time had come to open their 
 doors still more widely, and say that any girl of 
 good character might come at her father s expense, 
 whether she ever expected to teach or not. 
 
 Nor were they inconsistent in thus opening the 
 doors more widely; for by keeping them partly shut 
 for so many years they had so changed public opinion 
 and the home life of thousands, that now at last a 
 
350 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 time had really come when a wide open door would 
 only help to make the impressionstill deeper. And 
 yet, in the interests of truth and for the sake of 
 giving still greater weight to the praises thus far 
 given, and to be given later on, we are compelled to 
 admit that, as in the boys' department, they proba- 
 bly did open the doors a little too wide; or rather 
 were not quite careful enough to quickly send out 
 again those who were too proud and stubborn to 
 cheerfully put on the wedding garment provided by 
 the King, (Matt. 22: 11 to 14,) by entering into 
 sympathy with the spirit of the school; since for 
 such as these the outer darkness is a better training 
 school, and one in which they cannot do as much 
 harm to others. And yet, in the main, this wider 
 opening of the gates to those who could pay their 
 own way was doubtless a good thing, even if it did 
 go a little too far. 
 
 A COLLEGE FOR GIRLS. 
 
 And so at last the "Female Seminary" became the 
 "Female Department of Euphrates College," open 
 to all who could pass its entrance examinations, 
 obey its rules and pay their bills; some pupils, even 
 coming from distant parts of Turkey to fit them- 
 selves to be assistant teachers in female seminaries 
 elsewhere; 1883 being the eventful year in which 
 the first class of young women, who ever graduated 
 from a college, in the interior of Turkey, went forth 
 to begin their life's work. 
 
 And it was Mr. Wheeler's privilege to have fur- 
 nished by the earnings of his press, and the plead- 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 351 
 
 ings of his pen and the sweating of his brow, the 
 beautiful group of buildings which for thirteen years 
 previous to the massacre served as the home for this 
 young women's college. 
 
 Nor did the young women all turn out mere old 
 maids as some said they would; the chief trouble 
 having always been that they could hardly keep 
 them "old maids" long enough to have this branch 
 of the college well supplied with teachers ! And 
 so intense was Mr. Wheeler's interest in this depart- 
 ment of the college, and so deep his respect for 
 womanhood that whenever he dropped into their 
 classes, (not as examiner* but as inspirer) he always 
 found a warm welcome; and the commencement 
 days, when as official head of the college he gave 
 their diplomas to these young women, were among 
 the most picturesque in his earnest life; for of all 
 the things which he had done, and helped to do, he 
 seemed to be proudest of this one, and to take in it 
 a more unalloyed satisfaction. 
 
 A MOTHER OF MANY CHILDREN. 
 
 Nor will the picture be complete without a brief 
 reference to Mrs. Wheeler's part in this same work; 
 for like most other missionary wives she took a deep 
 interest in almost everything that interested her 
 "better-half;" making up for her lack of interest in 
 some things by the greatness of her interest in 
 others. And so it came to pass that Mrs. Wheeler 
 was generally called "Mamma" all through the 
 schools (by both boys and girls); and with over five 
 
 ♦This was wholly left to the lady teachers from America. 
 
352 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 hundred children around her all the time, besides 
 hundreds who had gone away, hers was indeed a 
 busy life; for even dignified professors and young- 
 lady teachers sometimes like to have a "mother" to 
 whom they can go for occasional help and cheer. 
 
 But, as with other mothers, so with this one, paint 
 brushes, clothes-closets, medicine chests, keepsakes, 
 entertainments and even chastenings were important 
 helps in the work she did; giving to many an out of 
 the way corner a homelike turn which even the 
 saintliest of men or of unmarried women would have 
 been quite apt to overlook! 
 
 And in the boys' department, as well as the girls', 
 this enterprising mother took a hand occasionally 
 in teaching, being a most enthusiastic teacher of 
 Daniel and of general history; and even ot drawing 
 and painting, when an occasional pupil turned up 
 with a marked native talent for such studies. While 
 the boys' gymnastics (in earlier years) she taught 
 by first teaching her husband at home (I Cor. 14:35); 
 a comical illustration of the way in which in modern 
 life we have to add to Paul's command, "Obey your 
 husbands," the corresponding truth, "Obey your 
 wives," of which there was hardly ever any need of 
 Paul's speaking in the good old times of long ago. 
 
 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE SCHOOL. . 
 
 But turning now to the religious life of the Girls' 
 College, as distinguished from the Boys', we notice 
 first of all that personal work for individuals was 
 more prominent in the female department than in 
 the male. 
 
MRS. S. A. WHEELER. 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 353 
 
 Nor is this to be wondered at; for the peculiar in- 
 stincts of womanhood often give to women a taste 
 for personal religious work, and a skill in doing it, 
 which men are much more likely to lack. But 
 that does not excuse our utter masculine neglect of 
 such work; or at best our tendency to do it only 
 spasmodically and occasionally. For by persistent 
 effort, we can in more round-about ways influence 
 individual character just as strongly as women do; 
 though not quite as evidently, And the world 
 seems to be rapidly approaching a point where some 
 great dangers can be warded off only by a vast 
 amount of personal work in the moulding of souls 
 one by one. 
 
 In the female department we also find a pleasant 
 custom of having the girls from time to time report 
 privately some nice bit of good news about some- 
 body else; adding, if they choose, some piece of 
 like good news from their own lives. And though 
 we do not know how generally and systematically 
 this private reporting was practiced, we do know 
 that for some years there was a Good News Com- 
 mittee in the Junior Christian Endeavor Society, and 
 each girl on the committee seemed to enjoy very 
 much the weekly reporting to her teachers of the 
 good news items she had collected. 
 
 Here too we find missionary societies, founded by 
 Mrs. Wheeler and others, in each of the depart- 
 ments, raising money to be sent as a love token to 
 South Africa; while after the massacres South Africa 
 in turn sent back an offering for the use of the poor 
 
 (23) 
 
354 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 suffering ones at Harpoot. Thus illustrating strik- 
 ingly but simply the deepening and uplifting power 
 of that international love of which all true foreign 
 missionary work is an expression and a deepener. 
 For while even the friends of missions may at times 
 be narrow and uncharitable; this much is certain 
 that their love of missions makes them less narrow 
 than they would have been without it; and however 
 dogmatic some of them may be, they are never half 
 as narrow or dogmatic as are those who are hostile 
 to missions. 
 
 THE KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The Kindergarten department also deserves spe- 
 cial mention, serving as it does to uplift and change 
 the people's ideas of childhood and of play. — But 
 we feel compelled to point out one serious defect in 
 some of the details of this department; namely that 
 too many costly imported helps were used, of a sort 
 which no outside school and no private family could 
 ever dream of using; and, secondly, both here and 
 in some of the higher departments too many exer- 
 cises were introduced which only a trained Ameri- 
 can teacher could properly superintend. 
 
 This surely was a misfortune in a school all the 
 details of which should be so planned as to develop 
 and utilize native talent, and introduce methods of 
 teaching which any wide-awake pupil could turn 
 round and reproduce elsewhere, wherever he or she 
 might teach; besides needlessly increasing the cost 
 of the school to the American churches; for the 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 355 
 
 college endowment supported only the thirty native 
 teachers (male and female) and one American pres- 
 ident; but not the young lady teachers from 
 America. 
 
 Yet let no one suppose that we are here even by 
 implication, criticising the kindergartens of Japan; 
 for in Japan, as experience shows, the passion for 
 Western ideas is so great, and the general prosperity 
 of the people so much greater than in Turkey, that 
 even the most costly of our primary school helps 
 can be easily introduced there, as they cannot be 
 among the much poorer people of Turkey; and cir- 
 cumstances certainly alter cases; though in some 
 matters of higher education we do feel that Japan 
 too has erred, these errors accounting in part for 
 her recent backset. 
 
 Yet while criticising some of the class room meth- 
 ods of the girls' college at Harpoot, we are glad to 
 be able to report a most marked respect for the tra- 
 ditions of the country in most matters where poverty 
 or the natural, healthy, inevitable slowness of human 
 nature makes any sudden or great change impossi- 
 ble or dangerous; care being taken to insist strongly 
 only on such occidental improvements as even an 
 untrained oriental mind can quite easily recognize 
 as such,* (I Cor. 8:13.) 
 
 *An interesting feature of the dormitories, new to the writer, though not 
 original with Harpoot, is that every girl has a little dressing room (open at 
 the top) all to herself, for use in dressing and for prayer and solitude when 
 tired or lonely or cross; though economy, and a fear of unhtting them for 
 their crowded homes later on, necessitates the use or regular dormitories for 
 sleeping purposes. 
 
356 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 A Word as to Money Matters. 
 
 But in any large enterprise one of the first and 
 one of the last questions is, "Who shall pay the 
 bills?" and as we have shown elsewhere it is a ques- 
 tion of most far-reaching importance. 
 
 To this question, then, the Harpoot answer was: 
 "Either the girl herself or her friends should sooner 
 or later pay most of her bills in most cases," except- 
 ing of course the full cost of tuition in the higher 
 grades, which even in America is nearly always paid 
 in part by endowments. And we have seen in the 
 earlier parts of this chapter how by a careful exclu- 
 sion of covetous men's daughters and of those who 
 were not fitted for some form of active Christian ser- 
 vice, they gradually created the public opinion 
 which made this ideal of self-support a really feasi- 
 ble rule of practice. In speaking of the boys' col- 
 lege we have also given further hints. But there 
 still remain a few additional details, tested by long 
 experience and well worthy of mention. 
 
 One of these is that the missionaries early learned 
 that it is often easier for fathers and mothers to 
 give towels, shoes, stockings, home-made dresses, 
 soap, wheat, dried bread, bedding, etc., than to give 
 the money for all these.* 
 
 ♦And we are informed on good authority (The S. S. Times for August 26, 
 1899) that even in Oklahoma Territory a Sunday school was recently run one 
 whole year "on eggs;" when a year of inexperience, followed by a year of 
 drought, made money very scarce among the new settlers; though eggs were 
 plenty, and "almost anyone could spare one or two." For though there was 
 only one hat-full the first Sunday; there were four hats-full the next; and 
 from that time on the supply was steady and abundant; "many of the eggs 
 being sent or brought by people who had never been near the Sunday 
 school before." — Till at last money again became more plenty; and eggs 
 were no more needed. 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 357 
 
 Secondly, that dividing the year into several short 
 terms made it much easier for the poor and the 
 stingy, especially as in many cases they were 
 strongly advised not to send their daughters at first 
 more than one short term each year; with the un- 
 derstanding that on their home behavior during the 
 rest of the year would largely depend their coming 
 again or no.* 
 
 Thirdly, they were careful not to imitate too 
 closely those schools in which each girl is only made 
 to do on a hatefully large scale, some one kind of 
 domestic work in which she happens to be profi- 
 cient; and had instead "revolving circles," in which 
 each girl, with the help of others, older and young- 
 er, and of a teacher, would have a chance to do and 
 learn many different kinds of housework, thus making 
 the school one of which even a very illiterate moth- 
 er could more easily see and appreciate the results. 
 
 For the benefit of those who could not buy books, 
 there was also a Loaning Library of text books 
 from which books could be drawn by the poorer 
 scholars at very slight cost. A small circulating 
 library, free to all, also furnished the scholars with 
 suitable reading matter, outside of text books. 
 
 HOUSE TO HOUSE VISITATION. 
 
 But our "Glance at Female Education" would be 
 painfully incomplete without at least a brief men- 
 tion of that work of house to house visitation, mostly 
 among women and by women, which has, down 
 
 *Some schools have gone so far as to divide the board bill into monthly 
 installments; though we do not yet know with what success. 
 
358 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 through the years, been becoming a more and more 
 important element in missionary work the world 
 round; for in Harpoot, as elsewhere, this work has 
 come into more systematic prominence as the years 
 have gone by, there being now two unmarried lady 
 missionaries and a large number of native Bible 
 women who devote their strength almost wholly to 
 this work; whereas in earlier years it was only one 
 of the more important incidentals to be crowded in 
 after other work was done by the busy wives of 
 missionaries and pastors. 
 
 But while this is a proper place to emphasize the 
 importance of this kind of work, it would not be a 
 proper place to enter much into details in regard to 
 it; for both Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler's time was so 
 full of other forms of missionary work, that this 
 one was largely left to others, except in those earli- 
 er years when it had no special systematic signifi- 
 cance, except as an expression of good will and a 
 help in getting acquainted with the people. 
 
 And yet one highly pertinent remark we do re- 
 member to have heard Mr. Wheeler make, namely 
 that the women visited should in some way be set to 
 work for Christ; for very little good could come from 
 mere social calls, except in the very earliest stages of the 
 work. 
 
 We are also informed by Miss Bush, one of the 
 traveling lady missionaries, that even the house to 
 house Bible Reading Lessons, given to women at 
 their own homes, by "Bible women," so called, are 
 often paid for, in part, in wheat, bread, rice, stock- 
 ings, etc.; thus making even their Bible study more 
 
A GLANCE AT FEMALE EDUCATION. 359 
 
 helpful and more earnest than it would have been 
 had a teacher been offered them wholly free. — 
 While among the lessons given to their pupils it is 
 pleasant to notice the learning of hymns and Bible 
 verses and also friendly talks on questions of family 
 government and self-government. 
 
 And it is also pleasant to remember how in a 
 round-about way Mr. Wheeler did a great deal for 
 women and girls in the Harpoot field; for one of the 
 commonest questions which he pressed on the men 
 he met, was, "What are you doing for your family? 
 and why doesn't your wife come to the Hanum's 
 meeting?"* often getting them to promise that the 
 wife should come, if they could get her to, or should 
 learn to read, if she wanted to; and so on. 
 
 And generally she did come; for this strange 
 Badvelli's|| interest seemed to her a great compli- 
 ment, especially when she heard and saw what a 
 wonderful wife the badvelli had. 
 
 ♦Hanum means lady, and refers here to the missionary's wife. 
 llHonorable, i. e., missionary; used also for native pastors. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GROWING OLD AND GOING HOME. 
 
 BLESSINGS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 But at last old age came upon this active man, 
 that great change in life which we all so dread, and 
 yet without which life is often sadly incomplete. 
 But to him it seemed as though old age itself were 
 making it incomplete, and he longed with unutter- 
 able longing for "ten years more of service;" mean- 
 ing thereby such active service in touring and public 
 preaching as he had done in years gone by, especially 
 in the days of his youth. 
 
 But a kinder and more far-seeing providence said, 
 No; and gave him instead ten years more of slowly 
 increasing pain, by the side of which, unseen at first, 
 was a slowly deepening vein of greater usefulness 
 and peace than even he had known in his earlier 
 life. And he who in the intensity of his energy had 
 in years gone by defied Herod in his palace, and 
 robbers in their mountain fortresses, and raging fires 
 in the market place, became so weak that only with 
 an effort, and finally not at all, could he walk forth 
 from his own home; and it seemed to him that his 
 days of usefulness were o'er. 
 
 But lo a change crept over the face of the earth; 
 
 and many who in the years gone by had taken his 
 
 360 
 
GROWING OLD. 361 
 
 good advice very reluctantly began now to ask for 
 it; and others, who had taken his part only timidly, 
 became more bold and consistent in pressing the 
 principles for which he had pled so often. For by a 
 curious weakness in human nature our blessings 
 often grow more precious when access to them be- 
 comes more difficult; and the advice given us yes- 
 terday is often more precious today than it was when 
 first received. For time often makes even neglected 
 advice take root and blossom. 
 
 But in Mr. Wheeler's case there was still another 
 element in the problem, namely that he himself, 
 though unable to do much active service, was still 
 helping on the work of reconsidering and replant- 
 ing, which was going on in other lives around him; 
 for he himself, without fully realizing it, was at 
 many a vital point softening and perfecting and 
 deepening the very conceptions of life and duty for 
 which he had so earnestly pled; and each little 
 change for the better won some new convert, who 
 had been previously almost convinced, but not con- 
 verted ! 
 
 And oh how often does this happen in life, that 
 by some slight misstatement men are kept apart 
 who at heart are almost wholly one, and only wait- 
 ing for one more step to bring them into the closest 
 fellowship. Let us then look briefly at some of 
 these lessons of old age. 
 
 THE LESSONS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 First and foremost among these was a more perfect 
 trust in God, For in the years gone by his trust had 
 
362 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 been that of one who really loves his Master, but 
 finds it hard to "only stand and wait" even at the 
 Master's bidding. 
 
 Hence, side by side of his intense love and energy, 
 there had always been a vein of restlessness which 
 often offended less earnest and less loving souls, 
 and discouraged less energetic ones. And this made 
 some of them doubt or rather discount his whole 
 philosophy, because of the incidental defects which 
 his untamed energy put into it. 
 
 But when they found that his work still lived on 
 and prospered after he left it, and that he himself 
 was not as fundamentally and totally and incurably 
 one-sided as they in their ignorance had supposed, 
 his teachings became more comprehensible, and his 
 hearers more teachable; and a single talk would of- 
 ten convince men who had not before been con- 
 vinced by fifty. 
 
 For with him, as with all other old people, 
 the ruling passion of his life became more and 
 more evident as the years went by; and as some old 
 people's lives remind one with awful vividness of 
 of hell, so his reminded men more and more plainly 
 of heaven, and of the fact that love had been the 
 ruling passion of his life, all through, even if at 
 times that love had been too stern and silent. 
 
 And so men's lives were softened and their ears 
 opened; for men always listen more closely to a 
 man whom they know to be a friend, and not a mere 
 sharp-witted and unanswerable critic. For in this 
 world even true lovers of men are more or less 
 
GROWING OLD. 363 
 
 crippled, until the ones they wish to help discover 
 that they are such. And, although the people at 
 large had felt the spell of Mr. Wheeler's love all 
 along, yet there remained a considerable number of 
 Pauls and Thomases and Nicodemuses who were not 
 convinced till long after his message was first heard; 
 and these were the ones that his old age moved 
 most mightily. 
 
 And yet, strange to say, some of these had known 
 him even from boyhood; and all along had loved 
 him more or less; and still had attributed all his 
 earlier successes more to mere energy and luck than 
 to any exceptional insight or grasp of truth. 
 
 Here too mention should be made of the fact that 
 in old age he became a little less silent in regard to 
 his own deeper life than he had been in years gone 
 by; thus making it easier for men to see him as he 
 was. For though excessive talkativeness is gener- 
 ally a worse fault than excessive silence; a tendency 
 to go to either extreme is unfortunate in one whose 
 work it is to win men for Christ. 
 
 But perhaps the most curious change of all, in 
 these later years, was a steadily deepening respect 
 for young men. For strange to say this great inno- 
 vator was in all his earlier years more inclined to 
 idolize elderly people than younger men and women; 
 and more apt to underestimate the powers of the 
 young than of those more advanced in life. So that 
 when in old age he came at last to understand young 
 men more fully, this also gave him a power over 
 them which he had never had before. 
 
364 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 And though it is not true that the world's wisest 
 and most complexly difficult deeds are generally done 
 by young men, (as distinguished from deeds which 
 are simply dashing and brilliant,) still it is true that 
 all the world's greatest New Thoughts are apt to 
 bud and blossom between the ages of twenty and 
 thirty-five. Hence young men, in spite of their 
 faults, certainly do deserve a large amount of con- 
 sideration and respect; and as Mr. Wheeler, without 
 losing any of his respect for old age, added to it a 
 greater respect for youth, he was rewarded with an 
 increase of power and influence, for which even he 
 found it hard to account. 
 
 Thus was it that the victories of old age were 
 even greater than those of his earlier life; and the 
 words of Prof. Austin Phelps are again proved true 
 when he says that, 'The work which a Christian man 
 does in the closing years of his life often has in it a 
 spiritual vitality which even the busiest years of his 
 earlier life had not; and that some of God's best 
 uses of a man may come after he himself begins to 
 feel most useless.' 
 
 THE MASSACRES OF 1895. 
 
 Among the experiences of these later years one stands out 
 so prominently that we must give it special mention, namely 
 the massacres of 1895. 
 
 For many years the cause of liberty and of justice had been 
 Slowly and yet surely gaining ground in that dark land. But 
 even to the very slowest progress the more bigoted portion of 
 the ruling Turkish race, objected seriously; while the more 
 restless portion of the subject races also kept up a constant 
 buzz of brag and seditious discontent which helped to make 
 
GROWING OLD. 365 
 
 matters still worse. And so the weaker and blinder elements 
 of both races, the Christian and the Mohammedan, without the 
 approval of the more sober-minded and far-seeing elements in 
 either race, finally brought matters to such a pitch, that Turk- 
 ish brutality and lust once more broke out in massacre, doubt- 
 less led on by crafty and hellish men in positions of high 
 authority, both at Constantinople and all through the empire. 
 
 For thus far in the course of history the Turkish government 
 has succeeded several times in strengthening its hold for a 
 while by these periodic massacres. 
 
 Thus was it that the bloodshed finally reached Harpoot City, 
 on the nth of November, 1895, after having desolated many 
 other parts of Turkey, and scores of Harpoot's outlying 
 villages. For several days refugees from the outlying districts 
 had been gathering there, all of them robbed of home and food 
 and friends, and many of them even of the clothes they wore, 
 while the prettiest women were many of them captives in 
 Turkish harems, and the homlier ones alas too often widowed 
 and then dishonored and left to starve or beg. 
 
 Yet the missionaries kept on hoping that somehow or other 
 the city would escape; for the government had promised to 
 protect them. But when the eventful day came at last they 
 found that the soldiers stationed near them were simply meant 
 to help the mob, instead of restraining them, and that even 
 missionary homes were open to plunder and fire; missionary 
 lives alone being protected in a very half-hearted way. While 
 for the poor people (excepting those who clung close to the 
 missionaries) the missionaries were powerless to do a single 
 thing, till the worst of the massacres was over. 
 
 Nor were the missionaries themselves really out of danger; 
 for as Mr. Wheeler was borne helpless from one burning house 
 to another, bullets and cannon balls, from government cannon, 
 were fallin ground him constantly, and one of the most daring 
 of their plunderers even sought directly to take his life. 
 
 But God still had a work for him to do on this cold, suffering 
 earth; and so, with nearly five hundred others, he found him- 
 self a prisoner at last in the beautiful stone structure (of un- 
 
366 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 hewn stone and mortar) which he himself had built for the 
 male department of the College. 
 
 But even here death stared them in the face; for, satisfied 
 that it would be foolhardy to face the angry mob again with 
 such a crowd of helpless followers; and utterly cowardly to 
 desert them and accept offered protection "for themselves 
 alone," the missionaries decided to stay right where they were, 
 though every moment expecting to see the inside of the struc- 
 ture enveloped in a mass of flames. 
 
 But finally this danger was also averted; and a fire engine 
 (sent out only a few months before) with the water from 
 the reservoir built three years before with money 
 raised by Mrs. Wheeler while lecturing in Iowa and some 
 other states, saved four out of the twelve buildings of the mis- 
 sion premises; and for a while at least there was quiet. 
 
 And yet I doubt not that then it was that the worst suffering 
 came; for it seemed to them that all their work was in ruins. 
 For the Turks had tried to kill first and foremost the religious 
 leaders of the various communities; and the people's schools 
 and churches were always among the first structures to be at- 
 tacked and burned. And yet after a while hope rallied and 
 our dear ones could rest once more m a God, who finally 
 thwarts evil, even when in his wisdom he does not at once 
 Prevent it. 
 
 FINAL RETURN TO AMERICA. 
 
 But though the calmness shown by Mr. Wheeler 
 in the midst of the massacre and during the apparent 
 destruction of his life work was truly wonderful; the 
 nerve strain had been too great, and his home with 
 all its comforts had also been swept away; and so 
 the missionaries, feeling that his last days should not 
 be passed in the midst of so great danger and dis- 
 comfort, and that his wife and daughter were needed 
 to tell the tale of distress in America, strongly ad- 
 vised leaving Harpoot. So that he who had hoped 
 
GROWING OLD. 3^7 
 
 to die near the work he loved consented to return 
 again to America, to spend his closing days. 
 
 And in May, 1896, amid much weeping, he was 
 borne forth by his own corps of professors to the 
 emigrant wagon which was to take him to the dis- 
 tant sea-coast, a beloved fellow missionary. Rev. Eg- 
 bert Smythe Ellis, now also in heaven, going with 
 him to the coast, to care for him and his along the 
 way. 
 
 And thus with an escort of Turkish troops and 
 guardian angels, this dear veteran began his journey 
 home, nineteen days by land and two days by sea 
 bringing him to Constantinople, where for a while 
 we must leave him and take a brief farewell look at 
 the land he was leaving. 
 
 THE MEANING OF THESE MASSACRES. 
 
 For the question must be answered if possible, What mean 
 these massacres? and what good can possibly come of them? — 
 These questions we shall simply answer in brief, referring the 
 reader to more strictly historical works for the proofs of what 
 we say. 
 
 First then great care should be taken not to overlook the 
 fact that the Turkish government in its official capacity was 
 itself one of the parties that planned and helped to execute 
 the massacres, in hopes of thereby strengthening its hold on 
 the empire; and that temporarily it has doubtless gained in 
 apparent strength by its hellish brutality. 
 
 But secondly we should be equally careful to remember the 
 less widely known fact that even among the Turks, both 
 civilians and officials, there were some to whom such massa- 
 cres were utterly abhorrent; one of these, an officer high in 
 command, having once remarked to a missionary, "If our 
 superiors would only let us, oh how gladly and easily we could 
 
s 
 368 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 stop this bloodshed." But unfortunately that is just what his 
 higher officers did not want him to do. And yet, in ordinary 
 times of peace, these more true-hearted among her rulers have 
 no insignificant influence; and to them, under God, Turkey 
 owes not a little of her slowly increasing liberty. 
 
 But, thirdly, we should not forget that the gain in power to 
 the Ottoman Empire from such massacres as these has always 
 been only temporary and apparent. For it is such massacres 
 as these that have slowly forced Europe to allow one province 
 after another to be torn away from her by her honest and dis- 
 honest rivals; and worse still, her triumphs have been too much 
 like those of the man who conquered his son by putting out his 
 eyes. He soon found out that somehow or other, the fool knew 
 not how, matters on the farm did not seem to get along as well 
 as formerly, though he had just as many farm hands. 
 
 And thus it is that the Sultan has time and again crippled 
 his own financial and manufacturing resources in his hot zeal 
 to fully tame the hated Christian races. 
 
 GOD'S OVERRULING HAND. 
 
 But lastly let us inquire what lessons these massacres are 
 likely to teach to the Christian races who are the life blood of 
 the empire; and ultimately sure to have a hand in ruling it? 
 We believe that it will help them to more effectually overcome 
 that wide-spread tendency to simply brag and promise which 
 has so often brought them sorrow in lesser matters; and seems 
 to be a very common fault among races that have long been 
 subject. For any one who has closely looked into the matter, 
 can hardly fail to come to the conclusion that their excessive 
 love of defiant national songs and essays, and of secret societies, 
 impotent but high sounding, did certainly hasten these massa- 
 cres, though by no means justifying them; but without bringing 
 to the subject races any compensating benefit, such as would 
 have come from less boastful, but more practical organizations 
 for improving or else enforcing existing laws in the interests 
 of slow but real progress. 
 
 Nor is this meant as a wholesale criticism of the Christian 
 races; but simply of the ruling faction among them, who I be- 
 
GROWING OLD. 369 
 
 lieve in years to come will have far less influence than they 
 have had in years gone by; thus leaving their people open to 
 the leadership of wiser but quieter states?7ie?i, of whom there are 
 eveji now not a few in the viore silent background. 
 
 But some one asks, Why should the innocent suffer along 
 with the guilty? To which God's providential answer seems 
 to be, Because by suffering they acquire the power to help 
 many a friend in trouble, whom they never could have helped, 
 had they not learned to suffer /^r others' good so heroically; 
 and so in the end life is made brighter and sweeter for them all. 
 
 And thus the devilishness of God's enemies is overruled to 
 the advancement of his work of love; and men are taught not 
 only that "Some things work together for good to them that 
 love God;" but that "all things" do. And where the hardest 
 lessons come last, you will always find that the greatest bless- 
 ings always come last too. And thus was it that Mr. Wheeler, 
 and many another loved follower of Christ, learned even with 
 tears in their eyes to better understand the Master and the 
 world he came to save; and the more they suffered themselves, 
 the more they loved others, or at least the more plainly and 
 helpfully they let that love be seen. So that some even 
 among the Turks were quietly won to Christ, and confessed 
 him openly before men; though the time had not yet come 
 when they could wisely do it publicly. 
 
 In Constantinople Mr. Wheeler made no landing 
 but was simply transferred from one steamer to an- 
 other; and after a farewell gathering of missionaries 
 and others on ship-board, (Miss Barton of the Red 
 Cross being one ot the party,) he and his wife and 
 daughter started for the beautiful shores of Italy, 
 whence they hoped to sail at once for New York. 
 But circumstances compelled a delay; and so eight 
 restful days were spent in the dear old city of Genoa, 
 where for one of the few times in his life Mr. 
 Wheeler seemed to thoroughly enjoy sight-seeing; 
 
 (24) 
 
370 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 for though unable to leave his carriage, he now, for 
 the first time in a long and busy life, found himself 
 free enough from great and intensely absorbing re- 
 sponsibilities not to begrudge the time it took, and 
 his seventh visit to Europe was the first in which 
 sight-seeing was a part of his programme ! 
 
 And well does this illustrate the intensity of the 
 man, and the amount of hard, close thought which 
 it required to see through the great and perplexing 
 problems on which he had thrown so much light. 
 But now he felt more free, and it seemed to him and 
 to others as though he had been promoted to the 
 primary class of heaven; and so his natural love ot 
 beauty awoke once more in all its native strength; 
 though as an undertone it had run all through his 
 life, and given it a steadiness which mere intensity 
 and zeal could never have given. 
 
 From G^noa he took the steamer for New York; 
 and so full of peace and hope and love was this old 
 man's face that even the kind captain of the ship 
 declared that his presence among them had been a 
 benediction, long to be remembered. 
 
 LAST DAYS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Physically too the long sea voyage and the free- 
 dom from Turkey's tension had toned up the sick 
 one, and he was able to sit up and read more than 
 formerly. So that when he settled down to rest in 
 one of Boston's most beautiful suburbs, some even 
 dared to hope for a long and painless old age. But 
 he himself lived one day at a time, with little 
 
GOING HOME. 371 
 
 thought of the future, except an occasional longing 
 to be with Jesus, and be at rest. 
 
 But in the living present his interest seemed to be 
 even keener than formerly; and as old friends and 
 new came and went, some of them friends of his 
 boyhood, others the companions of his active life 
 and still others the pupils of his old age, he had for 
 each a message of hope and cheer, showing in words 
 the love which formerly he had only dared to show 
 in deeds. — And, strange to say, he had no dark 
 forebodings about the work in Turkey; but rather 
 felt assured that, in spite of all its enemies could do, 
 the work of Christ in that great empire would go on 
 and bear abundant fruit, even as it has done, sooner 
 or later in every land where persecution has prepared 
 the way in its frantic attempts to make truth stand 
 still. 
 
 But though the good doctor came often, and 
 proved a veritable angel of mercy and cheer to the 
 suffering one, the disease was one of long standing 
 for which medical science knows no cure, when once 
 firmly established, and so Dr. Wheeler slowly grew 
 weaker and weaker. Though, as the body grew 
 weaker his mind seemed to grow freer, and his life 
 more and more cheerful and glad. Till at last on 
 the eleventh of October, 1896, at nine o'clock in 
 the morning, he went home once more; to the home 
 above where all is love and joy and peace. 
 
 And on that self-same Sunday, many loving 
 hearts who knew not of his death were united in 
 
372 SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCHES. 
 
 special prayer for the college he loved;* while his 
 own loved ones were committed to God's care by 
 the good physician who had so tenderly ministered 
 to Mr. Wheeler's soul and body through all those 
 later months of pain and suffering. And 1 doubt 
 not that in heaven he too was joining in our prayers, 
 and in some larger way helping on the work he so 
 much loved. 
 
 But now, in closing, our minds come back almost 
 irresistibly to the old question. Why spend so much 
 time and strength and brains on foreign missions? 
 and I hear his oft repeated answer: — First, because 
 the Master bids it and we surely can Irust him. — 
 And secondly, because there are so many in foreign 
 lands who need our help. — And, thirdly, because, 
 by going abroad, it often happens that we help the 
 home churches more than we could by staying at 
 home. For some important lessons can be learned 
 on mission soil better than in America. 
 
 While to missionaries already on foreign soil, his 
 one absorbing message seemed to be. Oh, let us 
 learn to do our work more skilfully; and not rely 
 on mere good intentions and untrained common- 
 sense; or on mere education, uncontrolled by piety 
 in those to whom we offer its higher privileges. — 
 Surely such a message is well worth passing on; 
 and repeating again and again as the years go by. 
 
 *The Topic on the Daily Prayer Calendar of the Woman's Board of Mis- 
 sions for October ii, 1896, was Euphrates College. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 By Rev. James L. Barton, 
 
 Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M.; and for Seven Years a Colleague of 
 Mr. Wheeler in Missionary Work at Harpoot. 
 
 In 1856, a candidate for missionary service, writ- 
 ing to the Secretary of the American Board said, "I 
 should like to join that mission where I am most 
 needed and can be most useful." In answer to a 
 question, he added, "I regard hardship, suffering 
 and peril as to some extent inseparably connected 
 with mission work. I do not lose sight of the 
 fact in offering myself to the work, but with Christ 
 to help me, I hope to bear cheerfully whatever he 
 shall allot me." That same year this candidate be- 
 came a missionary and on the 5th of January, 1857, 
 sailed with his wife for Smyrna, designated to what 
 was then known as the "North Armenian Mission." 
 They arrived at Smyrna on the 2nd of March and 
 proceeded atonce to Constantinople, and on the 31st 
 of July of the same year they reached Harpoot in 
 the heart of Koordistan. On the nth of May, 1896, 
 thirty-nine years later, this same devoted mission- 
 ary and his faithful wife left Harpoot, reaching the 
 shores of the home-land on the 29th of June; and on 
 the nth of October, Sunday morning, the last voy- 
 age was taken; the floods that roll between were 
 crossed; the hardships, sufferings and perils of the 
 
 373 
 
374 MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 thirty nine years of devoted missionary service were 
 left behind, and the weary, pain-racked body was 
 at rest. 
 
 This is the brief outline of the life of Rev. Crosby 
 H. Wheeler, pioneer missionary, evangelist, educa- 
 tor and general, whom we follow today to his last 
 earthly resting place. 
 
 Born in Hampden, Maine, September 8, 1823, Mr. 
 Wheeler's life was spent in that rugged state until 
 he set out for the east. He graduated from Bowdoin 
 College in 1847 ^^^ from Bangor Theological Sem- 
 inary in 1852. He was ordained in Warren, Maine, 
 in 1852, where he served as pastor for four years, 
 resigning his charge in 1856 for the larger service 
 abroad. In the mission field he was a general mis- 
 sionary, engaged in all the varied forms of mission- 
 ary work. In 1878, he secured funds in this coun- 
 try for the buildings and partial endowment of Eu- 
 phrates College. Since that time he has been closely 
 identified with this institution of growing influence 
 and power, and in whose foundations and walls he 
 built his very life, holding the position of president 
 until increasing infirmities compelled him to with- 
 draw from the active management of the school; 
 but until the day of his summons home, he lost no 
 interest in the success of the great work that the 
 college represents. 
 
 For thirty-seven years Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Barnum have been 
 associated together in the work at Harpoot station. 
 They have seen the work grow from five licensed 
 preachers and nine helpers to twenty-six organized 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 375 
 
 churches, with over 2000 members, and as a work- 
 ing force 150 native pastors, preachers and teachers 
 with 4500 pupils under Christian instruction. In all 
 that work the three families have been closely and 
 intimately connected. The first break in the circle 
 is now made, as we bear its oldest member to his 
 silent resting place. The continued, efficient, united 
 services of three unbroken families at one station 
 for a period of thirty-seven years is a fact, we be- 
 lieve, unique in mission history. 
 
 Let us briefly glance at a few of the leading facts 
 and characteristics in the life and character of our 
 honored and revered missionary brother, father, 
 friend, that we may learn the lesson and catch the 
 inspiration that took him from his little parish in 
 the quiet serenity of Maine's rural homes, carried 
 him far across the seas, enlarged his life to make it 
 touch with vital force a hundred times ten thousand 
 other lives, prepared him there to face unflinchingly 
 the unrecorded horrors of Turkey's darkest night, 
 and then returned him to this delightful, peaceful 
 spot to breathe away his well-spent life. But the 
 life is not breathed away, for it is built into institu- 
 tions that abide, and other lives, both in this land 
 and amid Armenia's stricken hamlets and smoking 
 plains, are working out the plan of God revealed to 
 them by the voice that speaks to us no more. 
 
 It is interesting to note that Mr. Wheeler attrib- 
 utes his missionary zeal to his mother, who regularly 
 took him to the missionary concert when a mere 
 lad — the only child there — where he early caught 
 the conception of the Gospel for the world. In a 
 
376 MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 written statement made by him in 1856, he said, "I 
 owe it under God to my mother that I am a Chris- 
 tian and a minister and am about to become a for- 
 eign missionary." That mother's memory was al- 
 ways sacred. For four years he waited to make 
 provision for her support before leaving her in re- 
 sponse to the call from abroad. The dying message 
 of that sainted mother was, "Tell my son, God gave 
 me but one boy, an only son, and it is the happiest 
 thought of my dying bed that he is a missionary." 
 How could such a mother's son fail to be a 
 worthy man? 
 
 His call to the foreign field was unequivocal and 
 the work there was entered upon with no reserve. 
 No one associated with him in the mission field 
 could imagine him acting in any other capacity than 
 as a foreign missionary. Before he accepted the 
 presidency of Euphrates College, he wrote in the 
 College Constitution, "The President shall be a 
 missionary of the Board and he shall not by accept- 
 ing this office, lose his character and rights as a 
 missionary." He allowed nothing from without to 
 distract his attention or mfringe upon his time. He 
 was always about his Master s business like one who 
 was not his own, but who had been bought with a 
 price. 
 
 He was most versatile in his ability. He erected 
 in Turkey, making the plans and over-seeing the 
 workmen in the minutest detail, over twenty build- 
 ings, including large college structures, dwelling 
 houses and churches. He laid out and constructed 
 water courses, wrote text-books and other works in 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 377 
 
 Armenian, was the author of "Ten Years on the Eu- 
 phrates" and other books which have had wide cir- 
 culation in America and Europe. He taught at one 
 time or another in nearly every department of the 
 Harpoot Theological Seminary and Euphrates Col- 
 lege, maintaining to the last his power as a preacher 
 of the Gospel, whose bond servant he was. 
 
 His energy was almost unbounded. Decision and 
 action were always closely connected in the history 
 of his life. The Turkish proverb, "Never do today 
 what you can put off till tomorrow" had no charms 
 for him. Colleagues in the mission work frequently 
 found decisions made and executed for them while 
 they were discussing the question. If there is one 
 word that characterizes his life, it isthe word "action." 
 Rapidity of thought, an almost intuitive grasp of 
 conclusions, and the immediate carrying out of the 
 decision, marked his whole life in the field. 
 
 His personal convictions were positive and in 
 most cases became to him a matter of principle. 
 He could not sacrifice principle for anything, no 
 matter how much pain it cost him; he was ready to 
 stand for what he sincerely regarded as right, though 
 he stood alone against the entire forces of the 
 mission. 
 
 With all his sturdiness and energy, he had a 
 heart as tender and sympathetic as a woman's. 
 Those, who in distress have gone to him — and they 
 are many — always testify to his quickly responsive 
 nature. This characteristic was markedly developed 
 during the last five years of his own severe suffer- 
 ing. At times his greatest pain seemed to be caused 
 
378 MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 by the fear that he would become a burden to those 
 who were caring for him. Even to the last he was 
 tenderly thoughtful of others and marvelously for- 
 getful of self. 
 
 With the characteristics mentioned, Dr. Wheeler 
 was a positive force and power in the missionary 
 work. Mastering the Armenian language with the 
 same energy that he carried into all his work, he 
 used it with fluency and power in preaching the 
 Gospel of Christ. Great gatherings were profound- 
 ly moved by his powerful presentation of the truth. 
 Conviction and conversion followed. Three, at 
 least, of the pastors of the Harpoot field, who, during 
 the past few months have put on the martyr's 
 crown, were led to Christ by him; and today, with 
 him, together with hundreds of their own country- 
 men, they unite in praises to the Lamb that was 
 slain. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler was the champion of self-support in 
 mission work. He believed that the people should 
 support their own institutions, pay for their Chris- 
 tian literature, in fact be ready to sacrifice for 
 the Gospel which they professed to love. This was 
 to him so clearly the only correct principle upon 
 which missions could be permanently established, 
 that he often caused pain by its application, but 
 from this pain grew self-supporting, independent 
 schools and churches as the crown of his efforts. 
 This plan of mission work early advocated by him, 
 has extended from Eastern Turkey into all of the 
 missions of our Board and has been taken up by 
 other missionary societies largely through his book, 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 379 
 
 ••Ten Years on the Euphrates," and is now a gener- 
 ally recognized principle of substantial mission 
 growth. 
 
 He was the earnest advocate of Christian educa- 
 tion, insisting that the Christian must know how to 
 read the word of God in order to be an intelligent 
 and stable believer, and that an educated native 
 ministry is essential to the future progress of the 
 work. Early insisting upon simple village schools, 
 he laid the foundation for the many high schools 
 which finally enlarged into Euphrates College; thus 
 a system of education developed in that field which 
 is full of promise, both for the Protestants, the Gre- 
 gorians and the institutions and customs of this 
 land. Under this wise management it is doubtful if 
 any community has a better system of schools or a 
 larger proportion of Armenians who can read and 
 write, or who are better supplied with the Scriptures 
 and other books than is the Harpoot field. 
 
 In female education Dr. Wheeler was a pioneer. 
 He early conceived the idea that in order to build 
 up a strong church the Christian home must be in- 
 stituted and for this the wife and mother must needs 
 be lifted by the power of Christian education from 
 the menial position which she occupied. The con- 
 test was long and fierce but victory rested where it 
 is wont to rest, on the brow of him who fought for 
 a principle and not an idea. He lived to see the fe- 
 male department in Euphrates College with all the 
 outside schools for girls extending down through 
 the village schools to the kindergarten, among the 
 
38o MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 most popular and well patronized institutions of the 
 land and extensively copied by other communities. 
 
 His closing months in Harpoot were sad ones in- 
 deed. It had been the hope of his life that in death 
 his body might lie side by side with many who had 
 been led to Christ by his preaching, under the shadow 
 of the College buildings which he had erected, over- 
 looking the broad Euphrates plain, dotted with 
 churches and filled with Christian schools. For four 
 years some of his friends had advised him to come 
 to the United States, where he could secure medical 
 care and find more relief from his physical suffering. 
 But he would not entertain the thought. He wished 
 to have his grave in Armenia. 
 
 For five years an invalid, suffering a hundred 
 deaths, he waited patiently at the post of service 
 for the summons of his Master. While thus wait- 
 ing the awful tide of fire and blood began to sweep 
 across the Euphrates up towards the city, engulfing 
 the villages and hamlets in which had been estab- 
 lished churches and schools. From his window and 
 roof, Mr. Wheeler watched the gradual approach of 
 the demon of darkness. On the nth of November, 
 last, it came to him. With his house in flames, 
 without hat or change of garments, he was carried 
 from his burning home by the aid of his Koordish 
 students, who were first to reach him in his dire ne- 
 cessity. Twenty-five years ago he inaugurated a 
 mission work in Koordistan, and now the young 
 men from that mission field were the first to render 
 him service. Driven from burning houses, one after 
 the other, fired upon by Turks and Koords, sur- 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 381 
 
 rounded by the wounded and the dying, he was 
 finally carried to the library room in the last build- 
 ing he himself had erected for the College, and there 
 he remained with 500 stricken Armenians. 
 
 Surrounded by a circle of flame, pillage, and 
 slaughter, which were apparently destroying the 
 work of a life-time, and seeing the terrible terror 
 and woe of the suffering people about him, he did 
 not lose courage or faith. The old energy asserted 
 itself and he longed for the strength of earlier years 
 that he might once more throw himself into the 
 work. For hours death for the entire mission cir- 
 cle seemed inevitable and he, with the rest, stood 
 ready to die. — Stripped of everything, with no shel- 
 ter for his head, no comforts for his body, it was 
 deemed necessary by his friends that he come to 
 this country. In this decision he acquiesced. When 
 the day for his departure came, the professors of the 
 College tenderly took him in their arms and carried 
 him to the large College hall, where, with hymns 
 written for the occasion and addresses of farewell, 
 the teachers, students and friends took final leave of 
 their beloved leader and president. Then in a long 
 procession they passed his chair and dropped a tear 
 and impressed a kiss upon his hand for the last time. 
 Loving arms bore him to the wagon that stood ready 
 to carry him over the 500 miles of Asia Minor's des- 
 olated waste to the shores of the Black Sea. 
 
 During his last days here in Auburndale, his mind 
 constantly turned to Turkey and her people. More 
 and more his prayers have been uttered in the Ar- 
 
382 MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 menian tongue. On the morning of his departure, 
 he was heard to say in Armenian: "Oh Lord, I am 
 about to die. Let it be soon." 
 
 A little later as one of his family was reading to 
 him, "He that overcometh I will make him a pillar 
 in the temple of my God and he shall go out thence 
 no more," his spirit was liberated. 
 
 •'How beautiful it is for man to die 
 Upon the walls of Zion; to be called, 
 Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel, 
 To put his armor off and rest — in Heaven." 
 
A TRIBUTE OF AFFECTION. 
 
 From the Warren Church, Forty Years 
 After Mr. Wheeler Left It. 
 
 Warren, Me., Dec. 31, 1896. 
 
 My Dear Miss Wheeler: — 
 
 I wish you could have been 
 present at our services in memory of your father. 
 There were many tender and appreciative tributes 
 to the strength and nobility of his character. Some 
 who were already in active service when he came 
 here, spoke of his wisdom and efificiency as pastor; 
 others who enlisted in the army of the cross through 
 his influence referred to his zeal and earnestness as 
 an evangelist; while some who were his boys and 
 girls, now grey-haired men and women, recalled his 
 faithful and loving instruction of the children in Bib- 
 lical truth. 
 
 The whole service was a witness to the lasting im- 
 press which his ministry has left upon this church 
 and community; and to the inspiration that has 
 come to it from the noble enthusiasm and splendid 
 devotion of*his forty years' service in the mission 
 field. 
 
 Yours cordially, 
 
 Edward P. Stearns, 
 
 Pastor. 
 
 Several other tributes which we have received are omitted for want of 
 room; and because we cannot but feel that a man's teachings and doings 
 are his best testimonial for the world at large. Yet this one, so quaintly pic- 
 turesque and yet so simple, we could not refrain from printing. While Dr. 
 Barton's address we give for its historic value. 
 
 383 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Accuracy— Lessons in accu- 
 racy, 314. Mr. Wheeler's 
 love of accuracy, 85. 
 
 Accusing the missionary of 
 insincerity, 205. 
 
 Adults — Cannot be reached 
 simply or chiefly through 
 children, 290. False econo- 
 my of working too much 
 for children, 173. 
 
 Advice Giving — Should be 
 more systematic, 309, Mr. 
 Wheeler as an advice-giv- 
 er, 336. Also see Personal 
 Work. 
 
 Aid — See Helping, Self-Sup- 
 porting, Money, Mission 
 Grants, etc • 
 
 America — The American fe- 
 ver, 326. Going to Ameri- 
 ca for an education, 328 and 
 223. Raising money in 
 America, 266. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. Rufus Ander- 
 son — His educational poli- 
 cy, 324, 321 and also page 
 8. His opinion as to the 
 need of native pastors, 153. 
 And should missionaries 
 marry? 105, note. 
 
 Annual Meeting Majorities, 
 265 and 102. 
 
 Applying Truth to Life, 27. 
 
 Austria — Self-support in, 277 
 and 279. 
 
 384 
 
 Authority — Need of authori- 
 ty, 46. Need of leaders 
 who have authority, 100. 
 Refusing to obey, 47 and 48. 
 
 Backsliding — Open backslid- 
 ing better than secret hy- 
 pocrisy, 285. 
 
 Baptism — See Sacraments. 
 
 Barnum, Rev. H. N. Barnum, 
 D. D. — Beginnings of self- 
 support at Harpoot, 251. 
 
 Barton, Rev. James L. Bar- 
 ton, D. D. — Introductory 
 note, p. 3. Memorial ad- 
 dress, 373. 
 
 Belief — Relying too much on 
 mere belief, 310. 
 
 Benevolence — See Love, Giv- 
 ing and Helping. 
 
 Bible — Helps in using the Bi- 
 ble rightly, 74. Also see 
 Creeds and Bible Classes. 
 
 Bible Classes — Mr. Wheeler 
 as a Bible class teacher, 177. 
 A Bible class for young the- 
 ologues, 176. How to make 
 Bible classes interesting, 
 308. 
 
 Bible Societies — Local, 65 and 
 36. 
 
 Bible Women — Support of 
 Bible women, 358. Grow- 
 ing importance of their 
 work, 357. 
 
 Bigness versus Quality, 143. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 Blessings of Old Age, 360. 
 
 Boarding Round-From house 
 to house, 253 and 254. 
 
 Boarding Schools — For boys 
 303. For girls, 356. Dan- 
 ger of admitting pupils too 
 freely, 345. Also see Edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Books — Shall the missionary 
 sell books? 63 and 57. Sell- 
 ing versus giving away, 235. 
 Total sales in Harpoot for 
 ten years, 235, note. Book 
 sales in China, 235, note. 
 Selling books in Warren, 
 36. Lending tracts, 237. 
 Renting school books, 357. 
 
 Bright Side — Finding the 
 bright side, and speaking 
 of it, 96. Also see Good 
 News Reports. 
 
 Building Churches, Schools 
 and Parsonages, 209, Build- 
 ing too fine a church, 210 
 and 155. Renting often 
 better than building, 211. 
 Building schools at foreign 
 expense, when they ought 
 to be furnished by the peo- 
 ple themselves, 291. Using 
 one and the same room for 
 chapel and school house, 
 292, note. 
 
 Burden Bearing — B earing 
 one another's burdens, 188. 
 Bearing every man his own 
 burdens, 189. Needless 
 burden-bearing; or "God's 
 burdens and not ours," 87. 
 
 Business Ability — Need of,99. 
 
 Buying Churches, Schools 
 and Parsonages, 211. 
 
 Carefulness to be Right, 86. 
 
 Carey, Wm. Carey — His use 
 of a very large salary, 216. 
 
 Ceylon — Progress of self-sup- 
 port in, 277 and 279. Sale 
 of books in, 238. 
 
 Changing One's Mind, in. 
 
 Character — Importance o f 
 the power to read charac- 
 ter, 35 and 45; some further 
 details, 113. Lessons in 
 reading character, 178. 
 Ways of developing char- 
 acter (in school), 306 to 313. 
 Good and bad effects of 
 study on character, 179, 
 294; and other parts of 
 Chapter XV. Making pro- 
 motion conditional on char- 
 acter, 331 and 339. The 
 missionary's character, 85. 
 
 Charity — See Helping the 
 Poor. 
 
 Children — Working for chil- 
 dren alone not enough, 290 
 and 173. Mr.Wheeler's love 
 for children, 320. But for 
 details see Education and 
 Kindergartens. 
 
 China — Progress of self-sup- 
 port in, 277 and 279. Book 
 sales in, 236, note. Com- 
 mon Schools in, 317, note. 
 Medical missions in, 232. 
 Growth of churches for last 
 nineteen years, 233. 
 
 (25) 
 
386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Choosing a Field-Mr. Wheel- 
 er's reasons for not going 
 abroad earlier, 30. A grad- 
 ual change of mind, 38. Fi- 
 nal choice of a field, (a dis- 
 cussion of general princi- 
 ples) 46 to 48. 
 
 Christ — Christ as a Friend, 78. 
 Man's need of a Saviour, 77, 
 Theories of the atonement, 
 78 and 79. 
 
 Churches-Planting churches, 
 147. Conditions of church 
 membership, 149. Local 
 versus union churches, 150. 
 Pastorless churches, 151. 
 Self-supporting churches, 
 seeSelf-Support. Self-gov- 
 erning churches, 154. Large 
 and small churches, 155. 
 Industrious churches, 156. 
 Local missionary societies, 
 home and foreign, 158 and 
 160. Ecclesiastical organi- 
 zations, 163. Cooperation, 
 164. Church treasuries, 200 
 and 201. Church buildings 
 — See Building. 
 
 City Missionary Methods — 
 Why not suited to foreign 
 missions, 59 and 125. Prop- 
 er time and place for city 
 missionary methods, 127. 
 
 Civilization — Why not give it 
 first? 120 to 122. 
 
 -Clark, Rev. N. G. Clark, D.D. 
 — His work as a superinten- 
 dent of missions, loi. 
 
 Clearness of Perception, 85. — 
 Also see Insight. 
 
 Colleges— Founding colleges; 
 its benefits and dangers, 
 289. College endowments, 
 299, Choiceof trustees, 313. 
 Reasons for founding a col- 
 lege, 296. Euphrates Col- 
 lege, 296 and 298; and all of 
 chapters 15 and 16. 
 
 College Discipline — Should 
 not be hasty, 20. But 
 should be firm, 313. 
 
 Colporteurs — See Books. 
 
 Common Schools — Impor- 
 tance of, 290. Possibility 
 of attachidg too much im- 
 portance to them, as a help 
 in reaching adults, 290; and 
 as a means of raising up 
 preachers, 173. Spending 
 too much time in schools, 
 293. The primary depart- 
 ment of Euphrates College; 
 male, 320; female, 354. 
 Common schools in China, 
 317, note. Making the peo- 
 p 1 e support their own 
 schools, 291. 
 
 Common Sense— Need of 
 common sense, 23. Its val- 
 ue in slowly correcting 
 one's creed, 75. Its absence 
 a common cause of failure, 
 84. 
 
 Comparative Statistics — How 
 to increase their value, 286. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Confessing Christ in Simpler 
 Ways First, 248. 
 
 Conscience — Ignoring con- 
 science, 33. Longing to do 
 right, 89. 
 
 Consistency — Not always a 
 virtue, 89. 
 
 Contributions — Raising mon- 
 ey in America, 266. Spe- 
 cial contributions, so called, 
 269. Also see Money, Self- 
 Support, Home Missionary 
 Societies, Foreign Mission- 
 ary Societies, etc. 
 
 Conversation — S e e Discus- 
 sion, Advice-Giving, Visit- 
 ing, etc. 
 
 Conversion — Need of, 'j^. Mr. 
 Wheeler's own conversion, 
 18. Essential to church- 
 membership, 149. 
 
 Conviction of Sm, 76. 
 
 Cooperation of Native and 
 Foreign Workers — Its ben- 
 efits and dangers, 164. Al- 
 s o see Self-Governing 
 Churches. 
 
 Courage — And how to in- 
 crease it, 90. 
 
 Courses of Study— In the The- 
 ological Seminary, 176 to 
 i83. In Euphrates College 
 and its preparatory depart- 
 ments. — Male department, 
 289 to 326; Female depart- 
 ment, 341. 
 
 Credulity — Cause and cure of, 
 310. 
 
 Creeds^Creeds and how to 
 use them, 73. Importance 
 of having a right creed, 73. 
 Importance of using it wise- 
 ly, 73 and 84. Outgrowing 
 a faulty creed, 75. 
 
 Cross Bearing — Need of, 281 
 and 282. 
 
 Definiteness of Purpose, 87. 
 
 Depravity — Human Deprav- 
 ity, 76. Human weakness, 
 
 157. 
 
 Dignity — false ideas of digni- 
 ty; in selling books, 63; in 
 digging ditches, 178. 
 
 Discontent and Misunder- 
 standings, 282 and 325. 
 
 Discussion — How to make it 
 profiiable, 116. 
 
 Doing Right — A passionate 
 longing to do right, 89. Also 
 see Conscience. 
 
 Doing Wrong in Little 
 Things, 89. 
 
 Dormitories — How to secure 
 privacy in, 355. 
 
 Doubt — See Perplexity and 
 Rationalism. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Organizations, 
 163. 
 
 Ecclesiastics not always real 
 leaders, 126. 
 
 Education— Of pastors and 
 preachers, 168. Founding 
 colleges, 289. Female ed- 
 ucation, 341. Euphrates 
 College, 296, 298; and all of 
 chapters 15 and 16. Reli- 
 
388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 gion and education how re- 
 lated? 289. Importance of 
 common schools, 290. How 
 to select the best teachers, 
 290. When to stop stuffing 
 the memory, 294. A true 
 philosophy of education, 
 295. Pressing self-support, 
 301, 356 and 239. Ar- 
 guments in favor of free 
 schools, 304. Ways of de- 
 veloping character, 306. 
 Lessons in energy and ac- 
 curacy, 314. Experiments 
 in Industrial Education, 
 3i6and3i8. The children's 
 corner, 320, 290 and 354. 
 The teaching of English, 
 321 and also p. 8. Making 
 promotion conditional on 
 character, 331. Educating 
 the public, 332. A look in- 
 to the future, 339. Admit- 
 ting too many pupils, 345. 
 — For further details see 
 Colleges, Theological Sem- 
 inaries, Common Schools, 
 etc. 
 
 Energy — Lessons in energy, 
 314. Misdirected energy, 
 86. 
 
 English — Shall we teach 
 English? 321 and 324. Al- 
 so see a statement of con- 
 trary opinions by Dr. Ham- 
 lin on pages 8 and 10. 
 
 Essentials and non-essentials, 
 117. But what are man's 
 deepest needs? 120. 
 
 Euphrates College — Male de- 
 partment, 296 and all of 
 chapter 15. Female de- 
 partment, 341. 
 
 Europe — Going to Europe or 
 America for an education, 
 328. 
 
 Example — Winning men by 
 example, 112. Only a 
 Christian can teach Chris- 
 tianity, 292. The personal 
 influence of each teacher, 
 307. The missionary's wife, 
 62. 
 
 Experience — Lessons from 
 experience, in. The reli- 
 gious teachings of nature 
 and experience, 75. 
 
 Experimental stage in mis- 
 sions, 144. 
 
 Expert Financiers — Need of, 
 288. Also see Traveling 
 Superintendents. 
 
 Exploration — Missionary Ex- 
 plorers, 60. 
 
 Fear — As a motive, 83. 
 
 Female Education— Page 341. 
 
 Fickleness and Growth— How 
 they differ, in. Also" see 
 InconsistencY. 
 
 Fitness for one's work, 85. 
 
 Foreign Missions — Reasons 
 for favoring them, 372. 
 
 Foreign Missionary offerings 
 of the native churches, 160. 
 
 Forgetting One's Self, 97. 
 
 Forty Years Ago; or hard 
 times in 1861, 251. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 389 
 
 Four Stages of Missionary 
 Work, 144. 
 
 Free Gospel — Misinterpret- 
 ing Scripture, 204. Evil 
 effects of making the Gos- 
 pel too cheap, 228. Was 
 Christ's preaching always 
 free? 281 and 2. 
 
 Free Schools — Arguments in 
 favor of, 304. Reasons for 
 making pupils pay, as soon 
 as possible, 228. Practical 
 difficulties in the way and 
 how to overcome them, 
 301 and 356. 
 
 Friction— See Misunderstand- 
 ings. 
 
 Friendly Visits — See Visiting. 
 
 Future — Future life, 82. Fu- 
 ture punishment, 83. 
 
 Giving — The duty and priv- 
 ilege of giving; as taught 
 by Scripture, 188 to 192; 
 and as seen in experience, 
 249. But how much'i;shall 
 we give? 251 to 260 and 192 
 to 196. When should men 
 begin to give? 251 and 256. 
 First lessons in giving, 256. 
 Unwilling givers, 257. Giv- 
 ing a tenth, 259. Giving 
 every week, 209, Also see 
 Money and Helping. 
 
 God — The Fatherhood of 
 God, ']']. Also see Prayer. 
 
 Good News Reports, 353. 
 
 Gospel— The Gospel. See 
 Preaching and Creeds. 
 
 Grants in Aid — See Mission 
 Grants, Money, Self-Sup- 
 port, etc. 
 
 Gulick— Dr. Luther H. On 
 misuse of money in Italy, 
 199, note. 
 
 Hamlin — Rev. Cyrus Ham- 
 lin, D.D. Biographical In- 
 troduction, p. 5. Criticism 
 of Dr. Anderson's educa- 
 tional policy, 324 and Intro- 
 duction. 
 
 Hard Times — Hard times in 
 1861, and what came of 
 them, 251. Being grateful 
 for hard times, 262. How 
 to face retrenchment, 260. 
 
 Harpoot City and its sur- 
 roundings, 50. 
 
 Health — Should not be sacri- 
 ficed needlessly, 48. 
 
 Heaven — The Christian con- 
 ception of Heaven, 82. 
 Pain, even in Heaven, 83. 
 
 Helping — Helping the poor, 
 243. Helping pupils one 
 by one, 309. Helping 
 churches financially; -see 
 Self-Supporting Churches. 
 Helping students financial- 
 ly; General principles, 239; 
 Theologues, 183; Boys in 
 school, 301; Girls in school, 
 
 . 356. [3 How to help the larg- 
 est number of pupils with a 
 given sum of money, 263. 
 Also see Giving, Self-Sup- 
 port and Money. 
 
390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Higher Christian Life, 156. 
 
 Home Life — The missionary's 
 home life, 105 and 23, 
 
 Home Missionary Societies, 
 158. 
 
 Honesty — How generous giv- 
 ing increases it, 250. 
 
 Hopefulness — Need of hope- 
 fulness; and how to 
 strengthen it, 93. Dimmed 
 by too much study, 26. 
 
 Hospitality — May be carried 
 too far, 128. But should 
 not be neglected, 128. Its 
 proper place as a stepping- 
 stone to self-support, 254. 
 
 House to House Visitation — 
 See Visiting. 
 
 Human Nature — Importance 
 of studying it more closely, 
 see Character. Human 
 depravity, 76. Human 
 weakness, 157. 
 
 Humility— Normal and Ab- 
 normal, 91. 
 
 Hungry Ones — Seeking first 
 for those who are hungry, 
 136. 
 
 Hypocrites — One way of si- 
 lencing them, '](). 
 
 Inconsistency — Sometimes a 
 duty, 89. Also see Fickle- 
 ness. 
 
 India — Self-support, 277 and 
 279. Touring (Tinnevelly), 
 134. Sale of books, 237 
 and 8. Mr. Wheeler's 
 views as to "Foundmg Col- 
 leges; Its Benefits and 
 
 Dangers" (Chapter 15) were 
 also largely influenced by 
 a study of educational 
 methods and problems in 
 India. 
 
 Industrial Education — Ex- 
 periments in, 316. Proper 
 limits of, 318. Wage Prob- 
 lems and Labor Bureaus, 
 246. 
 
 Infidelity — Danger of unin- 
 tentionally making. infidels, 
 123. 
 
 Insight — Insight versus bril- 
 liancy, 29, note. Its blos- 
 soming period, 363 and 4. 
 Need of it, 84. Also see 
 Clearness of Perception. 
 
 Itinerating — See Touring. 
 
 Japan — Self-support in, 276. 
 Kindergartens in, 35 5. 
 Should Oriental trustees 
 have control of funds raised 
 in America.^ 313. 
 
 Jesuits — Their philosophy of 
 education, 295. Worthless- 
 ness of their higher culture, 
 324. Folly of spending 
 money as freely as they 
 sometimes do, 155. 
 
 Jesus — See Christ, 
 
 Kindergarten Schools— At 
 Harpoot, 320 and 354. In 
 Japan, 355. 
 
 Kissing the Bible, 115. 
 
 Labor Bureaus, 246. 
 
 Language— Helps in learn- 
 ing a new language, 55. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 391 
 
 Law — Shall we ever appeal 
 to the hand of law for pro- 
 tection? 72. 
 
 Laymen — Need of Christian 
 laymen, 330. Lay preach- 
 ers in pioneer work, 158. 
 Station classes for laymen, 
 
 347. 
 
 Lazy Churches, 202. 
 
 Leadership— Importance of 
 reaching leading minds, 
 124. The missionary must 
 be a natural leader, 103. 
 Training of native religious 
 leaders, 168. Training 
 women to become leaders, 
 347. Ecclesiastics not al- 
 ways real leaders, 126. 
 
 Learning — ^Mere learning not 
 always helpful, 179 and 
 294. Things more impor- 
 tant than learning, 121. 
 
 Learning the Language, 55. 
 
 Leaven — The leaven of the 
 Gospel, 124. 
 
 Lending Books and Tracts. 
 See Loan Libraries. 
 
 Lessons from Experience, 
 III and 75. 
 
 "Let the minister support 
 himself" — Says the mean 
 man, 205; says the enthusi- 
 ast, 224. 
 
 Letter-Writing— Mr. Wheel- 
 er's love of, 333. But it 
 should not be expected of 
 all, 333, foot-note. Often 
 reveals character very 
 clearly, 170. 
 
 Littleness — Cannot be cured 
 all at once, 123. A healthy 
 littleness, 94. 
 
 Loan Libraries — Loaning 
 text-books, 357. Loaning 
 tracts, 237. 
 
 Local Churches (versus Un- 
 ion), 150. 
 
 Local Foreign Missionary So- 
 cieties, 160. 
 
 Local Home Missionary So- 
 cieties, 158. 
 
 Local Superintendents, 100 — 
 Also see Expert Financiers 
 and Annual Meetings. 
 
 Loneliness— Inevitable, 222. 
 
 Longing to do Right, 89. 
 
 Longing to Save Souls, 97. 
 
 Love — Love for one's neigh- 
 bors, 80. Fullness of love, 
 94. Love that makes men 
 patient, 95. Love of self, 
 80 and 289. 
 
 Loveliness — 112. 
 
 Magical Conceptions of 
 Preaching, 130 and 135. 
 
 Making Every Dollar Count, 
 218. 
 
 Marriage — Should Missiona- 
 ries Marry? Opinions for 
 and against, 23, 105 and 
 note. 
 
 Massacres of 1895, P^ge 364. 
 Meaning of same, 367. 
 
 Medical Missions — Benefits 
 of, 220. Danger of overdo- 
 ing them, 232. 
 
 Melancholy— tA cure for, 26. 
 
392 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Memorial Address by Rev. 
 James L. Barton, D. D., 
 
 373- 
 
 Memorial Services at War- 
 ren, 383. 
 
 Memory— When to Stop Stuff- 
 ing It. 294. 
 
 Mexico — Progress of Self- 
 Supp :)rt in, 277 and 27Q. 
 
 Micronesia — Self-Support in, 
 277 and 279. 
 
 Ministers — See Native Help- 
 ers and Native Pastors. 
 Among Alumni of Euphra- 
 tes College, 329. 
 
 Misinterpreting Scripture, 
 204. 
 
 Mission Grants— To churches, 
 200. To theologues, 183. 
 To other students, 239. For 
 building purposes, 209. All 
 grants conditional, 201 and 
 210. Also see Money, Help- 
 ing, Salaries, etc. 
 
 Missionaries — How many 
 should there be at each sta- 
 tion, 140 to 146. Also 133.— 
 Ways of Supporting Them, 
 270. 
 
 Missionary Societies — Local 
 missionary societies, home 
 and foreign, among the na- 
 tive churches, 158 and 160. 
 
 Missionary Work — Four 
 Stages of, 144. 
 
 Misunderstandings— M i s u n- 
 derstandings that result 
 from cooperation, 167. Mis- 
 understandings that result 
 
 from resisting a morbid de- 
 sire for excessive learning, 
 325. Misunderstandings 
 and abuse in general, 282. 
 Too many foreign w^orkers 
 sometimes a cause of fric- 
 tion, 141. Wise disturbers 
 of the peace, 53. 
 
 Mohammedans — Reasons for 
 not preaching to them very 
 much in Turkey, 54. 
 
 Money — For the proper use of 
 money in church work on 
 mission soil, see "Self-Sup- 
 porting Churches." But 
 also see Spending money 
 unwisely, 99. Buying real 
 estate, 21 1. Paying too high 
 salaries, 214 to 224. Rely- 
 ing on unpaid workers, 224. 
 Free distribution of books, 
 235. Support of medical 
 missions, 229. Helping stu- 
 dents; general principles, 
 239; males, 301; females, 
 356; theologues, 183. Help- 
 ing the poor, 243. Orphan- 
 ages, 241. Retrenchment, 
 260. Raising money i n 
 America, 266. Need of ex- 
 pert financiers, 288. Mak- 
 ing every dollar count, 218. 
 Also see Giving and Help- 
 ing. 
 
 Moslems in Turkey — See Mo- 
 hammedans. 
 
 Murdock— Rev. John M u r- 
 dock. Selling books in In- 
 dia and Ceylon, 237 and 238. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 393 
 
 Native Churches-See Church- 
 es and Self-S upporting- 
 Churches 
 
 Native Helpers-Proper train- 
 ing of, i68 to 187. How 
 many of them shall we have ? 
 168. How to get the best 
 men, 171. What to teach 
 them, 176. How much to 
 teach them, 179. How long 
 to teach them, 182 and 184. 
 
 Native Pastors — Pastorless 
 churches, 151. Propertrain- 
 ing of pastors, 168. Sal- 
 aries of, 200, 214 and 2ig. 
 Mr. Wheeler's own pastor- 
 ate at Warren, Me., 28. 
 Pastoral duties, brief dis- 
 cussion of, 28. 
 
 Natives Educated Abroad, 
 223. 
 
 Nature — The teachings of 
 nature and experience, 75. 
 Love of nature, 98. Natur- 
 al scenery around Harpoot, 
 51. Pleasure rides among 
 the hills, 108. 
 
 Needs — What do men most 
 need? 120 and 121. 
 
 Neesima — Joseph. Brief ref- 
 erence to, 223. 
 
 Nevius — Dr. Nevius' plan of 
 relying largely on unpaid 
 workers, 224. 
 
 Nicodemuses — One way of 
 winning them, 256. 
 
 Nominal Christian Lands — 
 Why send them missiona- 
 ries? 55. 
 
 Number of missionaries at 
 each station in various mis- 
 sions, 140 to 146. Also 133. 
 
 Number of Native Helpers, 
 169. 
 
 Number of Outstations to 
 each Station, 137. 
 
 Obedience to Law — Parental 
 law not always absolute, 17 
 and 18. To official superi- 
 ors, 46; and to civil law, 
 46, 47 and note. 
 
 Old Age — Blessings of, 360. 
 Lessons of, 361. 
 
 Originality — Need of, 23. 
 
 Orphanages— 241. 
 
 Outstations — Not having 
 enough, 137; statistics of, 
 138 and 9. 
 
 Overwork and Depression, 26. 
 
 Parental law not always ab- 
 solute, 17 and 18. 
 
 Parsonages — See Building. 
 
 Pastors — See Native Pastors. 
 
 Patience — Love that makes 
 men patient, 95. 
 
 Paul — For his ideas on tour- 
 ing, self-support, church 
 organization, etc., see Tour- 
 ing, Self-Support, Native 
 Pastors, etc. — Paul on Mars 
 Hill, 115. 
 
 Pauperizing the People, 49. 
 But for fuller details see 
 Money and Self-Support. 
 
 Pentecost — The Day of Pen- 
 tecost, 125. 
 
 Perplexity — How to lessen it, 
 92 and 94 (top of page). 
 
394 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dishonest perplexity, 76. 
 Silence often more helpful 
 than talk at such times, 104. 
 Also see Standing Still and 
 Essentials versus Non-Es- 
 sentials. 
 
 Persecution— Its benefits, 71. 
 Not always wholly unde- 
 served, 71. Appealing to 
 the law for protection, 72. 
 How to make it less bitter, 
 248. Saul and Paul con- 
 trasted, 49 and 71. Also 
 see Misunderstandings. 
 
 Perseverance, 93. 
 
 Personal Work — Should be 
 more systematic, 309. Men 
 more apt to neglect it than 
 women, 352 and 3, 
 
 Philanthropy— Difference be- 
 tween mere philanthropic 
 work and missionary work 
 proper. See Poverty, Or- 
 phanages, etc. 
 
 Philosophy — Mr. Wheeler's 
 philosophy of life; and also 
 his ideas of philosophy, in- 
 ductive, speculative and 
 practical, 27. Also his hab- 
 its of thought, 107. 
 
 Philosophy of Education- 
 See Chapter Fifteen (p. 
 289) and Chapter Eleven 
 (p. 168). 
 
 Planting Churches, 147. 
 
 Politics in the Pulpit, 33. 
 
 Positive Doctrine— Impor- 
 tance of preaching a posi- 
 tive Gospel, 122. Fatal ef- 
 fects of mere negation, 123. 
 A woid of caution to pro- 
 gressive thinkers, 84. 
 
 Poverty — Its bearings on self- 
 support, 192 to 96. Help- 
 ing the poor, 243. "I am 
 too poor," 206. Shall books 
 be given free to the poor? 
 238. 
 
 Practicalness or Practical 
 Wisdom, 88. Also see 
 Common-Sense. 
 
 Praising People, 96. 
 
 Prayer — Praying for his pu- 
 pils, one by one, 306. An- 
 swered and unanswered 
 prayers, 80. Family pray- 
 ers, 106. Teaching women 
 how to pray, 342. 
 
 Prayer Meetings — Should not 
 be compulsory, 312. 
 
 Preaching the Gospel — Four 
 ways of preaching, 68. Im- 
 portance of preaching a 
 positive gospel, 122. Also 
 see Public Speaking. 
 
 Prejudice — And how to deal 
 with it, 114. 
 
 Primary Schools— See Com- 
 mon Schools. 
 
 Principles versus Rules, 123. 
 
 Printing Presses, 305. 
 
 Prizes— A New Way of 
 Awarding Them, 318. 
 
 Progress in the History of 
 Missions, 52, 
 
 Promotion in our schools 
 should be conditional on 
 character, 331. 
 
 Pruning — Need of pruning, 
 283; of chastening, 202. 
 Punishment and repen- 
 
 • tance, 61 and 285. 
 
 Public Speaking — Four ways 
 of preaching, 68. Public 
 speaking and strictly pas- 
 toral work contrasted, 29. 
 
 Pugnacity not a good thing, 32. 
 
 Punishment — Punishing evil 
 doers, 72. Punishment and 
 repentance, 61 and 285. 
 Future punishment, 83. 
 Also see Pruning. 
 
 Putting on Airs, 218. 
 
 Raising Money — In America, 
 266. Raising it abroad, see 
 Self-Support. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 395 
 
 Rationalism — A cure for, 311. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler's dread of, 
 
 310. 
 Reading Lessons for Men, 
 
 67 and 57. 
 Reading Lessons for Women, 
 
 343- 
 Reasons for writing this book, 
 
 335. . 
 
 Rebuking — Pugnacity not a 
 good thing, 32. Knowing 
 when and how to stop, 94. 
 
 Reformatory Power of Chris- 
 tianity, 'j'j. 
 
 Reformers Should not be Pug- 
 nacious, 32. 
 
 Religion — Religion and edu- 
 cation how related, 289. Re- 
 ligious duties; see Creeds, 
 Church, Character, Prayer, 
 etc. 
 
 Renting versus Building, 211. 
 
 Respect — For even fallen hu- 
 man nature, 95. For the 
 people among whom we 
 work, 184. 
 
 Retrenchment — How to face 
 it rightly, 260. 
 
 Romance — The Romance of 
 Missions, 94. 
 
 Rules versus Principles, 123. 
 
 Sacraments should not be 
 made too prominent, 150, 
 Confessing Christ in simple 
 ways first, 248. 
 
 Salaries — Fixing salaries, 214 
 to 224. Working without a 
 salary, 224 and 216. Cut- 
 ting down salaries, 264 and 
 265. Missionary salaries, 
 220. 
 
 Salvation — Man's Need of a 
 Saviour, Tj. 
 
 School s — S ee Common 
 Schools, Colleges, Theolog- 
 ical Seminaries, Education, 
 Building, "Self-Support in 
 Education," etc. 
 
 Secret Lovers of the Truth — 
 One way of winning them, 
 256. 
 
 Self-Confidence, 92. 
 
 Self-Denial — Proper self-de- 
 nial, 2ig. Improper self- 
 denial, 220 and 223. Is 
 there any real self-denial 
 in missionary work? 222. 
 
 Self-Forgetfulness, 97. 
 
 Self-Government — S e 1 f-gov- 
 erning churches, 154. Ec- 
 clesiastical organizations, 
 163. Proper limits of coop- 
 eration, 164. 
 
 Selfishness— Selfish goodness, 
 33. Selfishness defined, 289 
 and footnote. 
 
 Self-Love— A duty, 289. Al- 
 so see Self-Denial and Its 
 Proper Limits. 
 
 Self-Sacrifice. See Self-De- 
 nial. 
 
 Self-SupDorting Churches — 
 The need of burden-bear- 
 ing, 188 and 249. "But the 
 people are too poor," 192. 
 How soon should a church 
 be formed? 196. How soon 
 should a church become 
 wholly self-supporting? 
 198. To whom should mis- 
 sion grants be made? 200. 
 Should the churches have 
 a common treasury? 201. 
 Making all grants condi- 
 tional, 201. Who shall cir- 
 culate the subscription pa- 
 per? 203. Building church- 
 es, schools and personages, 
 209 and 155. How to deal 
 with churches already form- 
 ed on a wrong financial ba- 
 sis, 212. Paying too high 
 salaries, 214. Relying too 
 much on unpaid workers, 
 224. "But why should the 
 people give?" 249 and 188. 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 How much should they 
 give? And when should 
 they begin to give? 
 249 and 251. A few impor- 
 tant statistics, 272. A 
 glance at some other mis- 
 sions; or progress all round 
 the world, 274. A compar- 
 ison of different boards, 
 280. Also see need of 
 pruning, 283; and the need 
 of more definite compara- 
 tive statistics, 286. 
 
 Self-Support in Educational 
 Matters— Self-Support i ng 
 common schools, 291. Help- 
 ing or not helping students 
 financially, 239. Details in 
 boys' department, 301; De- 
 tails in female department, 
 356. In theological semi- 
 nary, 183. 
 
 Self-Supporting Missionaries 
 and Pastors— "Let him sup- 
 port himself;" as the mean 
 man says it, 205; as enthu- 
 siasts say it, 224. 
 
 Selling Books— See Books. 
 
 Seminaries — See Theological 
 Seminaries, Female Educa- 
 tion, Colleges, etc. 
 
 Service as a test of character, 
 156. 
 
 Silence — Being too silent, 40. 
 Less silent in later years, 
 363. Not being silent 
 enough, 104. Silent wit- 
 nesses, 159. 
 
 Sin — See Depravity. 
 
 Skill— Need of ever increas- 
 ing skill, 143 and 372. 
 
 Slavery — The Slavery Ques- 
 tion in 1853, p. 32. 
 
 Slow and Sure, 29, note. But 
 also see Sure. 
 
 Spain — Progress of Self-Sup- 
 port in, 277 and 79. 
 
 Spasmodic Giving — Or the 
 spasmodic stage in giving, 
 280. 
 
 Special Contributions, so 
 called, 269. 
 
 Standing Still — The-powerto 
 stand still, 104. 
 
 Station Classes for Theo- 
 logues, 186. 
 
 Station Classes for Laymen 
 and Laywomen, 347 and 8. 
 
 Station Meetings — Boyhood's 
 memories of, 61. 
 
 Statistics — Of Harpoot work 
 in general, 272. Of pro- 
 gress of self-support at 
 Harpoot, 274. 01 progress 
 of self-support in other 
 parts of the world, 274 and 
 280. Of number of out- 
 stations in various missions, 
 137. Of number of mis- 
 sionaries at each station in 
 various missions, 140; of 
 native helpers, 169. The 
 need of more definite com- 
 parative statistics, 286. 
 
 Study — Mr. Wheeler's Con- 
 ception of, 107. 
 
 Studying Characte r — See 
 Character. 
 
 Subscription Papers — How to 
 Circulate them, 203 to 209. 
 
 Summer Schools, 185. 
 
 Superintendents — N e e d of 
 traveling local superintend- 
 ents, 100 and 266. Also see 
 Expert Financiers. 
 
 Support of Students — S e e 
 Helping Students. 
 
 Sure — Be sure you are right, 
 86. Take time to decide 
 right, 118. Do not waste 
 your energy on matters of 
 no importance, or those 
 which cannot be wisely set- 
 tled till later, 92. Slow and 
 sure, 29, note. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 Swapping Labor (Pastor and 
 People,) 254. 
 
 Taylor — J. Hudson Taylor on 
 Touring, 328. 
 
 Teachableness — How does it 
 differ from childishness, 91. 
 
 Teachers — How to get the 
 best ones, 2go, 292, etc. A 
 teacher's personal influ- 
 ence, 292. Need of truly 
 Christian teachers, 292. 
 
 Teaching People how to 
 Read, 6-]. 
 
 Teaching Bible Classes, 176. 
 
 Teaching Homiletics, 177. 
 
 Teaching Men How to Think, 
 177. 
 
 Teaching Churches How to 
 Work, 147. 
 
 Tenderness, 109. 
 
 Tenth — Giving a Tenth, 259. 
 
 Theological Seminaries — Lo- 
 cation and number of, 186. 
 Terms of admission, 171 to 
 175; also 176. Course 
 of study in, 176 to 
 183. Support of students, 
 183. The student after 
 graduation, 184. 
 
 Thinking Lessons — For the- 
 ologues, 177. For boys of 
 all ages, 316. Over-thought- 
 fulness, 87. The difference 
 between our seeing and 
 thinking faculties, 86, note. 
 
 Time — The shortness of, no 
 excuse for blundering, 118. 
 
 Tithing, 259. 
 
 Too Few Missionaries at a 
 Station, 140. 
 
 Too many— Too many pupils, 
 345. Having too many 
 missionaries at some sta- 
 tions, 141. Having too 
 many irons in the fire, 143. 
 
 Touring (or Itinerating) — Im- 
 portance of touring, 57. 
 
 How much touring shall we 
 do.? 128. How large a dis- 
 trict shall we cover? 130. 
 
 Tract Distribution, 237. Al- 
 so see Books. 
 
 Traveling Superintendents, 
 100 — Also see Expert Fi- 
 nanciers and Annual Meet- 
 ings. 
 
 Treasury Problems — Local 
 church treasuries, 200. 
 Should the native churches 
 have a common treasury? 
 201. Special contributions, 
 269. For still others see 
 Money and Self-Support. 
 
 Trust Funds — Proper use of, 
 217. Misuse of, 245. 
 
 Turkey— Progress of self-sup- 
 port in, 277 and 279. But 
 also see self-support in Har- 
 poot, 274 and 251. 
 
 Union Churches— A good 
 thing, 150. But should be 
 divided as soon as possible, 
 
 155- 
 
 Union Missionary Societies, 
 162. 
 
 Unsuccessful Stations — How 
 to deal with them, 265 and 
 144.. Also see Pruning. 
 
 Unwilling Giver s — Reasons 
 for sometimes forcing men 
 to give unwillingly, 257. 
 
 Vernacular Education — See 
 "English; Shall we teach 
 it?" 
 
 Visiting from House to House 
 — As a help in pioneer work, 
 61. As a help in reaching 
 women, 357. 
 
 "Wages — Of carpenters, day- 
 laborers, etc., 246. Of min- 
 isters, teachers, etc., see Sal- 
 aries. 
 
 Weekly Offerings, 209. 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wheeler Rev. C. H. — For a 
 statement of Mr. Wheeler's 
 beliefs and methods of work 
 the reader is referred to top- 
 ics like Touring, Teaching, 
 Church-Planting, Money, 
 Self-Support, Love, Prayer, 
 Bible Study, Education, etc. 
 What we give here is sim- 
 ply a few biographical data. 
 — Mr. Wheeler's boyhood, 
 17. His college life, 19. 
 His mother, 17, 26, 39 and 
 42. Experiences as a young 
 teacher, 22. Studying for 
 the ministry, 26. Pastorate 
 at Warren, 29. Departure 
 for Turkey, 38. Appoint- 
 ment to Harpoot, 47. Jour- 
 ney to Harpoot and arrival 
 there, 49, List of his pub- 
 lished works, 333. Mr. 
 Wheeler as an educator, 
 337. Home life, 105. Old 
 age, 360. Final return to 
 America, 366. Going home 
 to heaven, 370. 
 
 Wheeler, Mrs. C. H. — Early 
 life and marriage, 23 and 
 30. Serious illness, 42. La- 
 bors for Yankton College, 
 
 25, note. Labors for Eu- 
 phrates College, 351. 
 
 "Whom He Loveth He Chas- 
 teneth," 202. Also see 
 Pruning. 
 
 "Whosoever Hath, to Him 
 Shall be Given," 61 and 
 
 134- 
 
 Wmning Men by Example — 
 See Example. 
 
 Wisdom — Helps in acquiring 
 It, 88. Lack of practical 
 wisdom a common cause of 
 failure, 84. 
 
 Women — Women's rights in 
 Turkey, 343. Teaching 
 them how to read, 343. 
 House to house visitation 
 among, 357. Female edu- 
 cation, 341. 
 
 Worry — How to escape from 
 it, 87. But also see Hope- 
 fulness. 
 
 Young Men — Their place 
 in history; or what they 
 can do and what they can't, 
 364 and 29, note. 
 
 Zulus -Progress of self-sup- 
 port in Zulu mission, 277 
 and 79. 
 
Books by The Same Author; Published by the 
 Better Way Publishing Co. 
 
 A PLEDGE OF LOVE. 
 
 A collection of ideals for earnest and thoughtful readers. — It 
 discusses The Importance of Love, The Love of God, The 
 Love of Right, (or true self-love) and The Love of Man; also 
 the Giving and Asking of Love, Love's Law of Growth, Love's 
 Future and Love at Work. Price, 15 cents. 
 
 THE BETTER WAY. 
 
 A BOOK OF SIMPLE HELPS 
 
 FOR MOMENTS OF NEED. 
 
 Containing four hundred very short and simple talks on the 
 Pleasantness of Being Good, and how to get started in do- 
 ing it; gathered from the author's own experience in helping 
 men. — A book which grows more and more helpful, as we 
 come to realize more clearly how often success depends on 
 seemingly little things; and so live more carefully and con- 
 tentedly. — Price, bound in cloth and very fully indexed, 65 
 cents. 
 
 A Pledge For Every Day Life. 
 
 Price 5 cents a dozen, or 15 cents a hundred. — The writer of 
 these pledges and books also takes pleasure in answering hard 
 questions in person or by mail; provided the asker is one who 
 really wants to do better; each one being allowed to send as 
 fee whatever they can afford. (Mr. Wheeler's private address 
 is 1025 First Avenue, Grinnell, Iowa, though letters sent to our 
 care will also reach him safely.) 
 
 For club rates on above books and price list of "Self-Supporting Churches" 
 see next page. 
 
 399 
 
Club Rates, Special Discounts, etc., on "Self-Sup- 
 porting Churches and How to Plant Them." 
 
 Regular price, bound in cloth; by mail 
 
 or otherwise, $i.po. 
 
 Same to missionaries, both home and 
 
 foreign, 75 cents. 
 
 Four or more copies, to the same or 
 different addresses in any part of 
 the world, 50 cents each. 
 
 Twenty or more copies, sent direct 
 to workers in any part of the 
 world, 40 cents each. 
 
 One hundred copies, 35 cents each. 
 
 (All of the above cloth bound and post- 
 age prepaid.) 
 
 We should also be glad to receive the names of any mission- 
 aries or friends of missions to whom you would like to have 
 copies of the book sent for examination; simply askmg you to 
 send 15 cents with each name to pay expenses; (10 cents for 
 postage on book one way; 2 cents for letter of notification; and 
 3 cents for wear and tear on books.) 
 
 For "Pledge of Love," "Better Way," "Self-Supporting 
 Churches" and a set of the smaller leaflets, all sent to 'one ad- 
 dress, our price is a dollar and forty-five cents. 
 
 Better Way Publishing Co., 
 
 Grinnell, Iowa, U. S. A. 
 
 Please do not send checks and drafts for small sums; as 
 the banks charge us 10 cents apiece for cashing them! except 
 when drawn on Boston, New York, Chicago, and a few other 
 leading cities. Postoffice money orders are better in most 
 
 cases, 
 
 400