^^ OF Pftfi^ JAN 2 5 1993 BV 2360 .S87 A3 1906 Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. The first two decades of the Student Volunteer Movement ^HE FIRST TWO DECADES OF THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION NASHVILLE — FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH — MARCH FOURTH NINETEEN HUNDRED and SIX New York THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT THREE WEST TWENTY-NINTH STREET TKe First T-wo Decades of tHe Student Volunteer Movement The year 1906 is a year of two anniversaries of unusual interest and significance to the student world. It is the twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions at Mt. Hemion, and also the centennial anniversary of the American for- eign missionary enterprise which began with the mem- orable Haystack Prayer-meeting at Williams College in 1806. It is a suggestive coincidence that the earnest band of Christian students at Williams and the hundred stu- dent delegates who volunteered at Mt. Hermon had before them the common ambition of creating and extending a student missionary movement. The conditions, how- ever, for the development of an intercollegiate society were y not favorable in the days of the Haystack Band. In those days the colleges were few and isolated. The means of communication were poor. The intercollegiate idea had not been worked out in any other department of col- lege life. There were no strong religious societies of under- graduates to furnish the field and atmosphere for a com- prehensive missionary movement. The situation had entirely changed eighty years later when 251 delegates from eighty-nine colleges of all parts of the United States and Canada assembled at Mt. Her- mon on the banks of the Connecticut for the first inter- national Christian student conference ever held. They came together as representatives of an intercollegiate Christian society with branches in over 200 colleges. There was a corresponding movement among the college women of the country. There were two others among 3 the theological students of the United States and Canada respectively. These societies, closely bound together by the intercollegiate tie, furnished the most favorable con- ditions for a successful missionary propaganda. Although at the beginning of this conference less than a score of the delegates were thinking of becoming missionaries, by its close one hundred had indicated their willingness and desire, God permitting, to become foreign missionaries. The story of the spread of this missionary uprising to all parts of the student field of North America is familiar and need not be repeated. It has seemed appropriate, in view of the anniversary character of our Convention this year, to depart from the custom of confining our report to the progress of the preceding quadrennium and instead to survey the achievements of the Volunteer Movement during the two decades of its history and make a forecast of the tasks confronting us in the new decade upon which we now enter. It will be well to reiterate the fourfold purpose of the Volunteer Movement, namely, (1) to lead students to a thorough consideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them as a life-work ; (2) to foster the purpose of all students who decide to become foreign missionaries, by helping to guide and to stimulate them in mission study and in work for missions until they pass under the immed- iate direction of the mission boards; (3) to unite all volun- teers in an organized, aggressive movement; (4) to create and maintain an intelligent, sympathetic, active interest in foreign missions among the students who are to remain on the home field in order that they may back up this great enterprise by their prayers, their gifts, and their efforts. Thus it will be seen that this Movement is not a missionary society or board in the sense of being an organ- ization to send out to the foreign field its own missionaries. It is rather a recruiting society for the various missionary boards. Its highest ambition is to serve the Church. The field for the cultivation of which the Movement holds itself responsible is the student field of the United States and Canada. This embraces all classes of institu- tions of higher learning, both denominational and unde- nominational. The Movement is under the direction of an Executive Committee composed of six representatives of the Student Young Men's and Yoimg Women's Christian Associations, which, as is well known, are the two compre- hensive Christian organizations among students of North America. There is an Advisory Committee made up of secretaries and members of several of the principal mission boards of North America, and also a Board of Trustees. ., Before this Movement was a year old. President McCosh |' of Princeton said of it in writing to The Philadelphian, i "The deepest feeling which I have is that of wonder as to what this work may grow to. Has any such offering of living young men and young women been presented in our age, in our countr}^ in any age, or in any country since the Day of Pentecost?" The Church certainly had a right to expect that a movement with such a personnel, operating in such a field as that of the colleges and theo- , logical seminaries of North America, engaged in an under- taking so sublime and inspiring as the evangelization of the world, would accomplish large and beneficent results. That this has been the case will be apparent as we con- sider in outline a number of the outstanding facts of pro- gress which have been achieved by this Movement during its short life of twenty years. The Volunteer Movement has touched by its propaganda nearly if not quite 1,000 institutions of higher learning in North America. Upon 800 of these institutions it has brought to bear one or more of its agencies with such con- stancy and thoroughness as to make an effective missionary impression. This includes nearly all of the American and Canadian colleges and theological seminaries of importance. In the case of a large majority of these institutions the work of the Movement has been the first real missionary cultivation which they have ever received. It is the testi- mony of professors and other observers that even in the rest of the institutions which had already been influenced in different ways by the missionary idea, the Volunteer Movement has very greatly developed missionary interest and activity. There are few student communities in which the spirit of missions is not stronger and more fruitful because of the work of the Student Volunteer Movement. As a result of the visits of its secretaries, the training of leaders for student missionary activities at the various student conferences, the promotion of its mission study scheme, and the pressing upon educated young men and women of the claims of the world-wide extension of Christ's King- dom at its great international conventions and on other occasions, the subject of missions has taken a stronger hold on the student class of North America than has any other theme or undertaking. The vital importance and moral grandeur of the missionary enterprise have been presented in such a way as to command the respect and allegiance of the educated classes. It may be said with truth that no class of people believe so strongly in missions as do the students. This is a fact of the largest possible significance because from their ranks come the leaders in the realm of thought and also of action. As a result of disseminating missionary intelligence, of personal effort on the part of student volunteers and traveling secretaries, and of the promotion of the ministry of intercession, not to mention other causes, the Movement has increased greatly the number of missionary candidates. Thousands of students have become volunteers by signing the volunteer declaration, thus indicating their desire and purpose, God permitting, to become foreign missionaries. This campaign for missionary recruits has been waged with earnestness for five student generations. Profiting by mistakes made in the early years of its history, the Move- ment has become more and more conservative in this work of raising up missionary candidates. No one familiar with the methods now employed finds ground for unfavorable criticism. Some mission board secretaries have recently raised the question whether the Movement has not swung in its policy to an extreme of caution and conservatism. Notwith- standing the ultra-conservative policy in recent years, the number of students intending to become missionaries is ,' over five times as great in the colleges and fully twice as ' great in the theological seminaries as was the case when the Volunteer Movement was inaugurated. This is no small achievement, because it is not easy to influence young men and young women to become missionaries. The many 6 misconceptions and prejudices concerning the missionary call, the opposition of relatives and friends, the prevailing spirit of mercantilism and materialism, and the tendency to inconclusive thinking among so many students, com- bine to render the work of securing missionary recruits one of extreme difficulty. A larger number of new volunteers have been enlisted during the past four years than during any one of the three preceding quadrenniums. The growing number of missionary candidates stands out in striking contrast with the decline in the number of can- didates for the Christian ministry. Some people have thought that the increase in the number of student volun- teers accounts for the decrease in the number of ministerial candidates. This is a superficial view; for actual investi- gations show that in those colleges where the claims of foreign missions have been most successfully emphasized there has been the largest increase in the number of men deciding to enter the ministry. If the Volunteer Movement has been more successful in its effort to obtain recruits than has the propaganda for ministerial candidates, this result is due to the methods it has employed, the earnest- ness with which these methods have been promoted, and the motives to which appeal has been made. Because the Volunteer Movement is a movement and because it is a movement for foreign missions, the princi- pal proof of its efficiency is to be found in the going forth of its members to the foreign mission field. No matter what its other achievements may be, nothing can take the place of this result. This is its distinctive mission. It is gratifying therefore to note that the Movement has on its records the names of 2,953 volunteers who, prior to Janu- ary 1 , 1906, had sailed to the mission field. At the Toronto Convention the hope was expressed that during the next quadrennium 1,000 volunteers might go forth. It is a striking coincidence that the number who have sailed dur- ing the past four years so far as we have information is an even 1,000. About one-third of the sailed volunteers are women. Not less than fifty denominations are repre- sented in the sailed list. Including the regular denominational boards under which nearly all of the volunteers have gone out, and also certain undenominational and special societies, the number of different agencies under which volunteers are serving is very nearly one hundred. While the greatest proportion are engaged in evangelistic work, a large number have entered medical and educational missions, and every other phase of missionary activity is represented in the forms of service in which the volunteers are occupied. The sailed volunteers are distributed as follows: Among Indians and Eskimos of Alaska and British North America 39 Mexico... 86 Central America 17 South America - 1 67 West Indies G9 Latin and Greek Church Countries of Europe 18 Africa - ^13 Turkish Empire 121 Arabia 10 Persia 30 India, Burma, and Ceylon 624 Siam. Laos, and Straits Settlements 61 Chma ■ 826 Korea _ 117 Japan 275 Philippine Islands 64 Oceania 43 Miscellaneous 73 • Total - 2,953 The question is sometimes raised, Would not many of these volunteers have gone abroad even had there been no Volunteer Movement? A question like this can never be completely answered. A somewhat extensive investi- gation involving interviews with a large number of volun- teers in different foreign fields by a member of the Execu- tive Committee of the Movement, has furnished data for the conclusion that about seventy-five per cent, of the sailed volunteers assign the work of the Movement as the 8 determining cause in influencing them to go abroad in missionary service. Reasons could be given for increasing this proportion. It should be pointed out also that quite a number who never signed the volunteer declaration have reached the foreign field as a direct result of the Movement. Volunteers whose missionary decision is traceable to other causes testify that the Movement did much to strengthen their purpose, to help them in preparation for tlieir life- work, and to hasten their going abroad. Further proof that this organization is well characterized as a movement is its increasing momentum. Two and one-half times as many volunteers have sailed during the last ten years as during the preceding ten years. Nothing illustrates the spirit of this Movement better than the way in which its leaders have pressed to the front. Of the sixty-nine members of the Executive Committee and sec- n retaries of the Movement who have been volunteers, forty- ^^ eight have sailed, six have applied to the boards but have been detained by them for missionary purposes, five are under appointment to sail in the near future, two are securing final preparation, and eight have thus far been unable to go on account of poor health ; none have renounced their purpose. Secretaries of the mission boards testify that the Move- ment has been helpful in making possible the raising of the standards of qualifications of intending missionaries. During the past twelve years in particular it has empha- sized that those who are to become missionaries should possess the highest qualifications. It invariably encour- ages students to take a regular and thorough college or , university course and to press on to such graduate courses as may be required by the agencies under which they expect to go abroad. It urges upOn students that when- ever practicable they should supplement the regular courses by special studies in departments of learning which will better equip them for the difficult and responsible task of laying secure foundations in non-Christian fields. The promotion of the progressive study of missions through its educational department has in itself been a most helpful influence in preparation for the missionary career. Leading board secretaries have repeatedly empha- sized the indispensable value of the educational depart- ment of the Movement in affording facilities for securing such knowledge of missionary subjects. The volunteers as a rule have been encouraged to throw themselves into the active work of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations during their student days. This has helped to develop their executive, administrative, and inventive abilities. It has accustomed them to working with others. It has given them experience in personal evangelism, which is one of the principal methods they will employ all their lives on the foreign field. It would be impossible to over-state the importance of the service which the Movement has rendered in guiding and stimu- lating volunteers to fonn right devotional habits such as that of personal Bible study, secret prayer, the observance of the Morning Watch, and the practice of religious medi- tation, because those who are familiar with the conditions which obtain on the mission field know that when these habits are not formed during undergraduate days it is a most difficult and discouraging experience to try to form them after one enters upon missionary service. Above all the Movement insists that each volunteer should come to know in actual personal experience day by day Jesus Christ as the only sufficient Saviour, and the Spirit of God as the only adequate power in Christian service. It is evident, therefore, that the Movement in ways like these has accomplished much in promoting a higher quality of missionary effort as truly as it has increased the volume of missionary service. From the beginning the Volunteer Movement has ob- served in its policy the principle of the cantilever bridge; that is, that the one way to make possible the thrusting forth and sustaining of the volunteers who constitute the foreign arm of the service is by enlisting the intelligent, sympathetic, and active support of the students who are to spend their lives in work on the home field and who in turn constitute the home arm of the service. The old antithesis between the claims of the home and foreign fields has, therefore, as a result of this policy been rapidly disappearing. Each volunteer who sails means more than one additional helper in this world-wide missionary cam- paign. He stands for a constituency of his fellow students who largely as a result of his going have acquired a special interest in the enterprise and have come to feel a sense of responsibility for its successful accomplishment. Thousands of young men and young women in the col- leges are year by year entering other callings with the missionary spirit. Great as has been the service rendered by the Movement in helping to make the coming ministry of the Church a missionary ministry, a service equally great and in some respects more needed has been that of influencing the men who are to become the statesmen, lawyers, doctors, editors, teachers, engineers, and educated commercial and industrial leaders to recognize and to accept their personal responsibility for the extension of Christ's Kingdom throughout the world. Moreover, in interesting in the missionary cause the educated young men who are later to represent us in the diplomatic, con- sular, civil, military, and naval service in distant parts of the world, the Movement has greatly strengthened the hands of foreign missions. It is a fact of unusual interest and significance that nineteen of the present secretaries of twelve foreign mission boards have come from the ranks of the Movement. Several of these men were called to this work after they had rendered service on the foreign mission field. Before the Volunteer Movement was organized compara- tively little was being done to inform, still less to educate students on the subject of foreign missions. In a few institutions missionary meetings were held from time to time. Now and then a missionary' on furlough would visit a college or seminary. But as soon as the Movement entered the field it inaugurated an educational missionary campaign which has become increasingly extensive and efficient. Formerly, not one student in twenty had the subject of missions brought to his attention. Now few if any Christian students pass through college without being brought face to face with the most important facts about the non-Christian world and the missionary responsibility of the Church. It is now the general rule for each student Christian Association to hold regular missionary meet- ings. A large staff of traveling secretaries of the Volun- .Y' teer Movement make effective appeals in hundreds of col- leges and seminaries each year. Scores of returned mis- sionaries are invited to visit the different institutions. Missionary libraries have been established in most impor- tant student centers. Missionary lectureships have been inaugurated in several of the theological seminaries and in a few colleges. Most of these advances are traceable directly to the Volunteer Movement. By far the greatest service, however, in promoting mis- sionary education has been through its educational depart- ment which was organized twelve years ago. At that time an investigation revealed that in all the student field of North America there were less than a score of classes car- rying on a progressive study of missions. Since then the Movement has organized mission study classes in 668 dif- ferent institutions. During the past year there were 1,049 mission classes with an enrollment of 12,629 different stu- dents. As an indication that this work is growing rapidly it need only be pointed out that at Toronto four years ago it was reported that there were but 325 classes with an enrollment of less than 5,000. Fully three-fourths of the members of these classes are not volunteers. This in itself is a further indication of the great change which has come over the college world; for, a generation ago the special study of mission subjects was confined almost exclusively to those students who, themselves, expected to become foreign missionaries. The object of the educational department of the Move- ment is to stimulate systematic, thorough, and progressive lines of study by volunteer bands, mission study classes, and individual students. Much of the success of this department of the work is due to the fact that for several years there has been an educational secretary to devote himself exclusively to its interests. Mr. D. Willard Lyon occupied this responsible post for one year before going to China, and during the eleven subsequent years Mr. Harlan P. Beach has held the position. During this period the Movement has authorized the use of thirty-six differ- ent courses of mission study either written or adapted for use among students. Prior to this there were no mission text-books available. Seventeen of these courses have been prepared entirely under the auspices of the Move- ment. Among the principal contributions to missionary learning have been such books as "The Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions," "Dawn on the Hills of T'ang," and "India and Christian Opportunity," by Beach ; "Japan and Its Regeneration" by Gary; and "The Relig- ions of Mission Fields as Viewed by Protestant Missiona- ries" by different authors. Several of the text-books of the Movement have had a sale of ten thousand or more copies and three of them a sale of twenty thousand or more. The promotion of mission study has greatly stim- ulated reading on missions. This in turn has led to the building up of large collections of missionary books in many of the colleges and seminaries. Without doubt, stu- dents as a class, in proportion to their numbers, constitute the largest purchasers and readers of missionary litera- ture. There are marked advantages in connection with this mission study work. It is developing an intelligent and strong missionary interest. It is doing much to make such interest permanent. It is an invaluable help in pre- paring missionary candidates for their life-work. It is making the conditions favorable for the multiplying of the number of capable volunteers. It is developing right habits of praying and giving for missions. It is promot- ing reality in Christian experience. It is equipping those who are to become leaders at home to be real citizens of a world-wide kingdom. When such writers as Benjamin Kidd, Captain Mahan, John W. Foster, and Professor Reinsch have emphasized so strongly, on the commercial and political sides alone, that the leaders of our own time must know the life of the peoples of the non-Christian world and prepare to enter into relations with them, it is most fortunate that the Volunteer Movement affords such favorable facilities for accomplishing this desired end. Not a little has been done by the Movement to improve the provision in theological seminaries for missionary in- struction. Two conferences of theological professors for the discussion of this most vital question were called by the Volunteer Movement. To these special conferences as well as to the discussions in the meetings of professors at the international conventions are traceable some of the most important advance steps yet taken in this direc- tion. In considering the great progress which is now being made by the Young People's Missionary Movement and by denominational young people's societies, it should be noted that Mr, Beach has sustained an advisory relation to this part of their work, and their leaders bear testimony that he has rendered indispensable service. Similar tes- timony has also been given by workers in the women's boards in connection with which there has also been marked advance in the promotion of mission study. No better evidence could be given of the real worth of the splendid work accomplished by Mr. Beach as educational secretary than the fact that Yale University has appointed him to the new professorship of the Theory and Practice of Mis- sions. The Movement has sought to enlist the financial co- operation of students. When it began its work less than $10,000 a year was being contributed toward missionary objects by all the institutions of the United States and Canada. Last year 25,000 students and professors gave over $80,000, of which $00,000 was given to foreign mis- sions. This is an increase of fifty per cent, over what was reported at the Toronto Convention four years ago. If the members of the various churches gave on a correspond- ing scale the various mission boards would not be troubled by the financial problem, for that would mean to them an income of over $50,000,000 a year. Seventy institutions gave $300 or more each. Many colleges and theological seminaries are now supporting entirely or in large part their own representative on the foreign field. The grow- ing missionary interest has culminated in the organiza- tion of large mission enterprises in some of the leading universities, such as Yale Mission, the Harvard missionary undertaking, the Princeton movement on behalf of the literati of China, and the plan of the University of Penn- sylvania to build up a medical college in Canton. As a rule students give toward some regular missionary object and in all cases are giving toward enterprises which have the approval of the mission boards. M An increasing number of the largest givers to foreign missions in our various churches trace their missionary interest to the influence exerted upon them by the Volun- teer Movement during undergraduate days. There are a great many recent graduates who as a result of this influ- ence are now supporting missionaries as their own sub- stitutes. The Movement in promoting the support of a missionary by a college or seminary has familiarized the churches with the idea of the support of an individual missionary by an individual congregation. Hundreds of theological seminary graduates, with this object lesson fresh in mind, have gone out into the churches to lead them to adopt a similar plan. The existence of the Vol- unteer Movement with its large and increasing number of intending missionaries constitutes possibly the strong- est basis of appeal to the churches to increase their gifts to missions. The experience of the field workers of the different boards clearly establishes this point. It is also being used by the Young People's Missionary Movement as an unanswerable argument in its work among the mul- titude of young people in the churches. Important as has been the work of the Volunteer Move- ment as an agency to promote the evangelization of for- eign mission lands, many consider that it has exerted an equally indispensable influence on the development of the best Christian life at home. Its direct and indirect influence on the religious life of the student communities has been very great indeed. Who can measure its effect on the faith of the students of this generation? It has greatly strengthened their belief in the fundamentals of Christianity. It has enlarged the content of their faith by its contribution in the sphere of apologetics. By bringing before them the difficulties involved in the evan- gelization of the world it has exercised and developed their faith. By bringing to their attention the triumphs of Christianity in the most difficult fields it has strength- ened faith. By exhibiting to them the present day power of Christ among the nations it has tended to steady faith at a period when in the case of so many students the foundations of belief are shaken. The marvelous spirit- ual power of the Movement itself and the intimate asso- 15 elation it affords our students with the students of other lands have greatly enlarged the reach of their faith. The influence of the Movement on the religious life of students is observable also in the realm of character as well as of faith. Culture or education for culture's sake is not sufficient. Education for the development of char- acter and the increase of power to use in the service of others is the true conception which is promoted by the work of the Movement. The missionary spirit is the spirit of Christ Himself. Wherever the Volunteer Move- ment works therefore it exerts a humanizing and broad- ening influence. It promotes the spirit of brotherhood and unselfishness. It develops'the spirit of love and com- passion for men as a result of inculcating the spirit of obedience to Christ. The Movement leads men to be hon- est in dealing with evidence. It promotes decision of char- ~ acter. It requires a life of reality. It develops the heroic and self-sacrificing spirit so much needed in our time. Phillips Brooks was right in insisting that missions are necessary for the enrichment and fulfillment of the Chris- tian life. It would be difficult to over-state the value of the service rendered by the Volunteer Movement in help- ing to counteract certain perils of student life such as selfishness, intellectual pride, tendency to growing luxury and ease, materialism, and skepticism. In summoning ,. men to a life of unselfish, Christ-like service it is promot- ing the highest possible ideal. It has tremendously stimulated Christian activity in all institutions. Not least among the causes of the in- creasing movement of evangelism in the colleges has been the Volunteer Movement. A point often overlooked is the place this foreign movement has had in developing the home missionary spirit. If Jacob Riis is right in his contention that every dollar given to foreign missions develops ten dollars worth of energy for dealing with the tasks at our own doors, the home missionary output of this organization through its large consecration of life as well as of time, money, and influence must have been enormous. During all these years the secretaries of the Movement as they have gone in and out among the colleges and semi- i6 naries, and conferences and conventions, have empha- sized among the students the formation of right devotional habits. Who can calculate what they have accomplished in enlisting thousands of young men and women in the habit of unselfishness and definiteness in prayer, in intro- ducing them to the best devotional literature, in induct- ing them into the habit of daily, devotional Bible study, in leading them to observe the Morning Watch? Secre- taries of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations testify that the volunteers in many places have created an atmosphere in which men have been en- abled better to discern the will of God and in which they have been energized to be obedient to their heavenly vision. The dominant note in all the work of the Move- ment has been the recognition of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This one idea of regarding one's life not as his own, but as belonging to Christ has without doubt done more to revolutionize and transform the religious life of the colleges and theological seminaries tlian any other idea which has been emphasized during the past twenty years. The Volunteer Movement early recognized that the young people of the churches furnish an ideal field for a successful propaganda in the interest of enlisting workers and supporters. Within a year after the Volunteer Move- ment was inaugurated the volunteers began to work among the young people in the churches. As far back as 189D the secretaries of one of the leading mission boards sent a letter to the Executive Committee expressing ap- preciation of the work done by the volunteers to kindle missionary spirit in the young people's societies and churches. At the first convention of the Movement held in Cleveland in 1891 one of the seven points of policy announced by the Executive Committee was the follow- ing: "Recognizing the wonderful possibilities of the various young people's societies of the day, the Volunteer Movement shall seek to spread the missionary spirit among them. It is believed that these two movements are des- tined to sustain a very important relation to each other." From that year onward an increasing number of volunteer bands and of other earnest companies of Christian stu- '7 dents have devoted themselves to developing missionary- interest among various classes of young people. The first organized effort on a denominational scale was that carried on under the leadership of Dr. F. C. Ste- phenson, a Canadian Methodist volunteer, among and through the students of his own denomination. The effort which he inaugurated in 1895 has continued to go from strength to strength and has been one of the most effective object lessons for other denominations. About the same time Mr. F. S. Brockman, one of the leaders of the Movement, without knowledge of the good work being done on these lines in Canada, was so impressed with the possibilities of awakening missionary interest among young people that he decided to give special attention to developing these possibilities. He devoted much of his time and attention for two years as the representative of the Movement in inaugurating a similar campaign in the Methodist Episcopal Church and in facilitating like efforts in several other denominations. After Mr. Brockman went to China Mr. S. Earl Taylor represented the Move- ment in carrying forward the work to a higher stage of development. This kind of work for a time was charac- terized as the student missionary campaign, by which was meant an organized effort by students both volun- teers and non-volunteers to communicate to the churches through the young people their missionary knowledge, enthusiasm, and consecration, as well as to introduce among them their practical methods and agencies. Many denominational enterprises of this kind were thus pro- moted directly and indirectly by the Volunteer Movement. Some of the most successful were carried on by individual bands, such as the Yale Band, and the bands of Denison University, Northwestern University, and Wooster Uni- versity. In the first stages, the work of developing this kind of activity in the different denominations and among the various bands was financed largely by the Volunteer Movement. Two conferences of leaders of such activities in the different denominations were called and conducted by the Movement in 1899 and 1900. All along, however, it has been the policy of the Exec- utive Committee not to take on such work as a permanent i8 feature of the Volunteer Movement, but to encourage its organization as an independent movement working on parallel lines to the Volunteer Movement either in the different denominations or as an interdenominational arrangement. The organization in July, 1902, of the Young People's Missionary Movement was regarded, there- fore, as clearly providential. This comprehensive, inter- denominational agency has the responsibility for the cul- tivation of the missionary spirit among all classes of young people apart from those in the student field. It is under the direction of a committee composed of representatives of the missionary societies. It holds summer conferences, conducts missionary institutes at metropolitan centers, promotes mission study, prepares suitable programs and literature for Sunday-schools and young people's organi- zations, issues and promotes the circulation of missionary text-books and effective leaflets, and organizes and con- ducts missionary exhibits. Its leaders and those of the Volunteer Movement are in close consultation with each other and are seeking in all ways within their power to strengthen each other's hands. The fact that the leaders of the Young People's Missionary Movement and of the different denominational missionary activities among the young have come so largely from the ranks of the student movement ensures the highest degree of unity and co-opera- tion. The possibilities of the Young People's Missionary Movement are simply boundless. If its campaign can be adequately waged, within fifteen years the entire church or Nurth America will be flooded with the missionary spirit. This in turn will make possible the going forth of the large number of recruits to be raised up by the Volun- teer Movement to meet the great need of our generation in the non-Christian world. Apart from furnishing recruits for the foreign fie d and intelligent leaders of the missionary forces of the Church at home, apart likewise from stimulating the missionary spirit among the hosts of young people, the Volunteer Movement has exerted a great influence upon the Church as a whole. The very fact of the existence of such a Movement, uniting the coming leaders of the aggressive forces of Christianity, has appealed to the imagination of 19 y the Church. The cosmopolitan sweep and growing mo- mentum and spiritual power of the enterprise has given an impression of its providential character. Christians have been encouraged by the sight of such a comprehen- sive and aggressive league to believe in the possibility of making the knowledge of Christ accessible to all mankind in our generation. The Movement has presented an irre- sistible challenge to the churches. Dr. Cuthbert Hall, in writing recently to the Bombay Guardian regarding the Church at home said, "There is an advance toward the world-view in certain sections of the Church. I attribute the advance, very largely, to the indirect influence of the Student Volunteer Movement. Our universities and col- leges are getting the world-view. They are becoming impregnated with the spirit of missions. A reflex influ- ence, radiating from university life, is smiting with new earnestness the occupants of many a pulpit and many a pew." Although this Movement has spanned but two decades, it has exerted a large influence in promoting Christian unity and co-operation among various bodies of Christians. Uniting as it does, so many of the future leaders of the Church who have spent from four to seven years or more in the most intimate spiritual fellowship and united Christian service in student life, it is not strange that this should be true. These workers going forth to the foreign field after being so closely united during the years of preparation, do not lose touch with each other. The bonds of mutual esteem and allection still unite them. Animated in their most plastic years by a common life purpose and spirit, familiar with each other's points of view, and accustomed to grapple together with difficult tasks, they would find it hard, if not impossible, not to stand together in the great conflict at the front. Face to face with the power- ' fully entrenched forces of the non-Christian religions, they recognize even more clearly than they could have done in the home lands that nothing short of unity of spirit and effort can hope to prevail. Therefore, we observe in sev- eral of the principal mission fields of the world the attract- ive and inspiring spectacle of concerted effort on the part of the volunteers who have gone out to represent the different churches of the United States, Canada,' Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, and Australasia. Already in Japan and China these volunteers from the countries of Christendom have organized national unions to promote Christian fellowship, united prayer, associated study of problems, and practical comity and co-operation. Although the volunteers are still in the minority in the different mission fields, they are wielding an infiuence out of all proportion to their numbers. What they have accomphshed to deepen the spiritual life of workers, both native and foreign, through interdenominational confer- ences has in itself been a service of such importance as to call forth most hearty expressions of appreciation from many of the oldest missionaries. Under the influence of these united volunteers, in common with other causes at work, the idea of Christian unity has been much more fully reahzed on the mission field than at home. Even greater progress would have been made abroad had it not been for the denominational ambitions and lack of vision of some of the home churches. As was clearly brought out in the recent Inter-Church Conference on Federation, the mission fields have much to teach the home churches in the practice of Chnstian imity and co-operation. The good that has been accomplished is a ground for great gratitude and confirms the prophetic words of Dr. Temple, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, who said, "The recog- nition of the common task imposed upon every variety of Christian belief will be likely indeed to do more to bring us all into one than any other endeavor that we may make." In some ways, the largest multiplication of the influence of the Volunteer Movement has been its extension to the students of other lands. It first spread as an organized enterprise to the universities and colleges of the British Isles under the leadership of Mr. Robert P. Wilder, one of the founders of the Movement. It was next transplanted to South Africa by one of the American women volunteers, although it did not assume large proportions in that part of the worid until the memorable visit of Mr. Donald Eraser and Mr. Luther D. Wishard in 1896. The leaders of the British movement, particulariy Mr. Eraser, transplanted the volunteer idea to the universities of Erance, Switzer- land, Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia. The inter- national volunteer conventions held in Great Britain have exerted an immense influence upon the further develop- ment of missionary life and activity on the Continent. While none of the Volunteer Unions on the Continent are very large, they represent a great advance, especially when the baffling difficulties of that part of the student field are borne in mind. A member of the Executive Committee of the American Movement organized the Volunteer Move- ment among the universities of Australia and New Zealand in 1896. Thus there are now Volunteer Movements organ- ized among the students in all parts of Christendom. Of all the Volunteer Unions in other lands, without doubt not only the largest, but also the strongest, is that of the British Isles. This Union has accomplished as large, if not larger, results in proportion to the number of its members than has our own Movement. One of the most significant steps in the enterprise of world evangelism was the transplanting of the volunteer idea to the schools and colleges of the Levant, India, Ceylon, China, and Japan, during the years 1895 to 1897. This also was accomplished by one of the workers of the Volunteer Movement. As a result of this action the Christian students of the Orient join hands with the Christian students of the Occident in the effort to establish the Kingdom of Christ in all the world. The student Christian movements in non-Christian lands in helping to raise up an army of native workers are striking at the heart of the problem of missions, because, if Christi- anity is to be rapidly and firmly established in these lands, there must be not only an adequate staff of foreign mis- sionaries but also strong, resourceful, self-propagating native churches. It is a well-known fact that in all countries where the Volunteer Movement is established there is a larger and more comprehensive student movement corresponding to the Student Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations of North America. It embraces in each coun- try not only volunteers, but also a much larger number of students who are not volunteers. It cultivates the whole range of Christian life and work among students. It is significant that the Student Volunteer Movement in several of these countries, especially in Great Britain, on the Con- tinent, in South Africa, and in a measure, in Asia, pioneered the way for the larger and more comprehensive enterprise. This John the Baptist service should not be overlooked in any estimate of the achievements of the Volunteer Move- ment. In 1895 there was formed the World's Student Christian Federation which now embraces all Christian student movements and societies of the different nations and races. Under the influence of the Volunteer Movement one of its three principal purposes is the missionary purpose. The study of the formation and development of this world-wide Federation of students makes plain that the missionary idea has had a larger federative and unifying power than any other influence save the uplifted Christ. It is no mere coincidence that in the very generation which has seen the whole world made open and accessible and the nations and races drawn so closely together by the influence of commerce, there has been created this world-wide student brotherhood. God has been aligning the forces for a move- ment of such magnitude as the world has never known in all the centuries. One of the mightiest factors in the influence exerted by the Volunteer Movement has been the proclamation of its Watchword, ' The Evangelization of the World in This Generation." This has been sounded out with convincing force by the workers of the Movement for twenty years in conferences and conventions, in institutes and summer schools, in books and pamphlets, in public addresses and private interviews. The exposition, defence, and advo- - cacy of this great ideal has had a great effect in shaping the convictions and purposes of the students of our time and has begun to influence powerfully the missionary life and policy of the Church. When it was first proclaimed, nearly twenty years ago, it met with distrust, unsympa- thetic questionings, and much opposition. Year by )'car it has been received with increasing favor. From the beginning, among its strongest advocates have been the missionaries, board secretaries, and travelers who are among those best acquainted with the real difficulties involved in the world's evangelization. 23 Some of the greatest missionary conferences held on the foreign field during the past ten years have emphasized the central idea of the Watchword. The appeal issued by the great ecumenical missionary conference in New York in 1900, said, ' We who live now and have this message must carry it to those who live now and are without it. It is the duty of each generation of Christians to make Jesus Christ known to their fellow creatures." The most inlluential bodies of Christians in the British Isles such as the Lambeth Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion have endorsed this Watchword. The deliver- ances of these influential conferences and conventions held in America, England, and Asia are traceable directly to the agitation carried on by the volunteers. One of the most conservative and etiective denominations in America, the United Presbyterian Church, has virtually made the carrying out of the idea of this Watchword a part of its missionary policy, so far as the parts of the non-Christian world to which it as a denomination is providentially related, are concerned. This step was taken by its General Assembly after prolonged discussion preceded by a thor- ough consideration on the part of its missions on the foreign field of the problems involved. It is believed that other denominations in this and other Christian lands are more and more coming to shape their policies in accordance with this great objective. Among the principal benefits of such a Watchword is the power that it exerts in the life of the individual student who adopts it as a personal Watchword, thus letting it govern his life plans and determine the use he makes of his time, money, nervous energy, and opportunities. It widens and enriches his sympathy. It exercises and strengthens his faith. It throws him back on the super- natural resources. It lends intensity to life. It necessi- tates a life of reality. It promotes the spirit of self-denial and heroism. It imparts vision. Comparatively weak indeed would have been the spirit and faith of the Volun- teer Movement without this ideal. Eliminate this element of urgency, which so markedly characterized the life of our Lord and the practice of the early Christians, from the Volunteer Movement, and its achievements would have 24 been insignificant in comparison with what has been accomplished. If tens of thousands of Christian students and hundreds of thousands of the other members of the churches could have given this Watchword right of way in their lives as many of the members of this Movement have done, what marvels might not have been accomplished during the past twenty years in hastening the extension of the Kingdom of Christ in the world. In no way can we reahze more fully the great change wrought in the missionary life of the student field of North America through the influence of the Volunteer Move- ment, than by contrasting the situation as it was twenty years ago before the Movement was inaugurated with that of the present time. Then, in hundreds of colleges and other institutions of higher learning, including many of the leading universities of this continent, the claims of world-wide missions were never brought before the students; now, there is scarcely an institution of prom- inence in either the United States or Canada in which the facts of missions in their relation to educated young men and women are not brought to the attention of the under- graduates of each student generation. Then, interest in the world-wide program of Christ was confined almost exclusively to the theological seminaries and a few scores of denominational colleges and with the exception of a few medical student centers was a matter of concern chiefly to those expecting to enter the ministry; now, the mis- sionary spirit is as strong in state and undenominational institutions as in most of the Christian colleges, and stu- dents of all faculties or departments of learning alike are recognizing their common opportunity and responsibility for spreading the knowledge of Christ throughout the world. Then, the attitude of students toward missions was as a rule apologetic or indifferent; now, wherever the Volunteer Movement is well established it is one of growing interest and practical co-operation. Then, there were not more than a dozen collections of up-to-date missionary books accessible to students; now, there are several hundreds of missionary libraries in the colleges and seminaries. Then, there was no such thing as the scientific and progressive study of missions carried 25 on in connection with the Christian societies of students; now, as we have seen, more than 12,000 students in over 1,000 groups with capable leaders are carrying forward such studies under the guidance of a highly developed educational department at the New York office and have access to well-nigh two scores of systematic courses of printed studies prepared primarily for use among students. Then, there was no literature devoted to the methods and means of developing missionary life and activity; now, there are many booklets and pamphlets on such subjects written for use in student communities. Then, with the exception of a series of effective conferences confined strictly to theological students there were no student missionary gatherings ; now, year by year, at thirteen sectional student conferences the college men and women of different parts of North America gather for ten days to consider among other things the world-wide interests of Christ's Kingdom, and once each student generation assemble in a great inter- national convention over 3,000 strong to view together the great battle-fields of the Church and to take counsel as to the most successful prosecution of the world-wide war. Then, there was not one person devoting his entire time to planting and developing the missionary idea among students; now, the Volunteer Movement has never less than ten secretaries in the field and at the headquarters devoting themselves exclusively to serving the missionary interests of the colleges and seminaries. Then, in only a handful of colleges were students helping missions finan- cially ; now, in over 300 different institutions there are growing financial enterprises on behalf of the world's evan- gelization and many institutions are supporting their own missionaries. Thousands of young men and women are going out from the colleges each year on graduation to throw themselves into the great work of developing, under the leadership of the Young People's Missionary Move- ment, among the millions of members in the young people's societies and in the Sunday-schools, an adequate financial constituency to sustain the growing army of student volun- teers. Then, only the most pronouncedly Christian institu- tions were furnishing missionary candidates; now, volvm- 26 teers are forthcoming from nearly all institutions of higher learning, and, as has been stated, taking the student field as a whole, the proportion of missionary candidates is five times as great in the colleges and twice as great in the seminaries as it was twenty years ago. Then, there was no missionary organization binding together missionary candidates; now, we have the Student Volunteer Move- ment for Foreign Missions organically related to similar Volunteer Unions in other countries of Protestant Christ- endom and in the principal non-Christian nations, all bound together through the more comprehensive Christian student societies of the different lands by the World's Student Christian Federation, which embraces nearly 2,000 student religious organizations with a membership of 105,000 students and professors in forty countries. Then, there was no great unifying objective; now, the student world has as an inspiring ideal to call out its heroic devo- tion and self-sacrificing zeal, the noble and apostolic pur- pose, the evangelization of the world in this generation. Great as have been the encouragements in the pathway of the work of the Volunteer Movement during the first two decades of its history, far greater things will be required of it in the new decade upon which we now enter. We are summoned to tasks of the greatest difficulty and of the most vital importance to the Kingdom. First of all we are called upon to raise up a much greater number of cap- able missionary recruits. Let us never forget that the continued strength of the Movement lies in its appeal for life. The need of more volunteers is convincing. Several mission boards are calling for a larger number of candidates than are now available. Interviews with the secretaries of the boards reveal the fact that their requirements are sure to increase rather than diminish. There must be a growing supply to meet this growing demand. Hundreds of mission stations are seriously undermanned. If this situation continues it means overwork, imperfect work, lost opportunities. Nearly every missionary has large plans for extension. As a rule their demands are supported by the most telling evidence. There are still vast regions including hundreds of millions of people which require 27 pioneer work. The need of men in these regions as well as in fields partially occupied, is not only extensive but intensive and this intensive need is indescribably great. To those who have hearts of compassion and who actually know the facts from first-hand knowledge this need con- stitutes the great pathetic fact of the world. The calls from large bodies of missionaries should in themselves command a large response on our part. Let us never for- get the strong appeal issued by the Decennial Missionary Conference held at Madras in December, 1902, in some ways the most weighty body of missionaries ever assembled, calling upon the churches of Christendom to send out to India as soon as practicable 9,000 additional missionaries. Remember also the call from the responsible missionary leaders of China two years ago asking the Christians of the home lands to double the staff of missionaries in China by the time of the Morrison Centennial in 1907. We as students should be peculiarly responsive to the appeal for large reinforcements which reached us a little over a year ago signed by the names of 343 of the volunteers of North America, Europe, and Australasia now working in the Chinese Empire. The fact that the spiritual tide is rising in every great mission field and the enterprise of missions has begun to yield on such a large scale suggests a special reason why we should press our present unprecedented advantage. To a degree not heretofore experienced this is a time of great crisis in some of the principal fields. For example, in all the history of Christianity when has there been a more momentous crisis than the one now con- fronting the Church in the Far East in the light of the Russo-Japanese war? And let us bear in mind that a great offering of the best lives of our colleges and semi- naries from year to year is absolutely indispensable to the best welfare of the United States and Canada. Without such real sacrifice we cannot hope to preserve spiritual life, a pure faith, and a conquering spirit. "The army which remains in its entrenchments is beaten." Reasons like these for a great and growing army of volunteers impose a tremendous responsibility on the Volunteer Movement. In view of our providential mis- sion, in view of God's dealings with us in the years that 28 are gone we cannot escape this responsibility if we would. And the task should not stagger the faith of any of us. This is apparent when we remember that it would take only one of every twenty Christian students who are to graduate from the institutions of higher learning of the United States and Canada during the next twenty years to furnish a sufficient number of new missionaries to make possible a large enough staff to accomplish the evangeliza- tion of the world in this generation, so far as this under- taking depends upon foreign missionaries. We can readily obtain the numbers of workers required to meet all providential calls upon us if we will but multi- ply and faithfully employ the agencies which have already proved so effective. An expansion and deepening of our educational work, a wiser use of our large opportunities at the many student conferences, a considerable enlarge- ment of our traveling secretarial stafT, a general acceptance on the part of all volunteers of the solemn responsibility resting upon them for securing new recruits, the continued conservative yet confident aggressive use of the volunteer declaration, the deepening of the spirtiual life of the col- leges and seminaries by a great expansion of the Bible study activities, the calling forth of more intercession for laborers on the part of the Christian students in general and of the pastors of the churches, the encouragement in every way in our power of the Young People's Missionary Movement in its essential work of preparing the minds and hearts of the youth before they enter colleges for the days of missionary decision — the unwearied use of these and other means will as surely result in giving us all the mis- sionary candidates needed as the operation of any other well-known laws. In all this work of enlisting new recruits we should continue to stand for quality. The ultimate success of the missionary enterprise does not depend prima- rily on vast numbers of missionaries so much as upon thoroughly furnished missionaries. For the very reason that our Watchword requires haste we, above all oth- ers, should insist on the most thorough preparation ' and training of workers, knowing full well that this will save time in the long run and enormously increase the 29 fruitage. Let it be reiterated in this Convention as it has been in all preceding conventions that our great need is not that of volunteers who will go when they are drafted, but of those who will press through the hindrances not of God to the work and place which He has appointed. Next to the demand for more volunteers of capacity is the need of young men and young women who, being providentially detained, stay at home for the express purpose of developing on this continent the strongest possible base for the adequate maintenance of this gigantic world-wide campaign of evangelism. To stay for any lower reason will defeat the object of the Movement and prevent the largest expansion of the lives of those who thus hold aloof from carrying out tlie comprehensive and sublime purposes of Christ for His Kingdom in the hearts of men. All students should be ambitious to exercise the rights and responsibilities of world citizenship. There should be no exception among those who are to work in North America as to taking the Watchword of this Move- ment as the governing principle of their lives. We should all associate our efforts to increase from among those whom God does not call to be missionaries the number of young men of large ability and genuine consecration who will devote themselves to the Christian ministry. No class of people should be more concerned with multiplying the number of efhcient ministers than the leaders and members of the Volunteer Movement; for without an adequate leadership of the 130, UOO or more parishes of the various Protestant churches of the United States and Canada it is an idle dream to talk about evangelizing the world in this generation. Those who are not providentially led into missionary service or into the ministry should devote themselves with as much earnestness and self-sacrifice and life-long persistence to the promotion of the missionary campaign as do those who are separated by the Holy Spirit unto these two callings. We must have thousands of earnest young men and young women passing out of the colleges each V year into positions of lay leadership in the forces of the Church. If in some way during the next two years ten thousand of the choicest Christian spirits of our colleges 30 could be led to specialize on the promotion of missionary life and activity among young people, it would take far less than one generation to bring up the forces of the home Church to the point of maintaining as large a campaign as that required for the realization of the Watchword. There is no unworked lead which will for a moment com- pare in financial and spiritual possibilities for world-wide missions with that of the 20,000,000 children and youth in the Sunday-schools and various Christian societies of young people in the United States and Canada. May God give the delegates of this Convention, and the tens of thousands of Christian students whom they can influence, vision to recognize and undiscourageable purpose and en- thusiasm to exploit this marvelous lead. There is need of laying hold with a far more masterly hand on the student field of North America and cultivat- ing it with such thoroughness as to realize more fully its missionary possibilities. What has been said about the achievements of the Volunteer Movement and the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations may seem to some like boasting, but these achievements when placed in contrast with what ought to have been done, what might have been done, what ought to be done, and what can be done, are meager and unsatisfactory indeed. No one recognizes the shortcomings and sins of omission and commission of these organizations more keenly than do their leaders. Well may they and their members humble themselves before God as they reflect on how poorly they have discharged their great trust. May such humiliation be so genuine as to make it possible for God to trust them with continued opportunity, that there may be more efficient and fruitful service rendered in the decade before us than in the two which have passed. The students of a nation offer an unparalleled field for any noble propaganda. Their minds are impressionable, generous, and open. The special training which they are receiving prepares them for holding a vastly dispropor- tionate share of the positions of leadership in the affairs of men. The student held of North America is ripe for far larger missionary harvests. What has been actually accomplished in certain denominational colleges, state 3> institutions, and theological seminaries shows what might be done if the causes which account for the large fruitage in these institutions are but made operative in all the other institutions. There is no reason why institutions like Ohio Wesleyan, Northwestern, Oberlin, Mt. Holyoke, Cambridge University, Alexandria Seminary, Wyclifie College, should be exceptions in this matter of yielding large missionary results. The difficulty reduces itself largely to one of close super- vision and thorough and constant cultivation. To this end the staff of secretaries of the Volunteer Movement should be largely increased so that every institution may receive at least one unhurried visit each year from an expert on student missionary matters. The traveling secretaries of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations should give much larger attention to the missionary policy of the student Associations than at present. The splendid results of such close attention on their part to the Bible study department during Ihe past two years illustrate what might be done for missions with the benefit of such co-operation. Hundreds of sym- pathetic professors should be led to assume as one of their outside specialties the developing of the missionary spirit through the promotion of the scientific and progressive study of missions. The mission boards should release for the service of the Volunteer Movement propaganda such of their returned missionaries as may be desired to ensure the adequate cultivation of the entire field. Every vol- unteer should become a propagating center for multiply- ing the number of missionaries and the number of mis- sionary leaders for the home Church. The persistent use of such means as these would result in vastly greater missionary achievements throughout the North American student field. It would make possible the doubling of the number in mission study classes before the next Convention, the large multiplication of the num- ber of institutions supporting their own missionaries, the steady increase in the number of missionary volunteers and of candidates for the Christian ministry, and the send- ing out into the ranks of the millions of young people thousands of new leaders to kindle their missionary zeal 32 and devotion. Not many years would pass before there would be in every student community at least one band of earnest students whose hearts God had purified and touched with His hand of power, that would ^constitute a veritable spiritual dynamo from which would course forth missionary light, heat, and energy. The time has come for our Movement and for the entire missionar>' enterprise to undertake things on a vastly larger scale. The conditions on the mission field favor as never before a great onward movement. The world is open and accessible as to no preceding generation. Its needs are more articulate and intelligible than ever. The forces of Christianity, both native and foreign, are widely distributed and occupy commanding positions. The forces which oppose the missionary movement have been markedly weakened. Momentous changes are in progress. On all the great battle-fields the conflict has reached the climax and if the present attack be adequately sustained, triumph is assured. The conditions on the home field are likewise favorable for taking advantage of this unparalleled situation abroad. Our missionary organizations have acquired a large fund of experience and have perfected their methods to such an extent that they are prepared for the prosecution of the campaign of evangelism on a scale and with a promise, a parallel to which the Church has never known. The material resources of the home Church are so stupendous as to constitute her principal peril. The various bodies of Christians have recently in the Inter-Church Federa- tion movement been drawn more closely together than ever for purposes of practical co-operation. ' In the student field also the outlook is most encourag- ing. The Christian student movement has a secure foot- hold in nearly every student community of North America. In the ranks of the various Christian societies of students are to be found large numbers of the young men and young women of large capacity, high attainment, and choicest spirit. The student movement has wrought out plans and methods in years of experience which prepare it for cultivating its field more effectively than in any preceding time. It has a realizing sense of its perils and is availing 33 itself of the best counsel as to how to avoid them. It commands the sympathy and co-operation of every mis- sionary agency and of the leaders of the Church. It is animated by the spirit of enterprise, faith, and victory. In view of considerations like these our Movement simply must press forward to greater tasks or decline, suffer atrophy, and give way to some new movement. What are some of the greater things to which we as a Movement should give ourselves? The leaders of the vol- unteers in different lands together with the leaders of the missionary forces should make a fresh study of the entire world field and arrive at some plan by which it will be thoroughly mapped out and adequately occupied. It is possible to accomplish this now as at no preceding time. It is absurd to as.sume that the Christian Church does not possess the requisite ability and consecration to accom- plish such an undertaking which is so obviously in accord- ance with the desires and purposes of Jesus Christ. We should not permit ourselves to entertain further doubt on this subject, until the best constructive statesmanship has been exercised upon it, and until we have given our- selves far more to prayer than we have hitherto done that this great end may be realized. We should lay siege to the Port Arthurs of the non- Christian world with the undiscourageable purpose to cap- ture them. We should not shrink or falter before such apparently impregnable fortresses as the Mohammedan world, the literati class of China, the principal citadels of Hinduism, the great strategic capital cities of Latin America. Moreover we should not be staggered by the comparative indifference, inertia, and unreality of vast bodies of Christians on the home field nor by the general materialism and worldliness of our time. This should rather lend added intensity to our attack. And let it be reiterated that another great undertaking to which we should set our hands is that of raising up by the use of all good human devices and above all by the superhuman assistance of the Spirit of the living God nothing less than a great army of volunteers of such fur- nishing that they will meet the requirements of the situa- tion and of such purpose of heart that they will reach the 34 fields. Of like magnitude and importance is the work of greatly enlarging the financial plans and achievements of the missionary movement. There are literally thousands of individuals and families, not to mention churches, which should each be supporting one or more missionaries and in many cases whole mission stations. The rising genera- tion of young people must be made a generously giving generation. The missionary enterprise must be so pre- sented as to command some benefactions as princely as those made in recent years in the interest of the higher educational institutions of America and Britain. The Watchword of the Movement, "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation," must be taken up in dead earnest by different bodies of Christians as the cardinal point in their policy. Especially must it lay hold of individual Christian students, both volunteers and non- volunteers, with such conviction that it will become in very deed a governing principle in their lives and relation- ships. This work of making Christ known to all men is urgent beyond all power of expression. It is the unmis- takable duty of Christians to evangelize the world in this generation. It is high time that the attempt be made in serious earnest. We appeal to the Church by all the com- pulsions of Calvary and Olivet to accept the challenge which the Volunteer Movement presents in the proclama- tion of this Watchword. If these great things are to be achieved we must pay what it costs. What will be the price? Undoubtedly it involves giving ourselves to the study of missionary prob- lems and strategy with all the thoroughness and tireless- ness which have characterized the intellectual work of those men who have brought most benefit to mankind. It will cost genuine self-denial. In no sphere so much as that of extending the knowledge and sway of Christ is the truth of His own word illustrated, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." In the pathway of giving up not only of our lives and possessions, but likewise and more especially of our selfish ambitions and preferences and plans will we most surely reach the great goal that we have set before us. In all the hard persevering labor to 3S which we must give ourselves not least must be the work of intercession. It is only when we come to look upon prayer as the most important method of work, as an abso- lutely triumphant method of work, that we shall discover the real secret of largest achievement. That undertakings like those which we have set before us require that we give ourselves to them with undying enthusiasm must not be overlooked. Important as is the most comprehensive and exhaustive preparation for any great work, there comes the time when the work of prep- aration ceases to be a virtue and when those who have done their best to prepare must give themselves with daring abandon to putting their plans into execution. God grant that this Movement fnay never lose its first flush of opti- mism and aggressive enthusiasm. Let the Crusader spirit which characterized the early Christians when they flung themselves against the Roman world, more and more possess it. Of transcendent importance is it that we exalt Jesus Christ increasingly in the life of this Movement. He must continue to be at once its attractive and impelling force. It is His program which we are to carry out. He is our divine triumphant leader. By His Spirit we shall conquer. The one word which sums up our great need and ambition is that the mdividual members of this Convention yield themselves absolutely to the will of God and the domina- tion of Christ. "A body of free men, who love God with all their might, and yet know how to cling together, could conquer this modern world of ours." 36 Student Volunteer Movement FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS THREE WEST TWENTY-NINTH STREET NEW YORK Executive Committee John R. M-OIT , Chairman Dr. W. Harley Smith J. Ross Stevenson, Vice-Chaimian Bertha Condb Hans P. Anuersen Susie Little Ji