Fundamental Qualifications 
 
 of the 
 
 Foreign Missionary 
 
 By 
 
 W. Douglas Mackenzie, D.D. 
 
 Being Report presented by President Mac¬ 
 kenzie at the Second Annual Meeting of the 
 Board of Missionary Preparation, held in New 
 York City, December 6, 1912, and issued in 
 pamphlet form by authority of the Board 
 
 New York: 25 Madison Avenue 
 Student Volunteer Movement 
 For Foreign Missions 
 
Copyright, 1913. by 
 Board of Missionary Preparation 
 
FUNDAMENTAL QUALIFICATIONS 
 of the FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 
 By President W. Douglas Mackenzie, D.D. 
 
 During the last few years the foreign missionary 
 enterprise has undergone rapid and sweeping changes. 
 The awakening of the East, the spread of western 
 education, commerce and industrial methods through 
 Asia and Africa, the union of all nations and tribes in 
 a vast international system of political, social and intel¬ 
 lectual life, are facts which create entirely new condi¬ 
 tions for the foreign missionary. The very growth of 
 the native church in missionary lands has also changed 
 the function of the missionary, or, at least, has called 
 into existence a new type of missionary responsibility 
 and labor. Moreover, the missionary Boards and So¬ 
 cieties have come into new relations with one another, 
 and in every direction are seeking, not merely to 
 co-operate with one another, but, as it were, to stand¬ 
 ardize their work. Yet again, the agencies for the 
 preparation of the missionary have been multiplied, 
 and will soon be greater than our fathers ever dreamed 
 of as either necessary or possible. 
 
 In view of all these facts, it is evident that the hour 
 has come for a careful reconsideration of the qualifica¬ 
 tions of the missionarv, in which all the Boards should 
 
 3 
 
unite for mutual stimulus and guidance. Without 
 reviewing the past, we may from the present and 
 future be able to discover what manner of person, in 
 our new world, the missionary ought to be. There are 
 four main divisions under which we must consider the 
 fundamental qualifications of the missionary—namely, 
 Physical, Educational, Religious, Moral and Social. 
 
 I.—Physical Qualifications. 
 
 From the beginning it has been recognized that no 
 one should be sent out as a missionary who is not 
 certified by a competent medical examiner to be of 
 good health and sound constitution. The foolishness of 
 sending out the unfit, not to speak of the cruelty, has 
 been always obvious to all. But experience has proven 
 that two principles need to be specially emphasized: 
 
 (1) In the first place, different climates and differ¬ 
 ent kinds of work suit different constitutions. A 
 person who is not likely to live long in one country 
 may be actually benefited by being sent elsewhere. 
 Even within the same country climates differ so much 
 that a life which probably would be cut short in one 
 part may be invigorated and prolonged in another. 
 This principle of close discrimination can be and is 
 now being carried even further, for missionary labor 
 is now of so many forms that a person who would be 
 physically in danger under one form may be in no 
 special danger under another kind of work in the same 
 region. A man, for instance, whose heart conditions 
 would make it inadvisable to engage in much public 
 
 4 
 
speaking may live to a good old age in most valuable 
 service of another kind. 
 
 These facts demand that something more than a 
 technical statement, however full it may be, as to a 
 candidate’s physical condition should be sought. His 
 condition should be studied in relation to various kinds 
 of climates, and even in relation to various kinds of 
 work—as is already done by many of the Boards. 
 
 (2) In the second place, it is a fundamental qualifi¬ 
 cation for foreign service that each missionary be well 
 grounded in the general rules of health and in the 
 special application of them to the region of his future 
 labors. This instruction should give much more than 
 a superficial knowledge of a few rules, and should in¬ 
 clude the knowledge of some anatomy and physiology. 
 
 Nor should the Boards feel that their responsibilities 
 end there. They should watch over the health of their 
 missionaries. Especially is this the case when men are 
 allowed to go home on sick leave. Men on sick leave 
 should be treated as if on special service. It is when 
 a man’s vitality is depleted that he is least able to take 
 care of himself and has least energy or inclination to 
 use the right means for recovery. Supervised rest is 
 what he needs. Examples could be given of valuable 
 lives which have been crippled and shortened bv 
 neglect of this obvious rule of prudent administration. 
 
 It is not too much to say that in recent times a new 
 conception of bodily fitness or health has grown up. 
 It has become clear that, in a true moral order, 
 physical health has a place of vital importance. The 
 promotion of this health requires obedience to the laws 
 
 5 
 
of life, self-control in the matter of bodily pleasure, 
 and systematic exercise for the purpose of maintaining 
 all the powers of our human nature at their best. 
 This noble conception corrects and yet completes the 
 older notions of an ascetic life. It has, no doubt, its 
 dangers, like all good things on earth; but it has within 
 it great blessing for the whole race, and is most Chris¬ 
 tian in its true and inner meaning. To live for the 
 body is not Christian. But, on the other hand, to 
 neglect or despise or misuse the body, even in the name 
 of religion, is not a religious or a Christian attitude. 
 
 This, too, is a part of that general view of human 
 nature and human responsibility which has grown up, 
 or at least, assumed a new meaning, in the midst of 
 our Christian civilization. It is part of that general 
 and rich view of life which the missionary must take 
 to non-Christian lands. Not only the men, but espe¬ 
 cially the women of some of these regions, need to be 
 led and inspired by those who know these things and 
 who have learned in school and college to practice 
 them, as part of their service of Christ and as a condi¬ 
 tion of true and full communion with God through the 
 laws of nature which He has ordained. 
 
 II.— Educational Qualifications. 
 
 A great change has recently come over the minds of 
 those who are at work in the missionary cause in 
 respect to the intellectual equipment of the missionary. 
 It has long been assumed that both the general and the 
 professional training of missionaries should be of a 
 
 6 
 
high quality. Thus most Boards are unwilling to send 
 out men who do not have at least one degree in arts, 
 medicine, science or theology. The value of sound 
 culture and the vital necessity of professional efficiency 
 among missionaries are universally recognized, and 
 they do not need to be argued here. But the change 
 which we must describe has arisen in relation to certain 
 matters that lie outside the scope of an ordinary 
 degree, or of direct training for a recognized “pro¬ 
 fession." They concern what has come to be called 
 “Special Missionary Preparation." Specifically, this 
 subject contains three elements—Knowledge of Chris¬ 
 tianity, Knowledge of the Field, and Mastery of the 
 Instruments of Work. There are certain facts under 
 each of these heads which must be firmly grasped if 
 we would know clearly what are the fundamental 
 qualifications for missionary service. 
 
 1. Knowledge of Christianity. The principle is too 
 obvious to need defense, or even exposition, that the 
 missionary must know Christianity, if his work is to 
 have any significance at all. The principle has been 
 very fully recognized as to the work of the ordained 
 missionary. 
 
 All important Boards have made it a rule that the 
 missionary should have the same training as his 
 brother minister at home. And it is interesting to 
 remember that, according to the Report of Commis¬ 
 sion V to the Edinburgh Conference, the missionaries 
 themselves were found to attach very great importance 
 to this ideal. With the rise of educational standards 
 
 7 
 
on all missionary fields, it is vital that the native 
 Christians and their pastors should not gain the 
 impression that a poorer or less complete training is 
 given to those candidates for ordination who are going 
 out to teach and to lead them. Rather is the pressure 
 at present in the opposite direction. The missionary 
 theological student must have what is deemed essential 
 for the home minister, and more . What that more is 
 will depend largely upon the enthusiasm of the young 
 man, the wisdom of his Board, and the opportunities 
 within his reach. 
 
 But the same principle, that the missionary must 
 know Christianity, applies to all other classes besides 
 the ordained man. It is curious and pathetic to realize 
 how often this has been ignored. It is a fact that large 
 numbers of men and the majority of women have been 
 sent to teach Christianity without having made a 
 special study of it, under competent guidance, for 
 themselves. No doubt they have been examined as to 
 their faithful acceptance of their Church creeds, and 
 also as to their diligent private reading of the Bible 
 and general knowledge of its contents, for the purposes 
 of devotion. But far too many have been sent forth 
 with little more, literally, than that. To-day a great 
 change has come, and it is universally admitted that 
 no one should go out, even as a lay missionary, who 
 has not had sound and real instruction in the Bible 
 and in the exposition and defense of Christian truth. 
 The need of this is too obvious, the danger of the 
 opposite course is nowadays too great, to make any 
 argument on this topic necessary, or even courteous, 
 
 8 
 
to the intelligence of those who are likely to read these 
 paragraphs. It is not likely to be denied today that all 
 classes of unordained missionaries, physicians, educa¬ 
 tors, nurses, artisans, evangelists, etc., must be not 
 only advised, but assisted, and by the conditions of 
 appointment compelled to obtain this part of their 
 training or prove that they have acquired it already. 
 
 It is, however, important to state four of the ways 
 in which inadequate knowledge of Christianity hinders 
 missionary efficiency. The first is the discovery of 
 personal incompetence to meet certain situations, to 
 discuss the claims and authority of the Gospel. If 
 discouragement meets a man early, he becomes all too 
 soon content to do his professional work as a physician 
 or educator well, but his religious work as routine or 
 custom compel him, without freshness and power. The 
 second, which is similar in efifect, has a deeper psycho¬ 
 logical root. When the first enthusiasm of youth has 
 passed, such a worker is apt to take easier and super¬ 
 ficial views of his task. It is when the emotional life 
 cools that the trained intelligence is needed. Deep 
 conviction alone keeps deep devotion alive through 
 the stresses and perplexities of an arduous life. And 
 deep conviction is born of knowledge and meditation, 
 begun in youth and actively sustained through the 
 years. In the third place, it is only too true that super¬ 
 ficial knowledge can make, even in a missionary circle, 
 for fanatical quarrelling on minor points. And, lastly, 
 superficial knowledge of Christianity leads to super¬ 
 ficial ways of presenting the Gospel and superficial 
 tests of conversion. 
 
 9 
 
2. Knowledge of the Field. The biographies of 
 missionaries show that most of the eminent men among 
 them felt the need of preparation for their particular 
 field before they arrived upon it. This preparation 
 they sought by means of books and correspondence. 
 Experience and the growth of the work, as well as the 
 readier means of communication, have made the 
 preliminary knowledge of the field both more urgent 
 and more accessible. 
 
 It is now generally agreed that special preparation, 
 over and above the general preparation in professional 
 training and knowledge of Christianity, is one of the 
 fundamental qualifications of the young missionary. 
 No missionary should be considered as equipped for 
 entrance upon the field without it. Some of this work 
 can and ought to be done privately. But most of it 
 can be best done for the large majority of candidates 
 by thoroughly equipped and earnest teachers. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss in detail what this 
 preparation shall consist of, especially as the matter is 
 fully discussed in Report V of the Edinburgh Confer¬ 
 ence, and not much further knowledge has yet been 
 gathered which can throw light upon it. But some 
 things are obvious and important above others: 
 
 (1) The experience of a hundred years has built up 
 what may be called the Science of Missions. In order 
 to know this science, the young missionary should have 
 instruction in the history, methods and principles of 
 missionary work and in those facts which come under 
 the general head of Sociology. 
 
 10 
 
(2) The student should not only have some idea of 
 the general History of Religions, but he ought to be 
 taught the nature, doctrines, morals and practices of 
 the special religion or religions in that region to which 
 he is appointed. All this he will learn quicker and 
 better on the field if he has had good preparatory 
 teaching on the subject under competent teachers at 
 home. In this paragraph must be included some 
 knowledge of the history, character and customs of 
 the people among whom he will work. 
 
 3. Mastery of the Instruments. There are two main 
 subjects which may be named as Instruments which 
 every missionary must use, and on his skill in which 
 the value of his work will very largely depend. These 
 are the language of his field and the art of education. 
 
 (1) It need not be settled here whether and how far 
 the study of vernaculars can be successfully begun 
 before the young missionary reaches the field. Only 
 careful experiment can settle that, and no such experi¬ 
 ments have yet been carried on in the English-speak¬ 
 ing countries of Europe and America. But one thing 
 of vast importance has been definitely settled in the 
 minds of all who know the facts. The Science of 
 Phonetics has been so far worked out and its applica¬ 
 tion to the teaching of languages has been so well 
 established that it is safe to say this: No Board should 
 be content to send out any young man or woman who 
 has not had a good course under a competent teacher 
 of Phonetics. Moreover, it is universally admitted that 
 certain difficult literary languages of the East ought 
 
 11 
 
to be studied by those destined to use them, under 
 competent western teachers. 
 
 (2) There is no doubt that some training should be 
 had in Pedagogy and Psychology, given with a special 
 view to the uses of the missionary. Since practically 
 every missionary is going to be a teacher of some kind, 
 the immense importance of this is quite clear. The 
 power of the educational work on all missionary fields 
 depends largely upon this kind of preparation. 
 
 III.— Religious Qualifications. 
 
 It is assumed, of course, that a personal faith in the 
 Gospel and a personal experience of its power are 
 possessed by everyone who becomes a candidate for 
 the mission field. It is ridiculous to defend an opposite 
 principle; it is tragic to trifle with this one. And yet 
 the very assumption that no intelligent person will 
 offer himself as a missionary without this qualification 
 may easily lead to disaster. The motives which impel 
 the young are varied and often deeply confused. And 
 it is, alas! not unknown that a man should be sent out 
 to preach Christ whose own experience of His power 
 is utterly inadequate for so searching and exacting a 
 task. The consequences can only be a long, dull toil, 
 without joy and with the scantiest fruitage. The very 
 charity and Christian optimism, which nowadays open 
 the door of the Church so wide to the young and 
 unmatured, may misguide us in the selection and 
 training of those who are to be, not followers, but 
 leaders, not occasional workers, but trusted captains 
 and scarred generals of the great war. 
 
 12 
 
For their own sakes, as well as for the work’s sake, 
 a high degree of Christian experience is necessary 
 among missionaries. No doubt it is not so easy now¬ 
 adays to determine this matter as it seemed to some of 
 our forefathers. Different denominations have differ¬ 
 ent ways of describing and using their tests. We have 
 also grown sensitive about what we call intruding into 
 another man’s inner life. But the missionary is going 
 to deal with the inner life of many men and women. 
 He believes that he is called to do this. iVnd everyone 
 knows that he cannot do it successfully unless he has 
 been himself well grounded and thoroughly illumined 
 in Christian experience. 
 
 May we venture to name some of the matters on 
 which every candidate ought to be closely examined by 
 competent men and women? 
 
 1. In the first place, the candidate must be con¬ 
 sciously possessed and dominated by a direct and 
 personal faith in Jesus Christ as his own Saviour and 
 Lord. There are many ways of describing this faith, 
 many doors of entrance into its possession, and 
 varieties of emotional experiences in its exercise. 
 Nowadays no rigid, rule-of-thumb method can be em¬ 
 ployed for expressing or discovering the reality or 
 depth of this experience, in all cases alike. All the 
 more need is there for examination of the candidates 
 to see that they have the root of the matter in them, 
 that they have made sure in their own hearts and 
 minds of the supreme power of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 as Saviour and His supreme authority as Ruler of 
 their lives. 
 
 13 
 
2. Rising out of this, and yet in the Christian con¬ 
 sciousness one with it, is the sense of communion with 
 God. The missionary goes forth to preach Christ, not 
 merely as a wise and gifted Teacher, superior as a 
 teacher to all others, but as the one in and through 
 whom God the Father Himself enters the human 
 heart and henceforth keeps it unto eternal life. The 
 peace of God means everything to an awakened 
 conscience; the love of God, everything to a mind that 
 is aroused to the terrors and perplexities of our human 
 life; the indwelling of God, everything to one who has 
 realized that to be “without God” means “having no 
 hope” here or hereafter. The Christian missionary 
 has no real religious message if he cannot carry in his 
 own heart's life the gladness and purity and strength 
 and endless hope of an indwelling God to the world 
 that does not know Him. He must go bearing the 
 rich fruit of the Spirit in his own soul. 
 
 3. But rising out of this again, and necessary to this 
 communion with God, are a man's habits of prayer. 
 As the missionary is to represent the Christian life in 
 all its acts and qualities, he must be a man to whom 
 prayer is the breath of life. There is no safeguard for 
 a man’s personal character, there is no proof of his 
 sincerity and earnestness, there is no source of confi¬ 
 dence in his message, no secret of power in its delivery 
 to be compared for a moment with the constant and 
 happy practice of regular, sustained, varied and intense 
 prayer. The young person who does not know this 
 goes out unarmed to meet the fully armed enemies of 
 his faith and of his inmost moral and spiritual life. 
 
 14 
 
4. And rising out of this again is the fact, familiar 
 to the whole evangelical world, the great discovery 
 which made the modern religious world on its inner 
 and spiritual side, that the man of prayer is a man 
 whose mind is soaked constantly in the Scriptures. 
 For this reason have all Protestant missions made the 
 translation of the Bible one of the primary and vital 
 factors of their work. No theory need be here 
 attempted to account for the fact. The fact is that 
 wherever the life of faith in Christ and communion 
 with God and habitual prayer are realized, there the 
 mind and heart are filled with the meanings and the 
 words of the Bible. This is the best inward witness 
 of the Holy Spirit. Hence the Bible is not a mere 
 external accident of Christian experience. It belongs 
 to its very essence so truly and deeply that men every¬ 
 where confess themselves cold and heavy in their 
 religious life if they know not how to hear God’s word 
 addressed through these pages of Holy Writ to their 
 own hearts and consciences. 
 
 Every. Board will deal through its Candidate Com¬ 
 mittee with its own applicants for missionary appoint¬ 
 ment in these matters in its own way. But it does 
 seem that at least these four matters are of funda¬ 
 mental importance. They must be dealt with patiently, 
 wisely, charitably, kindly. But they must be also dealt 
 with firmly, clearly and decisively. The young appli¬ 
 cants will be the first always to appreciate thorough¬ 
 ness at this point. They have no real respect for 
 superficiality here. They are at times surprised and 
 shocked at shallowness and misspent bungling when 
 
 15 
 
that which they know to be the deepest question of all 
 is passed over, by those who examine and recommend 
 them lightly and easily. Those who have the deepest 
 experience welcome thoroughness here, and those who 
 tend to resent it, need it for their own and their 
 work’s sake. 
 
 IV.— Personal Character and Temper. 
 
 The fundamental qualifications which must be named 
 under this general head are best arranged in two 
 groups: first, the essentials of character; second, the 
 essentials of temper. 
 
 1. There are three essentials of Christian character 
 which, while necessary for all, must be fully developed 
 in the missionary. These are self-control, humility 
 and zeal. 
 
 (1) The self-control of which we speak must be 
 exercised over the whole range of natural impulse and 
 appetite. It is necessary to speak of this because, 
 again, it is one of those matters in which prevailing 
 charity, which is often unconscious cowardice and 
 often issues in cruel and harsh experiences, leads us 
 to take for granted that the strong and clear-eyed 
 young man before us is master of his appetites and 
 shielded by Christian common sense against any sin 
 of self-indulgence. In the great majority of cases this 
 is a true judgment. But there are occasional instances 
 to be found where a stricter and more faithful exam¬ 
 ination at the crisis of decision would have been as the 
 very kindness of God. 
 
 16 
 
The varied temptations of the flesh attack men who 
 go to live for prolonged periods abroad, from two 
 sources. First, the wrench from the social pressure 
 of the home land and the plunge into a strange world 
 sometimes shakes the whole nature of a man. When 
 the standards of the new world are lower than those 
 of the familiar environment, there is a definite drag 
 downwards. In the majority of cases this may be 
 hardly noticed by a man of rugged moral strength. 
 But where the character had not attained independ¬ 
 ence, where it was preserved only from without by 
 the sustaining power of home and church and social 
 circle, the removal of those props may, and sometimes 
 does, lead to collapse, even in the earlier years of life 
 abroad. 
 
 The second strain comes when a man, especially if 
 he is living in certain climates and surroundings which 
 encourage it, finds himself able to regulate wholly his 
 time and habits and the amount of daily work. When 
 the vigor and enthusiasm of youth decrease, the stress 
 on the will to maintain diligence and self-denying 
 service becomes very powerful. All men in the home 
 field who attain to any position of independence, of 
 authority over others, know this stress. But in a 
 foreign land, where authority and independence inhere 
 in the very nature of a man’s position and relations, 
 the stress is more common and may be much more 
 severe. There arises the danger of self-indulgence, of 
 laxity in the use of time, the disinclination to push the 
 work hard, the shrinking from entrance upon new 
 tasks, the tendency to do all work as a routine which is 
 
 17 
 
a burden, and not as an opportunity which inspires 
 the alert and eager soul. It is better to describe this 
 matter in negative terms, and thus to point out the 
 general but constant danger, rather than to name 
 specific forms of its manifestation. For in no two 
 cases mav these forms be identical, and each heart 
 knows its own peculiar temptation and the path of 
 self-indulgence which has opened most easily and 
 attractively before it. 
 
 In this matter it is the duty of Candidates’ Commit¬ 
 tees not merely to examine their candidates faithfully 
 and carefully, but to instruct and warn and inform 
 them. For this, much more is needed than a single 
 interview, and much more than an address delivered 
 to a group of young men and women on the moral 
 dangers which lie before them. 
 
 (2) In addition to this matter of self-control, the 
 mastery of appetite and impulse, the other two funda¬ 
 mental qualities of character—viz., humility and zeal 
 —may be named and discussed together. Though we 
 do not often realize it, neither of these qualities can 
 be effective without the other. Humility without zeal 
 may look like, and often is, weakness rather than 
 strength. And zeal without humility may be, and often 
 is, rude, inconsiderate and repulsive. The spirit of 
 humility and the spirit or earnestness are one in the 
 really deep-souled Christian missionary. If a man 
 goes to his task on the foreign field without both of 
 these, his labors are likely to be resented or despised. 
 To win them both, a man needs to be well drilled in 
 the school of Christ and His apostles, and familiar 
 
 18 
 
with the heart and manner of the great messengers of 
 the Gospel in all lands and generations. 
 
 (3) In connection with all three of these fundamen¬ 
 tal qualities it is absolutely necessary to name the 
 demand for that form of self-control and humility 
 which produces freedom from anger and patience of 
 spirit. Many missionary groups have suffered per¬ 
 manently and their work has been wofully hindered 
 by the habitual ill-temper and easily aroused passion 
 of some one of their members. In India, where ill- 
 temper is universally considered a sign of ungodliness, 
 and patience is regarded universally as a prime virtue, 
 the man who cannot control his anger is a constant 
 disproof of Christianity. Not all his eloquence and 
 diligence can counteract the effect of that irreligious 
 phase of his character. The man of impatience, of hot 
 speech, of ebullient passion, cannot represent Christ 
 among the higher civilizations of the non-Christian 
 world, and misrepresents Him among the lower. The 
 matter has been well summed up by saying that the 
 missionary has “need of radical conscientiousness, of 
 unusual initiative and of determination to grow.” 
 
 2. In addition to the fundamental elements of Chris¬ 
 tian character, there are certain phases of personal tone 
 or attitude or general temper which are of essential 
 importance to the success of the missionary. Mr. W. 
 A. Rice has given one of the best lists of them, and 
 they may be named here as he gives them: “Earnest¬ 
 ness, Clearness and Definiteness (in thought and 
 statement), Tact and Conciliation, Courtesy, Gentle¬ 
 ness and Patience, a Holy Walk and Conversation, 
 
 19 
 
Spiritual Equipment.” In the Report of Commission 
 V to the Edinburgh Conference the following list is 
 given: (1) The spiritual or essentially Christian part 
 —namely, love of God, faith in Him, hope in Him; 
 (2) elements of moral character; docility, “the pecul¬ 
 iar grace that belongs to a teachable spirit”; gentle¬ 
 ness, “the root of adaptability”; the spirit of courtesy; 
 sympathy, the true “secret of personal influence, the 
 power that wins”; (3) leadership; the power which is 
 developed out of the preceding moral qualities by a 
 vigorous will. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell on these in detail. The 
 object in naming them here is that those who have the 
 care of the young candidates for missionary work may 
 realize how real is the value of close acquaintance with 
 the personal tone and temper of the young applicants 
 for service, and how vital it is to get them acquainted 
 with the moral and spiritual aspects of those qualities 
 which are essential to success. 
 
 The evidence of missionaries is abundant from all 
 quarters of the field that very soon the moral and 
 spiritual ideal of the Gospel of Christ is apprehended 
 well enough by the non-Christian mind to be used as 
 a standard for judging the missionary himself. His 
 zeal, his sincerity, his purity, his patience, his unsel¬ 
 fishness, his spirit of sacrifice, his evident walk with 
 God, are looked at in the light of what he is himself 
 teaching concerning Christ. What they take for 
 granted in their own religious men is instinctively felt 
 to be incongruous and shameful in him. Where he is 
 self-indulgent, or passionate in temper, or lazy, or 
 
 20 
 
unfaithful to his word of promise, he stands con¬ 
 demned, and the Master, whose holy power he pro¬ 
 claims, is instinctively despised. When he is seen and 
 known to walk with God, to be in dead earnest to win 
 men to faith in Christ, to be unsparing of self in 
 seeking and furthering their personal and social wel¬ 
 fare, to be in his own character master of his appetites, 
 his temper and his habits, he shines forth as a con¬ 
 vincing, attractive, compelling representative and 
 herald of his Master, the Saviour and Lord of all men. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 In view of all that has been said thus briefly and by 
 way of humble and sympathetic suggestion, rather 
 than of instruction or dictation, a word or two may 
 be added about the conditions under which these 
 qualifications may be investigated and inculcated. 
 
 1. There should be a prolonged period of personal 
 acquaintance with each candidate on the part of those 
 responsible for his appointment. 
 
 2. Where he has been already at work on the home 
 field, full knowledge should be obtained of all the 
 features of his work and of his past history. 
 
 3. No trouble should be spared to obtain, by per¬ 
 sonal interviews, as well as by schedules of printed 
 questions, a full knowledge of the candidates* reputa¬ 
 tion, work, character and influence. 
 
 4. Repeated and prolonged personal interviews with 
 the candidate should be had by persons specifically 
 skilled in this work of dealing with personal experience 
 and character. 
 
 21 
 
5. Very full and patient instruction should be given 
 to each candidate in all the matters discussed in this 
 pamphlet and in whatever of real moment may have 
 been omitted. Some of this instruction should be 
 given to groups or classes. But no one should be sent 
 out to the field who has not had the central matters 
 laid before him fully and kindly and firmly and sym¬ 
 pathetically in repeated private interviews. 
 
 If these rules are observed, not only will some sad 
 cases of possible failure be prevented, but everyone 
 who is accepted and appointed will go out fully fore¬ 
 warned and forearmed, quick to see the dangers to self 
 and to effective service, and wise to preserve character 
 unstained and the Divine fellowship unimpaired. 
 
 22