No. 6 
 
 Vol. XII 
 
 NOVEMBER 1, 1913 
 
 Ohio Wesleyan University 
 
 BULLETIN 
 
 The Study of Missions 
 
 EDMUND DAVISON SOPER, B. A., B. D,, D. D., 
 PROFESSOR OF MISSIONS AND COMPARATIVE RELIGION 
 
 Issued Bi-Monthly 
 
 i :N»v (HKSTTY 
 
 Entered February 24, 1902, at Delaware, Ohio, 
 under Act of Congress, July 16? 
 
THE STUDY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN 
 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 
 
 There are three distinct lines of approach to the study 
 of Christian Missions in the field of higher education. The 
 critical investigation of missionary history and missionary 
 problems lies within the scope of the research work of the 
 university. The outstanding example of this form of the 
 study of missions is the department of missions in the 
 University of Halle, for many years in charge of the late 
 Prof. Gustav Warneck. Courses in Missions are now being 
 offered in a number of theological seminaries. Here the 
 objective is the training of prospective missionaries and the 
 flitting of pastors to be effective agents of the missionary 
 enterprise in the home church. Still another phase, that in 
 which we are particularly interested in this paper, is the 
 study of missions by college undergraduates working for 
 their B. A. or B. S. degree. 
 
 For four years it has been the privilege of the writer to 
 be engaged in the organization and conduct of a depart- 
 ment of missions. While courses in missions have fre- 
 quently been offered in connection with other departments, 
 this is the first attempt, so far as he is aware, that has been 
 made to organize a department which shall take its place on 
 an equality with all other departments, and to which has 
 been called an instructor to devote his entire time to this 
 one subject. 
 
 One of the first problems that presented itself was the 
 relation of the proposed study of Christian Missions to the 
 missionary propaganda. Could the study 
 RELATION TO of missions be separated from the urgency 
 MISSIONARY of the propaganda so as to become an ade- 
 PROPAGANDA quate college discipline? The full answer 
 to this question will become evident as we 
 proceed. Just here it may be well, however, to consider one 
 of the bearings of this relationship. That there is some 
 
 I 
 
relationship between the study and the propaganda is quite 
 clear. But in this respect the study of missions is not alone 
 among college studies. To take one illustration, the study 
 of economics cannot but be closely related to interest in tax- 
 ation and banking. It would not be thought incongrous 
 for a professor of economics to give himself, so far as his 
 time would allow, to the advocacy of economic reform. 
 Then, too, theories should be corrected by reference to 
 actual conditions, and this contact will be all the more ad- 
 vantageous when it is accompanied by the glow of genuine, 
 heartfelt devotion. While this is always true, it must be 
 doubly emphasized in the teaching of missions. A mere 
 scholastic interest, unconcerned with the success of the 
 propaganda, would not command the attention of students 
 eager to feel the pulse of the life-currents of the present- 
 day world. And, after all, do we not want our college 
 training to eventuate in life ? What better hope could one 
 who teaches missions to college students have than that out 
 of his classes might come not only missionaries, but preach- 
 ers with a world-wide view, lawyers with a sense of obliga- 
 tion to a wider clientele than that which brings financial 
 return, business men who will make money not only for 
 themselves but for the neglected ones who have a right to 
 expect a share of the blessings that have come to the more 
 highly favored? This hope and expectation lie deep down 
 in the heart of the writer, and disappointment here would 
 be as serious as any that could be experienced. 
 
 Let us now give ourselves to the definite scholastic ques- 
 tion to which we have addressed ourselves. While there is 
 this necessary relationship between the study of missions 
 and the propaganda, the propaganda is secondary. The 
 first interest for us at this time is the place of the study of 
 missions in the college curriculum. 
 
 At the very beginning it will be well to set ourselves 
 right with the educator by expressing the earnest conviction 
 that the study of missions should stand on the 
 BASIS OF same platform with all other courses. The in- 
 STUDY tegrity of the college curriculum must be main- 
 tained. Missions must ask no special favors. 
 If missions cannot be admitted into the curriculum on 
 reasonable grounds, then missions must be excluded. Let 
 
 2 
 
this be seen very clearly. No reasons snch as intense inter- 
 est, greatness of the propaganda, need of men and money, 
 can be used to justify the inclusion of missions in the college 
 curriculum. That high place is reserved for the subjects 
 which win the approval of those who are strenuous in 
 maintaining a high standard of educational efficiency. It 
 is at the bar of scholastic values that the study of missions 
 must make its case to he granted a place in the curriculum. 
 More than this, courses in missions must do their share in 
 maintaining scholarly ideals, when they have won their 
 place. It would be a sad day for this new college study 
 were it to be looked upon as ‘ ‘ easy, ’ ’ were no serious study 
 required, and were recitations and examinations not looked 
 upon as real tests of mental efficiency. 
 
 In relating the study of missions to the college curricu- 
 lum, two questions have very naturally presented them- 
 selves. What is the purpose of the college course? and, 
 What are the criteria by which the value of a study is to be 
 judged ? These questions are far larger than their particu- 
 lar application to our present inquiry. Still, an answer 
 more or less satisfactory must be forthcoming before an 
 adequate basis can be laid for the introduction of missions 
 into the curriculum. 
 
 Whatever else may be said, educators are quite generally 
 agreed that the college course is the high vantage-point for 
 securing a workable view of life, the work- 
 PURPOSE shop where convictions are hammered out 
 
 OF COLLEGE and principles discovered which shall be the 
 COURSE touchstone of all subsequent endeavor. It 
 
 is not a professional school on the one hand, 
 nor is it a university devoted to research and minute in- 
 vestigation on the other. Both of these are necessary, but 
 they are not the college. We in the college would make 
 men and women, strong in character, with sane views of 
 life, with wide intellectual horizon, well founded in the 
 rudiments of an education, with the ability to use facts and 
 combine them into conclusions as the occasion may demand. 
 In other words, they must know how to act and how to 
 think. This at least is our ideal. 
 
 In saying this, we are only voicing what is being felt so 
 keenly in wide circles today, that the college must not be 
 
 3 
 
lost in vocationalism. This would make utility, and fre- 
 quently utility of a very materialistic cast, the standard of 
 efficiency. More must be made of culture and character 
 as the tests of efficiency. These cannot he valued in dollars 
 and cents, but they make a man a better citizen, more 
 appreciative of all that is wholesome and beautiful in liter- 
 ature, in art, and in society. With this emphasis upon 
 broad culture, let it not be thought that everything which 
 savors of the vocational is to he excluded. That could not 
 be. It is not possible to present any college study which 
 may not be of practical value to some student in his voca- 
 tion. But the vocational is secondary. It is the by-product 
 of the college course. The primary value is the cultural, 
 and from this place it must not be removed. The English 
 Bible is taught first for its cultural value, but it cannot 
 result otherwise than as a valuable part of the preparation 
 of the minister. So with physics for the engineer and 
 chemistry for the physician. In each case we run the 
 danger of losing the high cultural tone^ of our college life if 
 we surrender the primacy to the professional or vocational 
 demands, and not keep them always as by-products. 
 
 These principles may be applied very strictly to the 
 study of missions. There is no doubt that a course on China 
 would be of value to one who had 
 THE CONTRIBUTION chosen that as his field of labor for 
 OF MISSIONS life, but he must understand that the 
 
 course is planned with another pur- 
 pose. It is intended to contribute to the broad view of life 
 a man takes with him, whatever he may have chosen for his 
 profession. A business man will live a larger life by a 
 sympathetic study of the Chinese and their problems, and 
 likewise the lawyer, the teacher, and the minister. This, 
 then, is the primary purpose. It is to destroy narrowness, 
 and give men and women a world-consciousness. Japan is 
 called a civilized nation, China is making the experiment 
 of a republic, India groans under the heavy weight of 
 ignorance and social oppression, the Near East is aglow 
 with promises of political freedom and liberty of conscience, 
 and our Latin- American neighbors feel that they will be 
 able soon to call themselves grown children in the family of 
 nations. Can an educated man be said to deserve the dis- 
 
 4 
 
tinction without a knowledge of these facts? We may even 
 put it in this fashion, Can a college afford not to give to its 
 students the opportunity to catch the meaning of the world 
 movement, the uplift of the backward peoples, the civiliz- 
 ing influence of education, and the regeneration which 
 follows in the wake of the missionary pioneer ? This is the 
 purpose of the study of missions, nothing less than to place 
 a man advantageously in the world which surrounds him, 
 and make him the more useful because of his contact with it. 
 
 That this idea is already beginning to take hold of lead- 
 ers in the educational field is to be* seen in a resolution 
 adopted by the University Senate of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church at its meeting in January, 1912. We quote the 
 resolution here in full, since it sums up the whole situation 
 most excellently : 
 
 “We believe that in our denominational colleges 
 it is both proper and important that Christian liter- 
 ature, history, and morals be studied. 
 
 “In accordance with that belief, we have hereto- 
 fore urged that courses in the English Bible, in 
 ethics, and the like, be included in the curriculum, 
 and be placed on a footing of equality with other 
 departments in standards and credit. We wish now 
 specifically to commend the study of Christian mis- 
 sions as suitable for college use, and to suggest that 
 this study is likely to be most generally useful when 
 treated, not narrowly and technically as preparation 
 for missionaries, but rather, broadly, historically, 
 and philosophically, as a general cultural study, as in 
 the case of economics, sociology, or the philosophy of 
 religion. ’ ’ 
 
 The second question proposed may now be taken up. 
 What are the criteria by which the value of a study is to be 
 judged? In the first place, any 
 subject taught in the college course 
 must furnish mental discipline. 
 By mental discipline, of course, is 
 meant the development of the 
 power of acquiring and assimilat- 
 ing facts, the power of discrimina- 
 tion in appreciating values, and the 
 
 WHAT STUDIES 
 HAVE A RIGHT 
 IN CURRICULUM 
 
 I. MUST FURNISH 
 MENTAL DISCIPLINE 
 
 5 
 
power of clear, logical thought. For the veriest tyro in the 
 study of missions it soon becomes evident that the demands 
 made upon the memory and upon the judgment constitute 
 a real tax upon a student’s mental equipment. Mental 
 discipline, however, has an even more serious function. It 
 must train the student, not only to acquire and discrim- 
 inate, but to combine his acquisitions into justifiable con- 
 clusions. Do our colleges train students to think ? Do they 
 not fail here more seriously than at any other point ? But 
 it remains our chief function, and missions must be able to 
 make its contribution here or be considered a failure as a 
 college discipline. The experience of four years has dem- 
 onstrated that the claims made by historical, economic, and 
 social studies can be paralleled by the study of missions. 
 Only want of space forbids the use of illustrations to make 
 this point clear in detail. 
 
 The second standard to be proposed is this, is the subject 
 matter of the course important ? When all is said and done, 
 are the facts presented and the conclu- 
 2. THE SUBJECT sions reached worth while? And even 
 MATTER MUST admitting that they have real value, are 
 BE IMPORTANT they of sufficient value to form a part 
 of the ground work of a man’s educa- 
 tion? Most educated men make a special study of impor- 
 tant questions in after life which could scarcely justify 
 themselves in the college curriculum. In no sense let us 
 evade the full force of the question. We need only take a 
 cursory view of missions to discover how strong the claim 
 really is. What was the movement in the history of the 
 Roman Empire that chiefly affected the direction of its 
 ultimate development ? It can be summed up in the title of 
 Prof. Harnack’s great work, “The Mission and Expansion 
 of Christianity in the First Three Centuries.” What ex- 
 planation can be given for the development out of barbar- 
 ism of our forefathers in Northern Europe? Again the 
 answer may be given in the title of a book, that of Prof. 
 Maclear’s classic study, “The History of Christian Missions 
 in the Middle Ages.” Coming down into modern times we 
 find the whole world aglow with new life. How can we ac- 
 count for it? Many factors enter into the answer, yet it is 
 quite possible to find underneath all other causes the often 
 
 6 
 
forgotten work of the Christian missionary. It was Lord 
 Lawrence, Viceroy of India, who said, “I believe, notwith- 
 standing all that the English people have done to benefit the 
 country (India), the missionaries have done more than all 
 other agencies combined/ And that was written at a day 
 when missions in India were a small factor as compared 
 with today. The same is true of China. A Republic would 
 not have been thought of had it not been for the work of the 
 missionary educator. In his latest book, “The Opening Up 
 of Africa, ’ 9 Sir Harry Johnston, one of the highest author- 
 ities on Africa and its problems, says, ‘ ‘ One of the greatest 
 forces in modern times in the opening up of Africa was the 
 invasion of that continent by missionaries of the Roman and 
 Protestant churches of Christianity .’ 9 These instances are 
 cited merely to bring before our minds the fact that no 
 more important part has been played in the whole upward 
 movement of the nations than that which has been per- 
 formed by Christian missions. The point to be made is 
 this, that by neglecting to direct our students to the study 
 of missions we have failed to put into their hands the instru- 
 ment which more than any other will reveal the underlying 
 causes of advance, social, educational, moral, and religious. 
 The study of Christian missions, then, is one of first-rate 
 importance. It not only opens up a new world to the stu- 
 dent who pursues it, but it supplies him with principles 
 which he may use widely in his study of social problems 
 and the history of civilization. 
 
 The third and last criterion to be proposed is that any 
 study must have a field of its own to gain admittance in the 
 curriculum. Not that that field is its 
 3. MUST HAVE exclusive possession. We have gotten far 
 A FIELD OF past that. The fact is, the fields of investi- 
 ITS OWN gation overlap. Each study involves 
 
 many others and must go far afield to 
 gather all the material necessary to its proper elucidation. 
 The only feature to be safeguarded is that each must have 
 a well defined avenue of approach to the body of fact which 
 is its raw material. In other words, each subject must 
 have a clearly differentiated organizing center or dominant 
 aim. This center or aim will determine its choice of ma- 
 terial, the relative importance of facts to its special pur- 
 
 7 
 
pose, and the ends to be sought. Its scouting parties may 
 range far from the main line, but they have learned what 
 they are after and the use to which it is to be put. This 
 principle applies to every college subject. Missions only 
 asks the same privilege. 
 
 What, then, is this distinguishing center or aim ? 
 Briefly, it is this, to solve the problem of the moral and 
 religious uplift of the non-Christian 
 THE AIM OF peoples. With this aim we study all the 
 
 MISSION STUDY facts that shed light upon the problem. 
 
 IN COLLEGE Many fields of study will be asked to 
 
 make their contribution, but they will be 
 investigated only in so far as they do so. The aim fixes our 
 goal. It determines what facts can be used, and what ma- 
 terial to exclude. It gives proportion to the study, keeping 
 lesser considerations in a subordinate place and lifting the 
 points of importance into the clear light of emphasis. 
 When we have arrived at the end of a course on any country 
 the whole problem of its Christianization should lie open 
 before us. 
 
 In view of what has been said, the study of Christian 
 missions is seen to resolve itself into the study of moral, 
 social, and religious uplift. This involves a 
 WHAT IS consideration of all those factors that affect 
 
 INVOLVED the problem we have set before us. It involves 
 
 the study of forces that disorganize and retard 
 as well as those that conserve and uplift. Among all these 
 forces are those of diplomacy, commerce, and education. 
 And under education we must include all the subtle lines 
 of intellectual stimulus which are operating so powerfully 
 in the Orient today. Many in their study would stop here. 
 The contention of the student of missions is that this is 
 unscientific. It fails to take account of the chief force 
 which is undermining the old order and turning the nations 
 toward the new. He that would confine his attention to 
 forces whose center is not religious has not probed to the 
 vital, animating heart of a people’s life. 
 
 With reference to any period in the history of missions 
 or to any country where the Christian forces are at work, 
 two main questions present themselves, What is the nature 
 of the task confronting the Christian propaganda? and, 
 
 8 
 
How has this problem been met ? Both questions are essen- 
 tial. The study of missionary operations is empty and aim- 
 less unless pursued against a well defined background. It 
 would be as useless in its way as the work of the missionary 
 himself who might presume to carry on his work ignorant 
 of and consequently out of touch and sympathy with the 
 people he would benefit. 
 
 First, then, comes the study of the conditions which 
 determine the missionary task. What kind of people are 
 they? How do they think and act? 
 1. CONDITIONS ON What are their needs? These are 
 MISSION FIELDS only hints at the kind of questions 
 which present themselves. They must 
 be answered with some degree of fullness before proceeding 
 to the study of missionary operations. The fact of it is, this 
 half of the subject is so important that frequently it will 
 overtop the other in amount of time spent in its investiga- 
 tion. We simply vnust feel the need for Christianity and 
 the problem which Christianity faces before the work of 
 missions assumes any significance. 
 
 This part of the study involves the study of geography, 
 history, social organization, and religious life. These fur- 
 nish the background by exhibiting the task 
 GEOGRAPHY of Christianity. First, geography. Not a 
 complete study, of course, but such a sur- 
 vey as shall lay before us the physical conditions that de- 
 termine a people’s life. It will be seen that this is not a 
 study of geography for geography’s sake, but for what it 
 may contribute to the solution of the missionary problem. 
 It recognizes that environment has a part in determining 
 the life of a people, and we seek to weigh this influence and 
 discover its effect. 
 
 History comes next. The past out of which a nation has 
 come is the best index of what the people are today. Only 
 in crises do men and nations reveal all that is 
 HISTORY in them, what they are capable of, what they 
 aspire after, and what they are willing to sacri- 
 fice. We discover who the people are, of what races they 
 are composed, what features are essential to their civiliza- 
 tion and what have been superimposed, what are their 
 national ideals and heroes, how they have been crushed 
 
 9 
 
and cowed by oppressors, and what they long for in the 
 time to come. Each of these features helps to determine 
 the task of the missionary. 
 
 Closely connected with the study of history is that of 
 social organization. The forms of social organization de- 
 termine the direction of the advance of a people and the 
 resistance that will be offered to any change. Where the 
 social unit is the family instead of the individual, an under- 
 standing of the difference this makes is an essential to the 
 appreciation of the missionary task. Mutual responsibility 
 and the consequent lack of individual initiative, the binding 
 obligation of hoary customs, all create situations to which 
 the missionary propaganda must accommodate itself. The 
 inexorableness of caste regulations in India is the classic 
 illustration of the power of custom, and to understand it is 
 to be able to catch the meaning of the real problem of 
 India. 
 
 Quite as essential as any of these lines of investigation 
 is the study of the religious life of a people. A distinction 
 seems necessary between the more formal 
 RELIGIOUS study of the religions of a people and what 
 LIFE has just been described as the study of their 
 
 religious life. The comparative study of re- 
 ligion has a field of its own, as has its close neighbor, the 
 history of religion. The formal study of any religion de- 
 mands a careful investigation of its sacred books, the lives 
 of its founder and its saints and reformers, the intricacies 
 of the cult, the development of its creed, the peculiarities 
 of its sects, its effect upon individual and social life, and, 
 finally, its prospects for the future. All this has its impor- 
 tant place, but our aim is somewhat different. It is deter- 
 mined for us by the same principle which has been our 
 guide with respect to the use of the material furnished by 
 geography, history, and descriptive sociology. Making use 
 of the material furnished by the investigations of compara- 
 tive religion and the history of religion, we set ourselves to 
 discover what light the religions throw upon the problem of 
 a people’s Christianization. To what extent are the people 
 religious ? what forms have their religious ideas taken ? what 
 have their religions done for them? what is the secret of 
 their influence? what have they done to mould individual 
 
 10 
 
and national character? wherein have they failed? what 
 are their strong points ? These and similar questions deter- 
 mine our aim. It is the study of their religious life rather 
 than the study of religion. Such a study must result not 
 only in presenting a most important feature of the mis- 
 sionary task, but also in laying a foundation for the subse- 
 quent and more formal study of religion. 
 
 Just here it may be admitted very frankly that such a 
 study of religious life as has been suggested will almost 
 inevitably he conducted with the conviction that Chris- 
 tianity is the final faith and the only adequate solution of 
 the needs of mankind. The point to make clear is that 
 there is nothing in this viewpoint to prevent an altogether 
 fair treatment of other religions. While Christianity may 
 claim to hold the truth, even all truth, it does not deny to 
 others a measure of truth. Dr. R. A. Hume of India has 
 suggested that it would be more difficult to believe in God 
 had He given no truth to other peoples than it is to recog- 
 nize that all religions have a measure of truth and that all 
 the truth they contain will be built into the structure of the 
 Christianity which is to he erected in each land to which 
 the gospel has been carried. An eager desire to discover 
 truth wherever it may be found and a frank recognition of 
 it as from God Himself should be the distinctive mark of 
 the student of Christian missions. 
 
 Let us suppose now that we have a sufficient back- 
 ground, that the task before Christianity is made clear. 
 
 How has the problem been met? This 
 2. HOW HAS investigation almost of necessity falls 
 THE PROBLEM under five heads. And again we are com- 
 BEEN MET? pelled to summarize, merely indicating 
 the lines of approach and the specific ob- 
 ject to be attained under each head. 
 
 First, the history of missionary operations. Here we 
 are not concerned with details, or even with the story of 
 specific mission boards. We must keep in 
 HISTORY OF mind that it is the college undergraduate 
 MISSIONARY we are dealing with. Our purpose is to 
 OPERATIONS discover the causes of success and failure, 
 the important turning points in the ac- 
 count, the relation of the history with political events, the 
 
 11 
 
outstanding characters and what they achieved. In addi- 
 tion to the study of the history of missions in any particular 
 country, a most important phase of the study is that cover- 
 ing the whole course of Christian missions from the time of 
 the Apostles to the present day. Such courses deserve 
 fuller mention than is possible within the limits of this 
 article. They should attempt to sketch the manner in 
 which the Christian church has in the past overcome 
 obstacles and accomplished its results. Such courses would 
 naturally treat of three important periods, the conquest of 
 the Roman Empire, the winning of Northern Europe, and 
 the modern occupation of the world, in each case the work 
 of the Christian forces being presented against the peculiar 
 background of the age in which they were operating. 
 
 Following the history of missionary operations would 
 come a study of the special problems in the field under 
 consideration. These are suggested by such 
 PROBLEMS characteristic features as caste in India, an- 
 OF FIELDS cestor worship in China, the seclusion of 
 women in Moslem countries, and so on. What 
 resistance do they offer, and what form do they compel the 
 Christian propaganda to take? This matter of special 
 problems determines somewhat the choice of fields for 
 study. It would be impossible in college courses to study 
 every field. We in the college are compelled to limit our 
 work to a few, well adapted courses — well adapted, that is, 
 to the purposes of a college course. No field or country is 
 ideal any more for the study of history than for missions. 
 We must take our material as it comes and make the best of 
 it, but when a choice must be made, some fields are more 
 important, and this must determine our choice. 
 
 The methods of the Christian mission must also be in- 
 vestigated. The work of the evangelist, the physician, the 
 teacher, the writer and publisher, and the 
 MISSIONARY industrial worker is different in each field, 
 METHODS and it is only by a study of the function of 
 each that an understanding can be had of 
 the force of the impact of Christianity on the non- Christian 
 world. A science of missions is now being evolved after a 
 hundred years of experiment. Keen criticism of methods, 
 standardization, unity of plans and purpose are features in 
 
 12 
 
the most recent phase of the missionary propaganda. As a 
 result there is now the beginning of an extensive and 
 scientifically accurate literature on which investigations 
 can be based and to which students can be referred. 
 
 The two last heads to be mentioned are a study of the 
 results attained and the present outlook. Those results 
 which are not to be tabulated are to be 
 RESULTS AND considered as well as those which have 
 
 OUTLOOK been reduced to statistical tables. The 
 
 plans now being laid to co-ordinate so far 
 as possible the methods of collecting and tabulating statis- 
 tics will render great assistance in making effective this 
 part of the work. With reference to the study of the out- 
 look in each country, we give ourselves not to unbalanced 
 prophecy, but to careful weighing of all the factors that 
 enter into the present situation, and from this estimate the 
 lines of advance that must be followed and the prospect of 
 success or failure which may be evident at any point. 
 There has been too much easy and unreasoned optimism; 
 there is needed a careful calculation of possibilities in view 
 of all the facts. But let it be all the facts. As Christians 
 we believe in the unlimited resources at our disposal, and 
 these are among the facts that must be considered. The 
 greatest fact is that God is with us, and this determines our 
 interpretation of all other facts, whatever they may be. 
 
 While of course these five points cannot be differen- 
 tiated in the progress of a course quite as they have been 
 here, they are all necessary to an understanding of the prob- 
 lem of the uplift of the non- Christian peoples. Throughout 
 the discussion enough has probably been said to indicate 
 the significance of the dominant aim of a department of 
 Christian missions. Its chief interest is not that of church 
 history whose center is organized Christianity, its history, 
 its relationship, its fortunes in the past and its present 
 condition. It is neither history, nor sociology, nor religion ; 
 it is a study of race development, a study, if you will, of 
 civilization, of the uplift of backward peoples, of individual 
 and social advance, of all the forces that make for better- 
 ment. It would lay bare the steps and the problems con- 
 nected with the rise of savage, half-civilized, and even rela- 
 tively advanced peoples into the family of nations, with a 
 
 13 
 
civilization based upon what we consider the only adequate 
 foundation, the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Many questions relative to this whole subject have not 
 been considered. The problem of courses is only partially 
 solved. Courses on the Expansion of Christianity, before 
 and since the Reformation, the Making of New Japan, the 
 Evolution of China, the Mohammedan World, the Rise of 
 Latin America, the Problem of Africa, and the Trans- 
 formation of India are now being offered. 
 
 Should courses on missions be elective or required ? One 
 thing is quite clear, that the wise course has been pursued 
 in restricting the work in missions to sopho- 
 SPECIAL mores and upper classmen. But the larger 
 
 PROBLEMS problem is relative to the question of missions 
 
 as an elective or a required study. The policy 
 up to the present has been to put these courses among the 
 electives, and the writer feels that this has been wise. An- 
 other suggestion is made with mingled hesitation and con- 
 fidence. From one very important angle of approach the 
 courses in missions have the same aim as courses in his- 
 tory, namely, the tracing of causes and effects in the line 
 of a definite historical development. So then it is possible 
 that courses in missions might be considered as fulfilling 
 some part of the requirement for a major in history, as 
 these are now scheduled in the American college course. 
 
 Take another subject, that of Christian evidences. The 
 evidences of Christianity may be separated into the formal 
 study of evidences and the indirect study of Christianity 
 in action, in opposition to the forces that would nullify 
 her influence. Both should bring the same result, the 
 conviction that Christianity is a living force in the world, 
 with sufficient intrinsic power, intellectually, morally, and 
 spiritually, to win its way among men. Without doubt 
 formal evidences have an important place in displaying the 
 place and power of our faith, but the question comes 
 whether courses capable of arriving at the same destina- 
 tion might not be considered as fulfilling, in part at least, 
 the requirement for Christian evidences as now demanded 
 by the curriculum in many of our colleges. 
 
 This thought of the study of missions as a Christian 
 apologetic must conclude this article already too long. 
 
 14 
 
There can be no doubt that the study of missions is the ap- 
 plication of the pragmatic test to the Christian religion, as 
 well as to the faiths with which it comes into contact. It is 
 a true comparative study of religion, based on results in 
 life and conduct. A better understanding of Christianity 
 cannot but result from the study. In fact, this will almost 
 inevitably be one of the most important contributions these 
 courses will make. To cultivate a more intelligent faith, 
 based on a wider induction than is otherwise possible, is no 
 insignificant aim in these days when faith is not strong and 
 when all the aids that can be had may well be used. And 
 what better view can be presented than Christianity in its 
 most characteristic activity? Here we see Christianity 
 seeking to win men to its Christ and to set up the Kingdom 
 of God in lands where the gospel is a strange sound and 
 where it must succeed by virtue of its own inner truth and 
 winsomeness. 
 
 15 
 
mt