RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 888, 6 August 1910, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

y CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. MISSIONARY PROBLEMS. THE GREAT CONFERENCE AT EDINBURGH. Tho meeting of the World's Missionary Conforenco on Juno 17 was made memorable by a strong condemnation of sectarianism in the mission field by tho Bishop of Birmingham (Dr. Gore). "It seems to me shocking," said Dr. Gore, "that native pastors should so largely have been trained by means of thoso signals which have been found useful in tho West; I mean documents like the.Thirty-nine Articles or the Westminster Confession, so controversial, so full of matter not- essential to the substance of our religion. We have not thought enough whether our message belongs to tho Catholic and fundamental substance of the message of Christ."

The subject under discussion was the report on education in relation to the Christianisation of national life. In tho general discussion that followed on Bishop Gore's presentation of the commission's report there were certain principles that emerged and found general acceptance. Chief among theso wa-s the recognition of the supreme importance of education as an instrument for the evangelisation of' the world. The testimony on this point was unanimous, and hardly less so was the evidence borne as to the utter inadequacy and inefficiency of mission schools and colleges in coding with the demands made on them. In India, the conference was told, every, place in every school is occupied, and there is a crying need for 1 trained educationists to lead the higher thought of those awakening races. Another sign of the development of missionary thought in recent years was ' the consensus of opinion as to the necessity for using the vernacular everywhere in mission schools the method of _ imparting in-' struction in English being condemned as being a failure educationally, and fatally denationalising in effect. Professor Saddler's Tribute. In the course of the day Professor Sadler, one of the foremost living educational experts, paid a tribute' to the value of mission . schools which may' have surprised even the delegates present. "Tho educational science of England and America," said the Professor, "has paid far too little heed to the contribution of missionary experience. I hope this conference may leave behind it some permanent organisation ■which shall gather in tho fruit of missionary educational experience to fertilise. tho education of tho world. We aro far too prone to the presupposition that Europe and America have the final educational message to tho world;" Mr. Bryan spoko in tho afternoon, and paid a testimony to the efficiency of mission education from tho point of view of a layman who had seen it at work; Nothing impressed 'me more," said Mr. Bryan, "than the work theso colleges are doing, and the' cheapness of the education they offered. In one place a girl's board and tuition cost no more than 30 dollars a year, and the average is not much more than 50 dollars. , A friend of mine at home tho other day told me his sons' education was costing him 1500 dollars a year each." There was a great significance in this educational work, for it showed tho Church's faith in their doctrines. It proved'they,did not shirk from exposing them to the light of intelligent and instructed examination.' The Christian nations were showing by their action that they had no jealousy vof tho peoples they, wero thus raising to a power equal .to..their 1 own. "Men talk, about a yellow peril," concluded Mr. Bryan. "There is only one yellow peril and that is the lust, of gold and nothing else.". Comparative Religion., What should bo the attitude of the Christian ministry to the nnu-Christian religions of tho world? This was the chief problem' which confronted the conference on June 18. It should be ono of understanding and, as. far as possible, of sympathy, was the report of the commission, whoso findings wero placed before tho conference for discussion. Harm, tlio commissioners said, had been done in tho past by the want,of this, and before a man went out to the field he could, and. ho should, possess such knowledge of the inner notion of the 'religion, of the people there as would keep him at the outset from calamitous mistakes. .

They thereforo recommended "that provision should "be made for thorough teaching in comparative religion in all our colleges and training institutes; that lectureships on special: religions should be instituted by endowment and by co-operation j and that missionary specialists should be enlisted for .this purpose."

In his native dress, and wearing the Red Button, the Rev, Dong King-En, a Chineso Baptist, discussed the question as it affected China, and expressed the.opinion that the extent to which Chinese'youths were learning the English' language 1 aud studying its literature was making them half-foreigners and proving a real hindrance to the spread of Christianity amongst the people. If the young Chinese would give nioro attention to their own literature, the oldest and finest in the world, they would bo more listened to and esteemed, by the highest of their fellowcountrymen. .

Dr. Campbell Gibson, one of the greatest of Chinese missionaries, made the difficulty of Christian missions in China apparent by an illustration. "If I addressed this Assembly, and called you all criminals," said ho, "yon would resent it strongly; but if I called you sinners you would accept it humbly. In Chinese there is no word to express sin and sinners but crime and criminals." Another quoted : a Chinaman who, when asked what his sins were, answered his wife and his mother-in-law. TL") speakers made t-lio conferenno roaliso how "the wholo confused world of Chinese religion is being shot through and through with broken lights of a hidden sun, which is coming forth in splendour to run a new race in the heavens." "There can be no doubt that Christianity has .established itself in the heart of Japan, and there must be at- least a million people there who think in terms of Christian morality," said the Bishop of Ossory, one of the commissioners. Missions and Governments. Foreign missions and their relations with Governments was.the subject submitted for discussion on June 20. ' Mr. Setli Low, of New Yorlc,'presented- the roport of the commission, of which Lord Balfour of Burleigh is chairman. The commission gave it as 'their opinion that in Egypt, the Sudan, and Northern Nigeria, the restrictions deliberately laid upon Christian mission work and tho deference paid to Islam were excessive, and that a respectful remonstrance should be made to the British Government on the subject. The commissioners also expressed the opinion that nothing was a greater hindrance than the feebleness of the sense of responsibility felt by advanced races for the welfare of the more backward races. Even men in high places did not hesitate to speak of all coloured races as if they were doomed to perpetual national servitude, aud as if they had .iio higher 1 destiny than io bo 'hewers of wood and drawers of water for the white mau.

Lord ltcay, speaking from personal experience of government in India, said the Government thero was bound to maintain liberty of worship to all sections of the community, and to remain perfectly neutral. That . neutrality, however, was perfectly compatible with tho Christian profession of the rulers of the country. The Government had a friendly attitude tpwards missions, but tho strength of missions was in their voluntary character.

Pr. f. Jays complained of a want of fairplay to Christians in Northern Nigeria, where, ho said, Islam was favoured. A Swiss delegate from Now Guinea told his brother-missionaries not to expect everyone to speak English wherever they went. (Laughter.) The chairman said that that observation recalled to him the observation of Gustav Warneck, who, 011 surveying the hold of Anglo-Saxon missionary work, remarked: "You have changed the Lord's 'command to read, 'Go yo into all the world and teach English to eyery creature.'• •_ 'The Rev. J. Griffin, of the American United Prosbyterian Mission, remarked that, although it might bo like touching a live wire, he would call attention to the attitude of, the Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum. Thai college ought to bo a living testimony to the life of Gordon, who was, above all else, a Christian man, but the influence of the college was Mohammedan throughout—("Shame")—and there was no provision for teaching the Bible. Letter from a Roman Catholic Bishop. The meeting 011 June 21 was set apart to the consideration of "Co-operation and Christian "Unity." Of all the.sab-, jects treated of by the conference, none offered more opportunity of divided counsels, even of tho sharp clash of distinctive and contradictory opinions. The question of Church unity has never been treated before by a gathering of Christian workers so truly < representative of the Church militant, and if tho discussion ended in little of definite result, it was characterised throughout by a genuine effort on the part of tho speakers to be at one and tho same time true to their own convictions and to'respect the convictions of t-licir. fel-low-labourers in other .denominations. A noteworthy'feature of tho day's proceedings was tho reading of a letter by Mr. Silas M'Bee, an American delegate, from Mousignor Bonomelli, Bishop of Cremona, Italy, whom, ho said, he regarded as one of the great evangelical preachers of the world, and one of' the greatest living bishops. In the course of his letter, tho Ilishop said the conference, which was being held in Scotland, the land of strong and noble ideas, though at one time.torn asunder by religious strife, was - a trimphant proof of another consoling fact—tlio most desirable and precious of human liberties, religious liberty might now be said to be a grand conquest of contemporary lmmEiiiity, and it enabled men of various faiths to meet together, not for the purpose of hating and combating each other, for the supposed greater glory of God, but in order to consecrate themselves in Christian love to the pursuit of the truth which unitcU . all believers in Christ. \

Dr. Talbot,' Bishop of Southwark, describetl this letter .as little less than a miracle. He , went on to add that though few peoplo there wero less disposed and sympathetic: towards'till lonian Catholic com.ni'unity than he, he' thought it would bo ridiculous, and impolitic and-.' wrong if they wero _to plan one Christian Church in China and leave out the. great Bornau Catholic community—a section of tho' Christian community which, he 'was told, had considerably moro members in the nonChristian world than all of them there put together. One of the most striking personalities of the meeting was Lord William Cecil, who, speaking with' his, loft hand in his pocket,' his 'right, making wondrous revolutions round his head, and his liair and beard as 1 shaggy as ever, pleaded for "enormous; prudonce' in tho efforts. for unity.'- The ,cause of Christianity must bo definite; if the denominational aspect was lost it would lose its appeal to the support of many. They could never have too much of the I Christian spirit; but they could have too much of the drill-sergeant, ordering arid drilling them into union. ■- 'The' outcome of tho discussion was the establishment of a' Continuation Committee, which will be tho brain and the arm of the conference acting in the future. The Continuation Committee will bo international. Ten'ycars after this it will doubtless orgamso 1 another conference. The motion was carried amid a scene of great enthusiasm and. thereafter the conference* sang the. doxology, "Praise God from Whom all blessings .flow." Mr. Bryan on Missions. Mr. W. J. Bryan, thrice Democratic candidate for the United States Presidency, delivered, an address in the Tolbooth Church on the "Fruits of tho Tree." Mr. Bryan said he had been made to take-n deeper interest in missions since lie had witnessed tho great work tliey wero doing, and his oarncst desire, that night, was-that he might rouse in tho, hearts or Christians a deeper entliu-, siasm in foreign mission work. .. It was sometimes said that a nation ought not to attempt to ■ teach others until it was itself perfect. He replied,to that, argument by saying tliat whicli was applicable to a nation was equally ap : plicablo to an individual, , and, if lie himself had decided not. to attempt to wake others better until ho had reached perfection, theii 110 would have to.postpone all active service for a long time. (Laughter and applause.) He had heard it said that missionaries made.; mishikes, and were apt to get. into trouble. He did not deny it. ' He only regretted tliey could not raise a group who would not" make mistakes. If tliey could, they needed them so badly at home - that they could not spare them to go abroad. (Laughter.) But although. missionaries might-make mistakes, ho was confident that tho men who went. 1 forth in love of God and thoir fellow-men made less trouble than those wlio went forth in love of~ money.- (Applause.) Ho had also heard it argued that foreign mission work was unnecessary; that God! would not punish in tho next world those who had never had a chance in this. Well, he would not argue with tlioso wlio. felt that way. .. He had seen the hoathen in this life, and believed tliey owed it to them as a Christian duty to carry to them the Christian conception of life, regardless of what the.future might hold., (Applause.)

JOTTINGS.

There.is a prospect that by 1913' the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches of Canada will bo united into one great body. Tho Presbyterian General Assembly at Halifax, hv a vote of 184 to 73, lias adopted tho basis of union formulated tivo years ugo by tlic joint committee, aiid the question now goes down to the presbyteries. The basis lias already been accepted by the Congregational Union and by two of the Methodist conferences iiow in session. If all goes well the union may be an accomplished fact nt thci date mentioned.—"Christian World."

The Church Missionary Society, in view of financial difficulties, lias decided that careful inquiry is to be made as to possible measures of concentration. The estimates for the year are £307,000 (£25.000 more than last year's income), and it has .been directed that the estimates of 1911-12 be so drawn as not too oxceed. £385,000. Rov. H. G. Grey, who was principal of Wvcliffq Hall, Oxford, from 1900 to 1905, has accoptcd the. chair for the second' time, on Dr. Griffith Thomas's departure for Toronto. z