WORLD'S MIS (NA CONFERENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10228, 3 May 1911, Page 3

WORLD'S MIS (NA CONFERENCE.

ADDRESS BY REV. A. T. THOMPSON.

In the course of' an interesting address delivered at the meeting of the Ministers' Association in Masterton on Monday, the 'Rev. A. T. Thompson said:— This great conference was held in Edinburgh last June. For upwards of two yea<rs eight commissions each consisting of about 20 European and American specialists were collecting, collating, and systematising information in connection with the

i missionary enterprise in all its branches throughout the world. One day was given to the reception and discussion of the reports submitted by the Commissioners. The first submitted by Dr Mott, the world's secretary of the Students' Christian Union, was entitled 'The Carrying of the Gospel to the Non-Christian World,' in which was made clear from the facts and study of problems before the Commissioners that the present moment was one of great opportunity and urgency in the foreign field. Never in the history of Christian missions had such a door been opened in China-, Korea., Japan, India, or Africa. It was the time of the rising tide. The church should a£ once, occupy the unoccupied fields, and, in order to meet this moment of opportunity, should! treble her forces. Concerted action on the part i of the churches was necessary. The key to the whole present situation was the church at the Home base. Would she rise with visions and faith ; and a sense l of her responsibility to meet the need, and take advantage of the opportunities of the time?. The report of Commission 2 was submitted by Dr Campbell Gibson, of Swaton "The Church in the Mission Field." We were assured that there is a church already in the mission field, a church of 1,925,205 communicant members. In many cases these native churches are carrying on a foreign mission and Home mission work of their own, and some have already their roll of martyrs, who have died for the Gospel's sake. Tho aim should be the establishment of an indigenous church, self-govern-ing and self-supporting. Western tutelage should cease when this is < accomplished. Commission 3 dealt with one great branch of the missionary enterprise to-day—the educational— and was entitled "Education in Relation to the Christianisation of National life." It was submitted by Bishop Gore, of Birmingham. A tribute was paid to educational work in evangelising the non-Christian world, j Often the revival and religious awakening started in the children and adult ischools. In this branch of the work the missionary picked up often the down-trodden and humbler classes, and by means of their schools made useful and noble members of society. Hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools with all the branches of Western learning and culture had sprung into being, and during the conference the famous University of Edinburgh honoured itself, and honoured the work of . the missionary by conferring its hdghest and most coveted 'Degrees upon native and European alike the sons of Asia, and Africa, .and India, were considered worthy to sit beside the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Drs. Mott and Spier, a noble tribute'to the work of the Christian missionary. The report of the Commission on "Co-operation and Promotion of Unity," marked the high-water level of the conference. As every shade of opinion in Protestant Christendom was represented the discussion which ensued was highly instructive. It was shown that in some respects co-operation and unity had gone further on. the great mission fields than at Home, and was often prevented; from going further stall by ■ the existence of time-honoured distinctions and differences in the' Home churches. In many of the churches in, the mission field a desire for a : great national church was present, notably in China, and we were assured that Denominationalism had never interested the Chinese mimd; in fact it was mystified and confused by it,

The magnitude and urgency of the mission enterprise at the present time called for closer relations and practical od-operation. It was felt that in this matter the real problem to be faced was not an intellectual, but a moral one, and that what was needed just now was not so much "Schemes of Union" as "Apostles of Unity." Yet the conference went far to recommend arid encourage co-operation in educational, medical, printing, and pul*lishing work; and, if not organic union of cliurcheS similar in policy, at least federation after the manner of the Christian Federation of China. j • Reports were received, also, on the ! "Missionary Message in Relation to Non-€lmstian Religions," "The Preparation of Missionaries," "Missions and Governments," and "The Home j Base of Missions," in which the lat- I est and largest word yet spoken was voiced by the whole Church Protestant on these important matters. These reports were the work of experts of European and American reputation, who for upwards of two years were gathering, sifting, and systematising the information gleaned from every known and available source. At this conference, consisting of 1200 official delegates, were great men an every walk and calling of life, e.g., great statesmen, like Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Jennings Bryan, Sir Andrew Fraser, Lord Reay, and Seth Law, the famous Mayor of New York; great churchmen such;-as .•'the Archbishop of Canterbury and York, and certain well-known Continental Bishops, as well as leaders

in the Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other churches of Europe and America. Educationists of world-wide repute were there, editors of the secular and church Press, famous missionaries, theologians and philosophers, whose names are known all the world over were there, to consecrate brain and heart, talent and time, to this, the greatest enterprise on earth, which leaps over all national and racial barriers, namely to plant the knowledge of Christ in the earth's utmost parts. So met and so laboured this great body of Christian men gathered from the East and from the West, from the North and from the SouthHindu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Saxon, Frank, and Scandinavian, "The most unique gathering in the history of the church since the time of the Apostles," as the Archbishop of Canterbury truly put it.