Chapter 8: The Crisis of Missions
A book was published in 1886 that added considerable fuel to the debate. Pierson's The Crisis of Missions described both the opportunity and the responsibility associated with the end of the nineteenth century in relation to preaching the gospel to every creature. Toward that goal, the book repeated the call for an international conference of mission agencies in which the unevangelized world would be divided up between agencies. Pierson declared,
The crisis of missions is now upon us. What is a crisis_ It is the parting of the way, where opportunity and responsibility meet; where the chance of a grand success stands opposed to the risk of awful failure. We call this THE CRISIS; for never, in the whole history of missions, have such opportunity and such peril confronted the Church of God, and entailed such fearful responsibility (The Gospel in All Lands, 1886:516).
Pierson had stressed the theme of opportunity again and again over the years in the Missionary Review and other mission periodicals, and now he took the theme even further. "These two classes of facts, then, will command our attention: the providential opening of doors, and removal or subsidence of obstacles and barriers; and the gracious manifestations of transforming power in individuals and communities in heathen lands abroad, and of reforming power in our church life at home" (Pierson, 1886:15). The opportunity consisted of the opening of the world, the revivals in the churches, the advances in technology, and a host of other factors that pointed to a world that could be speedily evangelized.
Most missionaries and mission executives agreed with Pierson on the opportunity facing the church. Bishop Thoburn of India expressed it like this:
During the comparatively short period which has elapsed since I became a missionary obstacles of various kinds have been taken out of the way, until now I can look abroad and see a way of easy access to seven hundred millions of the human race, all of whom would have been beyond my reach had I desired to go to them in the days of my youth. And this process is still going on. High walls are falling into ruins at the quiet approach of Christ's messengers; remote regions are coming nearer; hostile people are becoming friendly; prejudices are melting away, and thus the opportunities set before us make it possible to accomplish things which would have been considered wholly impossible even as late as the middle of the present century (Thoburn, 1895:57-58).
Secondly, The Crisis of Missions emphasized the responsibility that came with the opportunity. What would the church do in light of all the doors that God was opening_ A heavy responsibility accompanied this opportunity, and the church would be strictly judged if she failed to respond.
The command of our ascended Lord, the voice of an enlightened conscience, the impulse of the new nature, the leading of the providential pillar, the working of transforming grace, the grandeur of the opportunity and the peril of delay—all these converge like rays in one burning focus, urging us onward and forward to the outposts of civilization and the limits of human habitation with the Word of Life (The Gospel in All Lands, 1887:325).
This responsibility was unlike that given to earlier generations. Reginald Radcliffe, speaking at an annual meeting of the China Inland Mission, put it this way,
We are to redeem the time. We are to appreciate the responsibilities of the day in which we live. The responsibilities of our fathers were not like our responsibilities. They were born, I repeat, into a world locked against the gospel. Now we are living in a world thrown open to the Gospel, and we are now to redeem the time, and seize our opportunity (Broomhall, 1887:73).
Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, with her husband, founder of the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, wrote,
True Christians were never so numerous in the world as they are this day, and it is easier for them to travel and dwell among the heathen in every corner of the earth than ever it was before. The printed gospel exists in hundreds of languages, and the Church has never been so rich in material resources. There is no question that living Christians could give the gospel to their own generation if they tried. The demand for labourers is enormous, but the supply is equal to meet it, if every man and woman who could and should be a missionary would become such (Guinness, 1886:246) [Italics hers].
Many held the conviction that the church was disobedient to the Great Commission and was thereby delaying the evangelization of the world. Dr. Judson Smith gave an address to the American Board in which he asked,
What hinders the immediate effort to plant the Gospel in every nation and island and home in all earth within the next few decades_ Nothing but the faltering zeal and purpose of the mass of Christian believers now on the earth. That precisely is the critical question. Are we, the Christians of to-day, awake to these facts and responsive to the claims of this glorious work_ Do we understand that this vast responsibility rests upon us_ That it is possible now as never before in the world's history, to preach the Gospel to all nations_ And do we mean, God helping, that his work shall be done ere we die_ This is the deep significance of the hour to this generation. We—the Christian people of this land—we are on trial; the reality and power of our Christian faith are put sharply to the test. Favored beyond all past generations in our opportunities to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, are we equal to our privileges_ (The Gospel in All Lands, 1887:505).
Dr. Josiah Strong, General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance in the United States, wrote in 1885,
We have seen that there is no lack of wealth; there is money enough in the hands of church-members to sow every acre of the earth with the seed of truth; but the average Christian deems himself a despot over his purse. God has intrusted to His children power enough to give the gospel to every creature by the close of this century; but it is being misapplied. Indeed, the world would have been evangelized long ago if Christians had perceived the relations of money to the Kingdom, and accepted their stewardship (Strong, 1885:203).
"An Appeal to Disciples Everywhere" appeared as an appendix in The Crisis of Missions. With the opportunity and responsibility thoroughly explained, "An Appeal" offered practical suggestions on how the church might respond to the challenge posed by the book.
The Crisis of Missions was very well accepted and received stirring reviews in practically every missionary periodical. The Illustrated Missionary News said, "This book is worthy of attentive perusal by all thoughtful Christians, being carefully written by one who has the subject deeply at heart, and whose scholarly pen arrays his arguments and facts so that the mind may not be wearied while taking the deep import of the matters discussed" (Illustrated Missionary News, January 1887:15).
Arthington's Resolution
On February 11, 1886, Robert Arthington of Leeds, who made regular contributions to the Missionary Review and other mission periodicals, put forth a resolution at a meeting of the Church Missionary Society. The resolution, promoting some of the same ideas as The Crisis of Missions, read as follows:
This meeting, deeply sensible that far greater missionary effort is needed in order to fulfil the parting command of Christ to his disciples, resolves that the time has come to map out the whole world in portions, in its heathen parts, and allot it amongst all missionary societies—whose aim it is to give a whole Bible to a whole people—thus enlarging the fields already occupied, and giving new spheres to each society, so as to cover the entire globe. And further it is resolved—that a request be sent from this meeting to the Committee of the society originating these conferences, asking that they will confer with the various missionary societies in Europe and America—with the view thus to map out the world and devise by mutual suggestion, a plan for general adoption (Missionary Review, May 1886:194).
Pierson, upon receiving Arthington's resolution, suggested that this should be carried out by 1992, the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Missionary Society. Dr. Driver, who also put forth plans to evangelize the world, concurred as well.
In October of 1886, Arthington wrote a letter to all the missionary societies of Europe and America, pleading with them to "lose no time" in dividing up the world for the preaching of the gospel. His letter began, "It may be assumed that all real Christians would rejoice in heart if every living person was a Christian indeed. But do we indeed expect that more than a few comparatively, in any one locality, will ever be real Christians_ Look to the Scriptures and to secular history for the answer. Of course, as seen at the last, the saved are an innumerable multitude, coming out of every nation and tribe" (Missionary Review, January 1887:18).
Arthington continued by suggesting that if the world were divided up, success would be sure—nothing would be lost by trying. He then made specific suggestions of how this might be done, making reference to continents and societies. "Thus a great advance could be taken by missionary Societies all over the world, and the Gospel message far more extensively diffused and accepted,—for the saved in the vision were gathered,—they came out of every kindred and nation, tongue and people" (Missionary Review, January 1887:19) [Italics his].
The spirit of these documents was once again affirmed in other sources. The editor of the Baptist Missionary Magazine wrote,
Where is the man so faint-hearted as to doubt the future of an accomplished work like this_ Where is the Christian, who, if the Lord were to put the decision of the whole matter into his hand, would say aught but that this work must go on till prophecy be accomplished, and the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea_ The great danger and anxiety for all Christian hearts today is, lest we may awake to the finished triumph of this glorious work, in this world or the hereafter, and find that it has gone on by us, beyond us, and without us (Baptist Missionary Magazine, December 1886:446-447).
This time, Arthington was heard. In 1887, in response to his urging, a Missionary Intelligence and Registration Office was set up in London for the express purpose of keeping track of occupied mission fields in order to better ascertain where new efforts were needed. Royal Wilder encouraged his readers to pray that such an office would be set up in the United States, without tapping into current mission funds.
Hope and Success
Hope seemed to be an essential element of such a plan. "Men always work better when they are assured of the possibility and even certainty of success. Listlessness and indifference are the offspring of despair. Men will not long continue to labour at hopeless tasks, and a new spirit of enterprise would fill the hearts of us all, if our minds were to grow assured, not only of the ultimate, but of the near approach of the triumph of our Holy Faith" (The Chronicle, November 1886:458).
Certainty of success was another prominent feature of the discussions of the day. "It is a work in which there is certainty of success. Whatever our views of the second Advent, whether it is to be before or after the millenium, we are made absolutely certain by the word of God, that the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, that all nations shall serve him" (The Missions of the World, March 1894:3).
Others were not so hopeful about what might be accomplished. Although he emphasized that the task of world evangelization could be finished, Dr. D. M. Welton wrote that a review of the history of missions in the previous fifty years suggested that "we have reason to believe that in another hundred years, or about the year 2000, the whole world will be thoroughly evangelized" (Missionary Review, March 1887:165).
The Rev. Joseph Edkins preached a sermon in Peking, China in June of 1888 entitled, "Final Success of Christianity as seen From a Missionary Standpoint." He said, "Next century, therefore, we may expect to see the work of the Church ten-fold. It is not utopian to believe that those sums now devoted to mission work are small compared with what will be devoted to this purpose next century. The work of conversion will then advance with accelerated speed. Thus the attitude of the Church now favors the probability of the ultimate victory of Christianity" (The Gospel in All Lands, 1888:453).
