Chapter 15: Entering the final decade (1890)
As 1880-81 precipitated much thought about what could be done in twenty years, 1890-91 gave rise to many reflections about what could be done in ten years.
Julia B. Schauffler, in the opening editorial of Woman’s Work for Woman in 1890, wrote,
Only ten years of this century remain, and on the way in which we improve this passing opportunity depends in a large degree the progress of the world in Christian life and thought for many years to come. Think of the possibilities of the future as Dr. Pierson shows them in this grand word picture: "Never was the whole field of missions so inviting or the harvest so promising. Never was the Church of Christ furnished with facilities so ample and abundant for the speedy and successful accomplishment of her work. The next decade of years will witness not only evolutions, but revolutions that even now seem incredible within so short a time. The Church of Christ must push all the forces to the front and lay a molding hand on the plastic material of social life. The anointed tongue and consecrated pen, the printed page and the loving epistle, the church and the school, the Christian family and the Christian home, must unite their witness to the power of the Gospel, in the eyes and ears of every creature" (Woman’s Work for Woman, January 1890:4).
Following Pierson’s lead, in 1890 Dr. D. McEwen gave a major address at the Evangelical Alliance Conference. China’s Millions reported that he said,
The special work of the Christian Church to-day is the immediate evangelisation of the whole world. Conversion, whether of the few or the many, is the work of God Himself; but it is committed to the Church to take the Gospel message to every creature; and the time has come, in the providence of God, when this ought to be done, not in a halting, tentative way, but by sweeping measures. Through the march of discovery, the progress of international commerce, and the translation of the Scriptures, the speedy evangelisation of the human race has come within the region of practical Christian politics (China’s Millions, January 1890:13).
He went on to outline that it would take only 50,000 workers and the expenditure of 15 million pounds sterling annually, for ten years, in order to preach the gospel to every creature. McEwen pointed out that this kind of planning worked in war; why should it not work in the Christian conquest of the globe_
In January 1890, in his editorial "Is There to Be a New Departure in Missions_", it was obvious that Pierson was beginning to sense the rush of time as the new century approached.
It will no longer do to act and talk as though we had countless years and even centuries before us wherein to evangelize the world. We have often said, what now we calmly and deliberately repeat with emphasis, that with one tithe of the ‘dash’ and ‘push’ with which all worldly enterprises are carried forward, the thirty millions of Protestant church members now on earth would not let ten years pass without belting the globe with the missionary effort and bearing the good tidings of the gospel to every family of man! We yearn to see the church of God take up this work as though she felt that the time is short and eternity is only long; that millions of unsaved souls die every year, and a whole generation in less than forty years; as though she saw that God has given her opportunities and facilities that multiply her responsibilities a hundred fold (Missionary Review, January 1890:2).
Hudson Taylor’s Plan
J. Hudson Taylor also was well aware of the time passing in relation to the generation he was trying to reach. At the end of 1889 he wrote an article entitled "To Every Creature." He observed,
In 1877 the Conference of Missionaries assembled in Shanghai appealed to the Christian Church to evangelize China in the present generation, and many hoped it would be accomplished in the present century. More than half the time before the close of the century passed, and not one-hundredth part of the people have been reached, yet this generation is the last of sixty since our Saviour gave the command, which, as Dr. Pierson has well pointed out, has laid the responsibility on the church of each successive generation to give the gospel to each individual living in its own period. There is no impossibility in our Master’s command. Were the Government of England to determine on the conquest of a distant land they would think it a small matter to land 10,000 troops in any part of the world’s circumference; and the Church of God to-day could easily, within the next five years, effect the evangelization of every one of China’s millions (China’s Millions, December 1889:171-172).
Taylor went on to outline a plan in which 1000 evangelist would take two years for preparation and then within a three-year period bring the gospel to every family in China! He obviously had not lost enthusiasm for what could be done in the closing decade.
Taylor’s appeal was reprinted in the Missionary Review and other publications. Regions Beyond said of Taylor, "The Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, speaking of the great missionary command, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,’ said that during the last fortnight those words had acquired a new meaning to him; he had been considering them in the light of the possibility of practically obeying them, and reaching every individual in the world. He believed it was our duty to make the attempt" (Regions Beyond, November 1889:402) [Italics theirs].
Still, there were detractors. William Ashmore, a retired missionary to China, wrote to the Missionary Review in May 1890, disapproving of Taylor’s plan and protesting that sufficient time was not allowed for the Chinese to not only hear the gospel but to understand it. Oddly enough, William Ashmore’s name was listed on the Interdenominational Permanent Committee associated with the plan!
Geraldine Guinness, in a few years to become Taylor’s daughter-in-law, made a special appeal to the Student Volunteers on behalf of Taylor’s plan to evangelize China. She referred back to the document of the Shanghai conference of 1877, calling it "a most memorable, noble, pathetic paper" and claiming that "it is impossible to read unmoved the burning words of that eloquent and pathetic plea." She went on to say,
We believe that no impossibility is enjoined in our Master’s clear command to "preach the gospel to every creature;" but that it can be done,Ñand done in this present generation... Shall a task which one thousand workers might accomplish in three years of steady labour, after two years of preparation, be thought of as chimerical and beyond the resources of the Christian Church_ (Regions Beyond, November 1890:400-401) [Italics hers].
In February 1890, Taylor called for an upcoming conference of Protestant Societies meeting in Shanghai to seriously address the question of evangelizing China. "We would ask for much prayer that this Conference may be made a time of great blessing, and that such steps may be taken as shall hasten the day when the Gospel shall have been brought within the reach of every creature in China. We have already entered on the last ten years of this century; surely, ere its close, we shall see this accomplished" (China’s Millions, February 1890:17).
Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness also spoke of the close of the century. In the January 1890 edition of Regions Beyond (pp. 3-4) she wrote, "As our century draws to a close, the increase of missionary activities, among other signs of our times, indicates the near approach of that end which shall be such a glorious beginning. But let such activities increase still faster for the time is short! How can we make this last decade of the century its best in this respect_...Let us not be timid in our petitions and expectations, but htmlire to great things. Let us pray that the whole heathen world may be evangelized before the century ends." [Italics hers].
Pierson, writing this time from Scotland, enthusiastically agreed. "No man can show a sensible reason why within the next ten years the Word of God should not be published throughout the world. Thirty millions of Protestant disciples can evangelize the world if each one will become responsible for fifty other souls...This decade ought to be the most glorious of all history in the progress of the gospel" (Missionary Review, March 1890:165). He added, a few pages later, "I want to live long enough to see this world mapped out for God, to see a definite organized movement for the occupation of the whole world for Christ" (Missionary Review, March 1890:198).
Presbyterian Support
By now other voices began taking up the challenge. In early 1890 J. L. Stevens, a Presbyterian, addressed the presbytery of Athens, Georgia on "The Gospel Can and Ought to be Preached to the Whole Heathen, Jewish and Mohammedan World in the Next Ten Years." Quoting Mark 16:15, Stevens said, "Since it is our imperative duty and to our highest interest that this command be obeyed, why delay it_" The substance of his appeal was a detailed look at how many men and how much money would be required to accomplish the task by the year 1900. Stevens concluded by challenging the Presbyterians to do their part to serve as an example to other Protestants. Afterward, he sent his article to many missionary magazines to widely circulate the idea.
Pierson, meanwhile, rejoiced to see the new champions of the vision. In the April edition of the Missionary Review he wrote, "The thought of evangelizing the world in this generation is taking hold of various persons and various plans are forming to carry out the project...This duty and privilege of reaching the whole world with the gospel during the present generation, and even century, has been often urged on the readers of this Review. We rejoice to see that thought working in many other minds throughout the church, and cropping out in so many directions" (Missionary Review, April 1890:310).
Pierson often told the story of German Christians in Hamburg who saw amazing results in their evangelism because they came together in prayer and dedication. He insisted that the same type of dedication on an international level would yield phenomenal results.
Give us twenty-five hundred men of like consecration, and in another quarter of a century we can have 175,000 new churches, 1,875,000 gospel stations, 25,000,000 converts; we will scatter 160,000,000 Bibles, 3,000,000,000 pages of tractsÑand, with these twenty-five hundred such men, we will tell the good tidings to the whole population of the globe within the remaining ten or eleven years of this nineteenth century! To evangelize this race is a load that will crush the few; it can be lifted only by the many (Missionary Review, July 1890:514).
Writing from China, Geraldine Guinness wrestled over how the gospel might be preached to every creature. In the paper her parents edited in London, she wrote, "Dr. Pierson’s words often come to mind in this connection; they were to this effect....’If God will show me anything that I can do for the salvation of the world, that I have not yet attempted, by His GraceÑI will do it at once.’ It is a great problemÑthe problem of the nineteenth as of the first century how best, how most surely and most quickly, to carry the gospel of Jesus, to EVERY creature" (Regions Beyond, June 1890:237) [emphasis hers].
One result of all this enthusiasm was the creation of the "Extra-Cent-a-Day Band," which encouraged church members to set aside an extra penny every day for missions. This unusual way of raising extra money for missions was initiated in direct response to the appeal for the speedy evangelization of the world. One participant commented, "Let the Church, followers and representatives of Him whose earthly life was a mission to a lost world, resolve that ere this century closes the story of the Saviour shall indeed be proclaimed to every creature. That will make our age sublime!" (Missionary Review, July 1890:552).
Prayer and Missions
As if to place his advocacy of organization and businesslike zeal in proper perspective, in his editorials and books Pierson wrote a great deal about prayer and missions. "Every time the Church has set herself to praying, there have been stupendous movements in the mission world. If we should but transfer the stress of our dependence and emphasis from appeals to men to appeals to GodÑfrom trust in organization to trust in supplicationÑfrom confidence in methods to importunate prayer for the power of the Holy Ghost, we should see results more astounding than have yet been wrought" (Missionary Review, August 1890:585-586). "There is too much dependence on appeal, on organization, on human instrument, on Governmental patronage, on the influence of education and civilization; and too little simple looking unto that real source of success, the power of God in answer to prayer, first to open doors of access, then to raise up and thrust forth laborers, and then to break down all opposition and make the truth mighty in converting, subduing, saving and sanctifying" (Missionary Review, August 1890:630). "Eliminate God from missions and you have nothing left but a human enterprise; all the grandeur and glory are gone; for the one supreme charm and fascination of this work is that, in idea and plan, in origin and progress, it is divine" (Missionary Review, September 1890:653).
The editors of the Illustrated Missionary News agreed. In referring to the work of the China Inland Mission and its goals to preach the gospel to every person in China, they commented, "Let us not forget that to preach the Gospel to every creature is not a ‘mere human project, but a Divine command.’" (Illustrated Missionary News, Feb. 1, 1890:24) [Italics theirs].
