Chapter 18: Decline (1893-1894)
By 1893, many leaders had already begun to look beyond the year 1900 into the twentieth century. Time was short, and some, like Rev. Josiah Strong, author of the influential book, Our Country, spoke of the nineteenth century as one of preparation, saying that God had opened up doors in science, education, medicine and politics, and all of these had facilitated the spread of the gospel.
In London, James E. Mathieson in "Missions, the Salvation of the Church" already spoke in the past tense, lamenting the fact that so much more could have been done in the world-wide proclamation of the gospel had the church risen to the occasion. But now,
It does not seem likely, now that we are drawing near to the close of the second millennium of Christianity, that anything will arise in the conditions of mankind in the leading Protestant lands, or in the phases of theology which largely govern the minds of men in lands ruled by Bible principles, to greatly alter the proportions which now obtain between the various sections of the Church in their numerical strength and social influence and power...Is it beyond hope that we may one day see a pause in this hitherto endless strife for mastery in seeking to gain the first or second or third place in membership, in edifices, in revenues, which now engages the ceaseless watchfulness and activities of leading men in every denomination_ and instead of this feverish race for supremacy in an age which seems governed largely by statistics, a more prayerful pondering of our Lord's parting command, a turning to a more excellent way and to a nobler strife, in a determination to keep in the foremost place the vast neglected work which her Lord has set before His Church, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature'" (Missionary Review, March 1893:175-176).
Some knowledgeable missionaries, on the other hand, still believed that great things could be accomplished by the end of the century. Bishop Thoburn of India wrote, "I am confident that before the year 1900 every missionary body in India will be found fully committed to the great work of gathering in the converts by the score and the hundred and nurturing them for God and heaven. I shall be surprised and disappointed indeed if the ingathering of the next eight years does not exceed that of the previous ninety-two" (Missionary Review, January 1893:47). A missionary to Burma felt that the numerous signs of the times and progress of the gospel "leads us to believe that the time is near when a nation shall be born in a day. Yes! The day is dawning, and God's weary workers may well congratulate each other, for all these things betoken a speedy proclamation of the Gospel to all nations of the earth, and then cometh the end" (Missionary Review, January 1893:50).
It was not a missionary, but a pastor, Francis E. Clark, also founder of Christian Endeavor, who in his speech before the CE convention in Montreal in 1893 said,
Who will join me this year in a pledge of proportionate giving of at least one-tenth of what God may give us_ Do you want a larger mission, Christian Endeavorers_ Do you want a new crusade_ Here it is. Could anything be larger_ It reaches the ends of the world. It embraces every nation and people and kindred and tribe. It means salvation, yours as well as theirs. It means the filling of our missionary treasuries; for we will always give, as we have done through our own wisely directed denominational channels. It means no more worthy cause at home or abroad will suffer. In time, as we grow more numerous and richer, it will mean thousands where there are now hundreds, and millions where now are given thousands. It means obedience to our Lord's last command. It means that the twentieth century, yes, that this little remnant that is left of the old nineteenth, will usher in the glad era of an evangelized world which has heard in its remotest corners the gospel message (Clark, 1895:478) [Italics mine].
In March of 1893 Regions Beyond published a plea for its readers to set aside time on the Lord's day to especially pray for the evangelization of the world to hasten the Lord's coming. They wrote, "There is no reason why in our own time the Word of God should not be carried within reach, substantially, of all the peoples of the earth, provided we use the resources at our disposal" (Regions Beyond, March 1893:181) [Italics mine].
However, faith that the task could be completed by 1900 was beginning to grow dim. Some, like Luther Wishard of the YMCA, believed that the job would only be finished with the help of native workers. "The missionaries believe that when these men are fully charged with this spirit they will accomplish more in the evangelization of their people in a decade than foreigners can do in a century" (Missionary Review, August 1893:584). Cyrus Hamlin, speaking to the International Missionary Union in 1891, had already clearly expressed this view.
Fifty years ago the prevailing idea was that the world is to be converted by the preaching of missionaries. That idea is no longer held by anybody. The native Church is to be the true missionary Church. Native preachers and helpers are to go everywhere preaching the Word. They are to do the chief work of evangelization. The great work of missionaries is to bring forward, to educate, to train the native laborers and native churches unto this work, and give the whole over to them as soon as possible. This is the only way in which the great work of the world's redemption from sin and darkness can be accomplished. It is the most effective and economical way (Missionary Review, January 1892:55).
That cooperation with national leaders was essential to finishing the job of world evangelization was self-evident to A. T. Pierson. He also expected this sort of cooperation to extend beyond proclamation to the social mission of the church. "To proclaim the simple Gospel to man as man is the great commission. To reach this world-wide destitution, to prevent overlapping, waste, and friction in the work, and build up society after a celestial pattern, there must be cordial, sympathetic, universal co-operation among disciples. To rescue from flood or fire, the whole body must move, or vainly will the heart yearn or the hands stretch out to help. The heroism of some members of Christ's body may be hindered and made ineffectual by the inactivity of the rest. Co-operation there must be if this problem is to be solved" (Missionary Review, March 1894:170).
The Second SVM Conference
By 1894, Pierson was talking less about the year 1900 and more about the present generation. At the SVM quadrennial in Detroit his talk was entitled "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation." Mott introduced him by saying that Pierson had been placing special emphasis on this particular phrase in the last two years. But Pierson commented that the inspiration for the motto had come to him 20 years earlier (1874) from Acts 13:36.
What is a generation_ A generation is that lapse of time that extends between the cradle and the grave for the average population of the race. Three generations pass away in a century. A generation covers the generating of the population during the period of a mortal existence, and their continuance on the sphere of their mortal experienceÑthirty three years, or in that neighborhood. Remark that that was the life of Christ, and that that was the period of the Acts of the Apostles, as though to show you what could be done by one generation when the spirit of God dwelt in the midst of God's people. Your service is to your generation. You cannot affect past generations; your influence does not move backwards. You can only remotely affect future generations; and the best way to serve the next generation is to serve this generation to the fullest of your ability. Lay the foundation for the usefulness that will survive (Moorhead, 1894:114).
Pierson went on to explain that there were seven great wonders that indicated that the fullness of time had come in relation to evangelizing the world in that generation. These were developments like world-wide exploration, communication, assimilation and the like. He concluded by saying, "Seven fingers of God laid on the work of evangelism, to take hold of it with the grip of God and help us to move the world inside of thirty years for God" (Moorhead, 1894:115). This was indeed a major shift in Pierson's thinking. In spite of his indefatigable work, his efforts had not been sufficient to awake a church surfeited with the luxury and pleasures of the "gilded age" and now caught up in the "gay nineties."
In July 1894, Robert Arthington again wrote a letter "to the Church of Christ Jesus" admonishing Christians everywhere to help to bring about the fulfillment of Revelation 5:9 and 7:9, that all nations and tribes might be represented at the throne of God. He proposed first of all, that certain tribes and peoplesÑnamely, those with a population greater than 100,000 who had never heard the gospelÑbe strategically targeted. The Word of God should be translated, and then workers should "preach the gospel throughout that Tribe, carefully noting the several eligible central positions and terminal borders of each" (The Missions of the World, July 1894:237). Regardless of what anyone thought of his plan, Arthington urged the church to ensure that it had some plan to finish the job of world evangelization.
If the various societies would commit their present fields and circuits of preaching to the Lord in charge, and, in His Spirit, to the most advanced members of each native Church, dividing the rest of the heathen amongst them in wise arrangement without overlapping, always welcoming other workers in harmony,Ñto parts of their several spheres not yet occupied,Ñthey might undertake all parts of the globe where the art of reading is not known,Ñand, with the aid of bible evangelists, the whole world might be evangelized (The Missions of the World, July 1894:237).
