Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions | Page 6

chaotic that support which they
might give to work which they saw clearly to be directed to the
attainment of a great goal which they desired by a policy which they
understood. The attitude of these men is the attitude of those who await
an intelligent appeal to their intelligence.
For a true understanding of foreign missions it is necessary first that
their aim and object should be clearly defined. Without such a
definition intelligent co-operation is impossible. Unless the objective is
understood men cannot estimate the value of their work. They cannot
trace progress unless they can see clearly the end to be attained; they
cannot zealously support action unless they are persuaded that the
action is truly designed to attain the defined end. There may indeed be
many subordinate objects, and men may be asked to work for the
attainment of any one of these, but there ought to be one final end and
purpose which governs all, and intelligent co-operation involves the
appreciation of the relation between the subordinate and the final end.

Consequently if many objects are set before us, as they are in our
foreign missions, it is essential that these many purposes and objects
should be presented to us not simply as ends to be attained, but in their
relation to one another and in their relation to the final end which the
directors of our missions have clearly before their eyes.
Now it is just at this point that we fail to attain satisfaction. All
societies publish reports and statistics, but the reports and statistics do
not provide us with any clear and intelligible account of progress
towards any definite end. They seem rather designed to attract and to
appeal to our sympathy than to satisfy our intelligence. They set before
us all kinds of work unrelated, indefinite, changeable, and changing
from year to year, as though the compilers selected from the letters of
missionaries any striking statements which they thought would attract
support in themselves and by themselves. No goal is set before us, and
the progress towards that goal steadily traced from year to year; still
less is the relation between the different methods and means employed
to attain each subordinate objective expressed so that we can see, not
only what progress each is making towards its own immediate end, but
what is the effective value of all together towards the attainment of a
final end to which they all contribute.
But would not the definition of one great end or purpose hinder us? Are
not all the great ends which we set before ourselves indefinite enough
to include a host of different and mutually separate and even
occasionally incompatible subsidiary objects, aims, and methods?
Would not the rigid definition of the aim of our foreign missions, by
excluding a great many legitimate aims and methods, weaken and
beggar our missions, which are strong in proportion as they admit all
sorts of different aims and methods? There are men who speak and act
as if they thought so, and in consequence welcome as a proper part of
the missionary programme all Christian, social, and political activities.
Anything, they think, which makes for the amelioration of life,
everything which tends to enlighten and uplift the bodies, the souls, and
the minds of men, is a proper object for the missionary to pursue, and
the missionary should assist every movement towards a higher life in
the heathen community as well as in the Christian, and should

introduce every method and plan, industrial, social, or political, literary,
or artistic, which tends to ennoble the life of men. It may be so. It may
be true that the introduction of everything which tends to uplift and
enlighten is a proper object for missionary activity, but we venture to
argue not all at once, in the same place, nor even any one of them at the
whim of any missionary at any time, anywhere. Nor all in the same
order. There is a more and a less important. And we do urge that if we
are to take an intelligent part in foreign missions and to give those
missions intelligent support, we must know what is the more important
and what the less. We are told that the duty of the foreign mission is to
bring all nations into the obedience of Christ, and that "all the nations"
means all the people of all the nations, and all the capacities, powers,
and activities of all the people of all the nations, individually and
collectively, and that any work which tends to bring any part of the
collective action of any non-Christian people under the direction of
Christian principles is, therefore, the proper work of the missionary,
and that the most important is the particular social, industrial, or
political