CHAPTER X.
SURVEY OF THE WORK IN A PROVINCE.
The mission station is not an isolated unit The relationship of station with station is recognised So the relationship of all missions in a country is recognised We can then consider the work of a mission station in relation to all mission work done in the Province or Country Considered in relation to the larger area, impressions produced by the earlier tables may have to be revised The first necessity is to gain a view of the whole work in the Country The difficulty presented by capitals and other large cities I. The items proposed as necessary for such a general view— (1) The work to be done; a bare quantitative expression in terms of population, perhaps also in terms of cities, towns, and villages unoccupied This expression ought not to suggest that the work to be done is to be done by the foreigners (2) The Foreign Force at work in relation to the work to be done is larger than that presented by returns from all mission stations The Native Force also is more than the sum of the station district returns (3) Different forms of work; one table revealing proportion of Missionaries, Native Workers, Foreign Funds, and Native Contributions employed in different forms of work One table of results A serious flaw in this table (4) The extent to which different classes, etc., are reached. One table including the station returns with the addition of special missions which work among special classes in the whole Province or Country (5) Self-support. One table showing the relation of the native contribution to the total salaries of all paid native evangelistic workers II. To this must be added tables of students in training for different forms of mission work First the relative proportion of students in training for different types of work Then of each more particularly— (1) Evangelistic Confusion of nomenclature prevents more than a rough classification (2) Educational: divided roughly into four classes (3) Medical: divided into three classes These tables are prophetic of line of advance in the near future The question of perseverance III. Then the Educational Institutions excluded from the district survey must be added to the sum of the station returns to show the relation of the educational work to the population of the larger area The importance of the relation of the higher to the lower grade institutions The educational work of non-missionary agencies must also be considered IV. Medical work needs only the addition of provincial hospitals and non-missionary medical work V. Two other subjects claim attention here, literature and industrial work The difficulty of dealing with literature. It needs special treatment Two brief tables suggested The difficulty of dealing with industrial work still greater For industrial missions, other than those which are really educational, we suggest three tables VI. Union work
CHAPTER XI.
THE RELATION OF THE STATION TO THE WORLD.
A world-wide work can only be conducted on world-wide principles
These world-wide principles must govern the work in every part,
however small
No country, however large, can be an isolated unit from missionary
point of view
How shall we gain a view of this large whole?
We suggest that four tables would suffice for our purpose:—
(1) A table showing the force at work in relation to
population
(2) A table designed to reveal something of the
character and power of the force
(3) A table showing the relative strength expended in evangelistic,
medical, and educational work
(4) A table showing the extent to which the native Christians support
existing work
This is only a tentative suggestion proposed to invite criticism
CHAPTER I.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A DOMINANT PURPOSE.
It is a marked characteristic of our age that every appeal for an expression of energy should be an intellectual appeal. Emotional appeals are of course made, and made with tremendous force, but, with the emotional appeal, an emphasis is laid to-day upon the intellectual apprehension of the meaning of the effort demanded which is something quite new to us. Soldiers in the ranks have the objective of their attack explained to them, and this explanation has a great influence over the character and quality of the effort which they put forth. Labourers demand and expect every day a larger and fuller understanding of the meaning of the work which they are asked to perform. They need to enjoy the intellectual apprehension of the larger aspects of the work, and the relation of their own detailed operations to those larger aspects; and it is commonly recognised that the understanding of the meaning and purpose of the detail upon which each operative may be engaged is a most powerful incentive to good work. In the past leaders relied more upon implicit, unreasoning obedience, supported often by affection for the leader's own character, and profound trust in his wisdom, and a general hope of advantage for each individual who carried out orders unhesitatingly and exactly; but they did not think it necessary, or even desirable, that the common workers should understand their plans and act in intelligent co-operation with them: to-day, intelligent co-operation is prized as it has never been prized before, and its value is realised as it has never been realised before.
If this is true in the world of arms, of labour, of commerce, it is equally true in the world of foreign missions. The common worker, the subscriber, the daily labourer, is beginning to demand that he shall be allowed to take an intelligent part in the work, and missionary leaders are beginning to see the importance of securing intelligent co-operation. In the past the appeal has been rather to blind obedience, and immense stress has been laid upon the "command"; the appeal has been to the emotions, and love for Christ, love for the souls of men, hope of eternal blessings, hope of the coming of the Kingdom, and (for direction of the work) trust in the wisdom of great missionary leaders or committees, have been thought sufficient to inspire all to put forth their best efforts; but to-day, as in the labour world, as in commerce, as in the army, so in the world of missions, the intellect is taking a new place. Men want to understand why and how their work assists towards the attainment of the goal, they want to know what they are doing, they want to understand the plan and to see their work influencing the accomplishment of the plan.