The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-06-02
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE
MORE INTEREST TAKEN IN THE
SUBJECT.
Great Results From the Ecumcnical
Council Recently Held in New York
City-Brcadening Effects.

The Republican Standard of New
Bedford has the following concerning
the late ecumenial council of missions
held i'm New York.
There has been and is a deal of dis
cussion concerning the extent and the
value of the work done by missionary
enterprise, and as a concession to the
questioning as well as a stimulus to
the kindly disposed, we have statlsti-
cal tables, and reports, and occasional
~ a visiting missionary with the story
of what he and his associates have
done. We do not know that this really
counts for very much. Most of us have
known men and women who spent long
and quiet lives, faithful to duty, doing
good unobstrusively as opportunity
came their way or as they made 1t,
and who died leaving a good example
and fragrant memory. But who
could sum it up i'm a table of figures,
or a report, or in an obituary? There
is no computing such things. We can
only say that the man was an insplra-
ton and that the woman was beloved
for the many good deeds which she
did. Something in the lives of these
persons made other lives happier and
better. And that is the summing up Of
all that can be said of the faithful mis-
sionary. He may have had a narrow
creed he was surely not exempt from
human weaknesses: but he stood as the
example of self-sacrificing devotion to
his fellow-men-and so he helps both
those from whom he goes and those to
whom he is sent.
The great missionary convention
which has just been held in New York
city has received more sympathetic at
tention from many quarters than it
would had it been held three or four
years ago. That is not because there
is more missionary zeal among the mis-
sionaries themselves for there is not;
but because some men have walked up.
What some of our fellow citizens are
now declaiming about as "our world
outlook" and as "Our responsibilities
to less favored races" has been familiar
in missionary circles and among those
interested in missions for many years.
1t did not need Dewey's guns at Ma
Mia to tell the founders of the mission
airy societies that they were under an
obligation to carry Christianity into
lands where it did not exist. They be-
gan years ago in ways which seemed
almost ridiculously helpless and they
have worked steadily at the task In
spite of obstacles in the field and indif-
ference at home. We hear much about
the United States as a world power"
Missionaries have been making it a
world power for a long time; and this
so-called "ecumenical" conference is
only the sign of what it has taken more
than half century to accomplish. The
eager enthusiasm which the New York
meetings have shown to the people of
this country is not the birth of a day.
1t has it's roots in years of obscure toll
by men and women whose work in their
day received scant recognition either
from those for whom they worked or
from the communities from which they
went forth. Today sees a magnificent
gathering in the greatest city of Amer
lea, where intellect and eloquence and
wealth unite in an endorsement of
Christian missions, and to which all
the country, looks respectfully. But
the beginning was not so.
Now there are a good many things
that can be said in criticism of Chris
tian missions and of Christian mission
aries and we fancy that most of
them have been said. Some men not
having sufficient mental alertness to
keep up with the times are saying them
now. One of the most common is that
there is an overplus of available field
for missionary work at home-a criti-
cism which is made invariably so far
as we have noted, by persons who do
no missionary work anywhere. But
somehow, even this has rela-
lively dropped out of sight in recent
months-and we make no question that
it's disappearance is largely due to the
broadening outlook which has come
to some people with expansion. The
missionaries themselves did not need
that broadening outlook-they had it,,
else they would not have been mis-
sionaries. Nor did a good share of the
givers to missionary enterprises They
gave because they could see past their
own doorsteps. But, as we said before,
multitudes of men have been walked
up, and have discovered that there is
world outside of their own town, or
even their own country. They may
not have very clear ideas as to exact
ly what America ought to do about
that outside world, yet they perceive
that the missionary work is an attempt
to do something. And so the narrow
ness of view tends to disappear.