The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-16
THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM.
Such Men as Bishop Potter Think We
Have Numbered.

Kansas City Journal.
a swarm of missionary bees have been
buzzing about the head of Bishop Potter
ever since the publication of his articles
on India and its religions. If" says the
New York Spirit OF Missions, in an edi-
torial these articles had been written by
some avowed opponent of Christian mis-
sions, they might have passed by unchal-
lenged. But Bishop Potters opinions and
statements deservedIy carry good weight
with thoughtful people, and it will not be
strange if many are convinced by the ar
ticles that missions to midland if not
to India why not to China and Japan, are
quite unnecessary.
Bishop Potter has expressed no direct
opinion as to the value of missions de-
signed to propagate the Christian religion
in the Orient. His articles were mainly
designed to express and correct the mis-
taken idea commonly held of the religions
already there. But Bishop Potter is shrewd
enough to know that his reading public
will put two and two together and con-
clude that missions are not so strenuousy
demanded as some may think, and against
this conclusion he has not word to say
Therefore we are almost justified in say
ing that the great New York prelate has
pronounced against the practice of send
ing missionaries into the Oriental field.
After visiting India and studying the va
rious religions in practice there, the bishop
tells us IlaL our impressions OF them are
often grotesque distortions or exaggera-
ton of the facts" First and foremost, he
conceives that these religions were not
the inventions of the devil, but came di-
rectly from the hand of God. God" says
the bishop, has not left himself anywhere
without witnesses among men, The COM
parative study of religions has brought to
light for every student who has pursued
1T with thoroughness and candor, at least
two clear cOnvictions-One that God has
had, in all human history, many ways of
revealing himself; and the other that there
is, after all, no wholly right method of
missionary endeavor other than that which
St. Paul pursued on Mars Hill, when, as
he passed by, he saw an altar to an I'M
known god. No ridicule, nor denunciation,
nor contempt was his method; but recOg-
nltiOn-recOgnitiOn of the deep want of
man and of the honest though laundering,
methods of men who sought to find an
answer to it,"
These and other expressions point to a
conclusion by the bishop that our mission
airy efforts in the Orient have been blum
, dering. He is frank enough TO say that
we have not only woefully misunderstood
the religions of India, but that we have
| blindly closed our eyes to much in them
that is entitled to Christian respect. Some
OF us, he says, ''can recall the mingled
smile of mirth and derisiOn with which, a
few years ago, il was announced that the
Mohammedans were preparing to send
missionaries and establish a MOhammedan
mission in the city of New York. We
were so superior in our Occidental virtue
Il luke.
And yet thus far Christianity has utterly
| failed to control the vice of drunkenness.
| The great cities of the land are dominated
not by their churches or their universe
ties, but by their saloons But MOham-
mechanism in Oriental lands does control ii.
Said Isaac Taylor, after declaring that
'Mohammedanism stands in fierce opposi-
ton to gambling and makes gambler S
testimony invalid in law Islam is the
most powerful total abstinence association
in the world -
&c inf
certain point at least, such high church
dignitares Bishop Potter take the same
view of Oriental missions as that held by
tradesmen and politicians. 1t is pretty
well known that the recent Boxer rebel
lion, while called ''anti-foreign," was real
~ anti-missiOnary. No less a parsonage
than bishop of the Methodist Church has
told us that the Chinese We're incensed
more at the high-handed, superior and I'M
sympathetic manner in which the mis-
siOnaries sought to inculcate their religion
than against the religion itself. At pres
ent, in France, there is a fine journalistic
row in progress over the charge that the
French missionaries engaged in lOOting
after the capture of Picking. The same
charges were made against American and
British msSionaries-the point being that
they were and are likely to be again, in
strumental in disturbing the peaceful rela-
lions between China and other countries.
At this time the statesmen of America
are waiting anXiouSly to see what the mis-
sionary societies propose doing in the Phil
worse could happen than a determined ef-
fort on the part of these societies to intro
duce the different religions, or sects, for
which they stand. If the views of Bishop
Potter could prevail generally among re-
ligiOniStS a great cause of anxiety would
be removed for the missionaries would
keep out of the Orient until the spreading
power of modern civiiza alton, through COM
mercial and educational progress had
made the field ripe. AS we have read the
bishops cautious and diplomatic para
graphs, he invites the following conclu-
SiOnS
The Christian religion is the best of all,
but it need not follow that all who espouse
something else must go to hell. God him
self seems to have adapted religions TO
racial. intellectual and climatic conditions
in different parts of the world. 1t is profit
less to attempt to graft a strange religion
upon people whose social, industrial and
educational status does not fit them to
receive It. And therefore il is a mistake
to force Christianity upon the Buddhists.
the COnfucians and the MOhammedans OF
the Orient. or TO try to replace Catholicism
in 10 wit