Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-26
A CRITIC OF MISSIONS
FINDS MANY SURPRISES

dwells in palatial house, and subsists on
the fat Of the land, with an army of serv-
ants to minister to his wants.
There Is some ground for this criticism
But first let me say that, in common with
most others who have Investigated the SUBJ
ject, do not believe In Europeans try
ing to live as natives live. The China Inland
Mission early adopted that method, and it
has been Obliged to maintain hospital and
sanatorium, and to invalid home a large per-
centage of it's workers. AS a consequence,
the practice of conforming to the native life
is less general even in this organization
than formerly. white man cannot live as a
yellow man and keep his health; serious
and costly mistakes have been made by
missionaries attempting to do so. AS to the
wearing of native dress. little need be said;
most missionaries I'm the interior do so in
order to appear inconspicuous and because
Chinese clothes are comfortable cheap and
easily obtained. There are disadvantages in
living hundred miles from button.
Nevertheless, in many cases-by no means
in all-the error is made on the side of fall
ure to conform closely as possible to ma
tive style. Ny own judgment has affirmed
the criticism made to me in numerous spe-
cific cases that the dwellings of the mis-
sionaries are entirely too sumptuous for
persons of their vocation. Rightly or wrong
ly, the church and the world associate the
idea of sacrifice with the missionary's call
ing; the natives, too, quickly come to see
the apparent discrepancy between the
preaching of self-denial and the practice of
material luxury; some of the most serious
structures upon the missionarys style of
living have come to me from native preach
ers Often l am convinced the fault lies
directly with the boards at home; some
missionaries have lamented, in my hearing,
the laboratories and impressiveness Of
their residences. They deplore the contrast
between their houses and those Of the
wealthiest natives. The missionary, they
reason, should be the last person conspicu-
Gus for evidences of worldly position. The
theory that it is necessary to impress the
heather is utterly fallacious: the disciple
cannot improve upon the spirit of his Mas
ter. the lowly Nazarene
Inside the mssionary's home one usually
finds manifest evidence of painstaking
economy. 1t is difficult for the mission
airy, living, as he must, on imported food
stuffs and wearing, for part of the time, at
least, imported clothes, to get along as 1t
is for his brother clergyman at home. No
little scrimping and saving is necessary to
make ends meet the missionary's salary
Is on the average about a thousand dollars
a year, and even in China or Japan one
cannot live like prince on this sum. The
fact that two three or four servants are
employed In the average missionary family
means nothing to one who Is familiar with
oriental conditions; altogether they are paid
only about what one maid would cost In
America. and they are necessary for the
running Of the domestic machinery. They
do insure, however, a freedom from home
cares and from petty tasks, such as the
Missionaries commonly get their servants
more cheaply than other foreigners, which
points to the simpler style of missionary
living and to their greater desirability as
employers. 1t must be sad however, that
in their economizing many missionaries
have earned an unenviable reputation both
among native and foreign merchants for
driving hard bargain. Net without rea-
son Is the charge of being penny wise"
laid at the door Of many a missionary.
Now come to a delicate question, which
long investigation of the subject causes to
appear more serious than might at first be
supposed, namely, the question Of the mis-
sionary's halo. The great bulk Of church
people who give thought to the matter at
all have become accustomed to think of
every missionary as a saint and hero. He
is praised and prayed fer as Christianitys
knight Grant, without fear and without
reproach." -'Our noblesnissionar.es'' is one
of the stock phrases of religion. The man
or woman who engages in foreign mission
airy work is commonly regarded as person
of peculiar sanctity and chivalry and devo-
ton and sacrifice and courage. In a word,
he is invested with halo all his own.
Occasionally / have met a missionary,
usually young and second-rate, who takes
himself quite seriously as his friends
at home take him. and who, well aware
that he is one of the noble army of mar
with all the self-consciousness Of a girl
with a new Easter hat. Most missionaries,
on the other hand, feel foolish because of
the false attitude in which they are thus
placed by their idealizing admirers at home.
Some of them have used quite unmission-
airy forcibleness of speech on this point.
They say that they are neither extraor-
binary saints nor heroes, and that they
are not living lives of physical hardship
and sacrifice, those who really have hard
ships say nothing about them. That in real
ity they do not correspond to the image
of themselves ever being held up in SER
mons, speeches and articles no one knows
quite so well as themselves. If permitted
to speak frankly, they would say, as many
have said to me, that they have fewer ma
terial discomfoHts than the average home
missionary country pastor; that they are
ordinary men and women, with all the limita-
tons of human nature, who are trying to do
one sort of Christian work, which, what
ever its glamour when seen 10000 miles
away, Is in actually beset by all the diff
ficulties and diseouragements OF religious
endeavor at home, besides certain other
hindrances due to the non-Chrstian train
ing and beliefs of the natives. They would
plead for little less romance and little
more reality in dealing with the foreign
miscion propaganda; for neither they them