The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1912-03-15

~ &&k$s## They have ovel
$3.50 10000 mission
aries in active
service and are spending more thar
100000 900 annually on the work.
1t would be unfair to say that criti
cism must be prohibited and that nc
critical questions would be answered
The critic could justly reply thai
since he was unable to learn how his
money was being spent, he would
cease to contribute. On the Other
hand the critic must be fair to the SO
ciety and worker who naturally ex
pect him to know what he is talking
about before he speaks.
Of course there are different kinds
Of criticism just as there are different
kinds of people. One speaks with a
view to helpfulness, another criticises
because he desires to find reasons tn
excuse himself from responsibility
while a third may talk against the
work because he is not content to
sanction the use of any ecclesiastical
harness or work in harmony with his
fellows on any task. The latter must
be allowed to talk on for he is SO con.
stituted, and 1t is his practice on all
subjects. Christ said, ct must needs
he that offences come; but woe to
that man by whom the offenca
cometh."
However the person who wishes to
be accorded hearing on missionary
work Tor any other work) should COM
ply with certain rules, which, If OBJ
served will make him an aid to the
stantial, beneficial way.
l. The critic must be a Christian.
A man out of Christ looks at the sub
ject from the wrong viewpoint. He
naturally thinks 1t unnecessary to
send the gospel to the heather If he
be expected to support teaching he
does not himself believe.
II. The critic must be a soul win
ner. That is, he must have some ade-
quate realization of the value of lost
soul and must have tried to bring
souls to Christ. If this be wanting
in his experience there is nothing that
can be substituted to give him the
necessary correctness of judgment re,
quisite to being a critic of missions.
III. The critic must be an honest
student Of missionary work. The
great task Of missions cannot be
learned by intuition. It involves.
matters touching the personal life
and liberties of thousands and the
purses of millions. 1t deals with the
deepest principles of organization and
requires broad knowledge of the
working value Of policies and meth
DDS. Therefore the person who would
dictate standards for the adoption of
missionaries must know whereof he
speaks.
~. The critic should have visited
the mission fields or talked freely with
missionaries. Theory is one thing and
practice Is quite another, especially
when the theory is created in Amer
lea, but has to be applied in Africa.
Parents find that the course of train
ing applied to one child is sometimes
worthless when applied to another,
even though the children be in the.
same family. How much more is this
true when some method used by the
white man in a north temperate eli
mate, Is applied to black man living
on an island in the tropics. Before
one can advocate the adoption of any
plan he may deem valuable he must
have sufficient knowledge of condi-
tons to feel reasonably certain that
1t will work.
Then again, II a person Is capable
of Offering criticism he must see that
it is wisely given because:
l. 1t is unwise to criticise what
God has especially commanded. The
person who criticises the work of mis-
sions must remember that he is deal
ing with the triune God. Every per
son of the Godhead is vitality inter
ested, and is also a personal partici-
pant In the work of saving the heath
en-. Therefore the critic stands on
perilous ground before his Creator
II. There are 10000 missionaries
who have believed enough In missions
to be out on the field today. The
critic who remains at home in we'll
feathered nest must realize that it is
no small thing to put his inexperi-
enced Judgment up against the actual
labors of consecrated thousands whose
testimony In atht missions pay"
ha -
heather, which has taken place dur
ing the past 100 years, overwhelming
ly answers all those who would say
that the work is not worth while. Any
one who has watched the evolution Of
tribes and nations by the process of
divine regeneration; who has seen
customs become only
items for the historian, and the num-
Der Of printed languages leap from
fifty to more than five hundred,
through missionary toll, has surely
felt his thoughtless criticisms grow
cold on his lips.
These things make wise man care
full in his judgment for he realizes
that his influence may mean the veal
or woe of some of his fellowmen, both
at home and abroad. The man who
Is not both wise and careful in his
speech cannot of course expect men
who are in the thick of the fight to
leave their posts and come back to
where he reclines comfortably in the
barracks in o~der to answer his idle