The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-07-10
TRAVELLING WITH
THE MISSIONARY
Teras Comments Upon the uni
form Prayer Meeting Topic. of
the YounB Peoples S~ocieties,
Christian Endeavor, Etc, For
June n mission Work at
Horne and Abroad. vi. Mis-
aionsry Tours Acts XIV. 36-41;
xvi. f-5.

BY william r. Ellis.


one OF the great travel experiences OF
earth which will be impossible 20 years
hence is TO go over the route Of the
Apostle Paul In Asia Minor. Many of the
usAGes of Paul's day. and the same old
Roman highway through the beautiful
Cscfiian gates which he used, still per-
sist but the new Bagdad railway is
apidl introducing the ways of the west,
and the reminders of Paul will soon be-
come extinct. This experience lakes
vivid the itinerant work OF the missionary
apostle. His feet were tireless in service.
Ills tours covered most of the known
world Of his day. He slowed beside all
svaters" an example which his success
sors today are following, The mission
AIRY spirit. throughout the centuries. has
boon q restless, out-reaching one. ami
mated by PauIs ambition to preach the
gospel where Christ was not already
AameG
A few weeks ago a veteran Presby-
terrain missionary In Japan, Rev. DIR. A.
d. Hall. celebrated the 18th anniversary
Of his service In that land. The Japanese
and he narrated early experiences. IN
called Hail" because the people sup.
posed that his name was descriptive Of
non-Japanese For more than a genera
ton this man has been touring. rural
Japan. and thus has established for his
message a cordial hearing and a wide
dtscipleshfp which naught can shake.
The one way to become truly ac-
auainted with a foreign land Is to travel
stonarses have many advantages over
those who fill a fixed post. They under
stand the native life best. Their personal
contact with individuals is closest. The
people they meet are not commonly In
oonsact with foreigners, and so are
leader to listen to a new message.
Evangeltstic itineration is the most In
teresting, and most directly profitable
form Of mission work.
Sailing about among the innurnerable
islAnda OF the beautiful inland Sea Of
Japan is the "Fuluin Maru,' or Good
T%idings," the Baptist mission ship OF
navigator and missionary. This is a
novel method of touring. Little villages
which no other f~oreigners has ever
The people. mostly simple fisher foikk,
thus associate christianity and foreign
srn, This mariner messenger "sows be-
sido all waters" a true pioneer of Chris
tianity.
To the comfortable stay-at-hone this
touring In mission lands may sound pic
turesque and romantic. But Its prosaic
aidc 10 uppermost with the person who
experiences 1T, Thus. to ride on a Chi
nsse wheel-barrow sounds like good fun:
. wound. q native Chinese inn pro
videa material for the writer; but its
cold and filth and verlntn and discomfort
90 not suggest literature to the one who
ts experiencing them. A Chinese house
boAt looks WELT In photographs, but tho
sore bones OF one who knows the hard
ness OF these wooden sleeping shelves,
and the discomfort OF the opium fumes
from the compartment of ones neighbors,
y not sootlled by photographs. The mis-
sfonary on tour takes without grumbling
and as part. Of his days work. expe-
rtsnces which people In Christian lands
know nothing about.
We admire the great haroisrns OF the
Apostle Paul in his missionary tours; but
wc forget all about the v%ermine. the
tho delays. the petty extortions and the
other minor difficulties which he endured
without mentioning.
when Miss Gaines, OF tho Hiroshima
Girls school in Japan tthe scene ofS"Th
Lady of the Ioecoration'J. was visiting
not long she ran across a household
of Christians. who were conducting a
Sunday school, Inquiry developed that
the wife and mother had been converted
missionary, who happened upon that re-
mote yillage; She taa PRAYED and Ia
the conversion Of her family. Now she
has the happiness of maintaining a.
Christian home, and doing Christian work
In . vilageV where there is No. church
ana where no missionary regularly visits
The man whose sermon wrought this Isl
dead; and he probably never heard of
HInfS IIulI III Ills taOpI4& NDT TIC Hl1SSlOu-
ary on tour does not expect to reap from
al HIS sowing.
The Pauline principle of taking the
message where the people are has ever
been sound. Some English catliedrals-
and one church on Broadway In New
York city follows this sxarnpieeaave pull
pits outside the walls FOR open air
preaching to those who Will not enter.
Market place gospeling has ma mod
arm forms-summer tent work, street,
meetings. newspaper advertising, hotel
meetings. etc. The wayside ministry is
nsver beneath the dignity OF the gospel
that was first preached In the fields and
highways.
AS Paul visited the mission churches,
80 todayit lis increasingly the usage for
The superintendence to be given the mis-
afon field. MOST of the non-episcOpal de-
nominations are establishing overseers,
who 80 about strengthening and coun-
selling the native churches, and keeping
them In living touch with. the entire
brotherhood of believers.
SsWstg