Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions Part 2

----------------------------------------------------------- Population. : Total : Total Non- : Proportion : Christians. : Christians. : of Christians to : : : Non-Christians.

----------------------------------------------------------- 32,571,000 : 534,238 : 32,036,762 : 1 to 60 -----------------------------------------------------------

One Christian to every sixty non-Christians gives us a totally different impression. We begin to feel that if only the Christians awoke to their duty they could influence the whole population profoundly. That is precisely the effect produced upon the Christians by a missionary survey undertaken with them, and understood by them; they begin to see the immensity of the work to be done, they begin to see that it can be done.

There should properly then here be two tables parallel to the first two.

Thus:--

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Number of | Number of | | | Occupied | Unoccupied | Proportion of |Remarks Area. | Cities, Towns, | Cities, Towns, | Occupied to |and | Villages. | Villages. | Unoccupied. |Conclusions.

------|----------------|----------------|---------------|------------ | | | | ______|________________|________________|_______________|____________

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total | Total | Total Non- | Proportion of | Remarks Population. | Christian | Christian | Christian to | and | Population. | Population. | Non-Christian. |Conclusions.

------------|-------------|-------------|----------------|------------ | | | | ____________|_____________|_____________|________________|____________

Observe what light is thrown upon a district by the mere juxtaposition of those few facts. I think those two tables alone should suffice to prove that a survey which regarded only a very few factors might be of immense service, if those who used it kept clearly before them its partial character and did not allow themselves to treat it as complete.

But, unfortunately, these first facts which we have desired are, like other facts of importance, procured only with difficulty and toil. In order to fill up the preceding tables the missionary surveyor must be able to state what is the area and what the population in the station district. But some could not supply that information. Its acquisition might involve a journey of many months given up to careful examination and inquiry. It is no small demand to make. In many cases a reasoned estimate is indeed the only possible statement; but as we have already argued careful estimates are invaluable, and where a census does not exist they give us for the time something to work upon.

Where the physical survey can be undertaken it is most illuminating work, illuminating both to the missionaries and to their native helpers, who often gain an entirely new view of their work and its possibilities from such personal examination. Testimony to the value of this experience is growing daily in weight and volume.

This physical survey would naturally result in the production of a map of the area in which the cities, towns, and villages in the station district were marked with notes on their character from the missionary point of view. In this map all places where Christians resided, where there were Christian congregations, churches, preaching places, schools, hospitals, dispensaries, etc., would be marked. It would be a pictorial presentation of the facts so far as they were capable of expression in map form.

But whether in map form or in statistical form, the area and the population for which the mission is working must be expressed either by exact figures or by estimates if we are to trace progress.

If these tables were kept over a number of years, the missionaries on the spot and directors and inquirers at home would be able to see what progress was being made towards fulfilling the obligation implied by the definition of the station area or district, and what that obligation involved.

II. When we know the work to be done we turn to the consideration of the force available. This force consists of permanent and more or less temporary members. Some will in all human probability remain in the place till they die; they are of it, they belong to it; others will probably depart elsewhere; they are not of the place; they speak of home as far away; they are liable to removal; sickness which does not kill them takes them away; the call of friends or business carries them back to their own land; they are strangers all their days in the mission district. Nevertheless, they are generally the moving, active force; upon them progress seems to depend. It is strange, but it is true generally: the permanent is the pa.s.sive element, the impermanent is the active. Here we simply state the fact to excuse or condemn the placing of the missionary force first in our tables. First it is to-day.

We need then a table of the foreign missionary force. In its form it will be a mere statement of proportions. The proportions are essential in order to make comparison between one area and another possible; and comparison is the sweet savour of survey. We cannot compare the work of three men labouring among an unstated population with the work of two other men working in an unstated population; the moment that the proportions are worked out the cases can be compared. But some men detest this purely quant.i.tative comparison. They insist, and rightly, that there is no true equality in the comparison. One man differs from another man and his work differs from the work of the other man: over large areas it is often the work of one man among many which really saves the situation. It is quite true. In the last resort survey becomes survey of personalities. But in a survey of the kind which we propose, survey of personalities is impossible and most undesirable.

The survey proposed cannot deal with personalities, but that does not invalidate the importance of the information asked for. Such forms received from many different stations would certainly throw light on the serious question of reinforcement. It is of course obvious that reinforcements could not be allotted rightly on such slight evidence as the proportion of missionaries to the population of a district. The question is not whether reinforcements could be allotted on this factor alone; but whether they could be allotted rightly in ignorance of it.

Taken in conjunction with the preceding and following tables, this table would reveal something that we may call _need_ in a purely quant.i.tative expression, and comparative need should certainly influence the allotment of reinforcements. Though the statement of need in this table is indeed utterly insufficient by itself, it is nevertheless true that no statement of comparative need which ignored the proportions here set out would be satisfactory. This quant.i.tative expression is not sufficient; but no statement is sufficient without it, and, as often, so here, it is the proportion rather than the actual figures which make comparison possible:--

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Total |Proportion |Proportion | Remarks District.|Popula- | Foreign | to | of Women | and | tion. |Missionaries.|Population.| to |Conclusions.

| | | |Population.| ---------|--------|-------------|-----------|-----------|------------ | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

We turn now to the permanent Christian force in the district. We want to know what is the force. We ask, therefore, that the total Christian const.i.tuency may be accepted as the first expression of the native force. The progress of the Gospel is most seriously affected by the whole number of those who in any sense call themselves Christians. They are the force in the place which influences the heathen for or against it. It is of the utmost importance that they should be reckoned first, and treated first, as the force which above all others works slowly, quietly, imperceptibly, but mightily. The whole body of those who profess and call themselves Christians should be put in the very first place.

Then the communicants (or full members) are commonly the body to which all turn for voluntary zealous effort. The communicants are the strength of the Church. We compare them next with the work to be done. Then the paid workers. Then the voluntary unpaid workers, recognised as such.

The difficulty of calculating the unpaid voluntary workers is indeed very great. We know of no definition which would serve to give any uniformity to returns made by different missions. We recognise that different missions would make the returns on different bases. We earnestly desire a common definition, which all might accept. But under existing circ.u.mstances it seems impossible to find one. Nevertheless, without some statement of the number of voluntary workers, we are, as we shall see, in grave danger of misjudging the situation and wronging our missionaries and the native Christians. For the time then we suggest that it would be far better to accept the returns given to us by the missionaries on their own basis, asking them to append a note to the return explaining how they calculated their voluntary force. We should then have the following table:--

_The Native Force_.

_(a) The Christian Const.i.tuency_.

------------------------------------------------------------------- District. |Population. |Christian |Proportion to |Remarks and | |Const.i.tuency |Non-Christian |Conclusions.

| | |Population. | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

_(b) The Communicants or Full Members_.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- District. | Population. | Communicants. | Proportion to | Remarks and | | | Non-Christian | Conclusions | | | Population. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

_(c) The Paid Workers._

--------------------------------------------------------------------- District. | Population. | Paid Workers. | Proportion to | Remarks and | | | Non-Christian | Conclusions | | | Population. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

_(d) The Unpaid Workers._

----------------------------------------------------------------- District. | Population. | Unpaid | Proportion to | Remarks and | | Workers. | Non-Christian | Conclusions.

| | | Population. | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Here again it is the proportions which are illuminating and enable comparisons of different areas to be made. The bare figures of the number of Christians and communicants and workers by themselves would tell us very little; only when we have them related to a common factor do we get any real light.

Let us now sum up our inquiry thus far.

+-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Work to be Done: Non-Christian Population. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Untouched, Unoccupied Villages. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Foreign Force Compared with Work to be Done. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Native Force Compared with Work to be Done. | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Christian Const.i.tuency. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Communicants. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Paid Workers. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+ Unpaid Voluntary Workers. | | +-------------------------------------------------------+-----+

If these tables were kept over a series of years, the progress of the force in relation to the work to be done would be most interestingly revealed.

But in estimating the Christian force in the district we need to know more than its number; we need to know so much of its character as statistical tables can show.

One Christian to every 129 heathen may mean much or little. It might mean that the day when the Christian force would be the controlling force in the area was close at hand. That would depend largely upon the capacity of the Christians, their education, their zeal. The tables which we now suggest are designed to reveal, so far as tables can reveal, the truth in these matters.

We begin then with the proportion of communicants in the Christian const.i.tuency. If we take the last table and, instead of considering the proportion of the communicants to the non-Christian population, consider the proportion of communicants to the Christian const.i.tuency, we gain a very different view. We gain then an idea of the character of the Christians. Instead of an idea of the size of the force at work we receive an impression of the quality of the force. Even one who lays little stress on the value and necessity of sacraments would not deny that he would expect more from a Church of 1000 in which 500 were communicants than he would from a Church of 1000 of which only 100 were communicants. He might deny that his expectation was based upon any faith in the virtue of sacraments, but he would acknowledge the fact that in our experience the Church which possesses large numbers of communicants is generally stronger than the Church which possesses a small number. The comparison of the number of communicants in relation to the number of the total Christian const.i.tuency does properly produce an impression of the strength of the Christian body.

If we can fill up the table

--------------------------------------------------------------------- District.| Total. | Communicants | Proportion of | Remarks and | Christian | or Full | Communicants | Conclusions | Const.i.tuency.| Members. | to Christian | | | | Const.i.tuency. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

we gain an impression of the strength of the Church. But it is important to observe that it is only in relation to the earlier tables, which set out the force in relation to the work to be done, that this impression of strength is of immediate importance to us. We are dealing with a missionary survey, a survey concerned with the propagation of the Gospel. The mere strength of the Church, unrelated to any work in which the strength is to be employed, is a very different matter. We might take pleasure in the sight of it. We might congratulate ourselves and the missionaries on the beauty of the strength revealed, but not until it is related to work to be done does strength appear in its true glory.

We find in nearly all missionary statistics the number of communicants and converts set forth, and we often wonder what for. It cannot be that we may glory in our conquests and say: See how many converts and communicants we have made! But, unrelated to any task to be done, that is all that appears. Therefore we have inst.i.tuted this comparison here, in close relation to the earlier tables, that we may know what is the force on the spot at work in the area defined.

Next, the proportion of Paid Workers in proportion to the number of the Christian const.i.tuency and the communicants is a most illuminating factor. By itself it is a difficult factor to appreciate rightly.

Suppose we find, as we do sometimes find, that one out of every ten communicants is a paid worker. That may imply that the proportion of rice Christians is very high, or it may imply a high standard of zeal, very many of the converts being able and willing to devote themselves to Christian work and at the same time too poor to be able to support themselves without pay. This proportion, therefore, should be carefully checked by a table which shows the proportion of unpaid workers and another which shows the standard of wealth. But commonly we are given the number of paid workers, and given neither the number of unpaid voluntary workers, nor the standard of wealth, and therefore the danger of reading amiss the number of paid workers is great. We have already explained the difficulty of obtaining exact figures, or even estimates, of the number of voluntary unpaid workers, but a mere glance at the proportion of paid workers to communicants should be enough to persuade any man who desires to judge our work fairly of the necessity for such a table as we now suggest.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- District.| Paid | Proportion | Proportion of | Remarks and | Workers. | of Paid Workers | Paid Workers | Conclusions | | to Christian | to | | | Const.i.tuency. | Communicants. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------- District.| Unpaid |Proportion |Proportion of | Remarks and | Workers. |of Unpaid Workers|Unpaid Workers | Conclusions | |to Christian |to | | |Const.i.tuency. |Communicants. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Proportion of Christian | | | Const.i.tuency. According | | | to Local Standard. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- District.| Christian | Well | Poor | In | Remarks and | Const.i.tuency. | to do. | | Poverty | Conclusions | | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------

There is indeed a way of judging the zeal of native Christians for the propagation of the Gospel very popular among missionaries, the way of tabulating and comparing the amount which they subscribe for missionary work. Obviously this method is the form most natural to us, but it is one of the worst conceivable. When a Christian congregation lives surrounded by heathen, for it to learn to satisfy the divine spirit of missions by putting money into a box, is most dangerous. The zeal of Christians for the spread of the Gospel ought always to be expressed first in active personal service. We should prefer to omit any question as to the amount subscribed for missionary work far off. We believe it to be a most delusive and deluding test. It deceives the giver, it deceives the inquirer. We should prefer to inquire the number of hearers or inquirers brought to the Church by the undirected effort of the Church members, or the number of Church members who go out to teach or preach in their neighbourhood, or perhaps best of all, the number of little Christian congregations which as a body are actively engaged in evangelising their neighbours. But we admit missionary contributions as an additional question

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Christian |Inquirers |Congregations| Amount | Remarks and Const.i.tuency.|brought in |Evangelising | Subscribed | Conclusions |by Native |their | for Missionary | |Christians.|Neighbours. | Purposes. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------