Heroes and Reformers of History … No. 6

MISSIONARY HEROES

Since we live in an age in which the Christian faith has penetrated virtually every nation in the world, we may forget that it has been that way for only a few generations. If a Martian had come to our world in the early 19th century, he would have supposed that Christianity was a tribal religion confined mostly to the white people of Europe and North America. While there were some earlier missions, it was not until the 19th century that the Christian churches became really missionary minded and began to reach out into all the world.

That is why church historians have called the 19th century “the Great Century” and have named it as the greatest century in the history of the church. This was when Christians penetrated dark Africa, south of the Sahara, for the first time, and set up missions all across India. While some inroads had been made by Roman Catholics in China and Japan, they were now joined by substantial Protestant missionary efforts.

In this installment of reformers and heroes I want to make out a kind of honor roll of those who made “the Great Century” what it was in the history of the church.

Bible and Missionary Societies

Among the heroes that made Christianity a world religion in the 19th century were those who created and supported Bible and missionary societies. Nothing supported Christian outreach more than the circulation of the Scriptures in the language of people who had never before heard the gospel. The British and Foreign Bible Society alone put into circulation almost 204 million copies of Bibles, Testaments, and portions of Scripture during the Great Century —about two million copies per year!

During this time there were scores of Bible societies. In 1816 thirty-one of them united to form the American Bible Society. There were societies in Scotland and Germany, and in 1816 the Russian Bible Society was formed. Since most all the Bibles or portions thereof were published “without note or comment,” the societies were sometimes an example of Christian unity. But they had their problems. When a British Baptist missionary applied to the American Bible Society for a New Testament to be used among Bengalis in India, he requested that “immerse” be used for “baptize.” Since the ABS saw this as denominational interpretation, he was refused, so the Baptists withdrew and formed their own society in 1836. As to whether the Apocrypha was to be part of the Bible, accepted as canonical by Roman Catholics but not by Protestants, was another problem.

But the work of disseminating the Scriptures went on with phenomenal success. There were finally thousands of societies and auxiliaries all over the world issuing hundreds of millions of Bibles and portions thereof, and they eventually put the Scriptures into 1,549 different languages of the world! These are unsung heroes in the history of the church.

Missionary societies were also a strong force in transforming Christianity into a world church during this century. At the outset of the 19th century the church argued over three forms of church government -- episcopal, presbyterian, congregational- and the dispute led to both schism and bloodshed. A few daring souls realized that none of these forms of polity enabled the churc~ to embark on a world mission, so they started what amounted to another form of church government, a voluntary organization designed for world mission. The first one was in England and was called the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and another was called the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

In time most every denomination had a society. They were usually independent of central control and were able to be ecumenical in their outreach. Women, who were otherwise denied ministry, were often able to work through these societies. Laymen were often leaders. Even dissenters and seceders could work within these societies when they were not accepted elsewhere. And the societies were usually freer of sectarianism. The London Missionary Society made it its fundamental principle that it would not send out any particular form of church government to the heathen but only “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.”

In time the major denominations became very supportive of the societies. In 1818 the Methodist Conference made every member of the church a member of the Methodist Missionary Society. But they had recruitment problems since settled pastors did not, with few exceptions, want to be missionaries. So most of the early recruits were craftsmen and tradesmen, the main qualifications being spirituality and common sense. Many of them met with disaster out in the mission field “Culture shock” they called it-and returned home. The problem was partly solved by the training of “native ministers” who preached to their own people. Some staffs in Africa were made up entirely of native missionaries.

Young college graduates also made effective missionaries. The “Cambridge Seven,” as they came to be known, graduated from the university and set out for China under the aegis of a society. Hundreds of other college youth did likewise, going into all the world. They set up schools, hospitals, leper compounds. Some assignments, especially in Arab nations, proved almost impossible. Robert Bruce, a missionary to Persia (Iran), wrote home that he had no harvest and could hardly plant seed, but “I am gathering out the stones, and that too is missionary work.”

During this century of evangelistic zeal some of the great missionary heroes emerged and changed not only the face of the church but the geographical and cultural center of the world itself. Because of their sacrifices it could be said of them too, “of whom the world was not worthy.” We name a few of them.

William Carey

When I was recently in India, near Calcutta, it was my honor to visit the grave of William Carey, a missionary in India for more than 40 years. He was only 32 when he went to India and never returned to his native England. I first visited Serampore College, which he helped found in 1820, then took a ricksha to his ill kept grave in an abandoned cemetery. I remembered that he was an exception when the call went out among the English Baptists for settled pastors to volunteer for foreign missions. That may be because he was a self-educated cobbler turned minister. As pastor of a small Baptist church he supported himself by teaching and shoemaking. In India he also supported himself by working as a foreman of an indigo factory.

Carey had a motto that was a favorite of Alexander Campbell, and it may help explain why both Carey and Campbell were effective in their particular calling: “Expect great things from God, attempt great things, and great things will happen.” Carey studied oriental languages and was able to translate the New Testament into Bengali, an Indian language. Besides founding a college, he built mission schools and organized a society that promoted agricultural improvement. He was instrumental in abolishing the burning of widows, and ancient Indian custom. In the spread of the gospel he was a pioneer in using native preachers.

David Livingstone

David Livingstone, born in Scotland in 1813, was a missionary statesman and explorer in southern Africa for almost 30 years. He suffered incredible hardship in both exploration and evangelism. He literally walked all the way across Africa from west to east, taking notes on his findings. He “discovered” Victoria Falls in that he was the first white man to ever see it, and he named it for his queen. He led an exhibition down the Zambezi river, calling it “God’s highway into the interior” of Africa. He preferred to explore with natives, believing them to be tougher. He was the first white man the Africans had ever seen and they referred to him as “the Christian.” When he at last died deep in the bowels of Africa it was black men who bore his body back to the coast.

Livingstone sought to drain the “open sore of Africa” —the Arab slave trade —and it was here he proved himself a missionary statesman. He believed the only way to uproot the slave trade was by economic substitution: for Africa to export raw materials rather than slaves. He worked for what came to be known as the “Three C’s” - Christianity, commerce, and civilization. He believed that the interests of all three lay in the same direction. He proved to be right when tribal chiefs conceded that the mission-sponsored cotton industry brought more benefits than the slave trade. Livingstone was a missionary who taught the church that taking the good news to a heathen nation involved much more than caring for spiritual needs.

Samuel Adjai Crowther

This black man, captured as a boy by slave raiders, lived almost all of the 19th century, 1806-1891, and he helped to make it the great century for the church that it was. He was the century’s outstanding native African Christian leader, and he became the first Anglican African bishop. That could hardly have been anticipated when he at 15 was kidnaped from his home in Yorubaland (now Nigeria) and put on a slave ship. But the slave ship was intercepted by a British warship. He was taken to Sierra Leone where he was converted and baptized. He excelled in school and became a teacher for the Church Missionary Society, which eventually sent him to evangelize in his own Yorubaland.

Crowther was convinced that Africans should be evangelized by Africans, so he trained other blacks to assist him in his mission. Among his first converts were his long-lost mother and sister. He became a translator and a negotiator for peace as well as a preacher. He and his all-black staff operated over hundreds of miles of the Niger territories, taking the gospel to those who had never heard it.

There were of course many other heroes in that great missionary century, such as Hudson Taylor, whose great concern was to take the gospel to every province of China, a missionary who worked as an independent apart from any society and who relied strictly upon prayer, never requesting financial help. He insisted upon respecting native customs and always dressed in Chinese clothes. Neither would he allow “home-control” of his missions but placed them in the hands of the Chinese natives.

These heroes were pioneers in taking the gospel to pagan nations that may one day be the leading Christian nations of the world. It is anticipated that there will in the not too distant future be more Christians in India and Africa than in all the Western world. They may one day be evangelizing us! What a debt we owe to these our brethren who dared to venture into unlikely places almost two centuries ago! —the Editor

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I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it. I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time and eternity. —David Livingstone