Findirigs. of the Appraisal Commission on Worl in the Far East instalments. of the report of the Today are made public further
'Appraisal Commission appointed by the Laymen's Foreign Missions Intity' fo. examine and recommend concerning the future plan and scope. of foreign missions effort in the Far Bast.
in the first instalment issued, the Commission, was quoted assaying! that the effecting of changes. in foreign missions effort should ba the condition. of every further its own demonstration and which makes life a victorious and joyous "The call which sends the inter-prefer of this feller life out, to those who are living without ould be and for many persons is every way as great to-day as that Which ent out missionaries Sphis work of transforming itsd 13 ago.
is the most_ important task Ghurch in any country has on its enlargement of the enterprise." The hand: Instalments being released indicate "it is not an imaginary one, but the nature of the changes recom-amended. A very' real task" in the sphere
The. Inquiry was sponsored and fwhere'men ive," It call for a ver idterent. preparation from financed by "inymen of seven Pro- which was needed for doctrine-cen-fes tent. denominations as, flows: fred. preaching, and in fact it de-""Reformed, mands, quite diferent kind
Eat Episcopal apd Northern Baptst-|"
Unit Methodi: orson' it is to "be done with EHicleney and power.
"Hardly less™ important is the 'The seven denominations reprosentnecessity, plainly. laid upon. religi edvin- the Inquiry. annually' contri Tous leaders of the' Church, to. put bute approximately, $15,000,000 for the'message of life in such a clear foreign missions effort. There are and demonstrative manner that some, 19,000 missionaries of all twill carry conviction and. transfer. nominations ation to the student class'
The Appraisal Commission, present scentife age ing of fifteen members carefully "rhe Church. cannot hold its sen for their judgment and cxperience as well os because of taels nace aula cap conwnce and the loyalty of the new gen-Special training and. fitness to ration, The south of to-day "are evaluate the various phases of mis-fo'be the makers and molders of sionary: work, has recently returned the next period and the message of from a nine months' examination fife must be formulated. in. terms of missions effort on the ground that "will not leave. them uninter-China, Japan, India. and Burma. tated and "untouched, as. is too Members of the Appraisal Com-~'ypiaaion ave: Dr. William Exnest atten the! cate inthe charehe of Hocking, Alford Professor of Phi-ithe returned students of China, Josophyr at Harvard "University, India and Japan, after that period Chaleman} Dr. Frederic ©. Wood: fof study in the West, and to almost ward, 'Vice-President of the Univer: equal extent. the graduates of Sly: of Chicago, Vice-Chairman; the higher: institutions' of learning Dr, Clarence "Ay Barbour, President In' these countries, have become of Brown" University; Edgar. teeustomed to a. type of teaching Betts of Troy, N. Yo: Dr. Alo find to. method of interpretation Brown, President of Drew Unive {hat are" quite different from those airy, "Madison, N.J.; Dr. Chay Phillips Emerson, Professor of Mi divine and Dean" of the Medica School of the University of Indiana; processes of thes Mrs William B. Hocking, fo make them impatient bridge, Mass.; Dr, Henry Hough. life that are out of ton, Dean of the Medical College of with scientific thought and that are the' University of Towa; Dr. Rufus promulgated by mere assertion Jones, Professor of Philosophy opinion. at Haverford College; Dr. William "The total effect has been a slow-Pierson Merrill, pastor of the Brick ing down of the Christian move-Church im New York; Albert ment within intellectual circles. Scott of Now York City; Mr. and thas become more dificult to bring! Nes, Marper' sible of Rochester, students to-a decision to adopt the Dr, Henry ©, Taylor, Sp.
Christian faith and to identity! cialiai'in Agricultural Problems, of themselves "with the Christian Burlington, Vermont, and 3tiss Ruth Church, and a far larger proportion Woodimall, Secretary of the than formerly go out of Christian Foreign Division of the ¥. W. C. A. institutions without making any] Positive committal of themselves.
Aim of Foreign Missions They have, however, in a nvultitude For years in most of the mi ion of eases felt the breath of a higher fields the message has been doc-spirit of lif trine-centred, sometimes almost "The excessive realism of the centred upon the use of phrase epoch, with its tendency to look for The preaching, the Bible teaching relief only in material changes, and and the Sunday. school work with with its "deep tinge of pessimism children have been to a very large and futility must not, of course, extent built around theological Do met with a skilfully manu conceptions. tured idealism, softly " optimistic.
"However effective this method Nothing less than an idealism solid-may have been in the past, for the ly based upon the testimony Derlod ow before" ts and for Jhuman experience and, upon the awakened minds it is Esvehologicaleternal nature of the tiniverse it-ly the wrong approach to begin self enn meet that issue, With eompllented abstract doctrine Somehow the Church of (Christ dogmatically asserted. [t runs in the world of this age must an-counter to the well-tested methods swer ty the yearning in the hearts in education now in vogue through-eud the World, of youth for a deeper significance of fife and for the discovery of a "The Christianity which is to genuine basis for such a deeper convieo and. bring.
Only persons of welltothoogiteal "and trained minds can do work of pet tons in any part of constructive interpreta! but the the founder of Christianity. hims {oaday must put dhe emphasis wh leaders of the churches inthe Ori-fent will need the help from the first, namely, upon qualified Christian thinkers in all tion and fulfilment of if countries if this hope is to be! And upon. those. methods and. pro: realized. esses and -onergies by which Hie "The goal to which this way leads a be brought to its divine pos-may be variously described, most perfectly perhaps in" the ' single "This does not mean in any senso} phrase, Thy Kingdom come. This that the interpretation of Chri: ways been, the true in ways that tthe intellectual tian missions, needs of man's life ig unimportant, ies Tony. means stereotyped Jmore of what is involved Pattams "of doctrine and. static means to us now, as always, phrases which have gone dead life.
It means representing to the should give place to a thoroughly JOrient the spiritual - sources of Wital message, expressed in the Jhvestern civilization, while it other living forms of thought which con-aspects, technical and material, ai vince and persuade the mind tobeing represented so vigorously in "Those who axe most eager fo: other ways, the Church in Thdia and China and jeans paving the way for Japan to toa place of influence international friendship through and leadership' axe convinced. that Weannot.do so unless it can eff tively "answer that ancient cent question which once more confronts everybody to-day-—how can 8 fon attain to completeness and hea of life?
ff the Church in any Tand_ has answer to that question loomed to be neglected. " Conven: tonal and pious vanewets are no answers at all. Actual springs of energy must be Zound, a power of life mut be Olscovered whites brings deeper understanding. It means trying more definitely to strengthen our own hold on this meaning of religion in human life. "Should. we fry to express this conception ina pore literal statement it might fo seek with people of other lands a true knowledge and love of God, expressing in life and word what we have learned. through Jesus Christ, and endeavoring ive effect to his spirit in the life of the world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.