RECENT GROWTH OF INTEREST IN THE STUDY OF MISSIONS

1

IN GERMANY

THE appointment, in 1896, of Gustav Warneck to an active (though "honorary") professorship in Halle for the science of missions was the beginning of a movement which now begins to assume considerable proportions. Warneck's successor, Gottlob Haussleiter, is full professor for the science of missions. While no other university has a full professor for this field, one other, Leipzig, has recently obtained an "honorary ordinary" professorship, to be occupied by Dr. Carl Paul, the able inspector of a missionary society in Leipzig. Moreover, Professor Mirbt, in going as professor of church history from the Marburg faculty to that of Göttingen, is commissioned to make the history of missions a specific part of his task. Besides these three men, who are directly commissioned to teach the subject (although for one of them it is a minor part of his work), there are perhaps a half-dozen other professors who voluntarily include missions in the scope of their teaching. Thus for the current summer semester Lehmann in Berlin lectures on "Religions and Missions in China and Japan"; Arnold, of Breslau, on "Missions in China"; Steinbeck, in Greifswald, on "The Heathen Religions of the Present"; Wurster, in Tübingen, on "Present-Day Missionary Problems." In recent semesters several other professors have presented similar courses. Outside the universities two other institutions have recently given an impetus to the study of missions. One of these is the notable Hamburg Colonial Institute, recently founded in the spirit of broad and far-seeing intelligence which characterizes the policy of the German government. Conscious that she failed to get possession of a fair share of colonies when they were to be had, Germany means now, by training men for all sorts of colonial efficiency, to make the most of the colonies she has. In all this the significance of missions has not been overlooked. Professor Carl Meinhof, one of the leading spirits in the institute, is an enthusiastic supporter of missions. Along with his instruction in the languages of the German colonies in Africa, he gives no little attention to the missionary problem. Besides this incidental instruction in this field, special courses have been arranged. A year ago Professor Mirbt, by special invitation, delivered in the institute a fine course of lectures on "Missions and the German Colonial Policy," since published in book form. In the current summer semester a somewhat similar course is given by Wilde, an inspector of a missionary society. The other institution that has recently taken an important step in providing for the systematic study of missions is the theological school at Bethel (Bielefeld), founded independently, some years since, by Bodelschwingh. The students there have enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to study the "inner mission" (home missions) as represented in the great charitable institutions in and near Bethel. But now Dr. Julius Richter, everywhere known as a missionary authority of the very first rank, has resigned his pastorate to go to the school at Bethel as instructor in the science of foreign missions. Unfortunately, the Mohammedan Seminary, established a few years ago at Berlin by

Dr. Johannes Lepsius, for the training of missionaries to the Moslem world, has been discontinued.

A biblico-theological study of unusual merit is Emil Weber's Das Problem der Heilsgeschichte nach Römer 9. 11. Ein Beitrag zur historisch-theologischen Würdigung der Paulinischen Theodicee. (The Problem of the Historical Course of Salvation according to Romans 9. 11, etc. 108 pp., Leipzig, 1911.) Weber, since 1907 privatdocent in Halle, has gained an extraordinary professorship in Bonn on the merit of several able studies, of which, however, the present is far the most interesting and significant. The problem of the Pauline theodicy has engaged the attention of many minds, but all reviewers of Weber acknowledge that he has made a very important contribution to its solution. Our author is original, and yet he finds his new point of view the natural result of the course of the history of the exegesis of the chapters in question. It is gratifying to see how cordial is his recognition of the services of all interpreters who have gone before. Each has either called special attention to some necessary aspect of the problem, or, at all events, by the consistent following out of a certain path has let it appear that it is not a thoroughfare. The interpretation of Weber proceeds on the "principle of the understanding of the practical issue" (Prinzip des praktisch-aktuellen Verständnisses). In chapter 9 he finds this principle established. Paul's readers (or "hearers," for Weber insists we should not forget that the epistle was to be read aloud before the congregation, and the method of Paul is the method of the speaker) could not but feel the weight of the problem of Israel's unbelief. Now Paul has to deal with these men and with their doubts. He does not appeal to their understanding-no man can fully comprehend God's ways-but he appeals to their religious consciousness. From the lofty triumph of chapter 8, Paul has suddenly descended to speak of the sorrow in his heart over his unbelieving brethren. Why does not Israel believe? Paul regards this as faith's most painful riddle. Shall faith find no solution? For the mere understanding there is none, yet faith can give a triumphant answer. Paul, having already (in chapter 8) gloriously declared and attested the all-embracing love and the almighty grace of God, now appeals to the great principle of God's sovereignty. Paul finds no room for the thought that such a thing as Israel's unbelief is a mere contingency. God is the God of history; he rules in history. Israel is not without fault in this unbelief, and yet Paul can find no satisfaction in a mere "natural" solution of the problem. Israel's unbelief, whatever their own fault may be, must finally be referred to the divine decree; yet "God has not cast off His people whom He foreknew." But why did he "shut them up in unbelief"? Not to destroy them, but “that he might have mercy upon them." He will provoke Israel to a larger and richer faith by the faith of the Gentiles.

Weber regards chapter 9 as merely preparatory, propædeutic; the essential, positive part is found in chapters 10 and especially 11. Even though in chapter 9 there is not a little theological deduction, still this is incidental to the practical purpose of the chapter-to put the readers (hearers) in a frame of mind to let the great principle of faith in God's

ways speak louder than reason. Weber holds that for Paul the power of God over history ("Geschichts-mächtigkeit Gottes") is a presupposition of all genuine faith, and that this conception includes, rather than excludes, the recognition of the moral freedom of man working itself out in history. Paul's interest centers in the assurance that God's saving purpose cannot be frustrated. And these chapters are not designed to show to man's understanding how God will work out his designs, but to assure his heart that those designs are ways of wisdom and knowledge and mercy past finding out. For the systematic theologian Weber's interpretation will afford fewer materials for "dogmatic proof" than certain earlier interpretations, yet it makes the chapters appear as a mighty attestation of the fundamental confession of the loving wisdom and power of our God. Weber's book (we may remark), while cleanly exegetical and not dogmatic, shows a pronounced systematic interest, as one might expect from an admiring pupil of Kähler's, to whom the work is dedicated.

BOOK NOTICES

RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE

Life's Unexpected Issues. By WILLIAM L. WATKINSON, D.D., LL.D. 12mo, pp. 212. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company. Price, cloth, $1, net.

FRONTING the title page is the austere, friendly, genial face of Dr. Watkinson, lending to the very opening of this book the charm of "the dear and the familiar." That picture of the widely known and well beloved author is the only pre-Face the volume has, and it could have none more expressive or more welcome. Out from that face look the clear intellect, the refined taste, and the highly spiritualized nature which reveal themselves in the writings of this rare preacher, this artist in sermon making, from whose inexhaustible fountain pour volumes on volumes of richness and beauty undiluted by continual flowing. In Dr. Watkinson's sermons and essays we have "the depth and not the tumult of the soul"; for the most part a limpid tranquillity of mind, yet not without intellectual fire and moral intensity. His chapters shine brightly with literary and scientific allusions and illustrations, all put to spiritual uses, so as to furnish juicy pasturage for the soul's nourishment. Not into dry and barren places does this pastor lead the flock, which hears his voice and follows him, but into green feeding places, where the meadows are no less fertile, nutritious, and succulent for being "flecked wi' flowers, mony-tinted, rich, and gay." The first of these seventeen chapters gives the volume its title, which does not indicate the large variety of its contents. Simplicity and naturalness characterize Dr. Watkinson's division of a subject. Of this the one entitled "Life's Unexpected Issues" is a fair example. The text is Isaiah 64. 3: "Things which we looked not for." Subject: Life's Surprises. 1. Pleasant Surprises. "Thou surprisest us with the blessings of goodness" (Psa. 21. 3). "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." "And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?" "And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel." The sweet surprise may not seem to come often; yet strangely mournful is the life in which it never occurs at all. Heaven works out an apparently incredible salvation: the thing greatly feared dissolves like mist; an envied but despaired-of blessing is flung into our lap; a door of splendid hope opens in a dead wall; our ship of gold, so long delayed, is signaled; we awake to find ourselves famous. Bits of romance, tags of poetry, snatches of ecstasy, enter into the life of all; and even when good fortune does not reach the dramatic,

it is sufficiently accentuated to prove greatly welcome and refreshing. The miner rarely finds a monster diamond, or the diver a big pearl, and to the majority the flush of success is almost the miracle of life; yet the great Father does not forget the lowliest of his children, lighting up the winter of their discontent with beams of spring, sprinkling gold dust on their meager lot, causing a rose to bloom on their monotonous path, lest their spirit should fail before him and the souls that he has made. 2. Painful Surprises: "Terrible things which we looked not for." Adversity comes in unexpected ways. It is looked for on the highway, and it crosses the fields. It gets at us by crooked pathways of which we could never have dreamed. We seem the sport of circumstance. We are challenged by losses and sorrows that no shrewdness.could predict, no prudence provide against, no intervention break or soften. The almanac foretells the order of the seasons, the eclipses of sun and moon, the changes of the weather, but furnishes no hint of the vicissitudes which agitate our hearts and homes. The uncertainty of life is a tremendous and dangerous fact, dashing the cup from our lip, quenching in the blackness of night brilliant hopes. "The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; they go up into the waste, and perish. The caravans of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They were ashamed because they had hoped; they came thither, and were confounded" (Job 6. 18-20). As the streams dry up, and the caravans, with their riches, wander and perish in the wilderness, leaving the merchants who hoped for great gains red with shame, so in a day do our sanguine hopes perish. The collapse of Job himself affects so deeply the imagination of successive generations, because it is a lurid picture of the unheralded tragedies which give human life its deeper pathos." 3. In such a world of uncertainties, what shall we do? (a) Let us expect the unexpected. "Nothing is certain but the unforeseen" is a saying that goes too far, but we must bear in mind that the unforeseen will often come, and so keep our expectations from an overconfidence which will make disappointment too bitter and hard to be borne. (b) Let us prepare for the unexpected: for the agreeable when it We flatter ourselves that we are always fit for this experience, yet this by no means follows. Thoughtful men are justly suspicious of the flatteries of fortune. Emerson, writing to a relative, refers to the poverty and many troubles of their early days, and to "the straitened lines" on which they walked up to manhood. He remarks upon the altered aspect of things, upon the fact that they were all prospering far more than any of them had anticipated. He then proceeds: "Now I add to all this felicity a particular felicity which makes my own glass very much larger and fuller. And I straightway say, Can this hold? Will God make me a brilliant exception to the common order of his dealings? There's an apprehension of reverse always arising from success. But is it my fault that I am happy, and cannot I trust the Goodness that has uplifted to uphold me? I cannot find in the world without, or within, any antidote, any bulwark, against this fear like this-the frank acknowledgment of unbounded dependence. Let into the heart that is filled with prosperity the idea of God, and it smooths the giddy precipices of human pride to a

comes.