"Come Over & Help Us - Now Is Emphatically Our Time"
A mission report from 1890 from SBC missionaries in Japan - if this was true then, it rings more loudly, more true now...won't you come over & help us because now is emphatically our time:
Brother Brunson has written an able paper on the present attitude of the Japanese to the Gospel, and he thinks it wise for us to recognize their desire to do much of their own work for the Christian evangelization of their people. The true theory of missions is really that the foreigner is to introduce "the Gospel" among the nations, and then allow the work to be completed by the natives themselves. Thus has it been in all the evangelized nations of the world. Our missionaries cry for coworkers, as do all our missions, and coworkers should be sent to them.
FACTS ABOUT JAPAN
A conference of the missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held in Yokohama in June last. This conference asked the churches of the North for twenty-three new missionaries, and in presenting their request emphasized it by some facts. As these facts appeal equally to us here in the South, we quote them:
1. Japan has a population of 40,000,000 people -- 30,000 Protestant Christians, 1,000 of whom are Baptists.
2. Though missionaries of evangelical bodies number 200, yet a great, if not the greater, part of these are devoted to school and literary work, leaving but a small force to do direct missionary work among the people.
3. There are, including brethren on furlough, 13 men from the American Baptist Missionary Union, 2 from the Southern Board, and 1 from the English Baptists -- 16 Baptists all told -- one missionary to two and a half millions of souls.
4. There are 38 prefectures, with a population aggregating 34,000,000 people, in which we have no missionary located; besides the great cities of Kioto Fu, 870,000, and Osaka Fu, 400,000. Seven prefectures, with a population of 6,000,000, are without a missionary of any denomination. It is probably within the limit to say that 20,000,000 (one-half the population) in this country are out of practical working reach of the present missionary forces, and 35,000,000 out of reach of our present Baptist forces in Japan.
There is yet very much land to be possessed, and our plea to you is: "Come over and help us" to possess it for our God and for the truth as it is in Jesus.
That there has been a crisis in Japan is admitted by all, and this crisis has not passed away in the late revulsion of feeling against foreigners, although we believe it has changed in some of its phases. The situation is more urgent and pressing than ever. There remain as many souls to be reached; the work has been increased in difficulty; and our time for its accomplishment is diminishing. When it is remembered, in connection with the foregoing, that a little time is necessary to fit new men for work, now is emphatically our time.
Brother Brunson has written an able paper on the present attitude of the Japanese to the Gospel, and he thinks it wise for us to recognize their desire to do much of their own work for the Christian evangelization of their people. The true theory of missions is really that the foreigner is to introduce "the Gospel" among the nations, and then allow the work to be completed by the natives themselves. Thus has it been in all the evangelized nations of the world. Our missionaries cry for coworkers, as do all our missions, and coworkers should be sent to them.
FACTS ABOUT JAPAN
A conference of the missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held in Yokohama in June last. This conference asked the churches of the North for twenty-three new missionaries, and in presenting their request emphasized it by some facts. As these facts appeal equally to us here in the South, we quote them:
1. Japan has a population of 40,000,000 people -- 30,000 Protestant Christians, 1,000 of whom are Baptists.
2. Though missionaries of evangelical bodies number 200, yet a great, if not the greater, part of these are devoted to school and literary work, leaving but a small force to do direct missionary work among the people.
3. There are, including brethren on furlough, 13 men from the American Baptist Missionary Union, 2 from the Southern Board, and 1 from the English Baptists -- 16 Baptists all told -- one missionary to two and a half millions of souls.
4. There are 38 prefectures, with a population aggregating 34,000,000 people, in which we have no missionary located; besides the great cities of Kioto Fu, 870,000, and Osaka Fu, 400,000. Seven prefectures, with a population of 6,000,000, are without a missionary of any denomination. It is probably within the limit to say that 20,000,000 (one-half the population) in this country are out of practical working reach of the present missionary forces, and 35,000,000 out of reach of our present Baptist forces in Japan.
There is yet very much land to be possessed, and our plea to you is: "Come over and help us" to possess it for our God and for the truth as it is in Jesus.
That there has been a crisis in Japan is admitted by all, and this crisis has not passed away in the late revulsion of feeling against foreigners, although we believe it has changed in some of its phases. The situation is more urgent and pressing than ever. There remain as many souls to be reached; the work has been increased in difficulty; and our time for its accomplishment is diminishing. When it is remembered, in connection with the foregoing, that a little time is necessary to fit new men for work, now is emphatically our time.
