With increasing openings in heathen lands and many hitherto untouched places, we as Seventh-day Adventists need carefully to guard against prematurely introducing certain features of our work, such as the educational—important and essential as this is in its place—to the neglect of the evangelical. We need to exercise the utmost care lest we unduly emphasize any one phase to the hurt of that main work to which we are called of God; that is, the preparation of a people for the coming of the Lord. "The message of present truth is to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord," we are clearly told in "Fundamentals of Christian Education," page 530.
We are called to evangelism and to the propagation , of the message in simplicity through the preaching of the Word. To the Lord, the salvation of a man's soul is primary. It was to save men from sin that Christ died. Salvation of the soul comes before the education of a man's mind, the development of a man's physique, or the growth of a man's social instincts.
Spiritual life is vital and fundamental in the development of Christian character. Attempts to change man spiritually by the emphasis of secular education, by the erection of dispensaries and hospitals, or by the establishment of industrial plants, have generally failed. To change man spiritually, spiritual forces must predominate; and these forces are primarily introduced by the evangelist and the Word of the living God. These principles we should never forget.
When the Holy Spirit has access to human hearts, and when these hearts are yielded to the Lord, then there quickly follows a desire for education, a strong, clean body, and the ability to use one's hands in industry for himself and in service for others. Then, Christian men will naturally and harmoniously grow in these mental, physical, and social spheres that will make them full men in all things pertaining to this present life and to the life that is to come.
In parts of Africa which I have recently been privileged to visit,—and possibly in other lands as well,—thinking leaders of the people are becoming seriously alarmed as they witness the rapid development of certain features of present-day civilization, without a corresponding development in the things of character and of God. The education is fostered by the controlling governments, who are naturally interested in developing the citizenship in the territories under their jurisdiction. Education, likewise strongly promoted by mission societies, is making rapid advancement in many parts of the continent. However, as one writer has stated, "The African without education was a problem to the missionary, but the African with education and without God is a still greater problem, if not a menace to the world."
That is true of all men everywhere. The world is education-minded today. Great institutions of learning appear on every hand; but sad to say, the world is not spiritually-minded. Education frequently is begun upon a life that does not know God, and produces the finished product without Him. Thus we .now live in an age rapidly developing along lines that are dangerous and destructive.
Some mission leaders are deeply concerned over the methods now employed in their ranks —methods which are sadly failing to produce converted Christians. After one of the early missionary bishops of West Africa had reached his territory and had had time to look over his field, in organizing his work he said, "The missionaries are devoting too much time to matters of education, and neglecting the urgent duty of evangelism." Another leader said:
To the preaching of the gospel of a crucified Saviour, far more than to the introduction of a national system of education, was due the marvelous change which soon was visible in the lives and external circumstances of the former slaves. Spiritual life was evident."
Education Overtowering Evangelism
The trend today in mission lands, as well as in the homeland, is decidedly educational, with the result that evangelism is losing much of its place in the program set out by the Lord for the purpose of finishing His work, that of preparing "a people for the coming of the Lord." And writers on mission problems do not hesitate to state that the putting of education first and evangelism and conversion second, is definitely pulling downward rather than lifting upward.
It is interesting to note that one out of every four missionaries on the continent of Africa is wholly engaged in educational work. The reasons are possibly found in the fact that governments offer heavy subsidies to mission bodies who will conform with their educational program, accept their curriculums, and follow the direction of their educational officers. These bodies are now annually receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of government money—money which is proving strangely attractive to mission boards, and turning their workers from the purpose for which their missions were originally established.
The educational side of mission activity is becoming unduly prominent, and the primary work of the missionary—which we repeat is spiritual—has become in some instances almost wholly and secularly educational. It is a most noteworthy fact that where education. as such, is most strongly developed, there the moral and spiritual problems are the greatest. Education has not helped solve these problems, but by allying itself with the growing material prosperity, has rather aggravated them. With the many new avenues now opening before our workers today, we do need to be particularly careful lest we make the mistake so many mission bodies are making, that of emphasizing the need of education as primary, and overlooking the need of conversion.
For the missionary to make education the first and most important task, means the training of unconverted men and women for worldly jobs rather than the fitting of converted men to be workers for Christ. Education need not of necessity be the work of the mission body, but evangelism and the organization and building of churches unquestionably is. No amount of earnestness in educational matters will, make up for weakness in these fundamental activities.
In making this statement, we do not in any sense decry the necessity for education. What we do aim to emphasize is that our educational work should be for the development of Christian young people in order that they may be workers for God, rather than for the instruction of non-Christians who at the end of their studies will usually prove to be workers in the world, without Christ.
President Coolidge once said : "It was not education that founded religion, but it was religion that founded education. It was beside the place of worship that there grew up the school." Let us therefore make the "place of worship" first, and then, from the product of such, launch our educational work. There will then be found arising from the lands where workers are needed, a band of Christian young people who, having first yielded their hearts to God, are ready to give their lives in service for others.