RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Student Volunteer Movement Stumbling-Block
in the going forth of its members to the foreign mission field. It is gratifying, therefore, to note that the movement has on its records the names of 4 784 volunteers who, prior to Jan. 1, 1911, had reached the mission field, having been sent out as missionaries of no less than fifty different missionary boards of the United States and Canada. About one-third of the sailed volunteers are women.
The sailed volunteers are distributed by countries as follows:
Mexico 152
Central America 28
South America 288
West Indies 146
Latin and Greek Church countries of Europe 21
Africa 503
Turkish Empire 174
Arabia 21
Persia 39
India, Burma, and Ceylon 924
Siam, Laos, and Straits settlements 79
China 1,389
Korea 219
Japan 401
Philippine Islands 145
Oceania 58
Miscellaneous 197
Total 4,784
In order to be of greater service to all the mission boards in helping them to secure the most capable men and women to go as missionaries, there was established in the fall of 1907 the candidate department. The work already done has demonstrated the wisdom of this forward movement. Almost every board has been aided during the past year in finding properly qualified candidates. In 1894 the movement began to promote the systematic and progressive study of missions among students. At that time there were less than thirty classes carrying on such study in all the institutions of North America. During the first year there were organized 144 classes with an enrolment of 1,400. In the year 1909-10 there were in 596 institutions 2,379 classes having an enrolment of 29,322. At the beginning of this period there were no text-books available for the classes. Since 1894 a text-book literature has been created, not only for the students, but the work, taken up by other organizations, has been pushed in the churches among young people's societies, women's missionary societies, and in the Sunday-schools, so that now the annual sales of missionary text-books by these different agencies has passed the 100,000 mark. This mission study work is developing an intelligent and strong .missionary interest and is striving to make that interest permanent. It is an invaluable help in preparing missionary candidates for their life-work, is making the conditions favorable for the multiplying of the number of capable volunteers, is developing right habits of praying and giving for missions, and is equipping those who are to become leaders at home to be real citizens of a world-wide kingdom. The movement has also stimulated gifts to missions by students. When it began its work less than $10,000 a year was being contributed toward missionary objects by all the institutions of the United States and Canada. During 1909-10 29,000 students and professors gave over $133,761, of which
more than $90,000 was given to foreign missions and $37,000 to home missions. Eighty-nine institutions gave $300 or more each. Many colleges and theological seminaries are supporting entirely or in large part their own representative on the foreign field. The movement has been helpful also in raising the standards of qualifications of intending missionaries. During the past twenty years in particular it has emphasized that those who are to become missionaries should possess the highest qualifications. It invariably encourages students to take a regular and thorough college or university course and to press on to such graduate courses as may be required by the agencies under which they expect to go abroad. The leaders of the movement have always insisted that no student volunteer was prepared for his high calling unless he were spiritually qualified. Hence the movement has guided and stimulated volunteers to form right devotional habits such as that of personal Bible study, secret prayer, and the practise of religious meditation.
Great as the achievements have been, the work is not and will not be finished while there is an increasing demand for missionaries. New missionaries are needed to fill the places made vacant on the mission field by the death or retirement of the old missionaries, to reach the unevangelized millions in the countries where missions have already been established, and to occupy the countries which are at present without a single missionary, or where no work has as yet been attempted. These recruits must be found among the students.
F. P. Tubner.
Bibliography: Reports of the Executive Committee and of the international conventions, published by the organization from time to time.
STUDITES. See Accemeti.