It is not necessarily true that the paramount motive of a century ago is no longer believed; but that other motives have grown and reached a commanding influence as a power in the Christian consciousness of today. A Christian missionary has indeed changed his views, for instance, concerning the origin and character of Hinduism. Through modern enlightenment and the study of comparative religion no man can go out as a missionary, even as I was expected to go less than a quarter of a century ago, with a general belief that that great religion is entirely of the devil and is in itself evil and only evil continually. The missionary of today must discriminate, must study appreciation and consider historic facts. He must know that ethnic, and all non-Christian religions, have had their uses, and that some still have their uses in the world. They are the expression of the deepest religious instincts of the human soul. And they have, especially such a faith as Hinduism, not a few elements of truth which a missionary should know no less than he should understand the great evils which enter as a part of them.
The greatest missionary motive of today lies in the last commission of our Lord which emanates from the heart, and reveals the essence of our religion. His command to his disciples to go and disciple the nations stands now as the Supreme Christian Command; and its significance is appreciated and emphasized today as never before. And so long as a Church gives increasing emphasis to this, His greatest commission, it must necessarily be in the path of duty, of privilege, of blessing and of power. Above all other missionary motives this must remain supreme.
And there must go hand in hand with this loyalty to Christ, a deepening loyalty to Christianity and a growing appreciation of its uniqueness in the world. Christianity is not one religion among many; it stands alone as the soul-satisfying and soul-saving faith. The scattered lights of other faiths find here their centre, and all their prophesies find here fulfillment. The need of Christianity, by all men, is supreme. Whatever may be said in favour of other faiths we must say of them that they are, in many respects, perverted and are inadequate as a means of salvation.