In some missions the proportion of missionaries and native workers so employed would be very small; in others they would be very considerable. There is now a tendency to hand over some of the industrial work as it develops along commercial lines to Boards of Christian men who are interested in the social and spiritual aspect of the work. In the province we must also consider union work, work done in common by two or more societies,[1] sometimes evangelistic, sometimes medical or educational training, sometimes the establishment, or enlargement of an educational or medical institution; or sometimes, as in Kwangtung in South China, several societies unite in a "Board of Co-operation". This union of societies for the better and more efficient performance of their work is a most important development of the last few years: important both to the workers on the field and to us at home. We ought, therefore, to have a short table to show what is being done. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | Number of Societies | | Number | Co-operating in |Number of | of |--------------------------------| Societies |Remarks Societies|Evangelistic|Medical|Educational| Co-operating| and at Work. | Work. | Work. | Work. | in all Work.|Conclusions. ---------+------------+-------+-----------+-------------+------------ | | | | | ---------+------------+-------+-----------+-------------+------------ [Footnote 1: The larger and more important movements towards corporate union, such as those now taking place in S. India, China, and E. Africa, lie outside the scope of this survey until their completion affects their statistical returns. Then the importance of them will speedily appear.] CHAPTER XI. THE RELATION OF THE STATION TO THE WORLD. We have now dealt with the survey of the station and of the province or small country, but the final end of missionary work is the attainment of a world-wide purpose. The Gospel is for the whole world, not for a fragment of it, however big. Missionary work cannot properly be carried on in any place except by means and methods designed with a view to the whole, and missions can never be properly presented to us at home so long as we are taught to fix our eyes on small areas; because the great characteristic of missions is their vastness. This is what is so uplifting and ennobling in the work. Every little piece of mission work ought to be directed on principles capable of bearing the weight of the whole. We ought to be able to say, "The whole world can be converted by these means and on these principles which we are here employing in this little village". If the methods and the principles are so narrow that we can build no great world-wide structure on them, we can take little more interest in them than we do in the petty politics of some little parish at home.