Missionary Extraordinary
For more than half a century, Dr. E. Stanley Jones proclaimed the Gospel of Christ and applied it to men's personal, social, national, and international problems as they arose on every continent and among all cultures.He was probably the world's best-known and longest-tested Christian missionary and evangelist.He moved among statesmen and among leaders without portfolios as counselor, friend and worker for peace and goodwill.He helped hundreds of thousands, from village outcasts in India to molders of public opinion in America, Japan, Europe and India.
In addition, he initiated and helped support institutions and movements on five continents-- institutions and movements that have aided many thousands to achieve better lives religiously, socially and medically. The proceeds from his Spiritual Life Missions and speaking engagements in America, as well as the royalties of his twenty eight books--most of them best sellers--were devoted wholly to these causes.
Stanley Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland, January 3, 1884.He was educated in Baltimore schools and studied law at City College before being graduated from Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky in 1906. He was on the faculty of Asbury College when he was called to missionary service in India in 1907 under the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He began his work among the members of the very low castes and the outcastes. He did not attack Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, or any Indian religion. He presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ, disentangled from western systems and cultures, and their sometimes non-Christian expressions. "The way of Jesus should be--but often isn't--the way of Christianity," he said. "Western civilization is only partly Christianized."
Brother Stanley, as he was familiarly called by thousands of people, attracted wide attention among the high castes, the students and the intelligentsia. He was invited to speak at ancient universities and before learned societies. Soon he was set aside by his church to interpret the Christian Gospel especially to educated men and women.In 1919, with foresight and great-heartedness, the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church offered him the wide-ranging role of "Evangelist-at-large" to India and to wherever else he might feel led, which subsequently proved to be to the far corners of the earth.
Dr. Jones conducted great mass meetings in leading Indian cities.At one such meeting, their leader said, "We may not agree with what Dr. Jones is saying, but we can certainly all try to be like Jesus Christ." He inaugurated "round table conferences" at which Christian and non-Christian sat down as equals to share their testimonies as to how their religious experiences enabled them to live better.Thirty years before the United Nations came into being he proposed a Round Table of Nations.
In 1925, while home on furlough, he wrote a report of his years of service--what he had taught and what he had learned in India.It was published in a book titled"The Christ of the Indian Road and became a best seller.It sold over a million copies and has influenced the course of missionary thinking.Other books followed and certain books or single chapters became required reading in various theological seminaries or in degree courses at government colleges in parts of the world.They have been read around jungle fires, studied by armies and governments, quoted in parliaments, and banned and burned by Communists.
