Newspaper Page Text
September 18, 1912] THE I
When is this "future" religion going to show
up? "Why doesn't he give us a late schedule or
time-table, so that we can all be at the station
when the Eliotized millennium arrives! Maybe
he refers to some eternal day, in the transJordanic
kingdom of the blessed. But, come to
think of it, there will not be any kingdom of the
blessed if the religion of the present is a fake, and
there is no Christ "identified" with the
"Eternal Deity!" The motto of Puck might
well be placed over some university doors:
'' What fools we mortals be.''
We all know vital truth, but do we always
seek to apply it? We know our dependence on
Divine grace, but do we rely upon that grace in
all the duties and relations of life? All religious
organization, effort, profession, display
are futile except as founded on revealed truth
and sanctified by heavenly grace. If all the
Lord's people would only realize and apply this
proposition how rapidly would the kingdom expand
into its final glory? Dr. D. J. Burrell
says: "The Christian who neglects his Bible
and attempts to feed on dreams and visions may
expect to lament his leanness. One must get in
sympathetic touch with the Master's prayer,
sanctity them through thy word.' The 'Holy
Ghost is called 'the Spirit of Power.' Without
him we are weak and helpless. It is of supreme
importance that we wait on him?'tarry at
Jerusalem untrl we he endued with power." It
will pay to wait ten days, or fifty days, or longer
in order to secure that power, without which
little or nothing cAn be done."
Dr. George Matheeon has called attention to
the fact that the injunction is not to give thanks
in everything. It is sometimes very hard for
the Christian to thank God for everything, hut
how happy he has the right to be in the thought
that God is present in everything and that no
matter what may be our surroundings or condition,
he is with us and will so direct even the
bereavements and pain and poverty and toil of
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wui me Luai mcj wm wont out ior us a sure
and eternal weight of glory.
The Northwetsern Advocate tells of a tribe in
South Africa that has a fine way of controlling
its long speakers. It has an unwritten law that
every public orator must stand on one leg while
he is addressing an audience. As soon as he
has to place the other leg on the ground, and
he enjoys no supporting help of pulpit or desk,
his speech is brought to a close. Might it not
be well to introduce the method in civilized
lands ?
V
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IMMIGRATION.
(Continued from Page 3.)
Christian Church' be turned into reality as they
can be here if the Christian churches in America
do their duty. Here as nowhere else the
wonderful facts related in the second chapter
of Acts could be repeated. If American Christians
would undertake honestly and consistently
the evangelization of foreigners here in
America even more than when the Apostles
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run: uiuertui tongues unaer tne influence of
the Hofly Ghost, the Japanese, the Chinese, the
Hindoos, the Hungarians, the Russians, in a
word, all the peoples and all races could hear
the Gospel in their own tongues and in their
own languages.
Have we the men with enough spirit of sacrifice
to do it T
When I look at the glorious army of men and
women who go abroad as volunteers, .when 1
sec them in foreign lands mingling with the outcast,
with the poor and with the ignorant, when
^ see them enduring for Christ's sake all kinds
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
oi humiliations, toils and privations, i say yes
we nave the men and men with enough spirit
of sacrifice to do this great work.
But when 1 think that sixty-live per cent.
the present population in America are foreign,
era or the sons of foreigners, when 1 see that
in cities like Mew York, Chicago, etc., where
lor everv Am?rin?n fhwr# oro at laaat ta?
eigners, 1 realize how urgent is the need for
trained workers at home. 1 see that the Christain
churches do so little, almost nothing for
the foreigners packed in the great cities and
the little they do is done by proxy so to speak.
When 1 see that there are plenty of men and
women and the best of them ready and willing
to go abroad to preach the Gospel in foreign
lands and few, very few of them are ready and
willing to remain and preach the Gospel to the
same foreigner here at home 1 can not but exclaim
with deep disappointment and distress
something is wrong, very wrong in the Christain
churches of America, something needs to
be supplemented in the sublime and glorious
missionary movement among Christians.
And I do not, 'by any means, desire to curtail
foreign missionary enterprise, no, a thou
attuu limes no. mat glorious army must grow
larger and larger and go farther and farther
unto the uttermost parts of the world.
More than that, 1 believe that today home
missionary work can be done because the foreign
missionary movement has aroused the
evangelical spirit in our churches.
I never, never wll say anything against the
marvelous foreign missionary enterprises not
only because I believe that such is the will of
Christ our Saviour, not only because 1 admire
the magnificent achievements of the Christain
Church in foreign lands but also because 1 am
convinced that to destroy or to cripple the foreign
missionary movement is to make impossi
ble the home mission work. Both ought to go
together, both ought to grow together, both deserve
our deepest sympathy and our most earn
est prayers.
But what I never csuld understand in the
past, what I can not understand in the present
and what I doubt whether I shall ever be
able to understand in the future is how American
missionaries are so ready and willing to go
abroad to preach the Gospel to the negro m tue
center of Africa, to the Corean in Corea, to the
Chinese in China, to the Mexican in Mexico,
and how few will offer themselves to work for
the negro, the Corean, the Chinese and the
Mexican at home. American missionaries are
not ashamed to mingle -with poor, ignorant,
dirty people abroad. How kindly our missionaries
speak to those in foreign lands, how lovinelv
and natient.lv thev invito +hom *
w r M _ ^ ??M*?AW o*?^ux tu auccpb
the Gospel of Christ and yet the same American
Christains feel repugnance, yea shame in
mingling with the foreigner here in this country.
How few Americans dare to mingle with
them here, how few invite them to accept the
Gospel of Christ, how few here are loving and
patient with them for the Gospel's sake.
Is not the Mexican, the Japanese, the Chinese
worth saving here as they are abroad!
Can not the same gospel of Christ save them in
this country as it is able to save them in their
own land! Is it expecting too much of Christain
churches if they are asked to do at least,
not less for America, where Christainity and
good citizenship are at stake, than they do for
Africa, Corea, China, Japan, etc.
Is it expecting too much to ask of American
missionaries that they be not ashamed to mingle
with foreigners in this country, to be patient
with them, to invite them lovingly to
come to Christ just as they would do if they
were preaching and teaching the Gospel in fc
) G T K (1065) 11
eign lauds. The more so when the foreigner
can be reached here eves more easily and more
successfully than abroad. Ask the Home Missionary
Board and you will see how in many
quarters foreigners are eager to hear the
Uospel; they are responsive to the invitation.
Ponder the men and money you use in the
Home Missionary work and although many
things are done inefficiently and even very
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j/vuu;, vnausc wcjr iav& men, Biruiig illea auu
money, nevertheless the results are even
greater than in many foreign countries. Again
have you noticed how more than one-hfth of
the foreigners return to their homes and many
of them return there wealthy and therefore
they will become men of social influence and
power 1 Can you realize how much they could
help afterwards in foreign fields both by their
good example and their financial support?
Ohl there are so many good, powerful and
convincing reasons that 1 am truly convinced
the good common sense of American Christmas
will make them undertake the evangelization
of the foreign element in this country as the
greatest, the soundest, the most needed and
the most pressing of all missionary enterprises.
Then they will reorganize, then they will see
that such work ought to be accomplished not
by foreign proxy, but by Americans themselves
and by the strongest and best of them. No,
my brethern, it is a mistake, a tremendous and
awful mistake to leave the evangelization of
foreigners to the native workers themselves.
That never will do, it will end in a failure. As
1 believe that China ought to be evangelized
largely by the Chinese; Spain by the Spaniards;
India by the natives of India; etc. So 1 believe
that Americans ought to do the work almost
exclusively in America.
1 have no time to give facts and reasons but
1 can tell you honestly that 1 have reached this
conclusion after many days of prayer and after
having consulted the most authoritative
dooks on tnis matter, besides having done work
myself among the Mexicans for two summers.
.1 consider the policy of our Presbyterian
brethern of the north the wisest soundest and
best in solving the problem. Their idea is to
send strong Christain men abroad to learn the
language and familiarize themselves with the
manners and customs of foreigners in their own
countries. Then with this sympathetic insight
into their modes of thought and their ways of
living, they can do far more effective work in
evangelizing them here than they could possibly
do without this training.
Oh! when this plan may be followed by
all evangelical churches, when two or three
hundred good Christains, strong and learned
American men undertake this national and
Christian task, the greatest which ever con
fronted Americans, then the pouring in of foreigners
by the millions will be one of the greatest
blessings of God; a blessing to the nation
because the foreigners will become good honest
citizens, a blessing to the church because
they will become its most loyal members, a
blessing to the evangelization of the world in
their generation because they will be a great
help on their return to their native land.
The world is awake and athrob with life. I,
too, am awake, and life is pulsing through my
veins. I have a part in the great world in its
work, its joy, and its sorrow. Today I can be a
little center from which shall radiate peace,
kindliness, and good will. I thank God for opportunity.
The whole hope of human progress is suspended
on the ever-growing influence of the Bible,
ir?William H. Seward.