New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-11-20
TWO RELIGIOUS INCIDENTS.

was lii session in this city recently, pre-
sents a good specimen OF careful and
effective organization. The committee sits with
omen doors, scrutinlzes the details of each APP
propriation, reviews all the missions at home
and abroad and INDUCES in those spirited de-
bates which always indicate the absence of
Encouragement. 1t is difficult to see how
there can possibly be any abuse OF tie trust
put into the hands of the committee. The
method is so searching and comprehensive that
nothing worse than bunders can be possible.
1t would certainly refresh the UNCONVENTIONAL
enthusiasm if the details of these meetings were
more generally read by Methodists. An exam
pie of the thorough discussion and the per-
iect frankness of the administration was
furnished by spirited debate over the Bull
gar:an Mission. Bulgaria is country that has
had good deal of humanitarian sympathy /;
has been, indeed, kind of pet OF the philan-
tbroDist. 1t is good many years since
Methodists undertook to substitute their robust
and evangelical faith for the lifelessness and
moral useessncss of the Greek Church ritual
And, unfortunately, next to nothing has come
of this Methodist effort The fact has never
been concealed. Turn to the Methodist Year
for last year-sOme twenty-five members and
five native preachers seem to constitute the
Bulgarian Methodist Church. Tho committee
have grown FESTIVE under the situation. The
annual appropriations have never been very
large-last year about $4,000 But the sums
annually expended in Bulgaria would bring
forth fruit at home and seem to yield no har-
vest in the frOntier-land of Europe and ASIA.
The debate showed a strong desire in the
minds of several members of the committee
to abandon so sterile field. Others con-
tended that they had been boring with a
small anger where a big one was necessary,
and that the revolutionary condition of the
country for many years, and the late Russo
Turkish war, accounted for the ll-success of the
mission. The hopeful members spoke of new
railroads that are pointing at the heart of
Bulgaria, appealed to the philanthropic in
terest of Metho lists in tho victims
of Turkish tyranny, and intimated
that at last native leader had been found
whose genus would extrcate the mission
from all its embarrassments. The assurance
which Bishop Hurst gave the committee that
he profoundly believed in the new mans ca
pacity for leadership shook the confidence of
the critics in their own Judgment and obtained
for the mission another year OF grace. An in-
cident like this debate with it's unexpected
issue, provokes reflection upon the enthusiasm
which, even in religion, nanc-uttered with
the ASSURANCE that there Is a man behind it
usually awakens In this case the hope that
diminutive Bulgarian Methodism had found a
man probably reversed the sober judgment of
the committee.
And here arises a still larger topic. Can
churches hope successfully to attack the relig-
,ous systems of ancient and proud peoples
with ordinary men leading their missionary
columnsi Paul founded Gentle Christianity,
and he lowered far above all the men of his time.
He broke the lines of Greek and Roman re-
ligion by tho sheer force of his conQuering
brain. 1t is doubtful If any successful Prot
estant mission can be found whose success
did not spring out of rare personal force in u
founder In so far as mission work is philan-
thropic-seeking to educate, care for orphans,
brighten domestic life. substitute scientific
medicine for i.n"ro"t ono"kery-an inferior