Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1898-10-14
FOREIGN MISSIONS AS INFLU-
EN CING NATIONAL POLICY.

EN cling NATIONAL POLICY.
The Presbyterian Review ,Toron-
toy thus moralizes on the general re.
latiOn Of Missions TO National Poll
icy, and in view of the fact that at
the present juncture much influence
is brought to bear on the policy Of
the United States by reason of an
eagerness on the part of Protestants
to engage in Missionary Work in
the Philippines, we quote the
article:
1t has long been part of the policy
of France to lend active support to
Roman Catholic Missions in any
country she has sought to colonize
or annex, on the ground that she
was thereby supposed to strengthen
her influence and her hold over it.
Russia Is also at the present time
placing her reliance on missions to
the HISTORIANS in Persia as a means
of advancing her interests there.
This is why the governments of
these two nations are always sus-
picious of English Protestant mis-
sionaries aud can not avoid regard
ing them ashaving ulterior politi-
cal aims. France has consented to
tolerate the Protestant church in
Madagascar only on the understand
ing that as soon as possible the
control of the work there shall be
taken over by the Reformed church
of France.
GAS a matter of fact the missions
undertaken by the Protestant
churches of Britain and America
have never had any Interior aims.
They have been undertaken solely
for the sake of the spiritual results
chat might be secured. The same
is also true in the main of German
missions. But it is impossible to
deny that they have actually exer-
cised considerable influence on the
foreign policy of the nations which
they represented. Whatever may
have been the reasons that led q
church to adopt a particular field as
the sphere of operations, the consti-
tuent members of that church will
always thereafter take greater in
terest in it's political fortunes, and
will be willing to consent to any
changes that might endanger the
work in which they are engaged and
for which they have already made
great sacrifices.
"Apother aspect of the influence
} of foreign missions on national pol
icy, however, which is perhaps
more important still, is seen in its
helping to determine the whole
spirit of nations attitude toward
the world. No more remarkable
r instance of such q change of atti-
tude has occurred in modern times
than that which is seen in the U. S.
as the outcome of the Spanish war.
It would be very superficial view
of the cause Of that change, how
ever which would attribute it solely
to the war and to the accident of
Admiral Dewey's dramatic success
S at Manila. The way had been pre-
s pared for the U. S. assuming its
: place among the nations of the
world by the fact that the Ameri-
. can churches had long taken an ac-
3 tive interest in the spiritual welfare
!, of other nations. Before the Spun
=. ish war was thought of many of
the Americans have felt that they
should have interfered on behalf OF
the prosecuted Armenians, and haG
: it not been for the unfortunate
). Venezuelan affair they would have
v probably joined Great Britain il
!, coercing Turkey into treating then
" decently. The interest they had il
Q them was due almost entirely to the
l missionary operations carried OF
e among those ancient people. Had
Il there been any considerable mis-
sionary interests in Cuba there il
y little doubt they would have inter
e fered on it's behalf long before they
n did,
n 1.-The influence Of Foreign mis-
o sions on national policy is altogethe
likely TO be much stronger in the
: future than in the past. This il
1t partly due to the larger scale oi
y which they are being conducted, bu
mainly to the fact that they hav
made good their claim to be amonl
the vital forces in the advancement
of civilization"