Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-04-06
THE NEW MISSIONARY POLICY.
New York Evening Post.


We are getting new ideas out of our
Philippine experiences on % great many
subjects nowadays. For one thing, we
are learning what wretchedly inefficient
old fogies the managers of our mis-
sionary enterprises have always been.
The approved modern system, which
We arc substituting for tho slow
going methods of the "bacx- numbern
societies, is thus set forth by one of
its champions, the Rev. DR.. Wayland
Hoyt of Philadelphia:
Christ is the solution for the diff
Guilty regarding national expansion.
There never was q more manifest provi,.
dence than the waving of Old Glory
over the Philippines. The only thing
we can do is to thrash the natives until
they understand who we are. / believe
every bullet sent, every cannon shot,
every flag waved means Righteousness.
When we have conquered anarchy,
then is the time to send the Christ
there"
A graphic picture of the way we are
making the natives understand who
we are" is drawn in the report pub
lished this morning from Il. A. Blake
of California, who is IN charge of the
Red Cross work at Manila lie wrote
just week after the fighting actually
commenced last month, and he thus
describes the Scene at the end of the
first days operations:
g never saw such execution in my
life, and hope never to see such sights
as met me on all sides as our little
corps passed over the field. dressing
wounded legs and arms nearly de-
molished. total decapitation, horrible
wounds in chests and abdomens, show
ing the determination of our soldiers
to kill every native in sight. The
Filipinos did stand their ground heroi-
cally, contrasting every inch, but proved
themselves unable to stand the deadly
fire of our well-trained and eager boys
in blue. | counted 10 dead natives in
one small field, and learn that on the
other side of the river their bodies
were stacked up for breastworSs :"
How ridiculously slow and weak does
the old system Of sending the Christ to
the heather appear compared with such
quick and effective work as this! Under
tho antediluvian methods pursued by
the missionary of the Judson school,
the representative of Christianity must
win the confidence and love of the
heather before he could get hearing
for the Gospel. As the Portland me.
Press points out, that was always an
arduous and unpleasant task, and fire.
quently was attended with great physi-
cal discomforts and sometimes personal
danger" while mir. Hoyt's discovery
greatly simplities the work of spread
ing the Gospel" The Press thus eluci-
dates the modern method:
Every missionary hereafter should
go to his field with body of troops
we'll provided with Calling and Hotch-
kiss guns and abundant ammunition.
If his field is near the coast, a battle-
ship OF two will improve his chances of
success in his chosen work. To render
hundred or thousand, if there are
many, Of them should be treated with
bullets and shells-or in the language
of Mr.. Hoyt, should be thrashed'
until they understand who the mis-
sionaries are and the benevolent object
of their mission. After the natives
have been made sufficiently receptive
by this kind of treatment then the
Gospel can be preached with assurance
that the seed will fall on good ground. I"
1t is perhaps not surprising that our
oldest missionary organizations have
not yet caught up with the procession,
and that the American Board of Com
missioners for Foreign Missions is
utterly opposed to the new system. But
this need be no obstacle. A modern
missionary society can be quickly Or
ganized and financed by the expan-
sionists say, the Mckinley Hanna
Syndicate Board for Thrashing Savages
into Accepting Christianity.