The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-12-15

FACE on earth, good will to men.
The last Christmas of the nineteenth cen
tdry finds the Christian world exemplifying Its
founders teachings with three million trained
soldiers In reserve Never before in all these
nineteen hundred years has the art OF killing been cu-
tivated on such gigantic scale.
Two hundred years ago Jesuit missionaries endowed
the Chinese Imperial Observatory at Pekin with SUI
perb of astronomical Instruments representing the
highest flights of the science and Of their day. This
was Christendoms message China in those backward
times Today the troops OF Christian Germany and
France have packed those Instruments to be sent with
other loot to the museums Of Berlin and Paris One
Christian power is desolating South Africa another is
saughtering Flipinos and all together are ravagng
China.
Nevertheless the reign of peace and good will is not
so far away as it seems to be- 1t is much that Europe and
America are at peace home. No great powers are
tearing at each others throas they were when the
century began 1t is nearly thirty years since the last
duel Of that sort ended and the majority OF the people
now living in civilized countries have recollection Of
great war; That is something that could hardly ever
have been said any OF the centuries since the fall Of
Rome And it very doubtful whether there will ever
be great war again. The experience OF England and
America little has not been such as to encourage
any nation to undertake big one. All the imposing
of soldiery, which up to generation ago couio
not have been maintained without devoting them to
wholesale murder may be only glorifed police, the
watchdogs of peace instead Of the boodhounds OF war;
Christmas is the time Of optimism, and there are
plenty of things to be optimistic about We may never
see the time when President Mckinley will embrace
Apunado or when Mr. Rockefeller will reduce the price
of oil to one cent gallon But the world is undoubtedly
improving Even the things that are most revolving to
Kindly heart are but transitions which in the end will
lead to good All the slaughter devastation and suffer-
ing in South Africa will be in time, and the whole
Dark Continent from Cape Town to the Mediterranean
will be the home of peaceful industry The burned vii
lagos of Luzon will be rebuilt and the sixteenth century
will suddenly give away the twentieth The night OF
TWO thousand years win break in China and the Oldest
empire of the earth will take its place beside the young
est
For nineteen hundred years the Christian church has
been irving to carry the injunction of its founder
o We into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature"
Tn all that time missionary work has meant exile
hardship and often martyrdom The heathen world has
been world of darkness and barbarism Now the foreign
mission period is coming to end, and soon all mis-
ionaries will be working in the field OF home missions
The whole world is being parceled out among Christian
Greenland's icy mountains are the property OF
nonmarx Indias coral strand is British, and Afrcas
npv mountains belong mostly to England Frapce, Ger
many. Portugal and the Kings of the Belgiahs The
! missionary Of the future viii not heve to sing
"Though every prospects pleases sA
And only man is vile."
here never has been an end-of-the-century Christ
mao whose outlook could compare with this. hundred
aoo IL would have taken robust faith 70 be cheer
full over the prospect Europe was nleeang At every
s;, meath had staked over the fields Of Marengo and
Hohenlinden Little America less popnlous tnan rem
sylvania is today, her cOmmerce wan