The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-27
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
A Defense of the CiviIizinE Work he.
ing Done by the Churches.

fortunately, to be upon the religion as
we'll as the politics of certain localities In
the South. If we may judge of the mis-
sionary spirit of the people from an article
printed in last Mondays Journal. taken
from the New Orleans Times-Democrat
The author Of the u~tterances quoted
claims to represent the sentiments of hun
dreds of persons of his denomination,
namely the Presbyterian. This ''promi-
net Presbyterian of New Orleans says he
used TO believe in foreign missions. but has
reversed his decision; and after consider
ing the great cost of converting men and
women in foreign lands, decides it does not
pay, and Is giving his money to local
charities. Even were his figures correct,
should it not shame any citizen of a civil
lized country to begrudge the millions he
cites as expended i'm a cause of all in the
world the most imperative and justifiable?
This Southerner, being a professed Chris
tan, should remember that this cause.
which he has espoused by his church VOWS.
and to which. by these vows. he promised
his allegiance and support, costs, in all the
world, but a small 1.-THE of what is ex-
pended each year for intoxicants, or for a
mere superfiuity, as cigars, for instances;
and yet he weighs in the balance against
such OUTLAWS the matter of carrying, not a
luxury, not a Super1uity, not a harmful
agency. but the bread of life to souls starv-
Ing on SuperSt1tionS and darkest errori
This church member decides that he
knows something about the value of a
human soul in dollars and cents, and that
the average heather convert is costing too
much. He evidently has decided that he
knows a great deal more about the ques-
ton than the great head of the church.,
whose last message to His followers en-
Int N q. and coin I'll IN
tons Do not such critics as this man,
w. L. Stead and others, forget that they
are citizens of a Christian civilization, and
themselves products of missionary effort?
That their ancestors originally were
rescued from barbarism more dense, per-
Eaps, than that of foreign nations in our
cay! III traitors TO their flag, let them fear
10 own IL, and be silent. 1t is perilous at
times to d~enounce our country's emblems.
These are times. If ever, when it should be
considered traitorous to desert a cause
winch the powers of evil are putting TO the
test the world around. Over against the
figures of this New Orleans citizen are the
we'll authenticated facts of our missionary
boards, giving 100000 converts i'm China
alone in fifty years, which means 1000 per
year. Where is there a better record to be
had of Christian work accomplished IN
home lands?
In Korea one denomination alone num-
bers 20 churches. many of which are large
ly seif-supporting and the work is chiefly
covered by little more than a decade.
Metiahkatlah Alaska. in the present gen.
Grafton, has been changed by the work of
one man, Rev. DIR. William Duncan, from
a state OF savagery and cannibalism to that
of respectable Christian civilization, and
the story of the transformation reads like a
/ romance.
In Fiji, fifty years ago, the natives were
| cann1bals. To-day of the 100, 900 inhabitants
lVz,W0 nave accepted the Christian faith.
In India heathenism is practically doomed,
and so great. Is Christian influences that
Cnunder Sen once said, 1T is not the Brit
ism government which is ruling India. but
the Bible" India now has over 2. ZOO. 600 con-
verts to Christianity.
A letter from Mrs. Eddy, dated June %.
at kodaikanal, South India, recently re-
celved here In indianapolis, attests the
value OF missions at this time of anime i'm
India, from a merely humanitarian point of
view. The writer says: I'VE acknowledge
with much gratitude your gift of money
from your society for our starving people.
You can have no conception of thes extent
and awfulness of the suffering here. The
shipload of corn from America was to be
welcomed In Bombay on Wednesday. One
little mission will use ii up i'm a month. The
gifts. many of them, seeming so large and
generous. are but as crumbs among the
great multitude of lndia'S starving. oh, |
wish America had begun last January. and
every month since had seen a shipload of
corn discharged at Bombay. Only this
morning a missionary has come from there.
describing to me how he has seen whole
all-sitting in perfect
despair, awaiting death. He found a large
company devouring a bullock whose lungs
were filled with tubercules, and even more
revolving things are to be witnessed. A
medical missionary friend in Neemuch.
Central India, has gone out daily with food
In her cart. and has gathered up the dying
and the dead, found by the roadside-faIlen
exhausted and starving, on their way to
relief camps. She has sent to other camps
zoV children; has herself taken in $50. Two
were brought in last week who had lost
father and mother on the way. Orphan
ages are springing up in all the famine dis
tricts and increasing their numbers at mar
velouS rates. -Four months ago we visited
Pundita Ramabai's 500 high-caste widows
and orphans. To-day she has over a thou
sand! For the support of these orphans all
over India in the years to come we earnest
ly pray. Their souls as well as their bodies
will be saved, and many of them will be-
come earnest Christian workers if they car
be Kept IN these orphanages and trained
for Coo. Can you get your Sunday school
to support one or more orphans for several
years? Fifteen dollars a year would do il /"
Perhaps If the New Orleans critic would
keep in closer touch with workers in the
field he would have less fault to find. MOI
missionaries, not native Christians, but
home church members are mostly TO blame
ii missions do not result well. 1t would
take the space of a volume to cite a frac.
ton of the evidence TO be had proving how
genuine are the results which this skeptit
denounces as entirely unsatisfactory. The
| testimony comes from every land and from
hundreds and thousands who have suffered
loss of caste, loss of property. loss OF
friends, or sometimes even. loss of life it.
self. rather than to relinquish the Christian
faith valued above all these.
There must be a deep reality in such 2
faith when 5000 native Chinese would cast
in their lot with their foreign friends and
be willing TO take up arms against their
own people, as has just been the case with
those 5000 natives in Picking. Little won.
der hat Minister Conger in his dispatches
stipulated that these 5000 Christians mus
have equal protection with the white lega.
TONERS when rescue should come.
The testimony of Julian Hawthorne anC
other recent writer's who have viewed mis-.
sions from a secular and entirely un.
prejudiced standpoint is noteworthy. Thes,
writer's have said that to go from heather
| quarters into the missionary compound is
going, literally, from degradation to civili
zation, from arkness into light. So pro
nounced were the sentiments of Juliar
Hawthorne that his high tributes to the
changed lives of native Christians hav.
been printed in leafiet form and sent on
from the boards to influence such person:
as the New Orleans Times-Democra
quotes.
Not that all natives who flock to tn,
Christian standard are OF the genuine sor
and can stand any test. Probably man,
come from unworthy motives and prove
burden instead of a help to the work. bu
when our home churches are made up o
helpful, faithful, believing members onl,
we can presume, perhaps, to depounce tn,
ignorant church member of unfavorabl,
environment on foreign shores who prove,
unfaithful to his vows.
Last Mondays Journal also publishe,
two items, each of which is a conclusiv,
reply to the New Orleans dissenter. On,
Of them, entitled the CONWAY Child set
forth the hopeless condition of girls II
1l4x