The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-15

twelve-foid, until now one-third OF our
people are is the cities. Cities that are
and originators OF great popular move
ments for good or evl. Cities dominate
the country. In many foreigners are In the
ascendency; in others they hold the balance
or power. AS Mr.. Beecher said, when the
lion eats the OK it is question whether
the result will be lion or OK. Scotch inn
migrants last year. 1852: English. 1919;
Polish; % 4es: Jews. s7.4l5: Italian. $50.
English, Scotch and Scandinavian immi-
grants fewer continually; southern Latin
and eastern Slavonic increasing constantly.
What can unity thesf ninety nationalities?
ANOTHER QUESTION.
And what shall we say of the exigencies
OF war that attach little nation on the
south and family group in the Carolines?
And the affinities of choice that attach one
on the west, and a wonder of Providence
that appoint US guardians of an island of
the Antilles and 200 islands of the Philip
pines? May we not more truly say than
Holmes
"And 10, a newborn nation waits
Sitting by thy golden gates
That glisten by the sunset sea;
Waits with open arms for thee"
Such, then, is Tie arena, and such are the
subjects, at the beginning of the twentieth
century for the grandest home mission
work the world has ever witnessed. And
opportunities will still enlarge when such
State Minnesota, with twelve people to
the square mile, shall equal Massachusetts,
with 20.
'I hear the tread of pioneers
OF nations yet to be;
The first low wash Of waves
Where soon snail roll human sea-"
To what extent are We improving these
opportunities which We now have? Our
home missionaries are the vanguard Of the
al Th< lar tod tn he th<a
Ohio; then our fathers feared that the
people there would lapse into barbarism.
so they sent missionaries. Now there are
no frontiers. But such men are preaching
In thirty languages and dialects struggling
with the first generations.
Among the Anglo-Saxon populations
stand most of the strong self-supporting
and helpful churches; among them as well
as the depleted country churches, indis-
pensable sources of supply for ministers.
missionaries and teachers. In Indiana are
500 towns of 100 to 500 inhabitants without
a resident minister Of any kind.
has been EXCEPTIONALLY prosperous and sat
isfactory. Indian nature Is simply human
nature bound In red" Last year, among
the Pima Indians. our veteran Rev. Chas.
II. Cook, received over $50 members into
the churches. Uncle George" one Of the
noted Modoc braves, ifty-five of whom
withstood 1000 United States troops
and cost the country hundreds of thousands
of dollars. died the other day, an esteemed
elder in the Friends Church. What an ar
my could not conquer, Christs love did.
Among the fighting Sioux. 5000 are MEM
bers of the Presbyterian and Congrega-
tional churches. Our Indian Presbytery
of South Dakota is the banner presbytery
of the State in contributions to home mis-
sions 1t has over 1900 communicates.
David Brainerd and John Elliott have 'wor-
thy successors still, and they are worthily
rewarded. There is a steady increase In
church members. in the Sabbath school,
the Christian Endeavor and the Y. NJ. G. A.
among the red-skinned aborigines of Amer
lea. The Wyandottes are capable of fur
nishing Miss Kate Grinod to the staff of
professional nurses of Philadelphia, and
the Sioux Miss Gertrude Simmons to win
the oratorical honors at Earlham College.
Ind. Edward Marsden. the Metlahkatla
Indian boy, after getting an all-round
equipment from our best schools, goes back
to preach the gospel among our 10000 ma
tives in Alaska.
THE AFRICAN POPULATION.
The emancipated population. If ever there
was a people worthy to excite the COM
miseration of mankind it is the African.
Whether laboring under a curse or fulfill
ing natural destiny or carrying out a
prophecy or all Of these combined cannot
say. But their sufferings, their obloquy.
their poverty. and, withal, their universal
patience and good cheer awaken our SYM
pathy and excite our appreciation. Content
with less than anybody else, with voices
musical and sonorous breaking forth in
stinctvely into song, people heartily
emotional unrestrained and graceful along
side the cold, dispassionate and calculat-
ing Americans. We owe them something.
And when thou sendest him out from thee
thou SHAFT not let him go away empty"
nish the principal for the Agas-
siz school at Cambridge. the vale
dictorian at Harvard, the register Of
the treasury, whose autograph long
cate AMI treasury note, or fellow of The
Royal Geographical Society. Their pa
triotism Is unsurpassed: first blood CT the
revolution, that of Crispus Attacks,
negro leader in the capture of New Or
leans, in 1915. John Noble, a negro. first
martyr in the Spanish-American war a
negro. No anarchists among them and no
infdels. They speak our mother tongue
and love our institutions, faring i'll in
slavery and i'll in freedom. Few rights al
lowed them by the most outspcken friends;
tabooed by society. boycotted by both labor
end capital. pathetic race! The quality of
their piety may leave much to be desired.
hut their religion is In moral power equal
tc that of any other people of the same
grade of intelligence. The proportion of
church members TO the whole in our coun-
try is not below that of the whites.
OF that vast immigrant population time
would fail me to speak. Some of 1t is hos
tile to our free institutions much of it
hostile to our Sabbath and our faith. For
it we must labor and spend and strive. II
must be converted, or the Republic is sub
verted. In justice to ourselves. mercy to
them and faithfulness to God we must give
them the gospel 1t was easy for six de-
nominations to enter Porto Rico on the
strict basis of Christian comfy, so that
there should be reduplication of forces
no rivalry of denominations but such CO.
operation as would show to those accus-
toned to the unity of Catholicism the
living unity of harmonious Professionalism.
But what federation of the churches will
be required to marshal our ninety nation
alities beneath the cross And what devo-
ton! Greater America calls for greater
Americans. We are expansionists and i'm
perialists for Christ.
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth
We must upward be, and onward
If we keep abreast of Truth"