The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-24
barrassing debt. By averaging, 1t makes
the good years carry the bad.

1.-THE churches are absolutely dependent
upon evangelization for their contin-
uance." says the New York Examiner
(Bapt.) 'If there are no new Christian
lives begun there will soon be no Chris
tians living in the world. One hundred
years without evangelization would see
an end of Christian churches. AS sure
as a mans life must be renewed day by
day by consumed and assimilated food, so
surely must the churches be renewed by
new material transformed and appropri-
ated in their membership.
xii practical carrying out of the Great
Commission, all spread OF the gospel, all
missionary conquests, demand the evan
| gelization of the people. The largest
need of REVEALS grows out of this need
of evangelzation of the people. 1t is only
an active and powerful church which
evsngelizes the people about II. The
weakness of the churches Is the urgent
reason for special evangelists who come
to 60 the work that needs to be done;
but which the church is not doing. The
ideal condition, however, is not a great
evangelist and great ingathering, but
an evangelistic pastor, an evangelistic
| church, and a constant and blessed in
| gathering"
|
asking what is the matter with their lit
crary market? Sales of books are falling
| off, and their periodicals are losing in cir
| culation Complaint is made against pas
tors, that they permit in Methodist Sun
| day-school libraries books not published
by Methodists and that they no longer
take the trouble to recommend members
of their churches to take and read Meth
odist periodicals. The Methodist theory
is that the scattering of the printed page
| is as much evangelical labor as the
preaching and teaching OF ministers and
pastors.
Its theory is, also, that profits from the
sales of such printed matter shall go
annually to the maintenance of broken
down clergymen. Hence the decline in re-
ceipts from printed matter, which is
more marked in the New York concern
than in the Cincinnati one, means fall
ing off in one important method of Chris
tian work and a threatening hardship to
big force of aged servants of Method
ism. The decline is not sudden, and it
has been going on during the last three
| years.
Sunday-school helps are said to main
tain their sales. The book agents have
met the charge that they are in a rut by
'pointing out what they claim is a change
| i'm Methodist tastes; a change which
amounts to a charge that Methodists do
not. as they once did, desire Christian
reading matter.
Rev. DR.. Judson Smith of the American
board thus sums up in the North Amer
lean Review, the results of the past CEN
tury's work in the field of foreign mis-
sions:
For the few scores of missionaries at
work in 1900, at the close of the century
we have 1S607, with an army of 73.6l5 ma
tive helpers by their side, distributed in
over 5000 central stations through all the
unevangeiized peoples of the earth. In
this single fact we have the promise OF
final victory. In these fields are 1888
| organized churches, with a membership
of l.2S9, $50 souls, increasing at the rate
| of 1886 each year. The annual income
of the major societies has reached the
noble sum of $17,161.0 92, and the yearly
| gifts from native Christians aggregate ST.
! S33, 9Sl. The educational work presents
| like noble proportions. There are 80 col
| leges on mission fields, with 35.4l4 stud
ents, of whom 2.275 are women; of theolog-
ical and training schools 1856 are reported,
| with II 965 students. Boarding and high
| schools number S57 and S3.l4S pupils: in
dustrial and medical classes count 1877,
| and enroll 699S pupils; while in common
or day schools the pupils reach the num-
! Der OF 90lA The grand total of those
| under instruction is l,0i6309, one-thrd of
them girls The Bible, entire or in por-
tons, has been Translated into 42i differ
| ent languages or dialects; a work of in
caIculable labor and value, OF itself alone
| sufficient to challenge Tor this great en-
terprlse the profound respect OF the civil
| lied world Add to this the products
| Of mission presses-364 800, 500 pages OF
! Christian literature annually and 297. i35
copies OF periodical literature-and the
Significance OF this fact becomes majestic
IN proportions and influence. Besides all
! this, bear IN mind the 1855 hospitals ana
1853 dispensarioe, with 2.579,65O patients
| treated every year, 10 every one OF whom
the gospel is preached, many hearing II
! for tho first time; and the foreign mis-
Hionary enterprise that includes all these
varied agencies assumes the dimensions
ana character Of the greatest single force
for the uplifting ana regeneration % the
world which we know " VI which we
4 can conceive