The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-02

Major Z. w. Halford Speaks at Wesley
Bicentenary.

Washington Post.
New questions are before us; new prob
lens have arisen. But a little time has
elapsed since the Nation was jostled out OF
its complacency and with startling sudden
ness found its flag unfurled across distant
seas. We could have got along very
well with Cuba and the West Indies and
even with Hawaii. These names had be-
come more or less familiar through years
of debate and more or less of frequent IN
tercourse. 1t had come to be understood
that these islands were quite essential TO
our territorial integrity-to what might DC
called the rectihcation of a scientific from
tier; that they might. indeed, become
sources of revenue I'd the national treas
ury as well as afford fields for commercial
exploitation, thereby increasing the already
plethoric money bags Of business kings
But the Philippines were different propo-
sition. We had no familiarity with IL II
did not promise much in the immaculate
future other than to be "a white mans bur-
den. II fell readily beneath the quip and
sting Of sarcasm and of caricature. Here
and there were chosen few who saw In
what the needless many called contre-
temps, the finger Of the Almighty, the clear
indication of the open door OF great OPP
in the Senate Of the United States Meth
odst bishop and statesman became the
butt of ridicule because he dared TO say
that the presence of the United states IN
the Philippines was in obedience to the
providence of God. II some visionless time
servers could have their way the United
States would have scuttled out OF the
Orient faster than il went in. leaving the
people there forsaken and helpless, ana
abandoning the coign Of vantage whence
the Nation can play a worthy. part in the
great drama, the overture TO which alreaoy
arrests the attention of mankind.
Even now. while the scuttle policy seems
TO have been pretty we'll sidetracked, there
burden and privilege Men who see moth
ing above and beyond the dollar mark, who
are conscious of nothing but themselves
and of their own petty interests. cautious
from the very first, there shall come proht-
able tribute from the little brown people
our family. And even the church, broadly
speaking. has but only half awakened to
the voice of the Almighty as He may be
heard in the thunder of Dewey's guns.
For many months an effort has been
made to arouse the moral and religious
people of America to the necessity OF an
adequate representation OF American
cause there, throughout the whole Orient.
1t was my duty to ask for 100000 for
Young Mems Christian Association build
ing and work in Manila for the care and
housing of our own American young men,
who are in that tropical land by the thou
sands under the fercest moral exposure,
as we'll as for the large and growing num-
Der of splendid Filipino boys and young
men coming, for the first time, into con-
tact with new forces and influences intro
duced by American occupation As yet the
SpOnSive ears; but am hopeful that what
has been generously done by America
for the young men of other lands VIII De
done for the young men OF our own land
that new section of America lying fallow
under the Southern Cross. i should add,
with thankfulness, that within a day or
two indications have reached me that at
tention has at last been arrested to this
matter in influential quarters.
II have been authorized TO ask the Meth
odists, of America for $4,000 for our
perious and instant in its demand, and
as rich in promise of results as is the ex-
uberance of tropical verdure and fruitage-
Only a few days since, when in New York
on these errands, a gentleman high in posi-
tion and influence. whom 1 love and honor
as / do few men, said to me with an III
concealed sheer:
pines
'Well, God help us if that be so. God
is not tired of the Philippines, and that
tired feeling on our part will neither ex-
cuse us nor relieve us. We have had the
Philippines five years; God has had the
Anglo-Saxons for a thousand years. 1t may
be true that many of our people, both In
church and state, are growing tired of the
Philippines. This is not the Wesley spirit.
1t is not the spirit in which. and by which,
problems are solved successfully, burdens
carried heroically and VIGOROUSLY, and
Gods purposes in the world taken forward
to realization. But am persuaded that my
friends remark represented but the froth
of the tide. The great body of American
people are true to their heredity, their con-
science and their ideals. The United States
did not happen. 1t is the preparation of the
| ages. Look into it's genealogy, and see what
| has been poured into its strain. Mark well
| the costliness of the matrix out of which
the new nation was born; count the centu-
ries of discipline through which ii has
| come to its inherited and acquired power.
| 1t will be worthy of it's history; it will meas
ure up to its marvellous opportunities; 1t
will discharge it's God-imported duties rev.
erently, chivalrously. with the patient
| faith, If need be. of Him who reckons each
of His days a thousand years.
I've shall have a revival of the spirit
| from this Wesley bi-centenary. Surely as
Methodists-and all the world Is Methodist
| to-day-we shall catch the Promethean
spark and feel the inspiration of the
| heroic days"