The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-03-15

know only too well that since 1920 the
commercial dependency of America upon
commercial Europe has nightly changed
But we are still dependent upon Europe
in many ways. Finsen, the Norwegian,
reaches across the seas to lessen the
horrors of smallpox, Charles II. Sturgeon
and Joseph Parker sent their messages
of the Christ love, Queen Victoria gave
US the example of how a royal queen
could be a domestic queen, and the ships
which ply the Atlantic stin return with
as heavy eargoes as when they left cur
shores.
How, then, is America to cancel the
national debt in a moral and spiritual
sense which she owes to the modern
Greeks and to the barbarians? Well"
answers some one, = suppose the best
way to repay the debt we owe to for
eign lands is to make our goods better
and cheaper than they can make them
and then go forward and capture their
markets for our home industries" All,
nv brother, / am not here to fritter
away my time answering these selfish
propositions prompted by mere CONNER
cialism; | am here today to tell you
how, in the language and the spirit Of
the apostle Paul. we are to cancel the
national debt we owe to foreign lands;
l am here today to tell you how best
we can pay the debt as individuals as
well as a nation. We can repay our ma
tional debt first by conveying to for
eign lands the sweet message of the Cal
vary cross. When many years ago five
humble, eonsecrated students met behind
a haystaek in old Williamstown, where
| used to go to college. and founded the
first American foreign missionary So
ciety one of the greatest purposes of
Americas future life was given practical
form. Those five young men planned an
evangelistic work which had the same
worldwide scope that Pauls mission had
for the Christian religion If the religion
of Jesus Christ is the benefcent thing
that we profess to believe 1t. are we
justified In keeping the knowledge of 1t
to ourselves2 Are we not bound as debtors
to the whole world to repay our obli-
cations by making it known far and
wide?
The medical profession sets us an ex-
ample in its performance of this duty
No sooner does a physician discover a
means of alternating physical suffering
than he places it at the disposal of his
professional brethren the world over.
When Edward Jenner demonstrated the
marvellous immunity of a human being
who was vaccinated with cowpox, did
he keep his discovery from the world?
Did he refuse to advocate 1t lest he
might be prosecuted by such medical
authorities as DR.. Ingenhousz and Dr.
Pearson? Oh, mol AS an intelligent man
he deplored the awful destruction made
by this terrible soourge of smallpox. He
knew that whole countries had been al
most depopulated by the pest. Mexico was
not conquered so much by Cortes as it
was made helpless by the invasion of
this king of horrible plaques called small
pox. When the pilgrim fathers landed
upon the Massachusetts shores, they
year before had been inhabiting that
country had been entirely obliterated,
with the exception of one man, by the
fatal ravages of smallpox. So, in the
face of dersion and persecution, Jenner
proclaimed the gospel of vaccination.
Though he might, and to a great ex-
tent did, destroy his private practice
he kept crying to suffering humanity;
Here is a remedy for this dreadful and
malignant disease. Take IL and live! Take
it and liver
When James Y. Simpson perfected his
Investigations in ehloroform, did he keep
them to himself? Did he patent them and
say, You come to me or suffer and die?"
No. He freely gave the anaesthetic to the
world. And today thousands upon thous-
ands of men and women who have been
compelled to lie upon an operating table
have risen up to call him blessed. Is the
German physician, Robert Koch, work
ing in his laboratory for personal gain?
Oh, no. He is trying, purely on phlan-
thropic grounds. to cure consumption.
which causes at least one-fourth of the
total annual mortality among the human
race. If he ever perfects a germicide for
the tuberculosis bacilli he will at once
tell all he knows. He is struggling and
working and analyzing purely to save a
dying race.
What a lesson do these illustrious bene-
factors Of the human race teach u.s. How
they study and investigate and labor to
alleviate suffering and increase the
longevity of mankind And when any of
them discovers a remedy for disease or
a means of removing deformity how
eagerly he makes the discovery known
that all the world may share in the bene-
fit! In our hands we have a revelation
of infinitely greater value. Their discov-
cries can at the best prolong life only
a few years, while the gospel of Jesus
Christ is the gospel Of eternal life and
the remedy for the universal malady Of
sin. Yet there are among us men calling
themselves Christians who make no ef-
fort to publish the knowledge of that
remedy. They say: IF the Chinese are
not willing to receive our gospel mission
aries. then let those missionaries stay
at home. Let the Chinese hordes groVel
en- life become choked with moral vermn,
1t is their own lookout. net ours" / tell
you today that Christian Americas for
eign obligations can never be Cancelled
until Jesus Christ Is preached to all peo-
pie. Where we have now one missionary
in the dark continents we should send a
thousand where we have one gospel mes
senger now for a hundred thousand peo-
pie we should have SO great a number
that every foreign town and village, as
well as every city should be persuaded
to receive the open Bible and to study
the word Ct God. Christian America will
not be free from responsibility until the
gospel of the Lord Jesus is preached
unto all peoples. If those peoples receive
it not, then they, not we, must bear
the responsibility.
The nations of the world have also
other claims upon us as a Christian peo-
pie that must not be ignored. If we have