The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1903-12-18
[ooNr1NUED FROM FOURTH PAGE. j

vaSter things. | believe that the hand
of God may surely be seen in the pro-
gress of things during the next thirty
years in the opening up to the world,
in the vast thrush of Western knOwl-
ege to the East, in the rapid and per-
petual interchange that goes on be-
tween the East and West, and in the
modification of thought that is creep
ing over the Eastern community. ~
believe that all this is preparing the
way for larger and richer and more
rapid progress in the world eyangeliz
alton than hitherto we have believed.
But in order to the realization of this
larger, richer and more rapid progress,
think two things are distinctly
necessary to be observed and consid-
these two things shall close my
address.
The first one is this: we have
reached the point where. without
danger of being disloyal to our own
faith, we can dare to respect the
religious experience of the non-chris-
tian believers. The time was when
it was thought that man was dis
loyal to Christ if he even admitted
that there was any religious value in
the experience of the Hindus or OF the
Buddhists. But we have advanced to
stronger apprehension of the search
ing of the heart after God which exists
in the East and we can dare to take
this position that the spirit of God
is not local in its workings; that the
spirit of Goa has not confined his
operations to the nations of Europe
and of the far West: that the Spirit
of God is universal, and that these
religions are all approximations toward
God which have come in the fullness
of time under the universal stirring OF
the divine spirit that at once changes
the situation: that instead of going to
the East with the idea that the East
must wipe the slate Of all it's past
thinking and begin over again, we
have come the point where we can
say that Truth is one, and that He
who is the Truth, and who has come
to draw all men unto Himself can
assimilate and use whatever is OF the
Truth in the total religious expert
ence of the race and can coordinate
it in the universal and consummate
revelation of the eternal ages in the
person of the incarnate Son.
Finally, added to this larger appre-
citation of non-ehristian religious
yearning and experience, | believe
that we must dare to place less en-
/ phasis upon the denominational diyis-
ions which obtain in our Western
/ Christian life. | raise no question as
to the rightness of denominational
divisions of Western Christianity; on
the contrary do not feel disposed to
raise that question, and | quite feel
these denominational divisions have
occurred in the Divine providence, and
that they have added many sources of
strength to the growth of Christianity
in the West But this is my point:
we must separate in our thinking and
in our labors in the East, we must
separate between the essence of Chris
tianity, which is universal, and the
Western notifications and adapta-
! tions of Christianity, which are part
4 OF the noble history Of the West with
/ which the East has nothing whatever
! to do do not mean that we must
/ cease our denominational boards, for
4 they are agents of convenience, adding
1 greatly to the efficiency OF work
1 abroad But | mean that as we work
side 10y side in the East we must re-
member that the legitimate and i'm
1 pOrtant questions which to a certain
| extent exist between us in the West
have no bearing upon the East. All
| that we are odo in the East is tomake
| known that universal essence of Chris
tianity which is not Eastern nor West
ern, which came with Christ out of
Palestine and which has been by His
Spirit adapted to the West, whichif it
shall take root i'm the East shall SINH
larly be adapted by His Spirit to the
feeling and temperament of the East
This, | believe, will mark the next
mighty advance in the eyangelization
Of the world. And then when we
shall resolve to do this and go forward
in this spirit charged with the duty OF
disseminating the universal faith
without regard to it's local and West
IL lIDdlhS0GlOllD3 anu WilClI VIC SIldil
do it with due respect for the religious
faith of our Eastern brothers, then
shall come the mighty uprising of the
religious and thoughtful East that for
more than thirty centuries, has been
flooded with incarnations to greet
that unique and supreme incarnation
that towers in solitary and august
splendor as the highest peak of the
Himalayas towers above the cities OF
the river plain.
May the day soon come, that great
day of the uprising of the religious
and thoughtful East to welcome the
true God, God the incarnate, God the
self-sacrificing, God who-as the choir
has told us with tremendous force to-
night so loved the world that he
gave His only begotten Son, that
whatsoever belieyeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.