The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-03-12

TIC UGCduSe LuGy udu
ing to eat would never have closed his
ears to the cry Of a famine stricken
nation. If we would be like him, we,
too, should feed the hungry and succoA
the homeless, che widow and the o.
phan. How better can we make known
the grandeur and beauty of the Chris
elan faith than by proving to other ma
tons its benelicent Influence? As the
hand of Christian America is stretches
| out across the seas, bearing bread for
the starving, they see Christ living
again in US and bless his dear name
Having accepted from us the bread
that periSlrS, they will listen rs we
tell them OF the Bread that came down
from heaven, Of which il a man eNe h"
shall live forever. Were. the WccOn-
ing doors Of heather India ever more
widely opened for the gospel message
than when the shiDloads of American
breadstutTS were tlOatel across the ~
| lantic, through the Mediterranean.
down the Red sea and over the Indian
! ocean until they were safely landed III
| the harbOr of Bombay during the awful
! Indian famincs of 1891 and 1902 |
have seen it estimated that hundreds
of thousands Of starving and dying ma
tives were physically saved through
American generosity during those two
! years. But no one save the recording
! angel of heaven VIII ever b.. able to
keep track Of the multituGvS IF imnOr-
| tai souls who will ultimately be
brought to the feet of Christ through
the contributions and the prayers of
those who tried to some eEt,11t to allAy
the horrors OF that awful famine
plague.
When did Russia ever hear sWReter
gospel message than that played uy the
waves tapping the ships proWs which
carried American food to her peasants
during the famine plague Of 1892? All.
those were not idle words which Christ
| uttered when he said unto those on his
right hand Come, ye blessed Of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation Of th,
world, for was an hungered, and We
gave me meat" It does seem that in
a national as we'll as III an individual
sense 10 Christian country can truly
present the gospel to foreign lands if
at the same time it is not ready to help
those foreign nations when they are
afflicted with famine and plague. We
say famine" and plague in the same
breath, because starvation and disease
are two horrors which always devas-
tate the land at the same time, Where
famine goes, there plague follows close
behind. And, while we are thus con
sidering the philanthropic aspect our
national duty to other lands sometimes
assumes, | want to make an especial
plea for famine stricken Finland. l
make it the more earnestly because
many Of her sons and daughters have u,
migrated to our shores, and therefore
for that reason Finland has a special
claim upon us. They are of the same
household of faith with ourselves:
therefore it is doubly our duty to aid
them. I make this plea the more ear
nestly because if food is not sent
quickly thousands of those poor peas
ants will soon be beyond human aid.
Brothers and sisters will be Dead chill
dren will be dead; fathers and mothers
will be dead; whole communities will
be exterminated by famine and the
plague.
The Cry Of Finland.
Though the religious and daily news
papers have been for weeks filled with
the accounts of Finland's sufferings.
the horrors and agonies which those
simple people of the north are going
through will probably never be fully
told. But as / try to describe it to you
in part no words of mine can so touch
ingly present the condition Of that af-
f1icted land as does the simple state
ment which Inspector Engberg, who
knows that country we'll. gave to q
representative of the American press:
Il have seen much of the suffering" he
says. at has been awfully black and
is so still, take my word for that. |
have become through custom almost
hardened to seeing women and children
crying for food, that was common as
recently as New Years day. When I
hear people talk about conditions be-
ing exaggerated, I think of how I have
seen human beings eating bran, of how
an old woman, the wife of a formerly
prosperous farmer is in the habit Of
coming to my stable and begging per-
mission to scrape the leavings in the
bin of my horse for sustenance for her
three cows. of how every mother in
this community is delighted to get meat
bones that have been discarded by
more prosperous householders and boil
them and reboil them until they float
in the hope of extracting particles Of
nourishment. You will be right in say
ing that we have STAYED off starvation
till now, hut God help US if relief
should now fail u.s." Oh, my brother
and sister, could any plea for food be
more pathetic, more urgent. than that?
Human beings compelled to eat bran
that food which today you would re
fuse to give to your dog. Eating bran
and chopped rye straw and the bark of
tvaas rna,alv no oyvf,1I