The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-08-31
OUR HEATHEN, NATIVE
AND IMPORTED.
Bv Rev. Alfred Taylor.

TO GO on Il mission to the heather. Al
ter the congregation was dismissed. n
numbe of the members waited for
their pastor, and. crowdins around
him., expressed their astonishnlent at
the new turn in his affairs, asking
where he was going, and how long
they would be deprived of his minis
trations. He said to them:
My good friends, don't be alarmed
I'm not going out of town"
Verify, one need not so out of town
either from New York or anywhere
else, if his object is to reach the
heathen. New York, from its character
as metropolis and seaport, gathers a
class of population combining the
greatest variety from every country
on the face of the earth. But In our
inland towns, and even in the small
est villages, there are some heather
equal to any. in quality If not in guam
tity and variety.
A wealthy merchant, who was bored
by the collecting agent of a society
whose object was the conversion OF
very distant h%eathen, got rid OF hin
by saying:
"Well, my mind is made up. I won't
send any money to the FIJI Islands;
but just send me q cannibal or two
here, if YOU choose, and I'll see what
l can do to convert them"
We have now no cause for complaint
because of our inability to aeach spec
linens of the far off heather. The
ocean has become a great ferrywav.
n hundreds of sample heather from
the very end of the earth are daily
ferried over. job Chinafnan sells CT
gars at our street corners. and dill
gently does his duty as a washerman
at Belleville, or a at North
Adams. Scandinavian, Russ, Pole
German are daily dumped down by the
cargo at our ernigrant stations in the
port Of New York.
1t is cheap and easy to hold public
meetings, make speeches and pass res
olutions in favor of evangelizing the
heather of distant nations. The Hon
orable N. A. Bob can easily be per
suaded to lend his influence to the
cause by taking the chair; and a list
of respectable names for vice presi-
dents is obtained without difficulty,
even though not more than half the
gentlemen who bear the names happen
to be present at the meeting, or to give
of their substance to the cause Which
the meeting is intended to refresh. The
Reverend Doctor Spreadfungus and
others thrill the hearts of the audience
with their eloquence concerning the
spiritual necessities of the jewellers in
the far-off land. The house echoes
with applause. the people feel happy
when the meeting is over, and the work
is done; at least all of 1T that Is likely
to be done for awhile.
While it is a common error to sup
pose that the heather are all at a dis
lance from us, it is another common
one, and one equally mischievous, to
suppose that the heather in our midst
are only those who are in very lowly
pecuniary circumstances 1t is easier
to look on the unwashed inhabitant
of a back room on the sixth floor of a
Cherry street tenement house, as a
miserable sinner" than on the
wealthy and ~hard-hearted scoundrel
who r1linc cpOraS or hundreds of his
fe~llow-beings by working up a cor
ner'' in AmalEamated Copper, or some
other stock. The peripatetic distribut-
er of tracts has no hesitation in adj
ministering the comfor conveyed in
his printed pages to poor Mr.. Pigg,
who, with his family and their effects,
is found on the sidewalk, having been
turned out of doors for inability to pay
the rent. But it is Well known that
Mr.. G%ripicuss, Pigg's landlord, who
wears a fur-lined coat and a hat of
dazzling silky luster, and who fares
sumptuously every day, would indig-
nantly repel anybody who might UNI
dertake, with tract or personal dis
simple soul Mr.. and Mrs. Pigg and
the little Piggs are safely spoken of as
unfortunate impenitents," destitute OF
grace as they are of groceries. Gripi-
cuss may be. outwardly, a burning and
a shining light in some sanctuary that
is redolent with the odor of respect
ability, and dim with the religious
light which struggles through ain
window glasses. Blu the heart Of the
grasping Insurer may be as needy in
the matter of Irvine favor n saving
grace, as that of the victim of his
tyrannical cupidity.
: Before we &C into paroxysms of grief
over the spiritual necessities of the
4 trouserless dwellers of Patagonia, lei
US make q strong push for the reli-
1 gious betterment of the ~drunllards, anG
thieves, and gamblers, and other male
: factors who are at our very doors. we
need to carry the gospel to the starry
r ing and the filthy and the d%epraved
who are fully as bad, within reach o
US, as anywhere else on his planet.
f The enlightenment of the viciou.
and the ignorant of our own popula-
ton will do more to make the Chris
tian light from our nation, as that o
"a city set upon a hill" extend to thu
= other nations of the earth.
1t is true that sectarian and demon
national differences present some OBJ
a ~stacles. 1t is true that there ar
a many excellent people who will no
work at all. unless the work can b
n done exactly in their own way, an
t. according to their own directions. Blu
is it is equally true that wretched squalo
burrows under the very foundatio
s. stones of our %churches; that untaugh
ID vice nestles in the shadows of on
= SteepleS, tflat men WHO aTe olU enouS
"a to know better, use the name of Go
re only to add force to their caths, an
that of Christ only to emphasize thei
a pointiess jests.
10 If our theological views are NOR
a correct thar those of other people, lt
US prove their correctness by the hol
- useful life they enable US to lea
ia If our creed is better tnan the creed Z
:" others, let us believe it so earnest
=, and thoroughly as to live it to son
~ ~ coed purpose. If other people are PEI
~ versely and lleretically heterodox, tt
way to convert them to our way
as thinking is not to call them ha,
c' names, to scratch their eyes out,
M otherwise to inconvenience them.
ne; society is in a bad way, let it be OIL
nd business to try to make it better.
,c- the world is dark, let our lights bun
he the more brightly. If it is cold, let
ie- be ours to help keep up the fires
an make it warmer. If poor, tumbl,
we down.. heather humanity. is fiat {
'cr it's face in the mire, be it u joy