The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-28
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Coming Triumph or the cross; AoW
May We Hasten TIP lisa. IL: lilo.
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
A new phrase has lately been coined,
Americas international religious obli-
cations This is being used among
audiences of men to take the place of
the hackneyed foreign missions The
meaning is the same. 1t Is that pos
session entails noblesse
oblige." They who have are in debt
to those who have not. The west has
a duty to perform to the east Since
a Christian civilization Is the best pos
session of the Occident. that same
Christian civilization Is owing to the
Orient. The world cannot any more be
divided I'D into unrelated portions, ev-
cry part Is intimately bound UP with
the whole; and the day Of hermit ma
tions has passed
To say that any land or individual
has no religion to spare" Is to say that
that land or individual has not enough
religion TO merit the name Christian
The basic idea of the Christian faith is
one Of sharing; the religion that is not
propagatins Is perishing. Foreign mis-
sions viii not only save the world; they
will save the churches as we'll
If a single heather can be made over
into Christian character by the Cos
pei, then Christianity Is proved to be
adaptable to other than white races.
Admitting the worst that can be charg-
ed concerning the mixed motives OF
some native converts, IT cannot De de-
MED by anybody possessing spark or
-mindedness that there are thous-
ands of genuine, intelligent, goodly and
self-sacrif1cing disciples that have been
won from heathenism to Christianity.
Foreign missions have demonstrated
beyond all cavil their ability to get re-
suits.
The failure of foreign missions would
mean the inadequacy of Jesus Christ
and the fallibility of all the inspired
prophets of God.
Again the churches are hearing with
renewed emphasis the battle-cry, The
evangelization of the world in this gen.
Grafton" One danger into which some
may be led by this slogan is miscon-
ception of the nature of evangelization-
There is a certain class of people whose
idea of evangelization is entirely too
shallow and superficial. These would
count one proclamation of the Gospel
story even in the most stammering
tongue, as sufficient to fulfill the Scrip
tural conception The same judgment
of Christendom revolts against such
theory. Every man in the world must
have heard, or have had opportunity to
hear a clear, Ineligible, and repeated
presentation of the Gospel before he
may be said to have been evangelical
Frequently missionaries say, We are
after our converts children and grand
children" They scarcely expect the
whole burden of heathendom to be
lifted in the first generation from those
who are heirs to hundreds of years of
ignorance and superstition. The Gospel
is leaven: 1t must have time to work,
to permeate society. The Gospel is
seed; it must have time to bear its fulI
fruit. Mission work needs patience and
long views, both on the part of the
workers in the field and the supporters
at home.
A frank study of non-Christian re-
ligions in their practical outworkings,
such as / have been permitted recently
to make in the Orient, must convince
a candid observer that the only hope
lies in an acceptance of the teachings
of Christianity. All the deep and fun
danental needs of the east run down
to moral and spiritual conditions for
which no remedy is in sight except the
Gospel which has transformed Europe
and America, the Gospel of the Naza-
rene
1t is often argued that the great
ethnfc religions of the east have
equal position with Christianity. The
latter is merely racial creed best
suited to the white man. Like other
well-sounding arguments. this one
will not stand little thought. If
Christianity is racial. then it Is Orien-
tai. for it sprang to life and power in
the east That Christianity is
adapted to Asiatic people is made
plain by the single fact that Korea
has accepted IL with an aptitude and
sympathy and enthusiasm which far
outrun anything known in the his
tory of the evangelization of the
west. Korea Is the unanswerable argu-
ment against the racial conception of
Christianity.
Everybody is bound to help any
body he can. and in the best ways.
Now the non-Christian world admit
teddy has grave needs. For these needs
all altruists are bound to seek a
remedy. Where can a sufficient
remedy be found outside of the teach
ings OF Jesus? The answer is history.
Whenever a victory is won for
Righteousness, whether 1t be in an in !
dividual heart in the state, or in the
the ultimate triumph of Jesus is has
tened. Whatever promotes truth any
where is a piece with that enterprise |
known as foreign missions.
The ideals of Jesus are the social |
salvation of the race. Progressively |
they are being erected among men. |
The peace tribunal at The Hague is
the beginning Of one of them. The |
inevitable abolition of the Congo
outrages L. another. The Punishment |
OF opium from China is another All |
the reforms in Industrial legislation |
are others. Step by step, the more |
rapidly as the years pass, men are |
ceasing to be content with social con-
ditions that are lower than the stand
ards of Christ.
Thus His day is marching on"
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
Where freedom makes her home |
there is the center of power-Maurice |
Thompson.