The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-12-11
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
5 g SAYS CHURCH is WEAK

enStA nHtu Ht0OQesN6
SAYS CHURCH IS WEAK |!
Stirring t,a! cal! Fdt Vigorous Leader
gssyH ts4oss ship. no bnn buoy
New York tSpeciaD "A letter
from President Roosevelt to John R..
Mott, general secretary of the
Worlds Student Christian Fedora
ltion. expressing sympathy with Mr..
Motifs book, THE Future Leader
ship of the Church" published by
the student department of the Young
Mems Christian Association. was
made public here. In explanation of
the Presidents letter, dated October
II, 1908, Mr.. Mott says:
When the need based on actual
<facts, of more men--the ablest and
most vigorous type Of mentor
Christian leadership was brought to
the attention of President Roosevelt
and his aid was asked in bringing
tnat need before the young men in
our universities ana colleges, he was
greatly impressed, and without hest
~~SAOAt OODoCAICQ. W HSIU.
President Roosevelt writes that 1t
IS matter of grave concern that in
this country there should be a tend
ency in the number of students at
the leading graduate theological
schools to fall off at the very time
that the communicate membership
OF the church is markedly increasing.
The President says he speaks not
only of ministers, but of all who
take part in broad and catholic
spirit in work for the essentials of
Christianity.
Call For Strong Men.
The letter in part says:
Small, narrow, one-sided men, no
matter how earnest, cannot supply
!eaderships for the moral and relig-
ious forces which alone can redeem
nations. They can do good in their
own way; but in addition to them,
ana especially for this particular
WORK, the strongest are needed
men OF marked personality, who, to
tenderness add force and grasp, show
capacity for friendship, and who, to
nne character, unite an intense
moral and spiritual enthusiasm.
particularly do we need such,
forces in nation like ours. which
on the one hand in many places is
only Just emerging from the old pio-
neer conditions, and which, on the
other hand, has developed to a pc
cuilar degree the tense and highly
complex industrialism which is char
acteristic of the present age of the
world. Our territories and our new
states are still plastic; they are still
near enough to the pioneer days to
pc IN the formative period; and it is
transcendant importance that the
highest Christian. ideals shall pre-
{ dominate and determine their civili-
cation.
Field OF Work Is Wide.
But it is at least as important
that this should be true of the older
states. Every great city calls with
insistent longing for leaders able and
WlIlng TO suffer and fight, to show
iortltude and daring, to grapple with
IRON VIII and undaunted front, the
terrible evils that grow up where
men are crowded together, where
lie is led under constant and fe-
verish strain, where great wealth and
biting poverty jostle one another.
The service can be rendered in the
ministry, as l have known it to be
rendered by Protestant clergymen
and Catholic priest, aye, and by Jew
ish rabbi, or it may be rendered by
!aymen, by such mon as Jacob Riis,
by many man and woman I could
name. who, with infinite self-devo-
ton, with love for mankind, but
with wisdom which prevents this
love from becoming hysterical or
sentimental, work steadily for the
uplifting of their Kind.
The field for work is very broad /
and very diversified, and those who
work In it are all too few. Immi-
grants come to QUE shores by the |
million to begin here a new life. |
They have been torn up by the roots |
from their ancient associations. and
such uprooting gives peculiar oppor-
tunities to the powers of evil. Every |
possible effort should be made. for |
their sake and ours, too, to supply
new ties of morality, of religion, of /
honorable obligation as between man
and man, to replace the old ties they I
have sundered. In the country dis I
tr1cts, too. there sis q peculiar need I
for the church to serve as a reviyify-
Ing and social influence, and to do
its part in giving broader oppor-
tunities for interest and usefulness
In country life. and to do this will
put stop to the unhealthy drift |
toward the cities.''