The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-19
Hundreds of Men Agree to Give Time and Money to
 Great Mission Cause
MEETING IS GREATEST
 IN HISTORY OF CHURCH
ME. Zwemer, Formerly of Arabia, Gives Graphic Account of the Inroads of Mohammedanism - White
 Is Last Speaker.

Subscribing S6O,000 unsolicited as a final wave of enthusiasm, to be used for the equipment of the foreign missionaries, the Eaymens Missionary Movement ad- journed at Il o'clock last night. The last moments were the most inspiring of the whole convention.
 When Secretary J. Campbell White opened the meeting to the laymen for individual expressions of just what each one proposed to do to meet the world S needs, the pent-up enthusiasm, which has been increasing every day, had an op- portunity to run over. First they began briefly to tell what they would do on re- turning home, and then began to say that they wanted to do something right then. Before long a regular stream of contributions began to pour in. There were four contributions of $10,000, one of $500O, about half dozen of 5000, one for $500 and fifteen for $1OO Even after ad- iournment the names continued to come in on slips of paper.
 Praise Service To the Lord.
 During this hour 300 men stood on their feet and promised their sons to the ser
 
 are so called. Twenty-two men stood up and asked to be sent as missionaries to foreign fields. Others promised to go home and begin anew their work for mis- sions The results of the conference be- gan to manifest themselves even before the delegates started away from Bir- mingham.
 The night session was opened With music and prayer, after which s. M. Zwemer, formerly of Arabia, made an elo- quent address on "The Challenge from the Mohammedan World" In brief he said:
 Dangers of Moslenn.
 ''The on-Chrstian religions of the world may be divided into two classes those that are missionary and those that are non-missionary. To the former class belongs Buddhism and Mohammedanism To the latter class Hinduism and the Jewish faith. While some of the religions of the world are dead or dying, the Mo hammedan faith is aggressive and de- liant It comes as a challenge to the church of Christ, and is the greatest mis- sionary problem of the coming generation. We cannot evangalize the world in this generation unless we evangelize the 23O,- COG, GOO Moslems.
 ''The Mohammedan world is first of all a challenge because of it's strength. It extends over three continents and num- bers in Africa alone 5S,000,O0O adherents. Every third person in the dark continent is a Moslem. It is the religion of west ern Asia. All the old Bible lands have become Mohamrnedan. In India there are 6200O,O00 Mohammedans. In China S0.- OOO O00 and under the American flag in the Philippine islands 300,000 This re- ligion is not only strong in numbers. but strong in it's fanatic grasp on much truth, which it holds in comnon with Christian hoS oac a wonderful solidarity and has for 13 centuries been a missionary religion, with a laymen's s missionary movement that carried the Koran across Africa and into the interior of Asia centuries before Livingston and Carey. It Is the only religion that has driven out Christianity from score of countries and usurped it's place in the hearts of thousands
 This religion also challenges us be- cause of it's weakness and degredation. Intellectually, socially, morally and spiritually it is hopeless. In India 96 per cent of the Mohammedans are unable to read and write. Superstition, fanaticism and illiteracy always go together. So- cially the Noslem world bears the blot of Mohammedis life and influence in the hellish trinity of polygamy, concubinage and the degredation of womanhood. The testimony of statement like Lord Cromer, of novelists like Pierre Loti in his Dis enchanted' and of missionaries in every land shows that the condition of Moslem lands is utterly hopeless, and the treat ment of womanhood utterly heartless. A prominent Mohammedan jurist in Cairo, Kasim Ameen, recently spoke of the con dition of Mohammedan women in Egypt and said:
 Family Life DeplorabIe.
 'Man is the absolute master and wom- an the slave. She is the object of his sensual pleasures, a toy, as 1t were, with which he plays whenever and however he pleases. Knowledge is his, ignorance is hers The Armament and the light are his, darkness and the dungeon are hers. His is to command, hers to blindly obey. His is everything that is, and she Is an insignificant part of that everything
 Ask those that are married if they are loved by their wives, and they will an- swer in the affirmative. The truth, how ever, is the reverse. I have personally in vestigated the condition of number of families that are supposed to be living in harmony, peace and love. And I have