The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1909-05-20
The Real Purpose Of Missions.
pastoral Nisitor.)


for the two seem to overlap as
never before-that the sending
Of missionaries is really not to
save peoples from being lost.
That sort Of talk is almost vul-
gar now.
Mission work is really Il sort
OF good natured neighbOrliness.
1t is benevolent humanitarian-
ism in which we may all help,
more or less casually less, re
gardless Of our beliefs or lack
Of beliefs. our church member
ship OF attendance. We should
show these heatEens our i'm
proved methods Of living. We
have worked ont better plans
of house keeping and school
ing, Of teaching and lecturing,
and farming and all the rest OF
it. And now we want 10 help
these poor deficient peoples
across the seas.
We think we are a superior,
people in ourselves, as we'll as
in our type of civilization, de-
cjdedly so; and having taken
good care OF ourselves and laid
UP Il good snug sum, we can
easily afford to help these back
ward, far-away neighbors &
bit. 1t is really the thing to
do. Such seems to be the gen
eral drift Of much Of the pres
ent-day talk about foreign mis-
sions. The church and its
members individually, have
grown so rich that we have for
/ gotten that we were ever poor.
The table is SO loaded with
dainties that we are quite will
ing to be generous with the
crumbs, even cake crumbs.
Now, without doubt the send
ing of the missionaries has
vastly improved conditions Of
human life Ill the foreign mis-
sion lands. The missionaries
have been the foTe-runners Of
great improvements. They
have been the pioneers blazing
out the paths along which both
trade and diplomacy have gone
with the newer and better civil
lization Of the West. Civiliza-
ton has developed marvelously
in the western half of the
world: and the missionaries
have been its advance agents
into the stagnant East and the
savage wilds of the southern
hemisphere.
Full, accurate knowledge OF
natures resources and laws.
. and the adaptation of that
knowledge to practical uses.
| have been among the moss
; marked conditions Of the west
ern world during the past cen
fury. And, as a result, educa
ton, medical and hygienic anc
sanitary science, developments
Of the earth's soil, and re.
sources above and below the
: soil, have gone forward by i'm
mense strides. So far as is
known our progress III sucl
matters exceeds all previous
achievements in the history OF
the race.
And some Of all this has beer
9 seeping into the heather world
2 Tt hasn't gotten in far yet; only
into the top soil and about the
: edges, SO far. The progress il
this regard has seemed boil
rapid and slow. When tht
great mass of these peoples
: have not yet gotten even 4;
: Whit of the purer, better civil
e lization air of the western ma
t tlons the progress seems slow
t But when we remember the in
calculably tremendous inertia
: and the strongly stagnant spiri
S of heather lands, it seem
e rapid.
n The effort to get the hea hel
world simply to clean up: l.
n open the windows and let il
e some fresh air, and use p1ail
5, soap and water to scrub off tn
d actual dirt. makes one think o
l. the typical small boys disiik
of being washed up. 1t ha
% been a hard job, yet grea
&c beginning has been made. TIL
IS boy seems to be beginning t.
, find ont that his face is dirty