The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-03-07

are being held in seventy of the largest
American cities.
''Of the New York convention held in
January, the Interior says: Everybody
comedies that the dinner at the Astoria
was the most spirited occasion of a ban
quet sort which the city has seen in this
generation. And the mems meeting at
the Hippodrome is deliberately Judged to
have brought together a bigger count and
weight of influential citizens than ever
met in one place on Manhattan island be-
fore Silmiiar statements have been ven
tured concerning the meetings at Wash
lngton, Harrisburg, Buffalo and Cleve-
land.
Men Get Together.
Now the surprise of these meetings
has not been that men could be got to-
gether, but that such men could be got
together, as Christians, and to hear about
missions, the one side of Christian work
in which men are not supposed to be in
terested! Yet the leaders of this CAM
pa1gn have not compromised. % The
movement has been under the entire con-
troll of Christian laymen; it has been a
movement of the laymen in the churches.
% Moreover, ii has not been mere so
cial, philanthropic or moral reform move
ment, but it has been a definite and dis
tinctive religious purpose. CD Not only
has 1t been religious, but II has been
positively ana aggressively Christian. Its
motto might be that we have chosen, Let
men say to all the nations, the Lord Is
IL
The pure gospel and the book that has
made us what we are
There are some great truths which stand
out as we think of our motto and this
movement.
First: No nation or people can climb
the upward was without religion. Even
Carlyle was forced to say, A mans re-
1igiOn is the most important factor about
him Even the Japanese feel this. A
Japanese paper says: The country feels
keenly the necessity of morality and re-
hgion'. Japan's case is that of a Chris
tan civilization without Christianity.
She is aiming at definite form of or
ganization without the life that organized
it. Two recent cablegramS from China
say: God has melted China. Who VIII
mould it anew?' Changing China needs
your unchanging Christ
Second: The religions of the orient
are losing their grip As one says of In
dia: In her own religions there is no
hope for India, and her best minds have
renowned Them OF course. the old re-
ligiOns die hard. Idolatry died hard in
the Roman empire. But, as Professor
Cairns has said, Though Christianity had
to complete its work slowly, II did IT,
and did it alone. Aud thus there was
ended a revolution greater than If the
idolatries of India, China and Japan were
one and all to fall
Third: Civilization is sure to win in
the world. And, as Mr.. Lecky has said:
There is but one example of religion
which is not necessarily subverted by civ
ilization, and that example is Christian
ity.' The conquest was hindered rather
than helped by the compromise of Con-
stantine. Individuals, not nations, must
be converted.
Fourth: Civilization Will not carry the
burden or stand the test without Christi
anity James Bryce is perhaps the great
est of living statesmen. After his return
from India, he said that his journey to
India had at least convinced him of this;
That unless England could succeed in
Outstanding its Indian subjects, that
empire could not last; that nothing else
whatever could hold it together. The
root of everybody's life-it must, after
all. be his religious ideas. There is no
other way of benefiting mankind at all.
All else is simply from the outside, and
has no basis of purpose. To quote from
another layman, this time from Captain
Mahan. the most statesmanlike and pop
uar of modern naval authorities: The
civilization of modern Europe has grown
up under the shadow of the cross, and
everything that is best in 1t still breathes
the spirit of the crucified.' And, says he,
there is peril in bringing together the
east and the west on the basis of COM
mon material advantages without this cor
responderce in spiritual ideas Then he
adds that If this correspondence in spirit
ual ideas is to be obtained, it must not be
by a process of growth, but by B process
of conversion"