The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1910-02-10

let me give fact or two that ought
to set people to thinking. OF course,
much Of this work is necessarily
proselyting-not missiOnizing at all.
Is it any wonder the church loses in
fiuence when it is guilty of such
folly? Proof: The General Mission
airy Committee of the Methodist
Church, held in Albany, New York,
last fall, considered the financial side
of the foreign missionary cause, and
decided on retrenchments in voting
appropriations for the different mis-
sion field. The Mission Board was in
debt, and retrenchment was the way
out. The amount of $163 ,446 was
appropriated for missions in Europe,
about $4,000 of this going to Ger
many and nearly $4,000 to Scandi-
navia. Now, Europe has had the
Bible since the Middle Ages-in the
vernacular, and since the Reforma-
ton has been a powerful factor in
civilization. Why, then, this $685.
900 for the conversion" of Luther
ans, when there are millions who
know not the name of Jesus in the
Far East? Why did not this mission
airy committee of the Methodist
church retrench, cut out, the usual
appropriation for the conversion of
the followers of Luther and Zwingli
and put that amount in India, or
China, or Africa? Bishop Cranston
said: eve must save the world and
the Church from the blight of Ger
man rationalism by convincing the
Germans of the absolute need of
real and true regeneration. Let the
Bishop simply substitute American"
for German" in his own words above
and he will find more than his hands
full right here at home. Are we to
believe that the Bishop believes the
Germans have never been converted
before Methodist missions were es-
tablished in Europe? From history
he knows that Germany is the home
of the. purest religious motives and
truest piety the world has ever seen.
But the key to the situation is bet
ter given by Bishop Burt, who said:
''All your work in the rest of the
foreign field depends upon the sue
cess of your work in Europe. Talk
of the work in Africa! We must get
control of the nations that govern
Africa. We must Christianize Eu-
rope!" If this isn't fanaticism, what
substitution of another name in place
of Europe" in the quotation from
the Bishop. Why did he not say,
eve must Christianize American"
For, as America goes, so goes the
world, SO far as genuine civilization
goes. If America becomes the prey
of materialism and "rationalism'' and
our boosted "free" institutions are
swallowed up by the irreligious spirit
of the times, then where will the
world look for another land of lib
erty-in vain?
/ get these bits of information from
an article in the (Philadelphia)
Lutheran of November rs, 1909, con-
tributed by Rev. H. D. Spaeth, of AL
bany, N. Y, who attended the above
mentioned Missionary Conference.
But I have one more thing to speak
of.
Is it not strange that many of our
clergy in advocating the cause of
Foreign Missions see the social and
Ecaste" evils i'm heather land, and
can picture them in such lurid colors
as to arouse pity in any sympathetic
heart; but so little is said in our
churches about the glaring evils of
our land-as though they had to be
and the most the Church seems to
be doing to root out these evils is a
half~hearted condemnation, and the