Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-17
PRAISE FOR MEETING
Edinburgh Missionary Confer
ence Was Impressive.
DEBATES WERE VIGOROUS
Daily Telegraph Lauds Work Of
Gathering Attended by Delegates
From All Over World.
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

Foreign Correspondence OF The Star
LONDON. July 2. 1910
An enthusiastic American witness de-
clared the Worlds Missionary Conf,i-
ence at Edinburgh to be the M st re-
markable assembly OF Gods people that
ever met Commenting on this, the
Daily Telegraph says:
vigorous as Is this eulogy il Is not
unfntelligtble to any enc coming into
personal contact with a gathering which
made profound impression upon all who
took part in it. From every point of view
1t was a mighty and inspiring assembly.
The debates at Edinburgh lasted ten
days. They reached high level Of good
speaking, and were particularly marked
by multitude of short addresses, breath
ing sincere eloQuence and full of knoul-
edge of all regions of the earth In
one respect no such demonstrated as
this muster of pacific crusaders, for 1t
was nothing less, has been known
There were some twelve hundred dele
gates, representing almost every shade
OF Christian belief-except Roman and
Greek Catholicism-on both sides. Of the
Atlantic. and devoted missionary effort
in all the unconverted portions OF the
world. Never had the delegates OF more
churches and societies been so brigaded
together. and never more fraternally.
lHc aTcUDlSllOp OF canterbury sped Ine
work, and with the primate were asso-
ciated the leaders Of the -conformist
bodies.
Equal to Its Name.
I'm word, the Worlds Missionary
Conference was equal to its resounding
name. and to the vast work it was in
tended to forward. The thoughts Of many
of its members, however, must have been
engaged again and again, almost I'm their
own DESPITE, with a new sense Of the
situation at home. For the best thing
about the conference was the unity it
reflected, and il was impossible not e.
think how wonderful might have been
the effect IL that spirit OF unity could
have been carried into the whole sphere
of missionary activity.
1.-The doctrinal division between the
Christian churches has always been. and
still is. the great obstacle to the fuldll-
ment of their hope of teaching all ma
tions. This is the main reason which
has, for instance, prevented Christianity
from making any impression upon the
Moslem world. The favC rite practice or
modern schoolmen like the Chinese
mandarins, often satirical critics and
dexterous dialecticians, even when her
wise incompetent and corrupt. is to set
the principles of one sect OF Christians
against those OF another.
Great Spectacle of Unity.
1.-THE most stubborn hindrance to the
dissemination of the truth is the extent
Of disagreement as to what il means. To
certain extent the efforts of various
Christian churches in the same mission
airy field supplement each other, but to
large extent they compete. This Is
what gave a splendid power to the great
srectacle Of unity witne ssed at Ed n
burgh and it is not easy to measure the
coed that might be accomplished If some
similar congress in the future were to
merge all the missionary efforts ii repre-
sented into a common organization. with
single confession OF faith.
mo man can tell what the future may
bring forth. Perhaps everything Will de-
pend upon training up a large number or
native missionaries. A new awakening
is stirring through all the non-Chrlstian
lands from the Pacific shores of the lar
east to the heights OF Morcccc, rising OPP
pcsite Gibraltar When every other FORM
OF western thought and influence i more
rapidly assimilated than ever before IL
would require a very hardy as wei as
a very pessimistic thinker TO prophesy
that christianity in the end VIII not reap
richly of the harvest.