The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-24

largely que 10 mis- spirit ana actlVl-
Ties. A modest, practical and Spir-
1tuaI man. he is a notable expression
or the present-day type of home mis-
sion leader.
Why praise the dead when the liv-
ing are equally worthy? There is no
need to consider home missions in
| terms of the forest-ranging preacher.
going from camp to settlement, from
homestead to travelling pioneers, with
the message of the Bible. That type
| of missionary is almost extinct now.
| The west and the east have met, and
the frontier is almost no more. Let
US look first at the newer type of mis-
s1onary, the man who grapples with
| the abnormal situations created by
our modern city life, who dares to
meet the unprecedented conditions
among our immigrants, who attempts
| to bridge the gulf between labor and
capital; who is not daunted by the
difficulties of the problem of pene-
tratlng our complex social and indus
| trial life with the yeast of gospel.
Such a man is Rev. Charles Stelzle of
| New York, who, more than any other
man, has tinged this whole Men and
religion movement with his message
and personality. Frankly flying the
home mission flag, he has led the at
tempt to close the breach between
employer and employed; he has revi-
talized work for the immigrant; he
| has successfully experimental with
the problem of the abandoned down
town church He has led in the sur
Ney idea now to the fore in modern
church work Withal, he is yet d
conn arativelY young man; and, if he
does not keep up his present pace of
overwork, likely to see many more
years of great service for the king
dom of God on earth.
That man is a powerful patriot who
makes religion more vital in the life
OF the people.
The entire Characterization of North
America is the most far reaching sin
gle enterprise that today confronts
| the churches of the whole world.
A singular appeal to the sympathies
of all Christian people of discernme nt
| IS made by the small army of men
and women who may be classified as
city mission workers. Some are parish
visitors and some are pastors or repre-
SentativeS of charitable societies.
They spend their days in a different
round of visitation where life is gray
and bleak and hard, albeit ever tinged
with romance to the seeing eye. The
cold and heat of the city street; the
dreary tale Of drink and poverty and
crime and suffering, are their daily
need. Yet they hold aloft the flag
of Christ where it is sorely needed
and where it means most. 1t certainly
seems as if the "Inasmuch" of Jesus
is especially merited by these friends
] OF the least OIL LnSS6.
| Social service is fast becoming a
science; and an increasing company of
noble young men and women are find
These may not be overlooked in any
appreciation of the home mission
workers.
A false note too often sounded in
/ the foreign mission propaganda is that
| Of the personal hardships of the mis-
| sionary. Most foreign missionaries
| resent this, and say that it puts their
work in a false light. 1t IS not fair 10
them For the fact is that in point Of
| personal comforts and convenience the
! average foreign missionary is probably
better off than the average home mis-
sionary. The privations which these
| latter endure are the greater because
they are measured against the stand
| ard of other men of no better education
or ability in the same land. Such books
as Ralph Connor's SKY Pilot" Black
Rock" and 1.-THE Doctor give the
| world an appreciation of the work and
worth of these men.
Recently there has been floating
| through the press an item concerning
| the prosperity brought to the natives Of
| Alaska by the herds of reindeer in
stalled by the United States govern
ment Be it remembered in connection
with every such paragraph, that it was
/ the QOuS4CX SLdI0Snan-n1lSS1O4a
| Sheldon Jackson, who conceived this
plan and planted this new industry.
When Canada, fifty or a hundred
years hence, records the story of the
makers of the nation, the names of
many of the splendid young ministers
who have given their lives to the
| Northwest, will be written fair.
Higgins the sky-pilot Of the lum-
rjacks''-just to mention the name is
to call up a notable type of home mis-
sionary.
Of course we are not forgetting John
Elliott or David Brainerd or Marcus
Whitman or William Duncan or La
Sale or Marquette or the others Of that
shining roll. Their names are safe and
hfgh-becons all.
To be alive only to appetite, pleas
ure, pride money making, and not to
goodness and kindness, purity and love-
God and eternal hopes, is to be all but
death-Maltbie d. Babcock.
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
IT'S always morning somewhere. and
The awakening continents. from shore
to shore.
Somewhere the birds are singing ever
neutrality-suspicious.
X y
There is no life so humble that f
it be true and genuinely human and
obedient to God, it may not hope to
shed some of His light.-Phillips
Brooks
without thought, grave. deliberate,
umzmumm--n-uuz