The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-29

/ tianity is petty thing, and the inter-
est of people of small caliber, than the
simple statement of the magnitude of
| foreign missions, project which is
| the most dazzling ambition that ever
entered mortal mind, namely. the sub
| jugation of the whole world to Christ's
reign.
| A mistake is made whenever the
work of missions is separated from its
human side. its relation to individual
| men and women. The missionaries
are folks, like the rest of US; and so
are the people to whom they are sent.
| The personal aspect of missions, in its
| more romantic side, is suggested by
the meeting and marriage of young
| people on the mission field. The Mis-
| sionary Survey of the Southern Pres
| byterian church quotes these appro-
pirate lines in connection with the
marriage of two of its young people in
Seoul, Korea:
1.-TWO shall be born the whole wide world
And these DER unknown seas to unknown
Shall cross; escaping wreck and wind and
storm,
And all unconsciously shape every act
To this one end: that one day
Out of darkness they shall meet
And read life's meaning in each others
And this is Providence"
Two widely-read persons were dis
cussing the recent action of the
Rockefeller Foundation, in agreeing
to supplement and support certain
missionary hospitals and medical
colleges in China, with view to
giving that nation a modern scien-
tifically-trained medical profession.
Isn't it fine remarked the ingenu-
Gus one, that the Foundation has
chosen the missionary institutions,
instead of establishing new ones?' 1T
is replied the sophisticated one,
slowly; but what else could the
Foundation have done, even if it had
men of the right calibre and spirit
be secured? You cannot for money
hire great doctors to live in China. 1t
needs the missionary spirit" The
have been developed in China is be-
cause they have been touched with
the compassionate spirit of the Great
Physician; and in His train have ris-
teachers and makers of the East
have been from the missionary ranks,
for it takes the Christ-motive to en-
able a man to pour out his life that
others may live.
A Christian missionary is a man
with a motive and a message, plant
ing himself amid the life of a COM
munity. No machine can be invent
ed for doing mission work: it takes
life to beget life.
The rapid strides of modern civil
ization in non-Christian lands only
increase the need for mission work.
Unless the spirit of the gospel pre-
cedes the forms of western life, the
latter are likely to be accepted as
sufficient in themselves. And that is
always a calamity. The experience of
certain oriental nations is proof that
the adoption of the ways and wisd ON |
and weapons of the west, without it's
Christian inspirations and ambitions, |
is worse than for that nation to re-
main in it's original benighted bar !
barism. Alert observers perceive that |
the very process of the East is theI
most urgent of reasons for intensity |
ing the missionary attack upon it.
AS to missionary giving, the homeIy |
words attributed to- Mary Lyon are
still the best rule: "Give until you |
feel it, and then give until you don't /
feel it,
One of the con1monest tragedies of +
the missionary calling is the unwill-
ingness of a fiancee to accompany
her betrothed to the mission field. AS I
in faith, so in love, the devotion that
shrinks from any sacrifice or service
is not true love or true faith. Such
sap the life of true affec
ton. .
Missions need money: yet they are
not primarily a financial enterprise. /