The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-03-24

A man must live.
There are times when a man must die.
Imagine for a. battle-cry
From soldiers with sword to hold
From soldiers with a flag. unrolled-
This towards whine, this liars life,
man must live!"
Patriotism Plus Piety.
Terse Comments on the Uniform
Prayer Meeting Topic of the Young
Peoples Societies - Christian En-
deavor, ETC., for March 26: Great
Home Missionaries. Luke 10:1-2o.
The man who is worse than a
heather, according to the Apostle
Paul. is he who fails to provide for
his own. That applies to religious af-
fairs as well as to material things. The
divine Injunction to the Apostles was
that they should begin at Jerusalem.
Home comes first. The person whose
interest in China, is so great that he
neglects Christian work in his own
neighborhoOd is not to be called a
missionary enthusiasts: he is merely an
Unbalanced fanatic. In this day of
increasing missionary interest we may
not lose sight of our primary respon-
sibility to the opportunity which is
nearest Work abroad should be pre-
coded and accompanied by work at
home. Usually, fairness compels me
to add, it is the person whose sense
| of responsibility for the uttermost
parts is keenest who is most indefati-
gable in labors for his Immediate
neighborhood. Among the heroes of
missions must ever shine the names of
| the men who helped give and save
this homeland to a Christian civiliza-
ton.
There are no geographical lines in
] Gods thought of missions. He $50
loved the world"
! There is no need to consider home
missions in terms of the forest ranging
preacher, going from camp to settle
ment, from homestead to travelling
| pioneers, with the message of the
Bible. That type of missionary is al
most extinct now. The west and the
east have met, and the frontier is al
most no more. Let US look first at the
newer type of missionary, the man
who grappIes with the abnormal situa-
tons created by our city life, who
dares to meet the unprecedented con-
ditionS among our immigrants, who
attempts to bridge the gulf between
labor and capital; who is not daunted
by the difficulties of the problem of
penetrating our complex social and in
dustrial life with the yeast of the
! gospel. Such a man is the 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 attempt to close the breach
| between employer and Employed; he
has revitalized work for the immi
grant; he has successfully experiment.
! ed with the problem of the abandoned
downtown church. Withal, he is yet
a comparatively 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.
The man who invests his life in
helping to fix and ennoble the ideals
of community in its formative period
has achieved the mission of a patriot
The modern pastor of a downtown
city church is nowadays as truly a
home missionary as is the circuit
riding frontiersman.
They are greatest who most serve.
Frances Willard poured out her life
in self-forgetting ministry; and in its
| century and a quarter of history the
American republic has produced no
greater woman than she. Frances
| Willard believed profoundly in the
| wisdom of attaching her life to an
unpopular and altruistic propaganda.
She identified herself heartily with the
temperance crusade; for it she lived
and in it she exercised every last
ounce of her power The advice of
Frances Willard, often reiterated, is
still good advice for the young people
most deserving of the unpopular
causes of the day and to throw ones
self into it with complete abandon.
John Eliot thought he. was merely
doing the extension work of his RoX-
bury parish when he began to work
for the aborigines, but, 10, he was
writing his name large upon the roll
of Americas history-makers and
scholars.
Father Dyer" 1.-The snowshoe itin-
Grant was one of that innumerable
company of Methodist preachers
who have braved the wilderness for
the Gospels sake. He has given his
name to the early annals of Wiscon-
sin. Minnesota and Colorado.
Whoever helps to the solving of
any of the big problems which con-
front this new land in this new coun-
try is to be ranked among the mis-
sionary pioneers
The district nurse, as she goes
among the homes of the city's poor,
teaching the gospel of sanitation, by
giene and cheer, is modern mission
airy pioneer.
Every family in a new and church
less neighborhood which stands con-
sistently for religion may be enrolled
among the home mission forces.
Higgins the sky-pilot of the
lumberjacks to mention the
name is to call up a notable type of
| home missionary.
OF course we are not forgetting
Davis Brainard or Marcus Whitman
or William Duncan or LaSalle or Mar
quette or the others of that shining
roll. The names of home missionary
heroes are legion.