The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1916-02-04

RMS VaSt lApp4iocnain region cOvoruA
some $4,000 square miles and is inhab-
tied by some 100000 people, nearly all
white. and they are to-day the purest
stock OF Scotch Irish and Anglo Saxon
races on the continent. F'br hundreds
Of years they have lived isolated from
the outside world. with no foreign in
termixture, do not remember ever
seeing foreigner in the Cumberland
Aountains until very recently.
Brave and Independent.
| They are not degenerate people.
| They are brave, independent, high
spirited people, whose poverty and To-
cation have isolated them from the adj
yantages OF education and religion.
| They have been simply passed by In
the march of progress in this great age,
because they were out OF the way, The
world to-day-even our own people
know more OF China and Japan than OF
these neighbors, our contemporaries OF
the Seventeenth and Eighteenth cen
turtles.
No railroads or any other kind OF
roads invited travellers, scholars or
preachers into the solitudes of their
mountain homes. The inevitable result
has been the want OF these blessings
which education and religion bring,
churches and schools. With the fewest
exceptions, there are none Of either
| In the largest county in the Cum
berlands, when | entered il, there was
not a church in the whole county, and
the only school in its capital was
taught in the courthouse. One OF our
oldest evangelists, and a mountain
man, after a tour through a large sec
ton, said: "Of all the destitutions 1
have ever SEEN this excels ALL Not
Bible nor Christian did find"
| | have no hesitancy in saying that
this is the largest body OF white peo-
pie on this continent who are prac-
tically without the Gospel And / do
not know any people who will make
greater sacrifices to hear it. / have
known them to walk from five to ten
miles over their rough mountain roads
to hear the Gospel, and sit on the
ground and rough boards from a. m
till 4 p. M, with only brief intermis-
sion at noon. Though without educa-
ton they are naturally bright and cas-
lily comprehend. and gladly receive tho
Gospel message; and when converted
are as faithful as any others under
similar conditions. To their honor be
. it said. have never seen an inadel
among them.
Heather At Our Doors"
q We believe in foreign missions, but
1--we also believe in beginning at Jerus-
:, alem." These are the heather at our
doors" Their souls are worth as much
as the others. They are more easily
$ reached. 1t costs less than half to reach
|. them. The results are quicker because
their language is our own. Their ira
ditions. history and ancestors are the
: same as our own. The consequences OF
n their conversion are greater. They viii
: furnish teachers, ministers and mis-
n sionaries to the heather abroad.
After forty years knowledge of THU
: people and twenty five years Labor
! among them as a minister, was CON
. WINGED that all agencies now employed
. or available by neighboring churche.
would never reach them in this genera,
n ton, or maybe in a dozen generations
y So ! appealed to all other Christian
II people who loved their own country
y men to help save them.
The response was much as only Go,
could inspire. From every section O
:, our country, and beyond it, even from
China and the Sandwich Island. Go,
/, has raised up loving hearts and lib
eral hands to help.
In twenty years 362 missionarie
have labored exclusively in these will,
a mountains. They made $1,000 visits
: held over $4,000 public services at 10.
J. 069 places, had 6,304 conversions
ell taught S79 Bible schools, with 39,45
lie pupils, distributed over $50 boxes an,
" barrels Of clothing to the poor, owe
e 10000 Bible and Testaments, and 125,
y 600 tracts, built fifty-six churche
l. schools and mission houses, includinl
st three colleges and an orphan asylum
q Deserve Equal Chance.
lie No man with heart could rid
d through these wild mountains and be
: hold the almost universal destitutiol
e OF everything necessary to human lif
h and happiness, without pity and com
lie passion. He certainly would not hav,
y the heart of Jesus, who had compass
,r sion on the multitude scattered abroas
i as sheep having no shepherd" Thes,
If people belong to the ruling race of tn,
world, and are worthy to belong to il
They certainly should have an equa
. chance for the blessings of religion ant
education with the Asiatics and Afri
| cans. They have not had 1t in the past
For our missions are but lighthouse.
Il yet, on the shores of a continent O.
| darkness
That God will honor you with Z
part in this work and it's glorious re-
ward is my earnest prayer.