Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1919-04-16
Thos. Duncalf Paper.

centenary movement, the local Meth
odist minute men take charge of one
Of the services each month and pre-
sent some phases of the Centenary.
Last Sunday evening a week ago,
four of the men, Atty. r. M. Orchard,
Thos. Duncalf, Roy Wolford and
Clark Hampton took the service with
Atty Orchard presiding. These men
gave the audience an excellent pro-
gram. The paper of Thos. Duncalf.
one of the Christian leaders of the
community, follows:
The Call of Europe to the Methodist
Church of the United States.
The Methodist church has learned
something from the government to
carry on this great Centenary cam
paign in appointing minute men"
There is today an army of $4,000
minute men in the Methodist church
presenting the worlds needs and its
| reconstruction.
| | am proud to be a private soldier
in it's ranks. The church furnishes
each minute man with missiles twice
month as ammunition, to be shot
at the church but unlike the deadly
missiles that have caused such dead
! ly destruction to property and life
our missiles are intended to build up
and reconstruct the world and build
| the church on the foundation that our
| pastor presented to us so forcefully
| this morning, built on The Rock
Christ Jesus. A church so built will
defy the floods and storms, church
that has a place for each individual
member in building up the kingdom
of God in the world.
The call "come over to help u.s.
was never so loud as it is today. 1t
comes not only from Macedonia but
from all nations, the alien people of
our land included. Will the church
heed the call
We have learned in these days what
it means to make war; we are learn
ing something of the cost of carrying
on war. The expenditure in the
United States last year was 10 bill
lion dollars. The cost to Great
Britain has reached over so billion,
the cost to the Allies is about 40
| billions. This vast sum is just the
cost of carrying on the war; it does
not include sunken ships or destroyed
cities or ruined lands. 1t has put a
mortgage on future generations of
the world. The loss by destruction
can hardly be estimated The finest
part of France and Belgium lays in
ruins-churches and cathedrals, uni
verSities and libraries with their
priceless treasures are lost to the
world.
There is a loss that no one can
compute by figures-the broken homes
and hearts. Let us see some of the
results that the war has left: "a mil
lion children have been left father
less in France, 100000 in England,
millions in the other countries, 2OO,-
900 women of England are widows, 5
million people of Belgium are de-
pendent upon the Allied government
for their daily bread, 100000 Bel
gian children are destitute The
strength of 100000 arms and legs is
soldiers are totally blind, 5000 Brit
ish soldiers have lost their sight and
about the same number of Italians.
Over 10000 are blind in Europe to-
day as the result of the war. This is
some of the awful effects of destruc-
tion."
If the church is to carry the pro-
gram of reconstruction to victory it
will have to mass it's energies as the
nation has done. The Centenary
movement of the Methodist church
was the first of any church to have a
reconstruction. 1t was no hasty con-
clusion but based on a careful sur
vey of the worlds needs. It's plans
have been adopted and are being car
ried out by other great Protestant
churches. The Presbyterians are
asking for rs million. The Metho-
dist church South is raising 35 mil
lions.
Surely work of this kind ought to
silence the critics as to the value of
the Christian church to the world.
A new realization is abroad today
that the religion of Christ is the only
power sufficient to save the world
from war. Commerce has been a
great factor in civilization and yet
it has failed to stop war. Military
and naval power and science have all
failed to avert the great conflict, in
fact they have intensified it. Men are
already talking of future wars. What
will it mean? Stop and think. The
science of warfare is in it's infancy.
The submarine and aeroplane, the
development of chemistry may de-
stroy cities and annihilate the peo-
pie by millions. The power of west
ern civilization may pass to the east
for the Japs are adopts in chemistry.
There seems to be only one way to
avert future wars and that is to
teach Christianity, not a paganized
Christianity as Germany has been
teaching but Christian brotherhood
of man founded on the teachings of
Christ.
Chateau Thierry will ever be
glorious landmark in American his
tory. It's annals will last as long as
the English language is spoken; it
will irstill into the minds and hearts
of future generations of American
boys an intense patriotism for the
great principles of liberty and de-
mocracy.
France knows what she owes to
the American boys who checked and
drove the Hun back and saved Paris
from destruction. France will well
come this Centenary help that the
Methodist church will give her to help
her to reclaim her ruined homes.
"Methodists will build living mon