The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-03-14

the American Christian missionaries
Moral regeneration must precede any
great political and industrial i'm
provement. In all China there is not
a single organization on a scale Of
Importance that aims at moral de-
velopment, or that is calculated to
bring it about, that is not traceable
to the Christian missions. ] have in
euired among all kinds of people
from all parts of China for such an
activity of non-Christian origin. with
out finding one."
And in other lands than China.
read DR.. Fulton's letter this after
door into the hearts of the people of
Japan. My friends, it was an open
door already. / cut out of a paper
before the earthquake came with all
its influence on the Japanese heart
and mind, a statement of one of the
ablest Christian men in Japan, and
he was speaking of the great forces
that are struggling for the mastery
of Japan, the labor, the socialist, the
communist movement, and the Chris
tian movement was among them, and
he said: 81 believe the real regener-
alton of Japan depends entirely on
the united forces of the Christians,
especially the Christians of Japan.
America, and Great Britain. II Chris
tians lose Japan, it will be an ire
mediable loss to Christendom." He
closed his statement with these
words: 81 do not ignore the impor-
lance of work in China. 1t is impor-
.ant, just as in any other part of the
world, but China is an immense coun-
try. The work there is the work of
centuries. Here in Japan we have a
small but powerful nation, similar
to the ancient Greek or the Jewish
nation. She will be converted in half
century if we are fully prepared
to meet her need. If we understood
the need in Japan, we would not hes
itate to advocate four-fold increase
of missionary forces, forces sufficient
to make short work Of the evangeli-
cation of Japan. Japan as a con-
verified nation would herself become
the vanguard of the missionary forces
on the Asiatic continent"
And ! was thinking still further of
another larger land in which there
are deeper and more radical forces
still, seething among the $3.50 100000
of India, and seething Christward.
Mr.. Gandhi himself is said to have
charged the young men Of India that
he could give no better advice than
that they follow Jesus Christ, if they
would make India great and free.
And the presidential address of c. r.
Dass, the President of the last Ma
tional Conference, circled around
four long quotations from the New
Testament, and he upheld the exam
pie and teachings of Christ as war
rant for the character of their policy
in trying to win India's freedom. In
dia is full of men who are feeling
after Christ, like the late Sir Mar
ayan Chandavarkar, that noble man
who died only few weeks ago. !
had written to him a few months
since asking if he would write out
for me a statement of his views as
to the possible solution of the prob
lem of race relationship, and there
is no one here who could have written
a nobler Christian statement, seeing
Christ as the only possible solution.
| had called on him two years ago.
and on the wall of his library was a
large picture of Mr.. Sturgeon, and
when he came down and / spoke to
him, he said, "When / was in Lon
don l always went on Sunday morn
ing to hear Sturgeon. And he
told a friend Of mine: "If you will
come to my bedroom / will show you
a picture Of our Lord" There on the
wall of his bedroom, the leading Hin
du of Western India, Vice Chancel-
Tor of the University, Chief Judge Of
the Supreme Court, President of the
Legislative Council, had hung a pic
ture of his an dour Lord.
say again, never were the oppor-
tunities so large or the possibilities
stand on the threshold Of what ought
to be the largest and boldest advance
that the Christian church has made
toward the fulfillment of its mission
airy responsibility. And yet we stand,
and halt, and debate, as to whether
or not, after all, we shall not have to
turn our faces back. Two difficult
ties confront us. There is the bur-
den of deficit and there is the dread
of division. l spoke about the def
cit this afternoon. Let me say one
word more. We are not passing
through anything that is not COM
mon to many. / got letter from a
gentleman in Pittsburgh recently Sc
verely criticising US on several
counts. He said lastly: "You will
notice that the Foreign Boards Of the
other denominations are in no such
straits as you are" ! wrote back
that wished it were so, but that the
rest were in a worse plight than we.
This week / asked DR.. North of the
Methodist Board of their situation,
and it was far worse than ours. Three
years ago they had q deficit of 3d.
0O0, 900. and they are still carrying n
deficit of over S1,200,000. The Amer
lean Baptist Missionary Society closed
year before last with a deficit of
$3.50, 900, which it was able last year
happily to reduce to S66l 900. The
Protestant Episcopal Missionary So
ciety closed it's last fiscal year with
a deficit of 1852 900. In every one of
these cases the scale of operation is
less than Of our own, save with the
Methodists. Proportionately they
are carrying a larger burden than we
are.
How could you expect that the
PRESBYTERIAN Board would not bear
burdens like these in days like these?
| find in my papers the great appeal